Is there hope for the priest class?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Feb 24th 2007 at 11:05AM
After seeing the latest patch notes, there are plenty of unhappy priests out there. Not only was Vampiric Embrace -- a key talent for shadow priests attempting to maintain group utility and solo viability -- reduced in effectiveness by a forth (and its ability to crit removed completely), but shadow priests also lost threat reduction and holy priests lost Prayer of Mending -- a low-cost instant-cast heal that was excellent for priests trying to heal in PvP combat that is now rendered mostly useless by its new 20 second cooldown. Many priests seem to think that these changes are the death of PvE shadow priests and PvP holy priests.
Is there a reason for priest players to have hope? Well, Nethaera says there is. On the priest forums she's reassuring players that their feedback is important and saying that Circle of Healing is being looked at and Lightwell may be looked at. And while I'm happy the class is still under review for possible tweaks, I wonder if they don't need a little more than what Nethaera says Blizzard is offering. And like the many other players who have attempted to post well-reasoned and constructive feedback on the priest forums, I feel ignored, despite Nethaera's assurances that all feedback is read. But if that's the case, I have to wonder why abilities that made life easier for priests are nerfed while complaints on countless other topics produce neither response nor result. Thank goodness I've been leveling a paladin -- with strong healing talents and great PvP survivability, they're everything I used to think my priest could be.
Filed under: Priest, Patches, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Seper Feb 24th 2007 11:17AM
I feel really really bad for priests... They already were not good as it is. And those abilities that got nerfed I understood that they were key.
EVERYONE who lvls a priest complains about how hard it is to begin with. Making it even harder for them... that sucks.
The other thing is .. blizzard should be helping priests not nerfing them. There are soooo few priests in WoW and they are such a needed class that its stupid to keep nerfing them. If anything should make them stronger in other ways then shadow form (like better healing and armor talents or something).
I absolutley luvvvv priests... so when my boss challenged me to take a character from 1-60 in 1 month I was going to roll priest. But every person I talk to says its sooo hard to lvl a priest. Which makes me sad cause priests are fun to play ( i rolled a BE priest :p)
crsh Feb 24th 2007 11:39AM
I have a priest alt that's sitting at lv62 right now, and while I still enjoy playing him because he's specced shadow and I pretty much only PvP with him, the class definitely doesn't need more nerfs.
Jack Kelly Feb 24th 2007 12:01PM
I'd just recently rolled a Priest for the first time and gotten to 20.
I'd been going to a few of the top guild forums and reading how they've been actually recruiting good Shadow Priests for high end raiding. Having the need for one in the new 25 mans really piqued my interest so I figured I'd try it out.
Good thing I didn't go too far :P
Guess it's back to my main :(
Oraculum Feb 24th 2007 12:03PM
This patch did two big things for priests.
The threat reduction nerf effectively removes shadow priests from raids. The well geared ones were already at the agro cap. Without any way to reduce it like mages/locks have (fade is only temporary reduction), then they will simply have to start doing a ton less damage whenever they have Vamperic embrace up -- remember every point of damage counts for full agro minus modifiers, and then each point of VE healing counts for half healing agro minus modifiers.
However the big bad nerf is Prayer of Mending being made obsolete. As a long term PvP holy priest (never again), I have always had a ton of trouble doing my job because I was so squishy. Now with the lack of scaling Inner Fire, PW:S and heals to keep up with the change in damage, priests have become completely inviable healers in TBC. ProM was our only viable option to not only keep ourselves alive but keep others alive while we were under fire.
Chleo Feb 24th 2007 12:06PM
Seems to me like they're trying to phase priests out of the game... at this rate the only thing we'll be good for is buffs, shackle, and secondary healing. All of our class ability has been given to other classes... pallies and druids are the main healers, and shamans are the group healers. What do priests have left? Mass Dispel? Thanks but no thanks.
Zeph Mar 1st 2007 2:02AM
cause shadow was horribly overpowered in pve and holy priests were pvp gods... completly uncalled for...
hospes Feb 24th 2007 12:19PM
Mass Dispell? You mean Mass Resist...
Blizzard really messed up this patch.. I can't understand the bear nerf but this priest nerf is quite uncalled for..
hospes Feb 24th 2007 12:20PM
***Can understand the bear nerf >
Matt Park Feb 24th 2007 1:29PM
Welcome to the life of a shaman - plenty of well-reasoned argument, and absolutely NOTHING done in response. Seriously - when we had our class review, they admitted that none of our concerns got passed on to the developers because our CM was too busy.
This isn't meant to be taunting, because i feel for you guys - that VE nerf was BAD.
priest Feb 24th 2007 1:35PM
Whine, whine whine. I'm holy, levelled as holy, and it's not the 1st time. I'm also 70. I have no trouble healing, soloing, grinding. People just like to WHINE. Read any class forum, noone is happy. Everyone thinks everyone else has it better.
Honestly.
Petre Feb 24th 2007 2:51PM
I think most people agree that Priests have consistently gotten the shaft from blizzard. From my experience Priests are the most thankless, least gratifying, hardest class to play. In PvP you get rolled over, in PvE you can only take one mob at a time, and now they're nerfing the priest's PvP/leveling build so that it is 1) useless in end-game, 2) Harder to level with, and 3) Easier to kill in PvP. Explain to me why I shouldn't complain? We NEED more priests out there! Give them an incentive to play priests for heaven's sake!
Junzim Feb 24th 2007 3:42PM
There is actually no reasonable response to the PoM nerf.
It's just a big savage nerf to the face. In 5v5 arenas I almost always die instantly, Prayer of Mending was the only thing that kept me up. Damage has increased, HP has increased and our healing HASN'T. Our shields haven't increased either (1300 absorbed now and 1150 at 60, most people's HP has DOUBLED in the same level space)
What the hell is the point of buffing mass dispell when I won't live long enough to cast it. There is officially NO place for me in PvP anymore, if my heals aren't as powerful as before thanks to the way gear has scaled I at least deserve spells that can keep me alive.
Paladins can bubble, I can't even heal myself through a Hunter's DPS without Prayer of Mending. I'm actually worth LESS than a DPS member in that slot. What a joke. That spell was the one good thing about TBC for priests and now it's getting nerfed MASSIVELY.
uncaringbear Feb 24th 2007 3:43PM
@9: Every class complains and whines, but I would hardly accuse priests of being at the top of the that list. Let's face it - being a healer is not fun. It's a one dimensional role with little recognition for excellence, but plenty of blame when something goes wrong. The play style is boring and and other players don't appreciate how difficult it can be.
The Shadow tree was a respite for healers who wanted to have survivability and expand their functionality beyond the one dimensional healing role. A talent like VE gave us a viable reason to be included in groups and raids, and even then that was only if everyone else in the raid was open-minded.
I'm sure Blizz's response is that Shadow priests were not designed to be primary healers. Mission accomplished. And yes, I've rolled other classes, some of which I quite enjoy, but Blizz's cookie-cutter class design strategy and philosophy is simplistic and crude.
Oraculum Feb 24th 2007 5:38PM
I've given it some thought and here are my alternatives to the Prayer of mending and subsequently Holy PvP nerf.
1. Make Flash Heal instant cast. Leave it as the way it is, but make in instant cast. This allows priests to have a spamable heal spell that cannot be interrupted.
If this is too overpowered, Create another spell with the same stats as Flash Heal and make it an SELF ONLY instant cast spell.
I can see the reasons to remove ProM, but to do so without returning to priests some form of survivability is unconscionable.
The Silent resolve Nerf. This invectively reduces a TON of shadow priests viability in raids as every point of healing returned from VE and mana returned from VT causes half agro. So nearly every point of damage a priest generates causes up to 2times as much agro as a regular DPS class.
The solution: Make fade a permanent agro drop.
This would give shadow priests something similar to a rogues feint, and in agro intensive fights would allow them to spam it when up to give them that little bit of edge they need not to pull agro and instantly die.
Shawn Feb 24th 2007 7:39PM
NERF DROO...oh wait, they did.
Archaic Feb 24th 2007 8:39PM
Bah, with these nerfs to Shadow Priests, I'm not going to be able to repeat my feats of tanking instances as an Affliction 'lock. We have had some absolutely amazing Shadow Priests in our guild, and their VE was essential to that kind of reckless fun. That's just not going to be a viable option anymore.
StormC Feb 24th 2007 8:49PM
Im just wondering with all the nerfs hit on priest. What are our best roles in a raid/instance grp? Give fort ?
I am lucky that Im in a guild who doesnt has a lot of healing paly, druid or shamans so the main healing responsibilities still lies on the holy priest, but from what I understand, almost every other healing hybrid class is having more utility more mana friendly and with the given spec better healing capability than a priest.
Blizzards take is priest is not needed for the main healer role, fine , then what is going to be our role, except being free hk in pvp and a sub-par healer in pve
Lieblos Feb 24th 2007 8:49PM
Bah I never saw the nerf coming, I'll keep playing my priest like good soldier but it won't be nearly as enjoyable as before, the insides of me will be crying as I painfully grind myself to 70
Maybe I should just respec disc!
Then watch that be nerfed down...
=[
Jules Feb 25th 2007 10:34AM
The Silent Resolve nerf isn't that big of a deal that people are making it out to be. Just throw some points into Shadow Affinity (25% threat reduction@Rank 3)...just at the cost of a few half-seconds of Mind Blast cooldown, if anything.
I'm hoping Blizzard will compensate priests with a free respec to accomplish the above solution. Since I resubbed for TBC to play my priest, I've been messing around with alot of different specs, and I'd sure appreciate the free respec ;)
obadiah Feb 25th 2007 11:37AM
This patch is crap! Why did they nerf the already weakest class in the game? The 20 sec prayer of mending cooldown in inexplicable! Ack! Time to level a paladin?