Great guide for people wondering about rerolling another healer

[Danner]

I read the official forums a little and stumbled over this fantastic thread dedicated to holy priests who have become so disgruntled that they will be rerolling no matter what, but dunno to what. Since I can't post on the US forums (european account) and congratulate the poster about a very good thread, at least I can spread the word.

I really learned a lot from reading this, and if anything it strengthened my resolve in keeping my holypriest - although I got a newfound respect for shaman healing.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...18861905&sid=1

Also: Let's not make this a QQ thread, shall we?

[rikken]

He forgets priests have Sol and GS, also shadowfiend. He points the bad out in priests but none of the good. What about have fat regen, 1400 outside of the 5 second rule, gets you back mana pretty fast.

eh i'm use to it, everyone hates on other clases.

[moremana]

I really dont see why so many people are "QQ'in", I really love playing my priest, I have a 80 Lock as well, and shes fun to play also, but I love playing a holy priest and I really dont have any issues atm, Im not a CoH spammer, never even had the talent in tbc and I think that the 6s cd isnt going to kill the holy class, we have so many powerful spells to use, I think once the patch is out and the coh spammers learn to get off that crutch the qq'in will decline on that subject.

Like Rikken said that post only points out the bad, as always, no one points out the good and I dont think that a skilled holy priest is ever going to get past by on raids if he/she plays well.

[Abandon]

He does show a very biased picture of the other healing classes.

Comparing the 31 point resto shaman talent to a trainer skill (divine hymn) is just silly, expecially when he says that Mana Tide is a passive effect.

[AetherMcLoud]

Great guide? More like shitty guide from a QQing priest. Priests are VERY much fine in pve, we just need serious help in pvp.

[Danner]

Sorry you didn't like it. Yes, the poster was a bitter priest. But it's not about whether priests are fine or not. I personally think we're fully capable of handling any content still, but obviously holy's raidhealing capabilities are no longer that much better than those of a disc priest. CoH will still make a difference, but it's not the reason to go PVE holy anymore. Useful tool, but no specseller.

This guide taught me a lot on what the other classes had going for them. I never quite fully understood riptide until I read it; I wasn't really aware of how shammies healed beyond "spam CH" - which was wrong. I was not aware of the intricate workings of the paladin. For people who are quitting holy - and there are a few - this guide would not be a bad read, and is why I linked it. I'm not amongst them, but I still learned a few things. Bitter author, or not.

[AetherMcLoud]

holy's raidhealing capabilities are no longer that much better than those of a disc priest.

And what exactly is the problem with that?

[talrob]

I wish I was American so I could post this

Advice for other healers wanting to reroll priest

Priests have been given a bad reputation as of late as being jack of all trades and master of none and of being circle of healing spammers. The former is not a negative, instead it is one of the greatest strengths of the priest and can be used to great effect in the post TBC world of healers having more than one thing to do in a raid.

Priests have base line, prayer of mending which is one of the most if not most powerful healing per mana spell in many situations, the classic one being Sappharion where it can easily heal 12k in 5 seconds for 15% of base mana which is only 75% the mana of a flash heal. This can make a boss fight with regular but small aoe a joke where as the ‘classic BC’ raid healer; the shaman may struggle with massive overhealing.

Also they have the second most powerful group heal in the game (the first has even talented a 4 minute cooldown) which can be used instead when the raid takes large but less regular damage to heal up their own group faster than any other healer. The can also heal themselves while healing anyone else, which paladins need a 51 point talent to do.

They also have a shield which can absorb a significant of damage and sometimes can be the only spell that can react fast enough; along with holy shock (the nature classes need a long cooldown).

Priests also are the only class to be able to spec into two different methods of healing. This first is the old classic, Holy.

Holy offers several interesting abilities mostly focused around healing the raid but also includes several powerful tank healing abilities. Starting from the top and working our way down we find a talent which increases armour by 25%. This talent is shared with shamans however priests are able to apply this talent much faster to multiple targets and added with the new plate talents that increase AP with armour values this is a lot of free AP when aoe healing (I’m well away this is extreme stretching of the truth but the original poster didn’t care about that either).

Next is surge of light which turns all these aoe heal crits into free and instant flash heals which can further top up the health of party members.

Lightwell or as it is known lolwell, has a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding in a raid group. It has received a great buff in Wrath and now will heal you even if you take moderate damage. It is basically 10 free heals for the melee group if cast near them and you teach them that they can click it while doing dps. A little known fact is that you can also click lightwell while stunned or otherwise cced which can be a life saver for thing like frost blast (ticks for 26% hp each tick, this isless than 30%) if the healers are slow.

Holy concentration is often thought as being too random but this is because it is not viewed correctly, this talent is there to make you more mana efficient, when it procs you can abuse it and inner focus to stay out of the 5 second rule for anywhere up to 20 seconds which is an incredible amount of mana.

Circle of healing even after nerf is still very useful for any situation with aoe damage, pre nerf it was ridiculously over powered and could easily be used to out heal every other class except for maybe druids with their equally unbalanced wild growth. Now it can still be used and combined with prayer of mending for great effect.

Finally there is Guardian Spirit, This spell has far far too many uses to be described here, often anytime someone fails this is the only spell than can save them without death.

The other tree is Discipline which will be done another time…

[Danner]

AetherMcLoud: Well, I was trying to not turn this into a QQ thread, and I'll refrain from doing that. There are enough posts on the topic already, ranging from all out QQ about losing an overpowered heal to some serious concerns actually worth listening to. If you feel that priests are perfect even after the CoH nerf, then more power to you

[Torture]

When my priest hit 79 I got a little burned out and decided maybe I was missing something.

First I logged my shammy at 70, repsecced from ele to resto to get a 'what is it like to grind with a healing spec' experience and pottered off into the world. I don't care how damned good their healing is because after one mob it was either alt-F4 or /wrists. Never has shield, SW:P and DP looked so good. Sure, the riptide effect has a graphic Spielberg would be proud of, but it's not quite as fun as watching all the little bubbles pop up in a group as PoM crits while doing it's rounds.

So, I logged my Pally, the healer I'd played for the majority of TBC. Decked out in BT/MH gear I thought the new SP changes would lead to some excellent consecration based AoE levelling. I was right, I could pull half a starter zone and kill it, and the spiky plate shoulders when previewed on a doorf looked like I'd strapped barricades on which was cool. But I made the mistake of setting up my keys like my priest (healing spells along 1-0, utility a,s,d,r,t and grinding on Gkeys). As I put FoL on 1, HL on 2 and HS on 3 I looked at the bar and instantly suffered from manic depression. Now I know there is Bacon, hands, blessings, seals, judgements and all that jazz, but the hole in my life was PoM, Binding Heal, Penance shaped, and not seeing PoH, PS, PI, PW:S etc just reduced me to tears. Paladins are amazing in the expansion, their healing throughput is fantastic and I love raiding alongside them (PI Healadins and watch them FoL themselves back in time) but none of these facts lifted my depression.

So, what is this pointless, off topic, unfocused and suppositive arguement actually in aid of?

It's all down to personal taste, and if you're playing a class because 'the spread sheets look better' instead of 'I enjoy it' then you're taking a computer game way too seriously.

I have since apologised to my priest for that moment of weakness and I now feed him cake each evening to prove my loyalty.

[mutantboy]

So I read the post and somehow didn't get the impression that he was that bitter or rabidly anti priest. Just that the other options are massively viable and in many circumstances can out-perform a priest.

from my PoV all the other classes offer way more than the priest - not just because of the healing but because of the rest of the package. Who wouldn't want to be a viable melee or tank class by switching gear and spec? Who wouldn't want to have way better PvP options?

But solely focusing on healing as a raid healer Shaman are better suited for the job. And as an MT healer Pallies are the best. And I know that has been argued but every time it comes out that a better player who happens to be a priest plays better.

Heres the bottom line: Some of us ain't pro. I know I am not. too old, too slow, too blind and just don't have the time to practise enough. And I know on my non priest chars i play "better". For me priests just have too many flaws and wow became a specialist game. It may mean I don't raid because there are priests out there who can multi task better. But whatever - in the end people play what they like. I have less fun playing a priest.

[talrob]

I still don't get the idea of Shaman being the best raid healer, chain heal can only be cast while moving every 3 minutes, it takes time to cast and heals for a lot which makes it useless in situations like sapherion.

[Smashalot]

The linked thread made me lol.

Imagine trying to sell switching TO a shaman from a CircleofOP priest and using totems as a positive for doing so.

Truly a classic.