What do you think about this build for next patch?

I've been thinking about this for a long time, so here goes my first theoretical guide to a possible alternative DPS spec for Priests.

Atonement DPS


What would Smiting my enemies with holy righteousness really achieve?

I'm glad you asked! The key to the Atonement DPS spec is the dispelling/curing utility it provides. At its msot fundamental, it allows you to cure diseases without expending excess mana compared to a Shadow spec. Moreover, the Atonement talent allows you, as of the next patch (4.0.6), to heal anyone within 15 yards of the Smite target for 100% of the damage dealt. The makes the healer's job somewhat easier.

Add in the DoTing capabilities of the Priest class (Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague and Holy Fire) with the cooldowns of Discipline (Pain Suppression and Power Infusion), and you have a spec with a lot of utility, and the movement capacity of most other classes. The drawback is that you will never have the sustained damage output of your Murkier cohorts in the Priesthood.

But...but...Mind Flay!

Yes, the is one of the major drawback to the Atonement spec, as is the loss of the other mana regeneration cooldowns and damage buffs obtained via the Shadow spec, such as Dispersion and Replenishment.

Okay, now I'm intrigued. What talents would you suggest?

Disclaimer - this is only for level 85. The poster is not liable for any deaths and wipes caused by misuse of the following spec at levels 84 and below.)

WoW Talent Calculator - Sigrie (31/3/7)

What are the key talents? That seems a bit insane!

They key talents are:

Disc: Evangelism, Archangel, Power Infusion

Shadow: Darkness, Twisted Faith

Holy: Divine Fury

What are my stat weightings?

Your first priority is to get to the hitcap for raids. That means hit or Spirit upto 17%. Then go for Intellect, with Crit and haste almost equally weighted, with a slight bias towards haste, due to DoT effects. MAstery is by far the worst stat for this spec.

Int = Spi (to Cap) >> Haste > Crit >>>>> Mastery >>>>>>>>>>>Spirit/hit (over cap).

This is all very interesting, but then, what glyphs do I use?

You Glyph choices are pretty limited at Prime, with Penance and Shadow Word: Pain being the two you NEED. The third is open, but as DPS, it's either Shadow Word: Death or PW: Shield.

For Major, there are a wide range - at hit cap. Until then, though, Divine Accuracy is a must. Suggestions are Smite - to replace Glyph of Divine Accuracy, Psychic Scream and an open slot.

Minor Glyph-wise, it's a case of just go nuts. My preferred ones are Fortitude, Fading and Levitate.

But what are my Opening and continuous rotations?

For Single target:

DP, SW: P, Holy Fire, Smite to five, intersperse with Penance on cooldown. Use Shadowfiend when low on mana, Blow Archangel on high-damage phases.

For multi-target, however the priority is slightly different:

SW: P all mobs, then focus fire starting with DP and Holy Fire. IF they have a lot of mobs with little health, try Holy Nova spam. This is quite draining, though, so be warned.

Spell Priority:

DoT maintainence, Evangelism at 5 stacks, Colldowns as and when necessary (e.g. AA for mana recuperation and Atonement buff).

What level of DPS should I expect to hit?

[to be added at a later point, after extensive testing]

I have 2 elemental raiding speccs, one with earthquake and the typical dps-talents and one without and some survival-talents.

There are situations where you have to use earthquake, and it'll do high dps if you can manage to stack cds. Maloriak hero is a fine example for effective use of earthquake. Also Magmaw is a possible candidate.

There are only few encounters where it's usefull, if you can afford 2 elemental speccs go for one with EQ and one without. resolve of the ancient or elemental warding can be very useful on some bossfights, so skipping EQ will be an advantage. ( on Chimearon hero you can survive almost 2 minutes or longer if your specced/gyphed right, at nearly no loss of dps )

And I'm also concerned that the spell has way to high manacosts, I can't aoe the adds @ Halfus hero I would run oom after merely 30 seconds.

I had thought of using GoAK a little early but hadn't done much testing with it. Did a quick test just now, and it seems I picked up ~500-750 dps in the switch. Thank you kindly for the tip.

With the Mastery vs Stamina, is the a base value of HP you should go for or just straight out avoidance from start?

I'm at 89% avoidance with block being 53%, gemmed mastery and enchanted it where i could. But I got low unbuffed HP value at 134k. I haven't raided at all, just tried Baradins Hold and did it without problem and my gearing i feel is much better for the low mana pools of most healers in LFD HC's.

But with trying to find a guild to set my fot into Bastion of Twilight, should I go with my friends advice of having 160k UB (lacking theory crafting) because of when you'll get hit hard a few times in a row and the avoidance not kicking in.

With regemming and switching trinkets I could at my current gear get ~700 Stamina, loosing 452 Mastery.

(This is on my Prot Paladin)

So, what do you recommend? Because I have really no idea

Back on beta EQ did not scale with spellpower , and it does scales poorly nowadays ,also the mana cost can make you get oom very quickly .
The fact is that using the old AoE style (CL whenever up , multi-FS and tab targetting) will bring you more benefits than any extra damage that earthquake could provide , such as more mana from rolling thunder and extra LS charges for fulmination.

I'dont know the exact changes - i think it should be a Buff because at the moment i think its worse even as 346 trinkets (tias grace).
But if someone could test it on PTR and find a significant buff it could be a great an cheap trinket.

Hello,

I'm posting under my original reg toon, my main is an 85 fire Mage and i have a question that i hope all of you extremely intelligent folks here can answer for me and the question is this: going from; Gloves of Aetherial Rumors - Item - World of Warcraft to; , how is it possible for me to lose more than 2k mana and have no change in Spell Power with +54 int on the Flamebloom Gloves. For my question assume both gloves have +20int gems and get the +10 int socket bounus.

I thank you in advance very much for your assistance, i just don't understand the loss of mana and no change in sp w/the new gloves.

Unsolvable Riddle actually sims very well. It's in the best trinket pairing I've found, alongside Fluid Death.

While you mentioned using one point in Elemental Precision as a possibility, there's a pretty big DPS jump available by doing 3/3 if you're using a caster mainhand, instead of the two points in Reverberation and the third in Concussion. It's not really worth pushing for the expertise cap using a caster MH either, as reforging for mastery offers a bigger DPS increase. I also don't think four piece is worth it, since the itemisation on the non-tier gloves and chest are superior and the bonus itself is only worth about 120 dps.

Overall I gained about 600 DPS in the sim using this setup: chardev 8 - Cataclysm Beta

Heya,

LF a mod/addon that makes spamming faster.

By that i mean, a addon that lets me hold down a button instead of repeatedly pressing it. This could ensure both faster and more optimal spamming and perhaps also less keyboard hatred =)

I know that keyboards, such as the Logitech g15 i think its called, will have such options in their drives that come along with the hardware.


So my question is, does anyone of a addon/mod or whatever it may be that would allow me to hold down a button and recast a ability instead of continously repressing.

Thanks in advance,

Your fluffy owl <3 provider,
Madpadde