1. #1

    Priest or Paladin?

    I’m returning to WoW after not being able to stomach the leveling in Legion. My question is: Should I main Priest or Paladin? I like slow and strategical playstyles, and I want to heal.
    Last edited by Ashleyxoxo; 2018-11-20 at 01:47 AM.

  2. #2
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by AryuFate View Post
    I’m returning to WoW after not being able to stomach the leveling in Legion. My question is: Should I main Priest or Paladin? I like slow and strategical playstyles, and I want to heal.
    Well not sure about slow but currently disc priest is arguably the most strategic healer in that you generally have to apply atonement to players first and then do damage to heal them, so setting up for incoming damage is important.
    You'll have to manage you time/casts between applying atonement though direct heals and doing damage to trigger the healing of the atoned players.
    This also means your performance will suffer greatly if you mess up or while learning a fight as your reactive healing isn't that great.

    IMHO disc healing is as strategic as it gets in WoW but I wouldn't call it slow and since it also involves dps'ing it might not be your thing.


    Holy OTOH has a big toolkit so it's more about picking the best spell (and talents) for a given situation. You could argue that casting specific spells to lower the CD on you holy words is a somewhat strategic decision as well as the use of your big healing cooldowns.

    The two healing specs will increase the chance that you can stomach at least one of the healing styles, even if they are changed in the future - though people might try to coerce you into playing what is considered optimal at the given moment.


    AFAIK paladins are about selecting your beacon target and then choosing the best single-target heal spell and its target.
    You'll also want to manage you positioning so that your cone group heal hits the 5 players who need it and when they need it. Of course you'll also have to plan your big CDs.


    In general priest healing tends to gravitate more towards raid/group healing whereas paladins traditionally excel at tank healing and struggle a bit with raid healing especially when the raid is spread out.

    All of that might change in future expansions of course (especially disc has changed quite a bit over the years) but the previous statement seems to be something Blizzard sticks to.


    As for leveling and solo content I think paladins have the upper hand if you are willing to go dps or tank as shadow priests are awfully squishy these days - as a pure healer priests might have it a bit easier, not sure though.


    Note that I've never played a paladin in anger so this is the perspective of a priest main.


    TLDR: Disc priest gameplay is fairly strategic (not slow) and playing a priest offers a broader range of healing styles thanks to the 2 healing specs.
    Paladins offer a different healing style that some find more appealing and the 2 other specs give more flexibility overall, if you ever need a break from healing or for doing certain content (e.g. solo old raids, WQs, questing).


    In the end you'll have to find out for yourself what you like best - not sure if the class trials are still available and if you can do the healing challenges on them but if that works it might be a good way to get a feel for both classes.
    Last edited by mmoc1a2258818d; 2018-11-20 at 01:17 PM.

  3. #3
    Go disc. Get used it. Have a blast.

    Get also used to nerfs.

  4. #4
    Light comes from darkness shise's Avatar
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    Holy priest, by far.

    As holy you can plan out a massive amount of heal for the raid and tanks before the damage comes. You have several spells to use as you consider, when you consider. Strong tank healer and the best raid healer.

    Discipline is boring and feels wrong. You basically mainly heal through atonement, I spell I still wish didn´t exist. The point of being a priest healer is that you have an incredible healing power output. Discipline has no skill to play, you don´t need to think, you just DPS and, no brainer, keep your atonement up.

    I am amused by the amount of priests around going Discipline everywhere... Holy DPS output is similar so that is no excuse. I don´t know, maybe because I mained one for 7 years I find it a no brainer to work around atonement, nothing special.. whereas holy you have to plan out your moves as they come, a constant improvisational style which is NEVER determined by : "of, I must keep this here and there and now I have to use this CD to make this spec work"... a healer is meant to be a free style.. THAT takes skills, not following determined mechanics
    That being said, PVP wise they are God mode. PvE wise... dull as always.


    About holy pala, I can´t help much, but obviously they are not as strong as priests atm.

  5. #5
    If you like healing, play Priest.
    2 healing specs vs 1 healing spec (hpala).
    If one healing spec get nerf you can switch to the 2nd healing spec. Disc and Holy are two different playstyle, both specs are more fun to play than a hpala.
    There is a saying: "don't fix what isn't broken". Blizzard does NOT follow this saying. To them its "if it isn't broken fix it until it is"

  6. #6
    paladin is great fun. you should give it a pop, really.

  7. #7
    Well Disc is pretty slow if you like slow healers since you’re setting up 15 seconds in advance.

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