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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsDraenei shadow priests gone wild!
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jan 24th 2007 at 11:26AM
... over Gift of the Naaru, their heal-over-time racial that is apparently not usable in shadowform. Hiigara, a Draenei shadow priest that just hit level forty, thinks that Draenei facemelters are being discriminated against by being unable to use their racial because of shadowform's prohibition against holy spells. A very, very, VERY long and interesting conversation follows over whether Gift of the Naaru should count as a holy spell -- does it take into effect plus healing gear? What color do your hands turn when using it? Can it be counterspelled or spell locked? I haven't seen this much discussion about a racial trait since ... well, I guess Will of the Forsaken, which still gets complained about every day.
I sort of agree that if Gift of the Naaru was usable in shadowform, it would largely be a way for people to try to sneak past shadowform's prohibition on healing spells. But on the other hand, it's not like warriors and mages are classes that were intended to heal, and they can definitely use Gift of the Naaru. And priests don't have it easy in WoW (except for the stupid shadow priests that dot people, mount up and ride away, leaving only a trail of purple fire and an angry dead person.)
What do you think? Should GoTN be usable in shadowform, or should shadow priests stick to their pew-pewing?
Filed under: Priest, Analysis / Opinion, Draenei
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Kaziel Jan 24th 2007 1:39PM
Katsiya pretty much said everything I was going to. It would be highly unbalancing if they could, not to mention that it would contridict the lore completely.
Kaziel Jan 24th 2007 2:28PM
@Kaelwryn: It doesn't go against the lore of Shadow Priests in Shadow Form, having no healing spells. First off they do have a minor healing spell in the form of "Vampiric Embrace". The basis is that they can't cast holy spells. Originally, the 41 point talent for the Shadow Tree was going to be a shadow based healing spell, (healed 700-900 damage at rank 1, IIRC), and if they added a healing spell to the Discipline tree, a Shadow Priest in Shadow Form could cast it.
And while it, technically, doesn't say that it's a holy spell, it should be blatantly obvious that it is, just by the name. If you've cared the least bit about the story, you know the Naaru are the source or one of the major agents of the Holy Light of which the Paladins are so fond of referring to. The title of the ability is "Gift of the Naaru". Why wouldn't it be Holy based?
Vogen The D0rf Hunter Jan 24th 2007 2:50PM
Seeing as how GofN was given to them by the Naaru which are the incarnations of the Light itself, I think it's a pretty good assumption that it's a Holy spell...
ItsMe Jan 24th 2007 2:57PM
Night Elf druids cannot use the racial Shadowmeld in forms.
Kahja Jan 24th 2007 3:21PM
@ Justin... I corrected after that was pointed out the first time :)
Amethyst Jan 24th 2007 3:29PM
Justin, that's not exactly the same thing. Neither of those abilities are ones you have to spec to get in those classes. A Gnome Mage has access to both Blink AND Escape Artist with out having to spec for it, the same with a Human Warlock and their abilities. Even taking into account a Facemelter's Vampiric Embrace, having them able to use GoTN would start making Draenei Priests way too powerful.
In addition, actually, the Draenei Priests also have a Mana over Time racial ability. Combine the two and you end up with a cloth wearer that is bordering on the survivability of a Paladin with the ability to only have to worry about high Shadow Resistant targets in terms of dealing damage.
Kahja Jan 24th 2007 3:31PM
Anyways based on the logic that is presented so far it would appear that most people want ALL racials to be usable by all classes/specs...
So that would mean all the +talents should be adjusted. For example. My enchanting gnome mage should have +15 to that not engineering. And my gnome warrior should get +5 str not int.
Not all racials work all the time... get over it... You roll the race/class because of your preference. If as a shadow priest you would prefer to heal... respec or reroll.
BTW blink doesn't work for slows whereas escape artist does.
Justin Jan 24th 2007 5:45PM
@ Kahja i apologize by the time i confirmed my post and came back to the topic i saw that you had corrected yourself and after much thinking i do have to agree with you. they shouldn't be able to use the GoTN in shadowform. its just like with my Tauren druid i have to come out of my form before i can warstomp (well the last time i played him i had too) so the smurf priest should get out of shadowform before they can GoTN themselfs or anybody else.
Krianna Jan 24th 2007 6:03PM
Does it use mana? If not, it's not a spell.
Kahja Jan 24th 2007 6:30PM
It doesn't use mana since all classes can do it. If GoTN were changed then I would expect changes made across the board to accommodate every class/race to benefit from their racials.
Seriously. If Blizzard gives in to whiney shadow priests saying they have to drop form then I want druids getting shadowmeld and war stomp in forms.
As well as all other racials being class dependant as well. I'd want my gnome to be buffed like mad.
Or maybe as a frost mage I'll start whining about how arcane/fire mages shouldn't have any frost/slow/daze CC abilities because they didn't spec frost which is traditionally the CC tree.
Hey you behind the bushes Jan 25th 2007 2:15PM
Lore says Naaru is a holy being, thus a gift of the naaru would be holy?
Krianna Jan 24th 2007 7:58PM
#31-- we could also say that as it is a gift, it has little to do with the gets it-- ie, the Dranni in question.
Ben Jan 24th 2007 8:51PM
The only compelling argument I've seen is that shapeshifted druids can't use racials as that's a true precedent.
All of this could easily be resolved, however, if they just changed the Shadowform tooltip to something like "cannot cast Holy spells or healing spells except Vampiric Embrace."
FullGUI Jan 25th 2007 10:03AM
Can you heal while in bear form...? No, you have to shift out of bear form to heal. Same concept applies to shadow priests. while in that form they shouldn't be allowed to use abilities that contradict the form they happen to be in. Racial or not. My human can't use the sword spec bonus while swinging an axe... My orc can't use the axe spec bonus while slinging daggers. It's the same thing.
Landmark Feb 1st 2007 2:18AM
I don't think people should just look at the logic of whether shadowform priests can heal or not, but what effect that would have instead. A heal that can't be stopped or counterspelled? Now that would definitely make priests very powerful.
Maybe even too powerful.