Israia was already tiring of her time on the ship, barely a day into the voyage. She had never spent much time on the sea in her travels before, and was always more comfortable on the larger ships that went to Northrend- these smaller vessels constantly felt as if they were the weather's plaything, being taken wherever the winds would instead of actually trying to maintain a path. It didn't help that they lurched.

Her cabin was what used to be the Captain's quarters, but with enough gold on the table, she was easily parted with a decent bed for the night. The windows lining the room bathed the room in Elune's light, a pleasant glow that a lantern could never hope to reproduce. Israia had been hoping to sleep through most of the trip, but that plan faded away after she simply couldn't sleep. She would have found work to do, but it would seem regrettable considering how much she had paid the Captain. So, she was left to stew in her room, watching the water and the round reflection of her Goddess.


Israia's pack had been lost days before. The longer she spent on Azuremyst, the more she regretted her choice of not just continuing her training as a soldier, and perhaps going with the contingent that was now in Stormwind. The elders had not let much of anyone out until two weeks had gone by, a small party finding and making peace with the Night Elves in their 'giant tree', and confirming the world was more hospitable than they had been lead to believe.

Israia herself had been out for only five days now, and if not for her insistence, it would have been even longer. She had been led to the northern part of Azuremyst by an Elder in the hastily-built Azure Watch, to a place he referred to as the "Emberglade". What a beautiful name, she thought, for a burnt down forest.

Stepping over the third blackened tree husk yet, her hopes were dwindling more every minute. These were definitely the signs of the Elementals she sought, but the spirits themselves were nowhere to be found. Eventually, she would find a large, pit-like clearing, with still-standing trees on each side, strong despite what must have been the worst fire the island had seen in hundreds of years.

In the center of the pit was the smallest twig, still smoldering with a dim flame. Reaching down to pick it up, she would look it over, and slowly push herself back to standing, turning the twig over to watch as it burned, slowly. But as she did, she barely noticed the sudden warmth around her. However, the roar of flames would be hard to miss, moments later. Now, the forest around her itself was burning, hot and bright, in every direction. Flames leapt out at her from seemingly every direction, singing her clothes, hair and skin fairly quickly. Only when she dropped the twig from fear of being swallowed by the flame however, did she notice the sound... of laughter?

She twisted to find the sound, only to see an Elemental as large as the forest itself, staring down at her, its chest expanding with the continuous, booming laughter. However, as she stared up at him in awe, she would step back, and quickly realize that the flames themselves around her began to recede, and the spirit shrink in size, quickly, though the laughter never ceased, not until she heard the spirit speak.

"You take fear for your life so quickly! How cowardly the murderer of Obsidin is!" the Elemental flared out to her left, then seemed to disappear. The next voice would be behind her: "You truly thought the flames would take you! The look on your face, priceless, amazing, everything I could have hoped for!" She turned to see it, now a 'mere' shadow of its former self, but still as large as even the biggest Elekk."To think he lost to you so easily, it, it- it's unbelievable!" the spirit exclaimed, as another round of laughter seemed to feed the flames around the clearing.

"Shut your-" Israia began, quickly realizing that the Element had no mouth to shut, and if it did, it was certainly not using it to talk. "How dare you mock me, I destroyed your brother, this island's caretaker for hundreds of years!" Her pride was certainly hurt by the laughter, though now, she truly could not summon the courage it had taken to do the deed.

"The island's caretaker? Girl, your 'caretaker' was but a babe. The strongest of the babes of his kind, but he was no true Avatar, yet. Merely a child to grow." He would seem to flare out again at her, but the flames would curl before they reached her skin. "Your audacity is most impressive, actually thinking you can take from us what you desire. And to succeed! What a wonderful tale to tell."

Israia swallowed, hoping some pride could accompany it. "I only take because they would not offer. I know my destiny, and it is with your powers at my side."

The Avatar did not respond to her for quite awhile. Instead, he seemed to fade away, his monstrous face appearing in the flames around her constantly. She had never seen it before so easily, but she was sure these flames were no different than the ones taken to her home.

"Then, girl, you will live up to my offer, should I make it?"

"Of course. You need only trust me."

"Trust you?" The flames laughed once more. "Trusting your Master was difficult. Trusting a murderer is impossible." The avatar would continue laughing, as it formed again before her. "But trust is not required to give you my blessing. However, compliance is." The voice would pause, the clearing growing quieter, before he continued.

"They call me Temper. Perhaps I hold the slightest of grudges, but I rarely lash out at those undeserving- is it so wrong, to burn those who would taint me with the Fel?" A gust of blisteringly-hot air swirled around her, and only then did she notice the other faces. This pit was not natural; No, this had been a clearing before. The faces of Satyr were all around her, burnt down to their blackened skulls, buried in the pit. "But most, I forgive. As long as they allow me a single pleasure, on their behalf."

"A pleasure?" Israia asked, her voice wary, now careful to not anger him.

"A pleasure! A joke, a trick, a prank, something small and annoying that might fill them with joy after the fact. That, my dear, is what you are now. What you are to me- You, you shall receieve my blessing, with a promise you give me."

"W-What's this promise?"

"Ever the lion." the Avatar said with another laugh. "The promise, is that you will become a Shaman my dear, and especially, gain the blessing of my dear friend, Aqueous. You'll find him on Bloodmyst- I'm sure you'll be happy to meet him. He is of Water, after all."

Israia hesitated. "What is the catch? What prank am I playing?"

"Only that he would align himself with a murderer, even if it was of his greatest enemy." Did the flames...grin?

"Greatest enemy? I thought that would be you." She asked with hesitation.

"No, no child. Have you ever seen the oceans swallowed by flame? Water and I, we may not like one another, but we stay out of each other's way as best we are able. And sometimes, sometimes, I warm his heart."

With this, Temper would again fade, but now, he faded with his inferno. In seconds, the forest would be clear and quiet again, the only sign of their conversation, the momentary sound of a tree falling, unable to carry itself as a burden any longer. The flames were gone.


Israia had not realized that she had fallen asleep, when she awoke next. The rattling of the door was accompanied with the rough voice of a woman who spent too much time drinking. "Up 'n Adam girl! You're in Auberdine, now get tha hell out of my room and off m'ship!"

Israia would rush to get up, grabbing her clothes and stuffing them into her pack, ignoring the sound of the fist against the door.

"D'ye hear me, ya daft girl? Get offa my-" She was about to bang against the door again, as the lock twisted open, and the door swung open to reveal Israia, who would quickly clasp the key into the dark human woman's hand, and disappear down the hall, then up the stairs overhead. Her Wintersaber, Dramora, was already on the dock, serene as always, now that the crew left her alone. When Israia got to her, she swung herself atop the beast and patted her softly, before taking the reins just in time for the cat to launch off, down the dock. From here, they would take the ferry to Azuremyst, the last leg of her trip.

A friend inside of Blizzard I know isn't taking it well- if anything, they're probably tearing their hair out. They don't like RealID I can tell, but they can't speak out on it without getting in quite a bit of trouble. They've been incredibly quiet about their job in this situation, keeping everything related to the job close to the vest right now. I just hope that their higher-ups make it easier on them soon.

The impression I get from both them and other quotes is one that perhaps the forum change is in fact not the point of all of this, if anything, it might indeed be a cover for something else. No, I don't think it's just a publicity stunt- that would be horrible, and, well, rather stupid. I think they genuinely thought it was a good idea(which is troubling), and now are questioning whether the idea is feasible in the long term- it's fairly obvious they have long reaching plans for this entire idea. They might even be good- but they must not preclude you from any part of the community of Warcraft, the reason we all play this game, to do them. They must not force us to expose ourselves, to expose potential family members and friends, without our knowledge.

Many call it hypocritical- "You hate a Facebook or Twitter account, don't you?" they say. But I would argue that argument moot- is privacy not something that is inherent with our own choice? Inherent with our own decisions? Isn't the finest part of the internet that which we can involve ourselves while risking little? If I were a black man wishing to see what KKK members were really like, the internet enables that. If I was a five year old, wondering what socio-economic geopolitical debates are like, the internet enables that. Equally, I would love to show my friends and some peers who I am- in fact, I would be proud to. But my friends are not everyone. Facebook and Twitter are not World of Warcraft. And my privacy is my business, and my business alone.

I've already outlined the ways to fix this- primarily, adding invisibility features, and tossing the entire idea of showing real names on forums. It's simply the way it should work. Make it so people choose only one character to post by. Let there be karma and voting and everything else that was planned. Ban people without a second thought. Charge $5 or the equivalent game time for them to sign back up for the forums- or, just charge it the moment they cause an infraction. Have a maximum of 3 infractions before you can be banned permanently.

This would quickly and easily solve the problems inherent in their design. It would please everyone- the forums would improve quickly almost overnight, and the community would get to both keep their privacy and be involved in the intricate discussions of game design for the games that we love enough to play every day and give the developers a few penny's worth of thoughts for.

However, one final thing to worry about is the addon vulnerability inherent in RealID. Apparently, either via an addon forcing you to reference yourself to then pull your RealID from you(i.e., requiring you to have a similar addon), or just from an addon requesting it, others can pull your RealID(and thusly your name) from you ingame, quickly and easily without adding that person to your RealID friend's list.

Currently, the only mod we know of that does this is GearScore 3.2, which has been recently rolled back, perhaps as a result of this. But if that is the case, it causes one to wonder- why implement it in the first place if not to show that to everyone out there?

Luckily, one smart addon developer quickly made a way to block the RealID addon vulnerability. I haven't looked at it to see how or if it works, but it certainly has to be a welcome addition for those of us who would rather stay private. I just hope that Blizzard will give us that security of mind back- this, unmistakably, is a misstep in every fashion. But I don't think it's unrecoverable, if they never manage to implement it.

If they do... they will be much less lucky.

Update: WoW.com says that the screenshot and video showing the vulnerability is fake. While I'd be inclined to agree, I'm not editing the post for two reasons- they don't post their sources(shitty journalism hi), and they already posted about the security hole that is there, regardless.

Yesterday morning, Blizzard announced their plans to do away with characters on their forums, instead forcing anyone wishing to post on their forums to post under their real name. That's right- I would be posting under "Jake Mays", the entire time. Now, if one did a Google search for that, they would find me quickly and easily. I've never made much of an effort to hide who I am online, but I also have boundaries for everything I do online.

Currently, if you read this blog regularly or know me through any other means, I likely won't mind telling you a lot about myself. I don't have much in the way of secrets. But I also spend between half an hour to four hours weekly on the World of Warcraft DPS boards, trying to find new ways to balance and innovate within the game, as well as educating people as to the proper ways to play their class or another class, in case they might have overlooked an ability, or something might not have been as intuitive as they had hoped.

Doing this has been a long, difficult fight that I'd like to believe has shown differences in quality on the DPS boards over time. I'm not the only one- Strawberry, a well known Elemental Shaman advocate, or Elysia, another multi-class poster like myself, or Communism, another on top of that, Apostle, etc etc- there are lots of us that do this week in and week out in an effort to make the World of Warcraft forums there a better place.

Now, few of us will feel welcome at all.

If one is to honestly believe this well lessen the amount of trolling, you might be right, but I'd argue that you're completely wrong. In the later days of AOL(and still to this day), you can do a directory search through people's AOL profiles to find people with similar interests. I used this to find roleplay partners all the way until I was 15 years old and we finally transferred to a real broadband provider. Through this, I was trolled dozens of times, despite the fact that I could get these people's real names fairly easily(as it was tied to their AOL account, not their AIM profile), and much more information from there. If I had the resources then that I have now, I could have gotten their phone numbers fairly easily.

These days however, a name is all you need to find someone on Facebook. Find everything they've ever done on the internet, if you manage to find their usual screen name, is easier than ever. And as much as I am proud of the work I've done on those forums, I do not want that work associated quickly with my identity out of game, whether it is with an employer or professor.

We'd all have to be completely blind to not admit there is a gigantic stigma to playing video games- and at times like these, it's just another strike against you when you want a job. There are a lot of difficulties in having an online persona, and for some of us, we manage it better than others. But even then, we don't want all of ourselves online.

It's been a long time that we've all been here on the internet, and sure, that anonymity has opened us up to countless problems, that we all have taken part in from time to time. Piracy, hateful speech, indulging in things we have good reason to be ashamed of because of their risk and taboo. But that anonymity presents countless benefits, as well: Suddenly, your identity has nothing to do with your argument, only the merits of the idea put forth do. Approaching a potential mate is on the grounds of intellectual similarities, avoiding the bias of one's body. You can donate to causes you believe in without fear of retribution. You can play a video game and want to take part in the development process so that the game ends up better.

As long ago as 1985, the strength of anonymity in making an argument was recognized. Orson Scott Card(a man whom I respect despite a deep disagreement with his philosophy on life and homosexuality) wrote Ender's Game, a book mostly about teenage development and simulations, but with a side story arc of the main character and his brother using an interface very similar to the internet to publish Essays on why they should, at the time the book is set in, invade Russia. Regardless of the argument itself, it showed the basis in the brilliance of anonymity- even children can contribute cohesive, rational thoughts to a debate normally only held by adults that can help influence their world.

Edit: Bricu insisted I un-blur his name. So I did. He also said, try the number 867-5309: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBHJqtgo8RAThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent page on the benefits of anonymity, and has fought hundreds of these battles to maintain online anonymity for us all, even in cases that would eventually make it to the Supreme Court. One smaller court case had an especially damning ruling in an attempt to remove online anonymity:

 "[T]he free exchange of ideas on the Internet is driven in large part by the ability of Internet users to communicate anonymously."

The most troubling thing about this move by Blizzard is that it's another step forward on their RealID campaign without any signs of wanting to revamp the major complaints people have already had with the system up to this point. Why does the interface not contain any way of going 'invisible', so as to keep some characters secret? This is a two decade old feature of any IM, forum, or social network. Why must it use the e-mail that we use to log into our games as the way of inviting friends to be RealID buddies? Hell, why haven't they unlocked the 100 person friend list yet?

If Blizzard would like to clean up their forums, the proper way to do it is harder moderation. Ban people from the forums for indecent conduct or breaking the rules, and charge them $5 to join them again, with a maximum of 3 bannings before it is an absolute perma-ban. Make the moderation of the forums more transparent, showing the locked threads before just filing them away, so people know what is not acceptable to talk about.

Issue proper warnings. Get a better support system for problems brought to the forums(and for the love of God, hire more people to answer calls. A 5 hour wait time to talk to someone on the phone is unacceptable). There is a reason no one has done this before, and it isn't because you are pioneering, Blizzard. It's because you're quickly alienating your most loyal fans from giving any input. Please, don't make this change. It will kill what you love most about your own community.

Edit: Decent coverage on the entire Anonymity and the Internet argument, even if I think it's too easy on the NSA wanting to toss our privacy. It's from the New York Times, and was written just 4 days ago. Here you go.

Early the next day, in her room cool with the crispness of winter, Israia could be found packing her clothes into a small dragonhide bag, with the pullstring currently tucked somewhere around the edges of the bag's opening. Already it had held most of her armor and a few reagents, but Israia was hoping to find a way to stuff both of her axes in as well. As she twisted and pushed against the chainmail, loud clinks could be heard throughout the top floor of her apartment.

"No, Bourbon," Elanstowyn hissed as the cub attempted to ransack her belongings. The bear was becoming too large to handle properly and she had endured her share of nips and scratches. Lucky, then, that she was some type of healer. She was about to scold the dense beast when she heard the sounds from the other room. Pushing herself up off of her heels, she made her way to the door of her room, and looked out into the hall. "Israia?"

"Yes, Elan?" she yelled out, not letting her gaze stray for even a moment.

Shortly thereafter, Elanstowyn appeared at the threshold to Israia's room. Leaning against the frame, she looked over the room and noted the empty, gaping drawers. "I suppose you're off to somewhere?"

Israia nodded, looking up to her. "Taking a long trip back to Azuremyst," she said, her mouth still open to continue, before deciding against it and awkwardly going back to packing her things.
Elanstowyn quirked her brow. "To the Exodar? Visiting someone?"

"I'm going to see the Elements. It's time I... made things right." Israia shrugged.

Elanstowyn stepped into the room, offering a small, shallow smile to Israia. "Well, do you need help packing? Perhaps you should take some tea, and throw a party?" It was hard to keep the irritation out of her voice. "What do you need to visit the elements of Azuremyst for?"

Israia shook her head with a sigh. "I can't become a better healer without their help. And they won't help me without their blessing, so that... we can be ready for the Citadel." She would shrug off her thoughts, trying to not drag herself down. "Even if just to help some of the Ebon Blade hold the gates," she muttered, twisting to sit on her bed.

Elanstowyn nodded. "I have never dealt with elements so intimately, so I can't level with you. Why won't they help you? It seems... worthy."

"What I have with the Elements... is more like a business arrangement. I request their 'help' to defeat my foes and occasionally help myself, and they can use me as they see fit. Usually our goals are one and the same, but... we didn't come to the agreement amiably."

Elanstowyn moved to sit beside Israia on the bed, folding her hands over her lap and studying her bitten nails. "Not an amiable agreement? Strange. It wouldn't seem bad, to have a powerful tool such as yourself for disposal. What were their qualms?"

"I destroyed the first avatar of Earth that wouldn't grant me their blessing. The second was more intimidated." Israia said quickly and quietly.

"Oh. Not very ambassadorial, then. I can see the problems that would ensue." Elanstowyn grumbled as she shook her head. "They hold a grudge now?"

Israia nodded. "Earth has found it within itself to forgive me, but... Air, less so. None of them particularly like me, though Earth, Fire, and Water have yet to actually harm me."

"You'll have to forgive me, I've never been much in the society of elements. Why does the wind give such a damn? It's a thing of the past, and I'm sure you've repaid the debt double-fold."
"I might have threatened their Avatar." Israia said, biting her lip.

"Recently?"

Israia shook her head. "Years ago. But the Elements are eternal- to them, all of this is recent. Susurrus alone is probably tens of thousands of years old, if not more. And he has always been proud." Israia trailed off trailing off. She twisted to her bag, and pull the string tight around the top.

"Sounds like a ripe bastard to me. Are you going to consult this 'Susurrus' again? Is there only the one Avatar?"

"There are more, but they won't give me what I need unless I apologize to Susurrus. He'll be the first one I go to." Israia grinned slightly, looking down at her knees underneath her gown. "If he doesn't throw me off of the mountain again, at least."

Elanstowyn frowned with concern. "Threw you off the mountain? For threatening him? I suppose they are fickle entities, but..." Her voice hesitated for a moment. "This is ridiculous."

"Tossing me off the mountain also gave me what I wanted, back then. I'd pay it ten times over if it gave me what I wanted now." She said with a nervous swallow. "Though, if you don't get a letter from me a few days after I'm gone, come looking for me on the beach beneath the mountain the Exodar crashed into." Israia chuckled morbidly.

"What you're asking them doesn't seem like much, it almost even seems like you're doing them a favor." Elanstowyn scoffed. "Perhaps you should take a parachute?"

Israia grinned. "No, I'll be fine. Just have to hope I'm still conscious when I hit the water." Turning away from Elanstowyn, Israia stood and swung her bag onto her back. "This is your home while I'm gone. Use it as such. And..." Israia hesitated, looking around the room while taking a deep breath. "...if I don't come back, it's all yours. Every last bit." She stuck out her hand to Elanstowyn for a shake.

The night elf studied Israia for a long moment, before taking Israia's hand and squeezing softly. "I suppose letters wouldn't reach you, in return?"

Israia shook her head. "They will. Feel free to write- I'll need the support." She squeezed back, holding Elanstowyn's hand for a while and staring at her, with a slight smile curling at the edges of her lips. Then, on impulse, she pulled Elanstowyn up and into an embrace, dropping the bag behind her. "Thank you." Israia whispered into her ear.

Elanstowyn's surprise was quickly replaced by warmth as she hugged Israia back, grinning contently. "Thank you as well, Israia. Fortune find you, and may your journey be swift."
Israia would nod, pick her bag back up, and look to Elanstowyn. "Stay safe." She said with a smile, before walking out of the room toward the stairs. She would be outside in minutes, on her way to the harbor; she had a boat to catch. 



Silvergale never was the most pleasant place to begin with. Long before the Exodar crash landed on its sister island to the south, debris from the ship was left piercing the ground from it's northernmost point to as far as it's southern bridge. It had long been a haven for all manner of demonic elements, but with the arcane energies of the ship's crystals littered throughout the island polluting the island itself, it only fit to be renamed Bloodmyst. The oceans that surrounded it retained the dark color, and thusly, the spirits themselves took on the pollution, many tainted to their core.

However, one spirit, the Avatar of water, did not succumb to the pollution. Instead, he kept himself to the greatest depths of the ocean, where the bloody water dissipated. This kept him from those spirits who lost their way, and from the countless demons that grew in number every day. However, it did not keep him from the Draenei he had become so indebted to, as they together fought to cleanse the island of it's decay.

Israia however, had done no such good deed. She had gone straight from the Spirit of Fire, his blessing fresh from her fingers, swallowing the water just enough to allow her breath. It was here, that Aqueous assaulted her mind. "You have no business in my presence, little Draenei. You are no shaman, and even less a proper draenei. Your own Gods have forsaken you, and your Master pities you. You are no more destined for my power than the Murlocs you slaughtered on your way to me."

She would open her mouth to speak, and regret it just as quickly, the water quickly forcing it's way in, until the Avatar granted her a reprieve. "But obviously both Earth and Fire see the potential in me. Do you doubt their wisdom?"

"Of course I do. Your last Avatar was not called Temper without reason."

"Then what if I reminded you that your own beloved Nobundo thought I was deserving? You might call it pity, but I doubt it could be referred to as pity since the last we spoke." She would have grinned, but at this point Israia was too scared of drowning to do much more than hold her breath and pray she did not anger the Avatar more than she could handle. She was, after all, four-hundred feet under water.

"I would say that pity goes a long way. You've shown no dedication to the Elements-"

She cut him off. "Beside the work I'm sure he told you that I performed on Azuremyst before I visited Fire, and more on Draenor itself. The Naaru may have 'forsaken' me, but that did not stop my work." She pushed herself closer to the spirit, and reached out a hand. "You have trusted the Draenei with so much. Why not trust the judgement of Fire, and perhaps show yourself to be more compassionate than fickle?"

Aqueous hesitated a long while, before moving forward without message and enveloping Israia. At first, the warmth she felt was oppressing, her lips and lungs failing under the pressure, until she gave in, and found herself alive, and the Avatar fading from his form. It was done; She had her third blessing.

I've decided to really embrace the idea of asking my fellow players and bloggers their thoughts on the changes, and as such, I have two unique souls here to help me today.

I do have a max level Priest that I play fairly regularly, however even as well versed as I am in what a Priest feels like(even into Icecrown Citadel), I'm not entirely confident in my own opinion. Or at least, not as much as these two.

The first, is Bika. Bika is one of my closest friends and one of the best Shadow Priests on Feathermoon- along with being one of the most popular people on the server for just being a damn good person. Over on her blog she primarily writes stories for her characters, and she's one of my favorite writers on Feathermoon. She's the best example of a Shadowpriest I think I could ever pull up.

The second is Elanstowyn. Elanstowyn is a relatively new Priest in Totally Raiding, but is an old old friend of mine, and someone who defies all logic in how nice she is. I'm really not lying when I say she's the nicest person I've ever met. On top of this, over the last few months she has really come into her own as a Healing Priest, joining our healing team for late Trial of the Crusader action, and has been there throughout the push through Icecrown Citadel. She's not only integrated herself into the healing team, but has proven herself incredibly capable and versatile, and is keeping up easily with our best. She'll be providing my Holy and Discipline in-depth analysis.

Well then, with no further ado: Let's get this started.

New Priest Spells

Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the "new" Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest's go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes. 

The entire plan behind this move is in line with things Blizzard has been saying for months, and restated in the Shaman Preview: They want mana to matter more. Elan liked the idea, but was skeptical. "I'm glad another heal is being added to the Priest arsenal, because there was something definitely lacking between Greater Heal and Flash Heal. Most Priests use Flash Heal as the go-to because Greater Heals are too slow to really predict things and clear damage as it happens. So it'll be interesting to see how Heal falls into place, and whether Priests will end up switching from Flash Heal to Heal. I assume we will, since we'll really have to micro-manage our mana."

Bika has two Priests. This is the mean one. With new and improved hair!Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage. The intent of Mind Spike is to fill a niche missing in Shadow DPS, though it may be occasionally useful for healers as well. Mind Spike provides a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn't have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike will do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. The idea behind the debuff is that when you cast Mind Spike, we expect you to cast a lot of them; we don't intend you to fit it into an already full Shadow rotation. It also provides Shadow with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school. (School lockouts will no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.) 1.5-second cast. 30-yard range. No cooldown. 

Even on my Priest, I know the pain that a Shadow Priest feels when trying to take down single-target low-health mobs. So when I told Bika about this one, she really liked the idea of it. "It kinda sounds like having a mind blast, only better and with no cooldown." But with that, she had a worry: "Will Mind Blast just kind [of] go extinct at that point, I wonder?"

I told her that I thought they would find a niche for both- make Mind Blast hit much harder than Mind Spike initially, though perhaps if Mind Spike can stack high enough, it might eventually reach Mind Blast's strength. But then you'd just be better off doing a normal rotation, probably.

"Well I'll tell you what, I freaking hate soloing non-elites and small trash pulls in instances, because the ramp-up time isn't worth the effort and I have no nukes. I'm nearly useless in a 5-man unless I'm healing, working on AoE packs, or fighting a boss. It's[Mind Spike] definitely preferable to my current options. Right now I have to decide which approach is the least inefficient and/or infuriating. My choices suck. I can use one or two dots per mob and pull a lot of them [when soloing], shielding myself while I wait for them all to die slowly. If I'm in a group, that's impossible to do, so I just use Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death when they aren't on cooldown to at least get some damage in while everyone else nukes things."

"Being able to unload on a single target efficiently and without a lot of wasted firepower will be helpful for leveling and group situations where you want to be more precise about who or what you're killing." Which makes me definitely wonder: Why not have Mind Spike come in at a lower level? I could see this making an entrance around level 30 or 40, when you start to see a lot more times of mobs with pets. This could smooth those fights out quite well.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can't have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis. 

 Upon reading this, Bika had one question.

"Does the movement speed stack with enchants? I imagine it wouldn't."

I told her it stacked with boots, but likely wouldn't completely stack with Body and Soul, the Holy talent.

"...so I can move 20% faster if I have it on?"

Yep.

"Given the sheer quantity of movement-essential fights they've been putting in the endgame, that's frickin' amazing... I'd be switching between the two a lot, I imagine. I could see that being a buff that you almost toggle throughout fights. Makes me wonder if they're going to put in new fights that require almost constant movement."

Elan had a more pragmatic look at it: "I'm sure a lot of Holy Priests will prefer Inner Will instead of Inner Fire so they can raid heal faster and cheaper. This doesn't seem to matter as much for disc, who benefit a lot from crits[for Divine Aegis], so they'll probably still maintain Inner Fire."

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown. 

Bika loves it, but is wary of getting her hopes up. "I wouldn't be surprised if they nerf it or leave it out altogether, honestly. Seems to me there are a lot of ways you could abuse it or screw things up by using it on the wrong person or pulling people into danger, so I'm not holding my breath. Of course, if it does make it into the game, I'll be thrilled. I have seen so many instances where that ability would have prevented a wipe(or a loss, if we're talking PvP). Any Priest who's quick on their feet and situationally aware will be able to kick some serious ass with that spell. They may as well call it Holy Backpack, because a good Priest is going to be able to carry a lot of fail with that thing."

"It will make me laugh to pull people around. But mostly I don't have to sit there, shaking my fist at people who are royally screwing up." Elan said. "I'm interested to see how it plays out, strategy wise, with bosses."

"I swear to God there are people I am going to make macros for, because they are fucking terrible at getting out of shit.", Bika added.

You and me both, Sister.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate). 

I shouldn't repeat the first thing Bika said after reading this. So this is what Elan said:

"Love this. ...It'll make renew more viable to cast. I must be an odd Holy Priest at times, because I'm not always casting renew, but I think this change will make the spell much more appealing to me."

"So the better your gear gets the more mana efficient you'll be." Bika said. "And more MF[Mind Flay] means more dps, yay!" That's one aspect I'm sure a lot of people didn't think about- I sure didn't. "It'll simplify things. Right now I have to watch my rotation like a hawk because if I have a lot of haste procs at any given time, DoTs will fall off without my noticing."

This is Thiyenn, Bika's other Shadow Priest(yes, they're both Shadow). Thiyenn is really fucking shy.But I wondered if, for a Shadow Priest, this didn't make things less interesting from the lack of real variability in a rotation.

"I don't think there's a downside to it... Maybe it'll make things slightly more boring, but we already have enough spells to keep us busy. A more reliable rotation means more time for things like saving Joe McBurnsalot from that shadow puddle."

We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health. 

"It's a pretty worthless spell at the moment." Bika said. "It's only good for when you need a spell to fill a gap where you have to move for more than a few seconds at a time, or when you absolutely must use a direct damage spell(i.e., Blood Princes). Otherwise it doesn't do enough damage to justify the GCD. That, and it can kill you. And it has a long cooldown. And it's impossible to time it to kill anything. I fucking hate Shadow Word: Death."

I asked how she would feel if the ability returned to being a natural part of your rotation, like the role it had in Burning Crusade.

"I didn't play a Shadow Priest in BC, so I've never had it as a regular part of my rotation. I could take it or leave it. If it's ever worth the GCD, I'd be happy to add it to my rotation to improve my DPS. Otherwise I don't give a shit if I never see it again."

While we want to keep the priest's role as a well-rounded healer, we also want to make sure the class is a viable tank healer, which is something priests moved away from a little in Wrath of the Lich King. Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing spell of choice, though we've also discussed giving Discipline a second shield so that they have a small shield to cast on lots of different targets, and a big, more expensive shield to cast on a tank or anyone else taking a ton of damage. 

Discipline is a successful tank healer already, and Elan agrees with me. "If you do it right. I'm not sure how they think Discipline Priests will be using greater heal; Between Greater Heal, Heal, and Flash Heal, I think I'll just be sticking to Heal and Flash Heal. This is somewhat because other healing classes will all be healing faster than a Discipline Priest using Greater Heal- [Which] instead of Penance? Silly, by the way- so unless you have an extremely coordinated team, I think casting greater heals would be a big waste of time and mana."

"On the flip side, while having two shield spells seems like a simple and uninnovative solution, I'd be glad there are two, since Discipline works around shields. I [only] wonder if they'll share the same Weakened Soul."

Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit will be removed from the game. As Spirit will be the primary mana-regeneration stat, we don't want it to vary as much between solo, small group, and raid play. Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild will not boost Spirit either. 

"Meh. Less candles." Bika said.

Elan was much more worried: "I can understand why Blizzard wants to take out a lot of raid buffs, so that people don't have to manage their [raid composition] as much, but I'm kind of irritated. I know Blizzard is moving everyone to Spirit and changing some of the Spirit Regeneration, but it kind of makes me nervous about how much we'll really be managing our mana."

"I remember when they changed spirit not too long ago, it was kind of difficult. And it was a lot more difficult to manage mana at the beginning raids of Wrath of the Lich King. But, like everyone knows, better gear makes for easier raiding."

 Mana will be a bigger consideration for all healers. We aren't trying to make healing more painful; we're trying to make it more fun. When the cost of a spell isn't an issue, then casting the right spell for the job is less of an issue because you might as well just use your most powerful spell all of the time. We are, however, getting rid of the five-second rule, because we don't want to encourage standing around doing nothing. We're also going to cut back on the benefits of buffs such as Replenishment so priests (and all healers) don't feel as penalized when those buffs aren't available.

"All that makes me feel is, 'Concerned'. Not only will Priests have to use [raid] strategy(especially with [Life Grip]), know where to stand, move, what damage is incoming, when to cast [buffs and] debuffs, but now we'll have to watch every spell we cast out, and coordinate with other healers. I just hope it's a happy balance, and not a stressful struggle."

New Talents and Talent Changes

We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing. 

 While I liked the idea(after all, it would be difficult to balance Shields that are your primary means of keeping a tank up in both PvE and PvP), Elan was less positive. "I almost don't agree with that. Discipline Priests are a different style from most Priests because we're intended to be damage mitigation(for the majority). If they move us toward more healing output, we might seem to be more of the cookie-cutter healing output. I think they should just focus on more meshing healing and shields together. However, the Preview is awfully vague, so maybe they are."

We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal's throughput is similar between both specs. 

 "Just to clear things up first: I don't PvP much." Elan warned. "But I remember the last time they tried to make Holy more relevant for PvP, and it was a huge flop. PvP requires quick heals that don't need a cast bar, since they can be interrupted [frequently]. Penance is much more viable than Heal. But perhaps with Renew having more ticks with haste, it will be more viable, or something.

Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield. 

 "I doubt this will be an instant cast, but it's at least something interesting." Elan said. "I get so sick and tired of when a Discipline Priest plays 'raid damage mitigation'. I know it's viable in some boss fights, but a lot of Priests go overboard. If the raid isn't going to be taking damage, for pity's sake, don't shield them. Maybe other Discipline Priests will be less stupid and use this instead. Plus, think of all the raid-burst damage that can be prevented with this."

"I'm excited! One quick shield instead of ten global cooldowns."

We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast. 

The idea behind the Holy "cast three in a row" talent (it's called "Chakra") is that we've always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We're going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that "I'm almost in the zone" feel. We'll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody's taking damage. 

Elan was... positive. "I'm ecstatic! ECSTATIC! I wonder if this stacks with Serendipity? If it does, Holy Priests will be raid-healing monsters. Also, it'll be nice to shift around healing during a fight. Maybe you need to be a raid-heal beast for two phases, but then switch to tank healing during a different phase. This will make Holy Priests more effective without having to have 'Holy Specializations', like the Greater Heal spec, vs raid healing."

But she did have one trepidation: "Then again, I wonder if it forces the versatility out of a Priest? I know I like to keep Renew up on the tanks, regardless of my job, so if renew takes my Chakrah off, it'll be a spell that isn't seeing much use."

Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn't variable depending on group composition.

 Bika sure didn't sound worried. "I'll still have stam and shadow buffs to offer, not to mention Vampiric Embrace and Replenish[if they keep it], and I'm certainly not hurting on DPS. Even though my class role may end up nerfed a bit, people will still want to keep me around for my dick jokes." WOAH, WOAH Bika. Watch your language, think of the fucking children.

 Elanstowyn. She usually makes that face.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier. 

 "Huzzah for making shields even stronger? At least it will maintain the strength of shields, since Blizzard seems to be wanting Discipline Priests to move toward more healing output. Otherwise, pretty straightforward." Elan thought.

Radiance: Your direct heals add a small heal-over-time component to the target. 

 I love the idea- it makes me wonder how much healing this might add up to before the end of the raid. Elan was less impressed.

"It kind of just reminds me of transferring the current set bonus[for tier 10] to a Mastery. Useful, but not very innovative?"

Shadow Orbs: Casting spells grants a chance for Shadow Orbs to be created that fly around you and increase your shadow damage. This will help lower-level characters feel more like "Shadow priests" before they obtain Shadowform. 

This was also said earlier in the post, but I think it makes more sense down here:

Since the Shadow tree has a lot of passive damage-boosting abilities -- something we're trying to avoid in Cataclysm -- we will need to replace several of the tree's talents. One idea is to play off of the new Shadow Orbs mechanic (see Mastery section below), possibly allowing you to consume an orb to increase damage from Mind Blast or reduce Mind Spike's cast time. 

"Sooo, we're getting a power-up system. It sounds like it'll be fun to play with and neat to look at, I'm curious to see how it works."

Indeed, Bika. Their description of how it works is quite vague, and leaves one to wonder if there won't be an early Shadow talent that acts like Soul Burn, from the Warlock Preview(in which you cast Soul Burn, then an ability, and that ability gets a secondary effect). I imagine it either going that way, or just a straight, automatic application of more damage from an orb. Still, hard to theorycraft the usefulness from this- but it is interesting, at least.

Overall Thoughts

I'll tell you right now: This is by far, the preview that excites me most. Priests have been in a pretty wonderful space since the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King- sometimes a bit more powerful than they should be, perhaps a bit weaker than they should be. But they've been exactly what they should be: Moderately complex, and in the hands of a skilled player, Gods.

This preview only extends that power. The refinements are to simply shore up small holes and allow a higher skill ceiling than one would think. None of these changes are gamebreaking- that was the job of the Shaman preview, and if my guess is right, the Paladin preview. But they refine and expand the abilities of a class that is already so pure in its design that to add to it is only to saturate all the processes of your mind.

In short? Depending on how I feel when we see the talent trees, Priest may be my next main for Cataclysm. I'll explain why later.

Favorite Change: Chakra.

Currently, when I heal on my own Priest, I'm primarily a Discipline Priest. This is because it feels to me as if I am completely allowed all of the abilities I wish to be at my disposal. I'm not 'restricted' from Shields because another's are so much better; Nor am I restricted from outputting massive amounts of healing around the raid, by anything more than my own mana pool(which I can manage, myself).

However, Holy hasn't been in the same boat. Shielding is asking for the ire of your Discipline teammates. Circle of Healing, however, amazing, has felt to me like an overkill version of Prayer of Healing. As wonderful as Renew and Improved Renew are, they cannot take the place of a Rejuvenation. Really, I just had a lot of problems with a perceived lack of versatility(note: Perception does not necessarily indicate reality.).

Chakra completely removes that lack of versatility. I can take over short-term tank healing with enough Heal or Greater Heals. I can keep raid damage under control with enough Renews floating about. I can save the raid from lots of deaths with enough Circle and Prayer of Healing spam. I will be ready to do what I need to do, in just a few moments.

Now, it is yet to be seen that this talent doesn't in fact limit versatility; However, I doubt Blizzard would take such a brilliant idea and neuter it into its worst form. But despite the brilliance of an ability like Life Grip, Chakra, plain and simple, can  change what it means to be a Holy Priest forever, for the better.