Priest Update
After many delays due to real-life getting in the way of development, I'm happy to say that the overhaul to the Battle-Priest is complete! Most of his abilities have seen either a mechanical change, or a visual change, as well as gaining one new ability.
Abilities
Heal is the free, basic ability that every Battle-Priest has. It allows him to heal nearby injured units and gain stacks of divine power. Divine power increases his healing done per stack. Heal was changed this patch, from an instant cast, to a 2 second cast, while remaining passive. This allows for more counter-play and makes cast times matter. Due to the increased cast time and cooldown, the amount of healing done was increase.
Wrath of God is the brand-new ability for the battle-priest. It’s a larger version of Holy Wrath which travels much faster, lasts longer, has a larger radius, does more damage, and is of course, much more visually interesting. This option gives priests the ability to choose between an offensive ultimate and defensive ultimate, Esyle's Blessing.
Esyle's Glory received a visual overhaul, making the effect cleaner and simpler. Mechanically it remains unchanged but is a powerful ability to add to an already strong unit such as the Champion or Guardian Golem.
Shield of Light is another ability that received a visual overhaul. Previously Shield of Light was a glowing octagon of light which completely surrounded the Battle-Priest making it hard to see the unit. Now, Shield of Light has a visual effect that reflects the name of the ability, as well as having its over-all numbers buffed. This was necessary due to Heal having a cast time and longer cooldown making Shield of Light proc less often.
Pillar of Light received some minor modification. Like other casting effects, Pillar of Light will fade out smoothly if the caster is stunned, silenced, or killed.
Esyle's Blessing is one of two ultimate abilities for the battle-priest. It received a visual overhaul, using our new distortion effects, as well as a buff to its cast time and activation time. The blessing now casts and triggers much faster allowing the player to react quicker.
Blessing of Light remains unchanged as a useful ability that modifies heal. The healing over time from Blessing of Light helps to keep units alive after they've already been healed.
Holy Wrath also remains mostly unchanged. Holy Wrath is a spender-ability for the stacks of divine power that the battle-priest receives from using Heal.
Guardian Golem Update
The Guardian Golem received an update as well, changing the way his Guardian Shield ability works. It now works the same way as the Mage's Arcane Barrier, absorbing ranged damage. Unlike Arcane Barrier, this ability is channeled and requires the golem to remain stationary while casting. This ability makes use of our new distortion shaders, and I have to say, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
Next Week
With this update, all the abilities for the Human race have been updated. This was a rather slow process as there was still a lot of code to fix, however the next race (Undead) should be much faster, as a lot of things have already been figured out and the over-all process should be smoother. Stay tuned for more updates :)
