Patch 5.4 PTR: Tier 16 Warrior, Priest and Hunter gear set videos [Updated]

Our friends over at Adriacraft have been at it again, this time digging up video of both the priest and the warrior Tier 16 gear sets, with the hunter set to follow! What do you think of the sets? We at WoW Insider absolutely loved the tier 16 priest set, the clean lines and colors as well as the shoulders, particularly on the female, really got a lot of good feedback from our work chat! However, we weren't so keen on the warrior set, but some of us still really liked it.

The warrior set is lurking just after the break, and it should be noted that the belt is missing, thanks to missing textures, but you can definitely get the full idea of the set. We thought it was interesting how the chest is missing the kidney areas on both the male and female models, but what do you think of the sets?

Update: Adriacraft has now added the Tier 16 hunter set video, you can see it after the break! You may notice it looks a little different to hunter sets elsewhere, that's because Adriacraft managed to fix a bug which was placing the shoulders inside the body of the hunter before making the video!

If you want to keep up to date with video of all the latest PTR patches do head over to Adriacraft's YouTube and subscribe to his channel!

Tags: breaking, featured, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-gear, patch-5.4-priest-set, patch-5.4-ptr, patch-5.4-raid, patch-5.4-warrior-set

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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Patch 5.4 PTR: Tier 16 Warrior, Priest and Hunter gear set videos [Updated]

Our friends over at Adriacraft have been at it again, this time digging up video of both the priest and the warrior Tier 16 gear sets, with the hunter set to follow! What do you think of the sets? We at WoW Insider absolutely loved the tier 16 priest set, the clean lines and colors as well as the shoulders, particularly on the female, really got a lot of good feedback from our work chat! However, we weren't so keen on the warrior set, but some of us still really liked it.

The warrior set is lurking just after the break, and it should be noted that the belt is missing, thanks to missing textures, but you can definitely get the full idea of the set. We thought it was interesting how the chest is missing the kidney areas on both the male and female models, but what do you think of the sets?

Update: Adriacraft has now added the Tier 16 hunter set video, you can see it after the break! You may notice it looks a little different to hunter sets elsewhere, that's because Adriacraft managed to fix a bug which was placing the shoulders inside the body of the hunter before making the video!

If you want to keep up to date with video of all the latest PTR patches do head over to Adriacraft's YouTube and subscribe to his channel!

Tags: breaking, featured, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-gear, patch-5.4-priest-set, patch-5.4-ptr, patch-5.4-raid, patch-5.4-warrior-set

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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The Priest in Mists of Pandaria

There are some changes coming with Mists of Pandaria. The Cataclysm talent system has been completely scrapped in favor of a newer, simpler one. Many of the old talents are dead and gone, as are some of the abilities. Others have changed a bit or become the new talents or abilities.

The Prime Glyphs slots are gone, but some of those glyphs  have been rolled into the Major glyphs. Minor Glyphs are now pretty much cosmetic only.

The wand slot is gone, though you can still use wands.

Release is still a month away, so some changes will still be coming. We’ll update appropriately as we find them.

Comments? Thoughts? Questions? Use the comment box at the bottom of the page.

The talent page. This is about what you will see when you check the talents on your Priest. Any Priest spec can pick any one talent from each row. You will have six total talents at level 90. All of the old talents (and some of the old abilities) have been either slain or rolled into these talents or the current abilities.

Some of these have obvious PvP use or are utility talents.

In Mists you will be able to swap talents exactly the way you do with glyphs. You will need one dose of the appropriate level item and then you can change any one talent. So if you need to change something and have no ready access to your trainer, you can do so. If you’re inclined to do a lot of swapping then keep a full stack of the appropriate materials:

Up to level 80: Vanishing powder81to 85: Dust of Disappearance86+ Tome of the Clear Mind.Void tendrils – roots a group of targets. Maybe better for PvP, but offers some control for A of E times in PvE.Psyfiend will send mobs fleeing all over the place, but might be fun in PvP.Angelic Feather – place feathers at up to three locations, people moving through the feathers get a speed buff. You can also cast it right on a target and on yourself. With a litle care this looks like it could be quite useful.Body and Soul increases the target’s movement speed, briefly, when you cast Power World Shield or Leap of Faith on them.Phantasm greatly improved your Fade ability and looks like it’d be very nice in PvP.From Darkness Comes Light – Vampiric Touch ticks give a chance for a free, instant, Mind Blast with increased damage and that doesn’t consume your DoTs.Mindbender replaces your Shadowfiend. It’s attacks restore your mana.Angelic Bulwark throws up a shield to protect you when you go below 30% health. Again, this looks like more PvP use than PvE.Twist of Fate – Finish Him! you do more damage as the target gets low in healthPower Infusion increases casting speed and reduces mana costs for 20 seconds. Nice for when that burst is needed.Divine Insight: Your SW; Pain ticks have a chance to proc free Mind Blasts.Halo: A Ring of Power extends outward from your location damaging enemies and healing friends and doing max power at 25 yards. This one just sounds cool and might a pretty nice in a raid or mass fight.Cascade: Your Holy Bolt bounces from target to target, doing damage to each, preferring longer range targets and never hitting the same one twice.Divine Star: Your star blasts outward, staight away from you, damaging enemies and healing allies along its path, and does the same on its return.

Previously all Priests shared a pool of abilities and the talents defined the individual specializations (specs.) In Mists of Pandaria each spec will share a pool of common abilities as before, then they will each have their own set of unique talents. You will pick each of these up from your trainer at the appropriate level.

All Priests will receive all of these abilities at the appropriate level. New or greatly changed talents are linked. Some of the old abilities have moved to become specialization abilities.

Some of the old talents have been moved, others have died. Some of the dead talents are dead in name only, their effects having been moved to other talents.

As mentioned above the Prime glyphs are gone. Major glyphs now enhance the functionality of your spells and the minor glyphs offer cosmetic changes. All glyphs are level 25 and you can only have three of each, total, at level 75+.

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Examining the tier 15 priest set bonuses

Last week, priests (and other less amazing classes) got a first look at the tier 15 set bonuses in the works for patch 5.2. The reactions so far have been mixed. Most discipline and holy priests seem to have had their interests piqued, while many shadow priests were seen grumbling discontentedly during the first few days. Have a look for yourself.
Healer two-piece Your Prayer of Mending heals for 10% more each time it jumps to a new target.Healer four-piece Your Penance and Circle of Healing have a 40% chance to summon a Golden Apparition, which moves to a nearby ally and heals for an additional 92500 to 107500.Shadow two-piece When your Shadowy Apparitions damage their target, they have a 65% chance to extend the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch, causing each to deal damage one additional time.Shadow four-piece Periodic damage from your Vampiric Touch has a 10% chance to trigger your Shadowy Apparition.Blizzard has been fairly responsive to many complaints and inquiries made about these bonuses. For example, when shadow priests pointed out that Shadowy Apparitions were slow, buggy, and only a small portion of shadow DPS, Blizzard responded by letting us know that the cap was going to be raised for priests with the two-piece bonus, if not removed entirely. The developers also mentioned that work had been done to improve the AI on Shadowy Apparitions and get rid of bugs. Sound good?

Update: This article has been updated for build 16467, with changes notated in bold.

The shadow priest community seems to think so. If you follow the discussion over at HowToPriest.com, which started prior to Blizzard saying they were fixing Shadowy Apparitions, you can see the opinion of the new tier gradually improves as Blizzard answers more questions about the bonus.

Priest theorycrafter Twintop (a moderator at HowToPriest.com and blogger at Shadow Orbs and Mind Spikes) speculates that our new stat priority with the two-piece bonus will be critical strike > mastery > haste after reaching the 8,085 haste breakpoint. Drye (another moderator and theroycrafter at HowToPriest.com) also agrees that there shouldn't be any long term advantage to doubling up the tier 14 and tier 15 two-piece bonuses as they are now, even if the tier 15 four-piece is lackluster. Higher ilvl gear is simply going to be much more advantageous.

My advice? Listen to those guys.

More information on the tier 15 healing bonuses

What about the healing bonuses? Well, Blizzard has said a lot of things about those in the past week as well, and now that the mechanics have been explained they are looking very sexy. In the beginning I know some priests were concerned that the Golden Apparition from the four-piece bonus would be just as ineffective as the Shadow Apparitions on live, but have no fear.

The developers explained that Golden Apparition will function as a smart heal that would target the ally with the lowest health percentage within 40 yards. They mentioned that there is no visual yet, but that it's a "a simple missile, not a summoned unit." I haven't done any testing yet to know what the internal cooldown of the proc will be, but given similar procs in the past I think most healing priests should be happy with this. Disc priests in 25-mans might not like it as much, since they're less likely to cast Penance, but Blizzard is supposedly working on that (see the section below on disc nerfs).

I trust everyone is still using Prayer of Mending on cooldown, which makes the two-piece pretty universally solid for every healing priest. There does appear to be some potential for a holy priest to get more out of it if he specs into Divine Insight, though there's a higher chance that you'll overheal with a Divine Insight Prayer of Mending than you would with a normal one.

If you're curious, Blizzard was kind enough to explain the mechanics of the two-piece bonus, stating that the bonus is multiplicative and will scale upward like this: 100% for the first charge, 110% for the second, then 121%, 133%, and 146%. Oh, and before you get your hopes up, Blizzard already stated that the Glyph of Prayer of Mending will only affect the first charge of Prayer of Mending and not chain along (I know you were all thinking that as soon as you saw it).

So, what do you think healers? Are you happy?

Shadow Word: Insanity redesign and discipline nerfs

In the days following the preview of the tier 15 set bonuses, shadow priests pointed out the interaction between Shadow Word: Insanity and the tier 15 two-piece bonus. The developers responded, saying they were working to correct this before sweeping us off our feet a day later with the following statement.

Ghostcrawler -- PTR Class and Set Bonus IssuesWe are going to redesign Shadow Word: Insanity.
And there was much rejoicing ... Unless you were a disc priest, that is. At the same time shadow priests received the good news, disc priests were told they'd be receiving another round of nerfs on the PTR. Ghostcrawler -- PTR Class and Set Bonus IssuesWe are going to nerf Divine Aegis for Prayer of Healing, but also lower the cost of Power Word: Shield (for Disc only) and increase the healing and damage of Penance. In 25 raids, Disc is using Prayer of Healing almost exclusively and we don't think the Spirit Shell change will be sufficient to change that. We actually want Disc to get back to using PW:Shield a little more, along with Penance. Disc's throughput is overall too strong in PvE, not even counting the fact that absorbs are often more beneficial than heals.
Granted, many of us were still expecting this, even after the Spirit Shell nerf was announced. You'd have to have your head in the sand to think Prayer of Healing, Divine Aegis, and Spirit Shell weren't overpowered on live servers right now.

And I think the developers are probably onto something when they say they want to see disc using Power Word: Shield and Penance more. I still use Penance myself, since it's so mana efficient, but my Power Word: Shield usage is definitely at an all time low. I toss it on the tanks for Rapture procs, but rarely do I use it on the raid anymore -- just for the occasional save. How often are you using Power Word: Shield right now, and are you a 10-man or 25-man raider?

Updated: The redesign for Shadow Word: Insanity was data mined a few hours ago. The new talent will be called Solace and Insanity, and the text for shadow priests is as follows.
When cast on a target that has three of your Shadow damage-over-time spells applied, your Mind Flay gains the insanity effect. Mind Flay (Insanity) Assault the target's mind with shadow energy, causing 5,934 to 6,657 shadow damage over 3 seconds and slowing their movement speed by 50%.The change looks very promising, though there's a lot of testing that needs to be done to see how it interacts with our rotation. To keep up to date on the discussion, check out the thread at HowToPriest.com.

Discipline has also received heavy changes in build 16467. Prayer of Healing has been nerfed so that it will no longer always proc Divine Aegis. It will now behave as it did prior to patch 4.0.6, only yielding Divine Aegis on a critical heal.

Rapture has also been changed. The discipline passive will now also reduce the cost of Power Word: Shield by 25%. The mana returned on absorb has also been reduced to 150%, down from the 250% it was at in a previous build. (Please note these numbers are taken from Blizzard's updated patch notes, and appear to have been tweaked since they were originally data mined.)

Please see the comments on this article for further discussion.

The rest of the news

The rest of the priest news from patch 5.2 PTR isn't too exciting at the moment, mostly because a lot of it is discussion that Blizzard hasn't decided to implement yet. If something about these changes catches my attention later I'll mention it, but for now they're all pretty self-explanatory. (They're also very PvP-esque, if you didn't notice.)
Enemy players will no longer be able to dispel Angelic Bulwark or Spirit Shell.To balance healer DPS in PvP, discipline priests may have their damage increased, and then receive a small nerf to Atonement to make up for the the increase in healing the damage buff would cause. There would be no resulting change in the amount of healing done by Atonement, just an increase in disc damage.The season 12 four-piece bonus for healing priests is being changed. It will now reduce the cooldown of Chakra by 25 seconds and reduce the cost of Flash Heal by 50% during Spirit Shell.The developers stated that they'd like to give disc another AoE heal in the future, but that it's not something they're likely to add in the middle of an expansion. Aww ...Updated news from build 16467
Developers are considering making the Glyph of Desperation and the Glyph of Inner Focus specialization passives for discipline priests. Pain Suppression and Guardian Spirit can now always be cast while stunned. Glyph of Desperation has been removed and replaced with Glyph of Binding Heal. Glyph of Binding Heal applies Binding Heal to a third nearby friendly target, but costs 35% more mana. (See next bullet point for update on Glyph of Inner Focus.)Casting Inner Focus now always grants 5 seconds of immunity to silences, interrupts, and dispels. Glyph of Inner Focus has been removed and replaced with Glyph of Weakened Soul. Glyph of Weakened Soul reduces the duration of Weakened Soul by 2 seconds.Developers are also thinking about giving Focused Will to holy priests, as well as disc priests. Blizzard went ahead and gave Focused Will to holy priests in the latest 5.2 build for PTR.Flash Heal's healing has been reduced by 30%. A new passive (available at level 10) increases Flash Heal's healing by 43% for holy and discipline priests.Devouring Plague now deals its damage evenly through its duration.Penance damage and healing has been increased by 20%.The old season 12 four-piece bonus for healing priests (the one with Holy Spark) is now the two-piece bonus.Spiritual Guidance is WoW Insider's source for priest information. For information on playing the class, check out our Mists of Pandaria guides for discipline, holy, and shadow. For getting geared up, check out our pre-raid gear guide. Tags: df-main, divine-aegis, featured, guide-to-priests, how-to-priest, howtopriest.com, power-word-shield, prayer-of-healing, priest-guide, priest-info, priest-talents, shadow-word-insanity, spirit-shell, tier-15, wow-priest, wow-priest-info, wow-priests

Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

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The grace between Light and dark: Roleplaying the priest

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

One might assume that a priest is a benevolent servant of the Light, or Elune, or An'she, or whatever deity they happen to follow. Consumed with the Light's grace, a priest seeks to heal, drawn to the task by an innate need to heal and mend. For a priest, the world is a place full of lost, suffering souls waiting to be mended and healed, the gratitude of those mended being all that a priest needs. Humble, polite, quiet, the priest is a creature of benevolence and purity, an example for all those lost souls to follow.

One would be quite wrong in that assumption.

Priests are just as complex, perhaps even more so than every other class on Azeroth. While some are drawn to healing like a moth to a flame, there are others drawn to the darker side. A priest can harm just as well as heal -- in fact, they may be more deadly than even those dark practitioners of fel magics. For what makes for suffering more than a creature who knows quite intimately, inside and out, the inner workings of organs and mind?

Priests are terribly interesting creatures, and make for even more interesting roleplay.

Who you are

Your priest's background depends on his race, when it comes to the priesthood. Humans began the priesthood on the Eastern Kingdoms with the Church of the Holy Light, and taught these practices to the dwarves and high elves -- later blood elves -- that called the continent home. Much like the paladins, human priests tend to follow the same tenets of the Holy Light that their plate-wearing cousins do. But there are many other races that practice the art of the priest. In fact, orcs are the only race on Azeroth that can't.

For the draenei, their origins extend back in time to their lessons with the naaru upon escaping Argus. For the night elves, priests are devotees of the goddess Elune. For the tauren, who have only recently begun experimenting with the ways of both paladin and priest, An'she lights the way. For gnomes, the tenets of the Light are something meant to be studied and researched, combined with technology in delightful, if sometimes confusing, ways. And for goblins, the Light is just another bargaining chip on the table, for the most part.

It's the Forsaken that have the most bizarre relationship to the Light. As former humans, they were followers of the Church of the Holy Light just like any other human on Azeroth. But when they died, when they came back, that connection was gone. To many Forsaken, the Light has abandoned them. Only the most dedicated and persevering Forsaken can really master the ways of the Light, and for good reason -- the use of the Light hurts.

Without spoiling too much, we can tell you that wielding the Light is a matter of having willpower or faith in one's own ability to do it. For the undead (and Forsaken), this requires such a great deal of willpower that it is exceedingly rare, especially since it is self-destructive. When undead channel the Light, it feels as if their entire bodies are being consumed in righteous fire. Forsaken healed by the Light are effectively cauterized by the effect: sure, the wound is healed, but the healing effect is cripplingly painful. Thus, Forsaken priests are beings of unwavering willpower. -- Ask a CDev, Round 1

So what brings a priest to the priesthood? That's the question that you need to ask in regards to your character. Was he part of a long line of priests, simply following his expected path? Did he feel the Light call him to the priesthood -- and if so, what was he before he followed that path? If your character is a Forsaken, what is that spark that keeps him clinging to the Light, even though the Light is doing its best to burn him away? If your character is a gnome, what drew him to study the Light over any other number of fascinating paths of study out there in the world?
What defines you, and why you fight

It's the answer to that question that will tell you a lot about the character you've created. Is he a benevolent person, bent on good will and kindness to others, or is there something else that keeps him getting out of bed in the morning? What drives him to heal?

Yet there is a dual-nature to the priest that is unlike any other class out there. A priest can be dedicated to healing, or dedicated to damage in the form of shadow magic. Not to be confused with the fel magic of warlocks, the magic of shadow is a completely different thing. Most of what we know about shadow magic originates from the WoW RPG books, so keep in mind this information may not be canon, and is open to interpretation.

The concept of shadow is one of balance -- where there is light, there is always shadow. Hold your hand up to a light source, and you'll see it -- the shadow your hand creates. In a way, the priest is the hand standing between the two, and can draw from either side. The only known organization of shadow magic is the Cult of Forgotten Shadow, established by Forsaken priests as an alternative to the Church of the Holy Light. And just as the Church has its set of tenets to follow, so does the Cult, in a complete juxtaposition of what the Light teaches.

Where the Church of the Holy Light teaches the three virtues of Respect, Tenacity, and Compassion, the Cult of Forgotten Shadow teaches the three virtues of Respect, Tenacity and Power. Where the Light brings about positive emotions like hope, courage and comfort, the shadow does just the opposite, warping the mind and bringing about feelings of fear, doubt and despair. You can read more about the Cult of Forgotten Shadow and the teachings of that order on Wowpedia -- although the information is taken from the RPG guides and may not necessarily be canon, it offers all kinds of food for thought for a roleplayer.

Interaction with others

A priest is a character with a dual nature unlike any other in Warcraft. But priests by and large are some of the most trusted members of society -- those that heal tend to inspire both confidence and trust in others. A priest isn't likely to have any problems being social around other characters, especially if it means that they can continue to spread the message of hope and comfort that the Light brings.

Keep in mind that a shadow priest isn't necessarily an evil creature. Unlike warlocks, who tend to follow the path out of a keen desire for power, shadow priests are fulfilling a role that calls for balance in the world. If there is Light, there must be shadow -- if there are holy priests, there must be shadow as well. A priest that practices the art of shadow is not automatically doing so for the sake of power or greed, the reasons are often far more complex. A shadow priest is just as likely to be social as a priest of the Light.

For night elves and tauren, the story differs slightly, just because of origin. A night elf priest is a follower of Elune, and while the teachings of Elune and the tenets of the Holy Light are similar, they are not exactly the same. Elune and An'she are deities. While the Light is something to be respected and followed by the other races, it does not have a representation like Elune or An'she. The closest other thing to a deity might be the naaru for the draenei -- but the naaru are not really gods to the draenei, merely beings of higher power.

Troll priests also follow a more direct representation of the Light, but it's more polytheistic in nature than monotheistic like the tauren or night elves. The priests of the trolls are more witch doctor than practitioner of the Light, drawing upon the spirits of the Loa or the beings around them to heal or harm. The Loa are the spirits of powerful beings, either troll or animal, that have transcended death and remain to help or harm those that are still among the living.

Whether to heal or harm, the priests of the world live in a precarious balance that acknowledges not so much the balance of the world around us, but the balance that exists within ourselves, and how that balance is reflected in the rest of the world. Priests can be good or evil, right or wrong, social or introspective -- the possibilities are endless. And while playing a spiritual character may not seem appealing to all, the priests of Azeroth offer some incredibly compelling roleplay.

All the World's a Stage is your source for roleplaying ideas, innovations and ironies. Let us help you imagine what it's like to sacrifice spells for the story, totally immerse yourself in your roleplaying or even RP on a non-RP realm Tags: featured, guide, guide-to-lore, lore, lore-guide, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping

Filed under: All the World's a Stage (Roleplaying)

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Night elf priest iron-mans to level 90 with no greens, no talents, and no deaths

It's a world first for night elf priest Lyssan of Vek'linash (US), who has bypassed death, gearing, talents -- all the conveniences of modern-day Azeroth -- to hit level 90 in the player-created WoW Ironman Challenge. A report like this would normally include the winner's class specialization and gearing, but not for this player, yet the Ironman's brutal ruleset prohibits not only those basics but also death itself.

That's right: If you die during the WoW Ironman Challenge, you re-roll. Period.

Here's a look at the grim core rules of the challenge:
No items equipped other than white or gray items.No heirlooms.No talent points -- no specialization. You may train class abilities.No professions, primary or secondary, other than First Aid.No food or water above vendor-quality white items.No groups -- no BGs, no instances, no raids, no quest groups. No guilds.No enchants, scrolls, potions, elixirs, or glyphs.No outside financial or equipment assistance (including gold or bags from other characters).The Big One: If you die, ever, you delete that character and start over at level 1.The next closest participant in the Mists leg of this event is currently level 87. Kripparrian, the player-run hard-mode competition's former title-holder in Cataclysm at level 85, does not appear to have leveled in Mists of Pandaria.

We'll have a full interview with the triumphant Lyssan next week, after she takes a well-earned holiday rest! (And if it were me, I think I'd go out and die a few times, just for sheer relief ...)
Tags: hard-mode, hard-mode-wow, hardcore, hardcore-wow, ironman, ironman-challenge, leveling, Lyssan, no-death, no-deaths, player-generated-content, player-run-events, world-of-warcraft-ironman-challenge, wow-ironman-challenge

Filed under: News items

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