A tea and chat with GC - Blue Tracker

#0 - Nov. 19, 2008, 7:45 p.m.

So, I know you're busy and I doubt you'll have time to read much less reply to this, while dealing with the 'more urgent' mass QQ issues.

But I'd love to sit down and talk about priests with you a bit.

This isn't a QQ post, this isn't a "plz fix!" post, it's just a few questions and my concerns.

The first 2 are the more important ones to me. :)

1) What is the "end plan" for the different priest specs? Where do you want them to be for 80 raiding?
Shadow used to be Utility THEN Dps, but it seems to be converted over towards Dps THEN utility (via replenishment).

Disc seems to be heading toward a single target MT healer. Using both mitigation and healing, we're meant to keep up a single tank against large amounts of damage. The mitigation makes it possible to heal without them being destroyed before enough healing is available.

Holy is the one that confuses me. It seems to be the "jack of all trades" healing, being among the top (likely second best) in each needed roll. I have no problems with this, but it overshadows Disc. If Holy Priests are meant to be that #2 healer (good at everything, masters at none), won't it overshadow disc?

From what I've seen right now, Holy has more throughput than Disc at single target healing. Disc doesn't have enough mitigation/utility to make up for it. The only reason I was raiding post 3.0 and pre wotlk was because I'm a dedicated raider. If my guild was looking for the best possible group, a disc priest wouldn't have gone.

I'm just curious as to what your plans are for the end result of priests.

2) I know it's popped up before, you've seen the priests talk about it. Smite spec, or holy dps. Are there any plans to ever make this viable? As far as leveling, it got a moderate buff with 3.0. As far as Raiding, it got a nerf, with the loss of 4% hit.

There will always be the priest that does it whether it's viable or not, but it seems that our necessary talents are split between high end Disc and medium Holy, and for farming/grinding we can't forget the 3 points in Spirit Tap.

Are there plans to make a comprehensive "obvious" holy dps spec?

3) PvP survivability. I'm not 80 yet, so I'm not going to claim that I know what 80 arenas are going to be like. I also know other healers are pondering over similar questions. With 3.0, it seems Disc received a nerf to self survivability, and a bonus to healing other people. Which is great... if you're not being targeted. 90% of arenas I did at 70, however, were burn the healer first. As dps is far more powerful, and self healing/survivability seems weaker, is it going to be balanced later on? I want healer/dps teams to stand a chance against dps/dps teams.

I know you do your tests, and they may have shown that at 80, it is balanced. If so, that's great. Glad to hear it. I'm wondering if you guys know there is a significant concern over this issue though, as it doesn't look too hopeful. For all healers, and not just priests.

4) Utility. It seems Healing priests lack in utility, which frequently makes us second pick for positions in raids. We have Fort, and if Disc, we have spirit. Spirit is practically garbage for a tier 5 buff. The small amount of spirit is pathetic for the few classes it really benefits, and the spell damage buff doesn't stack with the trainable shaman's totem. Please give us a reason to spec into this.

I'm specced into it for solo leveling, as it's a nice self buff. But once you throw a shaman in, it's practically worthless.

Ghostcrawler

#5 - Nov. 19, 2008, 8:44 p.m.

Thanks, Wonder. That is all very similar to what I would have said.

On the issue of the Holy priest, I know it's easy to interpret "flexible" as "jack of all trades and master of none." I don't think that is a fair description of Holy though. While healers may still retain more of a niche than dps or tank specs, there is still a lot of overlap. Holy priests can single target heal, top people off, dispel and do different things. Mass Dispel is a great example of an ability that isn't just a carbon copy of another class's ability. If Holy priests were inferior to shamans, druids and paladins at their respective roles, then I don't think you would see as many of them brought along.

On the issue of utility, yes our design is that nobody has an ability so awesome or critical that they are gauranteed a raid spot. In truth you can get all of the important buff and debuffs with a relatively small number of players (especially in a 25 raid) so you should be able to bring who you want after that. If some classes bring versions of a buff that are obviously and significantly superior to another's then that is the sort of thing we'll get fixed.

Ghostcrawler

#36 - Nov. 19, 2008, 11:28 p.m.

Q u o t e:
if this one doesnt get his attention, i am going to type up a 4 post long thread about the disc tree, disc priest abilities, and how both intreract with pvp vs pve. might be longer than 4 posts worth, but i really do hope he just reads the one i just posted.

I read every post in these forums. I can't respond to all of them. When I see 4-post long threads, even if they are all very good points, I tend not to reply to all of the points. It would take me an hour, greatly limiting my ability to read all the forums.

As a reminder to others in this thread, please don't complain about what posts or issues I do or don't respond to. I am never going to be able to respond to very many and I don't want to spend what time I have defending where or why I choose to post.