Beta Priests > Still the fun healing class?

[noxmonk]

I'm wondering if priest is still the fun healing class or with the change to downranking, if it's just another paladin/druid/shaman spamming no more then 4 or 5 buttons with no reward giving for making an intelligent decision on which heal to use and when.

The removal of downranking has me considering going full time war since I have a plethora of heals and ways to heal with the current classes I play. With WoW no longer offering that, it seems like the game just sucks because they're removing all thought process (not that there was much to begin with) from healing.

Input?

[MrMacca]

I completely disagree with you regarding the priest losing its enjoyment. I've ran a few of the new 80 dungeons and personally it feels the same as it has since day 1 on my priest.

And this is because nothing has changed for me.

I've never down ranked my heals because personally I never saw the benefit of it. In most fights you can judge the situation and react accordingly. If the damage is slow but constant, then I just wait those few extra moments and land a full Gheal on them. People have commented on that people who don't know how to play their class are those that do not downrank. However I have always been consistently top of healing done and bottom of Overheal so my methods must be working.

I think it just requires a different way of thinking. Rather than trying to fit a specific smaller sized heal into the same sized hole, think of it like a waiting game and slotting that big block in at the correct moment. Healer Tetris if you must :P

[Rambobarbq]

donwranking meant that the person used his time to see which one will benefit the most for different situation if its better to have 3-4k heal or 6k heal.

i mean... seriously downranking made the good/none-retard priest awesome healer rarely going oom vs the none-downranking.

[Priear]

lies... The downranking DONT make a diff... A decent geared/gemmed priest shouldent have ANY probs with mana atm... The benefits from downranking was removed long ago imo.

Seriously if you got mana problems when trowing high rank heals, you or your gear sucks tbh (or you got no idear how to use fsr). You can easily clear SW without downranking. And healing meters cant be used for anything... Imo go check WWS after the fight instead.

Maybe i can agree that the "fun" of being a priest have taken a knockback. But it havent changed how good we are.


(waiting for the flaming from priest trolls)

[noxmonk]

lies... The downranking DONT make a diff... A decent geared/gemmed priest shouldent have ANY probs with mana atm... The benefits from downranking was removed long ago imo.

Seriously if you got mana problems when trowing high rank heals, you or your gear sucks tbh (or you got no idear how to use fsr). You can easily clear SW without downranking. And healing meters cant be used for anything... Imo go check WWS after the fight instead.

Maybe i can agree that the "fun" of being a priest have taken a knockback. But it havent changed how good we are.


(waiting for the flaming from priest trolls)

No one was arguing mana problems. I was merely talking about the enjoyment of the game and having control over your healing, rather than not having control over it.

However, if you think downranking's usefulness was thrown out or nullified, you're sorely mistaken. The fact I could downrank and end up with 70%+ effective healing on almost every fight allowed our raid group to carry 5 healers on m'uru, brutallus, 6 on kalecgos, we didn't need the extra healing because I never had wasted mana or a wasted GCD. It's about control and fun, not out epeening who is more skilled.

Downranking imo took zero skill because you can get an addon to pick the heal for you, wheres the challenge in that...

People who downrank seam to think non downrankers just wait for damage then throw a heal but we don't, we use max rank with /stopcasting macros to constantly keep that big heal ready to land.

They took that out pre-bc, welcome to 2 years ago.

[Tribu]

Well i havent had much problems whitout down ranking ither... Tho im not the best and i dont eaven care to be the best i just do my job.

[Rushuna]

Tried Downranking, didn't like it. Rather Preemp healcancel than be a psuedo pally healer with longer casts.

[Deleted]

First of all, I'm a resto shammy healer, but always interested in healing discussions. I also have a 70 shadow priest who I have specced holy a fair amount.

From my raid healing experience (9/9 BT etc) you get to know the fights and choose the best strategy depending on your assigned role; I was typically a raid healer. I am also a theorycrafter, so I identify the most mana efficient heals and highest hps heals over different timespans (3 minutes fights through to 15 minute fights). Then have strategies that provide choice. Commonly, this is a mix of downranking (some have no penalties and some do, but still used to work out more efficient) and pre-emptive stop casting using macros. If you couple that with fight knowledge, raid frames, situational awareness, tactics, gear choice, raid composition, role and so on you should have a fair idea of how to be the best you can be.

[Tinpa]

As an old time priest healer back from wow classic, down ranking really made a big difference.
I've always had around three spell ranks of Great Heal and two different of Renew and Flash Heal.

My healing tactic has always been that people should have as much hp as possible, healing ideas/tactics that involve big greater heals that heals for >50% of their total hp will leave people dead where it could be avoided.
Down ranking renew to throw on dps that has 80-90% hp will get them back up to full hp at literary no cost.
As a tank it's really annoying to roll between 30% and 100% that some healers tend to do when you can down rank renew and great heals you get a more constant flow and stable health levels.

The hard part is, when are you supposed to stop down rank, when is the time to really push it. There is times healing needs to lay at 50% over heal and times you can go with less than 5% over heals.

Myself, I find it being one of the fun things and also a challenge to keep people close to full health, minimize over healing and wasted mana - keep good mana levels. Each pull will make for different healing and different tactic, and when sh*t hits the fan you lose all boundaries and push to the max.

As everything you have to use common sense.

The biggest problem with greater heal is the over healing you get when it crits.
I always try to anticipate my GH being possible crits as its useless to throw a GH that over heal's at base. Thereby you down rank.
And as GH gives more healing for less mana and when you got time you can throw GH that heals around Flash Heal level but at reduced cost.

The new improved talents makes up for the mana loss by not being able to down rank with the addition (big plus) of being better on using big heals more constantly, especially holy.

On a positive note is that with all the new spells, you will now have about same amount of buttons to press also what spell to use will or should be more clear, difference in using rank 7 or rank 8 of Greater Heal isn't really change of play that you now will have.

But where is the solution between the great gap between a 3k Flash Heal and 9k Greater Heal.
One could say that the talents in holy makes up for possible excess of Greater Heals and Penance being the counter for Disc priests in addition with
the Divine Aegis talent.

The thing that has bothered me the most with priest healing are two things. First crit heals doesn't really give you anything, the small times they really make a difference is many crits between -- but now they are always good. And next is over heals (main reason you wanted to down rank), but is now countered with over heals returning mana if your holy or all direct heals if your disc in addition with the aegis protective shield.
This is only positive changes, especially come arena and battle grounds for priests.

With the new Dual-Spec that blizzard will introduce and depending on how it will work you have great possibilities to change between holy and disc or healing and shadow at will.

All in all, a lot more positive changes than negative -- that is my conclusion at least.

[TDSlôl]

Downranking imo took zero skill because you can get an addon to pick the heal for you, wheres the challenge in that...

People who downrank seam to think non downrankers just wait for damage then throw a heal but we don't, we use max rank with /stopcasting macros to constantly keep that big heal ready to land.

I've always used max rank when healing on my paladin, even easier than making a stop casting macro, spacebar

[antidan]

I've always used max rank when healing on my paladin, even easier than making a stop casting macro, spacebar

Your right, cus you can start your next cast while in the air...wait no.

Jumping is idiotic your mt can die during a jump.

[Jossol]

Your right, cus you can start your next cast while in the air...wait no.

Jumping is idiotic your mt can die during a jump.

Spacebar is indeed the biggest fail for a stopcast, right next to kiting with S key.

To go back on the subject. I actualy used to downrank before, untill I found out it's only an excuse to look cool cuz anyways priests have way enough healing flexibility to maximize your mana efficiency if you use your skills correctly and at the right time.
Gheal is basicaly useless in raids, since no one use slow heals, all the others will land before yours and it will overheal even if you use rank 1, so flash heal it is, maybe it'll, maybe the tank will get hurt and you'll get a lucky crit for the whole amount, maybe you'll try to downrank it and find out after the tank gets hit again that you prolly should have used a higher rank. You get slaped and someone else get punch? Oh noes what to do, down rank flash heal yourself and high rank the other? No. Stop being stupid and wasting time, use binding heal. Tank gets hurt a little at random times? Should you use a downrank here and there? Nice way to fuck up your mana regen buddy, just throw a full renew and watch, it does the job for you while you regen.

Downranking usualy leads to casting stuff more often instead of waiting for bigger heals, in the end you control how much you heal for but you obviously have to heal more often, which means breaking your mana regen timer, and in most situation is absolutely not worth it (unless you have the world record of lowest spirit).

[Ufalah]

I don't know much about Priests (I play a 70 holy paladin 9/9 BT 3/6 SWP) but downranking was a must for me. And our priest tank healer on Brut spammed GH the whole fight hand required mad pots (which is not possible in WotLK) and innervates.

I'd say the over-all fun of being a healer is slowly ebbing away. Unlike dps classes and tank classes which seem to be getting a wide variety of new abilities, healers are... well healers. Once you give them some heals what can you really do to make them more fun haha? Not that I didn't enjoy my paladin, but I have FoL and HL... boring for raiding and difficult for PvP.

I'd say just roll a DPS class and be done with it haha.

[AetherMcLoud]

Well I can only talk about PTR and not Beta, but I found the new disc tree amazingly fun to play. With all the crit talents and especially penence being able to crit 3 times, alot of instant cast spells and defensive abilities I had more fun than ever on PTR PVP than on live. Penence just feels like "BAM BAM BAM oh yeah crit, nice devine aegis!" instead of "flash heal flash heal flash heal"

Just my 2cent.

[Venara]

Downranking imo took zero skill because you can get an addon to pick the heal for you, wheres the challenge in that...

People who downrank seam to think non downrankers just wait for damage then throw a heal but we don't, we use max rank with /stopcasting macros to constantly keep that big heal ready to land.

Absolutely wrong. I've always been downranking in raids. In BC i chose to use GH1,3 and 7. The amazing part is that i can constantly spam mid-range heals (~4k) without going oom where you "anti-downrankers" only fake-healed with stopcasting-macros. I made sure that there's always a heal when needed and in certain fights, like Illidan P2 (high damage spikes), that was very important. While you were still beginning a new stopcasting cycle my heal already landed. I saved my tank, you didn't.

Srsly, no priest has to worry about mana issues when downranking and can constantly spam heals. Why use stopcasting with max rank then? Absolutely no point to do that.

Downranking was the one thing which severed good priests from bad priests. Don't get me wrong here. There sure are some exceptions to this among anti-downrankers but a really good downranking priest will always be better.

*edit* Just for the sake of argument: I didn't downrank till BC hit. After that i tried it, liked it, did it. It's so much better than just casting, stopping, casting, stopping.

Regards,
Venara

[Venara]

The removal of downranking will not bring back skill into healing. With the new talents and level 80 gear it's nearly impossible to go oom. So you will just see dozens of priests who learned to constantly click GH. That's hardly skill.

Downranking was about conserving mana while choosing the appropriate heal for the situation and being able to constantly spam heals. This was skill.

If I wanted to spam heal I would have rolled a paladin.

Why didn't you? If you don't see the skill in downranking you obviously missed your true calling. Priest was all about downranking until our mana issues were fixed and it still is a great thing after the fix because downranking gave us a great mid-range heal that didn't consume as much mana as a FH.

Regards,
Venara

[Devia]

Mmm how about not down-ranking and hitting the escape key or side-stepping to cancel your spell? Now there's a bright idea. I never even knew there was this "stop-cast" macro you speak of, nor do I care. I'd rather pay attention myself and decide when to stop casting on my own. It makes the fight more interesting and keeps me awake. None of this cheating crap.

I am not worried at all about not being able to down-rank. I rarely did it in the first place - the only time I down-ranked was when a dps class took a tiny bit of damage so I would throw a lower rank renew on them. And Venara - you are completely wrong. A good down-ranking priest will NOT always be better. The better priest will be better. Period.

Being able to spam cast a spell endlessly does not make you a better player. The person who observes, thinks, and reacts appropriately the fastest will be the one that's better. Stop-casting saves your GCD's in case of emergency(like if you needed to cast a spell other than greater heal to do a flash heal or PoM or CoH or whatever). I rarely down-ranked and never regretted it. I was always lowest on overheal too. I haven't healed in a raid in over a year but in early BC in my guild I was the best healer, and no, the other healers did not suck. They just down-ranked. :P Lol kidding about that last part.

After that i tried it, liked it, did it. It's so much better than just casting, stopping, casting, stopping.

Downranking was about conserving mana while choosing the appropriate heal for the situation and being able to constantly spam heals. This was skill.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but spam-clicking a button over and over does not mean you are skilled. You like it because you don't have to think, you don't have to watch, and you don't have to choose the best spell because you can just spam one over and over. That is laziness. You are just upset because you can't be lazy and brainless anymore.

I'm glad there will be no more downranking. Now you will have to actually think about what spells are going to be the most efficient to cast, whether it's due to HPS, mana conservation, or emergency spells. THIS is what will separate the good priests from the bad priests.

[Ufalah]

As a paladin I had a rotation of MAX FoL - FoL - FoL - FoL - RANK 4 HL - MAX FoL - FoL - FoL - FoL - RANK 4 HL rinse and repeat.

The ONLY time I need MAX RANK HL was when something went wrong. Shit hit the fan b/c another MT healer went down or OOM or whatever. No one downranks FoL. Unless they are dumb.

I dunno what beta/PTR/WotLK will be like.

Either way, the OP was asking about priests being fun. I dunno. I have grown tired of the healing classes.

On a side note (AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T FLAME ABOUT WAR) I was reading an interesting addition to healing in Warhammer. The High Elf Archmage class has both damage and healing spells. As the mage casts healing spells, the mana cost and cast time of his OFFENSIVE spells are reduced. As he uses offensive the spells, the same is true but in reverse: healing is benefitted. I think that is an interesting twist to the traditional role of a healer. You become a better healer as you damage enemies, and become a better damage dealer as you heal your allies.

[Devia]

On a side note (AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T FLAME ABOUT WAR) I was reading an interesting addition to healing in Warhammer. The High Elf Archmage class has both damage and healing spells. As the mage casts healing spells, the mana cost and cast time of his OFFENSIVE spells are reduced. As he uses offensive the spells, the same is true but in reverse: healing is benefitted. I think that is an interesting twist to the traditional role of a healer. You become a better healer as you damage enemies, and become a better damage dealer as you heal your allies.

Yeah they did that sort of thing in AoC too. And guess what? AoC failed. Miserably. And I was quite disappointed too because I bought it and wanted it to do well...

[slyy]

You talk about skill with downranking...

Please tell me where the skill is in pressing a button every 2.5 seconds without going oom? There is no skill in this you can ignore health bars and just focus on 'staying out of fire'. If I wanted to spam heal I would have rolled a paladin. Downranking might have been 'better' but I'm glad blizzard removed this to get skill back into healing.

Warning: Troll Post INC

The tank needs a heal, but not enough for max rank gheal,
Now he does need it,
Start casting max Gheal,
Tank is raped by brutallus,
Priest A says, "I had a heal almost there!"
Priest A is repped out of raid for a competent priest B,
Priest A thinks,"At least I have more skill than a downrank spammer.  I'm a really good player."