I just noticed on the PTR that the new Holy Shock:
a) costs 650 mana (up from 435, a ~33% increase), so that’s a big cost increase and makes Holy Shock much more of an “emergency stopgap” heal than a viable part of a healing rotation. This is also going to make life more mana-intensive for shockadins, unfortunately. Blizzard giveth and Blizzard taketh away.
b) is currently bugged and doesn’t consume Divine Favor when DF’s activated – you get a constant string of crit Holy Shocks until you cast FoL or HL to use up the DF charge. I assume that will be fixed before it goes live, though.
Well, that’s a bummer. What’s the point in buffing it, if they’re just gonna nerf it again? I’d rather have lower damage lower cost, it’s a major part of my killing routine… (holydin gots to grind too!)
Well, I don’t think it’s exactly a nerf – the damage has been buffed slightly more than the mana has. I think it’s being lined up as a PvP spell – particularly if you look at the change to the 4-pc arena set bonus – where burst damage and burst healing are more important than mana longevity.
That said, I agree that it sucks for our soloing. :/
Oh, I’d agree there. But then, what isn’t about PvP nowadays? Heh. It’s just unfortunate that I’ll be running out of mana even more often now. Ho hum. I guess the buff will be worth it overall?
Yeah, downtime for holy DPS just got a lot worse, that’s for sure. Overall DPS went up, though.
I think overall the buff /will/ be worth it, but I do wish they’d left the cost alone. It’s not like it was cheap to start with.
Agreed.