Discipline talents got slight revamps. There are two big things that jumped out at me when I logged in earlier in the evening.
- Soul Warding moves to tier 2
- Borrowed time returns
Moving Soul Warding up to tier 2 opens up some interesting speccing options as Discipline. Previously, it was thought that Archangel and Evangelism was required in order to advance deeper in the tree (to me, that didn’t make logical sense). Now it looks like Priests have two routes they can go when progressing. You can pick up Improved Inner Fire and Soul Warding to get past (and I predict that being the optimum raid spec) or you select the Archangel and Evangelism combination (useful for either leveling or powering through older raid content).
If Archangel and Evangelism were in the game right now, I’d dual spec into them for sure. Just being able to power through certain farm bosses in ICC or 5 mans gives us a little bit more of something to do. Think being in Icecrown gear and tackling ToC or Ulduar on normal.
Can’t Holy Priests get Soul Warding?
It certainly looks that way.
With Soul Warding at tier 2, Holy Priests will want to snag it at max level. And who wouldn’t? Being able to cast a massive amount of Body and Soul’d shields on assorted players? Multiple sprint buffs? Hell yeah!
But there’s a problem so don’t get too excited about the prospects. As Holy, you don’t get access to Rapture which offers some mana return when your shields get punctured. This means it will be an increasing drain on your mana so you’ll need to Body and Soul your targets wisely. Remember, we’re supposed to be using out mana intelligently in Cataclysm.
All I know is, between Life Grip and Body and Soul, there will be zero reason for anyone to die in a fire now.
Also, losing internet connection at 12 AM sucks when you have a post ready for immediate publishing. Sad panda.
It also means that you’d have to sacrifice points in Imp Inner Fire to get full Soul Warding.
@Rilgon Arcsinh: Correct. Whether this build is actually viable later on remains to be determined. Needs to be checked out in a raid setting. It certainly sounds like a possibility but it depends on gear, encounter, and mana expenses.
And the lack of a Disc Priest to avoid Weakened Soul clashes.
Which would be solved if they turned Weakened Soul into an effectiveness debuff for other PW:Ses laid on the target instead of a “NO, NO MORE SHIELDS FOR YOU GO AWAY”, but hey.
“All I know is, between Life Grip and Body and Soul, there will be zero reason for anyone to die in a fire now.”
But it sucks that it’s on the priest to make up for someone else’s fail. I’m afraid a lot of people, especially in pugs, will get upset at priests who aren’t doing this.
I agree with Amber: I simply do not buy into Life Grip as a talent/skill to be used to pull someone’s ass out of the fire. To me, it’s a weak mechanic (no pun intended), and I earnestly hope it goes away before the expansion goes live. Otherwise, I hope there’s some use for it that I haven’t grokked yet.
If I need to put points into something that doesn’t directly heal, I’d much prefer to put those points into something that directly lowers mob health.
…however, since there’s a good possibility I won’t be healing come expansion, this may all be moot…
i quite like the idea of the priest snatchngrab. think LK (heroic or otherwise) where the priest follows the valkyr out to the edge, then snatches the person back just after they are dropped(a’la lock teleport strat), allowing dps to continue to burn the boss. or perhaps the priest yanking a slow spore carrier in the fester fight.
Still hoping that Tier 1&2 of the Holy tree become a bit more accessible/manageable for Disc priests who want to borrow talents. We only get 3-9 points, depending on how we spec. Feels like Holy gets a bit more for their investment when they dip into the Disc tree.
Empowered Healing, Divine Fury, and either Inspiration or Improved Healing if we really skimp. Divine Fury just doesn’t feel worth it when I’m losing out on the damage or mana cost reduction right below it. Would love to see them switched around or the point value slightly reduced.
Very happy to see Evangelism/Archangel now avoidable if desired. I feel more comfortable with it now that it’s a choice and I’m not locked in.