Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Priests
by Dawn Moore 
Feb 21st 2010 at 12:00PM
Renewed Hope: now has a 60-second duration, up from 20 seconds, but a 20-second cooldown.
Seems a bit strange, doesn't it? Is it a buff, a nerf? What would be the point of adding a cooldown to an ability that has a duration exceeding the cooldown? Well, after kicking the Blizzard downloader all night and day, I've finally tested it for myself and as it currently functions on PTR it appears to have no negative impact on discipline priests. That said, I do not believe it is currently working entirely as Blizzard intends it to. For more information on what I observed, hit the jump.
As of Saturday evening, when using Power Word: Shield, a 1-minute duration Renewed Hope buff is applied. You can use PWS a moment later on a party member, raid member, or non-party member, and the buff will be refreshed on you and your party, even though 15 seconds (more on this below) has not elapsed. The combat log reads that the buff is refreshed on each party member, each time a new shield is applied, just as it does on current live servers. Improvements to the talent in patch 3.1.2 remain unchanged: Renewed Hope cannot be dispelled or stolen.
Ghostcrawler said the following about the changes to auras:
"Removing the constant application and removal of these buffs (through both the passive aura and the range increase) might improve performance a tiny bit, will clean out your combat logs (which actually improves performance too), and reduce the UI and in some cases spell effect spam, which might make combat a little more easier to understand."
So, since the combat log is still getting spammed, my guess is that Blizzard is still working on the talent's cooldown. This could also explain why the patch notes, which refer to a 20-second cooldown, conflict with the in-game tool tip that states a 15-second cooldown will be applied.
As for the improvements to the duration of the talent, I'd consider them favorable. Changing it to 1-minute means disco priests will have an easier time keeping up Renewed Hope in fights where movement or other mechanics might keep you from getting a shield up every 20 seconds. It doesn't really improve priest mobility, since you can already bubble on the run, but fights like the Lich King come to mind, since you can't cast while in the clutches of the Val'kyr mobs.
That sums up the priest changes from the patch notes. There is one other change being added in patch 3.3.3 that is of great interest to discipline priests, though. The change is in the mage arcane tree.
Incanter's Absorption: This talent now only grants additional spell power when damage is absorbed by Mana Shield, Frost Ward, Fire Ward, or Ice Barrier. The limit of 5% of the mage's health on the spell power buff has been removed.
If you are out of the loop, arcane mages with Incanter's Absorption have had a great love for discipline priest bubbles for most of Wrath of the Lich King, due to the magnitude of the bonus spellpower that can be given by this talent. Unfortunately, it seems Blizzard is putting an end to that. To me this is a truly sad day, marking the end of a beautiful year shared with our arcane allies. There have been many mages I have bubbled with love, but soon my shields will mean nothing more to them than any other heal. I mourn the loss of this relationship.
You still have my power infusion, my beloved mages. *tear*
Patch 3.3.3 is up on the PTR and as with every new patch there's a flurry of new information. Check out the official patch notes, changes to battlegrounds, new achievements that hint at future content, new models (and more new models) in the game files, things to do with those pesky frozen orbs, UI updates, and perhaps more to come before it hits the live realms.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nazgûl Feb 21st 2010 12:12PM
Glad to see my little disco priest isn't gimped by these changes. It was a very puzzling patch note, your input is greatly appreciated. =D
Also, the pic at the end made me lol.
Mugutu Feb 21st 2010 12:17PM
I'm still crying and raging about the change to Incanter's Absorption. Bye, static 2k spellpower on the Twin Val'kyrs, and bye begging for shields instead of heals. It was fun while it lasted.
Tooay Feb 21st 2010 2:13PM
The current Incanter's Absorbtion is a broken mechanic. It inflates a mage's DPS to ridiculous levels on fight with raid damage where a priest has a chance to keep a shield up on them. For Blizzard, this makes balancing encounters a real nightmare. For mages, it throws their DPS is a roller coaster between fights, hitting ridiculous highs on fights where it can be used, and much more modest DPS on fights without raid damage.
The change will even the field. At the same time, it make it a lot easier to work and balance arcane mages, since they won't have to look at inflated numbers that can't be trusted. It might sound like a nerf for now, but in the long run it'll allow for a more reasonable buff somewhere else.
Torment the Weak is probably next on the list of silly mage mechanics that need to change.
Sithril Feb 21st 2010 3:29PM
Why change TotW?
Sunaseni Feb 21st 2010 4:34PM
Torment the Weak is not like Incanter's Absorption at all. TtW is essentially a static 12% damage buff, as a tank will always provide a slowing effect on the boss somehow. (The boss doesn't have to be actually snared, an attack speed reduction like with Improved Icy Touch from DKs will do.) This doesn't change how anyone plays, and no one has to adapt to it as it's static. IA is not a static buff, as it required help from mechanics of the fight like Twin Valk's, or a Disc priest, to make it worth it. Not to mention that it encouraged a mage to dip into things that should kill them for power. Like jumping into Coldflames on Marrowgar.
krizzlybear Feb 21st 2010 6:46PM
While it doesn't affect the way one plays, it DOES affect the way one specs. Because of it's ridiculous DPS increase, every single spec aside from Frostfire Bolt is forced to go 18 points into arcane. For 3 points, non-arcane mages (Fire and Frost) have to spend 15 points in talents along the way. Aside from Focus Magic and maybe spell impact, one can argue that the other points are a serious waste. I believe that is what the poster meant by this, and as a mage, I am one to agree.
James Feb 21st 2010 7:50PM
One serious point about this though is that they have removed the 5% cap on the spellpower increase.
Let's assume currently that a mage has 20k health. That amounts to 1000 spellpower max assuming that the mage took that much damage and it was mitigated. For that to peak out the mage would have to take 6666 damage, or a third of their total hit points and all of it would have to be absorbed by a PW:Shield or other shield.
Now, my mage last I checked throws out a 2kish Mana Shield. Probably costs closer to 4-5k mana to get all of 300 Spellpower Increase for all of 10 seconds. Might get 3k out of an elemental shield (fire or ice), but all in all, no mage is going to pay that much in mana for 300 spellpower. In fact, they might as well remove incanter's absorption from the Arcane Tree at that point. The only thing that makes it worthwhile is the synergy that a mage would have with shielding classes, not their own self damage absorption capabilties.
TL;DR: If they go through with this, they might as well remove Incanter's Absorption.
Pyromelter Feb 22nd 2010 2:18PM
James, you are a bit mistaken my friend, regarding warding. With improved warding and the minor glyphs, simply warding elemental damage can easily spike your SP by > 1k. If you don't believe me, spam fire ward on Koralon (or at least time it right before he does his spinny fire thing). Not to mention that there have been documented instances where people have frost warded entire frostbolts by deathwhisper and have regained 19k mana (talent gives a 30% chance to ward all damage and return that warded damage as mana). Incanter's absorption will still be the number 1 talent to take due to potential SP increase, with the only other viable places to put those points in pushback resistance, which is basically unnecessary.
And Dawn... we love you disco priests too! this is sad day for that synergy ending.
(p.s. Let's hoping blizz opens their eyes and buffs fire in some way or gives some kind of other static buff... TotW would be a great place, how about increase the effect from 12->15%?)
Imapieceofgoo Feb 21st 2010 12:25PM
"Disco" priest is really making me want to play a priest for the first time in 3 years. :(
Phylop Feb 21st 2010 12:49PM
Yeah, I wanna roll one just because It's totally superfreak.
vern Feb 21st 2010 12:29PM
The T10 4P bonus for holy priests does not work and needs to be redesigned:
1- It requires you to be using a mod (had to install Power Auras while I was fine without so far)
2- It requires timing and opportunity: can use it only when 6 players in range of each other actually need a heal AND Proc happens
3- It costs you mana to take advantage of the bonus (Flash heal cost 700 mana,no flash heal= no bonus)
4- It eats a GCD to cast the Flash heal, whether you actually need to flash heal or not (very likely to overheal)
Compare that bonus to 4P T10 for resto shamans and druids.
It doesn't cost them mana, a GCD or a mod to use their bonus.
That's just freaking ridiculous.
Nazgûl Feb 21st 2010 12:34PM
In game combat text can alert you for the proc. So as for the point about needing a mod, that's wrong.
Cyanea Feb 21st 2010 12:54PM
As a Resto Shaman (with a priest alt), I always silence my Priest friend's complaints about it by saying that after two tiers of positively awful 4pc bonuses (Reduces the cast time of Chain Heal by 0.2 sec; increases the crit chance of Chain Heal by 5%) it's our turn to have the awesomely amazing set bonus. So stuff it. :D Kidding. :P
I also play a Disc priest, and the Renewed Hope thing had me really confused, but that'nks for clearing it up.
redothree Feb 21st 2010 3:24PM
I completely agree.
The t10 bonus is even WORSE for renew-focused holy priests. Because Flash Heal isn't our filler, the 2 piece doesn't do ANYTHING for us, and the 4 piece also dependent on a spell that we don't really use... which only shortens a relatively short cooldown anyways.
So the only time I cast FH is from a 4p proc. The sad thing is I completely regret that I invested all that time getting the frost badges for the tier gear. Since a bunch of it is still 251, I would have been better off just picking up the 264 stuff.
For Disc priests though, since they're casting lots of FH, it isn't that bad. But for us Holy Priests, well we have been totally forgotten.
Wyred Feb 22nd 2010 4:32AM
The set bonuses do seem more aimed at a disc priest concentrating on tank healing, still not good for shield spammers. However, There's no way in hell I'll be gimping my stats by picking up 4 pieces of spirit gear to get questionable set bonuses as a disc priest (crit/haste please), so bad for all healing priests really. I got the shadow tier instead so I could get better stats and kick ass in my offspec.
Poonicus Feb 22nd 2010 2:20PM
Yeah, I'm not impressed by T10 bonuses at all. I went off-set for this tier because those set bonuses simply aren't worth it.
Sleutel Feb 21st 2010 12:39PM
Someday, Blizzard will hire a team to de-obfuscate all of their tooltips, patchnotes, and quest text, so that they actually make sense as written. This will be a monumental project, taking 83,472 man-hours, and Blizzard will erect a small mausoleum to honor those who die during the undertaking, as some will surely perish. But when it is complete, no more will a WoW player read a bit of text and go, "What the hell does that even MEAN?!"
JKWood Feb 21st 2010 2:53PM
I'm submitting my application for the de-confuscation team.
Matthew Feb 21st 2010 3:24PM
Wouldn't it be funny if they got the chinese goldfarmers to write them?
Power Word Shield: Ally protect with the holy light be. Protection of the casting shall ever be safe.
Angus Feb 21st 2010 5:26PM
Matthew: That read like it was written by the guy that wrote the definitive Shaman PVP guide.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2969688265
DRUID: This fight is for those that say "OH NO WHY IS ANIMALS ON MY FACE?!"
STEP 1: This fight will be very slow and it will be very diffcult. Use WF and whittle him down like a stick
and this gem
PALADIN: He will hearth alot so watch out for his bubble.
STEP 1: To stop his heath interup him or just keep hitting him. This is where quick weapons like two knives are valuable. Just keep tapping him with knives and it will defect his escape
=)