Focused Will Updated 10/30/07

[leogeo2]

From Eyonix

" The new discipline talent, focused will, has been redesigned. Once the next data push to the public test realms occur, upon taking a critical hit you gain the focused will effect, which will reduce all damage taken by 1/2/3% and increase healing effects on you by 2/4/6% for 6 seconds, and will stacks up to five times.

Constructive feedback welcome, all other feedback need not apply."

So what do you guys think? My only thing against it is that it requires stacking 5 times before full effect. I'd much rather have 2-3 or just full after the first crit.

[Dergybear]

Stacks up to 5 times and only lasts 6 seconds? Hrmm...

Im not quite sure what to expect. I'll have to see it in action.

[Sekah]

You'll very rarely, if ever, get a full 5 stacks unless you're the victim of some serious focus firing. The make-or-break point will be whether it's triggered by would-be crits negated by resilience.

It's probably not worth giving up BR for, but it will make a decent consolation prize for those of us who want to play with deep-disc set ups.

My guess is that as always the holy tree will be more ideal for 2v2s and 3v3s, but the discipline tree is probably going to be well catered for 5v5s (or situations where you're not the primary healer).

[Yentull]

I am just guessing but since it does stack up to 5 times that also means that if your getting chain purged/dispeled it will be a lot harder for them to get things that you wish to keep such as bof or something of that sort. atleast 1 point in it would be quite nice

[Barr]

I feel if this stacks to five youre pretty much already dead, well atleast in 2's or 3's where you are going to be the only healer. BR is still the better option (keep in mind I have not tested this yet). The only way I can see that talent being truly beneficial is when a rogue is beating on you in 2's or 3's, as they are basically the only class that will crit you 5 times with you still being alive. But I guess my arguement falls short on the fact that you only really need to be crit once every 6 seconds to keep the buff active. But then again if you are only getting crit once every 6 seconds it'll take 30 seconds to get the full benefit of the talent and by then youll be able to drop a fear bomb and chances are you'll lose the buff.

I will have to spend some time with this talent on PTR before I make my final judgement. I was planning on playing full disc in 2's and 2's before this and this talent is making it even more appealing for 5's.

[richieplx]

Waiting on testing to determine if the stacking on this buff is affected by resilience-negated criticals. If so, the speed of which the 5 stacks are applied just make it worth it.

I wonder if anyone has calculations/spreadsheet on exactly how much BR, -12.5% chance to crit, and -25% dmg from crits, together affect OVERALL DAMAGE REDUCED from a normal arena target, perhaps a 5/5 Merc 126 DPS weapon warrior? It would be interesting to see this overall dmg reduction compared to the overall 15% damage reduction plus 30% healing taken increase from Focused Will. Just eyeballing it, it seems BR and how it procs has on average more damage reduced since it's full potential can be reached very quickly.

The difference in damage mitigated by FW vs. BR alone seems marginal.

[buena]

Ugh I was hoping they would redesign it to be something other than a temporary magic buff. I'm tired of feeding felhunters with BR and was actually considering that a benefit of switching to discipline. Now I'll just feed them with this instead.

[Ebonics]

not sure what to think of it w/o seeing testing, but i think the 5 stacking is a bit to much, 3 would be better imo with a 6 second duration on it

[Eloderung]

I gave this a try.

It stacks up very fast, even in duels against warriors (and especially rogues, but they're not common in 5s).

Expect a full three stacks from this talent whenever people look your way in 5s, assuming purge dispels each stack individually.

[Haet]

you have to consider that like blessed resilience, if your resilience negates a crit you will still get a stack out of it.
with 3 dps nuking you it will be very easy to reach 5 stacks. even 3-4 stacks still makes for a pretty effective defense though.

[Synir]

UPDATE: The talent was changed again, to stack faster. From http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=2712961382&sid=1 I quote Eyonix's post:
---
Feedback was read, gathered and the designers are fully aware of all that you've provided. As a result, we're making an adjustment to the talent so instead of seeing this morning's version of focused will in the next PTR push, you'll see:

"After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% and increasing healing effects on you by 4/7/10% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times."
---

So we'll see it stacking up really fast, and it does proc like BR does (i.e. off crits mitigated by resilience into white hits).

[leogeo2]

I could see myself trying a spec like this for a bit:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?5002123130523102000002305513003021003 00000000000000000000000000
+3 points in Focused Will.

[Dergybear]

I'll most certainly be giving this a shot in 2.3.

I think the real boon to this talent is it makes disc priests something other than an 8sec tank. It makes it realistic to enjoy the different perks offered in the disc tree while providing some "off the top" survivability like the kind you find in the holy tree.

Which, needless to say... is awesome.

[Sekah]

"After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% and increasing healing effects on you by 4/7/10% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times."

I've not played a class that has a stacking talent before. Is the 6 seconds refreshed with each crit? As in it would be possible to have a full 3 stacks up to 18 seconds after taking the first crit, and refreshed through more crits for longer? Or is the benefit of the 3-stack a very temporary buff?

[Eloderung]

I've not played a class that has a stacking talent before. Is the 6 seconds refreshed with each crit? As in it would be possible to have a full 3 stacks up to 18 seconds after taking the first crit, and refreshed through more crits for longer? Or is the benefit of the 3-stack a very temporary buff?

The buff duration is refreshed with every stack.

I'm interested to know if purge will take off the entire buff, or just 2 stacks at a time. Debuffs work this way, but I don't know if it works similarly for buffs.

[Ridzik]

lifebloom stacks are beeing dispelled one at a time

[Shaan]

Feedback was read, gathered and the designers are fully aware of all that you’ve provided. As a result, we’re making an adjustment to the talent so instead of seeing this morning’s version of focused will in the next PTR push, you’ll see:

“After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% and increasing healing effects on you by 4/7/10% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.” -Eyonix

:)

[Cerpintaxt]

Definitely excited about the disc changes. Then again, I was excited for the disc changes in 2.2 as well, and look where that got me.

[Mano]

Feedback was read, gathered and the designers are fully aware of all that you’ve provided. As a result, we’re making an adjustment to the talent so instead of seeing this morning’s version of focused will in the next PTR push, you’ll see:

“After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% and increasing healing effects on you by 4/7/10% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.” -Eyonix

:)
I still think that BR > FW+PS, but that's just me.

[buena]

I still think that BR > FW+PS, but that's just me.

I disagree, because the vast majority of incoming damage you take in arenas is non-crit, and your resilience already helps you against crits.

I assume this will proc on non-crits when you have resilience, just as BR does. Which means when you are a spike target you will instantly have 3 stacks, taking 15% less damage overall and receiving 30% more healing. Soul link and fel armor are 20% less damage and 20-26% more healing.

Yes, disc priests essentially just got soul link and fel armor. I think by the end of the first month of s3 it is going to be recognized as a must-have talent for anyone who isn't deep shadow. And I think you'll even see some shadow priests doing a hybrid PI / shadow spec to try and get it.

[Earrl]

After doing some extensive Arena and Battleground testing on PTR (after the change to Focused Will, when the threads were initially made, it was still 5 stacks for me, so whatever), and I definitely have to say I am a fan of Discipline big time.

Right now, I feel that Blessed Resilience is kinda outdated in the grand scheme of things, because the damage reduction is VERY noticeable. There is a 1v1 spec for this type of talent, and a group setting one (basically Arena/BG one). The talent I linked below is the one I definitely like:


http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?5052023130525102010512304510000000000 00000000000000000000000000

Having a ton of CD's is very fun, makes me feel Rogue like. At one point during a WSG, I had 14 things on CD. THAT is impressive, and I finally felt like I had the tools I needed to have more flexibility in how I engage each fight. I'm not going to say I won every fight...but, it definitely took the opposition significantly longer to kill me. They basically just had other things to plan for. And the extra Spell Damage makes me feel like I'm level 60 again Smiting Away. Needless to say, this PTR has really really been enjoyable to me (because my teams have really been sucking or just not playing on Live).

Again, all of this is just a matter of opinion, and I am not trying to sway anybody one way or the other. With that in mind, I think that many people that are on the high end of gear (High Stam/Resilience/Healing) should really give Discipline a shot imo (full Disc), because the survivability of yourself AND your groups is something I have found to be very impressive.

[Final]

After doing some extensive Arena and Battleground testing on PTR (after the change to Focused Will, when the threads were initially made, it was still 5 stacks for me, so whatever), and I definitely have to say I am a fan of Discipline big time.

Right now, I feel that Blessed Resilience is kinda outdated in the grand scheme of things, because the damage reduction is VERY noticeable. There is a 1v1 spec for this type of talent, and a group setting one (basically Arena/BG one). The talent I linked below is the one I definitely like:


http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?5052023130525102010512304510000000000 00000000000000000000000000

Having a ton of CD's is very fun, makes me feel Rogue like. At one point during a WSG, I had 14 things on CD. THAT is impressive, and I finally felt like I had the tools I needed to have more flexibility in how I engage each fight. I'm not going to say I won every fight...but, it definitely took the opposition significantly longer to kill me. They basically just had other things to plan for. And the extra Spell Damage makes me feel like I'm level 60 again Smiting Away. Needless to say, this PTR has really really been enjoyable to me (because my teams have really been sucking or just not playing on Live).

Again, all of this is just a matter of opinion, and I am not trying to sway anybody one way or the other. With that in mind, I think that many people that are on the high end of gear (High Stam/Resilience/Healing) should really give Discipline a shot imo (full Disc), because the survivability of yourself AND your groups is something I have found to be very impressive.

Why do you have Silent Resolve? Take those points out and move them into Blessed Recovery and drop Holy Nova.

[Earrl]

Why do you have Silent Resolve? Take those points out and move them into Blessed Recovery and drop Holy Nova.

Silent Resolve is better than Blessed Recovery. I like having Dispel/Purge resists. It really can be game changing. And I like my Pain Suppression to stick :-P.

And Holy Nova isn't TOO TOO bad either.

[Yentull]

I might move 1 point from holy nova to blessed recovery just for another thing to dispel but more than 1 point in it isnt really needed.

[Sekah]

I still think Holy Nova is a good talent to have to help deal with hunter's snake traps - plus it does SOMETIMES remove rogues/druids from stealth.

[Earrl]

I still think Holy Nova is a good talent to have to help deal with hunter's snake traps - plus it does SOMETIMES remove rogues/druids from stealth.

Yeah, it was annoying not having it in the Arena. Also, as stated, it keeps those stealth classes honest (even though let's be realistic, they're going to get the opener anyway).

[Eve]

you have to consider that like blessed resilience, if your resilience negates a crit you will still get a stack out of it.

Except that there's no "crit to hit" mechanic and that's not exactly how the procs work.

Why do you have Silent Resolve?

Dispel resist = love

[Ebonics]

i was wondering what some of you think bout putting 3/3 into blessed recovery while also having the new 3/3 FW talent. with 3 stacks wouldnt that effectively be 40% instead of 25% ? or am i mistaken.

and if that is the case. i think it would work out really well cuz thats basically free-mana heals. if you get crit for 2k thats effectively a 800hp heal over 6 seconds, considering you have the 3 stacks up, which is i guess where the problem for this idea heavily falls upon. but being full disc for the most part im thinking this might not be such a bad idea for just 2 extra points ( since most put at least 1 into it).

thoughts/ opinions?

[buena]

I think it would be 25 * 1.15 = 28.75%, not 40%

[Ebonics]

I think it would be 25 * 1.15 = 28.75%, not 40%

ya my bad i just now realized my math was entirely wrong. pardons. but the idea is still there i guess =/

[Sykeasaurus]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgMuhgzr0hZfqtkcMo

Looking for opinions, here.

Reasons for spec:

1) Points in Blessed Recovery and Inspiration are just purge bait. If FW doesn't come off all in one purge, there's gonna be plenty of buffs on me to protect renews, shields, etc. I'd think.

2) Healing Prayers, Mental Agility, Absolution are things to just make me more mana efficient. With the new meditation buff, and me perhaps picking up Divine Spirit this time around, I think it just makes sense to be mana efficient. Could be wrong here, though.

*3) The thing I think most people will talk about/criticize is not having Pain Supression. I'm just a really big fan of Spirit of Redemption, and I feel it has won matches before.


***** POINTS IN REFLECTIVE SHIELD ARE PLACEHOLDERS FOR FOCUSED WILL POINTS (3/3)

[Ebonics]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgMuhgzr0hZfqtkcMo

Looking for opinions, here.

Reasons for spec:

1) Points in Blessed Recovery and Inspiration are just purge bait. If FW doesn't come off all in one purge, there's gonna be plenty of buffs on me to protect renews, shields, etc. I'd think.

2) Healing Prayers, Mental Agility, Absolution are things to just make me more mana efficient. With the new meditation buff, and me perhaps picking up Divine Spirit this time around, I think it just makes sense to be mana efficient. Could be wrong here, though.

*3) The thing I think most people will talk about/criticize is not having Pain Supression. I'm just a really big fan of Spirit of Redemption, and I feel it has won matches before.


***** POINTS IN REFLECTIVE SHIELD ARE PLACEHOLDERS FOR FOCUSED WILL POINTS (3/3)

although i wouldnt spec like that it really isnt bad. seems its just strongly build around your own playstyle. but one thing i dont understand is inspiration. just seems like a waste of a talent point cuz you only have like what, 8% chance to crit? how often is inspiritation going up? to me doesnt seem like a lot, and just maybe that one talent is better spent but idk, /shrug

[bryte]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgGu0gxMzEofV0o

Is what I have been using on the ptr (3 points in focused will) and I like it so far, I feel like mana regen isn't as important as the 40 mp5 I lose with no regen from spirit, calculated at 30% I think, just doesn't matter as I can always pull off a drink and with the huge mana pool from enlightenment and mental strength I can almost always oom other healers.

At the same time though I feel something in the spirit of blessed resil ala

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgruhgzM0eofVxoc

Would be very nice (not 3 points in enlightenment are for focused will) giving tons of dispel protection while keeping a similar play style to the 28/33 build I am used to. Also I feel people may be overlooking reflective shield with improved pw:s. Because of the change in scaling the spell gets as well as fully geared holy priests should be around 1650 healing next season the amount shields can withstand (and give out) might be worth it.

[Sekah]

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgMuhgzr0hZfqtkcMo

Looking for opinions, here.

Reasons for spec:

1) Points in Blessed Recovery and Inspiration are just purge bait. If FW doesn't come off all in one purge, there's gonna be plenty of buffs on me to protect renews, shields, etc. I'd think.

2) Healing Prayers, Mental Agility, Absolution are things to just make me more mana efficient. With the new meditation buff, and me perhaps picking up Divine Spirit this time around, I think it just makes sense to be mana efficient. Could be wrong here, though.

*3) The thing I think most people will talk about/criticize is not having Pain Supression. I'm just a really big fan of Spirit of Redemption, and I feel it has won matches before.


***** POINTS IN REFLECTIVE SHIELD ARE PLACEHOLDERS FOR FOCUSED WILL POINTS (3/3)

It's an interesting build, and really what will make or break it is to see how Focused Will holds up when compared to Blessed Resilience. The impression I've gotten so far is that Focused Will isn't strong enough on its own to force someone to give up BR, but it is a worthy consolation prize if the priest wishes to play around with some of the bells and whistles of the Disc tree instead.

[leogeo2]

Well I'm trying to focus entirely on 2v2 and 3v3. 5v5 aren't as fun for me so this is the build I came up with:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMRuhgtMzxZfVt0c
Extra points are for 3/3 FW and PS.

I don't find myself getting purged like mad in 2s and 3s as much as I do in 5s.

[Sekah]

Update:

"Focused Will (NEW Discipline Talent) - After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% and increasing healing effects on you by 4/7/10% for 8 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times."

Current as of now on the PTR.