Patch 2.2 just rolled out, and it is almost frightening how quickly people start talk of the next patch. However, there is some very good news for priests coming in the next patch!
Big changes to Meditation, PW:S, Pain Suppression! From this post on the Official Forums, Nethaera says:
I don’t have any big Discipline revamps to bring you (those are liable to come in the expansion), but we can talk a little about some changes that are coming up in patch 2.3.
For instance, Pain Suppression is getting changed a bit to have more utility beyond personal use. You’ll be able to cast it on a friendly target and it will do a couple of things. First it’s going to reduce the target’s threat by 5%. and next it’s going to reduce the damage that person takes by 40%. The cooldown is also going to be reduced to 2 minutes. The intent is to give it more utility while still making it viable for multiple targets. When you’re trying to protect an AoEing mage in a raid, this could become a very useful tool.
Meditation is also going to get a bit of a bump up and it will increase to 10/20/30% mana regen as well.
… The developers recognize that Disc doesn’t have a real cohesive focus however and that is why it’s something we are looking at refining in the expansion. In the meantime, we have some changes going in for many of the classes for 2.3 as a way to improve things and also set the groundwork for the expansion both.
… On the survivability end, we’re going to be having Power Word: Shield gain additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses. Base absorb values for ranks 10, 11 and 12 have been reduced though to go with that as a balancing factor for it. Unfortunately I don’t have any concrete information on what the values will end up being right now.
That is some serious change, and it seems there is more to come. The Meditation buff I think makes me happiest.
There is an on-going summary post on the forums for all the changes mentioned by CMs. It seems that there are many changes in the works for 2.3. For a complete list of priest changes, check out this thread on the official forums.