Open Discussion: The Future of H2P & the Priest Community

[Veiled]

Hey everyone. I just wanted to make a quick post here and gather some input and discussion from you. I'm cross-posting from H2P (http://howtopriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7515)

Give me a break on this one. I've been really sick the past few days and this post might be scattered.

I considered making a long-winded post explaining why things are the way that they are, but I think everyone already knows. This game has changed so much and so drastically that, for many of us, it's not enjoyable anymore. As leaders of this site and people that many in the community look up to, we've fought tooth and nail nonstop for going on two xpacs now (to no avail).

I can't speak for *every* person on the moderation team here, but I can most def say that I am simply tired. So many guilds are breaking up, too many amazing players have left the game, and we've even seen our fair share of loss here on the site. On top of that, the revenue is awful and honestly I'm tired of worrying about new ways to keep enough cash flowing in to maintain things, to do what I want with the site, and to fund giveaways etc.

I wanted this to be an open discussion on where you want to see the site go. At this rate, I can tell you that (until something amazing happens with the next xpac) I will not be renewing my sub when it expires in June. I refuse to give another penny to World of Warcraft until I absolutely love the game again. I don't know if that day will ever come back around again. Right now, I am considering selling the site to someone who can maintain it and give it the attention it deserves and saying goodbye to WoW forever.

So, my question to you all is:
What do you want from the Priest community?
What do you want from this site in particular?
Does anyone know how you find happiness in a game that's let you down over and over for years now?
What do you think of the site being in the hands of someone else (who isn't on the mod team)?

It's always been my goal to have our own little place on the internet where we all can gather, discuss, debate, and be better in the end. No matter our own goals, it's been difficult (to say the least) to see any real change that didn't just lead to more complication. I'm at a loss for what to do with my own site, but also I feel shitty for letting the community down and for how things have turned out. =(

[Comfort]

My Thoughts on H2P:
Personally I have LOVED having H2P. I was (re-rolled this expansion due to healing roster roller coaster ride of fun from players quitting because of this ex-pac) so happy being a Priest and having this resource and a place where genuinely nice, dedicated and knowledgeable players contributed their thoughts and experience. I still visit often because my Priest is still an important part of this game for me.

Having re-rolled to Shaman recently I can see a massive difference in the communities for classes (Shamans peeps are still awesome!). There isn't anything compared to H2P. And H2P still does offer useful threads regardless of specs. A lot of the boss discussion is transferable to people in the same role, the healer specific discussions also get you thinking how things relate to your class.

What do I want from the Priest community?
I hope for it to continue the awesome threads and discussion, even if it has to be elsewhere (like on MMo-Champ).

What do I want from the site?
If you are at the end of your enjoyment of WoW (for a while it seems) your personal choice is your own, you will have respect and gratitude in the Priest community for your contribution.
I'd love it to continue for reasons stated previously as I'm sure most others will too.

How to find happiness?
Sounds like you aren't getting that from anything currently implemented. Personally in MoP I took a massive break with periods of extreme casualness either side. When I returned in SoO it was my guild that provided it for me They are an amazing bunch of players, even though currently the roster is so different from back then the same atmosphere and energy is still here.

H2P in the hands of someone else?
If they will be as dedicated as and contribute as much as you have until now then I don't think anyone would object though I'm sure we all would like to still see you on there!

[Spectralmend]

Hey, first off, thanks for doing such a great job with maintaining the site. Having a reliable source that you can take very useful info from that can't be found any other sites (mmo champ is great in a lot of ways, but I've found the most interesting tips/tricks at H2P). Great healers have used it as a source for a long time, so yeah, thanks!

What do I want from the Priest community? Collaboration to continue, first and foremost. We've all got good ideas, we need to share them with each other. For those that want to raid at any competitive level, having these class-specific sources is imperative. Also, since we're on this topic, I think at this point in the expac we can see there are much less constant factors for what controls our success in the priest community (i.e. talents are much more situationally-based than for instance MoP), we're allowed to make our own choices a bit more with regards to stats and play style, and with that in mind I think there should be a little more respect in this community (especially here on MMO) for peoples' differences...don't be so 'elite' you can't trust that there are multiple ways of getting to the same goal. (Sorry, bit of a sidenote)

What do I want from the site? Well, I mean I'd love to see it continue, and I bet you could find significantly qualified people to do the job for you. Even if that means that it needs to stripped down to the basics, like for instance a blog, it could serve the same purpose and maintenance would be minimal.

Finding happiness... I'm not qualified to answer this lol all I know is that if something is a hindrance (i.e. doesn't make you happy) in your life you've gotta put it down. As serious as a lot of us are in this game, it is still a game, and if you're not having fun anymore....well, it's time to go something fun dammit

New team I've got all the faith in the world that you'll find a worthy team for the job!

[Yvaelle]

On Enjoyment in WoW:

Enjoyment in anything is about figuring out what parts of something you enjoy, and which parts are dragging you down. Lets say you have an ambivalent relationship with running - and you think about it and conclude that you like jogging on a good day - not too hot, not too rainy, not too cold, etc - but you hate running for the bad parts: puddles, passing cars, other runners, waking up early. You realize you can make running better for you by running on a treadmill in the evening - instead of stupid pre-work runs like the early birds (note: early birds are terrible people).

When I go through periods where I dislike WoW, but still feel obligated to play - it's about reducing my level of play to just the parts I still enjoy. So at times I've been a hardcore raider, I enjoy that race for progression, I enjoy that competition - but it takes too much time out of my life and my day, and so I reign it in. I also enjoy my guildies, friends, their company, that social contact outside of work or school. It turns out I can get that part of what I enjoy without being on for many hours of the week: so for MoP+WoD I raid 2 nights a week, and some of those get canceled - and you just shrug and go adventuring to Ashenvale or CMs or something.

When everyone is wearing a mask - we all can truly be ourselves - and that's something about games I absolutely adore - I'd be lost without it - because I wear so many masks throughout the day, the student, the son, the mentor, the employee, the boss, the entrepreneur, the friend, but the only one that is truly me is Yvaelle. Without my gaming persona, I am nothing - without me, my gaming persona is nothing - this is my gaming persona, there are many like it - but this one is mine.

I used to enjoy high end competitive PvP, Shadow in Arenas and RBGs was incredibly fun for me - and that hasn't been true since at the least Cataclysm: MoP and WoD have felt pretty terrible for the opposite reasons (which means Holinka has a rough idea of where the problem is, if not how to fix it - and doesn't want my help). The longer it's been, the less I care about my rating - I pushed myself to get at least 2300 in early MoP and hated every second of it - but I mod the PvP forums, so I felt like I had to not-suck (and told myself that 2300 was the 'suck' cut-off. It turns out that's a completely arbitrary distinction - nowadays I keep a couple toons geared each season - but I just pug whenever it suits me, with whatever comp sounds fun, and usually while carrying someones poorly geared new alt. If being sub-2k starts to bother me, I log off and go do something else. That's the secret. So I enjoy the sense of teamwork and communication, I enjoy the feeling of victory - but I don't need to tack my self-worth to my rating anymore.

I recommend you drop from X hours per week, to half that or less - and see how you feel after a few weeks at less WoW-play per week. Log on for the parts you like, play as long as you are enjoying yourself - and then log off. At this point I get more enjoyment about talking about Shadow raiding than I do progressing - and forums are great for that - vicarious raiding I enjoy understanding Shadow, even if I'm a sub-700 item level nooblette with only half the current mythic even cleared (that voice of self-contempt still lingers, but it just makes me laugh now). Raiding is not about log ranks anymore for me, it's about applying Pain to everything, and having Shadow wings, and being a Shadow bunny

Join me Veiled, come be a casual nooblette. The secret to enjoying WoW more, is playing less


On H2P:
H2P (and Shadowpriest.com before it) has been a central pillar for the Priest community for as long as there have been Priests. I like that Comfort mentioned that it goes beyond and continues after his time as a Priest, because that lasting impact reflects the importance it plays, and the positive influence it has.



What do I want from the Priest community?
I want it to persist, whether here on MMO-C, or on the official forums (lol), or on H2P under new leadership. I like to believe that by building a strong community around our class, we contribute to a sense of identity that will outlive World of Warcraft: that long after WoW ends, when we are old and grey, we will ramble on in our senility about the time when we were elves or undead, when we danced in the darkness, when we heard the whispers from the void, and the call to power.

And our grandchildren will look to us and softly whisper, "Grandma, you're crazy!" - and we will sigh, "Kids today, in my day we spent one week with them a year before returning them to the orphanage - and that was enough!" - and we will stare off into the distance, back to the time when screams were psychic, and a prayer could mend. Our connection to a community, to camaraderie, is valuable in itself - and that is what our shared dream for a united Priestdom seeks to create

It's about making people laugh, and love, teaching mastery, sharing secrets. It's about inclusiveness, but also the allure of being part of a secretive cabal: both coven and clergy - a community.


What do I want from the H2P site?
I fear that if it were to disappear, a portion of the community would be lost with it - would become disengaged - rather than transition. For that reason I would like to see it persist in some form, but I fully understand and support your desire to step down from your leadership role.


H2P in the hands of someone else?
If that is what is needed, I trust you to make the right decision

[HuxNeva]

Just my 2c.
I'm a very casual player with a Shadow main. When CoP confusion reigned supreme at the start of this xpac, H2P was the only place providing some decent info. I have no solution. Just wanted to say thanks for the work you put in for the rest of us.

[davesignal]

I'm going to be short and sweet: I like H2P, but I don't think splitting the community is helping us any-- and I feel that multiple forums are, right now, simply because they never became enough of a force to draw significant attention. I don't know if that's just priests continuing to be the silent suffering class-- I've given up trying to start threads on the official forums for 6.2, because people just don't show up to talk-- or something else, but I kind of feel like it's diluting what little voice we have.

That's not on you, you've clearly put a lot into this, it's just the way of things. I'm not sure how to fix it, short of grabbing every priest, shaking them, and telling them to start speaking up.

[Yvaelle]

I'm going to be short and sweet: I like H2P, but I don't think splitting the community is helping us any-- and I feel that multiple forums are, right now, simply because they never became enough of a force to draw significant attention. I don't know if that's just priests continuing to be the silent suffering class-- I've given up trying to start threads on the official forums for 6.2, because people just don't show up to talk-- or something else, but I kind of feel like it's diluting what little voice we have.

That's not on you, you've clearly put a lot into this, it's just the way of things. I'm not sure how to fix it, short of grabbing every priest, shaking them, and telling them to start speaking up.

I used to do this here, but I've slipped up on the activism in MoP/WoD - partly because I've lost some of my passion, and partly because I miss Ghostcrawler - he at least would respond to our twitterstorms, usually by trolling us - but the new @WarcraftDevs @Celestalon is like some sort of ominous uncaring black monolith: we keep sending tweets, and we get at best canned responses that provide no new insight into their logic.

Maybe we can start up the MMOC Priest Lobby Cabal again Maybe with enough tears, we can drown the silent monolith! ^^

[theostrichsays]

As someone who has long since moved on from his Priest, I will say I would hate to see the website go. Granted I normally checked multiple websites anyways, but H2P is where I went frequently, and directed some of the newer players my guild would get. On the topic of this:

On top of that, the revenue is awful and honestly I'm tired of worrying about new ways to keep enough cash flowing in to maintain things, to do what I want with the site, and to fund giveaways etc.

I think I donated once, and never did again. I guess I kind of took advantage of it being there, and thought all that free internet money would take care of things. If the website and community is going to try and stick around for the long run though, I honestly have no qualms with signing up for the monthly donation to help things out. Even if I no longer use it myself very frequently the use I got out of the website in Cata/MoP is something worth supporting in my opinion.
With that said Veiled, I'm honestly sad you're not enjoying yourself anymore, and hope maybe things turn around for you to enjoy yourself again.

[nobodysbaby]

Hey! I feel you. The game has changed, or has it? Anyway, people change too! You have done a great job with H2P, it's been a good source for the priest community for many years. I moved from hardcore to very social gaming and I am more or less happy with that, since I feel it is too much repetition and after 10 years everything gets old. Too bad, Holy priest finally got in shape... LOL It seems to me the whole game turned more into grind and easy LFR/LFG with all the bad behavior that comes with that... So thanks to everyone who contribute and share!

This game is science, I am not kidding. To put yourself into it, it takes 40h/week (preferably more), full time job. Who can do that forever?

About H2P: I want a source to go for theorycrafting and numbers, weak auras and in game "help", as well as be able to talk to descent priests, share experience and tips. In other forums (including here nowadays, sorry) there are too many newbs.

PS: I miss GC too... but not his way of handeling his precious Holy spec;D

[Setheria]

H2P has been a great resource - I've referred to it since shadowpriest.com went down and have recommended it countless times to new or returning priests. Of particular worth are the discussions regarding BiS, and the talent info for particular fights in early progression.

With that said, having it continue in some form would be ideal imo - we're so fortunate to have the resources and discussion that many other specs simply don't have. But personal enjoyment > all of that. Whatever you do, it'll work out and there can only be appreciation for all the hard work you have done Veiled.

I'm going to be short and sweet: I like H2P, but I don't think splitting the community is helping us any-- and I feel that multiple forums are, right now, simply because they never became enough of a force to draw significant attention. I don't know if that's just priests continuing to be the silent suffering class-- I've given up trying to start threads on the official forums for 6.2, because people just don't show up to talk-- or something else, but I kind of feel like it's diluting what little voice we have.

That's not on you, you've clearly put a lot into this, it's just the way of things. I'm not sure how to fix it, short of grabbing every priest, shaking them, and telling them to start speaking up.

I understand this point of view. Priest discussions happen in (mainly) 3 disparate locations, and it may be that this dilutes our message in relation to 'getting dev attention'. We all know though that even though mages frequent varying forums much like shadow does, they still manage to 'campaign' effectively, so I don't think that this is the case of our issues, rather an impediment that we create ourselves by being too polite. Perhaps there is a place for hyperbolic but strategic qq.

It's shit that it needs to be looked at that way, but that's how it is when Blizzard seems disengaged from the class.

[Veiled]

Thanks for all of the responses (and PMs) everyone!

[Jimjam38]

It feels curious that, having not looked at these forums since I unsubbed several months ago, the first thing I should see, while checking in on a whim, is this thread.

I can't really say I've ever had anything to do with H2P, but your post echos my own sentiments about the game, and why I unsubbed. Unlike many members of H2P and these forums, I'd only been playing wow properly (i.e. on retail) since early-mid 2013, and I'd only been raiding since August 2013, so I can't truly talk about 'tha good ol' days of Wrath' or 'BC, da best xpac eva'. I played wrath on private servers with my friends as a teenager, occasionally getting into a buggy ICC pug, but I remember it being epic and awe inspiring. Even now, an ICC xmog run is probably more fun and more epic than current content, and that tells a sad story about the state of the game these days.

But for me, MoP and Siege of Orgrimmar were the glory days. SoO was out for over a year, and during that time I raided 3 days a week on my Disc main with almost perfect attendance (not to mention the multiple alts I got to 550+ ilevel). Even by the end of SoO, when it was so stagnant it wasn't funny, the longest time in WoW history without new content, to me it was still more entertaining than Highmaul and BRF have ever been.

And it had nothing to do with the content.
It was because the classes were more fun to play.

"Oh that's just because disc was so OP" they say.

No that's not the reason. During Highmaul, before the PWS nerf, Disc was more OP than it ever was in Siege of Orgrimmar. It was ahead of the other specs by an absolute mile. Even now, after the PWS nerf, its still only just as far ahead of the other specs as it was in 5.4. But now it's more boring, tedious and outright unenjoyable to play than ever. And I think that just about everyone will agree with me on that.

And it's not just Disc.
Almost every spec is less enjoyable than before WoD

The ability pruning, healing and mechanics changes that came with WoD have probably been some of the worst things to ever happen to the game.
I won't deny that pruning was needed, I had a sickening amount of keybinds on most classes, and I never had a hunter. But they got it wrong, they pruned too much, they pruned the wrong stuff, they changed other stuff that should have stayed the same, they decided hiding passives and turning tooltips into essays was a good idea, and, to top it off, they added some absolute crap. I could write an entire essay about what went wrong, but suffice to say it was most of the things they did. Disc might be the best example of how much they screwed up, but it's certainly not the only thing they screwed up. I think as a whole, the healers came out the worst though. Only MW monk can almost say its better off. Almost. The DPS specs aren't too bad, but they left some nasty synergy voids when they changed the dot mechanics. And the tanks actually seem better off since WoD, but it's not hard to improve on cow dung.

Yeah, smart healing made MoP healing 'easy'. But what we have now, spamming the most efficient move with nothing else the entire time, that's worse.

The devs refuse to listen to the player community. They're determined to push flashy content and ignore the underlying balance and mechanics problems. I mean, when the most overpowered healer, the one which is most mandatory for a raid group to have, is the most unenjoyable to play, what does that say about the rest of the game? If anything is going to be fun to play, you'd think it would be the most overpowered. I'm not coming back until I see they've fixed Disc, because when I see that they've done that, I'll know that they finally pulled their heads out of the sand, and fixed the real issues.

It doesn't matter how much new content they push, how many alternative methods of payment or how well the game integrates with social media (like, wtf who even wanted that anyway?), as long as they don't fix the real issues people will keep unsubbing. And it's such a shame, because WoW has been, and still has so much potential to be, incredibly fun to play.

[PosPosPos]

What do you want from the Priest community?

More high-level theorycrafting. Things like spreadsheets and analysis of class/spec mechanics rather than a general guide or vague advice.

What do you want from this site in particular?

I used H2P in MoP. When WoD hit, the standard and level of the resources onsite went down the drain basically. Guides were still stuck on outdated information for extended periods of time(e.g. the Disc guide was still advocating Holy Nova spam at least a month after raids were unlocked and that Crit was the premier stat), theorycrafting was non-existent, so I gave full focus to MMOC. As of this point, I do not have any expectations for the site. It is, in my opinion, obsolete.

Does anyone know how you find happiness in a game that's let you down over and over for years now?

Nothing is ever going to be perfect, and even something that is perfect to you isn't going to be perfect for others. My advice to you is to leave it up to a vote. If you dislike the game, stop playing until you like it. It's simple as that and it seems it took you way too long to get.

What do you think of the site being in the hands of someone else (who isn't on the mod team)?

Like I said, I feel the site is obsolete and thus do not hold any expectations for the site. It can be run by anyone for all I care, because I no longer rely on it for my theorycrafting needs.

[Yvaelle]

PS: I miss GC too... but not his way of handeling his precious Holy spec;D

GC wasn't a Holy priest, that was his final troll - to claim that all the time he'd been toying with the priest community in particular - he'd been one of us

[ruggleee]

all i can say is that my Spriest is my main alt and i was confuse at the start of WoD how play it efficienly, i checked howtopriest since mmo had pretty nothing on guide about Spriest i want Thank you personaly about this, i have no real solution about what going on really, but i wanted really say a big thank for the hardwork you do with howtopriest. and at Yvaelle as well from mmo-champion, thx

[Yvaelle]

all i can say is that my Spriest is my main alt and i was confuse at the start of WoD how play it efficienly, i checked howtopriest since mmo had pretty nothing on guide about Spriest i want Thank you personaly about this, i have no real solution about what going on really, but i wanted really say a big thank for the hardwork you do with howtopriest. and at Yvaelle as well from mmo-champion, thx

Ya initially I didn't post a guide because while I was halfway done mine, Drye posted his (on H2P) - and I thought he went into excellent detail and covered everything: so my plan had been to just promote his guide for this expansion. Instead I found a lot of people want a guide where the answers leap out at them - where someone errs on the side of oversimplification: so you click the link in the table of contents that you want an answer for, it takes you to the section, the answer is in bright bold text.

If I do a guide next expansion it will probably a mix between my MoP guide and WoD guide, where the easy answer is still there like in WoD - but I'll provide segment or links to theorycraft or math posts that explain the nuance. Plus, a lot of people seemed to just want a guide on these forums, which is fine too - so I learned from that

[Djriff]

In MoP I used the hell out of H2P and promoted it a bunch on my stream for like minded priests. With the release of WoD I kept checking it a couple of times a day to see if the guides were updated but the forums were quiet and everything was outdated so I ended up coming here. I honestly feel that H2P was great at its peak but atm without someone motivated to maintain it, it's just become a faded memory of the glory days. We have a lot of great resources at our disposal now. MMO-C forums are rampant with discussion and help on what to do as a priest. There is Drye's Spirest guide which is a staple for every spriest that gives a damn. Even Icy-Veins has some decent priest discussion, mainly involving Gwenymph. We have some dedicated people here at MMO-C that honestly makes this site the first place I look for advice on priesty things.

All that being said, I really do appreciate the long run H2P has had and hopefully it can continue being the one stop shop for priests.

[Deleted]

The game has changed, the hardcore number crunchers have diminished in numbers, you sound like the site makes you unhappy. I'd say let H2P die with dignity and move on with your live. Your relation to this site doesn't sound healthy. If the game ever gets back to its prime, you have the skills and the connections to bring life to a new community site.

Thanks for all the hard work over the years. While I still played my priest I always checked spriest/h2p before anything else. It hurts to hear you hung up on the past and on a future that seems super unlikely with the way the game is moving forward. Well as much as it can hurt with someone that I have never talked to iRL.

[Lazare]

I raided on my priest from the start of Vanilla through to early Cata, then took a break until the WoD pre-patch. I've since resumed raiding, and I'm really enjoying it.

What do you want from the Priest community?

I'd like a good resource for guides, discussion, Q&A, and perhaps a modicum of venting and bitching (so long as it doesn't get out of hand). Not keen on fragmentation. Between H2P, MMO Champion, Icy Veins, and the active /r/wow community on Reddit, I think there's a lot of places priests can go for help. Too many, really.

What do you want from this site in particular?

I think H2P was focused on shadow when I was playing the first time, so I largely ignored it. When I returned for the WoD pre-patch I found it dead, outdated, confusing, and fragmented. So I don't have a lot of nostalgia for H2P like many others do. I will say, however, that if H2P—or any other community—is going to work, it needs as much traffic as possible, and enough good moderation to make it work. In particular, there's *way* too many low-traffic sub-sub-forums, and that's deadly to a healthy community.

There's...what, 24 forums and subforums, excluding the archived ones? There's one for Macros, and one for UI, and one for healing in raids and dungeons, and one for healing in T17 raids, and one for theorycrafting *how* to heal, plus a general discussion on healing, plus another just for analysing healing logs? How about "shadow PvE", "disc/holy PvE", and "everything else"?

I personally wouldn't care if H2P just quietly died (sorry!), but if you or someone else wants to restart it, I think you nuke the existing forums, recreate it with one (maybe 2-3 max) forums, recruit some good moderators, and work hard to create content and attract content. It wouldn't be hard to be better than the priest forum here on MMO champion, but you've go a long way to go right now.

Does anyone know how you find happiness in a game that's let you down over and over for years now?

Realistic expectations. This is a game. A hobby. It's not a job. Every day, I think "would I be happier logging into WoW, or doing something else?" Right now, I'm enjoying logging in, so I do.

I don't think about how the game used to be, or how the game should be, or what I hope is coming in the future, or wax nostalgic about some poorly remembered golden era during vanilla or TBC (I was there; they sucked a fuckton in their own special ways, and people whined on forums nonstop then too). TODAY, I'm really enjoying mythic raiding in BRF. That's why I play. If I didn't enjoy it, I'd stop playing.

Yes, I find disc a bit boring. Worse, I'm being forced to play holy (not my favourite spec) because my guild already has a disc priest. Yes, I feel like holy is a spec with significant issues with ability design, healing toolkit, ability to provide utility in raids, burst output, etc. Yes, I feel like I'd be contributing more if I was a resto druid. Doesn't matter. I'm playing my priest, I'm specced holy, my guild is progressing, I enjoy the raids. It's fun for me, end of story.

You ask about being "let down" by Blizzard, but with all due respect, that's on you. Nobody ever promised me anything; every day I log in and I play the game as I find it. Yesterday that game was worth playing for me. Today the game is worth playing for me. I assume it will be worth playing for me tomorrow, but if it isn't, I'll stop.

From the sound of it, you're burning out, you're not thinking of it as a hobby, and you're not enjoying yourself. You probably should take a break, honestly.

What do you think of the site being in the hands of someone else (who isn't on the mod team)?

Like I said, I'm not invested in H2P at all; I wasn't subbed during the sites glory days. I feel like priests could use a really good community—ideally one with a ton of traffic and some really good active moderation—and I feel like we don't have on right now. If H2P could become that under you or someone else, that would be nice. If it doesn't, then I'll muddle along, splitting my time between this forum and Reddit.

[Deleted]

So just a quick reply from me. I came from shadowpriest.com, was an active poster there during WotLK and have regularly browsed H2P even though I never really got into posting there.
A few things drove me away from H2P as a community site (I still used / use it as a reference site);
So many subforums. I know it was a nice way to compartmentalize everything but it gave the impression of having much slower traffic than the site actually did. For a long time I only looked at the 'healer' and 'shadow' sections without really noticing any discussion elsewhere
As much as I appreciate the work of the contributors (I really do!) it often felt that offering anything different to their theorycrafting was shot down simply because it wasn't their theorycrafting, a lot of that theorycrafting seemed to be done behind closed doors and missing out on the discussion that led to it just gave me an unwelcome feeling. This works fine as a reference site but discourages community input. Mods telling you what to do vs community working out.
Crossposting. Not happening so much anymore but a while back people would ask a basic question on mmo-c. The kind of question that would lead to a discussion or a kindly answer tailored to the (generally new) OP. Very often the first reply would simply be a link to a H2P page, usually the generic guide or a specific thread. Whilst no doubt being given the link to that thread would be useful to the OP it also kind of shut down any discussion and community interaction. In true internet style I always just read into that as some sort of h2p elitism. Like, because it had already been posted elsewhere that it's not worth helping somebody out by actually talking with them.

So yeah, just mostly subjective things on my part. Probably down to me becoming increasingly jaded with WoW in general and becoming grumpier in my old age. It does feel that the priest community a couple of expansions ago was more welcoming, especially to new players and open to having discussions. No doubt theorycrafting has developed significantly since then (patchwork bis lists ftw?) and the effort of the few dismisses the need for community discussions.

I'd certainly be sad to see H2P go, I still consider it a valuable resource and often send priests in need of help to browse the guides etc, although I'll admit to telling them if they still need help they'd probably be better off posting on MMO-C. Obviously I'm biased in that respect!