When a Monke (this is a SnK reference) is healing you, you know it.
Heck, even Shaman have some pretty distinctive heal - I still think Healing Rain is just an amazing spell, visually.
But Holy Priests and Holy Spells in general? They’re… fine. I mean some of them have some visual pizzazz, but there’s nothing really distinctive. We used to have Greater Heal, the circle that’d surround the player and the ‘OOOwoowoowoo’ sound.
But it was distinct and you knew exactly what spell it was. You know when chi wave has been cast, when restoration has been cast. PW:S has the same impact - but shields are a disc thing, really. And I want to focus on Holy only spells.
I actually found these quite nice and interesting. Imagine if, when casting DH or HW:salv you’d have some low-key choir music playing in the background while you cast or channel it, or some Naaru style chimes like this?
Especially the second loop of the link I sent above - I love that second one, I can see that playing on a Divine Hymn cast.
Instead of going visual, let’s get some distinct auditory on Holy so we stand out from the visual cacophony on our screens!
We’re the class of miracles, let’s let our raid and party know when we’re casting a damn miracle!!
It would be nice if Holy Word: Serenity was flashier like Lay on Hands or Holy Word: Sanctify had some residual spell effects from the old Holy Word: Sanctuary (P.S. WTB a weaker version of Greater Holy Word: Sanctuary, k thanks).
As for Night Fae… if the Faeries could be bigger and sparklier… just… all of the particles, please.
Ive asked for this forever. I would cast the spell in raid, as weak as it was just to see it. Far superior in looks to the druids and shammies ground aoes
You know, I’m looking at this video from Legion - when they updated the Holy Priest spells.
What also got me was around 4:12, she triggers one of the T’uure talents and gets a pair of Naaru wings.
Why aren’t we leaning into that? The Naaru are our direct connection to the light. Screw Xe’ra, I’m with T’uure, he’s my lite brite bro.
It’s an aesthetic separate from paladins. Give them the generic holy crap, let’s lean into the Priests communing with the light.
Like, guardian spirit could have those Naaru wings. Or maybe everyone gets those wings during Divine Hymn… something. Maybe have a big ol’ naaru appear over us and then blast apart for santify…
Also, at 4:27 you can see the difference between Heal - the PTR one is just not flashy. If anything, they need more sparks raining down and make it more flashy.
Also heal and flash heal… are they the same now? And Greater Heal has the circle on the bottom? I’m just noticing how boring some of our key spells are.
We just need some audio and visual distinction.
I feel like Blizz got lazy with Holy Priests. It’s easy to think of Paladins being warrior crusaders wielding the light as a weapon. They probably could figure out the whole Paladin spell aesthetic and vibe in a single Red Bull powered design binge.
But holy priests require a lot of thought and nuance… and while I can appreciate subtlety, sometimes it’s too much.
I don’t mind being the subtle class. But when we cast our ‘Miracle’ spells - people should !@#$ing know. It should stand out - it’s a miracle, after all.
Honestly, Blizz is lazy when it comes to healer animations entirely.
This is one place Blizzard REALLY needs to take a look outside their house for inspiration. You wanna see some amazing animations, look up FFXIV healers.
Take a look at Astrologian animations, or the White Mage Assize/Medica/Cure III spells, etc.
Even like the basic heals feel impactful.
WoW healing animations are just, in general, pretty bland. It’s one of the things this game does not do particularly well.
Oh my GOD - at 1:00, that L10 Medica spell is gorgeous
Ooo, that regen spell at 1:50 is also really sick.
L40 Cure III at 1:58…
L45 Holy, I wonder what that’s gonna - AH GAWD MY EYES ITS SO BRIGHT! I LOVE IT
There’s 8 minutes of this?! Holy cow… these animations are sick!
Edit: 4:35 - Affluatus Rapture, holy Whaaaaaaaat?
4:45 - Temperance, what a gorgeous spell… perfect for holy Priests
Healer Limit Break… I wonder what those will look like…
Holy priest is supposed to be the maximum holy caster in the world, they aren’t just little priests in an abandoned church, they are full holy mages with incredible control of holy magic.
Serenity, Heal both have the same spell animation, which isn’t right. Serenity should have it’s own animation and it should feel and see impactful as it is our big spell.
Divine hymn might look good on us, but when you see how everyone is affected by it IT’S THE SAME ANIMATION AS HEAL AND SERENITY
Flash heal small sparkles which are unnoticeable on the target.
If you ask me, I liked more when our hands had big light around them instead of these little sparkles.
HW: Salvation looks bad knowing that is a big cd burst of healing, literally has no unique animation at all.
Only spells I find they nailed it are:
Halo
HW: Sanctify
Prayer of Mending
Prayer of Healing (Best so far)
Levitate (Rip shadow priests tho with those sparkles)
Ray of Hope (PvP talent)
Spirit of Redemption (Tho I would like they make this form a little bit more powerful and impactful)
Symbol of Hope
Apotheosis
Holy priests used to look badass when Chakras were a thing with the auras around us.
And let’s not forget about cascade (rip)
I just don’t like the hand thing that they do after they cast something…Nobody would hold their hands like that, It would tire their arms so bad,
https:// gyazo .com/388f00c635b2bd950d56cd56cfe69af5
instead they would use their weapon to rest their arms. Like this.
https:// www. pinterest. com/pin/750904937841793352/
The description of Holy Priests gives off the impression that they’re really powerful holy magic users, and yet most of their spells are barely noticeable.
Holy and Shadow have great potential for interesting visual effects, and yet both specs are lacking the most in that department.
Heal and Flash heal shoud look like Healing Surge and Healing wave from resto shaman.
Obviously light based animation instead of water. Pretty much how like Prayer of healing looks now but without the final splash.
Spell animations are pretty meh across the board, but Holy priest is definitely easily missed. Most animations are small, blend in, or really outdated/minimal (hello renew, flash heal, dispel).
Like, a million years ago when Holy Priests were in a bad spot, I made a post suggesting a Priest spell called “confetti explosion” …I still feel like we should have that.
I think they did update it in Legion and took away a lot of the ‘fire’ and added a touch of ‘holy’… I remember it being much more saturated and fleshed out… could be wrong, though.
Not that it matters, all Holy spells hit like wet noodles, so maybe it’s intentional that holy fire looks more like a holy fart.
A lot of the Priest baseline abilities have the same sound effects and visuals from Vanilla. Only reason I can think of why it’s unchanged is because they’re trying to save fps for raiding.
