Healing as Paladin vs Priest, on a PvP server..Need some of your input please

[Barefoot]

Disclaimer* I did not do a deep dive search for this exact topic/class comparison on the forums, I only went back a few pages. So if it does exist please delete this post and I apologize for wasting anyone's time.


Been torn between the two. need some constructive advice. Only reason I am asking the community is because all my personal resources (guild mates, friends, peers, etc) are split almost 50/50 in this matter. So to help me decide I have come humbly to you, the community. So here is the meat....

-will be Playing in a Hard Core, High PoP, PvP server.
-I have leveled both classes recently to 50 on a private pvp server to get reacquainted with classic and be ready for launch.
-90% sure I will be rolling a Dwarf no matter what class I pick, open to arguments for why I may want to rethink Human.
-I have been playing since Beta, but 85% of my exp is in the PVE arena not PvP.
-Yes, I do enjoy PvP immensely and plan to spend the proper amount of time training and getting more competitive.
-Have done massive amounts of research on both classes with the majority of the content matter being about PvP centric.
-My time will be split between raiding and PvP. When I am not actively raiding I will be PvPing as much as possible.
-Love playing both classes equally, and the skill set and comfort level are equal as well.
-Yes I do understand its two very different styles of healing/gearing, and I will be happy either way.

So I need help on which to play, a Dwarf Pally or a Dwarf Priest. like the above mentioned, it seems simple but its turning out to be more complicated then I originally thought. I have had long discussion with my resource pool and like above, they are split almost 50/50 on why I should play either or. I am now moving my last bit of research to you, the community in hopes that it will be help decide once and for all, what I will geek out on, come launch time. My gut? you may ask, leaning more towards Dwarf Paladin, with and extra O shit racial button. But i keep getting fear ward rammed in my face as well. I just want to know what you guys Think, on a PVP server, Paladin heals or Priest? Please not shadow priest or ret talk, as I don't plan on respecing each week.

Thank you Sincerely in advance,
Barefoot

*This is not click bait or a troll attempt, i'm looking for healthy debate between the two*

[Shiny212]

Paladins definitely harder to bring down, but priests have more utility, bubble vs fear and ranged damage.

At the end of the day play what you enjoy the most?

I'd go with priest for healing any day, and buffing people every 15minutes does get a bit tiresome, fear ward it's true will be coveted by many, especially if you aim to gear yourself in raids.

[Tehterokkar]

Paladin is the reason Alliance dominates PvE and PvP.

Being Plate + having a ton of "you can't touch me" tools makes Paladins superior to Priests in PvP.

[Shiny212]

Paladin is the reason Alliance dominates PvE and PvP.

Being Plate + having a ton of "you can't touch me" tools makes Paladins superior to Priests in PvP.

They don't have much in the way of doing damage or CC though, but they are indeed very hard to bring down.

[Ahandii89]

Dwarf paladin for uniqueness, will be plenty of dwarf priests because of fear ward, and human paladins cause of weapon skills i guess. + stoneform is just yet another defensive in pvp on top of paladins already plentiful defensives.

[Heathy]

I specifically didn't pvp with my priest I did a few bgs here and there but it was enough for me to realise that it just wasn't fun for me. in t1 with benediction you stand out like a sore thumb and every fucker will try to gank you. why? because killing you is relatively easy and if you die others will die also.

honestly i got tired of just getting ganked by rogues toward the end of classic you had rogue ganking squads in the bgs, teams of rogues that could easily ambush one person dead. or stun lock you into oblivion.

at least as a pala you can bubble and stun. fear bomb is cool but when ppl have pvp trinkets it probably won't save you. priest pvp, at least for me didn't really get much better than mind controlling ppl into the lava in blackrock. just stand on the chain wait for someone to come along, mind control jump off. pinnacle of priest pvp.

[Cruor]

Paladin is the reason Alliance dominates PvE and PvP.

Being Plate + having a ton of "you can't touch me" tools makes Paladins superior to Priests in PvP.

As a Vannila Grand Marshal Warrior I agree with this. I always preferred my healer being a paladin. Paladin can stay up for a while allowing me to kill their squishy, I don't need to instantly peel. A priest can get tough but not on pally level.

As for why play human, as a healer weapon skill doesn't matter to you but perception is very powerful.

[Barefoot]

As a Vannila Grand Marshal Warrior I agree with this. I always preferred my healer being a paladin. Paladin can stay up for a while allowing me to kill their squishy, I don't need to instantly peel. A priest can get tough but not on pally level.

As for why play human, as a healer weapon skill doesn't matter to you but perception is very powerful.

Something to think about. Is perception better then stone form? PvP wise? You can see why I’m still on the fence. But I am starting to lean more and more towards paladin

[Rainyhealz]

This really comes down to if you like being an offensive or defensive healer.

HORDE: priests have to play defensive because shamans are the offensive healer.

ALLIANCE: priests are the offensive healer while paladins are defensive.

All in all, it does not take much to be a decent paladin. With all the oshit buttons, there is a very small skill cap. Priest has a much higher skill cap and will be very obvious when you see a good priest and a bad priest.

[Cruor]

Well, this is something someone can educate me on, as I always play human and didn't play a healer in vanilla, only played with them extensively. Is stone form needed as a plate healer who can cleanse himself? I thought stoneform cleared disease poison and bleed? I mean does a pally really need that? Perception is quite strong if used right. See a rogue stealth guess where he went, intercept him and pop perception to stop him pouncing on you or another team member.

- - - Updated - - -

Something to think about. Is perception better then stone form? PvP wise? You can see why I’m still on the fence. But I am starting to lean more and more towards paladin

The above was meant to be a reply to this post.

[Saravat]

I PvPed heavily throughout Vanilla and Burning Crusade as both. I love both classes. I'd have to say that in a PvP server environment I'd go with Paladin. Your survivability is better, and while I see people talking about utility and 'offensive' vs 'defensive' healers, I've never been moved by that sort of argument. I go by my practical experience in PvP. Both bring strong tools to the table. On my Priest, I more often needed for my team members to be really on point and to help me stay alive; my Paladin was less reliant on really excellent teamwork, so it put less pressure on my team. So my overall harder-to-kill status made Paladin a bit more enjoyable for me personally.

If you are rolling with a very organized, competent, teamwork-centered group of people, then just go with whatever you think they need most. Otherwise, I'd go with Paladin.

But I won't make your decision any easier - I think you'd be fine playing either, and wouldn't regret either. I'm honestly considering just leveling both in Classic.

As to the race question, I preferred Perception, but I've never felt that either Perception or Stoneform stood out as a must-have when trying to decide between the two.

[Machismo]

PvE:

A pally will probably top the healing charts, because they can spam spells forever. Healing in PvE is easier as a pally, but the constant buffs are a pain in the ass. Seriously, it gets fucking old. Priests are actually better healers for raids, but pallies can simply heal more. Take the priest, unless you want to spam the same spell for two straight hours.

Priests look better in their healing gear.

PvP: Pallies are nearly impossible to bring down if their gear is strong. You can laugh at rogues trying to kill you, as you dance. Priests are more dynamic, and have more utility. Honestly, the best PvP healer is a druid, with a pally being a distant second. Priest is almost as good as a pally.

Overall, it's actually pretty close. If I were you, I'd flip a coin, heads is priest, tails is pally. Whatever you flip, if the result makes you happy, then you have found your choice. If not, then take the other.

[starburst]

I was deciding between paladin and priest too for a while. I eventually went for priest, mostly because a friend is going pala, but I also like their larger kit of offensive spells over paladin too (mana burn, dispel, fear, SWP for vanishing rogues, silence if you spec for it). Stoneform is also an amazing racial for priests, more so than for paladins (though its still great for palas), and is the only alliance racial which competes with horde racials, so don't bother with human if your main focus is PvP.

Another thing going for priests is they are better at healing allies who're about to die. Paladins have BoP but apart from that, all they have is their 1.5 sec heals which are considerably weaker than priests (but very mana efficient), and their 2.5 sec heals which isn't great if your friend is about to die. Holy shock is even weaker. Priests have bubble and powerful 1.5 sec heals. Small time margins mean a lot in classic PvP.

As for paladins, they certainly have better utility & buffs compared to priests... and blessing of sacrifice is OP against polymorph. They are also a lot tankier than priests. Priests get squishy around AQ & Naxx with the insane dmg melee classes start doing, so unless you have friends to play with who understand this, and can coordinate positioning and CC effectively, then your pvp career as a healing priest will be limited to MC & BWL phases.

Also I think fear ward is overrated. For PvE, bosses that fear are far and few between, and a good tank can stance dance it. In PvP warlocks simply have to recast fear & decent priests will know to dispel before fearing if there's a dwarf priest around. It's still a great spell in many situations though, but stoneform, desperate prayer and the epic beards are the main reasons I choose dwarf, not fear ward.

One last note I will make is, paladins are the best class in regards to PvP/PvE hybrid talents. Their optimal raiding spec is *very* close to their optimal PvP spec; give or take a few points in lesser talents, so no respec costs needed. Priests also have it easy compared to most classes, but not to the same degree as paladins, but they can hybridize and still be efficient in both PvP & PvE. There are plenty of classes which don't get this privilege e.g. mages, who are significantly handicapped in one or the other (or both) if they try to hybridize.

[Barefoot]

I was deciding between paladin and priest too for a while. I eventually went for priest, mostly because a friend is going pala, but I also like their larger kit of offensive spells over paladin too (mana burn, dispel, fear, SWP for vanishing rogues, silence if you spec for it). Stoneform is also an amazing racial for priests, more so than for paladins (though its still great for palas), and is the only alliance racial which competes with horde racials, so don't bother with human if your main focus is PvP.

Another thing going for priests is they are better at healing allies who're about to die. Paladins have BoP but apart from that it's just 2.5 sec heals. Holy shock is very weak. Priests have bubble and powerful 1.5 sec heals. Small time margins mean a lot in classic PvP.

As for paladins, they certainly have better utility & buffs compared to priests... and blessing of sacrifice is OP against polymorph. They are also a lot tankier than priests. Priests get squishy around AQ & Naxx with the insane dmg melee classes start doing, so unless you have friends to play with who understand this, and can coordinate positioning and CC effectively, then your pvp career as a healing priest will be limited to MC & BWL phases.

Also I think fear ward is overrated. For PvE, bosses that fear are far and few between, and a good tank can stance dance it. In PvP warlocks simply have to recast fear & decent priests will know to dispel before fearing if there's a dwarf priest around. It's still a great spell in many situations though, but stoneform, desperate prayer and the epic beards are the main reasons I choose dwarf, not fear ward.

One last note I will make is, paladins are the best class in regards to PvP/PvE hybrid talents. Their optimal raiding spec is *very* close to their optimal PvP spec; give or take a few points in lesser talents, so no respec costs needed. Priests also have it easy compared to most classes, but not to the same degree as paladins, but they can hybridize and still be efficient in both PvP & PvE. There are other classes which don't get this privilege e.g. mages, who are significantly handicapped in one or the other (or both) if they try to hybridize.

Awsome information. I do love the idea of one spec being Viable for both, so I can avoid the repec costs. I was also told today which re-iterated Pally's can already cleanse, so the +Weapon skill and + Perception +Rep gain, is far superior to Stoneform and treasure finding. But yet isnt that part of the debate, lol.

YOu guys have been helping soo much, Thank you. Awsome input, it is definitely making the decision less frustrating at this point.

[wushootaki]

Paladin is the reason Alliance dominates PvE and PvP.

Being Plate + having a ton of "you can't touch me" tools makes Paladins superior to Priests in PvP.

Except Alliance never dominated.

Statistics from Vanilla showed Horde won more battlegrounds, as well as Horde getting nearly all the World Firsts for raiding.

[starburst]

I was also told today which re-iterated Pally's can already cleanse, so the +Weapon skill and + Perception +Rep gain, is far superior to Stoneform and treasure finding.

I think human and dwarf is pretty equal for palas tbh. +Weapon skill is useless for holy palas, and even if you're ret, weapon skill isn't very effective in PvP as it is for PvE. Once you've finished your rep grinds, the +rep racial becomes useless so it's between perception and stoneform imo. Perception is quite useful against druids and rogues, but it doesn't shine in classic like it did in TBC (because of arena). Stoneform is very useful to escape blind, which can't be trinketed in classic. You can escape it with bubble but it's nice to have another escape, and save bubble for other panicky moments.

[Barefoot]

I think human and dwarf is pretty equal for palas tbh. +Weapon skill is useless for holy palas, and even if you're ret, weapon skill isn't very effective in PvP as it is for PvE. Once you've finished your rep grinds, the +rep racial becomes useless so it's between perception and stoneform imo. Perception is quite useful against druids and rogues, but it doesn't shine in classic like it did in TBC (because of arena). Stoneform is very useful to escape blind, which can't be trinketed in classic. You can escape it with bubble but it's nice to have another escape, and save bubble for other panicky moments.

True. So the Dwarf Racial is truely another Oshit button. Since I will be on a pvp server, your are right, in end game it might be far superior. It would be nice to save bubble and not forced to use it right away.

[Mukind]

Paladin is S tier on the patch we will be playing on

Unless you have a paladin friend you know you'll be playing with . Go paladin

[azkhane]

Perception gives you the ability to see rogues but unless you get close to them and use judgement on them or use a holy shock(some builds dont go that Deep in holy, also It have "long" CD and Big mana cost) its useless.

Stoneform looks like a useless racial when u think about cleanse being able to remove everything except bleeds, but It have another utility, vs rogues stoneform make you inmune to blind, also rogues apply healing and Cast speed reduction venoms very easy, that is denied in stoneform while rellying only in cleanse you Will find many times that when u cleansed 1 of those nasty venoms you got It applied once again in you while you try to Cast, gg

[ellieg]

Racials wont really matter for the pally so play what you want there. Pallys are more defensive and support with infinite mana where priests are more offensive with dispels, mana burn, and a little bit of burst dmg to secure kills. Think abt which one youd prefer.

Another thing to keep in mind. 90% of your pve healing gear for pallys wont be plate. You want plate for pvp tho. So youd have to grab 2 sets of gear. Depending on your guilds loot rules, this could be difficult.