Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Racial Imbalance: Alliance Priests

Continuing my Racial Imbalance theme...

Priest Racials: Priests get two racials that depend on... race. The first is at level 10. The second is at level 20.

Desperate Prayer: Level 10: Dwarf and Humans: Heals the caster for X to Y on a 10 minute cooldown.

So an extra heal basically. Mana free.

At the highest rank, it's base is for 1601 to 1887. (This is comparable to a wimpy Greater Heal Rank 4, which heals for 1798 to 2006. Rank 3 heals for less than 1609.)

In the upcoming expansion, when they're getting rid of downranking (gonna cry, I am!) this will serve as a mid-range heal, likely.

The high cooldown on it means it isn't something you can rely on every time you need it, but it can come in handy on mana intensive fights.

Holy Specialization increases the critical effect chance by 1-5%.
Silent Resolve reduces generated threat by 4-20%.
Spiritual Healing increases the ammount healed by 2-10%.

Starshards: Level 10: Night Elf: X Arcane Damage over 15 seconds. No mana. 30s cooldown.
At max rank, base 785 damage.

This is a nice little spell. It allows holy priests to guilt-free DPS! You don't have to worry about the mana 'waste' the way you do with using SW:P (I still use SW:P anyway. The mana cost is quickly replaced by passive Mp5). It's an arcane spell, so even if you're locked out shadow or holy, you can still cast it. It's an instant cast and another DoT. (love dots! more dots!)

(It used to be channeled. I mean, really.)

Force of Will (discipline talent) will increase the damage done by this spell.

On boss fights, my priest will throw this on the boss every chance I get. It gets resisted a lot (no spell hit on a holy priest), but when it sticks, it sticks and does damage. You never know when that little bit of damage will be the difference between success and failure.

Symbol of Hope: Level 10: Draenei: X mp5 for 15s. 5 minute cooldown.
At max level, it returns 333 mana every 5 seconds.

This is another nice little buff for the group, especially on mana intensive fights. (And with the upcoming potion debuff... possibly more vitally useful than anticipated.)

Not really that useful in PvP, unless someone can see a use I'm not seeing? Situationally useful for the priest that's running low on mana, yes... but... anyone else have an application for this for PvP?

Chastise: Level 20: Dwarf and Draenei: X to Y holy Damage, root for 2 seconds.
At max rank 370-430 damage. (Possibly scales with spell damage) 300 mana cost to use.

It is a holy spell (sorry Shadowpriests!), instant cast, no GCD.

It specifically says it ROOTS the character, but does not incapacitate. As noted with Escape Artist, there's a fine use of language here. It is an immobilization effect, but players afflicted can still use actions. They just can't move for 2 seconds. Enough time for someone to start running away, maybe?

Feedback: Level 20: Human: An anti-magic shield, any attack burns mana of the attacker, causing 1 shadow damage per 1 point of mana burned. 15 second duration. (No listed cooldown, but it has one. Human priests, lemme know!)
Cost to use 710 at max rank. Burns 165 mana.

This spell will still trigger effects even if Power Word: Shield is in place. If you RESIST the spell being cast, it will not trigger. It burns 18 mana per attack and thus causes 18 damage.

Maybe it's just me, but the mana use versus mana burned imbalance makes this something I don't think you'd WANT to use? If you have Mental Agility, a tier 4 Discipline talent, will reduce the % of the spell (up to 10% at max rank), maybe that makes it more palatable?

It doesn't transfer the amount that the enemy's pyroblast would do to damage against the mage (wouldn't that be pretty?), but it will keep you from getting eaten by it.

It also may be useful against channeled spells, as each tick of damage triggers the effects.

Elune's Grace: Level 20: Night Elf: Decreases chance to be hit by 20% for 15 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.

If I recall correctly, this used to be decreases damage by ranged attacks. This is a bit more palatable. For a mere 60 mana, you reduce your rate of being hit by 20% for 15 seconds. Yes please! Too bad the cooldown is so long (down from 5 minutes that it used to be, but still a trifle too long for 15 seconds of Neo.)

It is a holy spell (again, sorry Shadowpriests!) and it also does not effect spell damage, just ranged and melee.

Again... comments, criticism, opinion, etc. Please let me know! I'll be working on the Horde side here shortly.

2 comments:

  1. Feedback is so bad that I completely forgot that I have it.

    I use Desperate Prayer a lot when raiding, what with the raid-wide damage that gets thrown around. It's not a deal-changer, but hey, free heal. :)

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  2. I don't think Feedback is an "anti-magic" shield since you still take all of the damage delt, it just burns the opposing casters mana for X amount. It's pretty piss-poor and I couldn't tell you the last time I ever used it.

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