With all content completed, it gives us the opportunity to reflect on not just the Tier but also Cataclysm as a whole. What worked well? What didn’t? What was your favorite?

High Level Post-Mortem

Overall I really enjoyed Dragon Soul– I might be an outlier with my enjoyment of Dragon Soul, but I am trying to look at it exclusively from a Heroic 25-man perspective. A number of the fights had some really interesting mechanics that we hadn’t  seen quite this way before and were enjoyable. (Strategic Barrel Rolls, Ball Bouncing, Strategic Ooze Killing, NPC buffs to manage, etc). I liked it! Perhaps the most dynamic (as a result, my favorite) was Yor’sahj. YJ’s wave of Oozes was random… one pull was never the same as the next and forced you to become a dynamic raider.

Dragon Soul itself wasn’t all peaches and cream and sunshine. With Dragon Soul, also came LFR. I do think Looking For Raid was damaging to raid groups, and was counter to what they wanted to accomplish by introducing it. Set bonuses being the biggest culprit of this folly. You had raid groups, particularly HM Progression Raid groups, feeling ‘obligated’ to run LFR to get those 4-piece bonuses for their tanks and DPS. (Perfectly illustrated by the drama of the LFR Exploits early in the Tier). Having people raid content out of obligation is a dangerous line to dance on.

Perhaps the most damage LFR introduced was apathy. “Its just LFR!” is something you heard in nearly every LFR group you queued into. (I will admit, my Alts loved LFR and the loot pinata it became…) However, the fact that LFR had no ‘Failure Mechanic’ is something I hope Blizzard corrects in the next tier of content. You should not be able to simply ignore Ultraxion’s  Hour of Twilight every time it was cast, or the ability to ignore Shrapnel on Madness. It fosters poor play– and in turn created this “gimme loot” and “its just LFR” mentality.

LFR should have been the introduction to raiding. LFR should have been the content to whet the appetites of those who might not have raided in the past. LFR should have been the tool to expose more people to my favorite aspect of the game:  learning dynamic encounters and raiding! Lengthening the cast time on the previously mentioned abilities (even more) to give people more time to click that button is a potential solution.

I think that, for those “who LFR is for” (whatever that means!)– they would agree. LFR isn’t meant to be something you have to pour hours and hours of attempts in. It is meant for the more casual approach to raiding and should be tuned as such…  however having it tuned down so much that core mechanics can be ignored is likely something that should be addressed. The player-base will ultimately improve as a result.

Immersion

I will admit, I entered this final tier not caring who Deathwing was. Yeah, he made Stormwind’s front gates crumble, and the structures between the Mage Quarter and the Docks are in cinders… but I didn’t care. I only chased him down at the launch of 4.0 to get my Achievement Points for being killed by him– Guild chat being spammed by “Deathwing is in Hyjal! Get to the zone if you need the Achievement!”. (Ironically, this was unnecessary as you got the achievement if you died to him during one of his encounters in DS). Blizzard, in my eyes, really fell short at making us feel engaged with Deathwing early on in 4.0. They should have made us want to kill him. Want to right the wrongs. Want to reset the balance with the other Dragon Aspects…

I thought that…

until I actually encountered the Aspects in Dragon Soul… Ysera, Kalecgos, Alexstraza, and Nozdormu really saved the story. The last 5 bosses of Dragon Soul you really got to see the Aspects and if you had your sound turned on, you could really hear them stressing the importance of our success. I could feel them pushing us along. They were there will us… not just as some NPC tangentially associated with the fight, but crucial to it.

With the prelude to going into the Eye of Eternity and engaging Hagara, you had great dialogue between Thrall and Kalecgos trying to figure out a way to harness the Dragon Soul. With Ultraxion you had each of the Aspects granting you a portion of their power to save you from this ultimate darkness. (Not to mention, it incorporated a very interesting strategy component that each raid team and healer make-up had to handle for this fight– what healer is to get which buff?) Moving all the way through some great cutscenes and into the final encounter: The Madness of Deathwing.

While, some people dislike the voice actors hired for the Aspects. I think they each did a great job really rallying you to the defence of Azeroth. You could hear (and feel) the importance– the urgency in their voices.

“Deathwing is conjuring the final Cataclysm; even the Emerald Dream trembles! If we are to stop this, we must attack him—- TOGETHER!!!”

“Hurry Heroes, in mere moments Deathwing’s Cataclysm will complete what he’s begun and end the world! Join me in the attack– NOW!”

“I will cleanse whatever corruption I can My fire will not harm you!… NO! Such power! Deathwing’s summoning of the final cataclysm will destroy all of Azeroth. Quickly we must interrupt him!”

“Together we can’t fail!”

“Press the attack, Heroes!”

“Avenge the fallen! Continue the fight!!”

“Attack him now!!! We must stop the final Cataclysm!”

If you have not seen the Method vs Dragon Soul – The Movie, I urge you to watch it. For the Aspect dialogue I am referring to, watch from this time stamp. (Starts with the Hagara Prelude)

 Looking forward…

I hope we see more encounters with NPC involvement. It really does drive the encounters forward, and makes you feel like you are part of the story and not like you are simply going into a dungeon, killing bads, and getting loots. We’ve seen allusions to this in the past with the Watchers on Yogg-Saron, Maiev Shadowsong and her traps when you battled Illidan in Black Temple, and even less-so with Jaina’s vapid “All I ever wanted to do was study!” in the Battle of Mount Hyjal back in Burning Crusade.

Give us more NPCs that interact with us during the fights. NPCs that contribute to the fight. NPCs that make us feel like we are making a difference!

What did you think about Dragon Soul, LFR, and the immersion of the tier?

Dragon Soul: Post-Mortem and Immersion is a post from: Tales of a Priest

First off, I know what you’re going to say. Just stop right there and wipe that smug look off your face. I blame all of you for me being here. That’s right – YOU.  All your chitter chatter on twitter and facebook. The emails. The previews. That fiendish asshole Derevka singing how amazing I am, & bribing me with a baby boomkin pet. IT’S SO FUCKING CUTE HOW CAN I RESIST???!!! Add in the fact that once I left, he tried “classing” the site up by adding doilies & curtains everywhere, and now it looks like this – enough is enough. Don’t expect me to match him post for post -I’m simply back to bring the trash to his class, so get the “I told you so’s” out of your system.

Now – back on topic. Disc really didn’t get off to a good start, did it? The PoH/DA issue, the Mastery issue & changing mechanics lead priests to the forums in droves to cry ‘foul’. Now while there were some issue effecting disc functionality, and those have been adjusted (more on that later), we really don’t believe the problem was a huge as people made it out to be – mechanics, gear, & perception all compounded the issue.

Gear, Glyphs,  & Stats: The Emperor’s New Clothes

Wrath spoiled a lot of people. Get to 80, buy some 245/264 gear off the AH, join an ICC pug and slam your face on the keyboard to epics. I think we’ve all seen what happens when you try that at 85, but, like me with a hot stove, people don’t learn until they burn themselves…usually several times over.

So some of the perception of priests being “broken” came down discovery. The tanks had to learn to slow down & learn to generate threat. DPS had to get CC spells on their bars, learn something called “assisting” and realize that the days of healers keeping them up thru Stupid Shit were over . And healers had to learn the art of “triage” and “acceptable casualties” and proper spell usage. To disc priests, that meant gearing properly, and realizing we had to do more than flash heal & PW:S.

1) Gear & Stats:

So how DO you gear properly? What stats do you need? Like most healing questions, there is no cut and dry answer. Intellect is a priority, as is spirit – Drop the Wrath mentality; you’re still going to need the regen. As for Crit, Haste and Mastery…well, it depends on what you’re doing. For single target healing, crit seems to mathematically come out on top and there’s a much lower reliance on mastery. However, I am almost never simply spamming heals on the tank. I find value in haste for smites, and haste/mastery for PoH, especially when you consider the large amount of encounters with heavy raid damage (especially since PoH is now guaranteed to proc a DA on the targets) that will consume the DA. Renewed hope & Inner Focus gives me a little breathing room on crit for when I am single target healing.

The TL;DR version: Int, then Spirit, then find a balance of haste, mastery & crit that suits your needs & style. Also keep in mind this is for heroics & entry level raiding at 85. Things can (and will) change and we’ll update as we go.

2) Glyphs:

Prime:

• Penance: Reduces your cooldown on this heal. It’s cheap, it’s instant, and it applies 3x grace fast. I found great value in it for 5 mans, however, with the Atonement/ToT spec, I’m questioning it’s necessity – it will probably, like many things, down to what encounter I’m on -if I can’t reliable use the ToT penance cooldown reduction, this glyph’s value increases. More to come on this later
• Prayer of Healing: I’ve found this invaluable for both 5 mans and raid encounters.
• Glyph of PW: Barrier/PW:Shield : While barrier doesn’t have much use in 5 mans, I’ve found it’s use in raids to be unquestionable. On the other hand, I’m finding very little use for PW:S in raids when compared to other options.
• ** Glyph of Renew: I’ve added this just as a way to keep it in the back of your mind. In wrath, most Disc priests didn’t touch renew, but it’s actually worth a look now, and you may find a place for it. More on this in specs.

Major:

• Divine Accuracy: I’m smitin’ – I can’t be missin’.
• Mass Dispel: We can no longer talent for the cast time reduction. In order to get a .5 sec (unhasted) cast time, you’ll need this. The good news is Holy priests can now pick this up too.
• Holy Nova/ Dispel : Again, fight & choice dependent. I use holy nova on high mobility fights. A little “cheater” tidbit: if you leveled as shadow, the dispel glyph is a good way to heal yourself without dropping shadow form.

Minor:

• Fortitude: You’ll appreciate this when you have to buff someone rezzed in combat.
• Levitate: Personal preference. Levitate comes in handy and bag space is too precious
• Shadowfiend/Shadow protection: again, personal choice. The shadowy idiot isn’t as dumb as he once was, so you might not miss that glyph if you take Shadow Protection

Specs & Mechanics: Ol’ Gray Mare just ain’t what she used to be

I am currently using a 31/8/2 spec for most fights where I am disc in raiding. Let me ‘splain why.

Stop. Spamming. Shields.

How you heal has changed.Remember when we pleaded and begged back in Wrath for disc priests to remember their other buttons besides Power Word: Shield? Yeaaaaaaaaaaah. That shield happy spamming method will get you screwed faster than a drunk teenager at prom. You just can’t do it. Even putting the mana drain issue aside, look at how Rapture now functions: Multiple shields consumed at the same time return mana for only ONE shield.   It used be be you could “cheat” this mechanic (Think Lich King)  – multiple shield procs within this 12 second window would return mana for each shield. BUT NOT ANYMORE. Cast 5. Cast 10. You’re only getting a return on ONE. Spamming shields becomes a massive drain of on your limited resources.

The good news is the 3/3 return has been adjusted from 2.5% of total mana to 6%. ForteXorsist will track your rapture cooldown, but I’ve also been using Ingela’s Rapture Tracker. So because I find myself actually casting PW:S every 12 secs, I dropped Soul Warding entirely. This is something you will need to evaluate & decide on. I’ve heard some arguments for 5 mans & multiple shielding, but I found using one shield & a BT PoH is more efficient, especially if the DA will be consumed.

I’ve seen a lot of back and forth over Strength of Soul. It sounded good, in theory. In practice, even when 1/2, I found myself working against the rapture ICD and struggling to find a place for heal – it just was rather ineffective, & I dropped it all together. I use what I call “The Focusing ToT” spec – the Atonement/AA spec combined with Inner Focus and Train of Thought. Atonement healing during periods of low damage keeps melee/Tank topped off, while macroing Inner Focus to both Gheal and Prayer Of Healing give me the sustainability I need. Here’s an IF mouseover macro (PoH will work the same way, but if you’re not using a mod that extends macro limits, you need to leave the showtool off):

#showtooltip Greater Heal
/console Sound_EnableSFX 0
/cast Inner Focus
/cast [target=mouseover,help,nodead] [help,nodead] [target=player] Greater heal
/console Sound_EnableSFX 1
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()

I know there were many naysayers about the Smite/Atonement spec, and I stubbornly supported it. It was rather underpowered, but it seems this is really an intended mechanic, and several buffs seem to support my theory of it’s viability. The amount of healing applied by Atonement has been increased, the affected target can have DA applied, the range of an atonement target has been increased to 15 yards, now atonement targets are affected by healing modifiers (like AA), AND it can proc a DA on the heal recipient. This is a GREAT mechanic. Used in conjunction with Archangel, it’s powerful, and I find myself using it over Heal exclusivly. The key is knowing WHEN to use this in a raid setting. Know your encounters so you can predict the ebb and flow of lesser and higher damage. I also use this macro, as it will smite my target’s target:

#showtooltip Smite
/cast [@mouseovertarget, harm] [@mouseover, harm] [@targettarget, harm] [harm] Smite

You’ll notice I took 3/3 Inner Sanctum – it’s really a toss up between that or Mental Agility for the next tier. I found the increased movement speed of IW and the damage reduction of IF to be more valuable in raids, considering my limited use of instant cast spells. One thing to note is 3/3 is giving a ~2200 mana cost to IF; I’m not sure if this is a bug, since the tooltip mentions no cost. However, I find myself switching between the two far less than as holy, and it hasn’t proven an issue…for now.

I also took 2/3 Darkness. Again, your mileage may vary, but I’ve found it useful in most situations. I also tried out putting those two points in Surge of Light, given my ample use of smite. It just didn’t seem to proc enough to warrant giving up the haste. Admittedly, however, I don’t feel I’ve collected enough log data or experience with it to give it a thumbs up or down. There’s also a change going in on Tuesday that will now allow SoL to proc from Flash Heal/Greater Heal and can crit. Im going to have to revisit this.

Now I also want to mention renew here. When I was running 5 mans as disc I used a 31/10 spec that included heavy use of renew (Keep your Inner Will up!!) – it’s not a dirty word for disc. It’s a great way to keep Grace on the tank, keep dps alive, and even at early haste levels with BT, you can hit that extra tick mark. Renew ticks can also crit and proc what we like to call “mini Aegises” (it’s fun to say). Even in raids, I try to keep it ticking on the tank. Try it out before you poo poo it.

One thing I do want to mention regarding 5 mans & heroics: In the beginning, yes – it is more difficult for disc. Disc is more gear dependent, and we don’t have the extra gains from spirit that holy does. The reason Derevka and I call ourselves “healing priests” is because we aren’t married to one spec – we have no issues using one or the other. However, I do know many people have no desire to go holy, so be prepared. If you find yourself struggling, run with guildies when possible, run regulars to gear up and purchase reputation gear, or craft/buy what you can. You’ll find that as familiarity with the dungeons increase, as do others gear, the strain on you will lessen even more.

Several people have also asked me disc healing vs holy healing in raids ie which is better, and again, there is no answer to this. It will come down to your role, the fight, and the raid make up, as well as the skill of the players.  Some fights will favor holy, some might let disc shine. Some fights you might be better raid healing over tank healing.  And there will be other fights where your utility is favored over your output (Chimaeron, for example). The success of the raid is more important than your place on the meters.

Odds N’ Ends:

• Prayer of Mending: USE IT. Track it on your raid frames or use some sort of Prayer of Mending tracker

• For tailors, Lightweave embroidery is granting INTELLECT, not spellpower, as the tooltip states. This may factor into your gearing/gemming. It’s a toss up however, if it is better than Darkglow if you are having mana issues. When factoring in ICD and raidbuffs, darkglow can be worth slighty more mana over the course of a fight. However, Lightweave also provides regen in it’s own right, minor crit, and if it procs during a fiend usage or Hymn, it can better than darkglow.

• For Metas,  Ember Shadowspirit outperforms the spirit option.

• Power Infusion: Another spell to shift from Wrath mentality. Both the mana reduction and haste are excellent tools for you to use ON YOURSELF, and a great tool for when you are in a hairy situation &/or need to pump out lots of healing.

• Inner Focus no longer works with Divine Hymn.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m sure I forgot something, but if I didn’t have this ready by today, Derevka’s non stop nagging would have caused me to snap and take out a busload of school children. I should have another post soon, probably between next week & when ever the hell I feel like it.

The Cataclysmic State of Disc is a post from: Tales of a Priest

1. Learn to love Stormwind and Orgrimmar; they are your new hubs to the new zones.

2. Train at the Flight Master and get your license! (Trainers are available right next to the Stormwind/Orgrimmar flight paths)

3. Decide if you want to Quest or Dungeon Grind. From my experience in Beta, I feel questing is your best bet… just for the quest rewards. You’ll be upgrading pretty quickly out of even your 277 HM ICC gear (even faster than dungeon blues)– Stamina Gains will be extremely important! Some of these quest mobs hit HARD.

4. If you are using WOTLK dailies (Current Daily Cap is 25) to kick start your XP, and you have the Cata cooking/fishing dailies completed, remember to train your next level of cooking/fishing so you also get the +1 skillpoint in addition to your Chef’s Award and Bag of Shiny Things. (Remember you cap at 10 Chef’s Awards).

5. Discover the Black Rock Caverns entrance! You won’t be able to queue for Cataclysm LFD right at 80 unless you discover it! (and who really wants to go all the way out to Thorium Point  after launch when you could be in leveling?)

6. Use up your flask stocks, every bit of spellpower helps and your old ones will be worthless at 85! Use them up! Clear out guild banks, too!

7. Healing Potions (yes, even WOTLK ones). The easiest way to slow down your leveling momentum is to die.

8. Figure out if you want to level as Shadow, Disc, or Holy and plan your spec– I might be a bit of sadist, but I am not leveling Holy/Disc— Shadow baby, but I’ll keep my 2nd Spec as Holy for any dungeons I do.

Derevka’s Cataclysm Prep Guide is a post from: Tales of a Priest

I know many people believe in min/maxing (myself included) their character through their professions. There are also others who would rather not and just keep their professions as a “nice to have”. Regardless of which side of the argument you fall on, the Cataclysm bonuses are very similar to what we had in Wrath—- with a few added perks for some professions.

Since a number of the professions provide bonuses via cooldowns, to be fair it is probably best to look at the bonuses “equalized” and looking at the average static bonus that is provided. There is a fair amount of subjective analysis that needs to be done regarding some of the trinkets, and the availability of BOP items… so take those assumptions with a grain of Derevka Grade salt.

Alchemy
Mixology: This bonus still will provide an added kick to your Flasks giving an additional 80 intellect to a the Flask of the Draconic Mind and doubles the duration of the flask. (Provided the alchemist “knows” the recipe). Alchemists will also have access to the Lifebound Alchemist Stone, however since it really is Stamina laden, and provides Mastery… I’m not exceptionally excited about it even with the 50% bonus to mana potions.

Mysterious Potions: Alchemists will also be able to benefit from a better proc chance from these potions, as the amount restored will scale relative to their Alchemy skill. (source)

Blacksmithing
Socket Bracer and Socket Gloves: Smiths can add a socket to both their bracers and gloves allowing them to gem for an additional 80 Intellect– or perhaps Spirit or Haste if they really need it.

Enchanting
Rings: Enchanters will have the ability to enchant each of their rings with +40 Intellect, providing a total of another 80 Intellect.

Engineering
One of the biggest, and most important aspects about Engineering is that engineering tinker/enchants are not mutually exclusive with the normal enchants for those items. What this means is: YES, you can have both. (eg. Nitro Boots, and a ‘regular’ boot enchant) This is currently in effect on live for the existing Engineering enchants. (went in effect a couple of patches ago). Engineering bonuses are a bit more difficult to evaluate as it isn’t quite a “you get a bonus of X”… it is more of a “You get fun useful toy X”.

Synapse Springs: While I always struggle as a healer when to use on-use Spellpower CD’s, these are a great addition to your gloves. I’ll probably macro it to a spell (eg. POM) With only a 1 minute cooldown, equalized, this tinker provides an additional 96 bonus Intellect.

Z50 Mana Gulper: This glove modification will give you more mana back from your potions than the average user. The Gulper provides 10730 to 12470 mana while an average Mythical Mana Potion provides 9250 to 10750 mana. This is a bonus of 1480 to 1720. Not much, but with mana being at a premium… every little bit helps! Since it is mutually exclusive with your Synapse Springs, you’ll need to decide– however the Springs, even on just a pure mana restore stand, seem to be the winner in fights that last longer than your mana restorative CDs. (Fiend, Arcane Torrent, etc…)

Nitro Boots: While they no longer have a bonus to crit, the movement bonus is really the main reason we wore these. (Defile anyone?) *Note they go on your BELT now… why, I have no idea*

Lightweight Bio-Optic Killshades: The Cataclysm version of these goggles are a great “starter” epic helm. After it is socketed, it will provide you with a helm that is pretty much on par with Non Heroic T11. On top of that they also have the Engi-Only “Cogwheels” sockets. Each Cogwheel (Unique Equipped) provides 208 of certain any yellow or blue stat (no stamina)– priests will want to do Sparkling Cogwheel and  Quick Cogwheel. (Note I skipped Mastery)

Herbalism
Lifeblood: What’s this?! Herbalists have a USEFUL profession bonus? Lifeblood’s on-use Haste bonus is great… possibly raid saving speed. At Rank 8, this will provide 480 Haste for 20 seconds on a 2 minute cooldown– equalized this is 80 Haste. Not a bad cooldown.

Inscription
Shoulders: Scribes can enchant their shoulders with Felfire Inscription, which provides an additional 80 Intellect when compared to the Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone. (This also means Scribes will have the ‘best’ shoulder enchant without having to rep farm with the Therazane dailies). Scribes will also be able to craft BOP relics, which will be great for …. non priests. WANDS DAMMIT…. /grumble

Jewelcrafting
Chimera Eyes: JC’s will have access to the Cata versions of Dragon’s Eyes, called Chimera Eyes. As usual, they will be Red, Blue, or Yellow. As a general rule, you’ll generally want to have all 3 of these be cut as Brilliant Chimera Eyes, unless you really are in need of the added Haste, or possibly Spirit (depending on your Int:Spirit ratios for regen). This will result in a bonus of 81 Intellect when compared to 3 Brilliant Inferno Rubies. Chimera Eyes will devalue as the expansion continues and Blizzard reintroduces Epic gems, since the gap between the Eyes and Epics will be less than 81. (unless they are buffed)

Trinkets: On top of Chymera eyes JC’s will also have access to JC-Only trinkets. The clear front runners will be Jeweled Serpent and Dream Owl. These will continue to be great options for us until we can get something better from a raid instance or the Darkmoon Deck that has priests everywhere salivating.

Leatherworking
Being a leatherworker was very popular back in BC, even for cloth wearers, when you had raiding groups chaining Drums of Speed, but now the bonuses are still quite helpful– mainly because it allows you to ‘skip’ the alternative enchants.

Bracers: LW’s can enchant their wrists with Draconic Embossment which provides Intellect, instead of the alternative of Haste or Crit. (The value of Int or Haste will really depend on what you need more of at the time of enchantment– but as a general rule Intellect is king as it provides SP and mana). However, notice that the Embossment provides 130 Intellect which is notable greater than the static 80 that so many other bonuses provide. For DPS it should be easier to evaluate (since SP> Most other stats for all DPSers). Healing is a bit trickier, however in this case— the Intellect wins outright as it provides SP and Mana.

Mining
Toughness: Stamina is great; but for a healer it provides very little benefit. Lolstam

Skinning
Master of Anatomy: I’ve yet to see a Priest with skinning, but if you happen to be: enjoy your Crit bonus… I guess.

Tailoring
Cloaks: Tailors will still be able to enchant their cloaks with a new rank of Lightweave Embroidery or Darkglow Embroidery. These Tailor-only enchants ares less exciting this go around since everybody will have a +50 Intellect option (or a +50 Crit), but it is notably more powerful.

Pants: Tailors will continue to be able to use Tailoring Only pant Spellthread, which provide a much cheaper alternative to the threads available to everyone else.

So… what’s best?

As I have stated many times before: it is always hard for Healers to figure out “what is mathematically best”– since you really can never know what you’re going to need mid fight. DPS has it a little easier (in a sense) since you can run models to figure out what mathematically will work out for the most DPS— healers are a bit more dynamic in what we need to evaluate. Because of that, we have to weigh in some “healing subjectivity” in our decisions. For healing Priests, I think the clear front-runner is Engineering– especially since you get to use both the Tinker enchants and regular enchants! The Synapse Springs provide a very substantial Spellpower Surge to use when we need it. In addition, and possibly more importantly, it allows increases our total mana which then in turn affects many mana restorative abilities (Hymn of Hope, Shadowfiend, Rapture, Replenishment…). On top of that with the (albeit minor) option to use the Guzzler, craftable T11 equivalent, and rocketboots — we have a winner! (Not to mention the fun other Engi Only toys, portals, and gizmos!)

After Engineering, Jewelcrafting (at the start of the expac) seems to be the most beneficial since it doesn’t require you to “choose” between an enchant that might be better or what your craft may provide- on top of that it does allow for some good flexibility should you decide to break an item’s socket color, or if you need a Spirit or Haste boost. Further, JCs get the ability to create some great entry level trinkets. (if you can farm the quest item that leads you to the recipe) Due to these 3 key points: The Bonus, Flexibility, and Trinkets — I’d say JC wins 2nd Prize, in my opinion. (With Leatherworking a close 3rd)

I lucked out this go around, I am a JC and an Engineer! No powerleveling needed from me!

What professions are you running into Cataclysm with?

Workin’ Hard For the Money is a post from: Tales of a Priest

Pugcast - A WoW Podcast

Just a quick update to let you know Episode 42 of Pugcast is available to download. I joined the show hosts Jeg & Draechen, along with fellow players Cornelious & Bryterside, for an informal roundtable chat about the upcoming raid changes for Cataclysm.

Lots of great discussion involving guild structure and challange, and a even a bit of talk about PVP changes (I took a nap at that part). I wasn’t drunk for once, so for those that look forward to me embarrassing myself – sorry. There’s always next time.

If you haven’t heard the PuGcast Podcast before, make sure you check out their episodes. They’re hilarious guys, and always let the show run wild. Of course, they cover WoW, but these two WILD N’ CRAZY GUYS will talk about anything! You can even nominate a retard you’ve had the misfortune of meeting in game for their One Star Turkey Of the Week for a public beat down. Join them in their Live Chat Room during the shows!

Thanks again, guys! Hope we can do it again soon. I promise I’ll be drunk next time!

(PS – we’re recruiting an EXCEPTIONAL Disc or holy priest (bonus if you can play both!)

Hey Ma – I’m on PugCast! is a post from: Tales of a Priest

Ava did a great post last week recapping the Priest preview for Cataclysm – I agree with most of what she said. While, personally, I hate the current design of Leap of Faith. I sincerely hope the current incarnation isn’t implemented as described – where’s the throughput? Threat dump? Healing Bonus? Anything? It needs just a little SOMETHING else to it. Or the fact that the level 85 spells are supposed to be our ‘shiny new toy’… I don’t want to get too distracted by it. Aaaaanyway…

One of the more interesting changes is the concept of Chakras. I really have mixed emotions about this proposed ability. One one hand I can see the whole ‘Wow! It’ll be great to be able to hit our stride and then be better at what we are focused on doing at that point in time!” but then on the other hand, I keep noticing holes or concerns I have with the ability.

The idea behind the Holy “cast three in a row” talent (it’s called “Chakra”) is that we’ve always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We’re going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that “I’m almost in the zone” feel. We’ll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody’s taking damage.

Ok, buffing spells by casting spells. Sounds interesting – sounds possibly exciting. (and I better looking freakin fantastic when I trigger this ability – WTB Valkyr form!)

But wait… didn’t Blue also say that they didn’t want healing to feel spammy, and that not stopping casting heals isn’t what they want the healer experience to be? They did. Doesn’t that seem slightly counter to what Chakra is about?

Chakra sounds like it is going to reward healers for casting the same spell in a row (three times) to then buff that same spell (or type of spell) that is subsequently cast. Lets put this theory in practice: You cast Prayer of Healing… 3 times in a row, to then buff your fourth (and fifth, and sixth…) Prayer of Healing after that. First of all, even on heavy Aura damage fights in Heroic ICC25 you don’t do that… not to mention in the new world that is Cataclysm where they seem to not want healers to spam or chain cast the same spell. It just seems slightly counter intuitive to the new mana mindset that is Cataclysm.

Some people feel it would be better similar to the Grace talent in the Discipline tree. Letting it build up when you are focused on a certain task (or on a certain tank). But, what happens if I cast two POH’s then cast 2 renews… am I building up POH Chakras or Renew Chakras? Just like Grace, if you switch quickly to heal the offtank, your original Grace stacks are gone.

Speculation is speculative!

Now, I am not saying I dislike Chakra. I actually really do like the concept and I will reserve my judgement until I get a chance to see it in action. (Pssst, Blizzard…. Beta key! Over here!!!). The ability to be better at the task that I need to do is always good. I just have some reservations mainly regarding the theory behind it… and I am hoping we don’t become the whole “Jack of All Trades Master of None” healer without being in an appropriate Chakra mode; and the spam to trigger it seems awkward given Blizzard’s new opinion of healer mana and spam casting.

The UI interface sounds interesting… for some reason I am seeing this meter that tilts towards Hots/AOE/Direct heals based on what you’ve already cast. Hopefully Blizzard pulls through and executes well on this. I am betting the Chakra UI interface is similar to the Eclipse interface that they hinted at for Boomkins. I am hoping Chakra isn’t overly complex where just having it being a cooldown ability. (Ie. Chakra is a buff that is consumed by your next spell, and based on the consuming spell does X, Y, or Z – consume it with renew to buff hots, consume with POH/COH to buff AOE heals, or Consume it with GHeal to buff direct healing spells).

At the end of the day, this sounds like a really interesting ability — and if executed properly will be a great tool in our arsenal! Time will tell, and early beta information is ALWAYS subject to change… and the promises of a Ghostcrawler pony.

Chakra Khan or Chakra Can’t? is a post from: Tales of a Priest

Every expansion, one can assume there will be class mechanic changes, especially when new content & levels are being added. It would be a rather boring expansion if NOTHING about our classes changed, don’t you think? And LOTS is being changed – stats are being ‘simplified’ & how we receive benefits from them are being changed, we’re getting 5 more levels and talent points and new toys & spells to play with.

But like all the other class announcements, anything we see or read is PURE SPECULATION. We can’t possibly know how these things will work, or the situations they will work in. Not a single one of us has played with it.  I’ve seen how blizzard was going to “ruin” the game going from Vanilla to BC, and how healers were going to “get screwed” with the Healing/Spell Power changes going from BC to wrath- nothing played out how the negative nancys screamed it would. I won’t go as far to say all changes worked out as planned or even great; I’m simply saying we have no way of knowing. All we can do is discuss & theorize – who knows? Our thoughts may have someones ear. Nothing is set in stone yet. So 2 – 4 -6 -8 COME ON HEALING BUDDIES, LET’S SPECULATE!

New Priest Spells

Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the “new” Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest’s go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes.

Interesting. With the removal of down ranking our spells, I can see this being fairly handy. Currently, my flash heals can hit for around 11K and I forgo the use of Gheal altogether as disc or holy, so this certainly adds a nice ‘in between’ heal. The best part of priest healers is our healing arsenal – we’re not three button healers, and more options can’t be a bad thing.

Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage. The intent of Mind Spike is to fill a niche missing in Shadow DPS, though it may be occasionally useful for healers as well. Mind Spike provides a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn’t have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike will do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. The idea behind the debuff is that when you cast Mind Spike, we expect you to cast a lot of them; we don’t intend you to fit it into an already full Shadow rotation. It also provides Shadow with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school. (School lockouts will no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.) 1.5-second cast. 30-yard range. No cooldown.

I don’t have a clue about shadow things. The closest I’ve come to dps on my priest was a raid saving smite for my first Sindragosa kill. I’ll leave this one for more knowledgeable people to discuss.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can’t have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis.

Now this I REALLY like. I could have seen many uses for this in current content. Fights requiring high mobility will certainly see this used. I’m glad they’re getting rid of the ‘charges’ too. I never understood the point, and it was just one more thing to monitor.

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or “Life Grip”) is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can’t seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Here’s one I have an issue with. In PVP, sure, it sounds great and deliciously annoying. But in PVE? You shouldn’t be pulling aggro.  You have a million tools at your disposal to monitor this, and as a DPS player, one of your jobs is to keep your aggro in check. You also shouldn’t stand in BAD SHIT – not standing in BAD SHIT is Raiding 101. Avoiding tunnel vision in any role is a huge part of the game, & I see alot of blame shifting to the priest for not pulling a DPS out of these situations, rather than blaming the offending player in the first place. That’s the last thing I think we want. Also, this had better include some sort of Aggro cancellation, because if I DO LoP an aggro gaining player, I forsee a VERY pissed of tank trying to run after a boss that’s now coming our way.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate).

What’s not to like about that?

We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an “execute” — something you do when the target is at 25% health.

From what little I know about shadow, I see our Spriests use this currently as part of their rotation, instead of just a finishing move. Hopefully they handle this better than the functionality of a Warrior’s Execute, which at this point is almost not worth breaking your rotation for.

While we want to keep the priest’s role as a well-rounded healer, we also want to make sure the class is a viable tank healer, which is something priests moved away from a little in Wrath of the Lich King. Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing spell of choice, though we’ve also discussed giving Discipline a second shield so that they have a small shield to cast on lots of different targets, and a big, more expensive shield to cast on a tank or anyone else taking a ton of damage.

This baffles me. While I agree holy isn’t an ideal tank healer, Disc is still a fantastic one. What bothers me about this is losing a niche or identity between our specs. When each spec can do everything equally, it usually ends up not doing anything spectacular – a jack of all trades, but master of none, if you will. This is one we have to watch how it will play out.

Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit will be removed from the game. As Spirit will be the primary mana-regeneration stat, we don’t want it to vary as much between solo, small group, and raid play. Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild will not boost Spirit either.

I can see this being good. Early 80 players or ones that focused on smaller content suffered in the regen department, and the disparity between gearing/gemming for Mp5 vs int/spirit was a huge gap.

Mana will be a bigger consideration for all healers. We aren’t trying to make healing more painful; we’re trying to make it more fun. When the cost of a spell isn’t an issue, then casting the right spell for the job is less of an issue because you might as well just use your most powerful spell all of the time. We are, however, getting rid of the five-second rule, because we don’t want to encourage standing around doing nothing. We’re also going to cut back on the benefits of buffs such as Replenishment so priests (and all healers) don’t feel as penalized when those buffs aren’t available.

Again, I can see this. While mana management can be a issue in the hardest heroic content, it certainly wasn’t in normal raids. Much like the CoH cooldown seperated the good from the spammers, This will force more healers to learn to quickly adapt and choose the proper spell – right now most raiders don’t take that into consideration.

New Talents and Talent Changes

We want to improve Discipline’s single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn’t always a more attractive option than healing.

I really think this perception comes from people not understanding the strengths of a disc priest. If all you are doing is bubbling the raid, you are doing it wrong. While there are certainly fights where are points where you will be doing that, that is not ALL you should be doing. While your mitigation is a huge part of the disc style, you SHOULD be healing as well. You’re not working to your full potential, and honestly, you’re forcing the rest of your healers to work more.

That being said, I would hate to have our shielding and mitigation focus moved to the secondary. A way to encourage people to understand how to use the two TOGETHER is certainly warranted, however. Making the damage absorbed more easily seen without the use of secondary mods would be nice. I think half the problem is you can’t ‘see’ mitigated damage, thus to the average player, it looks like the disc is doing less. It’s all perception. When you have access to logs, and you can visually see how a disc priest actually ranks (it’s not uncommon to have numbers on par with a holy priest or pally) you realize this, but Joe Casual or PuG groups don’t have access to these. Another ‘wait and see how it plays out’ preview.

We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal’s throughput is similar between both specs.

See above.

We want to improve Shadow for short fights and reduce its susceptibility to school lockouts.

Again, I don’t know nuthin’ ’bout no shadowz. Go ask the experts.

Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.

Woot. Something similar had been promised for a long time, and we actually expected to see it for the Wrath expansion. I can definitely see something like this move the perception that all disc is good for is bubble spamming, since covering groups more quickly will allow shifting focus to pure healing. However, I think it will require a high mana cost &/or a cool down, much like CoH, to discourage mass bubble spamming, and to encourage people to use it effectively. I hear it won’t work as a group targeting like PoH however, and more like a ‘zone effect’, similar to a Death Knight’s Anti Magic Shield. Interesting mechanic, has huge benefits for shielding melee groups that stand in BAD SHIT, or chef hat wearing death knights.

We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast.

Again, this baffles me. I think holy is hands down the most interesting healer to play. You have so many tricks and procs to manage, coupled with a large healing output, I’m not sure how this is boring. I am hoping this ‘improved healing state’ is obtained by a combination of heals, much like our serendipity stacks from flash OR binding heal. I rarely, if ever, cast 3 PoHs in a row. I’ll at least try to pad with a FH/BH or two to stack up the hasted effect. If I’m going to cast three in a row, the resulting state better be phenomenal. Which can be an interesting way to strategize – you know a phase with intense healing is coming up, you cast 3 PoH in a transition in preparation. The most powerful form of a bonus healing state probably should be harder to obtain – otherwise, healers will constantly sit at that.

I also demand a kick ass visual for this.

Since the Shadow tree has a lot of passive damage-boosting abilities — something we’re trying to avoid in Cataclysm — we will need to replace several of the tree’s talents. One idea is to play off of the new Shadow Orbs mechanic (see Mastery section below), possibly allowing you to consume an orb to increase damage from Mind Blast or reduce Mind Spike’s cast time.

Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn’t variable depending on group composition.

Durrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Discipline

• Healing
• Meditation
• Absorption

Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier.

Holy

• Healing
• Meditation
• Radiance

Radiance: Your direct heals add a small heal-over-time component to the target.

Not much is known how this will work. Set bonuses that gave a Radiance like effect always were lack luster and ended up being mostly overheal. Absorption is nice – perhaps that will encourage more interesting tier set bonuses like our original T10, instead of the current yawn fest we have now. I like the concept, but there’s still not much to comment on.

So that’s my brief thoughts. I’m not up in arms, I’m not upset, and you shouldn’t be either. We have a loooooooooong way until we see how these play out, or, if they play out at all. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a proposed change didn’t see the light of day, and we have very little details how things will work, much less any indication on how we should apply them. So sit back, and ride the easy epic train that always pulls into the station before an expansion (I know my alts are loving it.). We’ll be getting more and more information as the weeks & months go on. When we see something concrete, THEN we can bitch.

Also, Derevka will have a follow up post in a day or two with his insights. Right now he’s holding a Starbucks hostage, screaming something about idiot melee & babysitting. When he’s sedated, I’m sure he’ll have some great thoughts.

That being said, what do YOU guys think? Anything you want to add? Musings, comments, insult my gender &/or heritage?

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!! (AKA Ava’s thoughts on Cata Priest Changes) is a post from: Tales of a Priest