Penance Priest

This blog was mis-named. It should have been "Divine Aegis Priest," but the marketing folks told me it has no snap. Divine Aegis is, I believe, the defining talent for disc priests. Penance is pretty, not to mention awesome. But DA is awesomer. (And it's pretty too.)

The 30% additional damage mitigation is huge. DPS classes have had various versions of critical strike damage bonus talents (e.g., Ruin for warlocks, and now Shadow Power for spriests). DA acts as our equivalent of a critical heal bonus.

The math is simple, but worth considering. Let's say you have a heal that hits for 1000, crits for 1500. The DA shield adds an addition 30% of that, or 450 mitigation, bringing your net to 1950. This is essentially the same as a 100% critical heal bonus.

Divine Aegis: Increases your critical heal bonus by 100%. Like, omg.

Once I really grokked the power of this talent, I began stacking crit. I bought Xiri's Gift, and Wristguards of Tranquil Thought, stuff no holy priest would be caught dead in. I started wearing shadow gear, like my Corrupted Soulcloth Pantaloons. My crit rating is over 24%, before you start factoring in Renewed Hope, consumables or raid buffs.

Consider: Prayer of Mending - 5 chances to crit. Penance - 3 chances. Prayer of Healing - 5 chances. Flash/GH/Penance - crit chance probably augmented by Renewed Hope. PW:Shield/Flash - you're spamming these, so you're probably critting like crazy with 'em.

(That's a key point btw. Disc priests have become spammers, like pallies. We don't dodge the 5sr as much as holy priests do, at least in my experience, especially now with Rapture. So while you can't rely on crits to do your healing for you, if you really are spamming, and multi-shotting with PoM and Penance, the crits are going to be constant. Still not as reliable as +heal bonuses, but almost!)

Don't get me wrong: all priests will be stacking crit to some degree by level 80. Shadow priests can now crit on Mind Flay, and Shadow Power gives them a 100% critical bonus. Holy priests have Surge of Light (which is awesome now) and of course Holy Concentration.

The theorycrafters will keep us informed once they figure out the right balance of spellpower/haste/crit/regen. And while I listen carefully to the smart guys, I also play by feel, which is perhaps not the min-max-iest way to play. For now, feel is telling me that crit is worth as much as spellpower for a disc priest, at least at my level and for my play style.

Aegis bubbles everywhere! I am a living HMO...prevention is more powerful than the cure.

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