the PTR is Wonderful!

With all of the class changes coming out with patch 4.0, I decided to test out the new talents before they went live.

I was like a kid in a candy store. So many changes, it is like relearning how to play. I'll start with some of the broad changes, and get to the priest and pally stuff more. The new glyph interface is very nice. I am really looking forward to this change. Being able to get all of the glyphs that I want, and swap them in an out as I please is going to be a lot less of a hassle than the current system. The new Power Auras addition to the interface is very handy. Not only do shiny things appear around my character, but the button that you get to hit lights up too! This is a very nice change from constantly looking to the upper right of my screen for spells that poped up. And lastly, I am looking forward to Reforging. This looks like ti will add some much needed flexibility when prioritizing gear.

Now to the goods. I started first on my priest. I specced holy using this spec (minus Evangelism and Archangel because you're only lvl 80 on the ptr). To start, Chakra is a nice talent, and I love how it can stay up for as long as you want, and provide a nice boos to the heal that you need. Holy Word: Chastise, is pretty cool. I think that the cooldown is a bit long, but I like how it changes depending on the Chakra state I'm in. Also I am glad that Surge of Light is in the tree and easy to get. I get free Flash Heals, which give me Serendipity buffs which makes the use of the big heals much easier. I like how those talents work with eachother.

Also in case you were wondering I did try out discipline, so that I could get Archangel. It looks awesome (gives you wings), and it makes casting smite boost healing. I decided that I won't pick it up (too many better options, but if you want more about it you can see Miss Medicina's post about the numbers behind it's awesomeness here.

Next I went to my Paladin. The spec that I used here is different from the one that I linked in my previous post. I wanted to test out the healing, later on I'll test out the kind of damage I can dish out as holy, but for now I want to get used to healing. So here is the spec. There are some things off the bat that take some getting used to. Holy power is one of those things. In the spec that i linked, you will gain Holy Power by using Holy Shock and by healing the target of Beacon of Light with your casted heals. You can only have 3 charges of Holy Power, and once you have any number of charges you can use Word of Glory. While Word of Glory doesn't heal for much unless you have 3 charges, it is free and instant so you would only be wasting a global cooldown if you use it with less than 3 charges. Another thing that took me sometime to get used to was all of the buffs the pop up. Casting Holy Shock gives you haste when casting, and if you crit it makes Holy Light even faster. At the same time, casting has a chance to allow you to use Holy Shock without it triggering a cooldown (2 in a row). These buffs are really nice, and they make the playstyle a lot more interactive and fun. Managing the buffs to the casted spells, managing the buffs to Holy Shock, and using Holy Power effectively is a lot more dynamic than spamming the most efficient heal all the time.

The last thing I want to say about Holy paladins is Light of Dawn!!!! It looks really amazing.

All in all, holy priests will still be a lot of fun, and holy paladins will have a much more dynamic playstyle. I am looking forward to playing both when 4.0 goes live.