Adventures of a Dwarf Priest

In a random thought this morning that formed into this post on the healing forums I got to thinking more in depth about Power Word: Barrier and what it may mean for us.  The Priest preview was very light on details which when I really got to thinking about it let my mind run wild on the subject.  Lets see exactly what they said:

“Discipline has access to a new talent, Power Word: Barrier. (Think of it as Power Word: Shield for your whole group).”

Ok what might quickly come to mind is you cast a spell that instantly put a Shield on everyone in your group.  Sure this is the easy answer and probably likely the way Blizzard went.  Is it raid capable?  Well it says “for your whole group” this might make you think it is group only but there is no reason to think it couldn’t also effect raid targets.  Lets say you went for the easy pick, it could very well work like Prayer of Healing will in 3.1 which allows you to cast it on a group. So everyone in the group of a your target in a certain number of yards gets a shield.

Now that we took the easy idea out of the picture lets go with some more interesting ones.  One of my first thoughts when I went further is what about a giant bubble that covered everyone!  This in my mind might be similar to Anti-Magic Zone.  This could be interesting, if they made it absorb a lot of damage, it could be useful in a lot of situations, though it requires people to be in your general area.

So you could take it further, what if you could create that bubble where you wanted, like a Blizzard Radial that you choose to create the damage absorbing bubble over people.  This is where I could see it would be useful in a raid situation.  It is unlikely they are thinking of this, because this would be sort of bubbling an area, not a group unless a group of people were under it.  Regardless it is a neat idea to think about.

I’m sure there are other ideas but these are the ones that spring to my mind how it might be implemented.  Then there is the whole question of which graphic would it use.  I’d hope for a DA like graphic, or if we go for a grander shield idea like anti-magic zone   Like in my post I’d hope for 3.1 to get rid of the old PW:Shield graphic and replace with DA’s bubble just a different hue.

Then we have the whole question of cooldowns, cast times, duration, and if Rapture will effect it.  I am hoping for it to be a separate thing and not proc weakened soul, and instead have its own cooldown.  I’m guessing it might have a cooldown, I’m ok with that if they make it sufficiently powerful   I don’t want to spam a group shield anyways.  It might not have a cooldown if it was more of the giant bubble idea because that would be more situational.  I’m going to guess it won’t have a cast time but that is just a guess, again if it doesn’t I’m sure it will have a cooldown.

In the simpleist form not thinking giant bubbles here I’d say it’d probably last the same 30 seconds as PW:Shield.  If it is something else it could be a different duration.  If I would try to guess I might guess shorter but it is hard to say.

The question of Rapture, I’m going to go with yes.  The other two shields support it so I’m sure the group version will.  It would be a crap shoot if all the damage is absorbed on each person in the simple case, or if the giant bubble would be used to its fullest potential.  So if we do get more absorption it will just mean more efficiency of the spell is all.

So lots to think about with this spell.  It will be very exciting and I look forward to seeing it on the PTR.  Even if they went with the most obvious route it will be a fun spell to have in the Discipline arsenal.

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