Howard Roark

So, are you guys grabbing the season 3 gloves or keeping season 2?

Season 3 seems better on paper but as much as I use PS, I certainly don't use it every single time it is ready. I'll usually be spamming it under pressure, but if I've already been keeping myself alive through the first 23/27 seconds of the cooldown, another 3 probably won't kill me (or maybe it will)

S2 effect is far from useless as most people say, it has probably saved my life a lot more than I realize, and that extra second is pretty amazing when you can get a full duration fear off on a healer.

I'm sure I'll eventually have them- but for right now I think I'll stick with s2 until I fill out all my slots.

Or am I just being silly?

 

roosevelt

The extra second is nice, but being I see being able to get the fear off 3 sec earlier everytime as significantly nicer. The difference between fear/not fear is far greater than the difference between a8 and 9 sec fear. Aside from the fact that picking up s3 gloves allowed me to enchant them for spell hit without feeling bad about overwriting my old s2 healing enchant.

Also Isotope, Dwarf priest : http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...yjal&n=Isotope

 

tha_bishop

The s3 bonus is way better than the s2 bonus.
The reduced fear CD when focused will save you tons more than 1 sec longer fear. The 1 sec longer fear can also be negated by trinket or a dispel from an ally. Also when you need to interupt someone, ie a healer, the 3sec matters more.
Well it's all personal opinion but imo the s3 bonus is a really nice upgrade.

 

Crypta

I guess this is a good time to ask (being that the s3 epix shopping spree has begun)..

What is the current thinking on how to enchant/gem s3 gear? I'm particularly interested in the Disc and Holy perspective (I usually 5v5 as deep Disc).

 

Psilux

Currently, I'm gemming my head with a [Powerful Earthstorm Diamond] and then any yellow gem slot = resilience, any red/blue gem slot = shadowsong / nightseye for the +healing / mp5. As for enchants, chest = resilience, gloves = healing, head = thrallmar rep enchant.

 

Peekaboo

I gem solid stars pretty much. If I didn't play 5s I might consider another gem one day.

 

• caladein

I'm a bit odd in that I match socket bonuses most times: Blue/Yellow with Steady Talasites and Reds with Healing/MP5. I'm rarely the first target pressured in games we lose now, and I'm an admitted regen junkie so it all works out. Straight Stam is always popular though. I've also seen a few Priests go straight Resil and Healing while splitting sets to get near Resil cap.

MSD vs. PED seems to come down to: "Are you getting focused down first?" For me, the answer is no so I use the MSD.

As for enchants, conventional wisdom has: Glyph of Power (or Renewal), +15 Resil to Chest, Fortitude to Bracers, Spell Strike to Gloves (or Healing or Heavy Knothide), Golden Spellthread, and Boar's Speed. The cloak's up in the air, if I was internally consistent I'd prefer Spell Penetration (or if I was playing mainly in a smaller bracket), but I'm currently using +120 Armor on Kharmaa's.

With the +4 Stats to Ring enchant being moved somewhere reasonable I'm not sure if I want to replace +20 Healing. I'm leaning towards sticking with healing, but wanted to get some opinions on it.

 

• Calantus

I hate resists so I'm going for spellstrike to gloves, glyph of power to head, and a +hit gem somewhere to cap out. I'll also be going penetration to cloak to cancel out racial resists or cloak shadow res. I want to work in an MSD and I like hitting the socket bonuses so I will likely be socketing +heal/mp5 on reds and resil/stam on yellows in addition to my 1 +hit gem. Bracers and weapon I'll go for +heal, and will likely re-enchant my S2 weapon for the mana regen proc if I can be bothered to get the mod that switches it in/out without having to worry about it.

 

roosevelt

Spellsurge seems pretty lackluster for the cost, unless you're playing 5s or something with a lot of other casters. The 50 sec hidden cooldown means you'd be lucky to see 2 procs in an average small arena. I mostly play 2s and occasionally 3s, so it seems like stacking heal is the way to go. I'll be going healing on bracers, mostly gemming to hit resilience bonuses and be at/near the cap, since I'm trying to get rid of my Talisman of the alliance and replace it with Essence of the Martyr when I can squeeze in one more Karazhan run for easy badges.

As far as enchants, I'm looking at or have already done all the ones Calantus suggested for my s3 gear.

Also Isotope, Dwarf priest : http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...yjal&n=Isotope

 

Eugenicist

What suggestions would you make for me to decrease the gross number of times my fears are resisted by Warlocks, Warlock Pets, and Priests?

With my current itemization I've got 39 spell hit rating (3.09%), and the 20 spell penetration enchant on my cloak. Go ahead and armory me for other details on my itemization as far as HP & resilience (some people have suggested to me that I'm wasting my time and should go for more stam &/or resilience).

The only thing I've thought is to buy the S3 wand that includes spell penetration, and that perhaps this will reduce the resists my fears are seeing. Of course if it becomes clear that the extra penetration won't help, then I would want to buy the S3 healing wand instead of the dps/penetration wand.

I'm still a bit unclear about the binary/non-binary resist thing, though I've spent a bit of time attempting to understand it. From what I understand, psychic scream is a binary spell? lol. So I think that means it can be resisted 1) by the player's natural resistances to spells (affected by my spell hit rating) and 2) by the players shadow resistance (affected by my spell penetration).

 

RootBreaker

A spell being binary means that it can't be partially resisted. There are only two results when the spell is cast, that it hits, or that it doesn't. Mind blast, for example, is not a binary spell. If you mind blast someone with shadow resist, it can partially resist, and deal half damage. Since psychic doesn't deal damage, it is not a binary spell.

But yes, both binary and non-binary spells can be resisted by both shadow resist and the natural level-based miss chance. And yes, spell hit helps cover most of the natural resistance, and spell penetration directly counteracts shadow resistance.

Priests in particular are going to resist more fears than other classes both because of the shadow resistance buff, and the 15% fear resistance talent at the top of the discipline tree.

 

• caladein

With 3%+ Spell Hit, you're already Hit Capped (99%) so that's out of the way.

Penetration just depends on what you're fighting. With the Off-Hand (or Enchant+Wand) you can floor an unbuffed Lock with a Felguard's resistance. With a Felhunter you'd need to add both groups. Assuming they aren't a Warlock, once unbuffed the worst you could run into (assuming no /ignore shenanigans) would be the BT necklace (40) + SR Enchant (15) + Racial (10), which can be canceled out with the OFf-Hand and either the Penetration Enchant or Wand. If a Demo Lock with a Felhunter is stacking Shadow Resistance, I just wouldn't bother.

 

UnholY_Prince

Except the offhand didn't make it to the S3 Release, leaving us with a max of 64 Penetration without gemming for it(2 Bands, Cloak enchant, Piercing Touch Wand).

 

Cahrin

What is the rational for using +20 Spell Penetration on cloaks instead of +15 Shadow Resist? Is it simply that Shadow Protection is usually up? Wouldn't more SR help on fear resists, or is it generally assumed you'll be able to LoS the fear in the first place?

 

Rej

For Shadow priests out there - do you normally gem straight +dmg? Or some combination or dmg and survival attributes?

 

• Calantus

I'd much rather be able to rely on my important abilities landing when they need to land than hope that the extra small % chance I have to resist a spell will save me from a spell the opponent is trying to land. Also I just hate randomness and since one way is trying to eliminate randomness and the other is trying to bring in more randomness the choice becomes easy for me. :P

 

UnholY_Prince

What strategies are you Holy Priests using to sustain your Mana? I'm finding myself running Oom all too fast, even with Shadowfiend and [Figurine - Talasite Owl]. I've been allieviating this by running with extra MP5, using Dazzling Talasites in a few places, and putting Mana Prime on my Bracers(6 MP5 > 12 Stam), but still am having problems with it. Do you just find opportune moments to drink, or pray that the fight ends before your mana pool runs out?

 

Thorongil

Basically you have to get the healers of the other team oom before you are, that´s the strategy. Drinking is a good possibility but can´t be executed if you´re being focused or if the other team´s players are wary and don´t allow you to drink. Drinking also depends on which arena you play, in BEM it´s quite easy to take one unattentive moment and hide behind a pillar to drink, in Nagrand it´s harder, since you can´t hide by just one quick jump. In Lordaeron it´s very hard due to the open field. The only reliable way is to run to one of the spawn-chambers. Problem: You have to cover a great distance to get there and back again, meaning a long time your partner has to deal with a 1 on 2-situation.

Spellsurge might also be a possibility, though I prefer +heal, due to the 50 second interal-cd, but you can just have 2 weapons and switch them every cd of Spellsurge (if the match lasts that long).

 

• Calantus

Yes, and yes.

Drinking really is key, and you have to learn how to take sips whenever the opportunity presents itself. Even right out in the open or standing right next to an enemy you can still get some mana back. One thing I notice a lot of healers in general do is to cast an unnecessary spell right before they would go OOC. Your teammate is down 1k HP? Is he in danger? If no then you can probably take a few sips instead of flash healing or renewing him right now. Or you could do a low-ranked Gheal and spam your drink button so that you drink right as the heal goes off, but before you're put in combat.

 

Juli

Get a spirit staff with a spirit enchant and swap it on when you run out and have a pet on you or while you drink since you're not casting anyway (as long as youre good about swapping back). The extra survivability from pvp weapons does you far less good when you're dry.

Abuse POM liberally from the start; remember all those matches where you ran out of mana but spamming prayer of mending and nothing else seemingly kept your group alive indefinitely due to dots/pets/deep wounds/split dps bouncing it quickly? take advantage of that efficiency from the start. Force mending bounces with SW:D when it jumps back to you if you're not getting hit for free damage and a cheaper heal than even a new POM. Don't POM people from max range if there is no target close enough for it to jump to unless absolutely necessary.

Good spell selection is important: gheal when possible over flash heal, as long as its not overhealing. Binding heal is about the same efficiency as gheal without overheal. PW:S is your most efficient heal (aside from POM quintuple bouncing) against healing debuffs. It's easy to blow a full mana bar on renews that end up being 50% overheal or spamming inefficient flashes. Top off your targets then load them up with fresh renew/pom/pw:s and use the healing downtime to sneak in some drink ticks if necessary (or use the time to play offensively and mana burn/purge/mind control/chastise).

Don't overheal with instants: if someone takes 3k damage, you don't necessarily need to shield + POM + renew them if they're not being focused, just the renew and/or incidental POM healing should be fine. And finally, mana burn their dps or healers out before you run out yourself. Don't be afraid to use your shadowfiend to keep someone in combat for 15 seconds after you've mana burned them when you don't have time to babysit them with autoattack or rank1 SW:P (don't do this against a good druid unless you're good enough to park it on a new target asap when he notices what you're doing and travel forms away from your shadowfiend in an attempt to deprive you of mana, unless you really don't need the mana at all)

 

Sarah

As for the shadowfiend of the opposing team's priest; throw a shield to whoever it's targetting, as `absorbed' attacks will result in 0 mana leeched. And try to LOS getting cycloned when your shadowfiend is out, or you'll be `immune' to the mana leeched.

 

SensenmanN

Does any1 have some info on the Armor to cloak vs spell pen for disc/holy priests?

Armor would sorta help when being attacked, but with every1 having armory ignor now.....

Spell penetration would help a lot with mana burn, but is only 20 going to be enough to really matter? (Yes I mana burn a lot with my arena teams..... though I also get focused by melee a lot.)

Also I have a friend who swears by 15 SR.



Any thoughts?

 

heel

Alright: I went back and tested this again, on live. Myself and another Discipline Priest in the same party dueled. We mana burned each other once (both with and without Power Infusion), took note of the exact mana loss from each burn, and drank up to full. The result, which I am absolutely, one hundred percent certain of, is that Power Infusion has no effect whatsoever on the amount of mana burned by Mana Burn. I wasn't nuts; I was right, and I have no idea why I accepted the popular wisdom as gospel before I tested it again myself. Once again, using Power Infusion in conjunction with Mana Burn will make your burn do 600 damage instead of 500, but it will have absolutely no effect on the amount of mana burned.

 

Rej

Currently, my team is trying out a 4-DPS burn strategy. Arms Warr / UA lock / Shad. Priest / Elem. Shaman / Resto. Druid. As the priest, I'm getting killed extremely quickly in most of the fights, and therefore contributing very little. However, if I hang back or avoid combat in an effort to stay alive early on, our team is effectively fighting a 4v5, without enough burn to kill someone quickly.

Anyone have advice on this? Should I be hanging back and coming in late, or should my teammates be doing something different?