#0 - March 6, 2009, 3:38 p.m.
I'm attempting the following to show the throughput differences between Disc. Priests and Holy Paladins.
EDIT: This is a PvE Healing Discussion*only*. PvP is entirely different and not within the scope of this post. Plus, I suck at PvP.
I'm basing some of my numbers on this WWS from Hodir testing last night. I know it isn't a lot of data but both our crit rates were +/- 1% to what they should be and we both had full raid buffs.
http://wowwebstats.com/rshewwm1latjc?m
Disc Priest - In 60 seconds, I:
Cast PW:S 4 times, they absorb 6300 damage each, with an avg. glyph heal of 1200.
Total = 30 000
Cast Penance 9 times (with glyph), 9 ticks crit, 18 do not.
Avg Hit: 3500*18 = 63 000
Avg Crit: 5300 *9 = 47 700 + 14 310 Aegis
Total = 125 010
Cast Flash Heal 35 times, 12 crit, 23 do not.
Avg Hit: 4650 * 23 = 106 950
Avg Crit: 7000 * 12 = 84 000 + 25 200 Aegis
Total = 216 150
Total Healing = 371 160
If I had the mana regen to support chain-casting GHeal over a longer fight a 60 sec snippet would look like:
22 casts, 7 crit, 15 do not.
Avg Hit: 9613 * 15 = 144 195
Avg. Crit: 14 400 * 7 = 100 800 + 30 240 Aegis
Total = 275 235
Total Healing for 60s = 430 245
Holy Paladin - In 60 seconds, He:
Casts Holy Light 38 times, 20 crit, 18 do not.
Avg Hit: 10 622 * 18 = 191 196
Avg Crit: 16 115 * 20 = 322 300
Total Healing for 60s: 513 496
So, pretty close for the GHeal number, less so for the Flash Heal. Now let's try to take into consideration Inspiration damage reduction and Renewed Hope DR (-3% - used to be part of Grace). This is hard to model so I'm going to try and high ball these numbers for argument's sake:
On Hodir, Halomyr took 3 367 775 physical damage. I'm subtracting 170 000 from this because of two enraged hits that have no basis being in these calculations, so 3 200 000 damage.
He has about 66% damage reduction from 29 000 armor during the raid or 36 250 with Inspiration up, close to 69% damage reduction.
3 200 000 with 100% Inspiration uptime
3 298 969 with 0% Inspiration uptime
~100 000 difference
He also took 818 000 Frost Damage, so 4 018 000 total damage taken.
4 018 000 with 100% Grace uptime
4 142 268 with 0% Grace uptime
~ 124 000 difference
Total damage mitigated by Discipline: 224 000
Now, let's add that to the heal totals from above:
Disc w/ Flash Spam + Mitigation = 371 160 + 224 000 = 595 160
Disc w/ GHeal Spam + Mitigation = 430 245 +224 000 = 654 245
Paladin: 513 496
I can sustain the Flash Heal spam model almost infinitely, even with 3.1, and same with the Paladin. There is a 15% delta allowance in the above for the Priest which would bring them on par with the Paladin, instead of being superior. No, I'm not counting the Holy Light Glyph but I'm also not counting the -3% damage on the raid, both are hard to model and for the sake of this discussion, even each other out.
Conclusion:
Paladins and Discipline Priests are very equal in terms of tank healing, with Disc. even pulling ahead. Paladins do not need nerfs and even though I had thought Disc needed some throughput buffs, I now believe we do not.
The one thing I will say is that Replenishment is only going to get even more OP and while I like the fact that I never run out of mana (even in 3.1), I'm not sure that's the best thing for raiding and this game as a whole. I have to make more choices in 3.1 than I do on Live but I have a feeling that some iLvL 239 epics from Ulduar will soon make that a non-issue once again.
Cheers.
