Priests

Binomate

I'm at college at the minute and I had already logged in to Boards. It's 9:24 in the morning and this is the earliest I've been up in quite some time. I'm sure you can understand why I can not be arsed dragging my mouse up to create a new tab to go to the official Priest forums to ask this question.

Anyway, here it goes. Me and a few friends decided to roll on a new server with new classes. We've been leveling together for about two weeks now and I've rolled Priest. It's finally nice to play a different roll in the game because I'm so used to mele and dps with my rogue. I'm a little confused about stats for priests though as it seems different to the way attack power works for mele classes. At what stage does +healing and +spell damage become better than +intellect? i.e. Which would you prefer on your gear, +1 intelect or +1 healing/spell damage? I'm level 29 at the minute and because it's me and my mates leveling together I've gone Holy/Dis spec for instances. I know roughly how spell damage / healing works and all, but I don't know what the ballance between spell damage / healing and int/spirit should be. I mean there's no point in having a mana pool larger than you're going to ever use and having your heals hit like a wet sponge, but at the same time you don't want to run out of mana using heals that are over healing resulting in a wipe.

Any info on stats would be much appreciated. I think writing this post has woken me up a little, I might browse the priest forums and see if I can find any info.

Kevok

Eh, +healing is only really useful for long encounters when you want to heal more for less mana (using lower rank heals). So when you're levelling look for Intellect/Spirit/Stamina in that order. Some prefer stamina over spirit but with Power Word shield you don't need more health, and higher spirit will reduce your downtime.

Jumpy

To be honest man, until you hit 60, do not spec Holy.
It will slow you down when you want to solo, and you will rarely if ever win a 1v1 vs a horde.
Shadow on the other hand will let you zoom through the levels alone if need be.
You can still heal as a shadow, but you can damage as well.
Mind Flay is nothing to be scoffed at, neither is Spirit Tap.

Binomate

Jumpy wrote:

To be honest man, until you hit 60, do not spec Holy.
It will slow you down when you want to solo, and you will rarely if ever win a 1v1 vs a horde.
Shadow on the other hand will let you zoom through the levels alone if need be.
You can still heal as a shadow, but you can damage as well.
Mind Flay is nothing to be scoffed at, neither is Spirit Tap.

I was considering this, but since most of my time playing this character will be in groups I might as well go holy. Thanks for the info. How about mana regen over spirit? How does spirit work? How much extra mana do you get back per tick for every 1 spirit? Or does it work in some other way?

Dustaz

I have a 60 priest and trust me, you dont need to be specced holy/disc untill you start raiding. You will heal just fine in instances 1-59 if your specced shadow and your soloing/duoing will be far and away easier.

Scuba_Scoper

Binomate wrote:

How about mana regen over spirit? How does spirit work? How much extra mana do you get back per tick for every 1 spirit? Or does it work in some other way?

Welcome to the best class in the game , imho :cool:

I can't remember getting any mana regen gear prior to 60 but before that level its not important. Really !!

Spirit works like this - for every 13 spirit you have it gives you 1 mana point back every tick outside the 5 second rule. (no spells cast for 5 seconds)

Each point in intellect gives you 9 mana(I think). So max your int first then look
at spirit, stamina helps but not that much. (shield and heal)

The standard advice for all priests prior to lvl58 is; go Shadow.

You can heal perfectly well in all encounters as a Shadow priest. With Spirit Tap you regen nice and quick between kills. I personally stayed Shadow until after Molten Core (locks love shadow weaving) and ok, so I was never the highest on healing meters but healing isn't a contest.

My advice - get shadow form at level 40 , then go discipline to level 58. Re-spec to holy/disc, or disc/holy at 60. Then roll a hunter to grind cash for yourself for Naxx repair bills. or run Strat after raids for a bit of extra cash.

ofc if you are a dwarf priest then happy days you can nearly gurantee yourself Tier 1 after a couple of weeks at 60 or constant guild invites until you accept one.. Just make sure the guild you join has BWL on farm (at least).

Enjoy the game.

Funky

It's every 4 spirit gives 1 mana per tick outside the 5 second rule. The formula is your spirit/4 + 12.5 = your mana regen outside the the 5 sec. In my opinion for leveling spirit is better than mana/5 because of spirit tap which is probably the most important leveling talent. You should probably prioritise on spirit and owl gear while leveling, and good blues of course. DMG gear might work too, wasn't really round when I was leveling so I'm not too sure how it compares to spirit.

DRakE

Dustaz wrote:

I have a 60 priest and trust me, you dont need to be specced holy/disc untill you start raiding. You will heal just fine in instances 1-59 if your specced shadow and your soloing/duoing will be far and away easier.

Truth!

Mr. CooL ICE

My priest hit 60 a few weeks ago and stick with the advice given above... I did it slightly different, by putting 8 points in disc (wand spec and improved shield) and putting the rest in shadow, until about lvl 50 (by then, i was 8/0/33), then switching back to disc. I respecced at 59 to 26/25/0.

My server had a shortage of priests, so I always got invites for instances below a level I should have (SM Cath at 36, Sunken Temple at 48, etc). Being shadow spec until you are close to 60 is fantastic training to be a good healer. Shadow has little/no allowance for +healing or +manapool, so trying to keep a bunch of guys a few lvls above you alive, using a talent spec not designed for your job, really makes you a good priest.

I disagree with looking to join a guild that has BWL 'on at least farm status'. IMO, if you want to join a guild, you should look for one that doesnt just constantly farm instances... there will be little challenge and the game will be less fun. It would be a better idea to join a guild who has the numbers for MC and is progressing through it, just you can be part of the fun learning experiences, and not just a nightly task to build dkp and epics. Even if you join a guild with MC on farm, you should have your Benediction in no time (i got mine first run ).

Enjoy the most interesting and fun class in the game

Ivan

LordChessington wrote:

I disagree with looking to join a guild that has BWL 'on at least farm status'. IMO, if you want to join a guild, you should look for one that doesnt just constantly farm instances... there will be little challenge and the game will be less fun. It would be a better idea to join a guild who has the numbers for MC and is progressing through it, just you can be part of the fun learning experiences, and not just a nightly task to build dkp and epics. Even if you join a guild with MC on farm, you should have your Benediction in no time (i got mine first run ).

QFT

Drakar

I fully agree with the shadow spec thing.

I'd also be very surprised to see a guild who has BWL on farm status being desperate enough to pick up a priest without l33t equipment. Be happy to work your way up from MC I'd imagine.

Binomate

Just the fact that I'll be able to get in to an end game guild to me is pleasing. I've had a level 60 rogue since spring and I've only ever seen ZG twice. The server I'm on has pick up groups for MC, ZG and AQ20. Recently there was a pug BWL run and they downed Nefarian after 3 and a half hours with only one wipe.

DRakE

LordChessington wrote:

My priest hit 60 a few weeks ago and stick with the advice given above... I did it slightly different, by putting 8 points in disc (wand spec and improved shield) and putting the rest in shadow, until about lvl 50 (by then, i was 8/0/33),

No offense, but you've probably wasted 8 points there

Mr. CooL ICE

DRakE wrote:

No offense, but you've probably wasted 8 points there

Youre not the only person who has said that to me. Basically, different strokes for different folks.

I need the shield so my spellcasts are not interrupted, and i like the wand spec because I always made sure I had the highest dps wand I could lay my hands on, and when I had my mob down to around 40-50%, I reshielded, laid down DoTs again (in case they ran out), and wanded the mob till death. That meant that my mana would have started to regen when the mob was back to about 20%, and when he died, my spirit tap would regen my mana to almost full, saving time on drinking and money on buying drinks. Im sure there are better ways of grinding, but thats what I was comfortable doing at the time

Ivan

I too, use 5 points in wand spec for my priest. Its just godly.
Ignore Alan, he's a noob and likes to flaunt the fact!

But seriously, until around 40-50, or perhaps more specifically, around shadow form, wand spec is just amazing for priests. Even more so when compared to crappy mage wand spec

DRakE

I have had 5 points in wand spec, but i found it wasnt really worth it since all I really did was raid.

Imp shield is just a waste of 3 points tho, its only 15% extra damage added isnt it? 920 dmg + 15% ? If anythings beating on you it'll get rid of the that 110 odd extra hit points in a split second

anonymous_joe

Actually, if I backstab a priest, that 150 or so could be the difference between his shield staying up and going down...

Though something mean and nasty in the shadow tree could be just as effective.

Mr. CooL ICE

A little off topic, but when I read this thread, this is what was at the bottom of the page:

cool priests 00:57 9-Jan-06
Gay Priests 23:08 29-Nov-05
Should Catholic Priests be allowed to marry? 13:13 28-Feb-06
Catholic church 22:30 24-Apr-06
Undercover Priests..... 14:51 13-Jun-06
Irelands first COI women priests? 21:11 25-Jun-06

But back on topic, I still have improved shield as a disc/holy priest and would still recommend it to anyone who is grinding. Even when I started doing the rounds in PuGs for strat/scholo/ubrs, etc, I find it useful to be able to recast a shield every 15 seconds, and not 30 seconds. Standing in the right place might not always be enough to avoid losing 30% of your health to a cleave from a trash mob in those instances.

Ok, there isnt much use for it in MC, but my guild has started BWL and I find it necessary doing Razorgore. The need to stay alive until the eggs are destroyed means I have to survive random attacks from dragonkin and orcs, and I find myself reshielding every 15 seconds due to aforementioned attacks like cleaves.

But that said, I don't have wand spec since i turned disc/holy, because its not much good if youre a raiding priest.

joe.

Improved shield is annoying when other priests have it as a talent and you do not. If a priest with the talent casts shield on someone, you must wait the full 30 seconds to be able to cast shield on them rather than the usual 15. You get an annoying "A more powerful spell is active" message. If you're a raiding priest improved shield is a nono imo. A waste of 3 points. If you're not raiding priest, it's benefits are minimal. The only time I can think were it could be maybe useful is when pvping.

Wand spec is a must for levelling I think. First 5 points in spirit tap, next 5 in wand spec. Respec at 40 for shadowform and 41-45 put them into wand spec again.

DRakE

hasnt weakened soul gone to 15 seconds?

Ivan

Yes, yes it has. Since the priest review.

PeakOutput

im thinking of rolling a blood elf priest when the expansion is out but i already have a mage and dont know if i want another caster anyone wana tell me why i should pick a priest

otherwise im thinking a hunter

Drakar

Shadow priest does nice dps, can defend himself well with instant cast fears shields dots and hots (and come the expansion he gets an instant cast damage spell too iirc). Priests are generally in high demand (which is good and bad).

A hunter looks interesting too though. Raiding priests with holy spec end up being not that interesting in PVP because people keep kicking your a$$, (of course holy priests shouldnt shouldn't be aiming to be dpsing in pvp but hey).

PeakOutput

but one on one they will get owned if the opposition has the trinket which dispells all fear and stun and polymorph effects am i right???

but otherwise healing priest for instances and shadow preist for pvp????

Drakar

Generally, holy for instances (at lvl 60) and shadow priest for anything else.

Shadow priest would be able to take many classes with or without the pvp trinket (since it has a long cooldown and fear is a relatively small part of their bag o tricks, also fear has a short cooldown).

PeakOutput

Drakar wrote:

(since it has a long cooldown)

oh right i thought it was a passive effect that makes it nowere near as powerful as i thought it was

hmmmm decisions decisions

anonymous_joe

They say they're going to reduce the effectiveness of crowd control in the expansion pack, so fear should finally stop being such an imbalanced pvp ability...

Binomate

anonymous_joe wrote:

They say they're going to reduce the effectiveness of crowd control in the expansion pack, so fear should finally stop being such an imbalanced pvp ability...

A priests fear is hardly imba. Priests get targeted in battlegrounds. So what happens if you have four guys always targeting you every time you're in a group of horde and you can't fear them effectivly enough to save yourself? It would go something like, instant death. Not very much fun for the priest. A warlocks fear is imba. The fact that he can chain fear is rediculous. On top of that a warlock isn't even in the top three most targeted classes in battlegrounds. Fear for priests is not imbalanced.

anonymous_joe

I find all priests nightmarishly hard to fight, holy priests being hardest. It's nothing to do with them, it's just they have enough health to negate the cold blood -> ambush -> backstab so within a few seconds you have their warrior friend on your ass...

Shadow priests... well... Let's not even bother going there...

Mr. CooL ICE

The only thing i miss about being shadow specced is mind flay. I still pvp as often as i did before i turned 60, and i still have as much fun as i did before. Im still almost as good in 1v1 encounters unless its against an epicced player; its just a matter of choosing the right approach. But the key is to never be on your own.

Last game of AV i had was the best fun ever - i stayed in defense, healed about 80% of the time and made an effort to stay alive by healing, falling back and drinking, and healing again. When pushed back to the dun baldar bridge, i did my usual trick of shielding, mindcontrolling horde, and making them suicide jump off the bridge. This ofc made me a primary target, but a well timed fear, improved shield, and people to back you up always goes a long way. We won, and i ended up with top HK overall too. Im not trying to brag about anything, but priests abilities are not imba in pvp - theyre a versatile class that when played properly, kick ass. Just like any other class.

But back to the main point - spec shadow when youre levelling, spec disc/holy or holy/disc when you approach/reach 60.

Splinter

just wanna say i hit level 40 last night and got my shadow form and bloody hell i expected a power change but god damn!! im super happy with my priest and my enjoyment of the game has gone through the roof