Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Move your body body

There is an Army cadence that we used to have to echo while running that had the line "Move your body, body". It always stuck with me.
Despite my extreme loathing for propelling my body forward with more than a modest amount of velocity I sure did love the cadences...many of them told tales of powerful old grandma's. /shrug

From Dayani
The reason to be a Priest, if you really want to stay Priest, is that you're so much more mobile than any other healer except Druid. The Renew/CoH engine in Sanctuary Chakra is incredibly powerful and movement is extremely intensive in WoD encounters. Holy Priest actually feels like the most "complete" healer on the beta to me, although I'll admit Resto Shaman feels nice too.
 In my last post I was lamenting the lack of utility in the Priest toolbox. What I didn't post was an addendum stating that at least in pre-release the healing felt really really good and given all other factors I just needed one reason to consider a Priest over another class.
Dayani took the time to write a well thought out reply and I appreciate her for doing so. Her reply carries even more weight due to the fact that she has seen these classes in action in the beta. Her thoughts aren't simple pontifications but are backed by actual data and they provide the answer that I was hoping for.

You see a class must provide something that others can not in order to hold enough value to bring it instead of some other higher value class. Sometimes that value is simply availability but in this case I am controlling the toon so I get to choose which one to play. I like Priests. I will need to see Disc in action at 100 but at 90 they are doing very well and Holy just feels solid. So if they are also the most mobile and feel very complete compared to others that provide more bells, whistles, and totems then that is a pretty good reason to stick with the class.

Furthermore limiting a tool kit to healing and a very few other things allows me to focus on being the best healer I can be without the need to juggle a handful of situationaly(really, that's not a word google???) useful abilities. Now of course if I find any uses for Chain Undead, Dispel Magic, or Dominate Mind then I'll be all over that like hot on sour.

I still don't understand the multistrike attunment and more importantly why Holy didn't get the raid buff for multistrike. There are far too many times when the developers do odd things that I would love to hear explained, love to hear the logic behind. /sigh

Healing Rain...healing rain....Purple healing raiaiaian

So the changes are in but we are still stuck as children without our full set of adult abilities. Or maybe more like adolescents I suppose. Still the changes are in.

So what do I think? Well...I think I may swap mains from priest to Shaman. I also think the new grouping tool will be both a blessing and a curse.

Let's discuss shall we.


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Weak Auras; Strong Addon

This isn't a major post, just some notes to myself as we prepare to enter pre-WoD and I have to do the ritual UI dance.

Weak Auras
Spells and Their CDs
Short CD spells will go on the spell bar along with their CDs. I think I'll actually make a group for Holy/Disc/Druid/Sham/Monk/Pal this time instead of the single bar I had for MoP.

Long CDs go at the bottom of the screen.

CC CDs....do we priest have any CC =,( ....top of the screen.

Track Renews. Worth it to track PW:S? Probably not. Will assess other healers as I get to know them. Also track PoM.

Throughput Buffs in one bar group

Regen Buffs in another.

Throughput has priority, so for something like Serendipity it would go in regen.

Dispels are tracked by when they are on CD. This is the same for any rarely used spell.


Friday, October 3, 2014

Do Priests Lack Good Raid Utility?

One root, but only as a talent. One fear, same tree as the root. No battle rez, no way to remove movement impairing effects from allies. Disc received a Silence but Holy still has none. Fear Ward is nice but on a 3 min CD. Warriors now have access to Stam buff.

The MoP proving grounds really highlighted the lack of offensive utility Priests have in the game. We have some decent spells like levitate and Leap of Faith but they just don't compare to the utility of the shaman or druid. Dispel Magic would be great if it was more useful in a raiding environment.

I'm trying to justify a why a Priest would be needed in a Raid during WoD. Trying to figure out if I should switch over and play a Shaman as my main.