Spiritual Guidance: Gearing your Priest in Antorus

Antorus, the Burning Throne came out this week and once again it’s time for us to save the world. To do that, however, we tend to need some fancy gear. No, just looking good won’t be enough to cut it, though it really should be. Luckily our tier has enough wings to make any Priest happy, though some people may not like how shiny it can be. In addition to Tier 21, Antorus also brings us new trinkets and relics.

Tier 21, Gilded Seraph’s Raiment

• Helm: Aggramar
• Shoulders: Coven of Shivarra
• Cloak: Antoran High Command
• Chest: Eonar
• Gloves: Kin’garoth
• Legs: Imonar the Soulhunter

Discipline Set Bonuses

• 2 Piece Bonus: Reduces the recharge time of Power Word: Radiance by 3.0 sec.
• 4 Piece Bonus: When you cast Power Word: Radiance, the damage of your next Penance is increased by 30%.

Discipline Priests will love Tier 21’s set. The set works right with your strengths and fits into the standard rotation of using Power Word: Radiance twice and then Penance. Obviously you’ll want to get your four piece set when you can. Ideally, you’ll be wearing the four piece from Tier 21 and the two piece from Tier 20. Tier 20’s two piece bonus is still strong, even after the great tier nerf a couple weeks back. But it’s not strong enough to forgo large upgrades. Higher difficulty off-pieces will win out over lower ilevel Tier 20 pieces. Don’t try to keep a low level set if you have big upgrades sitting in your bags.

Holy Set Bonuses

• 2 Piece Bonus: Prayer of Healing increases the healing done by your next Flash Heal, Binding Heal or Heal by 60%.
• 4 Piece Bonus: Your Flash Heal, Binding Heal, or Heal spells increase the healing amount of your next Prayer of Healing spell by 30%.

On the other side of the healing coin, every Holy Priest likely had the same visceral reaction upon seeing the new Tier 21 set bonuses compared to Tier 20. The problem with Tier 21 set bonuses is they work against Holy’s playstyle. Our spec is balanced around using Holy Words. The spells affected by the Tier bonuses are normally filler for using our Holy Words faster.

If one person needs serious healing, it’s not logical to waste the time and mana to cast Prayer of Healing just to buff Flash Heal — which makes our Tier set null. Prayer of Healing is also best used after Holy Word: Sanctify to take advantage of Divinity and Power of the Naaru, which has a limited time duration that can’t be wasted on casting Flash Heal. Binding Heal is the only redeeming part of this, but it doesn’t make up for the loss of the Holy Word cooldown reduction. Unfortunately all of these points were brought up on the PTR and it still went live as it is, so it’s unlikely it will change.

If you have your four piece bonus for Tier 20, don’t break it for anything less than four piece Tier 21. Even then, it’d better be a decent item level upgrade or ideally at least one difficulty above what your Tier 20 is at. We’ll all be using Tier 21 in the end, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of Priests try to hang on to Tier 20 as long as possible.

Pantheon trinkets

Healing trinkets are less controversial than Holy’s set bonuses, but still fairly interesting. We have a repeat of the Warlords of Draenor ring proc system — in trinket form. Argus the Unmaker drops a set of Pantheon trinkets, which have a primary proc for the wearers, and a secondary empowered proc if others have the trinkets equipped.

There are five trinkets for the various roles in the raid, as well as the legendary trinket. They only drop as personal loot, no matter the loot setting in your raid group. It’s just like how legendaries, the Garrosh Heirlooms, and mounts like the Abyss Worm pop into your bag immediately upon killing the boss.

For healers, we have Aman’Thul’s Vision and Eonar’s Compassion. Aman’Thul’s Vision is a legendary trinket that doesn’t count toward the two legendary cap. You’re free to wear it with your other legendaries. It’s like an Arcanocrystal on steroids with its heavy stats. It also works with the Pantheon trinkets as a “wildcard” to help proc the secondary spell effect for players. The healer Pantheon trinket is Eonar’s Compassion, which has a strong passive healing effect. Our empowered secondary spell effect grants a shield on players for the next four casts of either Plea for Discipline or Flash Heal for Holy.

Other healing trinkets

Garothi Feedback Conduit gives a chance to increase your Haste for eight seconds, which occurs more frequently when your raid is at low health. This makes it a decent stat stick if you’re in need of Haste, but it also becomes less useful the better your team gets at encounters. If no one’s taking much damage, you don’t get very much Haste.

Carafe of Searing Light is a mana region trinket, acting like Holy Fire every minute and giving you back mana each time the damage ticks over 18 seconds. Throughput trinkets are more valuable for healers, but this can be useful if you’re running out of mana regularly and you don’t have access to Paladins’ Greater Blessing of Wisdom or Druids’ Innervate.

Highfather’s Machination and Tarratus Keystone have healing effects with static Mastery or Intellect. This makes them decent options if you don’t have access to the other trinkets. Ishkar’s Felshield Emitter and Vitality Resonator have static versatility and unique effects, which can be more useful in high damage situations. Discipline can also consider the DPS trinket, Terminus Signaling Beacon, or even Tarnished Sentinel Medallion from Tomb of Sargeras.

Artifact Relics

Relics are a little looser than other gear. While you still want certain ones, don’t worry if you get a “bad” one. Item level will usually win out for upgrades, and the Netherlight Crucible can turn a relic with a sub-optimal trait into a better once if RNG smiles upon you. For Discipline, you’re interested in Confession, Lenience’s Reward, The Edge of Dark and Light, and Shield of Faith traits. Holy still wants to prioritize Say Your Prayers and traits centered around your Holy Words or Prayer of Healing like Hallowed Ground, Holy Guidance, and Words of Healing.

Holy Relics

• Lightshield Amplifier — Burst of Light/Reverence (Antoran High Command)
• Spark of Everburning Light — Confession/Holy Guidance (Essence of Eonar)
• Venerated Puresoul Idol — Borrowed Time/Words of Healing (Imonar the Soulhunter)
• Coven Prayer Bead — Lenience’s Reward/Caress of the Naaru (Coven of Shivarra)
• Reorigination Spark — Shield of Faith/Hallowed Ground (Argus the Unmaker)

Life Relics (Holy)

• Fraternal Fervor — Caress of the Naaru (Felhounds of Sargeras)
• Mysterious Petrified Egg — Serenity Now (Imonar the Soulhunter)
• Eidolon of Life — Holy Hands (Kin’garoth)
• Sporemound Seedling — Say Your Prayers (Aggramar)
• Root of the Lifebinder — Words of Healing (Argus the Unmaker)

Shadow Relics (Discipline)

• Corrupting Dewclaw — Confession (Felhounds of Sargeras)
• Crepuscular Skitterer Egg — Lenience’s Reward (Portal Keeper Hasabel)
• Unwavering Soul Essence — Doomsayer (Essence of Eonar)
• Kin’garoth’s Oil-Sump — The Edge of Dark and Light (Kin’garoth)
• Volatile Soul Fragment — Pain is in Your Mind (Argus the Unmaker)

So far Antorus is kind of fun and, ignoring Holy’s tier bonuses, looks to be a pretty good raid. There’s a good mix of mechanics and interesting fights. And the visuals. Have you seen the inside of the raid? Sure there’s a lot of fel, which is to be expected. But dang, the planets above the Antoran High Command are cool, Eonar’s room is simply amazing, and the raid gets more exciting as you venture closer to the end. I’m pretty excited to progress through this raid, far more than the others this expansion.