I don’t play a high level priest, but I tank and I pug a ton.

In a 5 man, priests are amazing no matter what their spec is. The thing I have always wondered, as a resto druid, is how in the bejesus a priest manages all his spells. I would guess the reason the healing section seemed so lackluster is because priests are in a much better place than they were in TBC. There was a time when the only healers I remember seeing were druids and pallies, and now priests have rebounded (I think they did around the time of Sunwell, though I don’t really know) and are healing their tails off and doing it VERY well.

Not understanding the nuances of priest healing, I can’t really comment on the polishing you need, but raids and groups both love priests. From the outside looking in, healing priests appear to be in a good place.

@Robert M

What are you on? Priests have fallen. In Vanilla, we were the only trusted healer. . the druid and the pally and the shaman were okay, but if you had to do it right, you had to have a priest. Come Burning Crusade, the rise of the other classes to match the priest's, we were equals. The priest could perform at the same rank of any other.

Now, in Wrath, we've lost our place. The Paladin is the king of tank healing, the Druid the master of endurance, and the Shaman the lord of raid healing. We're. . minus a niche. We're the jack of all trades, master of none.

Priests manage fine in five mans because they're the only one performing. They fall short in the raids, even the "new" mechanics of Discipline don't replace or add anything new.

Well, if you look at the Q&A in isolation, if you ignore anything else, it is okay. GC answers the questions decently.... he carefully avoided any useful comments, but at least didn't make any insane Koraa-like answers ... however these questions range from uninteresting to barely applicable to innane. It would be like interviewing the President of the U.S. on the economy and asking about the designs on the money... completely ignoring any useful or worthwhile questions.

1. Damage in 5-mans IS low because a lot of our damage is on the back end, which is bad for trash and 5-man bosses with relatively little health. GC's answer here sucks. He basically says:
'low damage in 5-mans is a class feature'
'if you're running a 5-man, who cares?'
'don't play the spec, play around our development holes'
'your talents are kinda bad... *shrug*'
'I won't comment on Arena...'

2. Dispersion isn't up to the standard Blizz has set for top-tier talents... I mean, hell, look at the DK ones.
GC:
'It's your fault for expecting us to develop this talent tree the same way we've developed every other tree since vanilla'
'I won't talk about PvP uses....'
'You can use it in PvE to avoid raid damage... and sometimes it even works!'

3. I recall maybe 2 posts on dropping the MB CD... which were basically shouted down.
crazy suggestion: remove MB CD?
SPriests: 'lolwhut'
GC: 'lolwhut' (now I don't have to talk about burst/DPS CDs because I shot down a strawman! He he...)

4. GC should run for government with this answer:
Q: VT sucks because of cast time, back-loaded damage, and laughable backlash damage
GC: 'naw, it doesn't suck just because it can be dispelled! We even increased the dispel damage!' (hehe.. now I don't have to talk about cast time, or movement, or burst damage!)
GC: 'VE and VT aren't non-viable, you're actually ahead of the curve, we want everyone to have slower, back-loaded damage, so you should be happy!'
GC: 'let me answer a question you haven't had since BC'

5. We aren't fixing Mind Flay for you, you can use up a glyph slot for a mandatory glyph that removes all choice for major glyphs that fixes an element of Mind Flay we don't care to patch.

6. Being locked out of your spec's abilities is a feature, we may make it easier to use spells that aren't part of your spec that are designed for a role you aren't specced for and don't want to play.

7. Since we patched the double Shadoweaving proc on SW:D it seems that no one uses it... maybe we'll make it not kill you as much and not address the fact that it is a gimpy spell.

8. Our internal tests on short Patchwerks in high tier gear with raid buffs have no mana problems... how come you level 73s in greens with loads of haste running 5-mans are saying you're having problems? Maybe we'll lower the CD on Shadowfiend, which magically won't increase it's damage (????).



Basically the questions were either useless or strawmen, even so some of his answers were unsettling. He also didn't comment on PvP even in the questions that included it. I have the exact opposite opinion of this Q&A. It shows that Blizz likely didn't even browse through the questions. I think haste scaling was mentioned at least twice on every page. GC also carefully avoided real answers any partially useful questions by evasively addressing only certain elements of a problem that were mostly fine (i.e. dispeling of VT and not cast time, burst, immobility, or back-end damage), or knocking down strawman solutions for real problems (lolwhut threat). It's junk. Really it's just a summary of blue posts on SPriests over the past few months... not actual answers to current questions.