2.4 PTR Notes

So the PTR notes are up. Here's the meat and potatoes of things affecting Priests:

Priests

• Chastise no longer disorients the target, but now is instant cast and roots the target for 2 seconds.
• Fear Ward is now usable while in Shadow form.
• Focused Will now reduces damage by 2/3/4%, down from 1/3/5%.
• Inner Focus: Chastise now benefits from Inner Focus. In addition, Starshards no longer consumes Inner Focus.
• Power Infusion: Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell haste by 20% for 15 seconds.
• Power Word: Shield: Using low ranks of this spell will now be penalized the same way healing spells are penalized.
• Prayer of Mending: This spell will now fade from players who leave or enter an instance, change continents, or exit the game.
• Reflective Shield: The reactive damage from this talent no longer breaks crowd control affects which break on taking damage.
• Shadowguard: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.
• Silent Resolve:This talent now affects Surge of Light, Power Infusion, Inspiration, Spirit Tap, Blackout, Levitate, Shackle Undead, Touch of Weakness, Hex of Weakness, and Symbol of Hope.
• Touch of Weakness: No longer consumes the charge of Inner Focus when triggered.It will also function properly even when the Priest with Touch of Weakness on is silenced or stunned.
• Vampiric Touch: Casting lower ranks of this spell is now properly penalized like other healing and damage effects.

Having said that, there was at least one thing I noticed that was mentioned by a Blue on the forums that wasn't included in the PTR notes:

This is an intentional change to how drinking works. The amount of mana regenerated now ramps up, so you will see little or no mana regen the first few seconds and then it will increase as the duration continues.

So much for sitting and drinking for a tick during those times you're out of combat for a tick or two during an Arena.

Here's another change being made to Warlocks that may have an impact on us:

Turn Undead(Rank 3):This spell has been reworked and has been renamed to “Turn Evil”. It will now work on Demons in addition to Undead. Turn Evil is subject to diminishing returns, and lasts 10 seconds in PvP.

This, my friends, simply means that if you're on an arena team with a paladin, the warlocks you are up against are all that more likely to sic their felpuppy on you. Yes, and we still have little to no offenses against these things. Charming.

I'm not keen on many of these changes, specifically the change to Power Infusion. I like it the way it is now. This thing for spell haste that Blizzard has can DIAF.