Holy Priest - 10.2.6 Review

Classes Priest
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This is a continuation of this topic here: Holy Priest - A Dragonflight Review

I didn’t want to bump it because the info I posted was pre-10.2.6 and I’d have to update every single section.

As noted in my previous topic: the major issue plaguing Holy Priests prior to 10.2.6 was that Miracle Worker + Divine Image were the only viable talent options. With the revamp in 10.2.6, Miracle Worker was moved to where Empowered Renew/Rapid Recovery used to be which drastically changes your build options.

Either way: let’s begin.

Issue #1 - 7% hps nerf

This honestly has everyone scratching their head. Holy is the bottom hps healer according to warcraftlogs and they were hit with a -7% hps nerf. If you hadn’t nerfed us by -7% our hps would be on the same level as Disc priests.

This nerf alone made 10.2.6 not as exciting as it otherwise would have been. I think everyone more or less agrees this nerf should be reverted. Let Holy be meta for at least one season.

Issue #2 - Divine Image is still mandatory

Divine Image is still a mandatory talent pick because it’s the only talent on the bottom of the tree that passively provides a hps/dps boost. Right now the only way to build is just going Divine Image + other options.

Issue #3 - Lightwell

The changes to Lightwell have greatly improved this talent, but the main issue is that it requires targets to drop <50% hp to actually heal them. This requires very specific raid/dungeon conditions where the group needs to constantly be dipping <50% hp to even make this ability work.

I would like to see the threshold increased to <65%.

Issue #4 - Divine Word

Divine Word is a bit awkward to use properly.

  • It was nerfed a lot with the overhaul.
  • It’s on the GCD and requires you to cast a Holy Word immediately after.
  • Divine Word Sanctuary requires the raid/group to be stacked to maximize its hps.

I would personally like to see this changed. When you activate Divine Word you get ALL the bonuses for 15s and/or take it off the GCD.

Issue #5 - Lightweaver

The change to Pontifex + Resonant Words more or less opened up these talents to work with more abilities which increases its usefulness.

Lightweaver however is still restricted to just working on Flash Heal/Heal. I would personally like to see Lightweaver opened up to more abilities.

Issue #6 - Rapid Recovery/Empowered Renew was removed

I was one of the few Priests that used the Rapid Recovery talent because it provided a passive healing increase to your 2-piece Renews with the current tier set. I would like to see this talent come back.

Issue #7 - End-tree Woes

So the update in 10.2.6 re-arranged the talent nodes on the bottom. There’s a lot of negatives now compared to before.

  • Answered Prayers - This talent is a mandatory pick for Holy. The constant Apotheosis procs feedback loop into you overflowing with Holy Words.
  • Resonant Words - You have to put a point into Pontifex if you want this talent which isn’t a good design.
  • Epiphany / Desperate Times - If you want Divine Word you have to put a point into either of these. Epiphany is quite frankly a bad and unfun talent. Desperate Times is also only useful if the group dips <50% hp constantly. Personally I would like to see Answered Prayers swap place with Desperate Times again.

Holy’s end tree still feels very constricted because of only having 3 end-tree talents node and heaps of 2 point sinks.

Also, there are serious pros-and-cons to every Holy end tree talent outside of Divine Image. Lightwell does literally 0 healing if the groups not dropping <50% hp and Divine Word only works if the group is stacked. So if you’re on fights where you can’t min-max Divine Word then you literally are losing out on -7% hps.

Issue #8 - The rest of the talent tree was not fixed

As noted in my previous topic. Holy has 8 PoM talents and none of them were trimmed down. There’s also a heap of dead talent nodes you’re forced to take like Cosmic Ripple / Everlasting Light just to unlock all your single target healing talents.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that these issues will be looked at

Issue #9 - You did not address Symbol of Hope / Divine Hymn / Holy Word Salvation

Symbol of Hope was massively nerfed in 10.2 and that nerf should have been reverted imho.

Gales of Songs should also allow Holy to be able to move with a movement speed penalty like Resto Druids can while channeling Divine Hymn. Also, Divine Hymn’s healing in M+ is too low. It needs to match Ultimate Penitence in healing power.

Holy Word Salvation should be changed to just a flat 4-4.5 minute reset instead of requiring 30+ Holy Words to reset. It’s incredibly tedious trying to reset this ability twice in a fight.

Final Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about the update. The positives were all washed out by an unnecessary -7% hps nerf. I guess Holy can never get any good this expansion without getting slammed with nerfs (beta, 10.2, and now 10.2.6).

Yes, we can get Divine Image / Lightwell / Lightweaver on-top of Miracle Worker + Divine Image, but these abilities have very niche situations where they actually work. It’s not like on Disc where your end tree talents are just all passive bonuses.

Only the bottom 3 rows were updated while the remaining 6 above it weren’t touched. 2-3 PoM talents could have been trimmed entirely (Divine Service/Say Your Prayers)

So maybe we’ll get the full update come next expansion.

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  1. This is the second pre-nerfing they’ve given us before a patch goes live. I just don’t get it.

  2. I’m just happy I like divine image so much, it reminds me of TBC which I have fond memories of, but it is absolutely mandatory. Hopefully, if a solution is offered, it’s not just another nerf to the talent.

  3. That’s pretty much the feedback I had in the other thread, except I suggested 60%, 65% would be even better.

  4. Agree completely, it is clunky, it reminds me of how empyreal blaze worked before the rework. I only use it in PVP for the burst damage.

  5. I’ve been trying to like Lightweaver, but I don’t, even with an aura it’s pretty… clunky. In m+ during intense trash healing, I don’t have time to weave back and forth, checking charges. So it’s pretty much just slamming flash heal until words pop back up. Monitoring words and stacks of lightweaver isn’t fun and is just a chore when every global cooldown counts. If lightwell moved with you, it’d be a no brainer to take it over lightweaver.

  6. I agree completely and loved this talent node. Empowered renew was great in 10.1 and rapid renew in 10.2. Far more versatile and less mana intensive than the PoH play style.

  7. For the most part getting to divine word is a waste of talent points.

The apotheosis mini game is fun, but I would like an alternative. It maybe wouldn’t feel so mandatory if resetting words wasn’t so mandatory for salvation.

  1. Resetting salvation for a second use is very rewarding feeling. However, it contributes to over healing like no other, because you are wasting holy words that could be used in more dire circumstances. You also have to be the first healer to use their cooldown if there is a rotation, so you can guarantee it comes up again if the fight goes long enough. I like the idea of being able to lower the cooldown, but I don’t know of a good way to make that happen without wasteful healing. Maybe make it based on the amount your holy word healed for, make it a couple seconds and give it a 6 min cooldown. Otherwise, just give it a flat cooldown and be done with it, as it is a great spell minus it’s cooldown issues.

Thanks for taking the time to do this write up, as usual, it pretty much aligns with how I feel.

PS. PoM talents remaining the same is also baffling.

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To be fair, I don’t think Disc has it any better.

I’ve mostly stopped playing my priest because I wasn’t really having fun with Disc anymore because it just barely functions without playing the IE line. Everything is so heavily focused into Shadow Covenant/IE, that I don’t really think it MATTERS what their end tier talents are, because if you don’t take it, you’re either not going to do any damage, or you’re not going to do any healing, with pretty much zero space in-between, and IE just does copious amounts of both.

I think both specs have major problems in the bottom section of their tree, and in both cases it’s pretty much a bunch of 2 point talents that are there to gate you from grabbing a number of capstones together. But the problem is that those 2 point talents are absolutely not built the same.

In Holy’s case, nobody WANTS to shoot for Desperate Times or Epiphany, they’re just forced to, otherwise you’d be able to get all 3 capstones. Similarly, Resonant Words is very strong, but you generally don’t want to invest as many points above to grab it. Lightwell doesn’t work in M+, despite the rest of that side of the tree being pretty good for it. Lightweaver wouldn’t be all that bad in dungeons if Trail of Light was strong at all, but that got nerfed as well a while back, etc. So that leaves people doing wacky builds where all they take is Resonant, and they don’t even grab 2 capstones.

I really do think a lot of the real issues here are just the 2-pointers. Most the class talents that feel bad, it’s because of them. They’re specifically designed to gate, rather than be effective talent choices in their own right, and that leads to a lot of “I only want this talent, but MAN I have to take a bunch of terrible stuff to get there.” And that also means when you do decide to not invest the points, you’ve got 2 points to put into another only marginally better 2-pointer instead to get to the other capstone.

Shaman’s got the same but it’s actually in the beginning of their tree, rather than the end. Part of why I think Hpal’s rework went over so well is the tree pathing feels WAY better. Even if they’re weak right now, generally I don’t hear complaints about the talents, more just how effective they are.

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Divine Word is off GCD, but not castable-while-casting, so you can use it during a Renew GCD but not during Flash Heal. It should be one of those things that doesn’t go on cooldown until a Holy Word is used, because it’s currently optimal to use several seconds before you need it (when you use it, you get a 9 or 10 second buff during which to cast your Holy Word).

Assuming they do change the cooldown behavior, I’d like to avoid the awkwardness of pressing it and then the Holy Word as quickly as possible, so I’m experimenting with a macro to make it more convenient. Not battle-tested but I’ve noticed if you try to queue it, the Holy Word will cast without the Divine Word (I guess because you can only queue 1 spell). I’m not a macro expert so maybe there’s a better way.

#showtooltip
/cast Divine Word
/cast [mod:shift] Holy Word: Sanctify
/cast [nomod, harm] Holy Word: Chastise
/cast [nomod, help][mod:alt, @player] Holy Word: Serenity

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Right!! they didn’t even test it out properly like wth is this wow staffs getting payed for? Are you politicians that just sit and collects money?

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The worst change ever!!! Hpriest is the only priest I was able to freakin master and loved at the same time! And they freakin do this bs I swear! people! stop you’re subscription for a month and see if they go nuts!

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They nerf Hpriest and buff the mistweaver! like wtf they are doing!! Excuse me for my language but I am this mad because you buff the class that is doing top charts always on raid and dungeons! like we can see you’re favourite! #stopsubcription

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Make renew great again? Or at least decent? Losing 2k healing per tick since they removed the renew talent, really stinks!

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Overall?

Really bad imo. Very weak.

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