Q: Shadow Word: Death was once a spell that priests used frequently in PvE, but has basically dropped off their bar. Are there any plans to improve this?
Ghostcrawler: We think Shadow priests have enough spells to manage as part of their rotation, so we dont want to necessarily go back to them using it on cooldown. One thing we considered was having the backlash not fire if used on a target within Execute range. Another fix wed like to make would prevent the backlash from being affected by boosts that improve your damage, as is typical during boss encounters -- your damage would be inflated without the risk of you one-shotting yourself.
Community Team: Many players assert that Greater Heal becomes less desirable as their gear continues to improve given the cast time and mana cost required, even with talent points in Serendipity.
Q: Do you feel that, given the risks and costs associated with using Greater Heal, it is sufficient in its current form; and are the benefits of Serendipity adequate?
Ghostcrawler: I think the only cost is the long cast time and the fact that the extra healing it provides isnt often necessary. The scale is just off -- Flash Heal is big, so Greater Heal is just overkill. Combine this with the fact that there are other spells that are doing a lot of the healing that Greater Heal used to do -- Penance for example. I dont think many players look at Greater Heal as being too expensive from a mana-per-healing standpoint. They often arent in danger of running out of mana. Its also worth pointing out that max rank Greater Heal has always healed too much. The difference is that priests used to be able to cast down-ranked Greater Heals. We have considered offering say Lesser Heal as a literal 50% mana, 50% healing version of Greater Heal, but at the moment were having enough to do getting both Greater Heal and Flash Heal to get used.
Q: Similarly, do you feel that the comparative cast time and mana cost of Flash Heal is appropriate given the amount of healing it provides?
Ghostcrawler: Its supposed to be an inefficient spell that gives you speed but at a high cost. The intent is that Greater Heal is the default heal a priest might cast, but then switch to a Flash Heal for those oh snap moments. Most fast heals in the game use this same model, with the exception of Flash of Light, which is mana-efficient but heals for a very small amount.
The problem is that in the current raid environment, speed is everything while mana isnt nearly so scary. What I mean is that you are generally at a greater risk of failure through raid members dying than you are for healers going out of mana. The speed of Flash Heal just trumps other issues. Two other things complicate this issue. One is that heals in general are very large compared to health pools. This means that a Greater Heal often just over-heals for more. Second, in a raid in which healers dont coordinate well its easy for other healers to stomp on your big, slow heals. While you are casting, someone heals your target for you. Im not saying these are bad players -- in my experience its just the style of raid. Some players are really talkative and coordinated. Big heal coming. I got Jimmy. Or else everyone has their targets and wont heal someone else unless something unpredictable happens. Other raids just heal anyone who is injured and dont have a lot of assigned targets, except for probably the tanks. Both systems can work. The second one is going to get more use out of faster heals though.
