Cataclysm Talent Preview: Discipline priests

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-10-2010 @ 10:42PM

Ragen said...

I believe some of these blogs are not being posted in the feed. I spotted it hiding in a frame. That might be an issue =P

Also, I was thinking about how exactly would the smite idea fit into a healing rotation.

As a disc priest, we have the notoriety of being single target healers, due to how Grace works as a mechanic. What if heal and smite are going to be part of a rotation of balanced healing and damage?

"Divine Accuracy (2 ranks available) Increases the chance to hit with your Smite, Holy Fire, Holy Nova and Penance spells by 10/20%."

This would mean from a healer standpoint, we would have our smite never miss (at least in early content). At the moment (with the 20% buff in ICC), I'm reaching 6k smites without much work.

Atonement (3 ranks) When you deal damage with Smite, you instantly heal a nearby low-health friendly target within 40 yards equal to 15/30/45% of the damage dealt.

If our Smite damage is increased, this could reasonably work as a switch between heal and Smite, while keeping the tank up. Then after we get five stacks of Evangelism, we can keep those up, increasing the Smite damage while lowering it's mana cost, and have a sneaky little mana regen ability that then allows you to move while casting Penance. It's what I would call actively managing your mana.

As an example of a rotation:

Tank: Penance, Smite/Heal, Smite/Heal, Smite/Heal, Penance. This could change depending on the situation.

6-10-2010 @ 10:48PM

Ragen said...

As an afterthought (and apologies for double posting):

With the supposed slower pace plus the triage incoming to us with Cataclysm, would this simply be Blizzard's way of adding fun to heals?

Like Chakra's AoE activation and Resto's Shock mana regen, would the waste of mana be done on purpose to make us think more?

6-11-2010 @ 2:05AM

brian said...

I'm not sure it would be a waste of mana, actually. With the core casted heals being redesigned, Flash Heal might be much more expensive to try and keep people up, and/or top people off. If someone needs a smaller heal, but isn't in immediate danger of dying, Smite might actually be more efficient than Flash Heal, depending on their costs.

However, Flash Heal has a static cost, while Evangelism makes Smite more efficient the more you cast it. A 5 stack of the buff gets you a 30% cheaper Smite, at 20% more damage (and thus ~10% more healing). Not to mention the fact that the stacks can be consumed by Archangel, a 5 stack of which gives back 15% *total* mana, and 15% more healing, while also letting you channel Penance on the move.

I'd say this is all at once Discipline's new "smart-heal," an active mana regen, and a unique spell for them to use. Though, even Holy can get it if it wants to, and in fact would have to take Unbreakable Will to avoid doing so if they want to get far enough into the tree to get barrier.

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