A tier bonus aimed at Discipline Priests? Is this a trick?

Well where to begin? When I started my blog a few weeks ago I had planned what my 1st few posts would be about.

Background in WoW .... check!
Loot and the new LFG .... check!
Loot in raids .... check!

My next few posts had intended to be about the Priest T10 set bonuses. I had planned to lay out all the different conclusions I had come to and evaluate the sets bonuses for both Holy and Disc. I had then planned in the following post to set out what my "ideal" gear would be .... but looks like this wont be happening.

The recent PTR patch notes show that Blizzard have changed the T10(4) bonus. FINALLY!!!!

I have never been a fan of the T10(4) sure it was interesting but IMO it was just too RNG based to be considered usefull or for that matter reliable. I had posted a HUGE post on my guilds website laying out all my calculations and theories behind the bonuses in a hope of convincing my guilds priests that they should try and avoid the T10(4) but apparently people dont like numbers? Who would have thought it? As a result of this my guilds Priests aimlessly picked up their T10 pieces. I actually compared them to sheep ... "But its the Healer Set" ... use your heads people.

Anyway incase you didnt know the new bonus is:

"Zarhym -- PTR Patch 3.3.3 Notes

Priest Tier-10 4-Piece Healing Set Bonus: Redesigned. This bonus now increases the effectiveness of the caster's Power Word: Shield and Renew spells by 5%." - 2nd March 2010

Now in order to see whether this proposed set bonus is useful I had to get out my calculator.

Bit O' Math:

Taking Contingency's latest Prof P kill into consideration - I was MT healing pretty much constantly so I think that will be more useful to consider rather than the likes of Queen where I am just bubble spamming people, although I will put that down as well because the amount of DMG that can be absorbed on that fight by PW:S is just impressive.

So on the Prof my absorbtions from PW:S totalled 942,495 DMG so the added 5% would mean that my absorbtions from PW:S would have been 989,619.75.

On Queen my absorbtions on one fight were around the 1.5million mark meaning .... quick math ....would result in an extra 75,000 dmg absorbed.

(Clearly these numbers arent exactly mind blowing but the extra 5% soon adds up.)

OOooooooo I am a moron .... unlike the previous set bonus I can use both these spells in my rotation / healing. I am speced into IMP Renew aswell so this set bonus would as Disc increase PW:S and Renew by 5%. Obviously, the increase in PW:S is the main thing but I always have a few Renews rolling around aswell so this will also be a nice little buff.

For the forst time ever I am glad that I have only recieved the 1 token to upgrade my gear so far lol. If I had been able to upgrade my gear more I would deffo have picked up the T10 shadow gear. I think my best bet now will be to pick up the T10(4) Healer Bonus and still pick up the Shadow chest or shoulders.

I must do more research ......

I will need to run a few senarios to see how useful this bonus will be for Holy Priests. IMO it is more beneficial to Disc. As Holy players tend to have their general rotations ... if you can call it that .... with either Renew or FH as their filler spell. IMO Renew has always been the stronger spec but I do realise that FH it good and a compentent spec to choose. The issue I see is that many / most priests seem to choose the FH option leaving the HoT rolling to the druids. Similarly, since the current T10(2) some have changed to FH filler (I was considering it) since the T10(2) has a 33% chance to add a HoT to the target of your FH which would heal for 33% of the original heal.

I think the T10(4) on the PTR at the moment although not mind blowing will definately be worth picking up. I read a post my someone on some forum somewhere (sorry I didnt take a note of name or place otherwise I would deffo give you props) who said that:

"the 5% might not seem amazing but its similar in many respects to Blessed Resilience in the Holy tree. If it were a level 1 talent choice in the Disc Tree or Holy Tree would you pick it up?"

I think this is probally the best way to look at it. Hell just think of it as an extra 2 or 3 talent points which are being put into a talent that you would probaly have taken if it had been an option.

This is more or less just a first look / analysis of the proposed changes and once I get a bit more data I will run a few more simulations and evaluate its usefulness for both Disc and Holy.

Fingers crossed this change makes it to live. Hell if Blizzard wanna make it a little stronger im ok with that ;)


Panzee :)