Class Balance Q&A: Priest
by Alex Ziebart 
Nov 9th 2011 at 5:18PM
Guest asked:
I know this was an idea/plan for Cata, but for MoP is there any plan to give discipline priests different shields such as a shield for tanks.
Celestalon answered:
Spirit Shell is a new cast-time shield spell for Discipline priests coming in 5.0, that does not cause Weakened Soul.
Nathaniel James asked:
is the priest spell Holy Nova going to be changed to make it useful in mop as there is no need to even have it on you action bars as it is atm.
Koraa answered:
We've talked about it. Its possible we may make Holy Nova Discipline only and interact with Evangelism in some way.
Marcus asked:
Currently, Shadow Priests are very RNG dependent for Shadow Orbs. This can affect our dps a lot, especially the beginning rotation when we start dotting up the boss. It usually isn't as much of an issue mid-fight, when we can manage to keep the dots running with ES. Is there going to be any changes to the Orb mechanic in 5.0?
Koraa answered:
Shadow Orbs are random because otherwise you would always have a full stack when your Mind Blast was off cooldown, and you wouldn't even care about the mechanic. To address that in 5.0, you will never cap on Shadow Orbs. Mind Blast will cost 1 Orb, and have no cooldown. So the more orbs you generate through RNG the better, whereas currently if you generate more orbs before Mind Blast is off cooldown its kind of a waste.
Velily asked:
In regard to healing, specifically holy priests. I love lightwell. Awesome spell. Probably one of the most OP healing spells in the game. Is it possible to give every player a macro for using it ? Kidding, but are there any changes to make it a more viable talent for Holy priests without becoming completely repetitive (click the lightwell, click the lightwell, click it damnit)
Koraa answered:
We've talked about this issue. We like that you have to look at the gamespace to click it to heal yourself, but creatures getting in the way or its hitbox can be problematic. So its possible we may get a new model for Lightwell that is taller and make it less of an issue to see it and click it.
Pierre-Olivier Buist asked:
Prayer of Healing only affects people from 1 raid group. So the priest has to make the raid groups accordingly. In your eyes, is this a fun design as it adds a particularism to the Priest class or is there a plan to modify it?
Ghostcrawler answered:
From a pointy-headed designer standpoint, it isn't ideal because the party within the raid doesn't mean anything in the game world (compared to say targeting an area). But we think PoH feels really different from say Holy Nova, CoH etc. and it's a fun spell so we don't think it needs to be changed.
Guest asked:
Is there a specific reason leap of faith has a facing requirement? When used to save a life, I usually have less than a second to cast it, but when you add in I need to figure out where I am facing, where my target is and orient, it's often too late. As all heals have no facing requirement, would it be possible for leap of faith to be the same?
Koraa answered:
We want healers to have to pay attention to the gamespace more, not less. We don't intend you to just look at your raid bars for low health targets to use Leap of Faith.
I know this was an idea/plan for Cata, but for MoP is there any plan to give discipline priests different shields such as a shield for tanks.
Celestalon answered:
Spirit Shell is a new cast-time shield spell for Discipline priests coming in 5.0, that does not cause Weakened Soul.
Nathaniel James asked:
is the priest spell Holy Nova going to be changed to make it useful in mop as there is no need to even have it on you action bars as it is atm.
Koraa answered:
We've talked about it. Its possible we may make Holy Nova Discipline only and interact with Evangelism in some way.
Marcus asked:
Currently, Shadow Priests are very RNG dependent for Shadow Orbs. This can affect our dps a lot, especially the beginning rotation when we start dotting up the boss. It usually isn't as much of an issue mid-fight, when we can manage to keep the dots running with ES. Is there going to be any changes to the Orb mechanic in 5.0?
Koraa answered:
Shadow Orbs are random because otherwise you would always have a full stack when your Mind Blast was off cooldown, and you wouldn't even care about the mechanic. To address that in 5.0, you will never cap on Shadow Orbs. Mind Blast will cost 1 Orb, and have no cooldown. So the more orbs you generate through RNG the better, whereas currently if you generate more orbs before Mind Blast is off cooldown its kind of a waste.
Velily asked:
In regard to healing, specifically holy priests. I love lightwell. Awesome spell. Probably one of the most OP healing spells in the game. Is it possible to give every player a macro for using it ? Kidding, but are there any changes to make it a more viable talent for Holy priests without becoming completely repetitive (click the lightwell, click the lightwell, click it damnit)
Koraa answered:
We've talked about this issue. We like that you have to look at the gamespace to click it to heal yourself, but creatures getting in the way or its hitbox can be problematic. So its possible we may get a new model for Lightwell that is taller and make it less of an issue to see it and click it.
Pierre-Olivier Buist asked:
Prayer of Healing only affects people from 1 raid group. So the priest has to make the raid groups accordingly. In your eyes, is this a fun design as it adds a particularism to the Priest class or is there a plan to modify it?
Ghostcrawler answered:
From a pointy-headed designer standpoint, it isn't ideal because the party within the raid doesn't mean anything in the game world (compared to say targeting an area). But we think PoH feels really different from say Holy Nova, CoH etc. and it's a fun spell so we don't think it needs to be changed.
Guest asked:
Is there a specific reason leap of faith has a facing requirement? When used to save a life, I usually have less than a second to cast it, but when you add in I need to figure out where I am facing, where my target is and orient, it's often too late. As all heals have no facing requirement, would it be possible for leap of faith to be the same?
Koraa answered:
We want healers to have to pay attention to the gamespace more, not less. We don't intend you to just look at your raid bars for low health targets to use Leap of Faith.
Filed under: Priest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matthew Nov 11th 2011 8:42PM
"We want healers to have to pay attention to the gamespace more, not less. We don't intend you to just look at your raid bars for low health targets to use Leap of Faith."
Just for every other spell. :)
karatesmashunhurt Nov 15th 2011 8:43AM
Quoting one of the people from Dawn's post here: http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/25/spiritual-guidance-the-priests-of-blizzcon-2011/
"So much of being a high-level healer is about anticipation. As a priest you can save someone's life with one spell. One good, open-eyed grip or a shield ahead of time ... This is what separates good healers from great healers. A lot of healers just see the raid frame and think it's just reacting to whack-a-mole. But if you're at the point where you're just playing catch-up, you've already lost. You should always be ahead. You should know what's coming up. And if everything is OK, you should be thinking in the back of your head, "Well, this could possibly happen."
graber4 Nov 25th 2011 1:18AM
Well said Karate. I find that I am getting better at that aspect, however I am oom before a fight is over due to bad dps nearly every PUG and instance run. You can be the best healer in the world, but cata doesn't allow good healers the ability to do their best. Mana issues have cost me more than one unecessary death because I simply couldn't afford to save the dps for fear of not having enough mana to heal the tank. Wrath healing allowed for good healers to show they were good as mana was never the factor that slowed you. Now its like battlefield trauma, who do you let die first? I really hope this improves in subsequent content. I really lost my love for healing in cata. I do it anyway for the sake of our raid group, but it just makes good healers look bad and is the source of constant complaints from dps who literally have zero responsibility in this game.