Today we continue our class Q&A series with the development team, in which we're taking a look at each class and answering some of the top questions brought forward by their communities. Next up, we explore the most asked questions from the priest class and find out more about the design philosophy and expectations for the class, as well as what may lie in store for it in the future.

Check out the Priest Q&A here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/priest.html

Today we continue our class Q&A series with the development team, in which we're taking a look at each class and answering some of the top questions brought forward by their communities. Next up, we explore the most asked questions from the priest class and find out more about the design philosophy and expectations for the class, as well as what may lie in store for it in the future.

Check out the Priest Q&A here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/priest.html

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Q u o t e:
Well, I think they didn't bother to put in anyone's specific questions and just posted whatever they felt like.

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To the contrary, the questions were specifically gathered from players all around the world. Similar posts were made in every region and language requesting class feedback. Whether or not we addressed the most pressing concerns is a matter for debate, though each player's opinion on this is subjective.

There is one argument that could be made about the class Q&A's that's absolutely true though. Every Q&A will be followed with criticism that the most important class concerns are not addressed in full, if at all.

We do what we can to make sure the most important and frequently-asked questions are touched upon in every Q&A. That said, your individual questions are no more or less important to us than questions from players in Korea, Russia, Latin America, France, Germany, Britain, or any other region.

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Q u o t e:
Well, I think they didn't bother to put in anyone's specific questions and just posted whatever they felt like.

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To the contrary, the questions were specifically gathered from players all around the world. Similar posts were made in every region and language requesting class feedback. Whether or not we addressed the most pressing concerns is a matter for debate, though each player's opinion on this is subjective.

There is one argument that could be made about the class Q&A's that's absolutely true though. Every Q&A will be followed with criticism that the most important class concerns are not addressed in full, if at all.

We do what we can to make sure the most important and frequently-asked questions are touched upon in every Q&A. That said, your individual questions are no more or less important to us than questions from players in Korea, Russia, Latin America, France, Germany, Britain, or any other region.

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Q u o t e:
"It's fine L2P"

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If this is how you would summarize the answers provided in the Q&A, I would almost question whether or not you were prepared to take nothing but that out of the Q&A before even having read it.

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Q u o t e:


So why was shadows scaling problems blatantly ignored when it was a frequently asked question in both US and EU regions?

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You might as well ask why every popular question wasn't included. We're providing quick feedback on player concerns and trying to keep these Q&As going as we continue to make changes to the game. I have a feeling we could write an entire book responding to player-submitted questions, all the while sharing every last detail about our plans for your class. Even then, there'd be a certain percentage of players that would come back and sum up every nuanced response with, "lol, he said we're fine and to L2P."

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Q u o t e:
"It's fine L2P"

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If this is how you would summarize the answers provided in the Q&A, I would almost question whether or not you were prepared to take nothing but that out of the Q&A before even having read it.

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Q u o t e:


So why was shadows scaling problems blatantly ignored when it was a frequently asked question in both US and EU regions?

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You might as well ask why every popular question wasn't included. We're providing quick feedback on player concerns and trying to keep these Q&As going as we continue to make changes to the game. I have a feeling we could write an entire book responding to player-submitted questions, all the while sharing every last detail about our plans for your class. Even then, there'd be a certain percentage of players that would come back and sum up every nuanced response with, "lol, he said we're fine and to L2P."

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Q u o t e:


Zarhym why is it every time I've read a blue post about priests that it seems they have no clue what they're doing with the class? The Q&A stunk of clueless answers. Lightwell has been a problem since pre-bc why has it never been fixed? 3+ years now people have been calling it out? It might be better that you admit your mistakes then lying to your community.

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It seems that many players took from the answer about Lightwell that our development goal is to encourage DPS players to use Lightwell more so that it's a more effective tool. I don't believe that was the intent behind the answer. If players don't want to use Lightwell, that doesn't mean the problem lies with the player. There's clearly a reason players don't want to use Lightwell. We are very well aware that it's been a controversial and troubled ability ever since its inception and I hope we can keep a dialog open about improving it.

The original question taken from the community was regarding Lightwell causing players to lose their target, which can be a huge deal during a raid boss encounter. We opened the question up beyond that though because we recognize that the core of the issue players have with Lightwell isn't simply the fact that a player loses his or her target when clicking on it.

As some players have pointed out, the Shadow tree did receive more focus in this Q&A. Frankly, we felt it was needed. We plan to continue the Class Q&A Series, and the order in which we review each class will change. We'll also look to our previous Q&A's and the feedback we received about them in the hopes we can improve future Q&A's and focus on new topics for each class when applicable.

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Q u o t e:


Zarhym why is it every time I've read a blue post about priests that it seems they have no clue what they're doing with the class? The Q&A stunk of clueless answers. Lightwell has been a problem since pre-bc why has it never been fixed? 3+ years now people have been calling it out? It might be better that you admit your mistakes then lying to your community.

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It seems that many players took from the answer about Lightwell that our development goal is to encourage DPS players to use Lightwell more so that it's a more effective tool. I don't believe that was the intent behind the answer. If players don't want to use Lightwell, that doesn't mean the problem lies with the player. There's clearly a reason players don't want to use Lightwell. We are very well aware that it's been a controversial and troubled ability ever since its inception and I hope we can keep a dialog open about improving it.

The original question taken from the community was regarding Lightwell causing players to lose their target, which can be a huge deal during a raid boss encounter. We opened the question up beyond that though because we recognize that the core of the issue players have with Lightwell isn't simply the fact that a player loses his or her target when clicking on it.

As some players have pointed out, the Shadow tree did receive more focus in this Q&A. Frankly, we felt it was needed. We plan to continue the Class Q&A Series, and the order in which we review each class will change. We'll also look to our previous Q&A's and the feedback we received about them in the hopes we can improve future Q&A's and focus on new topics for each class when applicable.

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Q u o t e:
but, seriously - you could probably say the majority of the (say) shamans were happy with their Q&A. Surely this indicates that it is possible for the community to be satisfied. Surely this further indicates that the fact that most priests are not may indicate a problem with the Q&A session (mostly the "A" part, to be accurate).

Personally, I didn't expect much, anyway. To be honest this is actually more than I expected. It just bugs me when people do the politician thing of answering questions other than what is asked.

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I understand where you're coming from. I didn't mean to say that any criticism of a Q&A can be written off as an unavoidable statistic. I'll be reading through as much of the feedback as I can. I just really ask that players take your approach to raising specific concerns, Normalice. That's feedback I can take back to our developers and draft a Q&A follow-up like we've done with some of our other classes.

Please keep it constructive folks. Let us know what other questions you feel really should've been asked in this Q&A. Additionally, inform us about any answers you want clarified. Things are getting really busy for the community team with BlizzCon rearing its head, but we want to keep the dialog open and don't need the knee-jerk reactions of absolute despair or vitriol. It ultimately wastes the time of the players who have taken a very reasoned approach to providing their feedback; likewise, it wastes our time. We have to sift through the trash and clean it before even looking for that sweet lost gem.

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Q u o t e:
but, seriously - you could probably say the majority of the (say) shamans were happy with their Q&A. Surely this indicates that it is possible for the community to be satisfied. Surely this further indicates that the fact that most priests are not may indicate a problem with the Q&A session (mostly the "A" part, to be accurate).

Personally, I didn't expect much, anyway. To be honest this is actually more than I expected. It just bugs me when people do the politician thing of answering questions other than what is asked.

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I understand where you're coming from. I didn't mean to say that any criticism of a Q&A can be written off as an unavoidable statistic. I'll be reading through as much of the feedback as I can. I just really ask that players take your approach to raising specific concerns, Normalice. That's feedback I can take back to our developers and draft a Q&A follow-up like we've done with some of our other classes.

Please keep it constructive folks. Let us know what other questions you feel really should've been asked in this Q&A. Additionally, inform us about any answers you want clarified. Things are getting really busy for the community team with BlizzCon rearing its head, but we want to keep the dialog open and don't need the knee-jerk reactions of absolute despair or vitriol. It ultimately wastes the time of the players who have taken a very reasoned approach to providing their feedback; likewise, it wastes our time. We have to sift through the trash and clean it before even looking for that sweet lost gem.

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Q u o t e:
The Scaling of shadow with haste is a question that should have been asked, it was easily the most frequently asked question in both the EU and US threads and is probably the main issue with shadow at the moment.

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I'll add that to the list of follow-up questions.

You asked earlier who complies the questions. Community Managers in each region compile a list of their region's top questions and send them to us. We then narrow the list down as much as we can to keep the process moving while still trying to cover as much ground as we can. The questions are provided to Ghostcrawler who bounces them off of his colleagues to prepare the most concise, well-rounded Q&A as possible.

Some Q&A's are bound to come out better than others due in part to the nature of the development cycle. For instance, the shaman Q&A was referenced in this thread as having been very well received by the community. This was due in part to the plans we already had for the class in 3.2. Conversely, there have been a couple of Q&A sessions where players felt like the information being shared was outdated, when in fact the questions provided our developers gave them reason to implement features on the 3.2 test realms players wanted. By the time we were able to release the final approved Q&A translated in all of our supported languages, the information seemed outdated even though that information was provided in response to a question that sparked change.

There are times where we may be vague if we're currently discussing ways to improve particular abilities. Some times publicly sharing fragmented ideas about how to improve an ability can back fire. Other times we may disagree with players about the effectiveness of a given spell.

Either way, our ultimate goal in this first round of Q&A's is to clarify what niche we believe each class fills, while also addressing a select number of questions asked by players. As we continue this process, I'm confident we can improve upon the way we conduct the Q&A's just as players can improve upon the way feedback is provided. :)

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Q u o t e:
The Scaling of shadow with haste is a question that should have been asked, it was easily the most frequently asked question in both the EU and US threads and is probably the main issue with shadow at the moment.

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I'll add that to the list of follow-up questions.

You asked earlier who complies the questions. Community Managers in each region compile a list of their region's top questions and send them to us. We then narrow the list down as much as we can to keep the process moving while still trying to cover as much ground as we can. The questions are provided to Ghostcrawler who bounces them off of his colleagues to prepare the most concise, well-rounded Q&A as possible.

Some Q&A's are bound to come out better than others due in part to the nature of the development cycle. For instance, the shaman Q&A was referenced in this thread as having been very well received by the community. This was due in part to the plans we already had for the class in 3.2. Conversely, there have been a couple of Q&A sessions where players felt like the information being shared was outdated, when in fact the questions provided our developers gave them reason to implement features on the 3.2 test realms players wanted. By the time we were able to release the final approved Q&A translated in all of our supported languages, the information seemed outdated even though that information was provided in response to a question that sparked change.

There are times where we may be vague if we're currently discussing ways to improve particular abilities. Some times publicly sharing fragmented ideas about how to improve an ability can back fire. Other times we may disagree with players about the effectiveness of a given spell.

Either way, our ultimate goal in this first round of Q&A's is to clarify what niche we believe each class fills, while also addressing a select number of questions asked by players. As we continue this process, I'm confident we can improve upon the way we conduct the Q&A's just as players can improve upon the way feedback is provided. :)

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Q u o t e:


omg! the sweet lost gem!

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Don't be a jerk. That's not what I meant. There are several players in this thread already providing great feedback with details to back up their cause for concern.

The lost gem doesn't come from the person who claims to like or dislike the Q&A. It comes from the player that provides informed feedback because they know we're not inept and can be reasonable if spoken to in a reasonable manner.

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Q u o t e:


omg! the sweet lost gem!

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Don't be a jerk. That's not what I meant. There are several players in this thread already providing great feedback with details to back up their cause for concern.

The lost gem doesn't come from the person who claims to like or dislike the Q&A. It comes from the player that provides informed feedback because they know we're not inept and can be reasonable if spoken to in a reasonable manner.

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Q u o t e:
I had a spreadsheet going for the US priest question thread for the first 14 pages (there was a lot of questions, so I stopped, now I'm inclined to go through them all). The number one question asked by number was Shadow Priest haste scaling. Nothing. Nada. The next top question? Shadow dps cooldown for heroism/BL times. Once again, nothing, nada. Shadowfiend survivabilty in pvp was up there for all priests. Instead we got a question asking to increase it's duration. I have a hard time at this point being convinced that the questions were actually answered based on the frequency with which they were asked.

EDIT: I just want to mention, provided the thread of questions remains available I will be tallying the questions to further validate my above point.

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Our questions weren't chosen via spread sheets, if that's what you're asking.

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Q u o t e:
I had a spreadsheet going for the US priest question thread for the first 14 pages (there was a lot of questions, so I stopped, now I'm inclined to go through them all). The number one question asked by number was Shadow Priest haste scaling. Nothing. Nada. The next top question? Shadow dps cooldown for heroism/BL times. Once again, nothing, nada. Shadowfiend survivabilty in pvp was up there for all priests. Instead we got a question asking to increase it's duration. I have a hard time at this point being convinced that the questions were actually answered based on the frequency with which they were asked.

EDIT: I just want to mention, provided the thread of questions remains available I will be tallying the questions to further validate my above point.

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Our questions weren't chosen via spread sheets, if that's what you're asking.

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Q u o t e:
Could you please answer my original point? I clarified what I meant, and other posters noted what I meant, could we get a reason why a most asked question was not actually on the Q&A

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I don't have a satisfactory answer for you to be honest. The way the Q&A's are developed is complicated. That question wasn't intentionally skipped. If you feel that you have a really good sense of the most important frequently-asked questions, you're welcome to provide me with a list, Naphomci. If the community seems to agree that your data accurately summarizes the priest community's questions, I'll take as many of your questions as I can. Just to be clear, I'm being completely sincere about that.

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Q u o t e:
Could you please answer my original point? I clarified what I meant, and other posters noted what I meant, could we get a reason why a most asked question was not actually on the Q&A

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I don't have a satisfactory answer for you to be honest. The way the Q&A's are developed is complicated. That question wasn't intentionally skipped. If you feel that you have a really good sense of the most important frequently-asked questions, you're welcome to provide me with a list, Naphomci. If the community seems to agree that your data accurately summarizes the priest community's questions, I'll take as many of your questions as I can. Just to be clear, I'm being completely sincere about that.