Priest Healing Phase 8 Design Philosophy Concerns

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
1

The design philosophy behind Priest Healing in SoD has been very underwhelming, and the most recent changes to the new Healing Priest tier set bonuses suggest that gameplay can get even worse if concerns are not promptly raised.

In Phase 3, the rotation was CoH and PoM on CD with FH as filler, while strategically building Serendipity stacks in anticipation of heavy Tank damage (GH) or raid damage (PoH). This is where I started advocating for the removal of the party restriction for PoH to enhance gameplay in the new 20-man raid environment. Serendipity and any party PoH were introduced in WotLK together and were always meant to be together. If the reasoning behind not allowing this has been that CoH + PoM is too strong, then simply tune the numbers and please allow fun to be had.

In Phases 4 to 7, when not running the arguably boring PW:S spam spec, the rotation was the same as in Phase 3 except FH was replaced with BH, an unimaginative Rune that removed part of the strategical building of Serendipity stacks. I kept advocating for any party PoH throughout these phases to provide a viable alternative to PW:S spam. Instead, PW:S was gutted in Phase 7 with little warning and every Priest was pigeonholed into the same spec that had barely changed in 4 phases.

In Phase 8, we will either play PW:S spam again due to the new tier set bonus (which the devs previously said they did not want) or the rotation will be the same as before, except that now the 2-piece set bonus of the new tier effectively replaces Serendipity. This removes any strategy behind the building of stacks and renders the Rune virtually useless while avoiding the elephant in the room (i.e., party-only PoH).

It feels to me like none of the Priest Healing set bonuses have changed the gameplay since the beginning of SoD, unlike Shadow Priest AQ tier set bonuses for example. They have only changed the numbers in various ways and have instead taken away from the gameplay over time. Priest is the class with the most baseline healing abilities in the game, yet abilities like Renew, GH, and PoH are barely ever pressed in raids. This new 2-piece set bonus only works with Surge of Light, taking away the option of running Power Word: Barrier. Another good example is the new set bonus that enhances Spirit of the Redeemer, again taking away the option of running Pain Suppression.

Priest is the only class in the game with 2 healing talent trees. As such, Priest Healing should warrant significantly more design love and consideration (and more Runes) than any single spec of any class in the game, which I don’t believe it historically has. At the very least, there should be multiple distinct and viable healing playstyles, namely Holy BH and Discipline Soul Warding with potentially a way(s) to make Penance sometimes viable in raids (any party PoH would remedy CoH being so indispensable).

It’s not too late to make Priest Healing fun in an iteration of the game meant for trying crazy & exciting stuff. Yes, I am looking at you, Priest ZG class trinket which has unfortunately been forgotten.

7 Likes
2

thats basically every healing class

3

Let the devs cook, maybe there’s a reason the set bonuses are the way they are for this final phase?

4

Mages also have 2 healing talent trees btw… Arcane and Frost.

5

Arcane and Frost mage healing were two distinct and at times somewhat simultaneously viable specs, something that Priest healing has never achieved in SoD. It has always been either the same rotation since P3 or bubble spam, with very little difference between going deep Discipline or Holy tree

6

ACKSHUALLY

PoH did not get changed to be castable on other groups until ToC patch. I mained healing priest back then so I remember.

…just a minor correction.

7

Neither of these are “healing talent trees” lmao

“frost healer” is just a frost DPS that uses mass regen, the talents are still damage/DPS talents.

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Looking at Wowpedia, Prayer of Healing was changed to any party in Patch 3.1 (Ulduar) and Serendipity happened to have been redesigned to the WotLK Classic/SoD version in that exact same patch. I still think they were always meant to work together

9

My main concern is that the design team clearly doesn’t play priest healer. Like why not make those set bonuses like this:
2p - your PoH can now affect any target and party members of that target
OR
2p - your prayer of mending now has a 15% chance to leave a Renew rank 5 on its target
4p - your Spirit of the Redeemer rune now does not require the Spirit of Remedption talent, while it is active you can also move and healing is increased by 20%
OR
4p - your Binding heal spell now also affects one additional target with the lowest life
6p - all of your critical heals will reduce the remaining cooldown on your shadow fiend and your Power Infusion by 0.5 sec
OR
6p - your Power Word: Shield’s value is increased by 100% but it no longer provides absorption, instead it now heals the target for the same amount. And the weakend soul debuff is now reduced by 0.5 sec each time the target is attacked.
OR
6p - your every 3rd cast of Penance now also affects all the target’s party members.

P.S. Like I don’t really understand why the design team has some sort of competition on making the most useless set bonuses for priest healers, none of us was using 4p/6p of T2, T2.5 was overshadowed by timeworn gear (and even if you check out the shielding bonus of it, the 16% more healing still gave you more value than 2 more stacks of PoM and 100% more healing on most injurjed target of CoH), T3 6p is completely useless on anything above Naxx HM1, not to mention that there is no point in using 4p when you can just slap timeworn gear and have 10% more healing instead of 10% more crit. Like Jesus Christ ask people in your design team who are actually playing the class instead of some random ideas that come up mid coffee break.

3 Likes
10

I dont think they plan on making any major changes to actual tier bonuses anymore but id at least like them to double how long redeemer lasts with the 6p. Its also still bugged and on the GCD :confused:

But yeah essentially theres a good chance we do just go back to shield spamming and run the 4P only from T3.5 if the set bonus isnt saved.

11

Heres a good idea, nerf bubble runes again, force priests to play flash heal and renew, problem fixed.

12

I like your suggestions.

I think the dev team is not doing a good job with priests.

The issues posted here are true.

Boring set changes and dependent with runes

1 Like
13

My suggestion for the Dev Team.

As a player that play both PvP and PvE as Healer.
Priests are having problems in PvP, and the only way to fix are with sets or rune changes.
PvE sets / Runes should fix some PvE problems.

1- Spirit of Redeemer rune should allow priest to walk, this way we can survive in PvP and have mobility in both PvP and PvE.

2- New Set should allow Penance to heal all party during Power Infusion, and Power Infusion cannot be dispelled.

3- New Set should buff Lightwell. Instead of clicking for healing, now lightwell heal everybody in 40 yard and reduce all damage taken by 20%.
Also new set should buff Divine Spirit in some way so we can choose to play Disc Priest.

14

I mean, they have 20 years of set bonus to pick from, it shouldn’t be too hard, and well, they picked some from major glyphs as well.

15

Agreed. Having the last tier set bonuses work based on not running Power Word: Barrier and (for Holy Priests) Pain Suppression is a regressive, diminutive design.

I made a few posts a while back suggesting baseline changes to Spirit of the Redeemer:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/suggestions-to-flesh-out-a-distinct-holy-priest-spec-in-pve/2004349
They somehow made this the “capstone” tier set bonus of SoD Holy Priest Healing without increasing its duration, understanding the reason why I suggested making this change baseline, and understanding that having it tied to a Rune disincentivizes running other Runes in the same slot.