#0 - Dec. 20, 2008, 7:27 p.m.
In the current state of the game, there’s really no reason to even try to be competitive as a Disc Priest in arena. There are far too many issues plaguing our class that are seemingly going overlooked and the responses and feedback provided by blue is overwhelmingly disappointing. There’s always been issues with Disc Priests since arena came out that have never really been alleviated, and if they have, it’s been so minor it doesn’t really warrant the word, “buff”. We’ve almost been the lowest armor class in the game that can heal with the worst mobility and on top of that our mana efficiency is the lowest. However, what always made that better was the utility we could provide that made our presence wanted. We could dispel offensively and defensively, we could mana burn to force opposing players into a more defensive play style, we could provide SOME support DPS and lastly, we could provide some CC if need be. However, as the game continues and pushes on we’re left in the same state regarding mana efficiency (basically), armor and mobility. Now though, we’re losing more and more utility and it has to be asked, “Why even bring a Disc Priest into the arena when you could use one of the other three healers?”
Our mobility is terrible, period. We’re the only healer in the game that has no real way of getting ride of melee snares, which is the biggest plague of healers when it comes to snares typically. While Paladins have freedom and cleanse, Shamans have cleanse, totems, toughness and ghost wolf and Druids have cleanse/abolish and travel form, we’re left with what? Dispel for magic snares, and even then, really only Mage snares as we can’t rid curse of exhaustion, but that’s never been a true issue. I don’t understand the reasoning behind making fade breaking snares only a Shadow Priest talent (which by the way, fails way too often apparently). Disc Priests are plagued by the exact same issues, so what exactly was the motive behind making fade for Shadow Priests instead of having it be baseline? I’m not saying that’s the cure all fix for Priests, but at least it’d be seen as something positive for the Priest community. It would at least hold many Priests over for quite some time if ANY of them feel at all like me.
I won’t really touch the armor issue because that’s not going to change and it really shouldn’t but there’s still the issue of mana efficiency. Holy Paladins seem to be more efficient than ever and Shaman are just as good with a 0 mana water shield. The only real type of mana efficiency gain we received was through rapture but so many Disc Priests are opting out of it at this point because our survivability is so terrible, which is honestly the biggest issue at this point.
Season 5 is supposed to be similar to Season 1, in that it’s the first new season at the new level cap. That being said, Disc Priests (or really Priests in general) have gone back to being the primary target, much like Season 1. However, damage has scaled so outrageously at this point, we can’t even tank anymore how we used to be able to. Nearly any class in the game now has little to no issue dealing with a Disc Priest, and at the forefront of that group lies Rogues.
Whether it be Shadow Dance Rogues or Mutilate Rogues, we can’t really deal with them. And everyone’s solution is supposed to be, “Oh, it’ll get better when everyone has max resilience!” I find this hard to believe. Mutilate rogues can white hit a target once and throw up all three poisons and when we’re the ONLY healer in the game that can’t cure poison, we’re affected by it the most. Mutilate rogues can do nothing more than exclusively hit mutilate, mutilate, eviscerate and effectively take down a Disc Priest. With mind numbing being up nearly 100% of the time, we’re forced to purely instant casts: Shield, renew, prayer of mending and holy nova. While the first three spells should be fine, they’re not, so we’re forced into spamming holy nova over and over. Not only is it dangerous because of breaking potential CC (blinds, polymorphs or whatever else), it’s EXTREMELY mana inefficient. This also ties back into how bad our mana efficiency is. And even with spamming holy nova, we do not live the second kidney shot after breaking the first one. At least if the fade talent was baseline, we could perhaps escape crippling with some help from our partners, but it’s not so we can’t. We can’t even tank rogues with blessed resilience and focused will (which makes our healing more lackluster than it already is). So why don’t we try CC’ing them?
