Wrath of the Lich King: Priest roundup
by Matt Low 
Nov 13th 2008 at 11:00AM
Cheer up and be optimistic! Try not to be too worried about the Priest class. True we haven't changed all that much, we are still the most diverse healing class in the game. Even Elizabeth Harper and Phaelia agree that we still remain the best healers (for now). Don't be disheartened! But the challenge starts now. Hitting 80 will be a bit slower for us Holy specced players in comparison to other classes and specs. We can still hold our own against Arthas' minions! So where are we at then?
State of the Game
- For the Priests that have just returned to the game, the biggest change is the fact that Priest racials have been removed. Hymn of Hope, Holy Nova and Devouring Plague are baseline abilities for all Priests .
- We'll be competing against Mages and Warlocks for gear since the three classes utilize Spirit to an extent.
- Circle of Healing is now a smart heal which could come with a 6 second cooldown as a penalty.
- Oh yeah, Prayer of Mending now draws threat for the caster instead of the target. The upside is that you can talent it to reduce the cooldown by 3 seconds with Divine Providence.
Talent Trees
- Desperate Prayer takes up the 11 point talent slot where Holy Nova used to be.
- Discipline received a near complete overhaul. And guess what? It looks like it could be a raid viable spec!
- Check out Alex's Shadow Priest overview for a quick refresher.
- Dispersion: Great talent? Or greatest talent?
General Tips
- A few notable Priest spells were covered in our Skill Mastery columns. Check out Penance and Guardian Spirit.
Having fun is the most important thing you can do. If the quest givers or mobs are overloaded, find a few guildies and lock yourselves into Utgarde Keep for a while.
Filed under: Priest, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KaKTy3 Nov 13th 2008 11:19AM
http://dwarfpriest.com/2008/11/11/wotlk-priest-survival-guide/
Now that's *THE* roundup!
The Claw Nov 13th 2008 9:08PM
Great link. Also great tagline on the site - "Dwarf Priest - I melt kneecaps!"
crsh Nov 13th 2008 12:40PM
"Cheer up and be optimistic!"
Yeah, we kinda need to, otherwise it's rerolling time. I'm sticking around to see how things evolve.
I am *not* convinced getting to 80 will even everything out though, I just don't buy it (it's more of a buying-time BS measure on Blizz' end).
SFJONAH Nov 13th 2008 12:57PM
Great Read
Vetzew Nov 13th 2008 1:49PM
Why pay when Jame's lvling guides are free and just as good if not better?
www.wow-pro.com
Alar Nov 13th 2008 3:05PM
As a Holy-heavy Priest, I'm still feeling a lot of pain here. I've been trying hard to keep my mana regeneration viable by speccing off just far enough into Discipline to get Meditation, but I'm still hurting sometimes for mana, relying on Replenishment and Mana Potions more than I should.
I'd like to believe that I'm good at conserving mana with the right spells, but either there's something wrong with how I play a healer, or Priests are severely lacking in mana regeneration for healing. I still believe that druids have much more regen than we do, and they don't need nearly as much spirit/MP5 based gear to get it. This isn't just because of Innervate, but that is a heavy reason for it.
I'd like to see Symbol of Hope either not need to be channeled, or return at least twice as much mana as it does in the same amount of time. Either that, or buff Meditation or give Holy an ability that increases mana regeneration as a whole.
Zoisite Nov 13th 2008 5:57PM
You're right that it's hard to have decent mana regen without Meditation, especially for long battles. However, I find that if you're running out of mana on anything shorter than a five minute battle, either you're not using the most efficient spells for the task at hand, you're overhealing, or you're not stacking enough spirit. Something I learned the hard way: All the +heals (or +spellpower, now) in the world won't help you if 15 casts is all it takes for you to go OOM. Give up some of those +12 Spellpower gems and put Spirit gems there instead.
Are you remembering to set your shadowfiend out *before* you're out of mana? If you balance things just right, you can find a nice chain for especially long fights: I use my fiend when I'm around 40%, which usually gets me in the 90-100% area, pop a mana pot around 60%, again at around 30%, and can usually use my fiend again before I'm OOM, bringing me back up to around 60-75%. Of course, depending on how heal intensive the battle is, you can take turns with the other healers in taking a break in casting to allow regen, before you're tapped dry. Bangle of Endless Blessings or Earring of Soulful Meditation are both very helpful with this tactic.
I can't compare druid regen to my own, but I find that if even with all this, if you're still pushing it to the limit, and running dry before the battle is over, make friends with the Druids you run with (especially feral!) and stack spirit. In a tight spot, give them notice that you may need an innervate, and when they find a moment, they can send one your way; with enough spirit, you don't even need to stop casting to go from bone dry to 100% mana. If you're low on spirit, one of the trinkets above can be popped just before you are Innervated to boost its effectiveness.
Eisengel Nov 14th 2008 3:10PM
I hear you on the mana shortness... things don't get much easier in Shadow.
I have found a few things that help though...
As the person above said, definitely stack spirit. Before 3.0.3 I was all +damage, now I'm all hit, crit, some haste and spirit, spirit, spirit. There was actually a lot of synergy introduced into the Shadow spec. Twisted Faith in the Shadow tree takes the edge off of chucking all those +dmg gems for spirit (or dmg/spirit). Imp Tap will increase your Spirit on certain crits and will give you extra in-combat regen... and extra Spirit means extra damage with Twisted Faith.
Stack crit. Crit is one of our go-to stats next to hit and spirit. In Shadowform your crit chance increases the damage of your dots. Let me say that again... your dots' damage is increased by you crit chance. So... if you have 10% crit, and sw:p, VT and DP up on a mob, then pop Shadowform, the damage done by each dot goes up by 10%. VT's spell coefficient was reworked as well so that it does much more damage. I've seen it tick for over 800 once I stack up some Shadow Weaving. Plus.. everything we have can crit.. including dots. So, be sure to use your dots effectively and stack that crit.
Now that downranking was removed you can't actively control your mana at the level we used to. You can't say 'well, I want sw:p, but full rank sw:p is too expensive, so I'll cast a lower rank'. Now you have to choose between using the spell... and not using it. In general you have to be more selective about what you cast when. In effect, every spell we have is now kind of 'situational', since we just can't afford the mana to stack them all.
That said, VT takes as much time to cast as MB, does pretty close damage (with a lot of crit, it could do more) and costs quite a bit less mana. When I'm soloing, I cast shield, VT+flay+flay ... that's pretty much enough for anything I run up against. If you're trying to stack up a pack of mobs, the key is to proc Imp Tap and Spirit Tap as soon as possible for the damage boost and regen. VT+DP the 1st mob, VT the next, VT the next, fear, MB or flay the 1st... you should kill it, proccing Spirit Tap... then... have fun. In general I don't pull sw:p out of the box unless absolutely necessary. It costs waaaay too much mana to use regularly. It goes on bosses and elites only. If you're dealing with a group pull and need some AoE (I havent gotten mind sear yet, so I can't talk about it really), VT+tab 3 mobs, then flay around.. use mb on mobs around 4 to 5k (or sw:d around 2k) to try to catch the killing blow for that sweet, sweet Spirit Tap proc.
daedhir Nov 13th 2008 4:43PM
Hmm, Priest Roundup, with no mention of the Shadow tree.
Because ALL priests are healers, right?
At least a mention of shadow would have been nice.
daedhir Nov 13th 2008 4:52PM
Well, I guess there was ONE mention.. Sorry I overlooked it..
Still, very healer-centric, IMO. Par for the course, I guess.
The Claw Nov 13th 2008 9:14PM
Four of the nine items on that bullet list are relevant to shadow priests, you crybaby.
Thistlebee Nov 13th 2008 7:03PM
Good write up.
When / If the 6 sec CD goes through on CoH it'll really affect us on raids.
Talents that are effected by CoH:
Twin Disc
Holy Spec
Holy Reach
Surge of Light (more procs)
Divine Providence
Test of Faith.
Mental Agility (if needed)
This CD will really affect Holy priests alot.
Xandee Dec 5th 2008 11:46AM
My priest is 80...has been for almost 2 weeks (ya I know weeks behind). Anyway. Healing at 80 as a Holy Priest imo is not alot of fun.
Blizzard showed priests NO love imo and if they go ahead with the CoHax Nerf...gg we'll be gimped even more. /sigh
lol@manaregennerfThentakeawayManaOil2
Oh wait...Raiding was too expensive.
Fix the economy...Blizzard...
Maybe I should just get a monkey to play my toon. That seems like the level of skill/knowledge required now.