But after a lot of thinking and whinging, I’ve decided it’s too early to give up hope. And I still enjoy playing my Priest more than I ever did my Druid, even though they took away some of the things that bugged me the most about being a Tree (slower movement speed, no ooc rez, inability to cast Healing Touch in Tree form, no group heal that wasn’t on a rediculous cooldown…).

Re CoH: while the PTR Patch Notes *say* there’s a 6-second cooldown on CoH there is no cooldown on the spell as it currently works on the PTR. I read on the forums that the patch notes are behind the build on the PTR, but I haven’t found an official Blizzard source to confirm it.

Although, as much as I love Holy Nova (And I do. Very Much.) it’s far, far too costly (and moreso in Beta) to spam like CoH for keeping-self-alive purposes. (at over 800 mana for about 850 healing, a Rogue would make mincemeat out of it. CoH is around 400 mana for over 1k healing.)

I’m still sad that DP will have YET ANOTHER cooldown. It’s a good thing i’ve got an awesome cooldown minder in my UI……

All that is to say… I still need a hug. And probably a cookie.

I don’t think that priests have gotten nearly as much love as they should have. They simply haven’t gotten the Wow! factor that resto druids or holy paladins have. There’s still time though. And having resto shamans and CoH priests overlap is a good thing; it means that it’s no longer required to bring three CoH priests to a fight no matter what, or bring 3 resto shamans to a fight no matter what. I would like to see priests get more buffs and definitely better things that make you excited, but honestly – having undead priests get desperate prayer and Hymn? That’s a big win for them, and having devouring plague and desperate prayer both be actually be reduced in cooldown is a big deal.

Holy priests are still the only healing class in the game that can do a good job MT healing, splash healing, HoT healing and group healing. I’d like to see them get a bit more utility, but druids would love to have more ability to do bigger heals, paladins would love the raid healing without a gimmicky talent, and shamans would love to have some kind of HoTs. Well, okay, shamans right now are incredibly broken and screwed, and they’d like to be able to cast more than 5 chain heals without going OOM.

Kals last blog post..[Paladin] WotLK testing: the lack of int and you

In the current game mechanics, I’ve found that the 4 healing classes balance and compliment each other EXTREMELY well. But while my counterparts are receiving the one or two things they wanted most, it’s cooldown and nerfs for the Priests:

Disc is supposed to be raid viable mostly by mitigating damage, but there’s a 4-sec cd on the bread-and-butter spell, PW:S. The CD on Pain Suppression is increased from 2 to 3 minutes. (While Focused casting is moving from 3 to 2… But if you can cast faster, more often, but you have CD’s that negate that casting speed, what’s the point?)

Prayer of Mending was a great new spell in BC, but a few patches ago got hit with a 10 sec cooldown. Now Circle of Healing is actually getting a 6 second cooldown. And sure, it’ll be a smart heal, able to cross party-groups… but that’s what Chain Heal is for. I, for one, appreciated the control that nailing a specific party would give – fights like Illidan, Kalecgos, Bloodboil would have a lot of healing over-lap if CoH and Chain Heal had to butt-heads over whom to target.

Holy Fire has seen increased damage, and decreased casting time – but a cooldown. Mind Blast and SW: D ALSO have cooldowns (with Death’s being increased a few patches ago.)

They also announced that Improved Concentration would not proc as much, and Twin Disciplines would only affect instant-cast spells.

Not that the reduction to instant casts will matter, since they’re all on cooldown (Except renew. Which will see decreased efficacy due to Flourish. Note that I don’t begrudge trees their spell – I just want something positive to look forward to, as well.) The reduction in quicker casts WILL be important, since the only healing spells I’ll have consistently available will be Greater, Flash, Binding and Prayer of Healing.

And, no, Hex of Weakness isn’t as huge a loss as all that.. but it was responsible for my Guild’s first Council Kill (mitigating 20% of a missed heal interrupt is srs biz.) But now… how am I supposed to keep myself alive when someone tries to gank me? I can’t blackout stun them with Shadow Guard. I can’t Chastise them on my Draenei, I can’t keep myself up with CoH, I can’t keep myself up with ProH, and they will break through my shield far, far before the 15sec weakness has expired. Renew? It’s not enough now, I don’t see why it will be then.

Forgive my ranting. The news of the release date means far less sandbox time for Blizz Devos. It also means less time for me to be patient and make my voice heard. If the squeaky wheel gets the oil, I shall scream.

Blizzard, give Priests a reason to keep playing our class!!!

And that’s why the druid tier set was for resto, only, the shaman set was for resto, only, and the paladin set was for holy, only.

I’m really, really glad that the days are gone where all priests healed, all druids healed, all pallies healed, all shamans healed. I’m sorry that you take it as an affront that your class is no longer the best healer class in the game, but it’s a much healthier game when people can do the same thing in multiple ways.

Kals last blog post..[General] What do you want tested?

Just a couple of nitpicks, though First up, Priests weren’t the only one whose old raiding gear was all healbotty – Paladins were in the same boat, and as far as I know druids were too. Not sure about shammies, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

And second, Paladins aren’t going to be able to AoE heal – at least, not properly. Our only AoE will be that if we Glyph for it, our Holy Light (not any other heal spell) grants 10% of its heal effect to 5 targets within 5 yards of the target. FIVE YARDS. On big bosses, that’s not even enough to hit the meleers! And the amount of healing it’ll do – well, with a level 70 paladin with ~2k +heal, anyone hit by the AoE portion of HL will get about 500-520 healing out of it. A nice top-up, to be sure, but hardly the equal of any of the other AoE heals out there, and not something that you could use as a viable true AoE heal.

Sihas last blog post..Healadin Glyphs – A First Look and a Revelation