Please, for the love of all that is Holy (and Discipline) do NOT give us blessing of summer as priest. That is the most obnoxious spell in the game.
3 Likes
Iâm glad I exclusively play Shadow so I donât even have to think about using these Hero Talents.
7 Likes
And what would âtriggerâ such a heroic moment? I think it would be cool if the Premonition talent offered a new play style that rewards the Priest for preventing incoming damage. The heroic moment could be triggered after the Priest prevents X amount of damage or after the group takes X amount of damage. Clairvoyance could be the moment when the ramp reaches it peak and could trigger at the Priestâs discretion⌠Maybe the Priest could get some notification the ability is ready and when you use it the whole party is empowered with damage and healing for a brief time before allowing the Priest to recover and start the cycle again.
But maybe Iâm just dreaming. I just want to be excited about our âHero momentâ too. Iâm looking at the warriorâs reactions when their new hero ability (see Mountain Thane) was previewed at BlizzCon. Everyone could clearly see how cool that was and was truly excited for them! Câmon devs, where is our moment? Please make this right.
I am seeing a lot of comments in other forums that people think that all these extra casts of premonition represent some sort of massive power boost over baseline PI. Even before we account for the fact the a single larger haste buff is more powerful with multiplicative cool down stacking the premonition buffs are at best only as powerful as baseline PI for a whole crap load more work. Thus as it stands without any nerfs to baseline PI or significant buffs to premonition your guild should be telling you NOT to go oracle but go either the disc/shadow or holy/shadow specs as they should increase your personal throughput more without costing the raid any support throughput.
here is the math to show why by converting PI and premonition into haste % seconds by multiplying haste % buff by duration and normalizing for the baseline 2 min PI window.
PI is a single buff of 20% haste for 15 seconds once every 2 minutes.
If you play to maximise this gives us 300 haste percent seconds
A single baseline premonition is 10% damge or 12% haste for 10 seconds twice every 60 seconds
Thus in the same 2 minute window as baseline PI you get either 200 damage percent seconds or 240 haste percent seconds.
You can improve this by extending the time by 2 seconds per cast which gives us 240 damage percent seconds or 288 haste percent seconds.
Alternatively you can play the weaving meta game to buff throughput by 30% after the first cast that fight which gives us an average over a 4 cast boss fight or 137% percent damage seconds and 206 haste damage seconds when normalized to the 2 minute window we are looking at here.
in all but the longest fights you should be taking the time extension as mathematically and rotationally superior.
Having done these numbers and looked at the lackluster throughput talents in the rest of the tree I genuinely believe that without major buffs a baseline priest choosing not to spend their hero points is actually a BETTER!!! option than specking into oracle the numbers and design are just that bad.
2 Likes
Power Infusion is powerful. Casting it more is theoretically powerful.
But it has no tactile feedback. No noticeable visual effect. No cool sound effect. No extra particles on spells or attacks. It just blends into the blob of bodies. Itâs just a chore on a cooldown that has no impact on how the game feels unless youâre looking at the damage meters.
I am confused, I am on fire when I cast it and whenever I have received it. I have heard WAs where they have a sounds attached to let them know when they get it. It is hilarious.
Iâm talking about something that makes it unmissable when it gets used, like the effect Boon of the Ascended had or something like Avenging Wrath has now. If youâre playing a priest, you donât notice any effects of pressing PI because PIâs effect is so small and unremarkable it gets lost in your normal casting animations.
Iâm sure the Totemic tree for Shaman will try to pull this support crap as well. 
Stacking chairs on chairs on chairs on chairs on chairs onâŚ
1 Like
When I heard of oracle and its description, I was thinking along the lines of saving or building power to be used for a future use. After reading the spell Premonition, it was so far off from anything I could have thought of.
I wonât bother restating with others regarding the issue surrounding single/individual external buffs to others but i will say I agree that this is a direction that should be done away with. Group buffs are one thing; the PI game we currently have is another, and itâs not fun.
So back to what i was saying: In my mind i was thinking that maybe the Hero ability was going to be something where you spend time and Mana channeling or casting to build some sort of charge (planning for the future) so that when the time comes, you can unleash whatever you have built up for the moment (going with an oracle theme here) to protect, heal, or buff up your party.
Clearly, Premonition does none of that save but to just be a 1-button buff you hope works out when you use it. Not really a dazzling âcoolâ feeling or vibe from it nor does it feel like it âbuildsâ in a good way on existing play.
At this point, I would rather see a rebuild of the hero Oracle tree where, if you are Holy/Disc the skills and perks you get fit the theme of future prevention or preparation of incoming damage.
As far as the core/start spell one idea/thought that has crossed my mind is a form of delayed heal or bubble at the expense of time or high mana.
Imagine if you could spend the cost of a regular heal spell to grant a target a delayed form of heal/bubble where if they get hit for a % of health or fall below a % of health then that spell procs and heals/shields them for the same or slightly less than what the heal spell would have done if cast. Surely that sounds more like an oracle preparing for the future.
A CD/charge system would keep the spell balanced from abuse but would absolutely fit the theme of planning for the future and most certainly would be better than the current premonition.
5 Likes
Similar but also different / not relevant
I had a similar idea with what your proposing here. But it was more for the Archon Path as i approached it with the StarCraft Archon unit, a being of pure energy and power. Also when you take the 2 templar halves of High Templar (Holy) and Dark Templar (Shadow) and you can see this split/merge connection and how you can use that as a point of inspiration for the Archon Path.
Holy/Shadow (Archon)
- Psionic Storm (Archon Keystone)
[Replaces Holy Word: Sanctify] (Holy)
[Replaces Shadow Crash] (Shadow)
Create a Psionic Storm at the targeted location for 10 seconds. While in a storm, enemies take damage every 0.5 seconds, increasing by 20% for each consecutive instance of damage, up to 400%. - Psionic Link
Your single target spells damage and healing is replicated to every target within Psionic Storm. - Psionic Surge (Archon Capstone)
Targets within your Psionic Storm take 10% increased damage and healing from your spells every second, up to 100% - Psionic Energy
- Holy: Healing done from your Holy Word spells generate a stack of Psionic Energy. Reaching 20 stacks fill you with power and causing you to erupt, dealing pulse healing to your allies within 20 yards every second for 3 seconds.
- Shadow: Damage dealt by your Shadow Word spells generate a stack of Psionic Energy. Reaching 20 stacks causes the next target to receive damage from your Mind Spells to erupt, dealing pulsing damage to every enemy within 20 yards every second for 3 seconds.
- Psionic Power
When Psionic Energy erupts, your Psychic Link damage and healing increases by 5% for 30 seconds. Stacking up to 3. - Psionic Force
Psionic Energy pulse deals 100% more damage and healing with each consecutive pulse.
Holy (Archon)
- Psychic Link
Your single target Holy Word spells heal 25% of the healing done to targets affected by your Renew within 40 yards. - Psionic Focus
Gaining a stack of Psionic Power increases the healing of your single target healing spells and reduces the mana cost by 10% per stack.
Archon
You can also see uncanny similarities already established since Vanilla wow when you look at the Icon Portraits in Shadows Talent Tree compared to the Archon Portrait as seen in StarCraft.
Archon Portrait from StarCraft
Shadowform Icon from WoW
Shadow Power Icon from WoW
Then recently, look at the Helm Tier set for Priests from 10.1.
That also strikes a very uncanny resemblance.
1 Like
Maybe they could make it bigger and brighter then? Iunno. I usually have no issue seeing it on my character when I have it but it isnât as big of a difference as the ones you listed for sure.
Blizz, I appreciate the work done here. My foremost concern is that a strong emphasis on PI doesnât deepen the class fantasy of being a healing priest. We are the only class with two healing specializations, and Oracle is supposed to be a thematic blend of the two. PI taking up this amount of talent real estate veers Oracle more into the âbardâ-like theme that better resonates with Augmentation than a healing priest theme.
I do, however, like the talents that are directly related to healing and do not involve PI.
I want to say that I do like PI and Twins of the Sun Priestess as they are currently represented in the Priest class tree, so I am not âanti-PI.â But I do think there is a reasonable limit to how much our theme and playstyle should revolve around buffing others versus healing others, and I believe the limit is here in the Oracle tree, which should be dominated both in its theme and contributions to gameplay by a fusion of the two healing priest specs.
If you want to focus on expanding PI, perhaps Voidweaver - as a blend of Shadow/Disc - would be a more appropriate place, because PI is after all primarily used as a damage buff. But even then, I would question it being put there, because it doesnât really expand on the âvoidâ theme which is the fundamental bridge between Shadow and Disc. Edit: perhaps, then, the only realistic place for it would be the Archon tree, since there is little overlap between Holy and Shadow in any other respect.
Please reconsider the expansion of PI in the hero talents for Oracle. Please double down on the healing fantasy aspect for Oracle instead - the âHolyâ fantasy preferably, because Holy is the fundamental bridge between Holy and Discipline.
For what itâs worth, I anticipate that at least archon will also focus on or modify PI in some way because itâs the only ability that holy and shadow have in common. Voidweaver may focus on PI as well, but I have a sneaking and uncomfortable suspicion that it will be yet another bit of power stapled onto Shadowfiend.
If Voidweaver does focus on Shadowfiend, it better mean that we can go an expansion without every single tier set buffing that dumb ability.
1 Like
Yeah, Iâm puzzled as to how it would work otherwise. There is so little overlap between Holy and Shadow.
I agree. I feel there has been a trend toward more minions and pets, both in terms of the sheer number of them and their uptime (an exception being Water Elemental being baked into the Icy Veins cooldown), and Iâm not sure that is healthy for the game. With Inescapable Torment, it also causes a lot of button bloat for Disc/Shadow by introducing SW: Death into a regular non-execute rotation.
I doubt theyâll do two hero talent trees that both focus on PI.
Iâm guessing itâll be focused around shadowfiend, high leech, shadow word pain etc. Maybe holy can get better dot spread in that tree or something.
Iâm literally expecting the entire new hero tree for Holy is going to be all Prayer of Mending stuff.
1 Like
So can we just get back to classes having buttons to press and cooldowns every few minutes instead of this mini game of hitting procs and resets every five seconds and micro managing a bunch of buffs and effects?
5 Likes
An archon is a ruler - for a priest, that could be the head of a church (holy) or a cult (shadow). Archon, as Blizzard has used it, has been a being of immense power that bears significant resemblance to shadowform. Power Infusion thematically fits this concept, and having one route for healing, one for damage, and the center route for utility would allow them to treat it much like they do the class tree.
I expect it to be largely about spreading the value of PI to your party somehow, either by granting a buff to everyone while active or having smaller benefits that are amplified by PI. Maybe something like how old Vampiric Embrace worked where the priest had a big buff and the party all got smaller versions of it.
Or, maybe, âlightformâ becomes a thing? Weirder things have happened.
My one comment to this is playing devilâs advocate. Numbers are a tuning game. It would be very easy for Blizzard to tweak the numbers of both PI and Premonition to make them do whatever they want.
I know we can only work with the numbers as given, and the fact that itâs mathematically bad at this point doesnât give much hope to this being thought through before it was presented, but the numbers being a specific argument against is probably weak at this point.
Itâs a part, but itâs probably the smallest and weakest part, and the easiest for blizzard to do some minimal effort to say ânuh-uh!â and call it fixed.
We need to see what Archon looks like for Holy/Disc as well.
All things considered the Oracle tree is largely inconsequential to the overall scope of Holy/Disc. It just changes how PI works and has a few +10% bonuses sprinkled here or there for PWS/PoM. Probably the biggest talent would be the -2s off of Purify, but that depends on whatâs going on.
I figured Hero talents would be on the same power scaling as Covenants.
3 Likes