3.08 did not hit today and we are now likely in the final days of PTR testing.
Time to recap the impact to the Priest Community. I am not going to go over every little change that could possibly affect us, just highlight the ones that seem to have a bigger/unique impact to PVE Healing:
- Titansteel Guardian – Spellpower reduced to 457 (from 490) to match iLevel. Now could be the time to farm Nexus if you are considering crafting this mace, or if you haven’t found a replacement in Naxx.
- Levitate now castable on others. People who can’t jump on Thaddius will be signing your praises here. Just be sure to hit them mid jump. However, a Mage’s slowfall might be a better option here since you can’t jump while levitating.
- You now can buy gems for 10 Emblems of Heroism- That saves a lot of cash on the Rubies and lets me dust off some of those Emblems.
- Je’Tze’s Bell is now BOE – Drool, ’nuff said. **Edit- is likely still BOP, per vague blue post. Boo! Don’t know how I missed that Blue post. Thanks, Matticus!**
- Loop of the Kirin Tor is now available from the Jewelcrafting Vendor in Dalaran. In my opinion, not really worth the gold since from a raiding perspective getting rings of similar quality should not be difficult. If you have gold to burn or don’t raid too regularly, this may be worth the gold. Also, the free port to Dalaran might be handy.
- Prayer of Spirit Finally raidwide cast, no more burning 5 candles to buff a raid.
- No glyph changes that materially affect a PVE healing preist. (read: if you are using Glyph Dispel Magic in PVE, you really shouldn’t.)
- Hodir Rep is now not quite the bane of everyone’s existence. Relic of Ulduar can be turned in for rep. Hooray for easier shoulder enchants!
- Enchant materials are drastically changing. Mighty Spellpower is now much more economical.
- Probably the biggest: 6 Second Cooldown Nerf to Circle of Healing. Let’s go into more detail on this one.
I know I have made other posts specifically do the point of the COH nerf. However, going over it again really can’t hurt.
COH should not be the #1 spell you cast for the evening. /faceroll isn’t the name of the game here. With the current regen mechanics, many preists are able to spam the heck out of COH and have 60-70% of their healing for the night be from COH. Really? Is that what you want from the game? I didn’t think so.
In a comment reply to one of my earlier posts, it was implied that COH’s HPS often can save the day on possible wipes on trash pulls. (getting extra packs, pulling too soon on gargoyles and getting too many debuff stacks…). I couldn’t agree more, however COH really was OP.
Certain fights we will need to adjust- no doubt. The top two are Malygos and Thaddius. Malygos for Vortex and Thaddius for Chain Lightning. (Annoying that a fight that rewards you for clumping up, has a chain lightning attack).
The key to adjusting to the nerf is remembering your other spells in your aresenal. Prayer of Mending and Renew come to mind first. I forsee a lot of Renew casts just before vortex preceeded by a ProM. By the time ProM’s CD is up the charges should be just about done. You still will be casting COH on it’s cooldown, but ProM/Renew/PW:Shield will be majorly important to this phase. Further, your HP (now that you have been farming Naxx) should be notably higher than it was weeks ago, so surviving a Vortex shoudln’t be too too difficult.
Yes, a change. But certainly not one we can’t adjust to.
