Holy Word: Sanctuary has been a spell that has been in flux since its introduction at the start of Cataclysm… and that continues to happen even on the Beta–  HW: Sanc has undergone a few changes in preparation for Mists of Pandaria, one of which Ghostcrawler commented on from a question I posted in the Beta Class Feedback Forum.  ”Sanctuary should scale with haste like Efflorescence. It just adds more ticks.”  Well, I must say I was pretty darn excited! It didn’t make sense that it didn’t scale from haste previously.  I quickly logged into the beta to test out the breakpoints I had previously calculated and to see these additional ticks at work… But wait… they added Haste scaling, but took away mastery’s scaling from HW: Sanctuary. Noooooo!  I …

I have updated my previous post on the Regeneration Tier, to include the latest changes in the beta build (15913). These numbers reflect the buffs to Mindbender and Nerf to PW: Solace.  I also have included a new chart, inspired by similar analysis that Malevica did from Type H For Heals. This does change the overall analysis and balances the tier substantially; however PW: Solace still has the greatest potential for regen. Please check that post out here: Mists of Pandaria – Priest Regen Talent Choices  

I don’t like writing posts like this – and by that I mean posts where I completely disagree with the direction the development team is going with the priest class. That said, I do believe and trust that Blizzard can develop and balance their game correctly. The development team for Mists of Pandaira has been really good at communicating this beta, and the number of blue comments on the beta forums seems much greater than before. (GC has been great at engaging us.. as well as the CM team on Twitter as well. I have to tip my hat to them there). However, it doesn’t mean I love every change that they make… and sometimes, its important for us to point out changes that could be missed… and I do …

Important Comment as of  8/28/2012: This post is updated through 7/30/12, and will be updated after 5.0.4 to reflect the changes from Beta to Live. Additional information will be made available on our Resources pages (Menu at the top of the site).  Regen will be a big part of our playstyle and gearing in Mists, so it is important to understand how each of our regen abilities work. I think we’ve covered and understand how Spirit and Rapture work from my previous post (here). But let’s take a look at the talent choics in our Third Tier that is available at Level 45. **note that this post has been updated on 7/30/12 to contain data from Beta Build 15913** From Darkness Comes Light – FDCL is arguably the hardest talent …

One of the biggest changes that all healers need to adjust to in Mists is the change to our mana pools, and the impact that will have on our regen. In case you missed the details: Intellect will have zero affect on our total mana pool, and primarily will be used in our Spell Power calculation and Critical Strike calculation. One more time to be clear: regardless of the amount of intellect you have, you will always have the same size mana pool, it will not increase. At 90, all Priests will have a total mana pool of 300,000 regardless of intellect. Spells will now cost a fixed percentage of total mana (changed from Cata’s “% of base mana”). This is means if Greater Heal costs you 6.6% mana (or 19,800 mana at level …

Well now that we’ve seen the visuals of the new Level 90 abilities, (click here) lets take a look at the numbers behind the scenes! First, we need to realize that these numbers are complicated to theorycraft… mostly because there are variables that are difficult to quantify— specifically the positional requirements for all three. First, lets highlight these complications spell-by-spell. Cascade – (10% Mana Cost, 25 Sec CD) Grows in strength the further it travels. So if you have your raid in a tight group of players ( a la Ultraxion) the growth of this spell is limited, despite the spell “preferring targets further away”.  Also, this spell has a finite target cap: 15, and it will not hit the same target multiple times. This makes the spell more expensive in the …

Well, yesterday the beta unlocked level 90 and the final tier of abilities. Here’s a short video highlighting those abilities. Cascade –  The biggest advantage Cascade has its its amazing range. Thebounces can provide the priest with a unique ability to reach far away raid members with much needed healing. However, it is important to understand that Cascade is the only ability of the three that does not “heal and damage” and will only HEAL if you are targeting a friendly, and DAMAGE if you target a hostile. The other two abilities, Halo and Divine Star, do both depending on what they collide with in their path. Cascade, however, ‘prefers’ to bounce to further away targets. So there is some randomization in there. Divine Star – Divine Star’s animation is …

I spent a good deal of time in beta last weekend. I got myself to the current level cap (which is only 86), and did a good deal of questing. (Which, for the record I did completely as Atonement spec… Instant Holy Fire from the glyph is a lot of fun. More importantly 40k smite hits are purely delicious) More importantly I did some dungeon runs in Temple of The Jade Serpent, one of the new 5 mans, and healed as both Holy and Disc. I do, however, want to first tackle Disc healing since it seems to need the most amount of work. In case people missed it: both Holy and Disc have their own “filler spell”.  Holy has Heal and Discipline has Spirit Shell (SS). I won’t call it …

As promised, now that Ava is retired, Tales of a Priest continues on with coverage of both priest healing specs… I even included a gratuitous horror movie reference! That being said,  I spent some quality time on the beta last week, and I had the chance to join a couple of 10 mans/25 mans to do some raid testing — time to see this stuff in action! Overall, I was fairly unimpressed with how Disc handled in that beta build, however, there is good news! The build that dropped earlier this weekhas some great improvements to the Disc tree, and I feel they actually play to Discipline’s advantage and after testing those same encounters again I was pleased to see that Discipline was working better than the previous week after diving …

With the number of changes to Chakra , I felt it was time to revisit Chakra after this last pass of changes. Chakra states will be a key and very important part of the Holy Priest healing toolbox. Keeping that in mind, we’ll need to be sure we know how these states operate and how we will likely be using them. If you have been following the blue posts you’ve already seen that Chakra: Renew has been removed from the game (on beta)– I have to admit, when I first saw this, I scowled. However, after some thinking… it makes sense.