Holy DPS - Is it upon us?

[Relapses]

It's the utter and complete lack of complexity of the rotation. To me, it just doesn't "feel" like a real DD spec (because it really isn't). Perhaps I'm too old school and in love with the way that Shadow used to play. I'm not going to sit here and expound upon the complexities of Shadow (because it's not that complicated), or gripe about the 5.0 changes to the spec (because imo they weren't good ones), but there is a bit of nuance to the spec and I feel that nuance is completely gutted when I switch to Holy and DPS. As I said earlier, it's a neat gimmick, but it just feels empty and hollow.

[Dyra]

Well it does help that you're hit capped automatically, so you can stack as much haste/crit gear as you can.

It would certainly make it interesting to have a viable DPS spec to Shadow, since the lack of Atonement in Holy means you can either heal or DPS, but can't do both at the same time. And the lack of Spirit on your gear would make it somewhat difficult to do sustained healing anyway.

I swear I've heard something about they're going nerf this. The obvious choice is to nerf the +damage component and the mana cost reduction of our Smite Chakra. It'll nerf Holy in PvP, but then again it's not as if Holy is any good at it as it stands anyway.

I would love to try this out.

[tru]

they wont let it stay viable for long. because you are a pure healing spec if you dish out any worthwhile dps then you would but unstoppable high heals / good dps no it wont happen. healer dps is low for a reason. and it will always be like that

[Twintop]

GC had some Twitter responses to Woaden and myself last week about this. Interestingly enough, the two comments that GC had were:
1) "It's not supposed to be a DPS spec the way Shadow is. We were probably too generous with Mind Sear."
and
2) "All the people comparing Holy to Shadow seem to be ignoring the fact that Holy is also beating a lot of non-priest DPS specs."

I'm not sure if the second tweet is a general statement or specifically about Heroic Wind Lord or not., but what I take from the first is that they are aware of HolyDPS being viable for some raid encounters (I.E.: Heroic Wind Lord) and don't like it, but are blaming the uncharacteristic damage on Mind Sear, which is funny because you need only 25% mastery on Shadow to have Mind Sear do the same damage as HolyDPS Mind Sear (and Shadow scales higher thanks to Mastery, too). The real boost on damage in that fight comes from Halo/DS getting the +50% boost to damage as opposed to just +20% (for adds) and being able to do sustained output with minimal ramp up time (5GCDs out of 30sec) during the burst phases.

[Chimaera]

I think what Ghostcrawler is getting at is that mind sear with + 50% damage increase is a very competitive aoe. This is not to say that it is grossly overpowered against shadow's mind sear, but just that it is highly competitive and there is no intention for holy's dps to be competitive in any aspect. Yes, this also applies to the level 90 talents but they contribute a lot less overall due to being on cooldowns.

[Relapses]

Mind Sear being buffed by Holy DPS isn't what makes it powerful on Wind Lord. It's the fact that it has no ramp up time for the burn phase, and that Halo/DS are on steroids. GC was incorrect in mentioning Mind Sear as the core issue with Holy DPS, but ... the whole idea is so silly it doesn't surprise me he's off the mark on that issue, too.

[Shadowheals]

Is it likely that we may eventually see Chakra for Shadow? Giving Shadow Chakra states to improve different aspects, to have a bonus as a DPS buff, or giving the option of improved healing benefits by choosing a different state.

I would think giving someone with a Shadow spec in a healing state the ability to perform to within 15% of someone as pure Holy, and the opposite, giving Holy in a DPS state the ability to perform as DPS to within a percentage.

Balance could be easily adjusted by modification to the buff from the Chakra bonus.

[Icarris]

I'd classify shadow form itself a chakra for the shadow spec.

[Relapses]

The Chakra "stances" are unique to the Holy playstyle. I'd say it's highly unlikely they'd bring it to Shadow because they'd also have to bring it for Disc as well.

[Deleted]

tested holy dps in MSV 25hc. I was pretty much middle pack, except on Elegon where I did over 215k and was second dps(we only went to 10 stacks thought), juste behind the lock:P