Here’s my feedback through proposed changes…
Censure
Roll up Censure’s original talent into Chastise baseline. The Censure talent should be an aoe with the same range as fully talented Holy Fire. So, it now is an aoe stun and damage with the second talent
Why: Holy priest suffer severely on the utility front - especially in M+.
New Talent: Sanctified Words
While a holy word charge is on cooldown the holy priest gains a shield equal to X% of health (I’m thinking 5-7%ish.) If the shield persists until the charge returns an additional cosmic ripple is triggered. Not sure where to put this one though. Could use some help there.
Why: Holy priest suffer in the durability department severely. This hurts us in all content.
This builds in further talent expression into holy words which are really a core and fun part of the holy priest kit. It synergizes well off the other talent ideas I have as well.
New Talent: Lightspeaker’s Boon
(This talent replaces Cosmic Ripple which would become baseline.) Cosmic Ripple confers a buff that increases the critical strike chance of healing on the targets healed by 15% for X seconds. Multiple ripples add duration to the buff - they do not stack.
Why: As a talent point Cosmic Ripple is underwhelming. This and the other talents around Cosmic Ripple provide a better opportunity to make the more talent expressive for a holy priest while adding some utility too.
New Talent: Zeal of the Faithful
(Voice of Harmony takes Afterlife’s slot. This talent goes where Voice of Harmony was originally located.) Cosmic Ripples now damages nearby by enemies and increases the critical strike chance of allies healed from Cosmic Ripple by 15% for X seconds. Multiple ripples add duration to the buff - they do not stack.
Why: Adding some more utility to the priest kit and making ripple more impactful and expressive.
Spirit of Redemption
(Afterlife becomes a part of this ability.) Have the effective healing reduce the debuff duration on Restitution. Or have healing while alive impact the reduction on this cooldown.
Why: Durability again. Thematically I completely agree holy priests should be the squishiest but give us some compensation for that fact. Giving us a weaker ankh which we have no control over the use just feels bad/unfun. The choice to res someone else was really interesting in the previous iteration but giving up our own res didn’t feel great either. But I found the choice compelling. Give us some sort of talent expression to make this talent more valuable potentially.
Desperate Times
Add this to the existing talent: When Desperate Prayer is on cooldown, damage received reduces the cooldown of this ability.
Why: Again adding durability which is severely lacking.
Everlasting Light
Add in an element of healing increased based on the number of holy word charges on cooldown.
Why: Add a strategic layer to this talent instead of compensating for low mana.
Prayer of Healing
Increase throughput by 25-34%.
Why: It feels awful. The health bars don’t move and fail in comparison to lightweaving spot heals.
Prayer Circle
Remove. Move Prayerful Litany, Resounding Words, and Dispersing Light up one notch on the tree each.
Why: Prayer should hit hard and be expensive first and a significant talent investment should be made to change this (like Lightweaving.)
Let me know what you all think! I really wanted to make Cosmic Ripple more impactful and the management of holy word cooldowns more interesting while adding some utility to Holy Priests.