Why is Blizz destroying disc healing?

I always advise, in all cases of interpreting the patch notes, to try to divorce the idea of these changes impacting the current game as you're playing it. It's easy to fall into the trap of looking at these changes, applying them to your current attempts on bosses in Siege of Orgrimmar, and in that context wondering how they'll even work. But the expansion is not only changes for your specific class in the content you're currently progressing through. Individual ability changes--or even overall throughput reduction for an entire spec--without context, aren't meaningful data points.

Balance is not only achieved through class ability changes, but also through how those abilities affect other players, any changes that may affect what those abilities are affecting, how encounters are designed and balanced, etc. etc. We want Discipline to remain a viable spec. Absorbs got a little out of hand there for a while, Atonement will still be viable just not out-of-this-world spammable, and we'll be balancing throughout beta to ensure that the healing changes for all classes ensure they can keep their groups alive.

Maining a Holy priest and constantly being told I'm doing it wrong by not going Disc to Atonement spam and pad meters with absorbs, I'm happy to see any shakeups, and I know if any changes go too far the class designers will suss out balance during public testing phases. It's fun to discuss how the changes may work out, but I would caution away from context-less hyperbole, of course.

04/24/2014 06:35 PMPosted by Bubblykiss

04/24/2014 06:31 PMPosted by Bashiok

suss

First time I can ever remember seeing suss used in a sentence.

You're welcome.