The unique part of Priest healing?

[iLive]

Hi Priests...

I understand that many people who think Priests are an average/standard healing class compared to the other healers where they are more speciliased in a part at healing, example Druids HoT which is very great for more targets and Paladins powerful single target heal for a tank or something. All healing classes got a part where they are better at something, but Priests are not. Priest are just more average where their spells do not have anything unique. After WotLK there are some healer who can fullfil a job better than another class, but at the end there wont be any spot left for Priest. WotLK gave the mentioned classed just what they needed to be more variety like Priest, so now Priest are left alone with their same spells. I understand people feel like this.

Do you think that Blizzard should change something about Priest to make the more unique and how?

[custos]

Disiplin healers already have this. A paladin and a disp healer is one of the best combos you can have for a tank. A holy priest isnt bad ehiter, with the end talent being great for avoiding one-shoots.

CoH priests are currently topping healing meters ( not that they are evrything ) and do awsome raid healing.

Great tank healers and great raid healers. Anything more you want?

PS currently there is 30 specs and 25 spots in a raid, so each class gets 2-3 of each. 1-2 priest healers and one Spriest is more or less what is usual for raids deppending a bit on what class balance the guild you are in have.

[iLive]

I do not think it is enough and tell me the fun in spamming one button heal all the time(good we get nerfed from it)? http://blue.mmo-champion.com/27/1428...-4-backup.html

Ghostcrawler:We designed the priest to have lots of different tools. That in and of itself can be very powerful. You can fill lots of different roles in a group and switch from role to role very easily. While some tools (Renew and Flash Heal for example) are very reminiscent of spells from other classes, other tools (Prayer of Mending and Guardian Spirit) really have no direct equivalent.

I think the "not as powerful" clause gets invoked sometimes because if priests were better at hots than druids etc. then people start to wonder why they should ever bring the other classes. I realize you can turn that argument around, but still the flexibility needs to count for something. We do not view priests as weakened versions of the other classes either in the way we design them or in practice.

All that said, I do hear a lot of priests saying that they want to be really good at something and I do hear a lot of priests saying they want more tools that are more interesting and not just equivalent versions of other classes' spells. We get this message loud and clear. It's certainly something we will keep in mind as we sit down to work on the priest for 3.1 and beyond.

[Nezoia]

There will always be cookiecutter spec, but if you want some challenge in playing priest, Disciplin is very viable.

The unique part about priest healing, is that there is no unique part. We're THE healing class, the name itself should tell you so, we're the baseline of all healers.

Even with CoH nerfed, it'll still be vastly superiour to Chain Heal, and you'll still need it for Malygos, 6 seconds CD don't mean you won't be using it.

Penance got a 8 second CD, and I still use it ALOT.

Personally I think the whole "utility" part of the priest is what make sit awesome. Proper direct heals, shields, PoM, and in-fight buffs such as Power Infusion or Guardian Spirit.

[Lifestream]

I love playing my priest and I don't see what the fuss is all about.

Ok, we did not get a tonz of new cool/hot looking spells for this expansion but priests are still the best all-around healers in the game.

We have a spell for every situation (or almost) and can adapt to pretty much any kind of strat.

The upcoming nerf to CoH is good in my opinion.

The real skilled Priests will surface while the baddies will drown. Sounds good to me.

[Leprodigy]

I love playing my priest and I don't see what the fuss is all about.

Ok, we did not get a tonz of new cool/hot looking spells for this expansion but priests are still the best all-around healers in the game.

We have a spell for every situation (or almost) and can adapt to pretty much any kind of strat.

The upcoming nerf to CoH is good in my opinion.

The real skilled Priests will surface while the baddies will drown. Sounds good to me.

Agreed %100

I love healing as a priest, how many heals do the other healers have that they actually use? sure they can all do there single job very well, but spamming same 2 or 3 buttons all the time, not my cup of tea!

YES CoH nerf is great!

I think they could look at all the hymns a little more, but they are still new, maybe there will be more fights in future that really need them.

DISC: Mitigate damage like it never happened.
HOLY: Healing machine.
SHADOW: nearly a warlock, but heals everyone for health and mana.

Oh yea, and smart heal is the best thing EVER, CoH used to only heal your party, not anyone in the raid, and not the person with the lowest health.

p.s I love my priest

[Amgyn]

priests unique ability is being able to do everything.

fast and slow single target heals, Healing over time, group healing, instant heals, channeled heals, shields....

and a lot of these over lap... Prayer of Mending = instant heal + group heal, Prayer of Healing = group heal + hot(glyph), Crita a heal you get a +armor buff/+shield... shield = mitagation +heal (glyph)


would like to add: penance = instant heal (first tick) + grace + crit shield + sexy + fast heal with massive healing like a big heal

[Zeelian]

Oh yea, and smart heal is the best thing EVER, CoH used to only heal your party, not anyone in the raid, and not the person with the lowest health.

p.s I love my priest

Smart heal is what destroyed CoH, it used to heal party yes, but any party that you choose to target not just ur own, and it healed everyone in that party, it was situational spell and had its uses.

[iLive]

It's just that why get a Priest for tank healing when you can have a Paladin? Why get a Priest for raid healing when you can get a Druid (after patch Druids will rule here)? I mean Priests should have something, just some minor changes so they are more unique for all their roles. I like their variety but if just something was added to make them all the roles more attractive. When i say Shaman you think Chain Heal and totems and when i say Druid you say "That's hot!", but when I say Priest what do you then say? Make them good at something instead of average to more things. Make them not stronger or OP, but make something more out of them. I do not say the class is bad or anything, because it isn't!!! But i say that Priest should get something so they were speciel. Blizzard is often genius so they can find out something.

[Nezoia]

Oh, CoH had smart heal, haha. Good thing I didden't heal anything serious last time I was CoH specced.

[Torture]

What is unique is I enjoy playing priest.

That should be enough for the sake of a computer game.

Sure a Holy Paladin with Bacon up may beat me on a spreadsheet, but I never bought 'World of advanced algebra' and as I haven't had a tank die for lack of a Paladin in my spot I'd say that's all that counts.

[iLive]

What is the unique part of Priest then?

[Kalakukko]

Unique or not, at least the priests in my guild are eagerly awaiting the day they have to push more than one button during fights...

[SimTex]

What is the unique part of Priest then?

That they can do everything, other classes can only do one thing. I would anyday trade swich my paladin for my old priest if PVE was the only thing i cared about, so much more fun. (Havn't tried the opness of CoH).

Besides that priest have a few very unique abilties, like shield and light well. I would also think that you still have the biggest group heal in Prayer of Healing, altho it's very seldom used.

[Moxal]

I personally rerolled from a paladin healer in vanilla-bc to a priest for LK because of how much I love the Prayer of Mending mechanic.

Depite its quarks right now (jumping to me right after the tank gets hit, when there is closer people with hp missing who still have more hp than I do...) I was incredibly happy to pick up my second piece of T7 for the extra bounce.

So despite the justified CoH nerf (I just wish it was done a little differently, sometimes you need to cast it on more than one group) I am quite happy with my priest.

Now besides my little soap box on "why I love my priest" - I feel that PoM, CoH, Guardian Spirit, Power Infusion and Penance do give Priests a niche it does not make us 'unique' healers, but right now that's OK, we just have to excel at what we do, and we'll get invites.

[Knf]

Yeah, respeced for Saph from shadow to help with raid healing, grabed some random offspec gear from the bank and still packing ~150 hit rating stood in front of Saph thinking... I forgot about something... "Oh shit guys let my fix my UI and bindings!...OK done, I have 1 for CoH and 2 for PoM, we can pull!". Killed him on that try no problems, toped the shaman in healing... noone died ofc. Totaly overpowered, and boring too.

[Lifestream]

Yeah, respeced for Saph from shadow to help with raid healing, grabed some random offspec gear from the bank and still packing ~150 hit rating stood in front of Saph thinking... I forgot about something... "Oh shit guys let my fix my UI and bindings!...OK done, I have 1 for CoH and 2 for PoM, we can pull!". Killed him on that try no problems, toped the shaman in healing... noone died ofc. Totaly overpowered, and boring too.

Because Sapphiron is a fun fight, right? :

[Zaktraw]

Prayer of Mending is a very unique spell. No other classes have anything like it. Power Word: Shield is pretty much unique as well, sure it's over looked because it's been around since WoW was new, but what other class can completely prevent damage from occurring on a short CD timer? Sure, it's not a guaranteed "U R NEVAR DIE" move, but it serves it's purpose. Guardian Spirit is unique. What, tank's at 5% health and no time to get off a heal? /cast GS, /cast Greater Heal, oh look, the tank's perfectly healthy.

I'm not sure where you're coming from saying we're not a unique class. Priests are very unique in the style that they heal. It may not be what you're expecting it to be, but that just means you'll need to adapt to the advantages and disadvantages of being a priest, rather than demanding change to suit your preconceived notions.

[cssmall]

I think that the uniqueness of a Priest healer is the many styles in which a priest can heal. It's a strategy and a fun one at that.

[rabbimojo]

Priests' versatility is a fine line to walk..
<short detour>
Some people make big claims about how awesome hybrids have it, to have 2-3 viable roles. "OMG druids shut up you can do everything why complain about dps?" stuff like that.

However, purists have a lot of intangible benefits that are hard to explain to them, or to hybrids, until you've played both extensively. IE, as a purist, you basically know when an item drops for you. You don't have a lot of annoying "this item isn't for me but I'll take it" stuff going on, like a lot of hybrids do.

Here's something that won't happen to a purist: 24 people in a raid, finding the 25th, need one more healer. Say you're a boomkin. "We have another dpser who can come. Boomkin, could you spec healing for this instead?" Not unreasonable, you might think, until you realize that saying "No" means: new dpser is invited, boom is kicked, raid continues looking for a healer.

You can say "Well, be a good player and you won't get that."

To which I say: I don't get beaten by other dpsers. Still happens, because people see that orange text and think "hey, heal slot." (And yes, I realize if I'm not getting beaten by other dpsers, half of that is because those dpsers are lame. Point being, I am not being viewed as a liability.)
Just not an issue purists often deal with. It -can- happen, sure, but in my experience people seem to just mentally convert hybrids to healers when they look at the raid roster.
</end detour>

So, ultimate point is: There is fun in hybridity, and there is fun in purity. I think some people just fundamentally don't want a hybrid healer, which is what a priest comes down to. Not a hybrid in the sense that we normally mean, but in terms of "healing sub-roles", hots, aoe, single-target, etc. Priests do them all, and some priests don't like that. Just like some people will love boomkin, elem shaman, cat dru, etc.. And some will hate it.

I'm not sure Blizzard can do anything about it, though I think a good step is to create a fourth style of healing, make it preventative or pre-healing, and give it to disc or something (PW:S getting buffed sorta does this)

They've said, 'course, that preventative healing is a very dangerous, powerful mechanic, and I agree. In order to balance it with what other healers do but still challenge the prev-healer, you have to have some extreme encounters.