Spiritual Guidance: Mana nerfs and Priest buffs
by Matt Low 
Feb 9th 2009 at 8:00PM
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Spirit nerf's are coming! Is it really doom and gloom for the Priest class?
Eliah did a terrific job summarizing the mana regeneration changes that are slated to strike in 3.1. The general feeling I'm seeing right now among the Priest community appears to range from the "OH NO! NO MORE MANA" to the "Eh, guess I better load up on Mana Pots since they're cheap".
On a side note, when is the last time you had to pot in a raid? And I don't mean from immediately being revived in the middle of a fight. I distinctly remember running out of juice on Kel'Thuzad a month or so ago.
In any case, there are some rumblings abound as to what sort of impact this nerf would have to our playstyle. The better question to ask is what impact this nerf would have to our gearing, gemming, and enchanting choices.
The underlying point that seems to jump out at everyone is that Spirit regen is being decreased.
Let's see what this implies for the Discipline and Holy trees respectively.
The Discipline PriestWhile the Spirit changes affect our ability to regenerate mana outside of the 5 second rule of doom, luckily the Disc breed of Priests don't have to worry about that. Most of our mana return occurs while we're casting anyway. It's not very often we're stuck having nothing to do.
If anything, we're getting a slight buff to our while-casting regen. The gems I'm using right now are a combination of spellpower, intellect and crit gems. I've got nothing in there that involves mana per 5 or spirit. Why? Simply because my mana isn't being taxed.
I'm foreseeing the next tier of raids to contain fights that are going to be a test of our endurance. I've got a supply of MP5 and intellect gems on standby just in case I need to switch over to them.
The Holy Priest
Expect a heavier reliance on potion and Shadowfiend use. A couple of Priests and I were discussing the value of spirit. Some of them were wondering whether they should eject the spirit gems (Sparkling Sky Sapphire) and plug in some variance of mana per 5 gems (Lustrous Sky Sapphire).
I'm going to suggest holding off on that for now.
The reason being is that spirit still isn't completely useless for Holy Priests. They still contribute spellpower. The textbook method of regenerating mana is to do the dance between casting and not casting. If anything, this presents a stronger argument to keep maintaining a high amount of spirit.
Fights from here on out are only going to become more difficult.
How will they test us?
Endurance: Are we going to see a return of the 20 minute boss fight? We might! Be prepared to stretch out that mana pool as much as possible.
Complexity: Healing the Kael'Thas encounter in The Eye was one of the most complex fights I've participated in. Multiple stages meant that every possible tank had to be covered. That means knowing which healer is healing who at what time. Those assignments changed from phase to phase. I might've healed the raid in the first 2 phases before taking over the main tank after that.
Shift healing: I remember back in the days of Blackwing Lair where Priests would take turns healing a tank (Memories of Chromaggus). I hope Blizzard doesn't bring that back. But with the spirit nerfs to Priests and Druids as well as the Divine Plea change, more communication will be needed among healers. Who's regenerating? Who were they healing? Being able to switch to and from raid healing to tank healing is going to be important.
One thing's for sure. 3.1's going to be one heck of a patch for us. I can't remember the last real patch where we've been extensively overhauled (excluding the 3.0 ones).
Further reading
- Rohan's perspective on mana nerfs from a Paladin
- Sydera's thoughts for Resto Druids
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! And don't forget to check out our other Leveling Guides as well as our Wrath Guides and Galleries!Filed under: Priest, Raiding, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
rob Feb 9th 2009 8:13PM
should buff resto shaman mana regen imo
apoxic Feb 9th 2009 9:57PM
Resto Shamans are fine.
Besides, reading the upcoming mana regen changes, Shamans is the only class not getting the shaft.
wowinsider Feb 10th 2009 5:02PM
They're fine once you've attained WotLK epics. Before that, you need to drink every chance you get while Paladins, Priests, and Trees sit with near full mana the entire time.
There's something wrong when resto druids can spam hots on the entire raid and have their mana sit at full.
JBurg Feb 9th 2009 8:13PM
The thing I can't figure out in this is the philosophy behind all this. Why are the developers giving more specs replenishment while nerfing individual mana regeneration? Wouldn't it be easier to do away with replenishment and just let everybody be in charge of there own regen once more?
Hoggersbud Feb 9th 2009 9:27PM
Perhaps because Replenishment is something that goes along with DPS and hits the whole raid, while the current mana regen is a bit on the "just put on the gear and forget about it" which is less active?
Deb Feb 10th 2009 10:24AM
A lot of spriests went holy after the 3.0 went live because with a subpar DPS in comparison to hunters we took a back seat in raids. Who would want to bring us along if there was a hunter that grants mana and tops the DPS meters?
Mike Feb 13th 2009 7:48PM
Is it only me that remembers that spirit based regen was already nerfed once at the start of WOTLK. So this is a second nerf...ok we got some recovery from the endless COH debate with the raid wide POH, but all in all I don't know many happy priests....or druids...or pallies with divine plea nerf.
In fact, I just don't see the logic of pissing off, on mass, the one community that bliz needs more of - healers. I'm sure some fan boy is going to tell me I'm out of touch, but around this server, I can tell you, not many happy healer faces. I just wish I understood the great logic of it all, is it worth losing a bunch of healers to satisfy your need for encounter design? Is there a buff solution to the same problem instead of a wide nerf?
ramzoor Feb 9th 2009 9:25PM
Disc Priest are really really imba atm, they have a lot of haste, a lot of mana, infinite mana regen, and it's damn funny to play.
Actually Disc only pays a little healing power and raid healing. With the upcoming patch, Divine Spirit base spell is = an extra disc talent point.
PoH raid wide fixes the raid healing problem,
Serendipity will make Holy what Disc have already with Borrowing Time, but Disc will have Rapture to gain back mana.
Result Disc spec overbuffed.
Vendrill Feb 10th 2009 9:44AM
No, Disc is NOT imba. As one of those holy priests that learned to work CoH into a rotation AFTER it was nerfed, I can tell you that Holy STILL has a group healing advantage. Other things,like Spirit of Redemption still make holy what it is: a strong healing spec. There's nothing in disc that can compare with that: 20 seconds (glyphed) of non-stop free heals AFTER you die to save a wipe. Also, Gaurdian Spirit rocks when it's timed correctly when YOU KNOW your tank is going down. Pain Suppression helps and is great, and is more versatile, but Guardian Spirit is a great OhShit button.
With that said... I LOVE Disc now... but I have to work harder, healing my ass off to cross heal.
I think BOTH Holy and Disc SHOULD be BUFFED!
Jabadabadana Feb 9th 2009 8:43PM
I suppose the other major thing, that all of us panicking don't know, is exactly how much spirit is being nerfed.
Are we losing 5% of our regen, or 50%? Or more likely something in between.
Basically, is the nerf the doom of our world, or is it going to be a bit of an inconvenience? "Spirit regen is being decreased" is a bit nebulous.
steve Feb 10th 2009 8:14AM
But if you think about it, there are really only two really obvious things they can do. We've had a "unified" mana regen mechanic since, what, 2.4? For all classes, mana regen is:
some-constant * spirit * sqrt(intellect)
Unless they split this out by class again, all they can really do is tweak the multiplier *or* perhaps make the formula more complicated by using something like sqrt(spirit) to give diminishing returns for spirit.
Likewise, all of the regen talents are configured to "return X% of mana regen while casting", so when Blizz says those are getting buffed, all they can really do is tweak X for each class -- again, barring introducing some really complex new mechanic.
So, if I was betting, I would bet on the mana regen multiplier getting tuned downwards, but the X% mana return talents getting increased upwards, meaning O5SR returns is lower but I5SR is maybe the same or just a little lower. I would also assume all of the items we have that have MP5 would have that stat tuned downwards as well; if not, I could see some shuffling around what items are better/best in slot as pure MP5 becomes a more valuable stat compared to spirit. And finally, that we'll see things in LFG and trade chat like, "LF1M for Naxx, must have replenishment" ;->
emberdione Feb 9th 2009 8:56PM
The root of the issue for me is this:
We have a healer shortage. Despite having Priests, Pallys, Shaman, and Druids who can all heal effectively, no one wants to play a healer. Making healing/regen more difficult is NOT going to make this better. I know people who literally switched specs and dumped gear with the Circle of Healing nerf because they didn't want to play a healer anymore as it was going to be more difficult than a one button spam.
Why are you making it more challenging to be a healer when you are already dying for healers? I hope they introduce the new Hero class and that it is a op healer, and they need to do it soon, this is getting insane on my server.
Theostratus Feb 9th 2009 9:08PM
Probably to answer the complaints of healing being boring. So they're throwing in another bar to look at.
Really, I'm still healing on my priest, but the spirit nerf isn't something I'm looking forward too, but my major question is the reason. Is it more pvp QQ about op classes, or are they forcing us to use Replenishment more?
Stargazer Feb 9th 2009 9:15PM
I have two comments. As a semi-casual player, I often find myself behind the gear/spell/learning curve. I suppose some healers are having no problem with mana regen., but I ran out just last night. I know I need to learn to be a better healer, but it takes casual players longer to respond to the various changes. We have to get different gear, gems and learn different spell rotations. This takes us time. Meanwhile, we can't always get in good raid groupss because our gear isn't quits good enough.
Another issue is that most other casual players have no idea what changes are taking place for the other classes. With so many casual players, I often find myself in groups with people who have unrealistic expectations about what I can and can't do and are always surprised (I'm being nice here) when I can't keep an entire group alive. Having less mana regen will only make this a worse experience for a healer.
In the end, I suspect there are 10 to 20% of the healing population that are at the top of the game and that's who this patch is for. The rest of us are somewhere behind them. For us it just keeps us further away from ever joining the top healers and this makes the game more frustrating. How long can Blizz juggle to balance a game where a small percent are out of whack while the majority aren't? The spread between good and bad healers is widening and it will become ever-more difficult to throw out a one-size-fits-all solution.
Healabit Feb 10th 2009 5:15AM
I definitely sympathize with the casual/semi-casual players. When you dont get a lot of practice its hard to adapt to changes.
However, I dont think it takes much to change from being a player who cant adapt to one who isnt worried about changes like the CoH nerf, or these new mana changes. I think all it takes is reading a bit here and there (Matticus' site is good for this, or Elitist Jerks) about how healing works. The other things that are good to read carefully are all the ingame tooltips about all the lovely spells we priests have. We have a lot of different spells that do a lot of different things. If you learn what they do, you can start to use them in the right places, and not become dependant on one (like some did with CoH). Then the nerfs and changes won't bother you as much because you can adapt.
As Matt said, with the right enchant and gemming choices I dont think this mana nerf will bother me. Of course... I'm playing disc these days :P But knowing I can be less careful with my mana than my holy friends means maybe I can give them enough of a break now and then that they can have some nice OOC regen time. In my guild we have already gotten used to calling out - hey, I'm gonna use my hymn, cover me!
ramzoor Feb 9th 2009 9:26PM
I'm a very experienced priest. I've noticed in WotLK the increased need of instant casts, or at least fast heals.
I think is both due the CC trivialized and many bosses are "Brutallus style".
The Circle of Healing nerf, removed an instant cast, because atm it doesn't have the power to instant save people.
Greater Healing has become no more viable, is too slow, Flash Heal is slow, and is viable with a little haste coming from Serendipity or Borrowing Time. The Holy priests feel the lack of a good instant cast. Prayer of Mending DO NOT save players with 10% hp, Prayer of Mending doesn't proc with a killing blow. Being slower than many other classes at healing is kinda boring.
What Holy Priests lack Discipline Priests have: Penance, it perfectly fills the cooldown gap between Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Mending. It also can fix critical situations.
ramzoor Feb 9th 2009 9:40PM
The disc priest doesn't get the top of the healing meter, it lacks of raid healings. People tend to undervaluate the Disc Priests so many are kinda forced to spec holy (boring).
I liked the nerf of CoH, but I play a priest since the Classic WoW, I had the time to get a feeling with a new spell, step by step.
New priests will have too many tools, and they don't master them all. Circle of Healing was their lifeguard, their 1-button playstyle.
With the next patch developers will put AoE shields and Raidwide PoH (will no longer be trivial), and they will need to learn 2 extra keybindings to use instinctively. It will bug me a bit too, I need to find a free key on my keyboard...
clone Feb 9th 2009 9:59PM
Bliz Dev hated P R I E S T.
Holy Priest cant PVP, Tank, slowest in PVE.
Now they even cut our last own talent HEALING.
Only fun thing to do: Healing with mana. And now we have to heal with OOM.
Whats the problem with Holy Priest with some spare or extra mana.
The Claw Feb 9th 2009 10:44PM
clone, I have no doubt that you fail in everything no matter which class you played, the problem is not with priests, the problem is that you're just bad.
Gareth Feb 10th 2009 3:39AM
And has anyone told you Claw how ANNOYING it is when someone puts RANDOM WORDS in capitals? :)
And as for priest mana regen, yes it does seem too overpowered to me, its felt like that since the lol patch at the end of TBC though, strange how they gave all the imba guilds a leg up with it, but that's done now.
The problem I have with this fix though is that they are nerfing the out of 5 seconds mana regen, but buffing the inside 5 seconds regen. This takes away skill and a choice from the player to influence their mana regen and instead means that you just have X amount of mana which lasts for x amount of spell casts.
Since the individual's attempt to get out of the 5 second rule now with intelligent casting does not influence the mana now it seems to be left up to the group.