PTR 2.0.10 Notes and Answers - 2/27/07

Here are the latest patch notes for the PTR 2.0.10

Priests

• The base healing percent from "Vampiric Embrace" has been reduced to 15% from 20%. In addition, this ability can no longer get critical heals.
  
• "Silent Resolve" no longer reduces threat generated by Shadow spells.
  
• Prayer of Mending now has a 10 second cooldown.
  
• Mass Dispel will now target immunity effects first.
  
• Circle of Healing mana cost reduced by 25%.
  
• The effectiveness of "Fade:Rank 7" has been increased by approximately 25%.
  
• The damage absorption of "Power Word: Shield" added by the caster's bonus healing has been increased to 20%.
  

Posts with answers we have provided so far:

About the cooldown change on "Prayer of Mending":
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=79669587&postId=798213832&sid=1#10

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=79223653&postId=798213813&sid=1#2

Changes to "Silent Resolve":
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=79180529&postId=785307951&sid=1#21

Additional Information:

We still feel priests are viable in PvP and are wanted as a part of Arena teams for not only their healing capabilities but also their offensive dispel capabilities.

Vampiric Embrace was changed because it was felt that it was providing too much healing. The change to the healing crit was done because this effect was an unintentional bug. It was an unwanted secondary effect that was never intended to be a part of the functionality of the spell.

We will continue to monitor feedback on these changes and look for information on player experiences with these changes from the PTRs and going forward. We are not doing major overhauls on abilities but are focusing on small changes over time and monitoring their effects on gameplay. We will be continuing to alter abilities and spells as we gather feedback from both internal testing and player feedback.

Please feel free to use this thread to post any further questions you may have or feedback from testing that you have done.

Q u o t e:
This is true. The bug was that you were getting a "Double Crit" effect off of VE. It was nice. But, as many Shadow Priests know most of the time VE Heals are over heals anyways. I for one understand that change. It is the 5% drop that still a bit annoying, but at least it is explained.

You can still get Crit heals off of VE, but it is from the Crit of the damage spell. Not the crit of VE.

This is correct. There shouldn't be a double benefit and was a bug.

Also, I know that some people feel that the increase to Power Word: Shield is too little but take into account a couple of things.

First off, it is a little more damage that can be absorbed than before. We all know that sometimes that's all it takes to keep on going. You start watching your hitpoints tick down and pray that you can take that damage just a little bit longer. This change gives you that little bit more. Is it enough? That's not my place to say. However, there will be internal testing done as well as continued monitoring of player feedback on this change and all of the others so please test and give feedback.

Second off, had this been an increase to damage output for Warlocks or Mages, people would be up in arms over it and be upset that they were doing more damage than before. In this case, you can take more damage than before no matter how slight it seems.

We don't intend to do large changes for any one class no matter how it may seem. Sometimes results in testing show changes to be larger than expected but these sorts of small changes are meant to build up over time so that we can better control how they affect gameplay. Feedback on even these small changes can be extremely important on many levels and help the team know what areas still need more help and more changes or even more nerfs/adjustments.

As for an additional help on Fade, many people were asking for an improvement. Again, is this enough? I couldn't say myself. Test it and find out. Again, feedback will greatly help in finding out if this is giving enough benefit to not overbalance what the development team intends or if it's not giving quite enough benefit to be of value.

As for Circle of Healing, I intend to ask if there are more changes in consideration for it. I have a feeling that it is still something that is being looked at but I can't say with absolute certainty. This may just be the start of changes to it. Again, we still need feedback on it.

As you can see, there is a theme to this and that is that testing and feedback are still very important especially with these additional changes both nerfs and 'buffs'/fixes. We appreciate your continued insights.

Q u o t e:


Intend to ask? Have a feeling? How exactly do you people communicate with each other over there? The impression you have given this community is that you sit down in the same room and actually talk to each other. The reasons given for answers taking so long are the logistics of getting those people in the same room at the same time. I could understand that.

But from your post here, it sounds like you aren't even talking. Do you head to their cubicles and pick-up a list of changes like your dry cleaning and shuffle off again? Do you sit down and stare into each others eyes for while in an (unsuccessful) attempt at telepathy?

All joking aside now, please, walk us through the process from the time you read a post here worthy of being passed on the to the Dev's to the time you post the response. If we had a clear picture of that process we would probably be a lot more understanding and patient with the delays.

I gave the best answer I could on Circle of Healing mainly because I didn't get the chance to ask it as of yet. I have additional questions to send on and that was one I didn't get to ask face to face. Believe it or not, email is a viable means of communication since it doesn't require setting aside face to face time though we do get face to face time often. The offices are extremely busy, more so than players may realize and days are filled with meetings and deadlines that people need to meet. That means we need to be conscientous of these things so as to not interrupt schedules.

If people could create bulleted lists with feedback here, it would be much easier for the team to compile and forward. There may be good ideas and suggestions getting mixed into a lot of explanations and I'd like to be able to easily pull those out.

*As a quick aside, Please do not use this thread for insults aimed at the development team. Please do not post that you are quitting. I realize you feel that this is a valid place to post it, however it is not constructive feedback that addresses the topic at hand.

Q u o t e:
Might have been asked but I'm not feeling like looking through 14 pages for an answer.

So the slight buff of Mass Dispel dispeling Bubbles and Ice Blocks first off the tables and back to whatever random thing it goes after?

Yes, it should go after bubbles etc (dispellable defensive barriers) first and then work down from there.

Please note that the "Circle of Healing" note has been updated to read correctly as 25%. There was an error in information that has been corrected.