Spiritual Guidance: Mists of Pandaria and the existential crisis of the healing priest

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-27-2012 @ 7:38PM

Minstrel said...

Is the priest toolbox really being shrunk to any significant extent, though? Yes, discipline priests lose Prayer of Healing, but they will apparently "gain" Holy Nova...a spell that previously had no value in any competitive PvE environment. Discipline loses Renew...but that was a spell that was barely ever used in a competitive PvE setting (which I thought was a shame, but that was the reality). Losing Binding Heal hurts, but we're gaining Spirit Shell (a spell that at least conceptually seems really cool for the spec...hopefully, it doesn't become as trivialized as Heal).

Divine Hymn would be nice to keep, but for most of Catcalysm, it wasn't generally worth using since its output was so poor. It's decent in T13, though, granted.

I do think it's a shame that some tools that we're familiar with will be lost, but I don't think it will lead to an "easier" or less sophisticated playstyle. My hope (and it is only a hope, obviously, until we can actually try all this stuff out) is that it will create two very distinct playstyles. Not that disc and holy felt the same most of the time, but there were times when, as either spec, you might be spamming Prayer of Healing (and perhaps interleaving some PW:S or Circle of Healing, depending on spec, of course) and that could feel quite similar.

I'm hoping that both will feel compelling and sophisticated, but very different.

2-27-2012 @ 8:44PM

Jem said...

Disc priests will lose Heal, Spirit Shell is the intended replacement for that. Losing Binding Heal separately is in no way compensated for by getting Spirit Shell. Not for me anyway, I love Binding Heal in both pve and pvp. There's a blue that states spirit Shell = heal, PS:Shield = Flash Heal.

Losing Divine Hymn is harsh I think, I use it a lot - you don't always have a holy priest or a druid around. Holy priests have 4 aoe healing options in MoP, and disc priests have to hope Blizzard make a decent job of a rejigged Holy Nova. Given the repeated tinkering holy radience has had, I dont' have a lot of confidence that it will be a decent spell at the start of MoP.

I consider disc and holy to play very differently, and I can't see how spamming PoH currently and spamming Holy Nova in MoP will in some way make disc a more distinct playstyle. AoE spam is Aoe spam.

2-27-2012 @ 9:19PM

Minstrel said...

Heal is barely used by either spec in end-game. If they marginalize spirit shell the same way, then I agree with you. The blue said to think of it "like" Heal and Flash Heal...what he/she seemed to mean was Spirit Shell should be efficient and oft-used and PW:S would be more of an emergency. If so, it would actually be more like Greater Heal vs. Flash Heal. That's what I'm hopeful about.

As for whether a spammable Holy Nova could feel different from a spammable Prayer of Healing...I think it's possible. If you could choose a target from which it "explodes out from" (healing those in near proximity, but irregardless of party) that would feel different, IMO.

2-28-2012 @ 8:07AM

Firestyle said...

I'm looking forward to these changes. I have healed PvE has a resto shaman for years, and I've always had a priest as an alt. I really never healed on that priest for two reasons.

1. I liked Disc, but there always seemed to be another Disc priest around that would never play holy. I can't criticize, since I didn't really play holy either. So, I went shadow and we got another healer.

2. The toolbox of heals was just too large for me to really figure out a clique binding setup with ctrl/shift modifiers and a 5 button mouse. I always had at least one awkward keybind configuration, and there was always the flash heal, greater heal, heal, and bind heal debacle.

So, I never criticized it, but healing as a priest just wasn't for me. My druid is level 84, and I had full plans to go Resto/Balance this week on him. Maybe I'll think about taking my well geared Shadow priest and use that second spec in MoP....

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