Playing a priest & hating it.

[Cornface]

Ret isn't OP? Rofl.

 

[TFlan]

I've been playing a priest since vanilla wow, Priests are by far the best healing class in the game; You just need to know how to heal and play your cooldowns and spells correctly... while not dieing to random shit from bosses. Only class that I have any trouble beating with most healing done is resto druids, and that is on a rare occasion.

Holy Priests, atm - even with CoH nerf - are still the best and most desired healers for raiding. I've been able to output 3 - 4K HPS, depending on the fight, and still have about 10% mana after a 8 minute kill. With a combination of watching your Inner Focus, Divine Hymn, Hymn of Hope, Shadowfiend, and misc trinkets you will never go oom (So long as your other healer isn't in full greens).

As for PvP, Priests are still wanted, but it is a tad harder to play than BC PvP cause of DK's and their mechanics. To PvP as a disc priest, with all the right specs, you need to predict incoming burst damage. You do this by learning other classes and how their specs work, when they are most likely to use their burst spell and save your trinket for long silences/stun that aren't removed when damage is done to you. Also it is EXTREMELY easy to kite melee with these new arenas and even in the old ones.

For example: In the graveyard, all you need to do against a melee team is shield, pom, renew, mount, run to center peice. Divine Hymn when the opponent dismounts, and run to the other side but with a dot on him so he cant remount. Divine Hymn even takes rogues out of stealth, renders the mages clones inactive for 100% of their duration, and gives you a nice little hot. However it shares a cooldown with your fear bomb, so take care if you want to CC a healer.

The number 1 heal in PvP for priests is PoM. Forever and always. Number 2 is Penance, make sure to shield yourself before using incase of an interupt. That CD is costly and the amount of healing Penance does is very nice.

Always shield yourself. Always Always ALWAYS. You see weakened soul fade, you shield. It is unbelievable how much dmg it absorbs, it can easily reach past 6k.

In your OH SHIT moments, you have desperate prayer. Desperate Prayer, I've noticed, is best used with Inner Focus. The amount it crits for reaches from 12 - 16k and it is instant. If your stun locked and low on health, hit Desperate Prayer BEFORE anything else, not shield, not PS, nothing but Desperate Prayer.

Rule number 1 for a PvP Priest... Don't go shadow.
Rule number 2 for a PvP Priest... Don't go holy.
Rule number 3 for a PvP Priest... Don't arena with a Warlock.
Rule number 4 for a PvP Priest... Don't arena with a Shaman.

So far I've noticed that I do best with Hunters, Rogues, Ret Paladins, and unholy DK's. Warriors not so much, but if I haven't done my games, I'll find one if none of the above are available.

Whenever you PvP, you must have Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel hot keyed. Dispel Magic is amazing for healing yourself (with the glyph) and damaging others and removing helpful buffs against opponents (aka Bloodlust/Heroism). Mass Dispel is a must against Mages and Paladins. You see a bubble / ice block; Mass Dispel. I have mine set as Shift+E for dispel magic, and Shift+Q for mass dispel for easy access and easy spamming.

If the team you are playing against has a strat of split DPS or your partner is taking damage, STAY NEAR HIM AND POP A PoM! That alone heals for 10k+ without crits and it has NO cast time and you don't have to worry about it, just let it do it's thing. PoM has saved me from Ret/DK teams so many times when my rogue and me are standing, purposely mind you, in the DK's aoe and I just sit there with PoM bouncing and healing us both for 6K+ (again without crits) in a matter of 2 seconds and life is golden.

I honestly can't think of anything else I can tell you.

PS: Ret is NOT OP. Infact Ret is perfectly balanced. Dispel Judgements, trinket Hammer of Justice, Divine Hymn, run behind pillar, heal, and kite. Rinse... and repeat.

In terms of kiting and LoS'ing enemy DPS. Melee > Range. Always LoS the Melee first, especially ones with 2 handers.

 

[Siretu]

Rule number 1 for a PvP Priest... Don't go shadow.
Rule number 2 for a PvP Priest... Don't go holy.
Rule number 3 for a PvP Priest... Don't arena with a Warlock.
Rule number 4 for a PvP Priest... Don't arena with a Shaman.

That was quite a nice summary. However, I did break rule number 1 and 3 pre-wotlk. I had a 2v2 with an affliction lock and we did pretty well. Took some time to get to know the tactics but once we did, we won like 8-2. So it is(was?) not that bad.

Now I'm a disc priest, I was holy spec but respecced after patch. I'm more specced for raid healing since that's what I do more often. Anyone know a disc spec viable for both pvp and raid healing?

 

[TFlan]

Sadly no. Priests aren't lucky enough to have a "1 size fits all" spec. If your disc as raid heals, you primary job is healing the MT since your raid healing will suck more than a pally. But if your raid healing disc, you won't have the necessary talents for pvp, Imp Mana Burn, Reflective Shield, etc.

So no, if you do more raiding than pvp go holy/disc, not disc/holy. Holy is decent for BG's because most of the time the opponents are to stupid to realize your not disc and you can heal through 4 people slamming on one person as holy.

Only respec to disc for a hardcore BG grind fest or arena.

 

[Andyoyo]

Hey just an update, I have just quit wow a bit ago and had a great time pvp and arena in wow. We played priest rogue and it was a lot of fun. My brother quit 3 months ago so I don't have much reason to keep playing. Plus focusing more time into online e-commerce.

Overall I'm extremely happy wow is out of my life, I can honestly say it was a fun waste of time, but really wasn't mentally stimulating like wc3
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Firetree&n=picklols

 

[Oninuva]

Hey just an update, I have just quit wow a bit ago and had a great time pvp and arena in wow. We played priest rogue and it was a lot of fun. My brother quit 3 months ago so I don't have much reason to keep playing. Plus focusing more time into online e-commerce.

Overall I'm extremely happy wow is out of my life, I can honestly say it was a fun waste of time, but really wasn't mentally stimulating like wc3
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Firetree&n=picklols

Ha, your on my battlegroup.

 

[XXXconanXXX]

A good shadow priest is a rather difficult opponent to defeat, even at the lower levels.

Not many classes can say they melt faces

 

[San-D]

Like a previous poster said, if you have a problem with survivability, go Paladin while there's still time. Many ppl here are right when they say Priests dilver the pwnyest of pwnage, but many ppl ignore 1 fact: Not everyone's playstyle is the same. For instance, I love archers, I worship them, ever ssince Dungeon Siege 1, its been my favorite class. But in WoW, hunter is just what Im not good at. The play tactics of hunter seem to be beyond my keybashing abilities (yes, yes, you have to be an uber noob to not even be able to play huntard and so on, we understand how mighty you are, please spare us the speaches). Only spaming aimed shot and arcane shot hasnt got me very far and a Hunter can be good, but the thing is I am not good with it. Even tho I hate rogues because ussually only the biggest nerds play rogue, beat on helpless opnents and sing how pro they are...what was I saying? Oh yeah, eventho I hate rogues, the class seems to be much more to my liking, being able to escape at almost any time, being invisible, having trick up ur sleeve for any occasion, thats what suits me best, thats what makes me successfull.

My point is, even if you are madly in love with priests, it's possible that priest is just not your thing. Ever class requires different strategics and skills and you might not be up to them. My advice: make a pally, make a druid, spec them Holy/Resto and see what you preffer best:

- If you enjoy being immune to damage most of the time in a fight but being a meatshield the rest of the time, be a Pally healer

- If you enjoy being almost unkillable, but exerting as much damge as a dead sloth, be a druid

- If you dont like any of the above, go back to priest.

* I am a resto shaman and I have to say, us shaman healers are greatly underestimated. I managed to kite a furry warrior with Flame Shocks and Tidal Waves.

{EDIT}
Ooops...guess I was a few months too late on that

 

[Prometheus]

Druids can be pwn dps.

 

[Oninuva]

Druids can be pwn dps.

But feral cats die so fast

 

[San-D]

But the person was looking for a healer class, so we assume he will want Holy Pally/Priest or Resto Druid/Shaman

 

[Prometheus]

I hate Disc Priests. Well, the good ones anyway.