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Holy Pally T14 4pc nerfed but Daybreak buffed in 5.3

Well, the speculation that the Holy Pally T14 4pc bonus would be nerfed has made its way to reality in the 5.3 PTR patch notes.

Tier-14 Holy Paladin 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Holy Shock by 1 second, down from 2 seconds.

Not really surprising, considering how overpowered Holy Pallies considered their previous tier’s 4pc bonus, but also gives pallies some time to get their tokens before patch 5.3 drops and the nerf comes into effect.

Fortunately, there is also a change in the patch notes that buffs Daybreak, something that Pallies thought was quite underwhelming.  Here are the T15 bonuses:

2 pieces: Increases the healing done by your Daybreak ability by 50%.
4 pieces: Increases the healing transferred to your Beacon of Light target by 20%.

And here is the buff to Daybreak:

Daybreak is now a stackable effect with a duration of 10 seconds, stacks up to 2 times, and causes the next Holy Shock to also heal other allies within 10 yards of the target for an amount equal to 75%/150% of the original healing done.

The buff might not compete with the pre-T14 bonus, but does make the T15 a bit more appealing to Pallies upgrading to T15.

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Holy Paladin Mastery: Illuminated Healing shield has been reduced in 5.3

Holy pallies love their mastery shields, and 5.3 will see a slight reduction in Illuminated Healing Shields.

For many holy pallies, Illuminated Healing is their number one healing spell by a large margin – 30-40% of total overall healing, so even though a 2% nerf seems small, that will have a much larger impact overall.

Here is the nerf:

Mastery: Illuminated Healing now places an absorb shield for 10% of the amount healed, down from 12%.

Not much discussion on the change yet, however Pallies are overpowered (along with Priests) currently, so this is obviously to combat that.  And non-shield healers will like the fact that one of the biggest absorbs in the game is being slightly nerfed.

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Holy Pally T14 4pc could be nerfed

UPDATE: This nerf has been confirmed.

Many Holy Pallies have been commenting on how strong the T14 4pc bonus is – so much so that Holy Pallies currently raiding in Throne of Thunder are going back to try and get heroic tier tokens (for those with only normal tier, or worse, LFR tier) so they can maximize their stats while still retaining their T14 4pc set bonus.  Not only that, they are eagerly awaiting and saving valor points so they can upgrade any non-upgraded heroic tier pieces with the valor upgrade system for when 5.3 drops.

Pallies are also faced with the problem that unless their helm is already heroic (which many don’t, since it dropped from Heroic Sha in Terrace), they cannot equip the legendary meta gem, which requires a minimum 502 ilvl.

The current T14 set bonuses are:

While the lacklustre T15 set bonuses are:

Even with the reduced stats, people are getting more throughput from the lesser ilvl T14 over the T15.  And since Holy hasn’t seen a buff or change to the current T15 bonuses, it is starting to appear that Blizzard just might nerf the T14 bonuses to compensate.

Here is the complete Twitter thread that discussed a possible nerf, and the T14 > T15 issue.

hpallyt14

Playing the game with old tier sets, and hoping Blizzard doesn’t nerf them, is always a dangerous game, since Blizzard doesn’t seem to have a problem nerfing previous tiers bonuses on a moments notice.  If you are a Holy Pally and have stuck with the old tier while passing on T15 tokens, I would suggest you start collecting tier and using coins to get the new T15 ASAP.

Some discussions on the over-poweredness of T14 over T15 and the possible nerf:
Holy Paladin T14 vs T15 (Blizzard forums)

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Rumored 5.3 changes to healer mana pools are not real

When the recent 5.3 PTR patch notes hit, there was definite panic amongst mana starved healers worried that they were just about to be hit with a reduced mana pool, nerfing mana pool size of some healers from 300k mana to 225k mana.

Druid:
Balance & Restoration

Paladin:
Holy

  • Holy Insight now increases your mana pool by 300%, down from 400%.

Shaman:
Restoration

However, the other three healing classes did not have any such “nerf” on their PTR patch notes.  However, as you can imagine, Ghostcrawler was asked about it, and here is his response.

gcmanapools

So healers can (maybe) let out a sigh of relief.  So there could be something going on with overall mana pools that would relate to this change, but it remains to be seen.  But does anyone else miss the days when you could actually increase your mana pool size and not have it static as it is now?

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Healer legendary meta gem Courageous Primal Diamond proc rates

Now that Stage 5 of the Isle of Thunder is available and people have now been able to kill the new world boss Nalak, we are starting to see some data coming from the new healer legendary meta gem.

First, the new Courageous Primal Diamond, the healer meta gem from the legendary questline, is one of the RPPM (Real PPM) procs.  It has no ICD (internal proc rate) and has a 1.40 RealPPM on a beneficial spell.

The proc itself is called Clearcasting Trigger (spell ID # 137248 for those making a weak aura for it) – Chance on casting a helpful spell to make your spells cost no mana for 4 seconds.

The biggest problem with this meta gem is that the 4 second proc is very short in practice.  Chances are extremely high that you will be moving or mid-cast when it first procs, meaning you likely can only get off one or two mana-intensive heals off before it expires.  It does make a proc sound, and you can also use weak auras to track it – and you might want to start with an annoying sound for procs until you get used to reacting to the proc.

Passive heals do not seem to make the meta gem proc.  You do need to have a 502 ilevel or higher helm, although there are reports that those with helms from T14 that are upgraded above 502 cannot be used with the new meta, it is only for helms added in 5.2.

If you need to buy a new legendary meta gem, either for offspec or for a new healing helm, you can purchase one from the Blacktalon Quartermaster in the Tavern in the Mists (Veiled Stairs) for the cost of 5 Primal Diamonds – if you have been wondering why the cost of Primal Diamonds shot up on the auction house, this is why.

Oh, and this meta gem procs when you drop a guild bank and swap talents… and I am sure many other “helpful” spells 🙂

You can track the proc with this weak aura. And there is also an addon that tracks the amount of saved mana while in combat.

Here is information on the new meta gem for each healing class.

Priests:
For Priests, it is worth noting that the legendary meta gem does NOT proc from Smite or Holy Fire, however it does proc on Penance (with Atonement, Penance Atonement is procing while Smite and HF Atonement is not).  So those healing through Atonement will need to make sure they are including Penance in their rotation in order to benefit from the meta.  It is currently procing on spells such as Levitate and Power Word: Fortitude.

Due to Atonement, however, some disc are debating over the Courageous Primal Diamond versus the Sinister Primal Diamond (proc is called Tempus Repit).  Will update when more data is out from discs trialing both options.

Shamans:
It only procs from direct casts, so it will not proc off of healing stream totem ticks, riptide ticks, or healing rain ticks.  Earth Shield procs will not proc meta either.  However, because Shamans lack quick spammable 1GCD spells, there could be more benefits to prioritizing haste in order to be able to take better advantage of the 4 seconds of mana-free heals.  Puupi (raids in heroic 10M guild Gifu) on MMO-Champion has a great post about better utilizing haste with close to 1GCD spells with the meta.  (Shamans should real the entire thread, very interesting).

Uptime for Shamans is about 10%, with regen of about 3200 mp5, according to Tiberria from Incarnate in this thread, who states this is an extremely strong regen gem, equivelant to 2 resto shamans dropping mana tide on CD with 15,000 spirit.  It procs of Earthliving.

Druids:
Unfortunately for druids, it can be difficult to track the meta gem proc versus the Omen of Clarity proc which is also Clearcasting.  And worse, the procs will overwrite each other, meaning druids will currently get a lot less benefits from this meta gem unless the spell is renamed or Blizzard corrects the spell interaction.  Bug report here.  UPDATE: This has now been hotfixed.

On the PTR, the name has been changed to Lucidity (as someone noted in the bug report it was supposed to be named), however there could still be issues prior to the 5.3 patch being released unless they are able to hotfix it.

Monks:
Eminence will not proc the meta gem.  There was a bug using the meta with Surging Mists glyphed, which appears to be hotfixed.

Paladins:
Some discussion over whether this meta is worth using or not, due to the timing of the mana-intensive healing spells not lining up with the 4 second proc.  MMO-Champion thread here.  Not a lot of data from pallies yet, will update as more info is available.

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What spells cause Corrupted Healing stacks on Twin Consorts

Remember the good old days of Yor’sahj and managing the healing stacks of Deep Corruption so you didn’t blow up the raid?  Welcome to Deep Corruption 2.0, also known as Corrupted Healing courtesy of the Twin Consorts encounter.

When you have one of the tanks on the side tanking one of the adds called Beasts of Nightmares, most heals that you put on the tank will result in the caster gaining a stack of Corrupted Healing.  One or two stacks isn’t a big deal, but ramp that up to 6-8, and it becomes a bigger issue.  And add heroic, suddenly that 10k a tick per stack jumps to 30k a tick per stack  Couple that with the fact some odd spells are causing healers – and some DPS – to gain stacks, it definitely requires some management and knowing what does and does not cause stacks.

Hots pre-cast on the tank prior to that tank picking up the add seem to be fine.

Also, Hand of Purity will remove Corrupted Healing debuff (however there are conflicting reports over whether the casting Paladin will then get a stack) and moving the boss as far away from the raid as possible will prevent inadvertant bounce heals, such as Chi Wave, from increasing stacks on raiders.

Here is a list of what we know causes stacks, and some notes about some heals that do not cause stacks (I will continue to update this list, please post with additions).

Druids

Does Give Stacks: Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Wild Growth, Swiftmend (including near the tank)
Does Not Give Stacks: Cenarian Ward

Monks

Does Give Stacks: Uplift, Soothing Mist (both direct and statue), Chi Wave (all specs), Expel Harm
Does Not Give Stacks: Healing Spheres, Emminence

Paladins

Does Give Stacks: Eternal Flame, Beacon transfers (with Beacon on add tank), Light of Dawn, Holy Prism
Does Not Give Stacks: Seal of Insight, Sacred Shield

Priests

Does Give Stacks: Renew, Circle of Healing, Cascade, Prayer of Mending
Does Not Give Stacks: Atonement

Shamans

Does Give Stacks: Riptide placed on tank while tanking add, Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge, Healing Rain (1 stack)
Does Not Give Stacks: Riptide ticking on tank before add is picked up, Earth Shield