Are priests a hybrid healing class?
by Amanda Rivera 
Oct 2nd 2007 at 2:53PM
It's interesting to contemplate, but according to Coriel priests are actually the hybrids of the healing genre. The other healing classes focus on one type of healing. Druids have their great heal over time abilities, shamans have chain heal, pallies have great single-target heals. Now the priest is able to do all these things, but none to the capacity of their fellow healing classes. Therefore Coriel says, they are the jack-of-all-heals, and the master of none. Further down in the comments to this post a commenter also brought up the fact that shadow priests are also hybrids, being a dps/healing class.
Is this why the priests of WoW have been having a tough time competing in the more challenging healing situations? What could Blizzard do to establish priests as the kings of healing once more, or is their very nature holding them back?
Filed under: Priest, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Lacy Oct 2nd 2007 3:15PM
I think all the classes should be hybrids. Warriors and priests are great examples of two "pure" classes that are moving closer to hybrids.
ladyshiva Oct 2nd 2007 3:17PM
Actually a holy priest can make pretty decent dps when needed. I have a great gear set for it, based around high spell crit and surge of light. But that isn't quite what this is talking about I guess.
But like you said, priests have the most amount of versatility, hot, shield, group heals, big heals, fast heals, and are pretty much still your best choice for any 5 man in my opinion. Other healing classes are good, but usually better when they work together in a raid environment.
Painhealer Oct 2nd 2007 4:02PM
As a shadow priest, I'm often asked to play multiple roles within a raid not exclusive to dps/heal/mana regen. Beyond dropping out of shadow to heal if others go down, I carry a full healing set that can supplement the group for specific activities and heal through the entire mob.
A lot depends on gear for a priest to be a true hybrid. I must also pick a focus at the beginning of the fight based on gear (heal/dps) and live with that choice.
Matthew Rossi Oct 2nd 2007 3:40PM
This has since day one seemed an extraordinarily weak argument. What defines a hybrid class, exactly? If it's the ability to do more than one kind of healing, the only 'pure' healers are paladins, who have two heals, a flash of light and a holy light. Both have casting time, both are direct heals, both only heal a single target. Lay on Hands is an instant heal, but it takes all of your mana to cast it.
Shamans have those as well as chain heal, a multiple mob healing spell (and of course no lay on hands ability) and Earth Shield, if they're resto. Druids have a direct single target heal, tranquility, Heal over Time spells. And Priests can basically do all of this. By this sort of definition of 'hybrid' then ONLY paladins would be a pure healing class.
It's a ridiculous, circular argument made by a paladin to backdoor justify why his class should be able to outperform one that is primarily designed around healing. The ability to do damage is inherent to every class in the game - performing a DPS role in a run is far different from having the capacity to deal out damage. Warriors can often out-DPS a rogue or a mage, but you're not going to bring one over a rogue or a mage to perform the DPS role in a run.
Furthermore, *no class in the game is limited to only one role*. Mages and rogues can DPS and CC. Priests can DPS or heal. Warriors can DPS or tank. Paladins can DPS, tank or heal. Druids can perform almost any feature in one capacity or another. If we assume that being capable of damaging a mob makes you a hybrid, then everyone is a hybrid and some hybrids are far, far more versatile than others for no real reason.
If we're all hybrids, why should paladins have THREE diverse roles while other hybrids can only perform two? Why should druids be capable of performing healing, tanking, magic DPS, melee DPS AND healing roles when priests can, at most, provide magic DPS and healing? The 'priests are hybrids' argument forces one to look at how limited a supposed hybrid they really are, and how desperately they would need buffing to at LEAST paladin levels if that were true.
In short, the original poster rather selfishly and for the benefit of one class casts the hyrbid net entirely too widely, to the detriment of game balance and the fairness that is required for it.
Jack Spicer Oct 2nd 2007 3:54PM
Blizzard hates priests.
Jared Oct 3rd 2007 8:17PM
Of course Preists are Hybrid classes. They can heal, or they can dps, same as a shaman. Same as with a warrior, tank or dps. The only pure classes are the dps, rogues, mages, locks, hunters.
Why should priests be established as the King of Healing? That is a narrow minded thought that healer=priest, warrior=tank, the rest are just stand ins. Blizzard has continually said that a healing class is a healing class, they should all be equally able, granted differences in strengths/weaknesses etc., but all in all, no one should be definitively better then the others.
Ryan Oct 2nd 2007 4:00PM
@3 Yea the priest design is somewhat schizophrenic. I wouldn't mind the discipline tree morphing into something completely different.
dan Oct 2nd 2007 4:12PM
well said @3. well said indeed.
Epiny Oct 2nd 2007 4:15PM
Quoted from the Blizzard website; "Priests are the masters of healing and preservation..."
Priests are not the masters of healing anymore, they are the second best at every type of healing. This makes us the best 5 man healer, but lacking in raids where min/maxing takes place. On average you see 1 holy/disc priest for buffs.
Every class can be a hybred though, depending on how you spec them.
Basic Oct 2nd 2007 4:15PM
The priest class itself has issues... however I think that 2.3 will do a good job fixing them. The new 41-point talent gives priests a very very good endgame raid tool with PS - threat control and magic dps buffing combined are worth giving up increased efficiency.
Priests have very specific endgame roles to fill, and like ALMOST every other class in the game they have "hybrid" functions.
However no class fills the hybrid role like enh shamans and feral druids. Unless shamanistic rage is fixed an enh shaman can recover their mana and easily start healing in a pinch (better than shadowfiend, don't even go there).
Feral druids are already the masters of mixing dps and healing. No other class in the game comes close to either of these because the few other classes that can both dps and heal are completely dependent on their mana to fulfil both of their functions.
With one weak exception you can't really be a "switch hybrid" if you have to spend the same resource pool on both of your switch roles.
Also... smite is meh. Before 2.0 smite was awesome... everyone else went up in dps and now it's just a waste of mana. Its only reasonable application is surprize burst damage in the arena or 42-yard sillyness in battlegrounds.
Freehugz Oct 2nd 2007 4:18PM
Why should priests be the best healers? Of the 4 healing classes they already have the best non-healing spec for raiding.
Tridus Oct 2nd 2007 4:19PM
If you mean "hybrid healer" as in "Priests don't have a healing specialty like the other healers do" then yes, I suppose its true. The downside is obvious: some class is better then Priests at everything.
Its also got an upside: no other class can "fill in" when something goes wrong better then a Priest, because nobody else can do everything.
I know personally as a 41 Holy Priest (with CoH), nobody is trying to replace me with a Paladin/Shaman/Druid. Some minor tweaks aside, I'm pretty happy with what I bring to the table, and so are they.
Tridus Oct 2nd 2007 4:19PM
If you mean "hybrid healer" as in "Priests don't have a healing specialty like the other healers do" then yes, I suppose its true. The downside is obvious: some class is better then Priests at everything.
Its also got an upside: no other class can "fill in" when something goes wrong better then a Priest, because nobody else can do everything.
I know personally as a 41 Holy Priest (with CoH), nobody is trying to replace me with a Paladin/Shaman/Druid. Some minor tweaks aside, I'm pretty happy with what I bring to the table, and so are they.
Freehugz Oct 2nd 2007 4:20PM
#9 you are compltely wrong about resource pools. Having a big mana pool and some +dmg/healing helps way more than switching out of feral with 0 +healing and 4k mana.
Dan B. Oct 2nd 2007 4:21PM
What 3 said.
It's not a matter of being a 'hybrid' - it's about being all-purpose. Sure, some fights might work better with a druid healer, due to the constant stream of HOTS, or a Shammmy healer with group healing, etc... but a priest has them all, and can heal most encounters without an issue).
It's just like tanks - warriors aren't hybrid tanks - they're all-purpose tanks. Druids make great damage sponges (but suck at magic intensive encounters). Paladins rock at AOE tanking. A warrior may not have the pure armor/stam of a druid, or the AOE of a Paladin, but they've got plenty of other options for staying alive.
Dan Oct 2nd 2007 4:48PM
"What could Blizzard do to establish priests as the kings of healing once more, or is their very nature holding them back?"
If we work on the assumption that blizz wants some variety in the healing classes and that droods are hots, shamans are group healers, and pallies are single-target healers than one thing blizz could do to make priests more desirable without creating a fourth way is to leave them at doing all of the above but make them more mana efficent than the others and/or have more buffs like inspiration mixed into their healing effects.
Angus Oct 2nd 2007 4:57PM
People seem to forget resto shaman have a HoT. Healing Stream. Pop 2 trinkets, wrath of air and drop it and it's healing 5 people within 30 yards (Talented) for over 100 every 2 seconds. Doesn't seem like much until you realize that I've kept a rogue up using just it. 60 ticks at over 100pts per tick is not exactly wussy.
Priests are hybrids. They are caster DPS/Healing with Healing.
No other class compares in this way since no other class is as good of a mana battery/dps source/healer backup. The resto shaman gets close but their chain heal isn't also giving back everybody mana and doing damage.
As for priests not being the best healer. I call BS.
Heal that gives tank aggro: PoM, Earth Shield.
Hot: Renew, rejuv, lifebloom, regrowth, healing stream.
Quick heal: Lesser Heal, Flash of Light, lesser healing wave.
Big heal: Greater heal, Holy Light, Healing wave, Healing touch.
OH CRAP: Shield, natures swiftness+heal, holy shock.
Group heal: Circle of lol, tranquility. (what else you got?)
Priests may not be best at any one field, but they are best in total. They get ALL the tools. These tools let them take ANY situation and have what is needed to do the job. No other healer gets away with that. You can go to raids with the satisfaction of knowing a good raid leader is happy to have you. If you are Shadow, you are immediately requested by caster groups. If you are holy you are still wanted thanks to buffs, heals and the ability to compliment other healers by taking any role needed that isn't currently filled.
Need someone to top everyone off after some nasty AoE hits the raid? Holy priest starts renewing everybody while the others focus on keping the main priorities alive. Need someone to get the tank topped off so the paladin isn't losing the race, no problem. Need someone to heal up the melee DPS while the shaman gets mana back or redrops totems. Priest can heal em all at once and then renew em to keep em up.
Hybrid means versatile. Quit wanting to be the one that is best at spamming 2 buttons. Priests are the best at knowing what on their almost full bar is the best for the job and not having to make due with the wrong tool at it.
Ultharion Oct 2nd 2007 6:59PM
Priests should never be the "king" of healing. There should be no "king" of anything, no one class should ever dominate a vital group role. Ever. Holy priests should be on par with restoration druids and shaman, and holy paladins. No better, no worse, in the great scheme of things, only different in what's ideally an interesting way.
Narrone Oct 2nd 2007 5:43PM
@3 you forgot holy shock for paladins...which is considered to be a very 'hybrid' spell and also seal/judgement of light.
(the following isn't EXACTLY related to this topic, but i think its close enough...)
In general, I think we are forgetting about utility in this argument...I consider there really to be four roles, these are: healing/dps/tank/support...
A support class could be define as a class that can fill in most roles needed in varying situations and its benefit is usually factored by the number of members in the group/raid. These generally tend to be the 'true' hybrid classes. (This should be no new news to experienced players)
Consider what one paladin (with generally any build) brings to the raid versus what one mage brings to the raid...A paladin can buff accordingly increasing whatever specific class is needed...mages can only buff intellect. A paladin can off-tank mobs that are attacking the healer, a mage can't. Both the mage and paladin (can) have CC (while the mage is far superior). Both the mage and paladin can DPS. The paladin can heal if needed, but the mage can bandage? Simply put, the paladin's possible contributions are exponential to the number of people in the party/raid. Shamans, Druid and Disc Priests (arguably) have similar aspects.
Because this discussion is about Priests, I'm going to focus on them. Simply put, Disc Priests have 'utility' (buffs), healing, dps(-ish, depends on secondary talent tree), and 'CC' (psychic scream and UD shackle). But I don't consider it enough to be considered a hybrid class. They can't tank (don't anyone dare say they can with PW:Shield), they can't reliably CC, and their buffs' benefits are static (as opposed to the paladin's mult. blessings, shamans mult. totems, and druid's all-around MotW), not to mention that the disc spec has very little dps advantages...
I'm tired of writing for right now and i think everyone gets my point.
nav Oct 2nd 2007 6:10PM
This whole hybrid thing is a red herring, for one reason. You cannot heal a mob to death solo (and you cannot threat a mob to death solo).
Every class has a dps role for that simple reason.
The only viable non-hybrid class is dps. That's why that's the only pure class seen in WoW, and that's why that's the end of the discussion.