Priest Concern Summary

[lfd]

Hi, Fangtooth. ;-)

I've used 'code' tags for the parts of the post I've quoted from frink, because the forum software doesn't seem to like large numbers of 'quote' tags.

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I can't comment on the high-end healing situation, since I'm shadow-specced and haven't done any large-scale raiding

An awful lot of the complaints about the priest are about exactly that, but I'll accept that you're just talking about PvP for now, even though I suspect this is some way under 50% of the problem area ;-)

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Now that I have AV rep rewards and the lower bits of PVP rank rewards (bringing my stamina out of the comedy one-hit-kill range) I generally appear in the top 3 or so killing-blow ranks in AB.

What does killing blow tell you? Often it goes to the warriors due to execute, but shadow priests have burst damage (mind blast) and a dot to catch runners (sw:pain), so I'd be very surprised if you weren't.

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I assume that once I gather some purples and a better understanding of my class I'll be rather devastating.

See, that's one of the problems mentioned. The epic priest (and caster in general, though less so for the others) gear just doesn't scale as much as the epic melee gear; you won't find you're doing that much more damage, yet you're surely taking an awful lot more. Some of the best shadow priest equipment at the moment is blue, coupled with the epic trinkets from ZG and MC that increase damage greatly for a short period of time. You'll be trading off killing power for stamina.

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Shadow vs. Holy is cool.  It's a defining characteristic of the class that there's actually two distinct and incompatible paths.  Without it, the priest would just be the cloth version of yet another dps/heal hybrid class.

There's nothing wrong with being yet another dps/heal hybrid class, though, if it means we're less boxed in in our choices. I'd much rather have the flexibility than this "defining characteristic" which sounds like simply dressing up the problem in prettier words instead of fixing it. At the moment they're not incompatible anyway, as the two best holy talents are right at the start of the holy tree.

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might I suggest tweaking the game mechanics so that the 'possess' effect of mind control still allows the priest to cast spells on the possessee?

This has been suggested over and over again. I'd love it, personally, but I suspect it won't happen, as it would come dangerously close to helping us be the "masters of crowd control" that our class description claims we are. ;-)

Let's have our instant-cast more-effective Mind Soothe back again, too, please.

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"the lack of [PVP] escaping abilities, entrapment/snaring abilities or crowd control abilities."... except AOE fear, silence, heal-over-time, dispel and a damageshield, all of which can be cast while running and have short cooldowns; 10% chance to stun on attack; Mind flay to snare; a instacast dot that keeps people in combat and out of stealth; and the rather helpful ability to completly stun a player while inspiring them to leap from the nearest cliff.

This is laughable.

AoE fear: there are just too many ways to break this. Not just the two commonest of the trinket and will of the forsaken, but also engineering (lots of this in pvp), whichever of the warrior abilities it is that counters it but also - and this is the real killer - any damage delivered to the target. I used to be able to reliably fear and mind flay someone before they got back to me and mashed me. Now I have to hope they don't break out of the fear early AND my damage doesn't break it AND fear hasn't bugged and they haven't actually run anywhere.

Silence is deep in the shadow tree, lasts 5 seconds (1.5 of which you'll be on cooldown yourself), and has a much longer cooldown than mage's counterspell (which isn't a talent). This isn't a problem of itself, but the complaints in the concerns thread were around holy/disc priest survivability in pvp, not just shadow.

Heal over time is useful, except you won't be ticking that high if you're shadow (and you can't cast it on yourself if you're in shadowform). Dispel is very powerful, but is being nerfed (much higher mana cost in 1.9).

I don't count 26 (with talents) and 45 seconds as "short cooldowns", either. Most pvp fights will be over in that timeframe. You also can't count mind flay as a decent snare, either, since it stops snaring the instant mind flay ends, and you can't run anywhere while you're casting it, making it useless for gaining distance from melee opponents.

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"they feel that it is actually only the Undead and the Dwarf racial spells that are useful in the game".  I can't speak for the trolls and humans, but shadowmeld comes in handy, both for opting out of a bad pull and PvP ambushing.

Well, what you can't speak for is exactly the problem area. Trolls get the royal shaft, whereas the humans get a _melee_ skill. Compare and contrast to fear ward and will of the forsaken/devouring plague. Shadowmeld is nice to the point of being overpowered, especially on the end of a hunter with aimed shot.

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"For an example change some of the spells so that they have a shorter casting time or even an instant casting time" bleh.  Must every class have everything? Lack of instant DPS and AoE is one of those things that makes priests priests and not shamans that can't wear mail.

So you'd rather the priest was completely gimped, just for the sake of it not being similar to another class? Bizarre. The point is vague, anyway; there are plenty of spells that could be made instant and thus more useful without resorting to the DPS ones (or the non-existent AoE ones, holy joke aside); shadowguard, for a start, or mind soothe. Hell, even mind blast wouldn't be that overpowered given the cooldown (compare to mage's fire blast, maybe?).

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"Shorter Cooldown for AoE Fear" Getting 2 fears off while being double-teamed by melee classes is not uncommon.

Yes, it is, especially if you're on your own. The shorter cooldown would also help against the various ways to break fear. If you trinket out of a mage's polymorph, you'll get immediately resheeped.

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"Give the Priest an ability to cast spells while moving." What, greater heal? Mind Blast?  Most priest skills are already instants.

Eh? Base priests (racials aside) have one instant spammable spell, given talents - mind flay - and one dot. We have one "instant" heal over time. None of our other heals are instant.

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AFAIK there's no such thing as holy resist at all

It is possible, at least for PvE monsters, to partially resist holy damage; I assume the same is also true for players, although I have no proof of this.

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You don't have to be shadow specced; spirit tap requires no other shadow points.

But does require you to kill a green mob/player. You also have to get the killing blow. If you're going for spirit tap as well as blackout, which you vaunted earlier as being desirable, that's 10 points in shadow which is going to lock your choices in disc/holy somewhat; if you're pvping without improved pw:s, you're going to die more often.

Assume the bits that I didn't quote are things I agree with ;-)