Time For a Rethink

For the past few weeks I have been dual Disc spec. I know I'm crazy but I really love Disc and had embraced the Atonement spec to the full because it was simply faster to cast medium sized heals that way as well as changing it up a bit. Sure I still spent a fair proportion of time doing traditional healing but atonement buffed that.

Now being a raider there were fights when I simply didnt get a chance to lay the smack down and was needed to raid heal when our shaman and druid really insisted on a bit of the MT luvvin'. Then I was simply wasting half of my talents and was simply bubbling most and penancing the real needy while keeping Prayer of Mending bouncing around. Therefore I simply specced for the bubble botting that was so prevalent in ICC.

But now, Blizz have nerfed that play style with 4.1. seeing PW:Shield duration cut in half to 15 seconds (ie no more pre-shielding the raid. The big choice for me now is holy or back to shadow. Well actually it wasn't as I really suck at shadow and the making of Chakra into a stance and the 35% Sanctuary buff made Holy an easy choice.

So waffle aside what changes did priests get in 4.1? The main headlines were:

• Divine Aegis duration has been increased to 15 seconds, up from 12.

• Dispel Magic can only be used on the casting priest as a baseline effect.

• Priests now innately have 100% pushback protection from damage while channeling Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope.

• Holy Fire damage has been increased to be approximately 30% higher than Smite.

• Inner Will and Inner Fire now last until canceled.

• Mind Sear damage has been doubled.

• Power Word: Shield duration has been reduced to 15 seconds, down from 30.

Discipline

• Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
• Atonement now works with Holy Fire in addition to Smite.
• The direct damage portion of Holy Fire can now trigger Evangelism.
• Power Word: Barrier's cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes, up from 2, and its effect has been reduced to 25%, down from 30%.
• It is now possible to remove Weakened Soul effects that were a result of another priest's Power Word: Shield through Strength of Soul. 

Holy

• Absolution (new passive) enables priests to use Dispel Magic on up to 2 harmful effects on friendly targets.
• Chakra now lasts until canceled, up from 1 minute.
• Holy Word: Sanctuary healing done has been increased by 35%. In addition, it has a new spell effect.
• Surge of Light can now also trigger from Binding Heal.

GlyphsGlyph of Divine Accuracy now also affects Holy Fire in addition to Smite.

Priest Bug FixesSurge of Light is now being applied to Smite at rank 1.

So all in all we got off rather well, only Disc and Shadow saw a hint of teh nerf bats, and lazy Shadow Priests won't even spot the change to Dispel Magic and will of course love the AoE buff. So folks, seems Blizz agrees that the priest is a pretty well placed healer at the moment, which means we'll continue to rock, don't you agree?