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Priests

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Serge Camille edited this page Jan 5, 2021 · 35 revisions

Is there an error? Something missing? Funky grammar? Do not hesitate to reach out on Discord to the Priest team.

Sim Module notes

The module is broken up into the following parts:

  • Main Priest file - Holds base spells or other things available to all specs. (sc_priest.cpp and sc_priest.hpp)
  • Spec Files - Specialization specific implementations
  • APL File - Stores the Action Priority List for each spec.
  • Pet File - Handles all pets for Priest's (Shadowfiend, Mindbender, and Eternal Call to the Void Tentacles).

Spell implementation notes

The following spells are mentioned due to oddities with the implementation that are not straightforward or require more clarification. If a spell is not mentioned here you can find it in the correct base or spec file with a typical implementation. Feel free to reach out in discord if you have questions.

Shadow Weaving (Shadow Priest Mastery)

The Shadow Priest Mastery is not currently applied automatically by SimC due to improper spelldata. To get around this we apply this benefit manually to each priest spell with the affected_by_shadow_weaving option. This is turned off by default, so any spells that are affected by mastery should have affected_by_shadow_weaving = true; added into the constructor. This should be done for priest or pet spells.

Power Infusion

Power Infusion assumes that the actor is using the spell for its self-use only. To change this behavior, you need to set the option priest.self_power_infusion=0. Doing so will change the uptime of PI of the actor to 0%.

Power Unto Others (Conduit)

This Conduit only works if you have priest.self_power_infusion=0 or if you have the legendary Twins of the Sun Priestess equipped, as otherwise the actor is using PI on itself.

Mind Blast

For the APL, Mind Blast by default will not work with typical cast_while_casting=1. This is because you can only cast this spell while casting Mind Flay or Mind Sear AND you have Dark Thoughts active. To make the APL easier to understand rather than having all these conditional checks there is a only_cwc option for Mind Blast only. This option defaults to false and with this you can have a separate APL line for the CWC Mind Blast.

Power Word: Shield

By default Power Word: Shield will debuff the target with the Weakened Soul debuff and prevent PWS from being cast on that target until it expires. To simulate PWS spam over an entire raid, without having to simulate an entire raid, you can use the 'ignore_debuff' option.

  # Chain spam PWS
  actions+=/power_word_shield,ignore_debuff=1

Bugs

By activating bugs=1 inside your character's sim you will get access to the following bugs:

Custom Options

Self Power Infusion

To simulate giving away Power Infusion to someone else you can use priest.self_power_infusion (default=1). This option controls if the actor casts and gives themselves Power Infusion. See the section above on Power Infusion implementation details for more info.

Ignore Healing Events

SimC has an option called priest.ignore_healing was added. This option allows you to ignore healing events that are generated by damage spells, namely Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague, and Mindgames. This option has focus on DPS-only simulations, in which Healing events are not important to keep track of. In these simulations, using this option will reduce the total amount of time required to finish them (very slightly).

Example Performance Changes

  • priest.ignore_healing=1:
    • 3002138 Sim seconds
    • 21 CPU seconds
    • 2.8845 Physical seconds
  • priest.ignore_healing=0 (Default):
    • 3002140 Sim seconds
    • 21.6562 CPU seconds
    • 3.1227 Physical seconds

Boon of the Ascended (Kyrian Covenant Ability)

When running a sim for a player that is apart of the Kyrian covenant (covenant=kyrian) you will get access to a new ability: Boon of the Ascended. This ability gives you access to Ascended Blast (replaces Mind Flay / Smite) and Ascended Nova (8yd range) and will explode with Ascended Eruption (15yd range) based on the amount of stacks. By default the sim will cast all of these abilities and assume you are in range of ALL targets (unless you have added targets outside of the range). To disable this you can easily use these options:

  • priest.use_ascended_nova=0 (default: 1)
  • priest.use_ascended_eruption=0 (default: 1)

Mindgames (Venthyr Covenant Ability)

This ability gives a total of 20insanity, however in order to get the full amount the target you cast it on must heal and do damage to break the shield. A player is given 10 insanity for each component that is broken up to a total of 20. By default SimC only assumes that the damage amount is broken, so the actor is only given 10 insanity. You can easily overwrite this with the following options:

  • priest.mindgames_damage_reversal=1 (default: 1)
  • priest.mindgames_healing_reversal=0 (default: 0)

These options also control the extra healing or damage that actors get when these are flipped on. So with priest.mindgames_damage_reversal=1 the actor will generate a healing event in SimC by default (unless priest.ignore_healing is turned on). Additionally if priest.mindgames_healing_reversal=1 the sim will create the damage reversal event as a child action to Mindgames. Both of these reversals assume the ENTIRE shield is broken, rather than a partial shield.

Note: to see the report output for healing actions you'll want to enable enable_dps_healing=1.

Fae Guardians (Night Fae Covenant Ability)

Part of this ability increases the rate of which major cooldowns recharge, Shadowfiend/Mindbender and Power Infusion for Priests. You can simulate this effect being given to other players by changing the option priest.self_benevolent_faerie=0 to false (default: priest.self_benevolent_faerie=1).

Cauterizing Shadows

When using the Cauterizing Shadows legendary you will see corresponding healing output whenever Shadow Word: Pain debuffs expire. This does NOT trigger if the sim refreshes the dot, or the target dies to match in-game behavior. When this does trigger, we assume that a default of 3 allies get the healing (by replicating the healing to the actor for each ally). To configure this you can adjust priest.cauterizing_shadows_allies=x, where X should be 0, 1, 2, or 3 (default).

Healing implementation

Healing sims are not currently supported in SimC. The following section is leftover from the last time this was worked on.

Limitations

Fights in Simulationcraft are unidimensional: all players, pets and targets are on the same axis, only the distance from the main target changes. besides, although players can lose health (because they're tanking or suffering from damages on the whole raid), they will continue to perform actions after their death (and there may be some fancy bugs here). As a result, some spells exhibit a behaviour slightly different from their in-game counterparts.

Regarding the reports, only the total healing done will be reported, not the actual healing done or the overhealing.

Setting up a simulation

To use healing features in Simulationcraft, import or declare a discipline or holy priest and ensure his role is set to "heal" (should be the default for those specs). We also suggest you add other players, even dummy ones (add single lines such as "warrior=john"). And maybe a tank (use "role=tank").

Targets

Regarding the targets, by default it is always the caster himself. Although the default target cannot be changed, you can explicitly specify on every action the target of your choice. You can also add a condition to check the target's health, see ActionLists.

 # Cast flash heal on John when he has less than 50% health.
 actions+=/flash_heal,target=John,if=target.health_pct<50

Spells with many targets are detailed in the next section; eligible targets will be friendly, non-pet, targets in range (when relevant) and they will be sequentially chosen (following the declaration or importation order) unless specified otherwise.

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