Healers don't run out of auto-attacks either. See: wands, melee weapons.

Your comparison is faulty. Comparing mana to auto-attacks is comparing apples and oranges. The proper comparison? Mana and energy. Both classes have to worry about managing a limited resource - it doesn't make sense that one class should be able to ignore that resource.

(This is coming from a priest main, btw. I'm not looking forward to the nerf, but I can admit that endurance fights in Wrath... don't exist. Between the massive amount of spirit on heroic/raid level gear, Replenishment, and various mana-restoration abilities, I can't remember the last time I ran out of mana.)

./agree

Ive never quite worked out the reason behind blizzards belief that healers *should* have to actively manage their mana to make sure they dont oom... tanks and dps dont have to.

Its not as if healers arent already having to pay attention to far more details than the other roles...

for alexandra

When a priest runs out of mana, please explain what you do to get it back up and how long it takes.

When a rogue runs out of energy, please explain what you do to get it back up and how long it takes.

A rogue doesn't hit a button for 2 seconds and whalah, he has energy fulling regen'd.

The guy may not have hit the nail straight on the head, but his comparison was not apples and oranges for sure.

Bottom line is that mana users will always have a cap on what they can do when they go OOM. A rogue or warrior will never have a cap longer than 1 swing or a second to gain energy.

I think I posted this in the forums a little bit back... but, yes... put Rogues on the FSR. If you want to regenerate energy, you can't attack ... at all. Let's see how much fun Rogues have when their standard attack rotation requires them to stand motionless and do nothing for a few seconds so they can continue doing their job.

Sound fun? No? Then ... why do it to Priests?

Wait.. I have an idea. How about we let healers cast all ranks of their spells? That way they can choose to heal less, but it will cost less mana! All healers can then actively manage their mana while still healing, and... oh.. wait. We had that... hrm...

Wait.. I have an idea. How about we put Spirit on everything to buff mana regen so that even with the costly full-rank spells that healers are now forced to use, they can regenerate enough mana to cover those costs? Awsome! Wait... we had that... hrm...

... ???

The comparison between mana and energy is actually instructive: both mana and energy users have to manage a limited resource. In the case of a rogue, energy simply limits the number of abilities the player can use within a particular timespan. Yes, a rogue regens constantly--but energy places a hard limit on their damage -per second-. Furthermore, a good player has to 'save' energy at certain times in order to be able to interrupt or refresh a dot or debuff at the right time, etc.

Just because another class's mechanics work differently doesn't mean they don't have to do anything!

The comparison between mana and energy is actually instructive: both mana and energy users have to manage a limited resource. In the case of a rogue, energy simply limits the number of abilities the player can use within a particular timespan. Yes, a rogue regens constantly--but energy places a hard limit on their damage -per second-

So why not make healers have a similar mechanic. Theyir throughput can depend on how well they use a constantly replenishing resource...

Oh wait, they have that, it is called the Oo5SR and

@infection

Your comparison is probably the most faulty--rogues go out of energy after two attacks, healers go out of mana after fifty.

So, you expect to get that mana back in two seconds just like the rogue? Put yourself in the developer's shoes--is that balanced gameplay?

Do any of people understand that making the game balanced (whether its your class getting nerfed or buffed) is what keeps you playing? How long would play the game for if your class did 10million dps/healing? Not long, because no one else would play the game. It's stupid to try to "lobby" for your class, not to mention that Blizzard doesn't even listen to illogical complaints like "why are you NERFING THE ENJOYMENT OF THE GAME FOR EVERYONE?!"

Yup, after healing 25 mans for a while, they needed a SPriest so I respeced as asked, and never looked back.

Honestly with everything that has happened, we have gone from having far too many holy priests, to having none in the primary raid group, and one or two under geared ones in the secondary group.

I'm now in the process of now gearing a pure DPS class, looking to replace my priest main, as SPriests are boring comparatively, if not effective.

Another healer bites the dust...

On a side note, looks like this isn't just affecting priests, I'm seeing druids and shamans turning to the DPS side, looks like the healer shortage is just going to get a lot worse.