battletagoneCof5#1879

07 September 2012

Shared Topic: Spell Envy

Arvash from The Crimson Hammer offers up this week's Shared Topic:
In the new Mist of Pandaria expansion, Druids will be getting a new spell called Symbiosis, which will allow them to "trade" a spell with another player, based on the player’s class and combat role and the Druid’s specialization.

So my question is, if you could have any spell you want from any other class, current spells or new ones in MoP, what would it be? How would you work it into your rotation, gameplay, etc.?
What a fun question! I'm going to look at this by role -- damage, tank and healing.

Damage

My choice on damage spells is not going to be based on putting out the highest DPS. It's about pure fun! The winner? The new form of priest Mind Control:  Dominate Mind. Perhaps I'm biased with the PVP I've been running lately, but I simply love this ability. Walking folks off cliffs or into lava... Such evil joy! I'm literally giggling as I imagine having an enraged spirit beast wailing away on a target as I'm lazily walking it towards it's doom!  Very Warlockian of me!

Tank

Well, I just got educated. I was going to say "Concencration" because that AoE holiness was such the effective aggro-magnet for a pally tank. But I just checked Wowhead, and it's gone.  A victime of 5.0.4?

Hmmm... When I'm tanking (in 5mans), what is my biggest issue?  AoE threat! What's the next best thing?  Death and Decay! It may no longer be fashionable, but when I was tanking on my dead knight, a drop of DnD pretty much stuck the pack on me and I was able to maintain aggro despite the best efforts of my AoE happy DPS members.

Healer

Once again, I'm leaning towards the Priest class.  My favorite healing spell got to be the frisbee (formally known as the Prayer of Mending). For those that never priested, you cast this on a party or raid member taking damage, and it heals for a goodly amount when that person is actually damaged. Then, it bounces to another party or raid member and does the same thing. It will sit there waiting for damage for up to 30 seconds, and it can bounce up to five times to friendlies before it expires.
In a single tanking fight where only the tank's taking the hits, the frisbee is "meh".

But, when there is party-wide or raid-wide damage, the frisbee bounces around and heals -- all for a minor mana cost. At that point, it's more a "yay!"

Imagine as a shaman, dropping a healing rain and tossing out chain heals along with a frisbee bouncing around as well!

Or, a tree-formed druid loading folks up with rejuvinations, life bloom stacks and tranquility and swiftmend, and then having that frisbee to bounce around as well. Holy AoE healing!

Sadly, I can't comment on pally healing -- I just don't know how it works. I guess I need to play my pally a bit more and experiment. One more thing to do!

Impacts of 5.0.4
Holy noobishness, Batman! My first reactions have all been changed with the new game mechanics! Mind Control is now a talent. Shammy Thunderstorm is gone! Pally concencration is gone! Uh... time to relearn and rectify the ignorance.

For that, I'm thanking Arvash!

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