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Spiritual Guidance: Hymns get revamped

Matt Low
Updated ·5 min read

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Hymn of Hope is back in a new way! But it's not the only Hymn to get a face lift. Divine Hymn also underwent an overhaul!

Well guys, we got our Hymn back. Thank goodness. On a side note, I gave Mimiron a shot the other day (with the Sacco fellah again). We had to 9 man the guy on Normal. There was a bug where raids were unable to invite players into their group. The healers consisted of Disc Priest (me) and a Resto Druid. Yeah, the developers weren't kidding when they said 3 healers was going to be needed for normal mode Ulduar. We barely got into phase 2 intact.

Anyway, lets get back to our new look Hymns. Last week I wrote about Hymns that would have never been seen in game. Blizzard decided to not only give back Hymn of Hope but to redesign it.

Hymn of Hope

Old version: You recite a Holy hymn of Hope, restoring 2% mana every 2 sec to all party members within 40 yards. Lasts 8 sec. The Priest must channel to keep the hymn active.

Hymn of Hope redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, restoring hope to those in despair. Restores 3% mana to 3 nearby low mana friendly party or raid targets every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and temporarily increases their total maximum mana by 20% for 8 seconds. After the effect expires, the mana is lost. Maximum of 12 mana restorations. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.

My first initial reaction was that this might lead to a stacking of Priests in raids much in the same fashion that Shamans were going into Sunwell. No doubt you've read about Shaman Mana Stream totems and Paladin Blessing of Wisdoms no longer stacking. Anyway, I dismissed the Priest stacking idea pretty quickly. The channeling effect remains.

Instead of restoring the mana of 5 healers, only 3 nearby players will get the mana restoration and mana buffness.

I'm scratching my head about the mana maximum increase. Assuming I'm the one that that's casting Hymn and needs the mana boost, I won't be benefitting from the boost. Why? Because I have to channel the Hymn for 8 seconds and the mana increase lasts for 8 seconds! Oh yeah, sure the raid wide effect of Hymn of Hope is nice. But I just have to say ugh. I guess the best way to ensure that you're a recipient is to completely tank your mana pool before busting the Hymn.

However, if the other Hymn recipients are healers who are also low on mana, then Hymn of Hope 2.0 (or 3.0) might be able to buy more time for your other healers since it does extend their pool. Paladins might be hitting the 30k mana threshold with the effect on. Then again, I don't think Paladins will be the first ones getting the Hymn.

I am not happy with this change. But, I will be happy to give it a shot. Unfortunately, this version of Hymn of Hope is not yet available on the PTR. Hymn of Hope is trainable again (when you see the trainer it has the letters PH next to it which I assume to mean placeholder).

Divine Hymn

Old version: You recite a Holy hymn, causing the closest 10 enemies within 15 yards to become incapacitated for 20 sec., and heals the closest 10 friendly targets within 15 yards for 348 every sec for 6 sec. Incapacitated enemies take 40% less damage while incapacitated and for 3 sec after the incapacitation ends. Damage caused may interrupt the effect on all incapacitated targets.

Divine Hymn redesigned: You recite a Holy hymn, summoning the power of the Divine to assist you in your time of need. Heals 3 nearby lowest-health friendly party or raid targets for 4960-5208 every 2 seconds for 8 seconds, and increases healing done to them by 15% for 8 seconds. Maximum of 12 heals. The Priest must channel to maintain the spell. Cooldown increased to 6 minutes, up from 5.

I kind of like this new mechanic. In a nutshell, it's similar to Hymn of Hope but instead of restoring mana, it restores health. Old school Divine Hymn was a big PvP spell. It essentially locked down nearby enemies and stunned them for 20 seconds or so. At the same time it heals friendlies around the Priest.

The new Divine Hymn is like a big, red "heal now" button. Having 5000 health back every 2 seconds means that players can go from almost 0 to 20000 health in under 10 seconds which is the health of most players. It's a pretty big jump either way. It's not a PvP spell anymore either since the stun effect has been removed. It's just a straight up health restore. Not only that, it increases healing done to them (or healing received) by 15%.Ideally, this spell would land on tanks. But it's extremely hard to control who gets it and the fights where this spell will shine is on Patchwerk type fights where only a select few players are sustaining damage.Heh, how overpowered would it be if it included a Last Stand type effect where it increased affected target's health by 20%?

Unfortunately, I can't find this spell anywhere in my spellbook on the PTR and it doesn't seem trainable at the moment. I suspect this and the updated Hymn of Hope will come out later.

Again, something tells me that this isn't going to be the last of the Hymn changes we'll see. So what do you think of these changes as they stand?

Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! And don't forget to check out our other Leveling Guides as well as our Wrath Guides and Galleries!