Sep 10, 2008

How to Fix the Disc Priest in Beta

I know at the end of the last post I said that I would get a post off about kiting melee, but that will have to wait. What I have on my mind right now has to do with the state of the Disc Priest in beta for PvP purposes.

Disc Priests didn't gain too many new tricks in Wrath, but they did get some improvements on what they already had. Most of our new talents focus on Power Word: Shield in some way, and it is pretty clear that we will be relying heavily on the shield for our damage reduction and mana regeneration.

This sounds good to me, and I honestly don't have any problems with it except one. If a Priest goes against a Paladin, Shaman, or another Priest who spam dispel on our shield, we are basically screwed. All it takes is a class that can dispel magic effects, and we are reduced to nothing. Blizzard can buff PW:S as much as they want, but that doesn't change the fact that if it is dispelled we are helpless. If we spec into it we can get a 30% dispel resist by way of Silent Resolve, but even with that small resist chance, the shield is still way too easy to get rid of.

Blizzard recognized this problem with the Druid class, giving them Lifebloom. The "on dispel" effect on Lifebloom made it almost pointless to spam dispel on, effectively giving them protection against dispel spamming. I think it is time that Blizzard includes an "on dispel" component to PW:S, either by adding it to the spell itself, or taking an even easier solution and making a glyph.

Here are some ideas I have to prevent dispel spamming:

  • While Weakened Soul is active, dispel resistance increased by 50%.
  • On dispel, Heals target for 100% of shield absorbtion.
  • On dispel, increases chance of a critical heal on target by 50% for 10 seconds.
  • On dispel, removes any harmful effects on target along with PW:S.
  • On dispel, Grants target 50% extra resistance for dispel for 1 minute.
  • On dispel, refunds priest 200% of the mana it cost to cast PW:S.
  • On dispel, reduces damage done to target by 10% for 15 second.
Any of the above would fix Disc Priest in PvP, and go a long way toward making it viable against other classes with dispel.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree something needs to be done on dispelling the shield. I find it so hard versus a shaman spamming purge on my priest.

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