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Cataclysm Beta: Build 12942 for healing priests

Dawn Moore
Updated ·6 min read

Priests received a handful of changes with the latest Cataclysm beta build that was released Thursday afternoon. There were little changes, such as a new animation for Archangel (as seen above), and big changes, like tweaking the talent Improved Inner Fire so that it's no longer mandatory. A preview for tier 11 was also released. Let's have a look at the talent changes first.

  • Power Word: Barrier has had the amount it absorbs increased. It will now absorb a total of 6 percent of spellpower plus 21,225 damage (up from 5 percent of SP plus 11,000.) It will still only absorb a portion of incoming damage if the damage exceeds 20 percent of the total absorb value.

  • Borrowed Time will no longer increase the amount absorbed by Power Word: Shield. It will just increase your spell haste.

  • Renewed Hope will now apply to targets with Grace. This means any target you heal with more than one spell (or more than one tick of Penance) will gain an additional 10 percent chance to be hit with a critical Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Heal or Penance.

  • Inner Focus no longer costs mana.

  • Improved Inner Fire has been renamed to Inner Sanctum. The new talent will no longer increase the overall effects of your Inner Fire, instead it will cause your Inner Fire to reduce all spell damage taken by 5/10/15 percent. The talent will now also affect Inner Will by increasing the movement speed bonus by 2/4/6 percent.

  • Improved Healing will no longer affect Lesser Heal. This is just a tweak to the language of the tooltip for consistency.

Now on to the glyphs!



This is what the new glyph interface looks like, in case you haven't seen it already. With the new system, glyphs are no longer consumable and are instead learned. The learned glyphs appear in the right-hand column of your glyphs panel and can be dragged and dropped at the cost of a reagent called Vanishing Powder. This new system will allow easier customization before particular dungeons or fights. For example, if your party or raid needs more crowd control, you could take the Glyph of Psychic Scream in place of a glyph that doesn't suit the fight as much (perhaps Glyph of Holy Nova).

Prime Glyphs

  • Flash Heal Changed -- Increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal on targets at or below 25% health by 10%.

  • Guardian Spirit Changed -- Reduces the cooldown of your Guardian Spirit by 30 sec.

  • Lightwell Changed -- Increases the total amount of charges of your Lightwell by 5.

  • Penance Same -- Reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 sec.

  • Power Word: Barrier New -- Increases the healing received while under the Barrier by 10%.

  • Power Word: Shield Same -- Your Power Word: Shield also heals the target for 20% of the absorption amount.

  • Prayer of Healing Same -- Your Prayer of Healing spell also heals an additional 20% of its initial heal over 6 sec.

  • Renew Same -- Reduces the duration of your renew by 3 sec, but increases the amount healed each tick by 25%.

  • Shadow Word: Death Changed -- If your Shadow Word: Death fails to kill the target at or below 25% health, your Shadow Word: Death's cooldown is instantly reset.

  • Shadow Word: Pain Changed -- Increases the periodic damage of your Shadow Word: Pain by 10%.

Major Glyphs

  • Circle of Healing Same -- Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target.

  • Dispel Magic Same -- Your Dispel Magic spell also heals your target for 3% of maximum health.

  • Divine Accuracy New -- Increases you chance to hit with your Smite by 18%.

  • Fade Same -- Reduces the cooldown of your Fade spell by 9 sec.

  • Fear Ward Same -- Reduces cooldown and duration of Fear Ward by 60 sec.

  • Holy Nova Changed -- Reduces the global cooldown of your Holy Nova by .5 sec.

  • Inner Fire Same -- Increases the armor from your Inner fire spell by 50%.

  • Mass Dispel Changed -- Reduces the cast time of Mass Dispel by 1 sec.

  • Pain Suppression Same -- Allows Pain Suppression to be cast while stunned.

  • Psychic Scream Changed -- Cause your Psychic Scream to tremble targets in place instead of fleeing in fear, but increases the cooldown of your Psychic Scream by 3 sec.

  • Scourge Imprisonment Same -- Reduces the cast time of your Shackle Undead by 1.0 sec.

  • Smite Same -- Your Smite spell inflicts an additional 20% damage against targets afflicted by Holy Fire.

  • Spirit of Redemption Same -- Increases the duration of Spirit of Redemption by 6 sec.

Minor Glyphs

  • Fading Same -- Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%.

  • Fortitude Same -- Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 50%

  • Levitate Same -- Your Levitate spell no longer requires a reagent.

  • Shackle Undead Same -- Increases the range of your Shackle Undead spell by 5 yards.

  • Shadow Protection Same -- Increases the duration of your Shadow Protection spell by 10 min.

  • Shadowfiend Same -- Receive 5% of your maximum mana if your Shadowfiend dies from damage.

I have a lot of thoughts on these glyph changes, but I've been instructed to save them for Sunday's Spiritual Guidance (when, of course, you should check back!). I do have a few short thoughts, though. The Glyph of Guardian Spirit has likely been nerfed to get it more on par with Pain Suppression, which is back up to a 3-minute cooldown with the removal of the talent Aspiration. Overall, I'm quite pleased to see a bunch of talents from the 71-point talent preview return in the form of glyphs. Divine Accuracy and Holy Nova are the two that stand out.

In addition to the handful of class changes priest have received, we also have a preview of our tier 11 set bonuses to pick apart. The bonuses are as follows:

  • 2-piece Increases the critical strike chance of your Heal spell by 5%. Instant

  • 4-piece Each time your Penance spell heals a target with Weakened Soul, you gain 540 Spirit for 10 sec, and being in a Chakra state grants you 540 Spirit for the duration of the Chakra. Instant

With both bonuses, I don't expect any trouble with the up time of the regen bonus for either disc or holy. We'll talk more about this on Sunday, though. See you then!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.