#0 - Aug. 3, 2007, 5:30 p.m.
Summary - We want to heal - When we rolled a priest 2.5 yrs ago, the vast majority did so for a single reason - to be a healer. Those that rolled pallies, druids and shamans probably had a fair share in that category- many later found themselves in that role and pleaded for better utility in doing so, that is fine. But the fundamental issue is that Priests largely rolled priests because they were willing to sacrifice survivability and adaptability to be the best darned healers in the game. We are not the best darned healers in the game, we have the most healing utility. But a raid with 3x Holy pallies, 3 Resto Shammies/Druids and a single Holy Priest is more optimal than stacking Priests. It is true that should any of the pallies, shammies and druids be unavailable we are the best compromise to cover for their loss. But the bottom line is the priest community rolled a priest to be the main healer, not the benchwarmer who comes on to cover the specialist's absence. That is the pure root of our frustration. Some of us are having to spec Shadow to be viable team players, which in a game that is essentially short of healing classes (aren't they all) is silly, especially as the aim of the TBC changes in levelling the healing field was to encourage more healers from other classes.
Threat generation - Pallies are now mainline healers, ahead of (or alongside) priests, yet we generate twice the threat they do. We do not have better survivability than Paladins, plate > cloth, bubble/stun > shield/fade. This creates issues in Heroic instances where a Paladin is better suited to it due to fact they can heal without getting one-shotted on large pulls where CC may be limited. I'm not saying that Priests can't do heroics - we can and we do, but we are at a disadvantage due to the differing threat generation mechanic that applies across the healing classes, and it is evidence where the TBC levelling of the playing field in healing has left an inequality elsewhere
Solution: If the threat generation of Pallies is considered an acceptable mechanic, then the same threat formula should be applied to the other healing classes. Reducing our threat generation by 50% would improve our 5 man survivability whilst still maintaining our inherent squishiness.
Stackable buffs - There is no reason to take more than a single priest with Imp DS and Fort. Many guilds follow this maxim as it allows them to stack healers that generate additional stackable benefits and better baseline healing. We need utlity to give raids a reason to bring more than one of us. Additionally it is noted that the priest 31/41 point talents are unloved and not taken by the priest community.
Solution: You already have DS, Imp DS and Imp Fort in the Discipline tree, make the Discipline tree the buff tree. Make a 41 point talent which grants a modified Fort buff that is stackable on top of normal Fort onto the raid. This will make the Disc tree a viable option to take at the expense of healing power. For the Holy tree change the mechanic of Circle of Healing to grant a renew (full strength) on each party member within 30 yards of the target with a 2 sec cast time and appropriate mana cost (approx 3 x normal cost).... add that to the pile of a thousand ideas that priests have generated on this topic.
Power Word: Shield - It simply hasn't scaled alongside TBC damage levels. It is the only instant heal we effectively have and is a joke, in all seriousness, it's just insignificant.
Solution - Buff it significantly - it needs to scale well with +healing and provide around a 3k shield to match the level of protection it offered at level 60.
Prayer of Mending combat log entry - Blizzard may believe that Priests are fine. Internal detailed testing may show that to be the case. But sometimes you need to publicise the fact a bit. One of the problems that priests face is showing how effective our healing is. PoM is the one thing of great value added to us in TBC. But guilds use damage/healing meters. However wrong or right the use of them to measure raid performance is - it happens. It is a fact is that the healing our PoM does is not attributable to the priest who cast it.
Solution - By simply changing the combat log entry to reflect the name of the casting priest somehow (but still keeping the threat on the target), it would allow the healing that we do, but is unnoticed, to be logged by the mods (once the authors update them) and a more accurate picture of Priest raid value be portrayed in healing meters.
Spirit no longer of value - The formula for mana returned while in combat is based upon the intended combat mechanics prior to TBC. It was expected that 40 man raids would be operating and that healing rotations would be employed, as they were. This gave our OOC mana regen a real value. In TBC there is little opportunity to exit the 5 sec rule, and so itemisation overvalues spirit and priests are not seeing it return as we would like. This can be fixed in several ways.
Solution (1) - Grant Priests and inherent bonus of regenning 20% (pick a number) of mana regenned OOC within it.This will make the mana regen by Spi more valuable. Mana regen outside the 5SR would be unaltered.
Solution (2) - Adjust Spirit itemisation to value it much lower and boost the levels of spirit on all gear that currently has it
Solution (3) - Adjust the underlying mechanic of mana regen regenned for Priests from Spi/4 per tick to Spi/3. Regen both inside and outside would be adjusted.
Shadowfiend - This was nearly a winner, and the changes made to it are welcome. But some scaling of the mana regeneration based on gear levels would be welcome to sustain our healing a little longer. It doesn't match any of the other classes mana regen tools and consequently we are squeezed tightest on mana issues. Nerfing Pallies was an obscenely poor judged response to the general issue in my view, a buff here would be welcome.
Solution - Mana is generated as a proportion of the damage done by the shadowfiend. The rate of mana returned should scale based on the level of spirit you have (to give Spirit a better utility) or +healing. The rate of damage the shadowfiend does should be affected by the +spell Dmg you have (for Shadow Priests), which in turn would return more mana.
I could go on about a lot of other issues, inner fire, itemisation, improved dying talent and a hundred other things, but I think thats enough for now.
I'd like to see all these changes, but I'm realistic.
If all of these issues were tackled, maybe with lesser solutions I'm sure we would be happy.
If some of these solutions were implemented I'm sure we would be happy.
But I thought I'd add another post to the pile that I've seen that show the real concerns we have.
It just seems as a priest you sacrifice everything to excel in pure field of healing and then see that eroded and you are left as a poor relation of the healers. I think the intrinisic good nature of the priest community (evidenced by their class choice in the first place) has been taken advantage of, and we find ourselves without the developer love that other classes seem to have obtained.
I just want to have fun fulfilling the role of pure healer.
