Adventures of a Dwarf Priest

Well it has been a week now since 3.1 went live and I’d like to pass on my impressions of the patch.  First off this patch had a lot of controversy in it.  There were some pretty significant class nerfs, one of the biggest being the mana regen changes, and across the board nerfs to nearly anything that gives a healer mana.  This was also a patch for class buffs too, there were more class changes in this patch than we have seen in a single patch in a long time.  Of course one of the most anticipated and widely debated feature of 3.1 was Dual Spec.  I myself was one of the people against it from the very beginning believing it would have a complete negative effect on the game.  Of course the main feature of 3.1 was Ulduar the latest raid content which was suppose to be on order of magnitude more difficult than Naxx.  The surprise for me in this patch was the Argent Tournament.    I never played at all with it on the PTR, or even any attention to it.  For some reason the name kept making me think it had something to do with the arena

Ulduar

As I mentioned Blizzard intended this dungeon to be much harder than Naxx. The gear dropped in the 10 man is a higher ilevel than dropped in Naxx25.  The instance is massive, I mean it feels like the most massive thing I’ve been involved in WoW ever.  I had the opportunity to go attempt a few bosses with a guild I have occasionally raided with.  There are definitely a lot of gear checks in the initial fights.  You cannot fake your way through this instance.  The first fight is truely epic, done on vehicles much to the dismay of many forum posters.  I found the vehicle combat in the first part a very epic battle and though we had some rough times with it I enjoyed it.

If you read the forums there are too schools of thought right now.  It is either Ulduar is too easy and Blizzard has failed, or it is Ulduar is too hard and Blizzard has failed.  As Inien put it in response to my conversation about this last night, it sounds like Blizzard succeeded, and I would totally agree.  The problem with the argument Ulduar is too easy is it’s being made by people who have not completed the content, but are mad because the top tier guilds (who were testing it on the PTR) had managed to complete the raid instance in normal mode after a couple of days.  The people who complain it is too hard for the most part are not remotely geared to be in their in the first place, and want to PUG it too boot.  I’m not saying people will not PUG Ulduar, people try on Doomhammer right now, but it won’t go really well till the fights are more fleshed out.  Plus the top tier guilds still have many hard modes to get through before the content is totally defeated

I think Blizzard has done an excellent job with what I’ve seen of Ulduar so far and look forward to seeing more.  The soundtrack, the fights, the environment, they are all awesome.

Dual Spec

I truly believed that Dual Spec was a bad idea.  I’m still not convinced it isn’t actually but I have found the ability to be quite refreshing.  In the process of gearing and specing for shadow I have come to appreciate shadow priests more.  They are certainly more involved to play than my mage.  So now when I’m in a group with a horrible shadow priest I understand what the deal is, and when I’m with an awesome one I know how truly awesome they really are.

So far my main complaint about Dual spec for me would be it keeps loosing its mind and I have to put back my talents again.  I’ve basically had more than 4 free “respecs” because of it flubbing up.  On the forum the biggest complaint is when you switch it drains all your mana.  People feel that it is unfair that mana users have to wait for their mana but melee don’t as usually when they switch they don’t have any rage/runic power and well energy returns quickly.  I think the complaint is mostly unwarranted because this is true all the time.  A rogue can fight endlessly, but I’ve always had to wait on mana.

My final verdict on this feature is not in.  Will it destroy the fabric of the game?  I think it might be too early to say it won’t

Argent Tournament

As I mentioned I did not pay much attention to Argent Tournament on the PTR.  I’m kind of glad I didn’t because it ended up being a pleasant surprise once 3.1 went live.  I have enjoyed all aspects of the event.  Though there is some gear in this event as rewards, it isn’t what excites me.  It is just fun to be involved with.  The quests are some times silly but fun, the music in the area is superb, and the mounted combat is fun and engaging.

I got to the second tier of quests yesterday and got to experience more of the mounted combat with a AI opponent.  I had a little trouble at first but eventually picked up some of the techniques and figured out how the npc was beating me   Either way I totally enjoyed it!  It is also neat how you get to represent your city and get involved with all of that.  I understand there are some title rewards as well.

As rewards go for it I’m most interested in picking up the new pets they added, exalted with the faction, and at the very least the IF title   This event is much like the Isle of Quel’Danas as it is a phased event.  I don’t know if it is just two phases or more I haven’t bothered to research it ( I like surprises!).  I know I’ve been helping to build something    If you haven’t headed out to check out the Argent Tournament, make sure you do I’m sure you will enjoy yourself as much as I have!

Priest Changes

I can’t speak to Holy, or even Shadow (yet) but I can speak to Discipline.  The changes in this patch have been exceptional.  First I like to address the regen nerf.  I don’t know how you are all feeling about it now but for me I like it.  Really I haven’t had to worry about mana for so long it is almost refreshing to need to.  Plus it turns out it hasn’t been that bad for me.  Certainly one of my biggest worries was to be without replenishment as they suggested would make things harder.  While I don’t think I’ve raided without it (easily available), I have grouped without it and solo’d.  Thankfully  I haven’t really found myself with any significant mana problems.  This was a relief to me most certainly.

If I look at Rapture it certainly is a shadow of its former self.  I haven’t done a lot of healing since the patch so I don’t know if I haven’t given it much of a chance, but the numbers from it are pretty low.

For me Soul Warding is certainly highlight of the Disc changes.  Though we did not get our group shield, this is as close to it as you can get.  I love not being hindered by that 4 second cool down anymore.  It is as good as I imagined it would be   Of course some folks are crying foul on the forums claiming we are over powered now because it is apparently useful to spam shields on certain fights.  Ghostcrawler backed us up sorta saying:

“Power Word: Shield is a really useful tool for Disc priests in particular. We want them using it. However, its utility is balanced by a high cost. If we get to the point where they are spamming it constantly to the exclusion of other spells and without it ever being a decision, that suggests mana regen is still too high.”

I think my biggest disappointment was when they made the first pass everything was great, they took the 3% damage reduction from grace, made it raid wide attached it to renewed hope.  Then they increased grace to 9% healing and made it last a little longer.  I thought how awesome is that! Then shortly before the final patch they changed grace so it only effects 1 target.  So if you cast on someone else it removes it from the previous person.  This is a horrible mechanic and I complained about it immediately.  If they wanted it to be single target fine, but give me a buff I can put on someone then.  Eventually others realized how bad it was too but nothing has been done about it, except they say they may address the mechanic in the future.  To protest I have only 1 point in grace.

One of the other major changes which effected all priests were the Hymn changes. Divine Hymn was changed from a mostly worthless PvP oriented spell, to a pretty amazing PvE oriented super emergency heal.  It is on a long cast time, with huge mana requirements but can heal a hell of a lot to the right people at the right time.  Hymn of Hope was removed the game, then added back, but the mechanic was made similar to Divine Hymn, and IMHO not as good.

Over all despite the changes good ad bad I feel more powerful than I did before the patch.  This was a good patch for Priests!

Conclusion

Yes 3.1 has a lot to offer you.  I nearly forgot to mention the additional boss in the Vault of Archavon who people also say is too hard   My experience with him is he owns us every time.  Hopefully I get him down one of these days.

This has been an exceptional patch I believe.  I’ve been playing MMO’s for a long time and you get more free content in WoW than any other MMO.   I don’t think a lot of people really appreciate that.  They were not around in the olden days when free content patches were something you may have dreamed of