Good changes for Spriestie!

Just surfing some sites that seem to pay closer attention to the test server numbers than I do...and it seems that a few of our skills are getting buffed all to hell (separate from what is mentioned in the patch notes).

--Mind blast is showing a roughly 60% damage increase, for an 8% overall dps output.
--Mastery got a 16% damage buff (although I still have to burn orbs--which mastery affects--to increase my mind blast...go figure)
--Mind sear damage gets a 15% bump and is targettable on friendlies now (which will probably show up as a MUCH larger dps increase when you consider those 4-pulls are now hitting ALL FOUR instead of the THREE they used to). Unfortunately, spriest spells rely heavily on regen elements that proc based on weaving your typical 5 (6) button rotation. Mind sear still sucks mana, but hopefully as we inch towards a 359 ilevel we'll see a LOT fewer mana issues.
--Power-word shield almost TRIPLES its effectiveness. If you were shielding for 9k-ish previously, expect to be shielding for around 26k now. Given THAT CHANGE ALONE...I am considering PvPing as Disc. I'll need to do some research to know how to play effectively though--but if one spell can shield more damage than my biggest heal can repair--this seems like a HUGE no-brainer for healing.
--Buffs getting fixed so they don't cost 20k mana anymore. Heh. Quite the little oversight.

Off-topic:
--Scaling. The same sort of dps output I saw from <333 ilevel to 333 to 346 ilevels, I am seeing from the 359 ilevel crowd. Expect to see your dps rise another 40% between 346 and 359 gear.

Lots more references out there for discussing simcraft changes to damage output as it pertains to trinket selection and gear weightings. (Unfortunately, most are blocked from work...)

See ya in game.

J

Aaaaaaaaaaand, nerfbat incoming.

--Spriest shadowform will be changed from 25% damage increase to shadow spells to a 15% damage increase. I expect to see about a 1500dps decrease when this goes into effect. Not an insignicifant nerf, but why should hybrids blow mages/rogues/hunters out of the water? Whee. I still cannot touch warlocks.

--With the changes to individual pieces of gear, it's hard to get consistent stat weights by ilevel. Seems that there are specific wickets that must be met in order to get additional DoT ticks (haste), procs and uses (trinks and enchants), etc. Higher ilevel is always better, but don't be surprised if you find yourself reforging to haste at 346 and back to mastery at 359+. Weird.

J

Thnx J