#0 - March 21, 2007, 3:16 p.m.
I'm going to try and put together a fairly constructive post about why Priests feel they've been given the shaft, with the hopes that it helps bring the point across to those who haven't had the "privilege" of playing a priest.
I do realize that there will be posts of "wahmbulance" and "QQ", but this can't be avoided regardless of where I post.
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Point #1: Pure Class Penalties
When World of Warcraft first came out, there was a more concrete design then what we have now. There was the concept of Pure and Hybrid classes.
The Pure Classes: Warrior, Priest, Rogue, Mage
The Hybrid Classes: Druid, Shaman, Hunter, Warlock, Paladin.
The pure classes were the best at what they did, but generally sucked at other things. Tanking, Healing, Melee DPS and Ranged DPS.
The Hybrids had a cadre of pseudo abilities to help them solo well, abilities to heal yourself or your pet, totems, judgments, specific race CC, etc. While they did a bunch of things well they didn’t have any one true focus.
This changed when raiding became more popular and DPS classes were all brought up to speed with one another so each were raid viable. However, each got unique aspects to make them different yet equal.
However, one thing stayed the same. Priests were unquestionably the best for healing.
Then the BC came out, and Blizzard decided to make the hybrid classes good at healing. Which is fine, however they DID NOT adjust our skills.
So, Priests are still paying for being “the best at healing” even though this is no longer the case.
I’d like to point out that Warriors were also in the same boat. Blizzard saw this and agreed to bring back Druids a bit so Warriors retained their class role. Why aren’t Priests deserving of the same treatment?
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Point #2 - Talents
Now I know what you’re going to say “Complain again about Lightwell and Circle of Healing, /yawn”. And you’re right to a degree. However the Priest talent issues go much farther then our unbelievably crappy 31 and 41’s.
You see, the problem with the Priest talents isn’t really our tree, it’s the other classes trees. At first this sounds a bit odd, but take a look at it for a second.
We all know that the Hybrid classes all have one healing tree. Restoration for Shaman and Druid and Holy for Paladin. However, because they have additional “roles” their healing skills are mostly confined to those trees. And since Blizzard can put only so many talents into that tree, they have everything they need in that one tree.
However, that’s not the case for Priests. We have to go through our Disc and Holy trees to get all of our healing talents. The result? Priests spend MORE talent points to be equal healers to Druids and Paladins.
And yes, our talents are crappy and do deserve a hard look at.
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Point #3 - I don’t want to have any faith! (Spirit)
Unquestionably, one of the biggest let downs about the BC is that healing is far more intensive then it once was. That means that the main source of Priest’s mana in combat is virtually useless. Coupled with the fact that we cannot get mana back from being regenned or healed, or don’t have innervate, (we have shadowfiend, whee!) Priests are having more mana issues from healing then any other class.
