by Mathew McCurley
Bati has created something that I truly appreciate: easy-to-use, easy-to-set-up, pre-made Grid healer profiles that give you everything you could ask for. The profile set even includes a DPS setup for your off spec, if needed.
An interface for every healer
Oren.1 is the paladin interface, showing all of the pertinent buffs on the target at the bottom of the Grid frame, with built-in timers from the excellent addon OmniCC. Bati is the priest Grid setup, displaying shields, Weakened Soul, Prayer of Mending and other vital priest information right on the Grid frame. Paired with a PoM counter addon, this setup proves very powerful for priests.
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by Dawn Moore
They say knowledge is power, right? Well, understanding how your mana regeneration works can help you out a lot when the situation calls for it. Take a look.
Activated mana regen (cooldowns) The fastest and most noticeable way to get mana back is by using an activated mana regeneration ability. They’re pretty obvious, but I’ll go ahead and scribe ‘em out for you:
- Shadowfiend A cute, cuddly creature appears and attacks an enemy target you select, returning 5 percent of your maximum mana per hit he deals.
- Hymn of Hope While twirling an exercise ball above your head, you receive 12 percent (3% x 4 ticks) of your maximum mana over 8 seconds. (That is, provided you’re starved for mana; if you aren’t one of the three players in a 40-yard range with the lowest mana pool, you won’t be targeted to receive the buff.) In this statuesque pose, you’ll contemplate titles by Ayn Rand, which incidentally raises your maximum mana by 20 percent temporarily. Take note that the 12 percent return draws from your 20 percent buffed mana pool, as opposed to your normal pool.
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by C. Christian Moore
Drain teams were exceptionally successful in The Burning Crusade, so much so that developers went out of their way to make burst damage, and only burst damage, a successful strategy in Wrath of the Lich King. The problem, of course, was that it went completely overboard, and we were stuck looking at extreme dominance from classes that did best under high-burst-damage conditions.
In season eight, we’re seeing a return to some strategies that try to get an enemy’s mana to 0 percent before they make a serious attempt to kill anything.
I have a special place in my heart for drain comps. My first No. 1 title came from playing a drain team with fellow gladiators; it was our first time hitting No. 1 together and it was an amazing time. I probably sounded like a little girl when I screamed ridiculously loud as I saw that coveted title attached to my character’s name.
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by Dawn Moore
Everything you thought you knew has been defenestrated.
At least, with Chakra it has. The big news of the build is that Chakra got redesigned. Probably not a surprise to some; it was a bit of a surprise to me. (I regret never getting to try out the original incarnation of it for myself. Sigh.) Anyway, here is the redesigned Chakra from the patch.
Chakra
Instant, 1 min cooldown
When activated, your next Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell will put you into a corresponding Chakra state. Lasts for 30 sec.
- Heal — Increases the critical effect chance of your Heal spell by 10%, and your Heal refreshes the duration of your Renew on the target.
- Renew — Increases the healing done by your Renew spell by 10%, and reduces the global cooldown of your Renew by 0.5 sec.
- Prayer of Healing — Increases the healing done by your area of effect spells by 10% and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 sec.
- Smite — Increases your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 15%.
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by Mathew McCurley
Healer priests, this one’s for you.
Guardian Spirited
Guardian Spirit is one of those spells in the priest’s arsenal that is just plain sexy. Tanks simply love Guardian Spirit, and it really gives the priest something that stands out as an awesome priestly ability. Save your life? Yes, please.
Guardian Spirited is a neat little addon that is designed to announce to your channels of choice when your Guardian Spirit is activated, on which target and whether the spell has saved your target’s life or the duration ran out with no need to activate. Simple, straightforward options allow you to customize which channels get the messages, but the defaults are tuned to your party or raid — while in raids, the addon defaults to announcing in /ra, for instance.
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by C. Christian Moore
I started enjoying 5v5 at the end of season two. For a large part of my time in WoW, 5v5 was by far and wide my favorite arena bracket. It’s also the bracket I’ve gotten most of my rank #1 titles from (clearly no coincidence to being my favorite bracket *wink*).
The 5v5 bracket is a far different beast than 2v2 or 3v3 and is far more misunderstood. I’ve met 2v2 and 3v3 gladiators who just cannot comprehend the differences in the 5v5 bracket. 5v5 is the Rodney Dangerfield of arena. The bracket just doesn’t get enough respect. The biggest misconception centers around 5v5 being a “zerg” bracket.
You like how I throw around StarCraft terms like cowpies? Mhmm.
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by Fox Van Allen
we’re going to run down the list of the top ten most popular shadow priest glyphs and pick them apart, one by one. Hopefully, in the process, we can get rid of your cookie cutter build and find you a great new set of glyphs that matches your play style.
1. Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
According to wowpopular, more shadow priests take the Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain than any other. Its popularity can probably be pinned to two factors.
First, it used to be a much better glyph. In the old 3.2 days, the glyph was a damage-increasing necessity that made our ticks of Mind Flay more powerful. Given the state of shadow priest damage back then, it was all but required for raiding. A solid chunk of shadow priests still hold on to this as a relic of that time.
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by Dawn Moore
Glyphs
Major
Minor
Recommendations
Damage For your first major glyph, Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain is going to be your best bet. This glyph has been improved significantly from its original form and is now an ideal choice for leveling priests. The only concern is that to get the full benefit of the mana return component, you’ll want all the ticks from your Shadow Word: Pain to go off, so apply your attacks wisely.
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by Dawn Moore
So here’s the situation: you’re putting together a raid and either your normal pally is absent, for some reason (read: debauchery), or you’re in a pug and there are no paladins to be found in ye ol’ trade chat. What do you do? Can your other healers handle the tanks or are you doomed to a wipe fest?
Holy paladins are probably the most influential healers a raid team has because what they do for the raid is so important. That role is, of course, healing the tanks.
But don’t think that a healadin’s influence is just the result of what he does and not what he is; holy paladins heal the tanks because they’re very good at it. They are designed for single target healing, and have been that way for a very long time. Currently, a paladin’s bread and butter spell, Holy Light, is the strongest single target heal (not on a long cooldown) around. Paired up with Beacon of a Light and you have to wonder why they think they can’t raid heal you’ve got more single-target fire power than a disc priest can produce in twice the time, and that’s counting the absorbs.
So here’s the big question: do you really need a holy paladin to raid?
The answer is no.
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by Fox Van Allen
I wasn’t always this excited for the Cataclysm-ic changes to shadow priests. When I got my first look at the leaked Cataclysm talents, I was disappointed. Thankfully, the latest build of the beta integrates a new 41-point talent system that’s wiped almost all my concerns off the table. I can either choose to believe that everyone else was right and that I was too pessimistic, or I can believe that my criticism of the new talents and talent trees made an impact. Being an unrepentant egotist of the highest order, I choose the latter. But narcissistic personality disorders aside, the change to the talent system represents a huge change for the game as a whole. Was it a hit, or did Blizzard miss (again)?
Shadow priesting now begins at level 10
We get a few neat new abilities on the journey from level 80 to 85, but the biggest change to the shadow priest experience in Cataclysm is going to be felt in leveling. The way things are now, you level as a hybrid priest, taking a few holy talents here, a few disc talents there, while still spending the bulk of your points in shadow. After a few key milestones (say, levels 40 and 80), you pay to have your talent tree reset and re-evaluate your choices.
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