Quick Update

Quick update today – the guild’s been making some progress in 25-man Ulduar this week, POST GINORMOUS LOLNERFS, yay. Downed Loot Leviathan, Razorscale, XT-002 Deconstructor, Kologarn, and the Assembly of Iron. We got Auriaya down to around 30% last night before the raid ending time so it’s too bad that today is Tuesday. Oh well, looking forward to more nerfs!

We got our first Fragment of Val’anyr. Or rather, I got it. :D

My own progression: 1/30.  I’m never going to get this thing.

/sigh

Finally respecced to PvP Disc too (running 60/11) and going to take Arena seriously this season. I’ve been playing with the same rogue since S4 but this season, one of our guildies (DK) lost his partner (Pally – is that a surprise?) from S5 after they both made gladiator. I created a team with the DK because he wanted to try out a Disc priest but I wanted to keep playing with my original teammate so we invited the rogue too. Let’s just say this is how it went:

DK/Priest: 7 W – 15 L

His MMR rating ate my face and spit it back out in the form of 2400 rated teams where I just can’t support him. Every team we got gained single-digit points from us. FML

Rogue/Priest: 17 W – 15 L

We got more even teams with super high rated teams littered throughout. It was, in general, an easier time than playing with the DK. However, playing with the DK should help with the learning curve and hopefully, I’ll be able to improve more drastically, which in turn, will help while playing with the rogue.

Taking PvP seriously definitely helps me improve my PvE play. I just wish the reverse were true.

Achievements-wise, I am now Matron Raesa the Noble. <3

So… Who cares about addons when they’re going to break today?

Well, I’m sure everyone knows by now but in case you don’t – Patch 3.1, Secrets of Ulduar, goes live today!

I’m not really prepared and this is why:

1. I don’t know what my second spec will be. It’s either going to be PvP Disc or PvE Shadow.
2. I don’t have glyphs for my second spec. Well, that’s partly because I don’t know what it’s going to be!
3. I don’t have flasks for  Ulduar (but we’re going to be doing the 25-man raid this weekend anyway so I’m not in that big of a rush).

PvP Disc might win out because my partner for the last 2 seasons promised he’s going to take the next season more seriously so we might stop hovering in the high 1600s-low 1700s and actually do something. Enticing. But so is delicious, purple pew pew. Oh what am I going to do?! It would make dailies a lot faster, that’s for sure… And it seems like such a waste to go Disc for both specs. /cry Or I can just go holy again…

Anyway, I have the following builds and glyphs saved:

PvE Disc 57/14/0

PvP Disc 57/14/0

PvE Holy 14/57/0

PvE Shadow 14/0/57

I guess I’ll have to see how often my teammate wants to do games. At this point, I respec more often to PvP than I do to DPS and there’s really no reason to expect that to change, considering I’m definitely going to heal through progression raids. I will never be a serious DPSer in raids that count but I can be a serious PvPer while raiding so I guess I would get more use out of PvP Disc.

Now, should I go Disc or Holy to heal in raids? THE CHOICES!

I think it’s time to do another 2-parter for which pieces of T8/8.5 are worth keeping. o.O

Glyph Selection Part 3 – Shadow

Mmm, the zomgwtfpwneverything spec. I have such a deep, deep love for shadow and all its pretty frills that I think about switching back constantly when I’m not raiding. I cannot wait for dual specs. Of course, by that time, I might have to use my 2nd spec for PvP instead, which is still going to be discipline. One day, I’ll be a shadow priest again… One day…

Let’s get this post on.

Once again, the list of Priest glyphs available can be found via doing a search on Wowhead.com:

• Major Glyphs
• Minor Glyphs

Player vs. Environment

There are 3 surefire glyphs to take for raiding. They up your damage and that’s all you really need. Glyph selection becomes more challenging when deciding for PvP (not because they’re all great but rather because they’re all just kind of mediocre). The main idea here is moar damage. Let’s face it – after 3.0 and the xpac, shadow priests are no longer necessary for a raid and can be easily passed over for someone who does more damage and provides Replenishment (say, a ret pally?). It sucks but we’re going to need to prove to everyone that we can stay on top of the meters (it’s hard though).

• Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
  Use: Increases the damage done by your Mind Flay spell by 10% when your target is afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain.
  Yes. Take it. Now. This glyph seriously sucked in beta (increased duration of SW:P by 3s) but they reworked it into something actually useful and something a shadow priest would actually want. It gives 10% more damage to shadow priest bread and butter. Are you convinced yet?
• Glyph of Shadow
  Use: While in Shadowform, your spell critical strikes increase your spell power by 10% of your Spirit for 10 sec.
  Remember that jubilation you felt when you found out Mind Flay crits? Now put it to good use. Crit has never mattered as much to shadow priests as it does now and with Mind Flay being the spell cast most often, this is one glyph that you shouldn’t and just cannot pass up. Stack that crit, baby!
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Death
  Use: Targets below 35% health take an additional 10% damage from your Shadow Word: Death spell.
  This is your Kill Shot. A weak one but it’s the closest thing we’ve got. This one is not the most useful out of the 3 but given what’s left of glyph selections, this is the best one to fill that last slot by a long shot. Hey, more damage is more damage. Besides, with Pain and Suffering talented (and why would you not have this talented?!), the increase in damage to SW:D won’t kill you. Or will it?

Player vs. Player

A priest in Arenas & Battlegrounds really serves much of the same purpose, regardless of what spec they are. Mana Burn, Mana Burn, Mana Burn. You get in some pew-pew if you’re shadow or throw in some heals if you’re discipline. Divine Intervention? Hand of Protection? Ice Block? Mass Dispel. And fit in a Psychic Scream whenever it’s useful or if things get hairy. If there’s no one to cleanse in your group, you might want to do that too.

• Glyph of Power Word: Shield
  Use: Your Power Word: Shield also heals the target for 20% of the absorption amount.
  Healing without dropping form in Arenas? Shadow priests heal?! What?! Survivability is key.
• Glyph of Dispel Magic
  Use: Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 6% of maximum health.
  See the reasoning for above.

Before we go on, here’s where the glyphs get mediocre. The third glyph slot can be filled with whatever is better for your role in Arenas (primarily). In my opinion, they need to get cracking on a Mana Burn glyph! But I’ve seen more than enough QQ about how OP it is even after they nerfed it so that it burns a percentage of mana and not a fixed amount (bleh). Regardless, feel free to take your pick from any of the following based on your method of play:

• Glyph of Psychic Scream
  Use: Increases the duration of your Psychic Scream by 1 sec.
  The extra 1 second could be enormous or it could be business as usual.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Death
  Use: Targets below 35% health take an additional 10% damage from your Shadow Word: Death spell.
  Kill Shot!
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
  Use: Increases the damage done by your Mind Flay spell by 10% when your target is afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain.
  More burst = more wins seems to be theme of Season 5. In that same vein, you can also go with:
• Glyph of Shadow
  Use: While in Shadowform, your spell critical strikes increase your spell power by 10% of your Spirit for 10 sec.
  But I probably wouldn’t pick this one if I was making the decision based on overall utility.

There you have it folks, shadow priest glyph selections. There are a bunch of major glyphs I haven’t mentioned in any of my posts and that’s because I truly don’t understand why they even exist. Well, that’s not true – I see how they can be useful but I just don’t see why anyone would slot them over the other choices available to us. I mean, c’mon, we only get 3 major glyphs to actually use!

Next Wednesday will be the last and final post on glyph selection – minor glyphs! It’ll be a short post and appropriately so as we will be in the middle of the holidays here, as minors for priests are also meh. I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on any information that might actually be useful (that is if you find my posts useful at all!).

Tomorrow is Christmas for those who celebrate it. Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, I wish you and yours a great holiday season in-game and IRL!

Glyph Selection Part 1 – Discipline

There are just too many glyphs to break down in all 3 specs so I’m going to have to break it down by spec. Part 2 will be for Holy and part 3 will be for Shadow. Each post will cover both PvE & PvP glyphs per spec where it applies (this excludes Holy), as well as healing & DPS glyphs (this excludes Shadow).

The list of Priest glyphs available can be found via doing a search on Wowhead.com:

• Major Glyphs
• Minor Glyphs

We’ll address Discipline and Shadow glyphs for both PvE and PvP because the functions are so vastly different that it’s integral for one aspect but completely useless for the other (e.g. Glyph of Fear Ward for PvE… cuz you know… those bosses really fear you around multiple times during a fight…).

I’ll also dedicate a post to minors by themselves, as there are only ~5 so no matter what spec you are, you will be slotting the same 1 or 2 throughout.

Player vs. Environment

Let’s talk Discipline healing for raids/dungeons. We should all know by now how it’s meant to work – bubble, bubble, bubble. Yeah, warriors and druids hate it. You know what guys? Your threat generation has been buffed so get over it. I’ll make sure I don’t bubble you when you only have 15 rage but if I see you’re at 95, you will get bubbled. Prot pallies? Don’t complain about not getting mana back from heals. You’re going to be getting beat on enough times to be spammed with heals during boss fights anyway. DK’s… you guys just creep me out.

Major Glyphs for Healing

1. Glyph of Power Word: Shield
   For a Discipline healer, if you understand how your spec heals, you will know this glyph is beyond delicious (May I have some moar?).  Base healing from the glyph heals your target for 0.2*2230 = 446. Since absorption also scales with spell power, you will be seeing heals bigger than that. The heals can also crit but it will not proc Divine Aegis.In practice, I see heals of ~1k from the glyph. With this glyph, you are getting an instant heal, a bubble, and mana gains from Rapture (have I linked this spell enough times for you to remember what it does yet?).  How can you not want it?!
2. Glyph of Flash Heal
   This is my next recommendation. It reduces the mana cost of Flash Heal by 10%. As Disc, Flash Heal procs your talents, in addition to Greater Heal and Penance. Reducing mana cost is always a good thing and will also prolong your utility in long fights. This increases the efficiency of Flash Heal, which has been long bemoaned for its expensive relative cost of amount healed per mana spent, compared to its more practical older sibling, so now you don’t have to feel so bad for secretly wanting to be able to spam like a holy pally sometimes. But you still shouldn’t do it.
3. Glyph of Dispel Magic or Glyph of Prayer of Healing
   As for the third major glyph, Glyph of Prayer of Healing really is the better choice. I use Glyph of Dispel Magic because I had PvP in mind in trying to create a character who was mostly geared towards PvE but viable in PvP without a huge respec and reglyphing cost. It’s also nice for those fights where magic debuffs are dealt out that usually tend to be DoTs. However, Glyph of Prayer of Healing really is more PvE-focused and more useful in a raid or dungeon healing setting. If you go this deep into the Disc tree, you will really miss CoH and your only choice for AoE healing is PoH. Make the most of what you have and slot this one in because it adds a HoT effect. If any fights require YOU to help out with AoE healing, there’s an 80% chance your party is going to take more AoE damage.

Major Glyphs for DPS as Disc/Holy (lolsmite? not anymore…)

Well, to me lolsmite is still lolsmite. I personally don’t use a Disc or Holy spec for DPS/leveling/grinding. I find the Shadow tree to be much more rewarding and versatile in this capacity (besides, a Smite build doesn’t offer Replenishment). There’s really only 1 glyph that stands out here:

1. Glyph of Smite
   It’s a nice glyph for grinding and the mobs are just beating on you. Decrease pushback by 50% so you can keep spamming and kill things faster.
2. Glyph of Inner Fire
   Now, if you’re going to be grinding, you’re going to want to up the charges on your Inner Fire. It sits at 32 un-glyphed and those charges die down pretty quick – well before the 10-minute duration is up unless you keep yourself constantly bubbled (at 23% of base mana? no thanks).

Selection here is definitely limited so pop in one of the healing glyphs to increase your utility while you’re grinding or leveling. It’ll make healing dungeons easier.

Player vs. Player

I will only address PvP glyphs for a Disc healer in Arenas/BGs. Let’s not talk about a PvP DPS Disc priest. It kills puppies. I’m not numbering the PvP glyphs because what you choose is highly dependent on your playstyle (BGs vs. Arenas) and your team composition (2v2, 3v3, or 5v5).

• Glyph of Psychic Scream
  There’s no Mana Burn glyph. We’ll have to settle. What are Disc priests good for besides l33t heals and Mana Burn? You offer emergency CC with your AoE fear. The other team pounding on you? Fear. Your team’s target is about to go down but that holy pally is about to heal him up to full? Run up to him and fear. Now keep them running for an extra second.
• Glyph of Dispel Magic
  For those nasty fights against warlock DoTs and shaman shocks. By the time you can actually dispel your teammate(s), they probably would have taken damage from the initial ticks.
• Glyph of Fear Ward
  Not really an all-around utility glyph because it will only apply when you have someone capable of fearing on the opposite team. But we also know that Fear Ward never stays on for the entire 3-minute duration. The extra 30s you gain from lowering the cooldown can make the difference.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Death
  To be a well-rounded Arena player, you need to know when to do things and how you should do things.  There will be times you will need to be able to kill someone who’s low but someone managed to peel off your teammate who’s DPSing them. Kill him before his teammate lands a heal.
• Glyph of Mass Dispel
  I probably wouldn’t use this. From my experience in Season 4, fights didn’t last long enough for you to have to worry about mana. And if you went OOM during a fight, it was most likely because that stupid huntard landed a Viper Sting or you were idly standing in LOS of the other priest (i.e. you weren’t  pillar humping). And Mass Dispel only becomes important in a fight against mages or pallies.

  From how Season 5 looks to be shaping up so far, it’s going to be a DPS race against the other team so once again, fights shouldn’t last long enough for you to actually need this glyph.

Holy glyph selection for PvE coming up next week, probably Wednesday.