WoW Dragonflight Priest talent trees are set to receive an overhaul in the latest expansion to the popular MMORPG. As with any game with a large multiplayer community, content needs to be carefully calibrated in order not to break content, destabilise PvP, or make some classes perform wildly better than others. Blizzard have been making regular posts on the forums responding to feedback of the different classes, and this time they’re covering Priests. Let’s go through their comments.
The core class tree is not quite living up to their vision of how the new core trees will work. The idea is that the core tree will provide a range of utility options and abilities that are useful to all specialisations, but currently the tree is overloaded with “throughput” talents – abilities which passively buff the healing or damage output of the class. To combat this, they’re throwing some new utility talents into the core tree: Angelic Bulwark, a self-shield that activates when you go below 30% health; Void Shift, which allows the Priest to swap their health percentage with another player; and Holy Word: Life, an emergency heal that works better when the target is at low health.
The Holy tree will receive three new talents: Revitalising Prayers, which gives Prayer of Healing a chance to apply a HoT; Harmonious Apparatus, which adds synergy between various abilities; and Spirited Litany, which grants a Power Infusion buff.
In the Discipline tree, Blizzard wants to improve the lack of “connectedness” in the tree. They will also be introducing Expiation, which buffs the damage of Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death; Aegis of Wrath, which improves Power Word: Shield; and Divine Aegis, which causes critical heals to apply a shield.
Finally, the Shadow tree. This tree will receive the most changes of the three, including the introduction of new talents Dark Void, an AoE that applies a DoT; and Pain of Death, which causes Shadow Word: Death to deal AoE damage to those inflicted with said DoT. Searing Nightmare is also being removed, as it’s considered to have overly dominated the Priest AoE toolkit.
For more of the latest on WoW Dragonflight class changes, check out our article on Blizzard’s response to Monk talent feedback. Along with class balancing, the alpha recently received new WoW Dragonflight user options that improve user experience considerably.