I think the biggest issue and the point of this post is the Holy Priest needs a rework. We have had these spells/abilities since the beginning of time and nothing that has been added since they brought back talent trees have meaningfully changed the way we play the spec.
These talents were throwback abilities added into the spec for Dragonflight:
Lightwell was brought back but let’s be honest: this has always been a meme ability. Over the years they have tried ways to make it work but it has never gained any traction in PVE content. Let’s not forget, it did not work when players had to click on it or when it became a smart heal either. It should be moved to the PVP talents where it could be more useful unless the devs seriously work on improving it.
Lightweaver was such a powerful ability back in the Shadowlands expansion. Some may even remember the ability on the Tier 4 4-piece bonus. I remember in the beginning of Dragonflight there was a discussion about how cool it would be to “weave” different spells together to improve throughput. The problem with the talent is the throughput is dead on arrival. It takes two Flash Heals to charge up the talent and then those charges get consumed when using Heal. It seemed more powerful back in Shadowlands when the charges did not get consumed and we had more of them. I get why this boring ability was changed: the legendary was too easy. It required the priest to charge 5 stacks (which you could do before the start of a fight) with Flash Heal and without Heal consuming the charges it led to very boring gameplay; however, the current iteration is not strong enough to make it competitive because A. damage is too bursty in a M+ environment and needs the priest to respond quickly where a hasted more powerful Heal would be less ideal than a instant cast PW:Serenity/PW: Life OR B. damage/healing in raid environment is being sniped by 3-4 other healers and an AOE heal would be more appropriate. Lightweaver could be ideal if we were still spamming tanks but that play style has not existed since tanks were given agency over their own survivability. Lastly, there have been rare instances over the course of the expansion where strong single target healing was required. Many of us spent the early part of the Dragonflight expansion trying to make this style of play work but it’s not challenging, fun, or powerful.
The Restitution talent was brought back from the Legion legendary cloak X’anshi, Shroud of Archbishop Benedictus. This ability was extremely helpful in a raid environment because in the event of death, the priest could continue healing in the Spirit of Redemption form, and then get to resurrect to continue healing allies or Mass Resurrect the group after a full wipe. The ability was extremely valuable in M+ too especially when the priest would perish to one-shot abilities and had a cheat death to stay in the fight. A 10-minute cool down on this ability was fair and reasonable. Both these instances saved time and provided a valuable utility to group content. The problem with the ability in the current form is where it is placed on the tree. Throughout all of Dragonflight I have yet to find an opportunity where I can give up my throughput in order to have a cheat death.
I would like to cover the (somewhat) new abilities added in Dragonflight:
Divine Image, based off Legion Artifact trait, was reworked to always summon the Naaru when using a holy word. The current iteration is too easy and not meaningful. I would like to suggest a rework. This ability has the potential to actually change gameplay because it could give the Holy Priest an opportunity to actually setup a ramp. Currently, the Holy Priest summons the Naaru by using holy words. Unfortunately, I think that is why this ability fails. Summoning the Naaru is too frequent and easy and does not require a deviation in core gameplay. Also, the ability has a high uptime (+/- 60%) with little to no extra effort or change in gameplay. The ability has been nerfed and now just seems balanced into our throughput. I think this ability should no longer be triggered by holy words and it should become its own spell. The ability should get a standard cool down of 1-2 minutes with 15-20 secs of uptime and it should be buffed to replicate single target and aoe healing during an active window. Also, a significant damage reduction component could be added by perhaps making it have some interaction with Power Word: Shield.
Divine Word seems like a walk down memory lane: Chakra states. The method for activating the ability is not bad but it doesn’t seem the numbers were fleshed out to make this talent viable in end game content. Perhaps it is because the ability is on such a short cooldown (1 minute) but I was never able to get the healing throughput from this ability to warrant taking the ability over Divine Image. Divine Word should be stronger considering it requires setup and planning whereas Divine Image doesn’t really require extra thought or advance play because the Holy Priest is constantly casting holy words.
Miracle Worker grants an extra charge of Holy Word: Sanctify and Serenity. These holy words are buffed by Epiphany and have excellent synergy with Divine Image. Miracle Worker and Divine Image should not be two separate capstones because the Priest is not going to play one without the other. Every Holy tier set this expansion has pushed the Priest towards prioritizing the use of holy words;
Season 1:
2-set
Casting Prayer of Mending reduces the cast time of your next Heal or Prayer of Healing by 1 sec and increases their Holy Word cooldown reduction effect by 2 sec.
4-set
When Holy Word: Serenity or Holy Word: Sanctify finish their cooldown, you gain 10% critical strike chance for 6 sec.
Season 2:
2-set
Prayer of Mending has a 20% chance to duplicate to another nearby target when it jumps.
4-set
When Prayer of Mending jumps, it increases the damage and healing of your next Holy Word by 4%, stacking up to 15 times.
Season 3:
2-set
Holy Word: Serenity applies 14 seconds of Renew to its target and Holy Word: Sanctify applies 5 seconds of Renew to allies it heals.
4-set
Renew’s healing has a chance to cause your next Holy Word: Serenity/ Holy Word: Sanctify to not consume a charge when cast and cost 50% less mana. 2 charges.
I agree with Caithyra. It’s very difficult for the Holy Priest to build a play style that doesn’t revolve around Miracle Worker + Divine Image. I would like to see these abilities be fun and powerful without borrowing power or being tuned based on a tier set bonus. The priest must select Miracle Worker + Divine to be viable in all forms of endgame PVE content which for me has led to no alternatives and a very stale gameplay throughout all of Dragonflight. The gameplay feels like an of illusion of choice. We were promised varied and engaging gameplay with the new talent trees. I am let down because season after season it has been the same build and doubling down on the PVE Holy Priest playing the same as always.
Where are the new abilities? Please do not add more recycled abilities especially the unpopular ones. Where is the choice? Please make other builds viable. Why must we spend 25-30% of our talent points buffing one ability? We probably don’t need so many talents points just to buff Prayer of Mending. Please Make Prayer of Healing worth casting. Please get rid of Cosmic Ripple. Divine Hymn should be an exciting and powerful moment. The time has come: get rid of either Heal or Flash Heal. We only need ONE of these. Please choose ONE and let us reduce the cast time of it with haste. If we need more single target we have Renew, PW:Shield, Serenity, Etc. We need new abilities, not just the same ones we have had for over a decade. We need a rework now.