Spiritual Guidance: PTR loot and hymns that will never be seen in game
by Matt Low 
Mar 8th 2009 at 4:00PM
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. This week, Matt checks out some of the PTR loot along and a suggestion of Hymns that we will never see in game.
Have you checked out some of the drops from the PTR yet? There's a great staff from Iron Council that I'm definitely eyeing. I know a lot of spellcasters favour main hands and off hands. I always had a soft spot for staves (because of their looks). But most staves just could not compete with their main hand and off hand counterparts. Rapture will be an upgrade I'll be eyeing. There's also the Ironmender which is an offhand complement for Priests. I haven't seen any spellpower main hands yet but I'm sure there will be some popping up soon enough.
From the armor side of things, the Robes of the Umbral Brute smells largely of Discipline Priest fashion. This is an item that drops off of Kologarn which I had the pleasure of trying out. Tailors have access to a boots recipe called Savior's Slippers. It's a BoE pair of boots that requires 20 Moonshroud and 6 Runed Orb. I'm taking a stab in the dark in thinking that the Orbs will drop inside Ulduar. They would be similar crafting reagents to what Nether Vortexes were back during Burning Crusade for Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. Holy Priests looking for a new pair of gloves and shoulders may like the Handwraps of Plentiful Recovery and Mantle of the Unknowing (Kologarn 25 and General Vezax).
For accessories, there's a neck piece that you can upgrade into called the Unblinking Eye (drops from Iron Council 25). That'll be heavily favoured by Holy Priests. In the ring section, there's the Radiant Seal (also from Iron Council 25) which has haste and MP5 with no Spirit at all.
But what about the badge gear? The new Emblems of Conquest offer another route for Priests looking to augment their characters further. Check out the Sash of Potent Incantations for 23 emblems if you're looking to upgrade that. For those that may wish to break out of their tier sets, give Legwraps of the Master Conjurer a try. It will only set you back a cool 32 emblems. Healing Priests may wish to stay away from the Touch of the Occult since it seems to increase damage only (Shadow Priests by contrast will love it).
There's a couple of emblem necks that will appeal to all Priests:
- Evoker's Charm: Haste and Spirit
- Frozen Tear of Elune: Crit and MP5
The necks require 16 emblems each. The Charm looks catered towards Holy Priests whereas the Frozen Tear is of more value to Discipline Priests.
Val'anyr's secondary ability has been leaked. I wrote about it briefly before but my current stance is that it appears to favor Paladins and Disc Priests.
Val'anyr Hammer of Ancient Kings - Equip Effect -- Your healing spells have a chance to cause Blessing of Ancient Kings for 15 seconds allowing your heals to shield the target absorbing damage equal to 15% of the amount healed.
Ghostcrawler mentioned that the dev team is still working on hymns for the future. Last year on April first, they introduced the "bard" class. Seems like Priests are taking a slight deviation towards being a singing class. I've never thought of my class as a singer. But hey, anything can happen! I can see Hymns being a new subset of skills for Priests that are accessible by every spec. It wouldn't be anything more than specialized spells or buffs. So with that in mind, here's a list of Hymns I'd like to see introduced for Priests that will never ever happen.
- Hymn of Terror: You recite a Hymn really off key sending up to 3 nearby enemies into opposite directions of you.
- Hymn of Serenity: You recite a Hymn that causes 6 nearby targets to fall asleep (friends or enemies). They are invulnerable for 3 seconds and cannot take any actions or move.
- Hymn of Kings: You recite a Hymn that increases stats of friendly targets by 10% within 80 yards. This effect wears off after 15 minutes. Does not stack with Kings.
- Hymn of Power: You recite a Holy Hymn that sends a destructive shockwave directly in front of the Priest deal 800-950 damage. The force of this Hymn is enough to knock players to the ground.
- Hymn of Recall: You recite a Hymn that brings memories of home. Returns you to your home location. Speak to an Innkeepers in a different place to change your home location. (1 hour cooldown)
- Hymn of Protection: You recite a Hymn that reduces all incoming damage to you and your party by 45% for 10 seconds or until the Priest takes damage.
What hymns would you like to see added to the game for the Priest class? What do you think of the spellpower gear that's currently available (and what will you be gunning for)?
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, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ilnara Mar 8th 2009 4:05PM
Rapture is indeed nice.. would make me think long and hard before abandoning my Main-hand off-hand set up.
Arrowsmith Mar 8th 2009 4:12PM
Prayer of Darkness:
Enhances up to 10 party or raid member's weapons to deal half of their weapon damage as shadow damage, and reduces all enemies' shadow resistance within 40 yards by 120. 2 min. cooldown.
Arrowsmith Mar 8th 2009 4:14PM
ETA: last for 20 seconds.
Marveen Mar 8th 2009 5:17PM
They're adding new 2H-only enchants that should help bring staves up to par with 1H+OH combos. For example, compare:
Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower: 81 spellpower to
Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Spellpower: 63 spellpower
Snailzilla Mar 8th 2009 4:49PM
Bohemian Hymn: Very, very frightnening thunderbolts and lightning shoots against your enemy's head, doing a Queenish amount of damage. Makes nothing really matter, making you unable to cast any spells for 15 seconds.
Ametrine Mar 8th 2009 6:44PM
Where do you want your newly-won Internets delivered?
Kaeona Mar 8th 2009 5:01PM
Hymn of Understanding: Makes trolls understand that writing for both a legitimate journalistic product and a blog can contain analysis, humor and suggestions — not merely limited to a dry recitation of facts and math. Makes trolls understand that the world doesn't revolve around them, their wishes or their deeply flawed understanding of the universe both real and imaginary.
Add this to the list of hymns that will NEVER happen.
Gigantor1960 Mar 8th 2009 5:19PM
Epic blast. Kaeona FTW! ROTFLMAO!
Chris Anthony Mar 8th 2009 5:39PM
Hymn of HatfulOfHollow: Commenters whose comments reveal an intelligence that should be incapable of operating a keyboard are stabbed in the face over the internet, repeatedly.
Zala'jin Mar 8th 2009 6:08PM
Haunted Hymn: You recite a Hymn that conjures 3 ghostly spirits that fight for the shadow priest for 30 seconds.
Angus Mar 8th 2009 6:17PM
Shouldn't Hymn of Home be a 30 minute CD?
;)
Hymn of Forgotten Promises:
Changes Lightwell to be something useful.
Ametrine Mar 8th 2009 6:45PM
Well, WoW IS full of eternal virgins, according to stereotypes...
Ode Mar 8th 2009 7:23PM
Hymn of Cleanliness - Removes a disease and magic effect every second from nearby party and raid members for 10 seconds. 10 min CD
Hymn of Resurrection - The priest recites a hymn, allowing a dead party member to ressurect every second for 10 seconds. Only usable out of combat and consumes all of the priest's mana.
20 min CD
Hymn of Faith- The faith in all party members is restored, increasing their damage done by 5% for 20 seconds. 5 min CD
my2cents Mar 8th 2009 7:41PM
Hymn of Humiliation: Turns all nearby enemies into gnomes and punts them far off into the distance. Real gnomes will be punted twice as far so that they won't be back to irritate you any time soon.
Sez Mar 8th 2009 7:44PM
Why are the screenshots always human, they look so dumb
Alyrial Mar 8th 2009 7:59PM
How does that ability favor disc priests and paladins? If anything it favors CoH, WG, and CH in that with more targets you have a greater chance to proc the effect from a single cast.
Saeverud Mar 8th 2009 8:50PM
It favors Disc Priests and Paladins who heal for a higher amount at once. Currently a high end paladin healer will be healing 13-17k a holy light. Meaning their shields will be stronger than others.
Enq Mar 8th 2009 11:05PM
Actually, I don't see how this favors Disc and Pallies. The way I read it is that you cast a heal, and this may give the target a buff which reads something like "All heals from ___ will shield you for 15% of the amount healed," lasting 15s. So while under the effects of this buff, all heals from the healer that gave you the buff will also shield for 15% of the healed amount.
For example, a combat log may look like this (druid healer):
Tank gains Rejuvenation from Healer.
Tank gains Blessing of Ancient Kings.
Rejuvenation heals Tank for 1900.
Lifebloom heals Tank for 1200.
Boss hits Tank for 10000 (465 absorbed). [465 = 0.15*(1900+1200)]
Rejuvenation heals Tank for 1900.
Lifebloom heals Tank for 1200.
Lifebloom heals Tank for 1200.
Healer's regrowth heals Tank for 8900 (critical).
Lifebloom heals Tank for 1200.
Rejuvenation heals Tank for 1900.
Boss hits Tank for 8000 (2445 absorbed). [2445 = 0.15*(1900+1200+1200+8900+1200+1900)]
Alyrial Mar 8th 2009 11:06PM
The tooltip fails to identify whether the shield functions off of true healing or effective healing. This would make a huge difference because the likelihood that a heal that large would be effective in its entirety is slim to none.
Also, group healing would maximize the chance the shield would actually be put to use. A 5k shield on a target that then takes no further damage is totally worthless. Unless they're healing the tank, which a paladin is probably doing anyway *but* does the shield proc on each recipient of Beacon of Light or do those count separately?
It also depends on which aspect is more difficult for any given healing team on a given fight. Is your tank getting gibbed or are dps dropping like flies?
I think the bottom line is that this mechanic has not been fully described, so blanket statements that claim it favors certain specs are both premature and bad journalism.
CTS Mar 9th 2009 7:11AM
The mace does not favour disc priests, obviously it depends on the mechanics of it but clearly something that procs a shield based on the amount healed is not going to favour a class which "heals" a lot via mitigation and absorption.
Seriously this columnist is awful, the hymn suggestions are niether funny nor clever, the list of loot can be read anywhere and the legendary mace analysis just shows what little grasps this guy/gal has on the game.