Priest
Priest as a whole functions very well both as a healer and a damage dealer since the changes done with our first batch of class changes, though it's not without its issues.
First and foremost, Discipline was quite neglected in our first batch of changes, failing to give it tools that allows it to be functional and viable by itself instead of being just a secondary specialization you go into for a few tools.
Secondly, the Holy tree is quite independent of its talent tree to perform well as a healer, perhaps too independent. This allowed Holy to specialize deep into Discipline instead of its own tree, making it feel redundant for the most part. You can read more about these issues and our solutions to them in each specializations’ own sections.
Baseline Changes
Inner Fire now grants spell damage instead of Attack Power.
- Rank 1 (Level 12): 13 Spell Damage
- Rank 2 (Level 20): 24 Spell Damage
- Rank 3 (Level 30): 34 Spell Damage
- Rank 4 (Level 40): 46 Spell Damage
- Rank 5 (Level 50): 61 Spell Damage
- Rank 6 (Level 60): 74 Spell Damage
The mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 1 (Level 1): 60 -> 50
- Rank 2 (Level 12): 155 -> 100
- Rank 3 (Level 24): 400 -> 160
- Rank 4 (Level 36): 745 -> 240
- Rank 5 (Level 48): 1170 -> 340
- Rank 6 (Level 60): 1695 -> 445
The mana cost of Prayer of Fortitude have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 1 (Level 48): 2600 -> 900
- Rank 2 (Level 60): 3400 -> 1200
The mana cost of Divine Spirit have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 1 (Level 30): 285 -> 160
- Rank 2 (Level 40): 420 -> 240
- Rank 3 (Level 50): 785 -> 340
- Rank 4 (Level 60): 970 -> 445
The mana cost of Prayer of Spirit have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 1 (Level 60): 1940 -> 900
The mana cost of Shadow Protection have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 1 (Level 30): 250 -> 240
- Rank 2 (Level 42): 450 -> 340
- Rank 3 (Level 56): 650 -> 445
The mana cost of Prayer of Shadow Protection have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 1 (Level 56): 1300 -> 900
The mana cost of Feedback have been reduced to the following:
- Rank 2 (Level 30): 245 -> 175
- Rank 3 (Level 40): 355 -> 190
- Rank 4 (Level 50): 470 -> 205
- Rank 5 (Level 60): 580 -> 220
Pain Spike no longer requires Shadowform to learn and can be cast outside Shadowform.
Pain Spike now has new ranks that are acquired at earlier levels. The current rank of Pain Spike has been converted into the first rank, so make sure to train the later ranks.
- Rank 1 (Level 30): 80 Mana, 66 to 85 Shadow Damage
- Rank 2 (Level 40): 140 Mana, 149 to 172 Shadow Damage
- Rank 3 (Level 50): 185 Mana, 209 to 240 Shadow Damage
- Rank 4 (Level 60): 265 Mana, 333 to 378 Shadow Damage
Power Word: Shield’s Spell Power scaling coefficient has been increased from 10% to 35%.
Note that this does not affect pre-level 20 ranks.
Mana Burn has been moved from the Discipline specialization to Shadow.
Developer Comment: This change allows Mana Burn to benefit from talents in the Shadow talent tree.
Fear Ward is now baseline, learned at level 20.
Dwarf Priests are getting a new racial ability due to Fear Ward becoming baseline. The quest to acquire your level 20 Priest racial will be reset if you’re a Dwarf to get your new racial for this reason. The new racial is shown below: Avatar. Turns your target into stone, increasing their armor by 25% and increasing all resistances by an amount equal to 150% of your level for 15 sec. (30 yard range, 1 Minute cooldown, 6% of your base mana as cost.)[
Elune's Grace has been removed.
Night Elf Priests will now be able to use Bows with the ability to auto shoot and learn the ability Searing Shot at level 20, the new racial is shown below: Fire a searing arrow, dealing weapon damage plus X- Y Fire damage.
- Rank 1 (Level 20): 14-18 Additional Fire Damage
- Rank 2 (Level 32): 25-29 Additional Fire Damage
- Rank 3 (Level 44): 37-42 Additional Fire Damage
- Rank 4 (Level 58): 51-57 Additional Fire Damage
- Rank 5 (Level 60/Book): 68-74 Additional Fire Damage(5% Base mana, 10 Second Cooldown, 33% Spellpower scaling coefficient)
Rank 5 will be learned by using a book, we'll leave it up to you to discover the source of this rank. Developer Comment: To reflect the origin of Night Elf priests in the Priestess of the Moon, we are giving them the ability to wield bows, just like Tyrande Whisperwind did in Warcraft 3. This is rooted in the lore of every priestess of Elune being a skilled huntress as well.
Lightwell has gotten a number of changes:
- No longer removed on damage taken.
- The Lightwell cannot be re-clicked while you have the heal over time effect already on you.
- Lightwell’s renew heal over time effect now scales 17% with your healing power and benefits from talents that buff your healing amount such as Spiritual Healing and Swift Recovery.
- A new first rank of Lightwell is now acquired at Level 30, with the current ranks being shifted up by one.
The base healing values for ranks above level 30 and Spell Power scaling for all ranks have been reduced by 15% for the following spells: Lesser Heal, Renew, Heal, Flash Heal, Prayer of Healing, Greater Heal, Desperate Prayer and Lightwell.
Developer Comment: This change has been done alongside a buff to Spiritual Healing, the introduction of Swift Recovery and updates to Lightwell making it an useful part of a healer’s toolkit. Most players have felt that the majority of the healing talents haven’t felt important enough for most healers which caused them to go deeper into Discipline instead of Holy. The healing output should be about the same as before if not higher when Holy is talented deeper.
Discipline
Discipline really lacks any sort of identity outside of a few spells such as Power Word: Shield and Power Infusion. Instead of treading the same path done by other expansions we’ve decided to steer this specialization into another way, reworking Discipline into a holy damage dealing support specialization. The first part of this is the damage dealing capabilities. For this we’ll be properly tuning Smite and Holy Fire abilities to be reliable tools, add new talents to integrate Holy Fire into the rotation of this revamped specialization and a talent that allows you to properly benefit from the critical strike chance stat, differentiating from Shadow as a damage dealing specialization. The second part is the support centric abilities that lean into the fantasy of both being disciplined and disciplining others, granting powerful boons at the cost of some health, which also synergizes with your shielding capabilities absorbing this damage. Smite has seen a few buffs:
- Increased base damage values by 10%.
- Reduced the mana cost of the following ranks:
- Rank 3 (Level 14): 60 to 40
- Rank 4 (Level 22): 95 to 60
- Rank 5 (Level 30): 140 to 105
- Rank 6 (Level 38): 185 to 135
- Rank 7 (Level 46): 230 to 165
- Rank 8 (Level 54): 280 to 210
- Rank 9 (Level 60/Book): 300 to 240
Holy Fire has seen multiple buffs:
- Increased initial cast Spell Power scaling coefficient from 85% to 100%. Note that this was increased from 60% in the first iteration of class changes.
- Increased base damage values by 10%.
Developer Comment: These changes are meant to compensate the removal of the original Searing Light, scale the mana cost and Spell Power coefficients proportionally to its base cast time. We’ll be keeping a close eye on these abilities due to the numerous buffs and will make adjustments as needed.
Wand Specialization: Now requires 2 points instead of 5 points, also increases your chance to hit with Wands by 5/10% and now gives your wands a chance on hit to grant you an amount of mana equal to your level. This chance is increased with every point.
New Talent: Piercing Light (1st Row / 3 Points): Reduces the chance for enemies to resist your Holy and Discipline spells by 2/4/6%.
Mental Agility: Moved from the 4th row to the 1st row and now also reduces the mana cost of your offensive Holy and Discipline spells by 2/4/6/8/10%.
Spell Warding: Moved from Holy 2nd row to Discipline 2nd row and requires 3 points instead of 5 points.
Unbreakable Will: Moved from the 1st row to the 2nd row.
Improved Inner Fire: Moved from the 4th row to the 3rd row and now requires 2 points instead of 3 points.
Developer Comment: This talent also affects the newly added spell damage increase component of Inner Fire too.
Improved Power Word: Shield: Moved from the 2nd row to the 3rd row.
New Talent: Searing Light (4th Row / 3 Points): Your damaging Holy and Discipline spell criticals have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your next Smite spell to be instant cast and cost no mana. Lasts 10 sec.
Developer Comment: As a note, instant cast Smites still trigger your global cooldown, in a pure damage output sense this equals to a 0.5 second cast time reduction but the talent giving an instant cast gives Discipline movement flexibility in movement intensive boss fights and player combat.
New Talent: Purifying Flames (4th Row / 2 Points): Your Holy Fire has a 50/100% chance to increase your Holy damage by 12% for 8 sec.
Mental Strength: Now requires 3 points instead of 5 points, increases total intellect instead of mana, and now also increases your casting speed by 1/2/3%
New Talent: Enlighten (5th Row Keystone): Bring a party member under your tutelage. Whenever you cast a damaging Discipline or Holy spell, you have a 15% chance to burn them for 4% of their total health as Holy damage and increase your and their spell damage and healing by 10% for 8 sec. If this spell is used on yourself, the spell damage and healing bonus is increased to 15%. You can only have one party member under your tutelage at a time. Lasts 30 min.
(10% base mana, 1 minute cooldown, 30 yard range, Instant cast.)
New Talent: Resurgent Shield (5th Row Capstone): When your Power Word: Shield is broken, 25% of its base mana cost is refunded. Additionally, your damage done by Holy spells and effects will be increased by 6% of the shield's total absorption amount for 8 sec.
Developer Comment: This talent ties in the shield aspects of the specialization to the new holy damage dealing role that Discipline now has, rewarding them for successfully blocking damage with their shields.
Reflective Shields: Removed.
Force of Will: Now also increases the amount of damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 4/8/12/16/20%.
New Talent: Chastise (7th Row Capstone): Chastise the target, causing X to Y Holy damage and disorienting enemies for up to 3 sec. Any damage caused will remove the effect. If the target is an ally, their attack and casting speed is increased by Z% for 6 sec., increased to 8 sec. if the damage critically strikes the ally.
Cannot be used on allies with less than 50% health and below Level X (Check Below). (6% of base mana, 30 second cooldown. 65% Spell Power scaling, 30 yard range which is affected by Holy Reach. Instant cast.) Damage Values, Haste Increase Amount and Level Limitations
- Rank 1 (Level 40): 139-161 Damage, 10% Haste, Below Level 35
- Rank 2 (Level 50): 209-241 Damage, 13% Haste, Below Level 45
- Rank 3 (Level 60): 278-322 Damage, 15% Haste, Below Level 55
Power Infusion: Removed.
Holy
Holy performs quite well in all types of content, but the majority of its talent tree tends to feel optional at times, causing Holy healers to specialize more into Discipline instead of their actual trees. We plan to nudge them in the other direction with a buff to the healing increasing talents while applying a baseline nerfs to their healing, meaning they can get the original healing power back by specializing deep into their tree. Additionally some of the talents were adjusted to also work with the revamped Discipline and its support damage abilities. Healing Focus: Renamed to Holy Focus and affects all Holy spells instead of just healing spells.
Holy Specialization: Renamed to Divinity and affects Holy and Discipline spells.
Martyrdom: Moved from 2nd row Discipline to 2nd row Holy and renamed to “Blessed Concentration”.
Holy Reach: Moved from the 4th row to the 2nd row and now affects all offensive Holy and Discipline spells.
Holy Nova: Now causes normal threat.
Searing Light: Removed.
New Talent: Swift Recovery (4th Row / 2 Points / Connects to Improved Renew): The amount healed by your healing spells is increased by 3/6% if the target is affected by Renew.
Improved Healing: Now includes Prayer of Healing.
Spiritual Guidance: Moved up from the 5th row to the 4th row.
Improved Prayer of Healing: Removed.
Spirit of Redemption: Now increases your Spirit by 5% in addition to its current effect.
New Talent: Reservoir of Light (5th Row / 3 Points): Increases the amount of charges on your Lightwell by 1/3/5.
Spiritual Healing: Healing increase has been increased from 2/4/6/8/10% to 6/12/18/24/30%
Developer Comment: This change has been done to compensate for the baseline healing nerfs, which you can read more on the Baseline Changes section.
Shadow
We’re quite happy with the current design of Shadow and its support capabilities as a Shadow damage dealer enhancer and mana battery via Vampiric Embrace, so there won’t be any major changes to the specialization aside from some number tuning, nerfs mainly aimed at player combat power and a talent move from Discipline. Pain Spike’s Spell Power scaling coefficient has been reduced from 42.85% to 25% and its cooldown has been increased from 30 seconds to 40 seconds.
Blackout: Duration reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds.
Mind Flay: Spell Power coefficient increased from 45% to 75%.
Mind Blast’s Spell Power scaling coefficient has been increased from 42.85% to 60%.
Note that this does not affect pre-level 20 ranks.
Vampiric Embrace: Now has a 2 second cast time.
Developer Comment: While this change hardly matters for combat against creatures, it adds precious few seconds needed to setup for a player kill.
Vampiric Touch: Reduced the percentage healing increase from 5/10% to 2/5% and reduced the mana granted from 2/4% to 1/2% of any Shadow spell damage the priest deals.
Developer Comment: While we love how the supportive aspect of Shadow Priest functions, these changes are done to account for the power increase coming with the increase in Spell Power coefficients and the fact the original talent (Improved Vampiric Embrace) wasn’t adjusted in power for the new mana generation factor. While this nerf looks big, the damage increase is an direct improvement to the healing factor to Vampiric while the mana regeneration is less impacted than initially assumed.
Improved Mana Burn: Moved from the Discipline 4th row to Shadow 3rd row.
Holy Nova is now usable in Shadowform. Doing so will cause self-damage instead of self-healing.
UPDATES | Dated: October 21 2024Power Word: Shield can be cast in Shadowform. Developer Comment: This was already the case but the talent builder did not reflect this. This clears that up for good.
Enlighten: Can now trigger off of healing spells.
Proclaim Champion: Now also restores a small portion of damage taken by your Champion as Mana.
Champion's Resolve: Removed.
Revive Champion: Cooldown increased from 300 seconds to 45 minutes. Cast time reduced from 10.8 seconds to 5 seconds. Mana cost increased. Can now be used in combat.
Searing Shot: Mana cost increased from 5% to 10% of base mana, this is equal to 137 mana at max level.
Avatar: Cooldown increased from 1 minute to 5 minutes.
UPDATES | Dated: November 1 2024The Human Priest racial, Feedback has seen its mana burn and damage effects doubled:
- Rank 1 (Level 20): 18 -> 36
- Rank 2 (Level 30): 35 -> 70
- Rank 3 (Level 40): 54 -> 108
- Rank 4 (Level 50): 77 -> 154
- Rank 5 (Level 60): 105 -> 210
The Night Elf Priest racial Starshards has been reworked with significant damage buffs, doubled mana cost and has a new 30 second cooldown. We've also fixed an issue with the damage model, restoring the behavior of the channel causing 2 small ticks, 2 medium ticks, and 2 large ticks of damage. The values are as follows:
- Rank 1 (Level 10): 100 Mana Cost, 24 / 24 / 36 / 36 / 48 / 48 Arcane Damage
- Rank 2 (Level 18): 170 Mana Cost, 40 / 40 / 60 / 60 / 80 / 80 Arcane Damage
- Rank 3 (Level 26): 280 Mana Cost, 70 / 70 / 105 / 105 / 140 / 140 Arcane Damage
- Rank 4 (Level 34): 380 Mana Cost, 105 / 105 / 158 / 158 / 210 / 210 Arcane Damage
- Rank 5 (Level 42): 490 Mana Cost, 145 / 145 / 218 / 218 / 290 / 290 Arcane Damage
- Rank 6 (Level 50): 600 Mana Cost, 190 / 190 / 285 / 285 / 380 / 380 Arcane Damage
- Rank 7 (Level 58): 700 Mana Cost, 240 / 240 / 360 / 360 / 480 / 480 Arcane DamageRanks 3-7 have a 0.4 Spell Damage scaling coefficient, while Rank 1 and 2 have 0.2 and 0.35 respectively.
Force of Will's spell damage boost now applies to Channels and DoT effects.
Reduced the mana cost reduction granted by Searing Light procs from 100% to 40%.
Increased the duration of Purifying Flames buff from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.