Spiritual Guidance: Did we need the patch 3.2 nerfs?
by Matt Low 
Jun 22nd 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 No Stock UI, a new UI and addons blog for WoW. Patch 3.2 nerfs here we go!
Where do I start? There are several intriguing changes impacting the Priest class (specifically those of us that heal). On the one hand I'm partially disappointed by some of the changes. On the other hand I'm relieved because the changes could have been worse.
Let us get to it then, shall we?
First up is the Prayer of Healing change.Prayer of Healing: The percentage of spell power this spell gains in healing (per target) has been reduced from 80.7% to 52.6%.
This change was probably needed. I don't like it but I can understand the need for it. When your Prayer of Healing starts critically healing in excess of over 8000 points, that might be construed as a bit much in our current stage of end game.
But 30%? Really? What about something more in between? I think the 65% range is a good number. Who knows? Maybe they might decide that it's too severe and decide to raise it back up again. I can't fault the design team for wanting to reduce the healing coefficient. With Priests breaching the 3000 spell power barrier right now, Prayer of Healing was doing an enormous amount on its own. Factor in the two piece set from tier 8 and it was a change we saw coming.
Those of you that disagree, stop and think ahead for a moment. The Coliseum raid instance that's coming out is a full tier better than Ulduar. Assuming Icecrown is after that which is either tier 10 (or 11 depending on what else is in between), then we'd be seeing 10000 point Prayer of Healing crits. Couple that with the Glyph of Prayer of Healing? You can see those numbers go up even more.
For Discipline Priests, Penance takes a slight hit.
Penance: Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
We may as well just say that we our Major Glyph slots drop from 3 to 2. Personally, I believe this makes the Penance glyph that much more important. Does it really change anything though? In the grand scheme of things, it's two seconds. My Priest is rocking around ~400 haste. Those are some lightning quick spells as it is. So what do we do with the extra 2 second cooldown? There's a lot of spells we can use in between. Another Flash Heal, another Power Word: Shield, or another spell are just a few of the things I can think of. Heh, for the more offensive minded Discipline Priest, you could sneak in a Shadow Word: Death or a Shadow Word: Pain. (I'm kidding!)
Over the past several weeks, I did manage to get involved in a few arenas playing on my Priest. Running Vault of Archavon over the past several months resulted in a decently capable PvP set (800 resilience is the amount I started with). Penance played a big part in the ability to keep myself and my partner alive.
What about the change to Inspiration?
Inspiration: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 3/7/10% instead of increasing the target's armor.
Switching from the armor increase to physical damage taken isn't a completely bad nerf. A first, a lot of Priests I spoke to thought it was a great buff until they realized the damage was physical. The majority of the raid damage in Ulduar is magical. I'm leaning towards it being a slight nerf.
That's it for the Priest specific changes. We're not done yet. There are a few other things listed in the notes that affect Priests. Did you spot these?
There's a slight modification to the Glyph of Power: Word Shield.
The heal from Glyph of Power Word: Shield can now cause Divine Aegis.
So what type of numbers are we looking at exactly? A typical Discipline specced Power: Word Shield will land for 6000. The glyph heals for 20% of the amount absorbed. We can ballpark that at 1200 healed. Not only that, but Divine Aegis only activates if the heal portion crits (which goes up even more). The Aegis will protect 30% of the overall crit heal.
The PTR isn't up yet so I haven't been able to give it a shot. I don't foresee it making a huge impact, but it's a slight improvement at least even though it won't make up for the Prayer of Healing changes.
And then there is Replenishment.
Replenishment: This buff now grants 1% of the target's maximum mana over 5 seconds instead of 0.25% per second. This applies to all 5 sources of Replenishment (Vampiric Touch, Judgements of the Wise, Hunting Party, Enduring Winter Frostbolts and Soul Leech).
That's a straight nerf. It's an overall 20% reduction in Replenishment's effectiveness. You can read more about that change in Eliah's Replenishment post. Pay close attention to your manipulation of mana.
What about the buffs to MP5?
Lots of questions about this. MP5 based items have their numbers increased by 25%. With the previous Spirit nerf, one would wonder if we're being shifted back into MP5 mode. The jury is still out on this one. Discipline Priests don't care that much about Spirit regardless so this change is an overall buff. But for Holy Priests, the ultimate question is between gear with Spirit and gear with MP5 and which to choose. Spirit does affect the spell power stat for Holy.
So here's the million gold question.
Is the increased regeneration from MP5 better than the spell power modifiers and regeneration from Spirit?
I'm going to leave that question for the theorycrafting gurus to answer and patiently wait and see what the conclusion is. I believe the answer is more towards MP5.
Like all patch notes, all of this is pre-emptive and subject to change at any time.
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, Patches, Raiding, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Nellius Jun 22nd 2009 4:09PM
As far as I can tell, the change to inspiration is largely to counter DKs and Warriors, with their "+AP from +Armor" talents. As it is currently, a warrior or DK who gets hit by inspiration will get a slight AP buff. Whereas inspiration (and the shaman equivalent) was always designed purely to reduce physical damage taken, which used to be the only thing armor did.
So I think it'll be a nerf to DPS DKs and DPS Warriors, a buff to clothies, for whom 25% armor was nothing, and a nerf to plate-wearers, for whom 25% armor was a lot.
Tom Jun 24th 2009 2:03PM
For the most part I think the Inspiration change is a buff.
There are lots of situations where your targets armor is artificially
reduced - Gluth, Kologorn etc. Having your buff directly affect
physical mitigation rather than being tied to your targets armor
means inspiration continues to be effective even in these situations.
On the flip side, there are very few situations where your target's
armor gets buffed up (I can't think of any off the top of my head,
but I guess there is probably a boss fight out there where your armor
gets buffed).
So mostly a buff.
I've got a slightly different take on some of the things Matt is talking about here.
If you're interested check my new born blog at
http://spotheal.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/the-3-2-changes-for-priests/
Daniel Jul 15th 2009 10:08AM
I for one agree with the 10% reduced physical damage done, however I also agree that there are times whereas the 25% more armor rating directly benefited a target such as a DK tank (as already mentioned) More armor for them in some cases is a good thing cause it means more attack power. Where as a clothie says give me the reduced damage- I think this is a great potential buff that will help a great deal in migrating damage. Heck if a boss was a caster anyways and a tank didnt have that "more attack power from more armor" buff, then migrating the damage would be my prefrence anyways- migrated or absorbed damage means less heals later. But ultimately where I stand is I personally think they need to combine the two buffs. Maybe not to their full potential but a good deal- such as crit heals delivered cause the target to gain 15% increased armor rating and 8% reduced physical damage. Thats my take on it- forgive me for stating the obvious or repeating anything :)
Bubsa Jun 22nd 2009 4:13PM
"But for Holy Priests, the ultimate question is between gear with Spirit and gear with MP5 and which to choose. Spirit does affect the spell power stat for Holy.
So here's the million gold question.
Is the increased regeneration from MP5 better than the spell power modifiers and regeneration from Spirit?"
I, for one, am looking forward to it.
It'll add an interesting dimension as to what to have for certain fights, combined with the replenishment hit. Right now, I'm finding it's varying very little from "Cast those big heals whenever you want, you aint running out of mana anytime soon" - This will make it more of a question as to whether to gear for the big heals, or gear for the mana survival.
Should be fun.
Duckaholica Jun 22nd 2009 11:34PM
I take the exact opposite stance myself, personally. I think the mana regen from spirit nerf is a major hit to holy priests. When so much of my spell power comes from spirit, and now in order to not be oom most of the time I need to replace my spirit gear, enchants and gemming with mp5? I'm gonna take a hit to healing power rather harshly.
I mean, until it actually is in game I won't really see it, but I'm ready to tuck my priest in the closet with my mage and just give up on her too.
Seraphna Jun 22nd 2009 4:16PM
Uhhh... slight flaw in your reasoning over the Inspiration change... Armor only mitigates physical damage, always has, always will. Your reasoning that this is a nerf is based on the change only affecting physical damage. The average increase in armor currently isn't nearly equating to a 10% raw decrease in physical damage.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Armor
In actuality, and in exception of some extreme cases for armor, this is actually a buff. If you thought that armor stopped anything outside physical, read the wiki link and review what you know about tanking mitigation.
K Jun 22nd 2009 4:37PM
Many classes gain other bonuses from armor via talents (Bladed Armor, for example).
This makes Inspiration kind of a DPS buff, which I'm pretty sure was never intended to be.
Zilandre Jun 22nd 2009 4:39PM
Your reasoning is slightly flawed. It will be a nerf to all tanking classes due to the way armor scales.
At 28000 armor and 62.7% damage reduction a tank gets Inspiration and this is buffed to 35000 and 67.8% damage reduction. This looks like only a gain of 5 percent, however it is actually a difference of 13.6%. Because before the tank was taking 37.3 and is now taking 32.2, this yields a difference of 13.6%. Making it a nerf to tanks and a buff to all other classes.
Schadow Jun 22nd 2009 4:47PM
I agree - with the high armour levels tanks are sporting these days, your armour boosts are wasted because they are putting the tank over the armour cap.
Damage reduction means the tank gets 100% of the benefit, instead 0%, which is what he gets now if he already has something like Ancestral Healing on him, or someone else's Inspiration.
Slight nerf? Nah, big buff (for raids, anyway). Regardless of what the meters say, it is always better to prevent the tank from taking damage than to heal him up afterward. He can't die from damage not taken.
Schadow Jun 22nd 2009 4:49PM
Er, that is, I agree with Seraphna.
Tanks are regularly at or above armour cap with buffs and procs. Additional armour increases over cap are completely meaningless. Damage reduction is nom nom.
Heilig Jun 22nd 2009 4:51PM
Any determinations of whether this is a buff or a nerf should be held until after we see how the mechanic works. They could decide to add it directly to what your armor already mitigates, in which case it's a huge buff. Or it could be the very first mitigation applied, in which case it's an even bigger nerf than you pointed out. Point is, we know nothing about it yet.
Radiophonic Jun 22nd 2009 4:29PM
RE: PoH is a great spell but nothing I would ever spam but maybe there are people out there doing just that? I'm not sure. My guess is that this new arena thing is going to have more (yawn) intense AoE damage and they want to make it more "challenging" to heal. Why so much emphasis on healers needing challenges, I'm not sure...how about making DPS do a little more than move here and there? All joking aside, I'm pretty sure those numbers won't be so extreme in the final release of 3.2.
Oh but...what happened to 'no more drastic class changes'? Time to eat those words, Bliz.
Angus Jun 22nd 2009 4:58PM
How is this a drastic class change for priests?
They nerf everyone in replenishment. No class change there.
MP/5 will still suck. The relative value of other stats has doubled while this will get a 25% increase. Not actually helpful.
Inspiration was done to everyone and is not much of a change.
Penance is a 51pt talent, and not a drastic change. Annoying, yes, drastic not so much.
PoH is painful, but not exactly a drastic class change.
Divine Aegis + glyph of PW:S is a good change. Made sense, not drastic.
The Holydin changes are drastic, as are shaman. DKs had to be refunded talent points from how bad they got hit.
But priests, not really.
Tweaks here, some probably a little overtuned. But drastic class changes are elsewhere.
Microtonal Jun 22nd 2009 4:58PM
"I'm not sure...how about making DPS do a little more than move here and there?"
I say this as a dedicated DPS player: Blizzard's only real options with DPS are "nuke that," "attack the other guy now," and "don't stand there." Really, the only time that DPS is hard is if the person playing it is retarded.
The Claw Jun 22nd 2009 6:23PM
"DKs had to be refunded talent points from how bad they got hit."
Not saying DKs weren't changed a lot, but a a talent point refund merely means that there was a rearrangement of talents done which means that it is possible that a pre-patch talent spec could become invalid. i.e. a talent was removed, or reduced in maximum number of points, or had its prereqs changed.
jbodar Jun 22nd 2009 7:09PM
Threat of Thassarian: New 3-point talent. When dual-wielding, your Death Strikes, Obliterates, Plague Strikes, Blood Strikes and Frost Strike have a 30/60/100% chance to also deal damage with your off-hand weapon. Off-hand strikes are roughly one half the effect of the original strike.
http://www.wow.com/2009/06/22/lichborne-patch-3-2-death-knight-changes-in-depth/
thebvp Jun 22nd 2009 4:37PM
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that PoH might be a bit overpowered in its current incarnation.
There were a few fights where I felt like I could straight up solo heal 10 mans with PoH and CoH. Usually, when you find you only need two buttons for an encounter, it means that a nerf is probably incoming (BC-era CoH, I'm looking at you), and CoH can't really be nerfed any more than it is. Something had to go.
Sucks, because it is also really useful in some circumstances. Heroic Loken, for example.
Faar Jun 22nd 2009 10:09PM
Try healing heroics in not-fully-heroic gear as a disc priest. It wasn't a lot of fun as it is and with the double whammy nerf to both poh and penance it'll be even less fun. I simply CANT pug loken as discipline, some people always get hit by the damn nova and then the aura chews them up, and it's a wipe.
Blizzard nerfs skills based on the best gear attainable in the game, but the nerfs affect every encounter below that gear level, fucking things up for casual and still leveling/gearing-up players. They need to buff/fix their stupid high-level encounters instead of screwing everybody over with their damn nerfs, but I guess that means too much work for them. *sigh*
Another hotfix nerf for ulduar is due soon I suppose, and then they can nerf more healing spells to compensate...
Shit like this makes me just want to give up healing/WoW altogether, particulary with blizzard screwing with lifebloom AGAIN, and my other main is a tree druid... I thought they said before 3.0 launched that healing needed to be more fun? Well this isn't the way to make it fun that's for sure.
SINisterWyvern Jun 24th 2009 1:34PM
Faar, simple answer. Disc = single target healing focus.
Doctus Jun 22nd 2009 4:40PM
PoH - Very few priests in the overall WoW population will ever be at gear levels to take advantage of this magical new gear that will come along in T9-?. I know a lot of people who are happy in T7 or below, and just want to raid Naxx etc for fun, to spend time with friends. Won't this type of nerf them hardest?
Pennance - Why not just take the glyph out of the game. Then I could glyph for something ineteresting!
All in all, this looks like a big nerf Arena, PVE will just have to suck it up patch.
Doc