Priest: Shadow or Holy?

[Newby]

I'm thinking holy (because parties will love me) but none of the benefits seem that great, and the shadow talent tree has a lot of good benefits... but I already have a warlock so I don't want to make a shadow priest really.

Thoughts on either? Or should I go discipline and be weird? :P

http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#character-sheet.xml?r=Andorhal&n=Babyconsumer <-- Priest I'll play out in Arizona. :P

And can someone hook up a good talent build for either? :)

[Furious]

Are you going to be solo-grinding a lot?

Oh, and the actual World of Warcraft forums usually have some good posts about specs and whatnot.

[Newby]

Are you going to be solo-grinding a lot?

Probably. There really are no good instances until SM or so... and that's when I'll shine. I just don't want to re-spec at 38 because that's a waste of a gold.

[Towelie]

Are you going to be solo-grinding a lot?

Probably. There really are no good instances until SM or so... and that's when I'll shine. I just don't want to re-spec at 38 because that's a waste of a gold.

first respec is really cheap... like 1s or something

[Warrior]

PLAY YOUR PRIEST ON MAELSTROM ASSHOLE.

[Blaze]

I'm leveling a priest.  Go shadow, or go home.

[warz]

Well, having a level 70 raiding priest, I feel I can contribute to this pretty well.

If you're going to want your priest to ever hit level 70, or at least before the game goes out of style, then you're going to have to go Shadow while leveling. As for a good shadow priest spec - just go full shadow, until you're like 65, or something, and can't put them into anything else useful, and in that case just put them into discipline. Shadow priests are fun, and wreck at high levels. They're useful in certain raids for crowd control, and high dot, as well as high dps. Parties love shadow priests too because of Vamp Embrace, and Vamp Touch, which give the party members hp and mana every time you do damage.

Once you're 70 though, it's generally assumed and requested that you're some variation of a holy spec. If you're in a cool guild, and the guild needs a little more dps for Gruul maybe, then they might allow you to go back to Shadow. As for holy priests, the talent trees can be tricky. This is where either you know your class, or you dont. Discipline is provided as a back up tree in regards to holy. A lot of the discipline talents are very useful when combined with holy talents. Since the holy tree isn't particularly good when gone pure holy, almost 99% of the good priests have their talents split between disc, and holy. I was 28/33/0. All raid groups will require atleast one of their priests to have improved spirit, which is disc, and which is why i went that far down on the discipline side.

My character: http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-talents.xml?r=Balnazzar&n=Timewasted

Sadly, though, I was very annoyed about the fact that Paladins are currently better at healing than priests. I was very good at my class, and had my talent tree perfected (although i often contemplated respecing to put 2 more points into my clearcasting, which procs a lot even only with 2% chance), but was still being out performed by paladins, as far as healing meters were concerned. Paladins were also put on main tank a lot, because they have much more hp and much more armor, not to mentiuon that can still put out a lot of dps. I was my guild's class leader and was a great raid healer, but I just feel like there should be certain things that should never be allowed, and a few of those should be that, A) nobody should be able to tank better than a good warrior and B) nobody should be able to heal better than a good priest. Thats just not how it is, though.

This is largely why I quit, but lately I've been wanting to create a new warrior. Once I get this job of mine going, and summer gets nearer, I'll prolly make a new warrior but until then, im stuck with my sad priest.

Edit: Also, don't make a priest unless you're looking for a class that honestly takes a lot of skill to play, and can be very very frustrating. My roommate even says priests look tough when he watches me in raid, and his main is a mage. A lot of people think it's either pressing 1, or 2, but they're 100% wrong. Priests are hard.

[Blaze]

This is going to be my spec, unless someone informs me otherwise?

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=rVZbZEGgtMtRhtxo

[warz]

Get rid of healing focus, or wand specialization, and put 2 into improved fade. It's very helpful, considering you'll be generating more threat than probably anyone else right away. If you completely get rid of wand, and healing focus, that's 7 more points. Put 2 into fade, and 5 into Misery. You will top damage meters, and you will be great at pvp. There's no reason to have healing focus as a shadow priest, and wands... if you run out of mana just blow shadowfiend - you should rarely have a high lvl fight come down to ur wand.

Like I said before - maxing out the shadow tree will make the best shadow spec. The shadow tree is amazing.

Edit: Also, Newby, Dwarf Priests are great, and usually the most helpful, because you get Fear Ward which tanks, etc, love in outland instances, since everything fears it seems like. :P Night elves can fade, and have that astral star shards or whatever attack, which will replace mind flay at 70 - but who cares, right? :p

[wires]

Spec shadow until you get high level, healing isn't really a problem in lower level instances even if you're shadow.

[Furious]

Well, having a level 70 raiding priest, I feel I can contribute to this pretty well.

If you're going to want your priest to ever hit level 70, or at least before the game goes out of style, then you're going to have to go Shadow while leveling. As for a good shadow priest spec - just go full shadow, until you're like 65, or something, and can't put them into anything else useful, and in that case just put them into discipline. Shadow priests are fun, and wreck at high levels. They're useful in certain raids for crowd control, and high dot, as well as high dps. Parties love shadow priests too because of Vamp Embrace, and Vamp Touch, which give the party members hp and mana every time you do damage.

Once you're 70 though, it's generally assumed and requested that you're some variation of a holy spec. If you're in a cool guild, and the guild needs a little more dps for Gruul maybe, then they might allow you to go back to Shadow. As for holy priests, the talent trees can be tricky. This is where either you know your class, or you dont. Discipline is provided as a back up tree in regards to holy. A lot of the discipline talents are very useful when combined with holy talents. Since the holy tree isn't particularly good when gone pure holy, almost 99% of the good priests have their talents split between disc, and holy. I was 28/33/0. All raid groups will require atleast one of their priests to have improved spirit, which is disc, and which is why i went that far down on the discipline side.

My character: http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/character-talents.xml?r=Balnazzar&n=Timewasted

Sadly, though, I was very annoyed about the fact that Paladins are currently better at healing than priests. I was very good at my class, and had my talent tree perfected (although i often contemplated respecing to put 2 more points into my clearcasting, which procs a lot even only with 2% chance), but was still being out performed by paladins, as far as healing meters were concerned. Paladins were also put on main tank a lot, because they have much more hp and much more armor, not to mentiuon that can still put out a lot of dps. I was my guild's class leader and was a great raid healer, but I just feel like there should be certain things that should never be allowed, and a few of those should be that, A) nobody should be able to tank better than a good warrior and B) nobody should be able to heal better than a good priest. Thats just not how it is, though.

This is largely why I quit, but lately I've been wanting to create a new warrior. Once I get this job of mine going, and summer gets nearer, I'll prolly make a new warrior but until then, im stuck with my sad priest.

Edit: Also, don't make a priest unless you're looking for a class that honestly takes a lot of skill to play, and can be very very frustrating. My roommate even says priests look tough when he watches me in raid, and his main is a mage. A lot of people think it's either pressing 1, or 2, but they're 100% wrong. Priests are hard.

Yeah, it's a little odd - but we have to spec full holy to do any good healing.  My 48 holy paladin outheals most priests at my level.  We make extremely efficient healers and with armor floating around 5k ( at my level ) we aren't nearly as fragile. The biggest downfall ( of a paladin ) IMO is a lack of healing over time.

[warz]

Yeah, it's a little odd - but we have to spec full holy to do any good healing.  My 48 holy paladin outheals most priests at my level.  We make extremely efficient healers and with armor floating around 5k ( at my level ) we aren't nearly as fragile. The biggest downfall ( of a paladin ) IMO is a lack of healing over time.

Yeah, I guess that's the only down-side to Paladins. I can make it through 10 minute battles and never have to blow a mana pot. The cool downs are nice, as a priest, too. Every 3 mins you get a free heal, every 8 minutes, or something, you get shadow fiend, clear casts, etc. The ability to last that long though comes with time - it's part of knowing your class. My first runs through Karazhan I sucked it up because I couldn't last through most of the fights, mana-wise, I'd oom within minutes.

Edit: But, the reason priests go disc/holy is because it's the only way they can achieve quality heals, and more mana. The holy tree itself has a lot of useless talents for high level instances and raids. So I don't know - maybe it was just my server. It seemed like everywhere I went there was already a paladin doing the job, unless it was guild raids, then I was always put on main tank, which was fun.

[Newby]

Thanks, warz. That was fun and helpful to read. :)

Warrior: maybe. I just made it on my server so I could give myself gold and shit immediately. I hate owing people gold. :/

warz: When you make your tank let me know, I'll roll a priest alongside or maybe a paladin.

[Armin]

Sadly, though, I was very annoyed about the fact that Paladins are currently better at healing than priests. I was very good at my class, and had my talent tree perfected (although i often contemplated respecing to put 2 more points into my clearcasting, which procs a lot even only with 2% chance), but was still being out performed by paladins, as far as healing meters were concerned. Paladins were also put on main tank a lot, because they have much more hp and much more armor, not to mentiuon that can still put out a lot of dps. I was my guild's class leader and was a great raid healer, but I just feel like there should be certain things that should never be allowed, and a few of those should be that, A) nobody should be able to tank better than a good warrior and B) nobody should be able to heal better than a good priest. Thats just not how it is, though.

Before, everything a Paladin could do was mediocre. Now that we're able to compete, a the priests and warriors will bitch, and we'll get nerfed again to be completely useless. I'd also like to mention that I've always outhealed priests, even before the expansion. Speed and concentration goes a lot further than what benefits you get compared to another class.

I've also NEVER seen a prot Paladin tank better than a good prot Warrior.

As for Newby's question, every guild I've seen has a least 1 or 2 shadow priests for one reason: Vampiric Embrace. VE will heal the party every time you do damage. While the healing aspect of it doesn't do much, you'll basically be a battery for a Paladin while still doing damage. To help with tanking, for every a heal, 10% of that heal turns into mana for the Paladin.

[warz]

I've also NEVER seen a prot Paladin tank better than a good prot Warrior.

Oh, my bad, I didn't mean Paladins when I mentioned the tanking ability within those two things that I don't think should ever happen. I was referring to the recent Druid setup that was semi-patched a month or two ago.