Cataclysm Double SpecFollow

I really like the beta deep discipline talent Strength of Soul, which reduces debuff time on weakened soul by casting heal, but I think many of the PVP advantages discipline had will be gone.

PVP discipline advantages lost:
•Mass dispel no longer faster
•Mana burn no longer faster
•No additional dispel protection for buffs.
•Rapture no longer grants mana/rage/focus to the target
•Less cooldown reduction for penance, power infusion and pain suppression
•Less spell haste from borrowed time
•Power word:shield relatively more expensive

There are definite improvements, like the reduction of inner focus’s cooldown from 3 min to 45 secs, but overall I think the spec won’t be the only viable choice for PVP healing, as holy now has advantages that I feel put them on pretty even footing.

PVP holy advantages gained:
•Resilience not reducing crit frequency raises the value of blessed resilience relative to focused will. (Though focused will remains the best reason to go PVP discipline)
•Larger HP pools and mana concerns raise the value of steady, efficient healing relative to burst and absorption.
•My arena teams and prospective BG team will use lightwells if I drop them. Leap of faith to a lightwell sounds solid.
•Holy Word: Chastise. Or Holy Word: Serenity. Or Holy Word: Aspire. Instants rule the battlegrounds.

Also, after seeing Shadow get more and more competitive over the last season, I’m eager to try out the new version. I have a crazy idea for a build that doesn’t rely on Mind Flay, but focuses on mobility and fast casts instead. Hopefully Mind Spike will hit hard enough to make it viable.

So after being Discipline/Discipline ever since dual specs first became available, I’m planning to go Holy/Shadow with the 4.0 patch. I’ll let you folks know how it goes.

Please do. Moz keeps betting me I'll go Holy for PVP. If it works for a PVP pro like you I may try it out for my second spec.

Currently I still plan to do Disc PVP/Disc PVE for my specs, but we'll see just how true this "less difference between a PVP and PVE spec" turns out to be. If I don't need 2 Disc specs I can certainly see having something fun to play around with for the second spec.

Does chakra still kick in when you cast three of the same exact spell (3 Renews, 3 Smites, etc) or when you cast three of the same class of spells (3 hots, 3 heals, 3 damage)? Because if it's still the former, I dunno how well it's going to work for PVP. Asking for a "rotation" from healers is a lot in any setting, but in PVP it's probably too much to ask.

Doh! I read about the original version of chakra. So its just something that need to be activated (and it doesn't trip the global cooldown), then you cast your heal/renew/PoH/smite to determine the chakra state. 1 min CD, 30 sec duration - but is extended by each successful cast of heal/renew/PoH/smite.

Hardly stupid...no reason to stay up-to-date on all the still-fluid beta info unless you’re bored.

Since you’re interested, check out the deep holy beta talent Revalations, since I think it’s one of the things that will make Holy a much stronger PVP spec than it is currently is. When you’re in a healing Chakra state, your Holy Word: Chastise becomes a heal (Holy Word: Serenity, in Heal Chakra), HoT (Holy Word: Aspire, in Renew Chakra), or an AoE HoT (Holy Word: Sanctuary, in Prayer of Healing Chakra), all instant cast with a 15-20 second cooldown.

Multiple Chakras, cool. I hope it's not a bug but a feature. You can ignore my question in the "beta priest" thread, since you've pretty much answered it here.

So what does happen to your Holy Word as it now stands? Can you use the words of both states, or the first or last activated, or what?

Chakra and Holy Word work like this.

You activate Chakra, and it gives you a buff that is consumed with the next compatible spell cast, a la Inner Focus.

Whatever spell you cast next will consume the Chakra buff and put you in the corresponding Chakra state:

Chakra (Heal) will increase the crit chance of Heal by 10%, and cause Heal to refresh Renew on the target.

Chakra (Renew) will increase the healing by Renew by 10%, and will reduce the Global Cooldown of Renew by .5 seconds.

Chakra (Prayer of Healing) will increase AoE healing by 10%, and reduce the cooldown of Circle of Healing by 2 seconds.

Chakra (Smite) will cause you to deal 15% more Holy and Shadow damage.

There's a second talent in the Holy Tree called "Revelations". Basically, when you're in a Chakra state, your Holy Word: Chastise spell transforms into a new ability. The ability is determined by what state of Chakra you're in. The effects are listed below:

Holy Word: Serenity (Heal) - Instantly heals the target for 5198 to 6100, and increases the critical effect chance of your healing spells on the target by 25% for 6 sec. 20 sec cooldown.

Holy Word: Aspire (Renew) - Instantly heals the target for 2224 and another 4206 over 18 sec. 15 sec cooldown.

Holy Word: Sanctuary (Prayer of Healing) - Blesses the ground with Divine light, healing all within it for 299 to 355 every 2 for 15 sec. Only one Sanctuary can be active at any one time.

On top of that all, there's another talent called "State of Mind". Whenever you cast the spell that triggered a Chakra state (Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing, or Smite), the duration of your current Chakra state is increased by 4 seconds (max of 30 seconds). This allows you to keep the current Chakra going until the cooldown is up and you can switch states.

And that's pretty much the gist of it. Oh, and the graphic for Chakra looks incredibly awesome, with a different color for each state.

It was that already. To be fair though, they're removing some stuff from the 'optimal rotation', changing healing altogether, and Chakra is one of those talents that's easier to understand in practice than on paper. You just need to use it a couple of times for it to make sense. In it's simplest form it really is a "I want to be a tank-/HOT-/raid-healer /DPS now" button.

Well that doesn't sound so bad. I'm sure in two dungeons or so it would start coming naturally.

What would you do in PVP though? It's not like I'm going to heal one person for a few seconds then switch to healing everyone for a few seconds then switch to smiting for a few seconds. I'm going to put a big heal on that guy, smite that one, top off everyone, another big heal on that guy, another smite on that one, smite again, heal, AOE heal. In other words, my role changes with each cast.