Hello. The recent changes to Holy Priest feel restrictive and force players into specific builds rather than allowing for creative or personalized playstyles. Additionally, there are other areas that could use improvement to make the spec feel more rewarding Here’s what I’d love to see improved.
*Lightwell needs to be removed from the talent tree and made a baseline ability again. It also needs a significant buff to its outgoing healing.
*Angelic Feather needs a longer duration by default, or Holy Priests need access to another movement ability. Right now mobility feels too limited.
*Renew healing output needs a massive buff. It’s not impactful enough compared to other HoTs, it feel like a wasted cast in many situations.
*Prayer of Healing should be instant cast. In its current form, it’s simply too slow and inefficient which forces players to take Holy Word: Chastise instead. But what if someone doesn’t want an interrupt? The tree needs more flex & not fewer choices.
*Afterlife feels like a forced talent pick. The extended Spirit of Redemption duration doesn’t do much when a Priest’s main job is healing while alive. There should be alternate paths to invest in instead of being locked into this.
*Being required to take [Divine Hymn]https://www.wowhead.com/spell=64843/divine-hymn and Symbol of Hope isn’t a good change. Previously players had the option to invest straight into healing output instead. While the reduced cooldown on Divine Hymn is a solid adjustment, i really think that is a thoughtful change, “forcing” these talents limits the build diversity.
*The path to Answered Prayers ( Apotheosis proc ) is frustrating. Too many Prayer of Mending nodes are required just to reach an 8-second Apotheosis window, it feels like wasted points for those who don’t want to overinvest in Prayer of Mending.
*Apotheosis needs a rework. Cooldowns need to be reduced, talents like Holy Celerity and Light of the Naaru could be either removed or optional in favor of talents that boost healing output, such as 2-point talent Desperate Times or the 2-point Prismatic Echoes .
*Lightweaver should be instant cast instead of just reducing cast time. A slow heal that still requires a cast feels outdated and inefficient especially in high mobility encounters.
Here is the core issue.
The top section of the talent tree is too restrictive. There needs to be more flex in choosing talents instead of being forced into specific paths. All players don’t want to take Symbol of Hope or Divine Hymn. Some would rather invest those points into passive healing boosts. Additionally, many talents have become dead picks in this update. Options like Lasting Words and Desperate Times feel out of reach because taking them means sacrificing too many other valuable talents. There needs to be a better balance that allows for more synergy between different playstyles. Holy should have multiple viable ways to be played and not a single pre determined build.
On a positive note, the Restitution replacement was a fantastic change and feels like something that should have been there all along. The Halo playstyle is in a pretty good spot. It’s a smoother alternative to the old Renew spam. Holy still captures it’s essence. Apotheosis looks great visually which adds to the overall experience. I’ve personally always liked Circle of Healing even though it can feel a bit unreliable at times. Sad to see it gone. It’s still far better than Prayer of Healing. Finishing off, bringing back more of that Lightwell style passive healing would help round out the spec in a meaningful way.