Overall, these changes are very,
very nice changes across the board, and a testament to the team's ability to gather feedback and iterate on it. They've managed to fix virtually every issue with
Скульптор плоти for tanks, by making it a button you can actually press without sitting there and taking hits for 4 seconds. It even now can be used as a strong damage reduction cooldown, although it does require you to stand still during it. It is important to remember that tanks are able to dodge, parry and block while channeling Fleshcraft. This is already the case on live, but wasn't on launch, when many tanks selected their Covenant.
The overarching issue, however, is that very few tanks will actually see this. Unless there is a completely new mechanic in the next raid tier that absolutely
requires Скульптор плоти and cannot be substituted with (for example)
Подавление боли, you likely will not see a change in covenant for tanks. This is down to deeper balancing issues independent of
Скульптор плоти:
- Vengeance Demon Hunters have had their Necrolord ability reworked into a RNG casino of damage and healing. It now spawns random demons (1-2 per minute) that you can glaive for big damage and a 25% heal. In practice, you'll glaive them when there isn't a more impactful button to press. The RNG proc aspect is sort of problematic, and even though it is better than live, it's still firmly behind the competition, particularly Kyrian and Venthyr. As a result, Demon Hunters are unlikely to make the leap.
- Protection Paladins are not far ahead of Vengeance Demon Hunters with Молот покорителя. Its drawbacks are described in the Necrolord Protection Paladin Guide; as such, and with the oppressively strong Kyrian and Venthyr alternatives, Protection Paladins are very likely to stay where they are
- For Guardian Druids, Necrolord is already their strongest Single Target covenant; however, the drawback is that it does just that: ST damage. Созыв духов and Родственные души are both more versatile and fit more situations, and as a result, they're very likely to bear with it and stay where they are, too.
- Brewmaster Monks get to enjoy an oppressively strong Оружие ордена, coupled with Флакон безмятежности and a possible choice to bring it up to 55% heal. Barring a Оружие ордена nerf (which, by the way, is probably sorely needed at this point), they might just keep on rolling Kyrian.
Out of the two remaining tanks, Blood Death Knights already see a healthy Necrolord representation on live: it is the de facto best covenant for their strongest DPS spec, and
Рука поганища itself is pretty decent for blood as an all-around good choice. It
is slightly behind Kyrian for ST, and slightly behind Venthyr for high M+, but it is good enough for both to not feel at a disadvantage. As a result, this is one of the two tanks where you might see a switch, particularly since we have periods of downtime in our rotation. A 4s channel was oppressive; 3s, however, is much easier to fit in those small gaps. As a result, with this being an additional tool to the kit, you'll likely see a few fellow Blood Death Knights make the switch - not because it is massively stronger than the rest, but because it fleshes out the kit.
The last remaining tank is currently a dark horse, Protection Warrior, in that there is some iteration on
Знамя завоевателя. The current state of PTR removes the whole Glory mechanic and turns the banner into a
huge mastery buff for you and your two nearest allies, along with a snare prevention. As it stands right now, it might see play due to just how ridiculously strong it is to buff others, and as a result, you might see a few Necrolord Protection Warriors, particularly in content where you can use the banner to predictably buff somebody during cooldown windows. Your fire mages will, undoubtedly, love this.
As a quick summary: really good changes for those who are already Necrolord. Prot Warriors and BDKs might switch around a bit, but it won't affect covenant choices.
While healers are largely responsible for the survivability of our allies, we are often considered some of the more fragile members of the group. The personal survivability toolkits definitely vary for each class of healer, but overall they tend to be more limited than other roles. As squishier players who are hyper-aware of incoming damage and consistently need to coordinate cooldowns to ensure our allies survival, when an ability gets reworked that has some serious personal survivability benefits we take notice. That's the case for the new
Скульптор плоти.
Potentially adding a personal survivability cooldown to healers with limited options is certainly a tempting offer. A well-timed
Скульптор плоти can mitigate a significant of damage with the new 30% damage reduction while channeling over its 3 seconds, but the flat 40% absorb for a complete channel that's no longer dependent on the type of enemy your near is also pretty juicy as well, especially for a 2-minute cooldown. Now consider that you'll potentially have even greater uptime on this simply due to the new passive effect that reduces the cooldown of
Скульптор плоти by simply walking over the corpses of your enemies. This can be further reduced by Bonesmith Heirmir's
Хитроумная резьба по плоти and makes Plague Deviser Marileth's
Нестабильный растворитель much more powerful and a significantly more attractive soulbind especially for Mythic+.
List of All Volatile Solvent Buffs
Let's look at each healer and how each might value this reworked covenant signature ability:
Restoration Druid
Probably the exception to the rule, Restoration Druids already have a fairly strong defensive toolkit and are considered one of the sturdiest healers in terms of survivability. The short 1-minute cooldown
Дубовая кожа fills in most holes, but the on-demand
Облик медведя can be used in a pinch combined with
Неистовое восстановление to heal any damage taken back quickly. We can supercharge
Облик медведя with
Сердце дикой природы granting even more stamina and uses of
Неистовое восстановление. On top of it all we can take
Родство со стражем for the flat damage reduction of
Плотная шкура.
Adding
Скульптор плоти won't likely be as tempting for Restoration Druids who already have a fairly stacked deck when it comes to survivability. However, when you consider the alternative covenant signature abilities, you're mostly looking at additional mobility or healing/debuff clear. Mobility is another area where we don't particularly struggle and as a healer we have plenty of healing to go around. Covenant signature abilities shore up weaknesses in toolkits that Restoration Druids don't really have, so the
Скульптор плоти rework alone is unlikely to shift Restoration Druids from Night Fae to Necrolord for PvE, and will largely depend on the design and tuning of
Созыв духов vs.
Адаптивный рой the latter of which did receive a buff in the recent 9.0.5 PTR.
Mistweaver Monk
For Monks the survivability options are still good albeit a bit more limited by longer cooldowns. Typically you'll have the 3-minute
Укрепляющий отвар and either the 1.5-minute
Распыление магии or 2-minute
Смягчение удара from the level 40 talent row. While these can be some powerful damage reduction cooldowns, especially the 60% magic damage reduction of
Распыление магии the longer cooldowns do make them a bit more inaccessible. I do think Mistweavers on the stronger end of healers in regards to survivability where it's not really a weakness, but
Скульптор плоти might be exactly what's needed to fill in the gaps of survivability.
Is it enough to get some Mistweavers to switch covenants? Potentially, yeah. This is simply because high-end PvE Mistweaver content isn't overwhelmingly dominated by a single covenant like other healers. Though Kyrian tends to be the most prevalent covenant selection amongst Mistweavers there does appear to be a fairly healthy number of Necrolords. Both covenants and by extension covenant abilities (
Оружие ордена and
Отвар из костяной пыли) are viable options. The improvements to
Скульптор плоти should not be overlooked in this scenario especially for a healer where the playstyle of
Сгущающийся туман remains the dominant choice but places the healer in melee with typically higher incidental damage meaning an additional damage mitigation cooldown would be highly valued. I don't predict a mass exodus from Kyrian for Mistweavers, but I can see the scales tip a bit more in favor of Necrolord with this change.
Holy Paladin
Rounding out the slightly more survivable healers, Holy Paladins have a fairly strong survivability toolkit from the 1-minute
Божественная защита, the constant 3% damage reduction of
Аура благочестия, and the 5-minute total immunity of
Божественный щит. Combine this with an exceptional armor amount from being a plate wearer further bolstered by typically wearing a shield and you have a potent personal survivability toolkit. What makes Holy Paladins a bit different is they typically play in melee where incidental damage is higher and their external damage reduction cooldown
Жертвенное благословение can also put them in danger simply due to the damage transfer. It's not unexpected to see a Holy Paladin utilize a defensive to help mitigate this transfer especially in high-end PvE content. Additional damage reduction could be valuable.
However, it's unlikely that the
Скульптор плоти rework alone is enough to get Holy Paladins to switch to Necrolord. Holy Paladins are overwhelmingly dominated by Kyrian and the strength of
Божественный благовест and to a much lesser extent Venthyr and
Пепельное освящение. While damage reduction of
Скульптор плоти could prove valuable, the other covenant signature abilities aren't without their benefits to Holy Paladin. Kyrian's
Призыв распорядителя can provide significant self-healing exactly when the Holy Paladin needs it. As a fairly immobile spec outside of
Божественный скакун. Venthyr's
Врата теней provides additional mobility on a short cooldown. It should be noted that the Paladin Necrolord covenant ability
Молот покорителя was also buffed to generate a Holy Power in 9.0.5 and therefore may help in persuading Holy Paladins to Necrolord.
Discipline & Holy Priest
Both priest healing specs are the most fragile of all the healers having very limited personal survivability cooldowns typically limited to the 1.5-minute
Молитва отчаяния, the passive
Средоточие воли with very difficult requirements to meet, and self-
Слово силы: Щит usage. Combine this with being cloth wearers with very minor amounts of armor and you'd start to think that priests are made of paper. Another personal survivability cooldown could be highly valued but mobility is also valued for priests as well with only limited options like
Тело и душа or
Божественное перышко. It's not a clear choice based solely on covenant signature ability.
Discipline is dominated by Venthyr and the relative strength of
Игры разума especially with how it flexibly lines up with both the 1-minute windows of
Щит души or the 1.5-minute windows of
Проповедь. It just kinda works and you get additional mobility via
Врата теней. Necrolord's
Нечестивое кольцо just doesn't provide the healing via
Искупление вины and while it can work with
Щит души it will only work with every other
Проповедь meaning you lose significant value. While
Скульптор плоти could be highly valued for Discipline Priest, there'll need to be a fundamental shift in how Discipline currently plays to see Necrolord be more valued.
For Holy, covenant choice is a bit more muddled. Currently, Necrolords make up the majority of Holy Priests but there's strong representation from all 4 of the other covenants. For those Necrolord Holy Priests, I think they'll find this as a huge boon for them and could help persuade other Holy Priests to join their ranks. It's really hard to pass up for such a fragile spec. Where I think it may see a bit more competition for growth will be with Night Fae and the recently buffed
Волшебные стражи. I expect Holy Priests to see a small shift towards Necrolord but probably remain a bit more muddled as the spec has struggled to find its footing a bit in Shadowlands.
Restoration Shaman
Restoration Shamans have also struggled in the realm of personal survivability. While they have more armor than most being a mail wearer and a shield user, they're typically limited with their single 1.5-minute damage reduction cooldown
Астральный сдвиг. While the
Прирост жизненных сил conduit has given them an additional defensive it falls a bit short being on a 5-minute cooldown. Fortunately, Restoration Shamans don't really have the mobility issues that might draw them to other covenant signature abilities due to a more
Быстрина-centric playstyle and fair amount of access to
Благосклонность предков further bolstered by the talent
Благосклонный дух.
With the overwhelming majority of Restoration Shamans being Necrolord, they're likely very happy with the change to
Скульптор плоти and will continue to secure their choice in covenant for now. The offerings of Necrolord especially with
Первозданная волна and the synergistic legendary
Изначальное сердце волн are strong and create a very compelling playstyle that's hard to pass up. Will the change to
Скульптор плоти cause some transfers from the smaller population of Venthyr Restoration Shamans? Perhaps. All 3 other Shaman covenant abilities saw a buff including a unpublicized 15% buff to
Цепная жатва for Restoration Shamans so we'll need to see how that shakes out before we can say for sure.