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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Relmstein on healers
Relmstein has a well thought-out series of three posts on his blog about the disadvantages of playing a healer. And I agree with him that playing a class which is "first to be blamed, last to be praised", perceived as being bad in soloing, and often just considered to be a healbot has its negative sides.
Having said that, in World of Warcraft playing a priest is not as bad as lets say playing a cleric in Everquest. Shadow priests are soloing quite well, and even with a discipline / holy hybrid build you can be both an excellent healer for groups, and solo very well, provided you get yourself a good wand. Priests *do* have problems fighting several mobs at once. But fighting a single mob, even several levels above you is usually not a problem. Might take some time, but generally your ability to absorb and heal damage is greater than the ability of the mob to deal damage, and sooner or later you win.
But the reason why I play a priest is what I call "social engineering". I play the class *because* few people do, and because the class is so much needed in groups and raids. The disadvantages of less good soloing, and being just a support class instead of being heroic, are balanced by the advantages of being able to get invites into groups and guilds much easier. My priests got into guilds which would never have invited me if I had played lets say a hunter.
Blizzard hasn't announced the new spells and talents for the priest class in the Burning Crusade expansion yet. But I am a bit afraid that priests will get some more great spells and talents for healing, and very little useful stuff for soloing. Even if there are some new nice shadow talents, changing your build to shadow is just something you do for leveling up to 70, at which point your guild will more or less require from you that you go back to a healing spec. Most guilds allow a maximum of one shadow priest in a raid, all other priests need to be discipline / holy. While the abilities Relmstein proposes are not very realistic, it would be better if priests got a bit more and better damage dealing capabilities in the discipline and holy trees, and wouldn't be relegated to being pure healbots.
- posted by Tobold @ 11:27 AM Permanent Link
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I was actually inspired by this when me and my group of friends were discussing making another alt group. We like to make alts together so we can group together for dungeons and not have to worry about finding groups.
Well the last time we tried to do this no one wanted to play a healing class. All of us already had a level 60 healer of some sort and weren't really looking forward to repeating the experience. We got to talking and I started writing down some of our complaints.
The proposed talents were mostly just general suggestions of what the healing class needs to increase its appeal. Namely something to reduce the whack-a-mole concentration it requires and more direct damage abilities that won't interfere with healing.
Well the last time we tried to do this no one wanted to play a healing class. All of us already had a level 60 healer of some sort and weren't really looking forward to repeating the experience. We got to talking and I started writing down some of our complaints.
The proposed talents were mostly just general suggestions of what the healing class needs to increase its appeal. Namely something to reduce the whack-a-mole concentration it requires and more direct damage abilities that won't interfere with healing.
This was in the PA forums as a possibility for priests:
Proclaim Champion
Requires lvl 62
250 mana
10 sec cast
Proclaim the friendly target as your champion for 2 hours. Increases armor by 230, all resistances by 10 and allows the use of various champion spells on that target.
Champion's Bond
Requires lvl 64
250 mana
Instant cast
Creates a bond between the priest and champion. When the priest takes damage up to 20 will be sent to the champion instead. Lasts 10 minutes.
Champion's Grace
Requires lvl 62
250 mana
Instant Cast
Bestow the target champion with grace, increasing all healing done by the priest by 30%. Lasts two hours.
Empower Champion
Requires lvl 66
1100 mana
Instant Cast
Empower the target champion, increasing healing and spell damage done by up to 100. Lasts two hours.
Revive Champion
Requires lvl 70
85 mana
2 second cast
Return the priests champion to life with 3500 health and 3600 mana. (battle rez?)
---
However seeing as how Blizzard haven't released legit info on the Priest, I'm guessing it isn't what is happening.
Proclaim Champion
Requires lvl 62
250 mana
10 sec cast
Proclaim the friendly target as your champion for 2 hours. Increases armor by 230, all resistances by 10 and allows the use of various champion spells on that target.
Champion's Bond
Requires lvl 64
250 mana
Instant cast
Creates a bond between the priest and champion. When the priest takes damage up to 20 will be sent to the champion instead. Lasts 10 minutes.
Champion's Grace
Requires lvl 62
250 mana
Instant Cast
Bestow the target champion with grace, increasing all healing done by the priest by 30%. Lasts two hours.
Empower Champion
Requires lvl 66
1100 mana
Instant Cast
Empower the target champion, increasing healing and spell damage done by up to 100. Lasts two hours.
Revive Champion
Requires lvl 70
85 mana
2 second cast
Return the priests champion to life with 3500 health and 3600 mana. (battle rez?)
---
However seeing as how Blizzard haven't released legit info on the Priest, I'm guessing it isn't what is happening.
# posted by 
: 7/9/06 00:13
: 7/9/06 00:13
I practically gave up on my Priest after a failed Deadmines Run in which my Priest got blamed for wipes far more often than my Hunter ever did. Nobody wants to play a Priest, but everyone is quick to blame them when a pull goes bad and the Priest can't keep up with Heals, or he pulls aggro with all the excess healing required.
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