Disc Talent thoughts

Classes Priest
1

Why does Mindbender have to depend on Evangelism? If you don’t raid heal and won’t use it in all content–if any at all–why should you have to opt for it just for Mindbender? Evangelism is situationally useful. But Mindbender? It is a powerful spell that can be used in all content.

And Shadow Word: Death summons a Shadowfiend? Shadow Word: Death does big damage when the target is almost dead! So why would you want a Shadowfiend then? You want a pet to do its thing while your target is alive, not almost dead.

And why is Shadowmend, the healing spell that does damage back?

Lastly, why do you have to choose between Ultimate Penitence and Power Word: Barrier? It’s not like they are remotely trade-offs one for the other. Power Word: Barrier is one of the best Disc spells, hands down. Ultimate Penitence, on the other hand, is situationally useful. I personally love both and love them because when I am doing quests (or in PVP content when one on one), and get attacked by a Horde toon, I can at least stay alive and fight back if I can use both.

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2

Agreed on the others but Shadow Mend is good, it’s a stronger Flash Heal with extra shadow talent synergy. The only downside is that it has to be tracked for procs to use on someone taking damage, which may or may not work in the CDM.

3

Shadow Mend is a heal that DOES DAMAGE. That to me makes no sense. Albeit, the damage is variable, just make it a straight heal minus the average damage it does. Imagine someone dying from a heal you do, lol. It may seem impossible, but say they don’t pop a heal pot or something because you heal them and then the damage (albeit small) kills them, or leaves them vulnerable to dying.

Not to be overly dramatic, but it I hated spamming Shadow Mend in Shadowland dungeons. It just bugged me because versus a Holy Priest spell that adds a HOT (Echo of Light) a heal that adds a DOT seems dangerous. How can you have confidence in it? Just me, but it seems off that a healing spell should do damage.

Also consider the math. Flash Heal does about 9k healing. Shadow Mend does 12k, but then can do 6k worth of damage. So which is better? Under some circumstances it can do less total healing than Flash Heal (the initial 12k minus the damage–up to 6k, that is), AND the damage can nearly kill your target if they are near death and take (and don’t take) a certain amount of damage from other sources immediately after the 6k damage that Shadow Mend does.

The explanation says that the damage follows the healing. So you intially do 12k healing. And then the spell does up to 6k damage assuming there are no other sources of damage. But say you heal them up from near death to 12k. Then they dodge damage or mitigate it. And then Shadow Mend does 6k damage to them. But then just as the damage from Shadow Mend stops, they take a 6.1k hit of damage. That WILL kill them.

So when you are the healer, the healing you think you are doing can be somewhat deceptive.

Yeah. That is a pain. I just see it as a nuisance because A. You don’t know how much healing it is ultimately going to do. B. It can potentially leave your tank vulnerable in hard content. C. You ought to track it.

In Shadowlands, I always looked at stuff like damage taken after finishing a key. And honestly, I was often shocked at how much damage Shadowmend was actually doing. It wasn’t always at all insignificant.

And ultimately, if you are a keyholder looking for a healer, do you really want a healer whose spells damage the tank?

4

Shadow mend’s dmg component is negligible if used during combat since it gets reduced when the recipient takes damage from sources other than shadow mend’s DoT and it’s not like you’ll be spamming it outside of combat since you can’t get it unless you talent into the proc and it can only proc in combat.

The dot takes 10 seconds to do the damage it does, players will receive that amount of damage from the enemies way before that happens.

5

The fact that it’s a random proc that replaces Flash Heal means you can never work around its conditions reliably. If you need the oomph but it doesn’t proc- SOL. If the situation isn’t good for it, like a high damage hit followed by a damage lull, but it has proc’d and is just denying you Flash Heal, you’re just SOL again.

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6

It’s damage-doing heal in the end. And if the tank has solid mitigation and the group is spot on with kicks and CC, it will ultimately do MORE damage and take back half the healing. That is nuts.

I don’t tank, but think if I was a tank and any spell from the healer was doing me damage, I don’t know if I’d want it.

7

It does not. The PW:S talent that made it bigger but tick down over its duration is the exact same thing.

Somebody is taking damage if you need to hit FH in the first place. Otherwise you would just use Atonement and keep doing damage.

8

It’s not like I disagree. Sure. If your tank IS taking damage you need to heal. But just because your tank is taking damage when you cast your heal (flash heal or shadowmend or whatever), it doesn’t automatically imply MORE damage is incoming from mobs, or whatever.

Second, as a healer that heals through damage as an option, if atonement is not cutting it, then you have to resort to flashheal/shadowmend, in the first place. That does not automatically imply you will just cast once and then go right to dps.

In the end, I dunno. I don’t like a heal spell that CAN do damage and WILL, and the damage is generally variable/indeterminate from encounter to encounter. I remember panicking in some keys in Shadowlands when the whole group was taking a ton of damage and where atonement didn’t cut it, and you had to spam heal with Shadowmend.

Here is what the description says, word for word: “Wraps an ally in shadows which heal for 12077, but at a cost. The ally will take 604 damage every one sec, until they have taken 6038 total damage from all sources, or leave combat.”

It is the equivalent of a heal that applies a DOT that ticks. So it heals 12k and then does up to 6k DAMAGE. And like I said, if the tank is mitigating damage from attacks, and/or kicks, etc are spot on, then Shadowmend is doing damage.