#0 - Sept. 24, 2010, 4:34 a.m.
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Self Buffs
After a death, self buffing can be annoying. Especially in battlegrounds when you resurrect with a pack of allies only to get left behind while you're buffing yourself (or them even). If you don't buff you're left at a disadvantage in most cases (you engage in combat before you have time to buff, or you buff right before combat and be down a few thousand mana).
Shadow Priests have 5-6 self buffs to apply in the Cataclysm expansion after a death: Shadowform, Vampiric Embrace, Power Word: Fortitude, Inner (Fire/Will), Shadow Protection, and sometimes Fear Ward.
I'm not sure how this compares to other classes, but I don't care really - having to cast 5-6 abilities on myself after a death is tedious at best. I realize Shadowform can be cast while mounted, but that doesn't help the situation if you're defending a node or a battle is taking place near the graveyard.
Suggestions to correct:
Shadowform persists through death.
Minor Fortitude glyph also provides shadow resistance equivalent to the buff for self only.
Vampiric Embrace is ridiculously passive already, why does it need a buff?
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Shadowform restrictions for utility
Cure Disease; Hymn of Hope; Leap of Faith; I do not understand why these abilities incur the dropped Shadowform penalty to use. I'll argue that the required skill to make effective use of these abilities is adequate enough cost for the utility (along with the mana cost). They should not drop form.
I would also argue that cure disease should be an effect of dispel magic - why do we need an extra button to push and hot key for debuff removal when other classes only need one?
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Random encounters
Power Word: Shield still cannot be cast on people not in your group. I don't recall the reason this was introduced (prevent griefing maybe?). This restriction raises the skill cap required for basic random player interaction in the field. I don't see a reason for it to exist anymore.
Another note - using mind soothe is labor intensive when out in the world at times or when near large packs of enemies. I think the spell would work better as an instant cast Area of effect soothe - Soothe Nova if you would. This would be far more intuitive to use for dealing with sticky situations where you don't want to pull more enemies while alone or even in dungeons. Tab targeting and casting a niche spell which shouldn't really warrant a hot key slot is tedious.
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Reagents
Even though Prayer of Spirit is gone in the coming expansion, Priests still use the most reagents per bag slot for raid buffing at a time. Devout Candles should stack to 40 at least, ideally 100. I'll gladly pay more per candle to free up the 2 slots extra I keep in my bag for reagents.
