This is not only because my main character is a priest, but for all priests, who will suffer the same predicament. If your main character is a priest, you know what other classes ignore. Prayer of Mending since closed beta has been your main healing spell to survive PvE quests and grind, and MOST importantly to keep your raid alive in Karazhan and Heroic-mode dungeons.
Here is why Prayer of Mending having a 20 seconds cooldown is a very very bad idea. With prayer of mending, it is still hard to keep a tank alive in Heroic-mode, and hard as well to keep a mage alive through AOE in Karazhan mob pulls. With Prayer of Mending instant casting gone survival of mages through Karazhan AOE is going to be harsh.
In Heroic-mode, have you seen how hard mobs hit in Arcatraz and Shadow labyrinth? Even the Boglords in Steamvault and Underbog? It will be twice as hard now to keep a tank alive. Before you go /crymore, or /moveon, this is not priests in general crying for PvP, it is a matter of High-end PvE Dungeons. For now priests can’t be as effective and mana efficient to run high-end. It is already stressing to keep a tank or party member alive, and not always successful.
Prayer of Mending only costed 273 mana. Compare that with Flash Heal (470 mana), Greater Heal (701 mana), and Prayer of Healing (1004 Mana). Now let’s see the poor Dungeon 3.5 Priest set: Hallowed set. Having 4-pieces out of five of Hallowed set, I am 9435 mana unbuffed. Whereas using some reputation reward gear and dungeon0-drop gear I can get above 11k mana. Hallowed lacks intellect to be in par with non-set gear.
Moreover, the reason you wish to have Hallowed is because of the (4) Set bonus gain: Your Prayer of Mending heals an additional 100 health. It was pretty useful in Karazhan. Now with a 20 seconds cooldown, Hallowed bonus is … nearly useless on top of low intellect/mana. The only good thing of Hallowed is pumping spirit high up to 437 spirit unbufffed plus trinket, rings, necklace, off-hand.
With Hallowed, if you tossed 100 Prayer of Mending heals in Karazhan during Moroes event, you were healing the tank for 10,000 extra health with the Hallowed set bonus. Now that bonus is gone. Hours of farming all dungeons to get Hallowed set gone down the drain. This is not a priest only issue to troll-about. This is not a PvP cry either. This is something Warriors, Rogues, Warlocks, Mages, Druids and other classes should care for when running Karazhan, Kael’Thas (Tempest Keep), Gruul’s Lair, Tempest Keep: Arcatraz, Magtheridon’s Lair, Lady Vashj, Mount Hyjal and Black Temple. Can you afford the loss of a hardcore healing skill on a Holy Priest? Can you afford the wipes coming from this nerf? That’s what this is all about.
Make your voice heard be a priest or not. Post at the following forum thread in the Official Forums.
And to those who don’t think this is serious, wait till you go “LF Priest Arcatraz” and you get no response. Or having 8 players in your guild waiting 2 hours past 7pm with no priests showing up to raid Karazhan … the reason? Priests cancelling their accounts. Before you go /crymore look at this forum thread at the Priest Forum … that’s 8 pages of priests cancelling accounts. If spamming Prayer of Mending was an issue … it should have been resolved in Closed Beta—which lasted +3 months. Or make the PTR a max of 5 seconds cooldown. 20 seconds is plainly harsh. Again, my concern is ONLY for PvE High-End Dungeons.
