IMO, the Soul Warding priest rune in SoD is a major failure. Yes, it is very powerful, but it leads to a very unfun gameplay meta for healing priests.
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Unfun gameplay meta: Priests feel compelled to always be spamming down-ranked PWS on everyone in the raid. For those that care about healing parses (I don’t), it becomes annoying how much of a difference pre-shielding makes so it actively feels bad if there are other healing priests in the raid competing for pre-shielding targets. I actually experienced having a very talented player leave my guild due to this (at least indirectly).
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Decreased build diversity: The rune makes PWS so powerful, that all priests are compelled to use the rune and that therefore forces all priests to elect Strength of Soul rune for their chest slot.
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Absorbing Dmg is Boring: At a fundamental psychological level, the player gets very little real-time feedback on their effectiveness as a healer from dmg absorption effects. A big part of the fun of healing is seeing a health bar that was going down, go back up thanks to your efforts.
Not sure if or how this rune can be fixed. I think the original design of PWS as a high-cost emergency ability on a short cd is far superior from a gameplay perspective. I would much rather the rune be completely replaced by something that is actually fun like Leap-of-Faith.
2 Likes
so don’t use it… It’s the exact same thing as who ever clicks to heal someone first except you no longer waste a gcd/mana to overheal someone
Bring less healers and more dps that way your healers stay busy and nobody cares about shields.
2 good healers is all you need to do the content with an off healer/dps hybrid on Rag.
I run PW:S as my primary heal and the other priest in raid matches my healing using PoM and circle of healing. This rune is incredible because it actually gives priests multiple viable healing styles.
I like being preventative our other priest loves being reactive and this rune allows both our preferred styles to be played with the same class.
Healer parses are pointless because your parses go up the worse your group is. Or you make them intentionally stand in fire so you can heal more.
@Cenpi, I appreciate your post because I didn’t know there were people who actually like that preventative style of play. Valid point.
I agree healing parses are a bad way to compare across raid groups, but they do have value in seeing how effective you are in relation to other healers in the same raid.
I disagree with all of your assertions. I personally find the disc priest healing MoP playstyle very fun. I know others disagree. Soul Warding is very strong. Is it splashy? No. But we already have Penance, Circle of Healing, and Dispersion. Adding other healing mechanics besides straight hps is interesting and fun. I think the absorption mechanic is good because it adds variety to healing. With PWS you can be more proactive than reactive, which is what most healing is. They could add additional mechanics, like Spirit Shell, too.
You should never be downranking PWS, and certainly not spamming rank 1. PWS should be used to save someone from dying or proactively against large incoming damage. You don’t want to waste the weakened soul debuff on a downranked shield.
Also, healing priests pick Soul Warding because that’s the best cloak rune and there aren’t any other choices yet. Binding Heal just isn’t good enough or needed. Also, I prefer Serendipity over Strength of Soul, even with warrior and druid tanks. I find Serendipity much more versatile and effective, especially in the flash heal meta.
I think absorption mechanics are fun and give variety to healing. In SoD, PWS is not mana effective enough to replace your healing, so there’s still plenty of room to cast big heals that make health bars go up. Personally, I think priest chest runes are the boring ones and need to be revamped.
2 Likes
Preventing damage is better than healing it back up, so a lot of folks (myself included), prefer the stabilizing effect shield spam has on a raid. Given how predictable a lot of mechanics are in SoD, being able to pre-shield so much threat out of the raid is amazing.