Feedback: Priests

Blue Tracker

In this thread, please discuss ongoing changes to the Priest class in the Guardians of the Dream PTR.

Changes are coming in Guardians of the Dream that will have an impact on Haste in group play. Power Infusion grants you and another target 25% bonus Haste for 20 seconds, with a 2-minute cooldown. This injection of Haste significantly amplifies a few specs by a large amount when combined with their own personal cooldowns. We don’t want to take away the noticeable gameplay feel of Power Infusion, but we feel that we should reduce the value and duration of it slightly.

A few specs can stack multiple cooldowns and bonuses that really increase their damage during cooldown windows, and they also scale very well with Haste. We’re making changes to Demonology Warlocks and Unholy Death Knight talents and cooldowns to lessen the combined value of stacking everything together. This should reduce the peaks of damage output during cooldown windows, and should increase their sustained damage over the duration of a fight.

Power Infusion Haste reduced to 20% (was 25%) and duration reduced to 15 seconds (was 20 seconds).
Shadow Word: Death now deals 8% of the Priest’s maximum health in damage when it fails to kill a target instead of the backlash damage being based on damage dealt.
Tithe Evasion now reduces Shadow Word: Death damage dealt to the Priest by 50% (was 75%).
Shadow Word: Death backlash damage is now reduced by damage reduction effects.
Mass Dispel cooldown is now 2 minutes (was 45 seconds).
- Developers’ note: We’re reducing the frequency that Priests have access to Mass Dispel as the value of the spell is exceeding the value of other utility at its current power level and cooldown. We’re looking to allow for more situations where magic debuffs are applied to multiple players without having a Priest trivializing the intended difficulty of the mechanics.
Improved Mass Dispel is now a PvP Talent and reduces the cooldown of Mass Dispel by 60 seconds (was 20 seconds).
Improved Mass Dispel no longer reduces the cast time of Mass Dispel.
Improved Mass Dispel has been replaced with Mental Agility in the Priest talent tree.
New Talent: Mental Agility – Reduces the mana cost of Purify, Purify Disease, and Mass Dispel by 50% and Dispel Magic by 10%.
Rhapsody now only highlights Holy Nova at max stacks while in combat.

Discipline

The goal of these changes is to simplify Discipline’s damage rotation as well as the number of stacking modifiers used when ramping up for burst healing. This should make it smoother to play by reducing the number of abilities pressed in sequence, allowing players to focus on managing Atonement and triaging their allies instead.

Schism has been redesigned to be a passive talent – Now causes Mind Blast to fracture the enemy’s mind, increasing your spell damage to the target by 10% for 9 seconds.
Shadow Covenant has been redesigned to be a passive talent – Shadowfiend or Mindbender enters you into a shadowy pact, transforming Halo, Divine Star, and Penance into Shadow spells and increasing the damage and healing of your Shadow spells by 25% for 15 seconds (7 seconds with Mindbender).
- Developers’ note: Shadow Covenant is another ability that must be sequenced correctly and is usually stacked with other damage modifiers. By merging this effect with Shadowfiend, we can streamline the damage rotation and make Shadowfiend a more exciting cooldown at the same time.
Mind Blast now has a 24 second cooldown (was 9 seconds).
Mind Blast damage has been increased by 30%.
Dark Indulgence no longer grants an additional charge of Mind Blast. Instead, Mind Blast has a 100% chance to grant Power of the Dark Side.
Inescapable Torment damage increased by 60%.
Inescapable Torment now triggers from Penance in addition to Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death.
Inescapable Torment is now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Power Word: Solace has been removed.
- Developers’ note: Power Word: Solace has a long history, but it was another example of a short cooldown damage button that cramped the rotation, so we’re removing it.
Harsh Discipline no longer triggers after 4 spell casts of Smite, Mind Blast, or Power Word: Solace. Instead, Power Word: Radiance has a 30/60% chance to cause your next Penance to be free and fire 3 extra bolts.
- Developers’ note: While Harsh Discipline was fun to play with, it added another thing you had to do before paying off on your Atonements. By triggering from Power Word: Radiance, this will now automatically happen after applying your Atonements. This will also reduce the frequency of Harsh Discipline procs, and allow regular Penance to deal more damage and healing.
New Talent: Sanctuary – Smite prevents the next 80% damage dealt by the enemy.
New Talent: Ultimate Penitence – Ascend into the air and unleash a massive barrage of Penance bolts, causing Holy damage to enemies or healing to allies over 6 seconds. While ascended, gain a shield for 50% of your health. In addition, you are unaffected by knockbacks or crowd control effects.
New Talent: Heaven’s Wrath – Each Penance bolt you fire reduces the cooldown of Ultimate Penitence by 2 seconds.
New Talent: Overloaded with Light – Ultimate Penitence emits an explosion of light, healing up to 10 allies around you and applying Atonement at 50% of normal duration.
Penance damage increased by 15%.
Penance healing increased by 30%.
Power Word: Barrier now reduces 20% of all damage taken (was 25%).
Atonement now heals for 32% of damage done (was 40%).
Atonement healing is now increased by 50% when not in a raid.
Flash Heal healing increased by 40%.
Power Word: Shield absorption increased by 10%.
Divine Aegis is now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Light’s Wrath, Resplendent Light, Wrath Unleashed, and Make Amends have been removed.

Holy

Holy Word: Serenity healing increased by 30%.
Flash Heal healing increased by 40%.
Holy Word: Salvation’s cooldown is now reduced by 15 seconds (was 30 seconds) by Holy Word: Serenity and Holy Word: Sanctify.
Symbol of Hope now restores 10% of missing mana (was 15%).
Symbol of Hope recovers 40 seconds of cooldown for a major defensive ability (was 60 seconds).
Holy Word: Sanctify now heals up to 5 allies (was 6).
Divine Star healing decreased by 25%.
Halo healing decreased by 15%.

Shadow

Shadow Crash damage is now reduced beyond 5 targets.
Surge of Insanity now triggers from every 3 casts of Devouring Plague instead of every cast of Devouring Plague.
- Developers’ note: The rotation has a lot going on and much of that is due to the frequency that Mind Flay: Insanity and Mind Spike: Insanity are available, so we’re adjusting the frequency of the effect.
Mind Flay damage increased by 10%.
Mind Flay: Insanity damage increased by 30%.
Mind Spike: Insanity damage increased by 20%.

Blizzard Forum Source: Feedback: Priests, Author: Kaivax, Posted: Thursday, September 7th 2023, 7:30 pm