Cataclysm Class Preview: Priest

I skipped the warlock preview as it started off in spanish and I couldn’t read it even after a proper translation. As my lowest leveled class (47, recruit a friend level granted from 25), the Warlock remains a fun little mysterious gem that I know only the basics about. Someday I’ll level one and have a brand new class to play since I’ve expended nearly all others.

At any rate.. The Priest Class Review finally went up and it sure is a doozy.

Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the “new” Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest’s go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes.

Not a big surprise here after the Shaman “Greater” change was announced. Looks as if well have a standard fast/efficient/ and large heal on all the healers.

Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage. The intent of Mind Spike is to fill a niche missing in Shadow DPS, though it may be occasionally useful for healers as well. Mind Spike provides a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn’t have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike will do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. The idea behind the debuff is that when you cast Mind Spike, we expect you to cast a lot of them; we don’t intend you to fit it into an already full Shadow rotation. It also provides Shadow with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school. (School lockouts will no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.) 1.5-second cast. 30-yard range. No cooldown.

This is pretty neat for spriests. I also think it is neat they seem to be giving all the classes a multi school spell. Having little experience as shadow I can only speculate but this seems nice for heroics and other areas where adds die fast. I sort of wish it was a buff on yourself that increased mind spike damage though along the line of Arcane Blast. If it is meant for fast dying adds you are gonna be losing your stack often.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can’t have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis.

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or “Life Grip”) is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can’t seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Absolutely phenomenal. I love these 2 new abilities. Run speed and 10% decreased mana for instants sounds great on its on and Life Grip is something I’ve been dreaming of ever since I started playing my Death Knight the day WotLK released.

I can think of a thousand and 1 reason for Life Grip and I can’t wait to use them.

Raider disconnects on boss-x in melee, then gets the traditional run away from the group ability-y? YANKED to safety. Someone constantly standing in Void Zones? Give them the shame of being uber pulled across the room in hopefully some overly flamboyant animation. Tank swaps across the room but they don’t have intervene? Life grip train! That pesky warrior beating you on damage? Life grip him out of melee range.

Leap of Faith is just going to be such a useful and fun ability that I already can’t wait. This is something I thought would be given to paladins and if it happened it would have given me a strong reason to continue paladin healing in Cataclysm. (Other than guild need if it turns out that way, then again my guild would be worried there was something wrong if I didn’t main swap for an expansion).

There is also mention of an Anti-Magic-Zone like group bubble for discipline, and a bonus for casting 3 of the same type of heal for holy to make specializing at tank healing, aoe healing, or raid healing something that can be changed mid fight (very excited there).

Misery and Divine Spirit are gone. No worries priests, they are removing all classes spirit buffs (gone from Kings/Mark of the Wild as well) and all hit buffs (presumably draenai racial/improved moonkin faerie fire)

All in all I’m very happy with the priest changes as I currently intend to go priest main for Cataclysm. My own intentions are always influenced back and forth right up to the last day so well have to see how the druid and paladin reviews look, but currently my ambitions remain the same.

I wanted to mention a couple of new blogs I am reading.

The ‘mental Shaman is a pretty comprehensive elemental blog that I’m sure I’ll be spending some time on when I get around to leveling my Shaman for Cataclysm. They are also a reader of my Raid/Guild Leader Borsk so they obviously have good taste.

Murloc Parliament is another fun blog that gives perspective on guild management, some random how to information, and some comical commentary on the latest wow news.