Two Questions.

[t0mat03]

1. This could probably go in the Cataclysm forum, but I'll go ahead and toss it in here anyway. Has there been any word on Mind vision, Mind Control, and Levitate in Cataclysm (Are they keeping them?)? Having some goofy spells, although not always incredibly useful, is pretty fun.

2. I've heard Restoration Druids are great for raid heals, and Paladins are great for Tank heals. Where exactly does this put the Priest? Are they more of a middle ground class between the Druid and the Paladin?

[Kelesti]

First off, your first question could also go in the "Open Letter to Beta Testers" sticky, up there.

Absolutely nothing has been done to Mind Vision/Control and Levitate. They are as they are now, including stupid Light Feather requirement for Levitate.

2. Seems like a trollish question? I'm not sure how to answer that one...

[t0mat03]

Not a troll question on number two, my guild was talking about healers. I was just curious. I have never healed as a Priest or a Paladin before, so I can't comment on their style.

[Deyus]

Very generally your second question (statement?) is correct in the game that is currently available on live. Their stated goal for Cataclysm is to increase the overlap in healing effectiveness. Ie. you shouldn't be surprised to find druids able to heal tanks, or paladins with the tools to effectively heal the raid once Cataclysm rolls out.

[Theed]

Im wondering if they are doing something with mindsoothe.. Some pvp stuff like lowers the chance to hit or reduces the attack/spell/heal range.

[Kelesti]

Druids in general are exceptionally powerful tank healers, the only reason you put your Holy Paladins on tanks and not your Druids is because your Paladins can't do anything else.

Priests are not between the two, mediocre at tank healing and mediocre at raid healing. Priests are quite poor at Tank Healing, both specs, while exceptionally good at stepping up to the plate at Raid Healing.

In today's environments, auras are used as "healer pressure" to make sure you're continually working to keep people topped off, before they get spiked and/or die. Druids may counter the aura better than any other, but a good Restoration Shaman, Holy Priest, or Discipline Priest is indispensible when it comes to damage going above and beyond the aura. (Splash damage, debuffs, whatever). The fact that Druids can dominate an HPS meter doesn't mean they're the better raid-healer.

Priests may be terrible tank healers, but you can't put us as "in between a druid and a paladin". Gods, such a loaded question.

[Thrayne]

Kelesti hit the nail on the head as of now where priest stand as raid healers.

If you are talking in cata, I believe the role will transform a bit because Blizz has stated reurning to a high mana awareness and more of triage type healing, and priests have a wide variety to choose from and in the hands of a smart priest, will become much more valuable asset to a raid (not to say they are worthelss now).

[Rayella]

1. Last time I checked Mind Vision, Mind Control, and Levitate all work. Infact, Levitate has save my butt quite a few times on Beta! Don't log out high in the air, when you log back in, you'll be falling to your death!
2. For today's end game content, especially heroic Lich King, Priests are the best raid healer, many times outweighing druids. Our utility is just much stronger, rejuv has to tick, while we have Empowered Renew,PoM, CoH, all great instant heals and the absorbs from disc are extremely powerful. Infest won't even tick with shields. That isn't to say each class has their place. Strictly looking at meters, BQL is really the only fight a druid beats me on or Sindragosa if I get unlucky with the debuff. As tank healers, we aren't as good as paladins, but we aren't bad at all. Disc is really a great spec for tank healing, I've healed many 10man HMs as the tank healer. While I don't particularly enjoy it, it isn't completely out of reach for priests.
My guild actually almost never runs with a resto druid, usually use 2 pallies, 2 priests(disc+holy), 1 shaman. When we need one, the boomkins respec!

[Deleted]

Answer to question number two : Priest always was an assisting class, you are here to make sure the big healers back stays straight.

[Dollplaylol]

Nooooooooo, Mind vision is da shit

[Danner]

2. I've heard Restoration Druids are great for raid heals, and Paladins are great for Tank heals. Where exactly does this put the Priest? Are they more of a middle ground class between the Druid and the Paladin?

I'm on a slightly different opinion than Kelesti on the matter of druids and paladins.

IMO -

A paladin is the absolutely best healer around. Most fights seems lenient to stacking paladins, and a paladin can heal for obscene amounts on two targets at once. A druid can match a paladin for single target throughput, but only on one target. On the upside, a druid has infinite mana. When sorting out healing requirements, you always sort out the paladin requirements first. As such, all other healers are really second rate.

A druid has amazing HPS. The best HPS even. Assuming no overhealing, no other class comes close to the output of a druid. But depending on the encounter, burst is more important than HPS. Druids are weak at burst healing, and they have no life-saving cooldowns beyond swiftmend. They really do need that HPS advantage to stay sharp. Kelesti is rigth in saying that druids are amazing single target healers. It's just that they don't have a beacon. And that makes them second rate healers, along with everyone else not labelled 'paladin'. Most druids also tend to forget that their single target HPS is rivalling that of a paladin, and it is sadly quite common for the holypriest to struggle wildly and fail to keep the tank alive, while the druid just keeps on midlessly truckin' out raidwide hots.

Discpriests are healing support. They can't single target heal properly, and their raidhealing is also weak. But a well-timed shield is probably the best lifeline the game has to offer. If people keeps on dying, it's because your discpriest is offline for the evening.

Shammies and holypriests offer the same role; aoe burst healing. The shaman can also single target heal very well. The holypriest can only do so by forsaking all his talented utility (like body & soul). I personally don't feel this is a good tradeoff, as both the druid and the shaman is still a better single target healer choice. For raidhealing, a shaman is focusing on reliability and speed, being able to heal the raid time and time again with extreme precision, never faltering. A holypriest is focusing on excessive burst, but has a period of cooldown after healing. If your raid is taking sick sick damage, the holypriest can heal 22+ people in 6 seconds. The holypriest is the only healer that has the ability to singlehandedly turn a bad raidwide situation, and it's an amazingly fun skill to have. But the second time the raidwide burst damage happens, you need a shaman if you want to avoid deaths. Both healers have their place in the game of healing, though I much prefer the reliability of the shaman. A holypriest is risky to rely on.

You can do very well and sometimes even excel with a paladin only healing team. A team of druids will have it a lot harder, but they will still kick ass. A mixed team of priests only are all but doomed. The more diverse your healing team, the better.

[kelevandros]

Answer to question number two : Priest always was an assisting class, you are here to make sure the big healers back stays straight.

Well that might change now. I still have high hopes all healers will be more well rounded in cataclysm. It remains to be seen.

[dennisd]

As everybody said, priest are support healers.
and in my opinion, priests are very powerful and are not far behind if not ahead of any other healer.

For example, as a Discipline Priest at 10 man HC raids, you just shield everybody and then you can just Penance,ProM and any other type of heal for the duration of Weakend Soul or till the shields break, and alot of times I find myself doing nothing because my shields are so powerful that the Druid and I are just whispering.

and lets talk about massive AoE fights like Heroic Marrowgar, I find it extremely hard to defeat him without a Discipline Priest in the raid, they are just a raid saver.
or Heroic Lich King, now there is no way in the world that you can defeat him without a Disc Priest in the raid, even two because you really can't afford somebody getting an infest damage, they are the key to win.
I could go on and on but you get my point,

as a Holy Priest, I found them really strong aswell, I got abit bored of the playstyle after trying to play Disc because it's just so much fun to see how many lives you save with the shields and to imagine how other healers are bored because of you
anyway, when I played as a Holy Priest, I could easily top the druids or any other healer in the raid.
If you time your healing right, then you're very powerful, for example you know there is an AoE raid-wide coming, you just precasting PoH followed by CoH and then recast PoH and almost all of the raid is topped.
I believe that what matters is how well you know your class, the fight and only if you think ahead you can do well.
you can't just spam renew and wonder why you're at the bottom of the HPS.

In overall, Priests are really great and you got to understand the unique mechanics we have, that's the key to win.
And I want to see any progression raid that won't take atleast 2 priests(unless they dont have any). every class has its own advantage and benefit, so you can't really compare.

anyway I am not really sober today so I hope you can understand me..hehe