The latest beta build gave us an interesting peek into some of the new changes coming our way via glyphs. While a number of these are purely flavor and vanity glyphs (and you guys know me, I love my shiny toys!) it does give us the opportunity to evaluate these glyphs. More importantly, it does raise some interesting questions about the spells these glyphs are tied to.
Beta Build #15689:
It is worth mentioning that as of build 15689, these glyphs are not yet available in the beta. They are data mined tooltips, and no Glyph Vendor, nor Scribe/Inscriptionist has them. (Some) Show up in our Character’s Glyph Menu, but you cannot learn/equip them yet. Consider this your disclaimer: Speculative Derevka Post, is Speculative.
Holy Resurrection & Confession
First lets discuss the two pure vanity glyphs: Holy Resurrection and Confession. Holy Resurrection will be a pure flashy, fun glyph that makes the chore of rezzing your comrades a little more amusing. Confession will give you a new spell in your spellbook (much like the Holy Nova glyph), which (under a 30 minute cooldown) will let you force a friendly target to “confess” something to you. This will likely be a /say /emote or /whisper of some predetermined random phrase or comment that will, in all likelihood be an attempt at a humorous comment. (eg. “Sometimes, when I am alone… I like to dress up like a merlock and dance.” )
Glyph of the Val’kyr
Now to the more meaty glyphs: Glyph of Val’kyr…. obviously this is Holy Priests only, since it is the only specialization that has Spirit of Redemption. First let me say that I think the cosmetic change is awesome. I’ve always liked the Val’kyr model, ever since WOTLK. However, SoR is a talent I’ve always struggled with. On one hand, you have an ability that lets you continue healing for 15 seconds (25 if Glyphed, but no one glyphs it… or should, IMO). This can sometimes result in a first kill… I’ve heard a number of stories where the Priest in SoR form, is the last man standing and heals the tank/dps for the last few seconds in an enrage or wipe, resulting in a first kill. Or in situations where you are completely OOM, and you intentionally stand in the fire for 15 seconds of uninterrupted, mana-free healing. On the other hand, you have a talent that requires you to die to be useful. Yep… a talent that requires you to fail to be useful.
That is where I struggle. A core specialization and one (admittedly badass) minor glyph, that I’ll only use in the event that I die. I’ve always been in the camp that SoR lost its usefulness in Cataclysm when it lost its passive +5% spirit bonus it provided. I would think that SoR would be better if it was a manual option. Either allow us to (with a CD) to enter SoR and heal mana-free/no movement for 15 seconds— while OP, potentially for PVP given the damage immunity (and some PVE encounters) It seems superior to that of a talent that requires you to die. Alternatively, make it a Holy Priest only “Reincarnation” where we can pop back up (like Shaman) on a 30 minute CD for… Putting us in a Spirit/Val’kyr (if glyphed) appearance for X minutes. (Simiar to the appearance change you get when you are targeted by a DK’s Raise Ally– you get debuffed with Void Touched) – I just struggle with SoR being, “Improved Death”. There has been a lot of Development Time by the Dev Team fixing the lag on the ability, figuring out what spells work on it, and not to mention certain exploits that existed with SoR in the past).
Glyph of Lightspring
Now onto the more drama inducing glyph…. Lightspring.
Now, its worth mentioning that Blue on a number of occasions has stated they did not want to turn Lightwell into the Trial of the Crusader Lightwell… constantly spewing heals out- stating that Priests already had enough smart-heals. (Hymn, COH, POM) Well, this seems counter to that, now doesn’t it?
First notice that it will only heal if a target is <50% HP, and then has a 5 second CD. The reason that 5 second CD exists, is to prevent Lightspring from becoming a second Divine Hymn and spamming Lightspring Renews across the raid. The 5 second CD, throttles how fast it can dole those heals out.
Many forums have already erupted with comments stating that priests that Glyph Lightspring are bad priests, since they need Lightspring to Auto-Heal for them. This isn’t really accurate, and isn’t really a marker of skill. Glyphed Lightspring is not a marker of a bad priest, per say…. its a marker of potential issues in the RAID/GROUP. Its akin to raiders not using Healthstones. Survivability is EVERYONE’S responcibility. Raiders who die, in range of a Lightwell, do have a certain amount of onus on themselves for that death. However, making it a smart heal it will have to be out-scaled by normal LW, and reward raiders/players who know how to click it and when to click it. Just like if Heathstones automatically used themselves, it would HAVE to heal for less than if you had to click a Healthstone yourself.
Raiding priests should be ready to say on vent/mumble “Lightwell” when big damage is going out and healers are falling behind… that one word on vent, shouldn’t make or break “how you prefer to play with Lightwell/spring.” I personally like Lightwell, as I previously discussed at the start of Cata in this post.
The most important thing to keep in mind is the coefficients for Lightwell vs Lightspring. Unglyphed Lightwell seems to have an advantage given how it seems to outscale (substantially)… then again, the new glyph is still untested, and we’re just speculating off tooltips.
Lightwell
Friendly players can click the Lightwell to restore (((5,735 + 30.8% of Spell Power) * 3) * 1.15) health over 6 sec.
Lightspring
Lightspring will attempt to heal party and raid members lower than 50% health for (5,735 + 55.3% of SP) over 6 sec.
Its those underlined multipliers that allow regular LW to outpace LS, rewarding Raids who know how to/remember to use Lightwell intelligently. I see raiders who either, for whatever reason, cannot train their raid to use Lightwell correctly, or LFR will be taking Lightspring (or if a Fight Mechanic calls for it).
These new glyphs give priests a number of fun color and choices, which is exactly what the glyph system is supposed to be– dynamic. We are meant to be glyphing and changing as we go from fight to fight.
What does everyone else thing about these new glyphs and the system?
Follow Up Post With Math Available Here: http://talesofapriest.com/2012/05/15/lightwell-vs-lightspring-ready-fight/
