Goodbye to Priest Racials

Blizzard have finally given up on trying to balance the priest racials and are removing them. Im in two minds about this really.

In an upcoming build all Priest racials have been retired, except the following:
- Desperate Prayer - This is now the 11-point talent in Holy, Holy Nova is now a base ability. Cooldown also reduced to 30 seconds.
- Devouring Plague - Now a base ability. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, mana cost greatly reduced.
- Symbol of Hope - Now a base ability. Now restores 5% base mana every 2 seconds for 8 seconds to your party. Renamed "Hymn of Hope."

While this change does reduce the "uniqueness" of different Priests, we feel game balance as a whole will benefit. Note: These new "racials" are not racials, they are trainable to all Priests.

Its scary that the developers feel we need desparate prayer on a 30 second cooldown however, especially if they arent scaling its healing down.

I liked the variety between priests, even if my own toons didnt always have the best ones.

However Blizzard did take 3 decent racials to apply equally.

1. An extra form of dps is always good, that form of dps fitting in with your major magic schools and healing you into the bargain is not to be sneezed at.
2. Holy Nova is a bit too gimicky to be a talent, especially since downranking has been removed, so making it baseline is a buff, especially since its been replaced with something useful.
3. Self heals on short cooldowns that dont need mana are a wonderful thing, up there with whiskers on kittens and raindrops on roses.
4. Hymn of Hope is another reason to take a priest to a raid, abeit a weak one. Plus an extra method of regen is always welcome especially given the potion nerf and the removal of downranking.

All in all, I think its positive, but ill miss the Starshard graphics, huge arcane arrows following your target around was pure win.