Holy Nova (new Discipline-only version)

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If health pools are being designed such that they typically gravitate around 60% and there is always something to heal then the distinction between increasing effective health and filling health becomes far less. I doubt we will be seeing healers taken for absorbs specifically in WoD but any situation that balances discipline and holy into different niches will certainly favour those that can flit between the two specs. That is a good thing of course, unless stat priorities remain markedly different.

We've already seen encounters that pretty much necessitate bringing someone to increase effective health (Korkron Shaman) and in my opinion that is bad design in this current healing climate. Mechanically it can be interesting, what becomes challenging is delivering information to a player that uses a basic UI. How does one show effective health if the number doesn't have a strict cap (thereby becoming health pool 2.0) and how do you show the source of such a quantity if its upkeep is essential? You could go down the Malkorok route but I wouldn't gauge that as being successful.

With such a thing in mind, I am glad that absorbs are being toned down somewhat. Discipline could very well be balanced around not having DA at all and simply creating shields through active abilities (PW:S and SS). I think this would be preferable.

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Discipline could very well be balanced around not having DA at all and simply creating shields through active abilities (PW:S and SS). I think this would be preferable.

Maybe with some more changes this can be done, but currently I can't see how.

This is because PW:S spamming should be kept at bay, since it is very boring and requires almost no skill to play. The current PW:S model I think is the right one: a cheap PW:S every 12s, while the other shields are kept expensive so to prevent mindless spam.

SS is a CD (short-ish, but still a CD), so it will not allow for having much shields around except for a shield-burst when you pop it. This may get changed a bit though.

So, I think that if you remove DA the number of shields around greatly diminishes. Not only we lose our niche, but this also makes mastery lose value. You could, in principle, compensate by making SS very strong, but I would be wary of doing that since SS then could be used to trivialize mechanics. In its last incarnation, Blizzard designed SS so that using it does not automatically improve throughput (T16 bonus aside), so to avoid mindless uses.

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PW:S spamming is easy enough to keep at bay - keep Weakened Soul and maintain a high mana cost (PW:S isn't cheap currently, it is only cheap due to correct LMG use).

Removing AA would allow our mastery to be reworked into something that is actually useful for encounters that demand quick topping up instead of being a hindrance. What would be an interesting mastery? I'd actually love to see our mastery be something like the current proc from the legendary meta gem as correctly using this can make the difference between a good discipline priest and a bad one. Static "you do more" is somewhat boring and could simply be balanced into raw discipline numbers.

There is nothing wrong with making SS a short CD. We don't need to be throwing out passive shields all the time if we have the niche of Greater Heal invoked longer lasting shields (L100 talent), PW:S shields (remove this from holy, remove Renew from discipline) and Spirit Shell. Allow the L90 talents to invoke a secondary DA-like effect when they go off for disc to allow further differentiation. Problem solved. One niche retained (since Atonement is going), less complaints abound about our absorbs which we can still get out when mastery allows it and on demand when the encounter requires it.

At the moment, the bulk of our healing comes from sniping during periods of non-burst. I'd rather see our role become Atonement and shield-invoking Greater Heal during down time and highly effective shielding / Holy Nova during large spikes of damage.

[shamantime]

Hi.

6.0:
PoH - you can't even nerf it because it's so shit currently
SS+PoH - absorbs reduced (NERF)
PoM - cast time (NERF)
Off Penance - smart healing no longer smart (NERF)
L90 - heals for less, even though it's OP only in 25M (NERF)

PoM with a cast time is NOT a nerf. They even said the cast times that are attached to some instant casts aren't an intended nerf, especially since heals will be retuned since they will have an accompanying cast time.

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PoM with a cast time is NOT a nerf. They even said the cast times that are attached to some instant casts aren't an intended nerf, especially since heals will be retuned since they will have an accompanying cast time.

It is a nerf to mobile healing. If this isn't an issue in WoD due to encounter design that doesn't having players moving near constantly then it won't really be felt.