Latest changes on the PTR
by Elizabeth Harper 
Apr 26th 2007 at 11:45AM
As you may or may not be aware, a patch was rolled out on the public test realms yesterday, bringing us all sorts of cool screenshots of Hyjal and Illidan. However, these weren't the only changes the patch brought us. On the test realm forums, Kainazzo has been kind enough to compile a list of changes for us.
Of course there's the expected bug fixes:
- (Hunter) Viewing Pet Details no longer results in a fatal error
- (Hunter) Using aimed shot and steady shot no longer results in turning 180 degrees
- (Other) Alliance epic flying mount animation has been fixed.
- (Items) The meta gems bought with Spirit Shards now function properly.
- (Items) Almost every set bonus was reworked to stack properly with other set bonuses
- Illumination now returns 60% of base mana cost, up from 50%.
- 1h weapon spec is now working, and is causing 5% more damage to spells like consecrate and holy shield while a 1 handed weapon is equipped.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Flit Apr 26th 2007 12:28PM
Running a dungeon, I saw a pally crit heal for +6000 three shots in a row, which made my preist cry.
Scruffy Apr 26th 2007 12:41PM
I wonder if they'll get back the mana-regen-if-overhealed ability as well. I mean, together, it's a huge, huge nerf and I'm glad they're backtracking.
Frankly, having gone shadow recently, I certainly wouldn't mind being (and remaining) that squishy guy keeping that plate-covered and shield-carrying healer full of mana.
I'm just wishing they quit messing with Shadow priests and fix the Holy and Discipline talent trees.
ripper Apr 26th 2007 1:01PM
well over the long run mp5 will win out as far as casts are concerned with a boss then stacking spell crit as reasonable levels. the problem is the gear needs to be redesigned to include this change which isnt the case. this is also a deep talent as well, arent they suppose to be good? i think 75% is reasonable but will still change what gear we need to go for and will lean towards mp5. this isnt going to break the class at all but i think there are more important things to be focusing on then holy pallys especially with nerfs given the huge sta gear after 60 making a huge bridge already with healing and mana due to it taking much more then pre-BC. oh well, we will adapt and change accordingly.
utherman Apr 26th 2007 1:19PM
In regards to #1, 6000 crit heals are ok, but my priest throws 7300-7500 crit heals all the time, and I have seen even higher than that. In fact, I dont really know any other hybrid healer that hits as hard as I do. Tell your priest to get more +heal gear, mp5 gear, how to spec properly for healing and to stop crying.
Priests own everyone in heals....
Ryan Apr 26th 2007 1:30PM
Yes priests still have good healing but there more usefull shadow.
Phate Apr 26th 2007 1:32PM
My guild is currently in serpentshine we have 1 holy/disc priest who in pre-bc was on the top on top of the healing charts, now he is at the bottem.
Druid dude Apr 26th 2007 1:47PM
Just to throw my two cents in to the evolving Heal-peen contest:
Druid with only 1200 +heal, specced HT/Mana Battery (or Dreamstate people like to call it now), 9k crit heals are not uncommon. One of our druids with closer to 1500 +heal tops 10k crit heals at times. Of course, those numbers are all raid buffed, but I don't think that part really matters to our tanks lol!
crsh Apr 26th 2007 1:48PM
Meanwhile, shadow priests are still getting their DPS nerfed and it doesn't look like it's getting reconsidered.
Thanks, Blizz.
Chase Apr 26th 2007 2:05PM
Amen to your last statement Ms. Harper...rock on!
Madjap Apr 26th 2007 2:14PM
While they are at it, another 10HP to CoH will be GREAT!!!!!
X Apr 30th 2007 10:57PM
"1. Running a dungeon, I saw a pally crit heal for +6000 three shots in a row, which made my preist cry."
dude that has nothing too do with the illumination nerf, the amount of damage healed is totally gear based, the complaint isn't that pallies heal better directly then priests it's that they have a much longer lasting mana bar.
Scruffy Apr 26th 2007 2:19PM
@10
Your sarcasm is dully noted. ;)
Savok Apr 26th 2007 2:25PM
Madjap you bastard, I was about to say that.
Joe Apr 26th 2007 2:29PM
@Madjap
Make it 12.5 more and we'll talk.
ppethock Apr 26th 2007 2:33PM
i agree, get that Illumination up to 75% and i think they'll get it right. That way its not a huge nerf, b/c 50% is absolutely ridiculous, but it does still affect us. Cause right now, if a pally runs outta mana, something else went wrong lol.
Karl Apr 26th 2007 3:00PM
I still find myself wondering why people would ever complain about how much another class heals for. Priests still own people on the healing charts. There are some exceptions with Druid and Paladins, but that is generally due to people knowing how to either crunch numbers efficiently and figure out the biggest benefits, or it is someone who actually can play thar class better than the next guy. No shame in either... The real point is, why yell nerf X class because they heal too well? I can almost certainly promise you that if your guild knew that you were asking to nerf a different class because they healed too well or didn’t run out of mana and could outlast you in a longer fight, that they would /gkick you immediately...The group depends on heals. It is the same as people complaining about Pally/Druid/Warrior tanks...I LOVE having the three classes tank for me. Who is better? I've seen great ones out of each class. I sure as heck did not care that the Druid was a better tank in SL than the Warrior I ran with the other day. I was just very happy the person knew their role.
Bottom line...Respect other player's abilities to out-heal, out-tank or out-dps you. Work hard to beat that person out. Figure out what you need to do to exceed what they do and make yourself a better player.
Scruffy Apr 26th 2007 4:08PM
@15
Who's calling for nerfs? I mean, aside from rogues' CoS and, maybe, Warlock fearing abilities.
Basically all that's happening is good abilities are getting nerfed (25% cut to Vampiric Embrace) or shitcanned altogether (Silent Resolve affecting shadow spells) while crap talents/spells get a poke of a buff (recent CoH buff? ololololol).
I don't want druids', pallies', or shammies' healing ability nerfed. Priest healing ability is ok but should be better given how much more squishy we are and how much more threat we inherently create.
Should Pallies get nerfed?
Maybe a wee bit but not 50% off Illumination and no more mana regen from over healing. One or the other I could accept. However, that still doesn't change the fact that Holy Nova sucks (gimme some threat and double the healing or damage and you got a deal), Spirit of Redemption is still just Improved Death, Feedback sucks, Lolwell is suckish (needs to scale, needs debuff to prevent spam clicks, needs lower talent point investment), CoH sucks big time (too niche; party is wiped if you see a need for it).
So, you know, basically everything priests have been bitching about needing to be fixed in their class. ...and, well, Cloak of Shadows.
Robert Apr 26th 2007 4:35PM
I believe they're trying to balance Illumination into a magical point where stacking either crit or mp5 -at the exclusion of the other- is not as good as balancing both. Just like melee classes must balance crit and attack power to maximize DPS.
I think we can all agree that the Priest's Holy tree is the saddest joke in the game. Lightwell? Yes, let's have a healing spell that, ostensibly to save mana, requires the DPSers to stop DPSing for several seconds thus prolonging the fight and ending up costing the healers MORE mana. Not to mention virtually every raid encounter in the game right now is a DPS race against an enrage timer. GOOD ONE BLIZZARD, LOL.
The second worst joke has to be Tree of Life. Why does this come with a self-snare, again? How about just adding "Cannot be used in Arenas" to the tooltip, that would accomplish roughly the same thing. Not to mention the form is designed around stacking spirit like mad, yet healing in ToL involves rarely, if ever, leaving the five second rule. LOL GOT US AGAIN BLIZZARD.
Guernia Apr 26th 2007 4:55PM
The formula to calculate the average mana efficiency gained from Illumination is
10000/(10000-c*ir)
where c is your crit rate, and ir is the Illumitaion mana return rate (both expressed as a value from 0 to 100)
Using this calculation, assuming 20% crit rate, the current Illumination is an effective 25% increase in available mana. Under the old PTR, it was around 11%; the new PTR is running about 13.5%. Illumination at 75% would make it 17.5%
Assuming 30%, the figures are:
ir @ 100% = 43% efficiency
ir @ 75% = 29% efficiency
ir @ 60% = 22% efficiency
ir @ 50% = 17.5% efficiency
So given the new PTR rate, having high crit is still worthwhile in that it boosts your effective mana pool by a substantial figure, but not by such a huge amount as it does now.
Illumination was never really very good as far as mana regen went. Since pally heals are pretty much spam-only, you rarely find yourself out of the FSR, and so you need to rely on Illumination's mana pool increase to stay in there. Sure, this hurts the paladin ability to "outlast" other healing classes, but it doesn't address the root mana regen problems pallies suffer from even now (Blessing of Wisdom notwithstanding).
A buff to the Holy tree Improved Blessing of Wisdom talent that reads thusly:
3 Ranks. Improves Blessing of Wisdom 7/14/20% on the target, and 33/67/100% for the caster. (Actual values are negotiable).
would go a long way towards helping out our regen woes, and would also help the other two trees should they choose Holy as a secondary talent tree.
SacredHero Apr 26th 2007 11:12PM
@1 That was me you were with, wasn't it? I was healing off the bat that night - it even stunned me lol- but things like that don't happen so frequently. Even so, I ccan't help being one of the best paladins I know :P