Just a quick update after running a half-dozen scenarios (unfortunately all Serpent’s Passage… so much for balancing scenario pops!) in Tier 4 on my 32 Warrior Priest this evening. I respecced to Grace earlier in the day to test out the changes in 1.06 to the Mastery tree, and lo and behold, I really enjoy the tree. I’ve been Wrath specced since I started Halfhand, so I have little to no experience with most of the Grace abilities, and most of my gear is strength-focused, which I didn’t change at all. I was the same level as yesterday, so really nothing’s changed except for my spec.
I’ll post a more detailed writeup with my review of the spec (so far) later, but so far, aside from a couple of totally unbalanced scenarios at the end of the night, I love the spec. I came into it thinking that I’d be gimped damage-wise, and that losing Fanaticism and Hammer of Sigmar would be a back-breaker for my DPS, but I was pleasantly surprised with the damage output. My totals at the end of the scenarios were significantly better on the healing side, and stayed around the same on the damage side. And that’s with much less Smite spamming than when I was Wrath specced, and heavy use of Divine Strike (replacing Bludgeon on my action bar), Sigmar’s Radiance, and Sigmar’s Vision as needed. My combined damage + healing totals seem to have jumped a good 50% or more on average, so needless to say I’m pretty happy thus far.
Divine Strike alone has easily replaced Bludgeon, and using the Grace of Sigmar tactic (way to confuse everyone, considering there’s an ability in the same tree called Sigmar’s Grace), I was hitting for over 300 on average, and healing my defensive target and anyone nearby in the 450 range from what I noticed in my damage log. Pretty impressive. Now if only the radius of Divine Strike were increased to 25 or 30 feet instead of 10, we’d be set. PvE soloing is pretty much on par with Wrath, as I need less healing and kill around the same speed, even without Hammer of Sigmar to finish off mobs. The Wounds buff granted by Sigmar’s Grace is pretty sweet, too, giving me an extra 680 HP at rank 32.
All things considered, it’s a very viable spec. I think the worst problem anyone’s going to have with it is deciding which tactics to use at 40, because there are several that work nicely that you’ll have to drop just to fit in all the Grace goodness. Sigh.
Usually this low in a tier, you have a tough time keeping up with everyone else, until you hit the upper end of the tier. This is especially noticeable in T4, since the bolster buff only pushes you up to 36, and many of the rank 40s are geared out the wazoo already. The fact that in a balanced (even numbers) scenario, I was able to stay alive, run flags easily, and generally have a great time was heartening. If anything, it makes me look forward to 40 a lot more than I did yesterday, and makes me wonder if I should be wasting time with my Knight of the Blazing Cod.. err.. Sun and just focus on the Warrior Priest for the time being. Dilemmas, dilemmas.
Anyhow, I’d love to hear your experiences with the patch, whether you’re a Warrior Priest or any other class. Cheers!
