Before I get really going on my rant, I need to remind anyone visiting why I write this blog.\u00c2 This is a place for me to record my thoughts and opinions on things, so I can make sure I get them recoded.<\/p>\n
Today’s topic is a bit of reflecting on how I feel about blizzard’s latest comments on priest healing, and on priests in general.\u00c2 \u00c2 Never mind let me be honest with myself, this is a rant. Its me crying.<\/p>\n
I am man enough to admit that some of it is simply gut reaction, and comes from the fact that stupid healing meters exist in the game.\u00c2 I am competitive.\u00c2 So while I logically know it does not matter who is on top if the raid lives and the boss dies, I still don’t like seeing myself below others in the healing done and HPS lists.\u00c2 \u00c2 And to be even more honest I could live with that if I then did not go read a priest Q & A and have them tell me that priests are powerful and strong.<\/p>\n
So every so often, particularly after patches that nerf me,\u00c2 I have to just vent. Then I can go back to the game and face challenges with a bit more logic.<\/p>\n
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Priest Q and A So apparently bliz thought priest group healing was to good, and of course I am going to disagree.\u00c2 Alas to late now.\u00c2 \u00c2 Reading the last Priest Q and A did not make me feel better.\u00c2 They say:<\/p>\n “In World of Warcraft, the priest isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a stronger healer than the other classes, but does have unmatched versatility. At its core the priest has two unique talent trees for healing, while the others only have one. Furthermore, the priest has strong heal-over-time spells (HoTs), direct heals, and area-of-effect (AoE) heals. So where the power of the priest comes in is how you use your entire repertoire of healing tools together to overcome a situation, rather than focusing on one aspect.<\/p>\n Players sometimes call this the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none role, but we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really view it that way. \u00c2 The priest has a big toolbox. That makes you versatile, but at the cost (in player skill) of knowing how to match the right spell for the right job. The trade-off of the healing priest isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in trading power for versatility, but in having narrow niches for spells but a lot of spells.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n *Sigh*<\/p>\n Let me take a minute to QQ a bit.<\/p>\n “..the priest isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a stronger healer than the other classes…”<\/p>\n I completely agree, I believe we were weaker healers to both druids and pallys before the patch and I don’t really see it changing after the patch.\u00c2 \u00c2 Honestly In most cases I don’t care that much, but it chaffs me to see bliz stating our weakness as a strength.<\/p>\n “but does have unmatched versatility”<\/p>\n Hmm. Druids have hots, aoe, direct heals, battle rez, out of battle rez, a nice buff, decurse, root, and two other highly valued specs.\u00c2 I am not saying priests are not versatile, but I would certainly not say they are unmatched.<\/p>\n “strong heal-over-time spells (HoTs)”<\/p>\n Seriously Bliz?<\/p>\n I might be completely off base but to me Renew is pretty terrible, unless completely specced and glyphed and then only if it gets most of its ticks off.\u00c2 \u00c2 I think its a good spell, but Strong is not the word I would use, particularly when the druid non-upgraded rejuv is better. (imo)<\/p>\n I would have loved to see the spell changed so it healed every 2 seconds over 14 seconds, with the glyph halving the duration and doubling the healing per tick.\u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 It would still heal less and cost more than druid Rejuv, but its healing would come in faster intervals.\u00c2 \u00c2 With a change something like that I would then be able to say we have a “strong hots”. <\/span><\/p>\n But don’t worry priests you have other strong points. “Strong … direct heals”<\/span><\/p>\n Sure, but so do other classes. And in some ways I might even say that other classes have stronger direct heals.\u00c2 But priests should not worry because we also have strong hots and AOEs.<\/span><\/p>\n “strong … area-of-effect (AoE) heals”<\/p>\n We did.\u00c2 Pre-patch I believe we had the stongest stet of direct AoE healing out of the healing classes.\u00c2 This was our niche.\u00c2 Its what gave me something to lean on.\u00c2 \u00c2 Not geared for as much haste as I would like, my PoH without 3 stacks of serendipity was a bit slow.\u00c2 Of course mixed in with CoH, PoM, BH and Flash I was able to feel as though was able to keep my raid alive.<\/p>\n “Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none role, but we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really view it that way.”<\/p>\n Well to bad Bliz.\u00c2 You can view it that way, but it does not change the fact that we are “master of none”; unless you need to Mind Control someone.<\/p>\n “The trade-off of the healing priest isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in trading power for versatility, but in having narrow niches for spells but a lot of spells.”<\/p>\n *facepalm* So they truly believe that priests are just as good as everyone else in the three main aspects of healing.\u00c2 They believe that we are ok because we have a lot of spells.\u00c2 You can only cast 1 spell at a time.\u00c2 I don’t care if have FH, GH, BH, Renew, CoH, PoH, PoM, lightwell,\u00c2 if there is another class that can do just as well when having half as many spells.<\/p>\n There is power in simplicity. It might not be as much fun, but in terms of power I believe simple is better.\u00c2 If nothing is gained by the versatility (and the loss of power to justify such versatility) then don’t go on and on about how great being versatile is.<\/p>\n Lightwell QQ<\/strong><\/p>\n Thought first I need to once again talk about lightwell. Lets start with this quote:<\/p>\n “The basic root of the problem is that most dps classes seem unwilling to have to take the time or spatial awareness to make use of the Lightwell, even if it provides great healing.”<\/p>\n Well geesh, thanks Bliz.\u00c2 We have been telling you that for years, at least you admit it and call the DPS out in a post that most of them wont read.<\/p>\n Here is an idea: FIX IT.<\/p>\n I am not kidding. Stop worrying about our PoH hps and focus on actually fixing a something that has been broken since the beginning.\u00c2 Yes you have tried adjusting it duration, charges, and healing power, but you completely FAIL at fixing the problem.<\/p>\n Now even thought you stated the problem above its clear to me based on your inaction to fix it, that you need it spelled out for you.<\/p>\n In raiding, where lightwell should be used most, each person has a role.\u00c2 They are concerned first and foremost with succeed in that role.\u00c2 In case you forgot the roles are:<\/p>\n People have been taught by the way the game has worked in almost every case. That if you focus solely on your role the raid wins.\u00c2 Making a priest have to ask DPS to be responsible for healing themselves in order for the priest to be effective is (again imo) terrible design.<\/p>\n Ok, its not terrible, I mean people should be able to be more flexible but the game does not encourage that and only a holy priest requires that particular sort of action.<\/p>\n At a bare minimum, can you please make it work like a soulwell; where clicking on it gives you something, in this case a HoT, but does not make you target it.\u00c2 Though I would rather see it changed completely and maybe even renamed.<\/p>\n I think a spell that calls for a beam of healing light for a duration would be nice.\u00c2 Stand in the beam and get healed.\u00c2 Each tick over the duration (I would say ~9 second, 3 sec ticks 1-2 min cooldown) the beam heals for X \/ divided by the number of people in the beam.\u00c2 So if you cast in on the Tank alone each tick would be big, maybe FH big, but if you cast it on 5 dps each tick is more like a renew.\u00c2 Cap the number of targets to 5, and make it smart healing the most hurt first)<\/p>\n Sure you would have to mess around with the numbers a bit the potential healing power might have to be lower than the current spell since it would be maximized more often.\u00c2 But it would be a fun spell , and help holy priests be the AoE healers.<\/p>\n Finally GH QQ<\/strong><\/p>\n Ok my last bit of crying is for GH. I want to like this spell, really I do. At one point I tried to use it more, but it is just too slow.\u00c2 I need it to be faster 3 serendipity stacks fast, which means I am casting FH at about three times as many time as GH.\u00c2 Believe me this is better than it was before serendipity, but it only encourages me to cast GH after three other spells and often times I need that Serendipity to cast PoH.<\/p>\n Now I have not done the math but my gut (which I know is not logic) tells me that if GH was a 2.5 base cast time (2 after talents) that Holy priests everywhere would actually start using it.<\/p>\n Done with QQ<\/strong><\/p>\n Ok for now I am done crying.\u00c2 Whew. I feel better.<\/p>\n Now I need to remind myself\u00c2 that I have fun playing a priest and I enjoy having different types of spells to use.<\/p>\n What I don’t enjoy is being told that while our spells are not more powerful (or even as powerful in some cases) that simply because we have a lot of them we are powerful (and in some cases too powerful).<\/p>\n *shrug*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I get really going on my rant, I need to remind anyone visiting why I write this blog.\u00c2 This is a place for me to record my thoughts and opinions on things, so I can make sure I get them recoded. 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