It feels like Blizzard did the initial draft for the rework, and for some reason just gave up on it. I am not very knowledgeable about raids, but for m+, it changes exactly nothing. Why do specs like mistweavers get constant, thought out improvements (as they should and deserve) - while holy gets some shuffling around of talent points, and thats it?
Im incredibly disappointed really. Holy is my favourite spec, I wouldnt play anything else if the spec was at least decent. I know that for the content I do, holy is perfectly viable - but compared to disc, its a lot more work for worse results.
Blizzard apparently sees holy priest mainly as a single target healer. Which is great, but that healing profile isnt really needed in dungeons. And it feels especially bad when dungeons are designed for constant aoe healing checks. There is currently not one reason to bring holy priest over any other healing spec.
Even if we look at their stated goals for holy priest, Blizzard didnt even really achieve those
- Developers’ notes: We’re aiming to provide a better experience when using Divine Hymn while pulling back on the number of raid cooldowns available to the specialization. We’re also doing some consolidation in the tree by removing Circle of Healing and adding more interactions with Prayer of Healing. Finally, we’re looking to provide options for a gameplay style centered around Renew uptime in addition to existing playstyles.
- Divine hymn: To be fair, it is definitely in a better place. This would have been the time to give it seperate M+ scaling, so we get at least one aoe healing cooldown.
- Prayer of healing: There are now more talents that interact with it, great! It still does no relevant healing in dungeon content.
- options for gameplay around renew: First of, why? We arent a hot class. Second, it still does no healing, even buffed and on a 12 second cd.
- Why did trail of light get moved to the bottom left? It significantly limits our talent choice. I would love to play divine word again, but I cant give up on the little aoe healing we have.
- Why introduce new absolutely mandatory nodes at the bottom of the tree? It limits build variety even more.
And thats not even to speak of all the issues with the spec we all know about. Still no relevant cc, still no kick, still no mobility improvements.
Im really hoping Blizzard will take another look at holy. We dont have to be the meta or even one of the top healers. But please, give the spec the attention it deserves. There are lot of us that love holy priest for various reasons. Dont let the spec rot for 3 expansions in a row.
3 Likes
The point was that they want us to use Apotheosis. Pretty much everything of value in the changes revolves around maximising the effect of Apotheosis, and the raid tier set also pushes Apotheosis.
Very little consideration was made for us being viable without it or the mandatory supporting talents.
6 Likes
M+ used to be my favorite thing to do in WoW aside from raiding but S1 introduced me to quite a lot of toxicity, long queues, depleted keys, etc. Why? Because most people will pick the meta healer or the decent class healer rather than a holy priest.
I do have a feeling S2 is going to be very similar to S1.
I just want to play the spec I love and I refuse to just keep leveling another alt healer to be able to join a key. I want to be able to play the class and spec I love, I mean, I pay real money for it.
And just like you said, I don’t need to be overpowered, I don’t want to be the meta, I need holy to be DECENT.
4 Likes
What better place are you talking about?
- Its HPS is still lower than your average AoE burst even on 10 lvl keys, let alone higher.
- And to even get that mediocre effect, you need to be 100% stationary. As soon as you get a swirlie underneath you, you have to move away and the ability is “wasted”, which is to be fair not a big deal, because the ability is trash anyway.
In comparison Discpline Priest’s Ultimate Penance:
- Heals 300 - 400% more and has a smart heal element, by putting more healing into more injured targets.
- You can move while channeling Ultimate Penance.
- You get a huge self absorb shield (100% of your total helth) while chanelling Ultimate Penance.
- You’re completely immune CC effects.
Seems fair, right?
It seems obvious that until we get separate employee to manage our spec or at least until that moron, who is in charge of tuning healers / priests in particular, gets fired, we will continue to be a worthless m+ spec, that has ZERO advantages over other specs and will strugle to get invited into keys.
1 Like
You ll get no argument from me here 
Its in a better place than it was before the patch - its still trash though.
I played a key as holy today to test the new changes, I havent played holy in months. Literally the first thing I read is “can you spec disc”. In a +8. The sad thing is, they even had somewhat of a point. You are borderline trolling your group if you play holy over disc, or any other healer for that matter.
Im really torn between playing the season as holy, and seeing how far that will get me - or just taking a break until something changes for the better.
1 Like
Well technically you’re correct, Divine Hymn became better with casting time being reduced to 4 seconds.
But that’s like giving a starving person crumbs instead of loaf of bread: way too little to make any difference.
And yeah I feel your pain: I got rejected 5 times today when trying to join 10s just to rest my talents, despite having times all 10s and having 635 ilvl gear.
Personally if I didn’t have my prot pally character or did not play classic, I would’ve dropped probably.
I did not play PTR so I will try give a few tries on holy in high keys for fairness sake and maybe tiny chance of finding a single strength in holy spec, before I shelf it for the entire season.
1 Like
My Holy Priest complaints;
I want to play Oracle, but now I’m forced to play Archon to be more supposedly effective. I don’t like Halo, but love Divine Star. I’m not a raider, but a M+ or dungeon crawler, so I need more of Divine Star. Since Archon based on Halo, you guys could make Oracle based on Divine Star instead of Premonition.
I find it a waste of talent point to use Guardian Spirit, I don’t use it, never felt the need of it. Also, Divine Hymn, with new changes I had to talent this.
I’m guessing this will be a very bad season for my holy priest(s). I’m not happy just for developers to know.
1 Like
True.
Blizzard manage to mess holy priests over and over and over again. It’s like they allow a person who’s never played a priest to re-organize the spec…
I can’t see holy priests able to heal high level keys anymore with the current setup.
Blizzard- wake up and sort it out! Bring back S1 talents!
2 Likes
wont happen until they look at how fun holy used to be and bring back Renew refresh Hot holy again like they used to be in Mist of pandaria.