Patch 3.2.2: Priest changes and bugs
by Matt Low 
Sep 23rd 2009 at 6:30PM
Attention all raiding healing Priests, this is a public service announcement.
There is a serious bug regarding the Power Word: Shield glyph at the moment which appears to be an unexpected consequence of patch 3.2.2. Stratfu has managed to confirm the bug listed on MMO Champion.
This bug could wipe your raid. I urge raid leaders and guild leaders to inform Priests the Priests in your guild so that they're aware of it
So how does it work and what does it do?
The screenshot above is a World of Logs analysis on damaging spells I've cast. You'll see the standard Priest DPS spells on the left. But the right side shows abilities like Shield-Breaker, Swipe and Fireball. Sorry guys, unfortunately we did not gain every spell or ability that every class has access to in the game.It's best if you read on to find out more details.
Step 1: Cast a glyphed Power Word: Shield on a target
Step 2: The next action/attack will be credited to the Priest along with any extra side effects
What does that mean?
Effects like taunt will be credited to the Priest. Which means that if I shield a tank and they use a threat cooldown, the boss they taunted is going to make a beeline for me. I watched this happen last night on Acidmaw and Dreadscale. I simply thought I dropped a large amount of healing but it wasn't the case. As the worms were emerging from the ground, I managed to pull Dreadscale and he started slithering toward me. I have never pulled threat from a raid geared tank in a long time which is why I found this extremely peculiar.
If you noticed something similar, now you know why.
Another example Stratfu lists is that if a Priest shields a Warlock who happens to be casting Drain Soul, the Priest will gain a few soulshards.
This creates some rather interesting possibilities. It might be possible to shield a teleporting mage, for example.
Actually, this explains why I received Focus Magic instead of other DPS casters. I was wondering why that was.
For the time being, I would strongly recommend overriding the Power Word: Shield glyph with another one to minimize any problems when raiding. For Discipline Priests, try these:
Update: A hotfix seems to have been applied. The shield glitch doesn't seem to be in effect anymore. Still, I strongly suggest you test this out on your server with another player to determine if the shield is still glitching.Other changes
I mentioned this in my Shadow Priest post a few weeks ago, but Shadow Priests have gained some slight damage buffs to their talents:
- Improved Spirit Tap: Mind Flay periodic critical strikes have a 50% chance to trigger this talent.
- Twisted Faith now grants spell power equal to 4/8/12/16/20% of Spirit, up from 2/4/6/8/10%.
In short, Blizzard really wants Shadow Priests to lean towards Spirit gear. My Shadow Priests have reported a slight increase in damage, but it's going to take some more time and more log scanning to see what conclusive effects it has.
For Priest glyphs:
- Divine Aegis: Ranks 1 and 2 will now work with Holy Nova.
- Glyph of Power Word: Shield now correctly uses the Priest's spell critical chance instead of the target's.
Let's hope that shield glyph bug gets resolved as soon as possible. I suppose the alternative is for Priests to continue using the glyph but watch who they shield instead. Either way, it's a fairly significant bug for raiding Priests and it could result in serious consequences.
In any event, there are no other major changes for Priests in this content update patch.
2n - 1 go left, 2n go right. I don't see enough DoTs! More DoTs now! Are you ready for the return of Onyxia? With the Brood Mother being revitalized as a 10 and 25 person raid, you'll need to be sure you know everything that's coming at you. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2.2 will make sure your set for the next patch!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Theyas Sep 23rd 2009 6:34PM
Aw, I didn't get a chance to get a soul shard :(
Tyler Sep 23rd 2009 6:51PM
I wonder if any priests got pets by shielding warlocks casting summon pet spells haha.
Jacen Sep 23rd 2009 7:00PM
Priests have to be the most stable class in the game. ...I don't remember the last time we had major changes.
Zondebok Sep 24th 2009 3:46PM
You mean besides mages, I presume....
impurezero Sep 23rd 2009 7:02PM
Hey...what's the deal? Everytime wow.com posts about some bug that, say, lets hunters tame a pet they shouldn't have, everyone pops out of the woodwork to QQ and say, "Thanks a lot wow.com...now Blizz is gonna fix this, stupid!"
Now that you're posting about a bug that actually screws people over...nobody says anything? I, for one, am going to go ahead and give you guys 100% of the credit for getting this bug fixed. That's how it works, right?
Feist Sep 23rd 2009 8:23PM
I doubt it. Seeing as the post went up on WoWI @ 6:30 PM Eastern, and Stratfu reported the bug fixed at 6:00 Eastetn, it seems like wow.com was a bit slow on this story and reported the bug after it's already been hotfixed.
Aaaah the joys of posts being on an iterated schedule I'd imagine.
impurezero Sep 23rd 2009 8:54PM
Ah, thank you for explaining in detail why my sarcastic joke isn't feasible when taken seriously.
*cues "The More You Know" logo*
thebvp Sep 23rd 2009 7:06PM
The bug didn't effect self-buffs or summons, so no, you couldn't steal fel armor, a succubus, or anything like that.
You could, however, steal things like taunt and get one shotted, which happened to me last night. Not fun.
It was probably related to the change in glyph of pw:s' mechanics. Previously, its chance to crit was based off of whoever was receiving the bubble. They changed it this patch to work off the priest's stats and something probably got f'd up along the way.
Nhani Sep 24th 2009 2:58AM
In a way, it makes sense when you think about it - since it seems that the shield glyph is cast by the shield spell as such, the context the shield glyph has to work on would be the target rather than the original caster of the shield.
It seems like the way they went around that was simply to temporarily turn the target into the priest so the glyph would use the right context.. with the result that any spells/abilities cast by the target in that small window of opportunity would also end up attributed to the casting priest. The window seemed very small to me though - it only seemed to work if the shield and the ability to steal were cast pretty much at the same time.
It wasn't only stealing attacks or taunts either - last night, recount told me that beyond the usual suspects, my healing done included things like Beacon of Light, Death Strike and Fel Synergy.
Rkaar Sep 23rd 2009 7:07PM
I wonder if this occured in the PTR? I guess we'll never know. XP
Avan Sep 23rd 2009 7:13PM
Awesome. Ruin it for everybody. Priests finally get something nice and you have to go and report about it.
Dodgy Doctor Sep 23rd 2009 7:32PM
I see what you did there....
Evari Thalia Sep 23rd 2009 7:53PM
Well... that explains Onyxia turning right to me and breathing on half the raid in P1.
Maxpowr Sep 23rd 2009 8:26PM
Yep. When Ony landed in phase 3, I shielded tank, tank taunted and went right for me. Fun times. I will say, I do miss healer aggro.
Micah Sep 25th 2009 3:52AM
Same thing happened to us last night in 25 man, p1 she just randomly turned and flame breathed, killed half the raid. Couldn't figure out for the life of us what happened, though a friend of mine who was dpsing at the time (I was off tank on my druid) said she saw Ony switch targets to a female human (only two female humans in the group were her on her warrior dpsing and a disc priest).
Zhiva Sep 23rd 2009 8:21PM
How did they manage to break THAT?
Tridus Sep 23rd 2009 9:04PM
Well they broke the instance server today, so who knows. Its a unique ability they ahve.
AeonStorm Sep 23rd 2009 8:26PM
That`s why my fellow Disc got 1 shotted at Emalon right at the pull? That`s why I got 1 shotted after Anub resurfaced? Sorry bear for doubting you
Hoggersbud Sep 23rd 2009 8:31PM
Kinda glad I didn't get on my priest last night.
Kinda.
But yeah, Blizzard wants ALL clothies to be using some spirit for now. Mages have Molten Armor, Warlocks have Fel Armor, Healing Priests have always have some desire for Spirit (though minimally in the case of Discipline Priests), it's no surprise that they'd push Shadow towards it a bit more.
I'm not sure it'll be enough though. Maybe if they seal off the bridge, or summon some destroyer droids.
Faar Sep 24th 2009 6:13AM
I use my priest almost exclusively as a backup for my moonkin when dualboxing, so it's REALLY annoying discipline priests hardly get any use out of spirit at all. I have a fair bunch of purples and my spellpower in disco spec is only in the 1800s. On my warlock who only has a handful of purple items and several blues (and two green trinkets!) that are below item level 200 I have well over 2000... That's with talented fel armor admittedly. Still a pretty vast difference!
Very strange that Blizzard wants different priest specs to gear so differently; I'd do much better really by going for crit instead of spirit, but that would hurt my soloing spec (shadow), especially with this latest patch change.
And I'm simply too lazy to collect two sets of gear and carry them around with me. I feel Blizzard should simply give discos the same benefits out of spirit other priest specs get. It's only fair.