So, I'm quickly closing in on level 80, and I find myself faced with a decision. When I created my priest, I did it so I could heal. I love healing, and especially love it on a priest. However, after getting tired of terrible pugs, I went shadow to blow through 70-80. In the process, I ended up doing an instance run for some dungeon quests, and got recruited to a raiding guild based on my performance.
Shadow is sorta neat, I could potentially see myself staying shadow and using the dual spec feature (when it arrives) to heal on the side. However, I am concerned about the WotLK nerfs to shadow. I'm not an expert on this by any means, but in BC, shadow priests were pretty much mana batteries for caster/healing groups, providing great DPS at the same time. Now I just don't see our utility. A pally using JoW gives the same effect as our VT, and they don't stack. VE heals for such small amounts, apart from keeping myself a tiny bit healed, I can't see anyone caring. There will generally be holy priests for Fort and shadow protection, and I'm not going to spec down to the spirit buff either way.
I'd hate to stay shadow, get all geared up, only to find that in tierX content, I'm the new boomkin. If I went holy, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be raid viable forever. Thoughts?
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Raiding as shadow?Follow
Do what you feel you like most?
If that's shadow, gather holy gear along the way?
If that's shadow, gather holy gear along the way?
Meh, I created this toon to see content. I'm hoping for some insights on shadow raiding from those that might be doing it currently.
They have changed how shadow priests work in groups, so that we are no longer a "utility class". What that means, is we no longer fill the niche for buffs and regeneration, but in exchange, they gave us more competative spell damage. We're almost like a moonkin, now.
Blizzard is systematically homogenizing all the classes, and there really is not much of a reason to prefer one kind of DPS for another, unless there is a class-specific skill like Shackle that's needed.
I would just do the dual-spec when they release it, then you can roll on all the caster gear.
Blizzard is systematically homogenizing all the classes, and there really is not much of a reason to prefer one kind of DPS for another, unless there is a class-specific skill like Shackle that's needed.
I would just do the dual-spec when they release it, then you can roll on all the caster gear.
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Blizzard is systematically homogenizing all the classes, and there really is not much of a reason to prefer one kind of DPS for another,
It's true, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who's getting more and more upset by this. One of the big reasons my Shammy is getting so little play time lately compared to my priest is the way DK's now bring all the buffs I did without having to lose DPS time to lay totems every 2-5 minutes.
From what I hear, Naxx is stupidly easy. Who knows what will happen when they release further tier dungeons, but as I understood it, the problem with boomkins for example was that they didn't have the sustainable mana pool to maintain DPS for long boss fights. I may be totally wrong.
Since Naxx is supposedly not a challenge, I just wonder if the situations that make one DPS outshine other has even been discovered yet. I guess I'd just hate to have invested a ton of time into shadow gear, only to find we aren't raid viable past T7.
Since Naxx is supposedly not a challenge, I just wonder if the situations that make one DPS outshine other has even been discovered yet. I guess I'd just hate to have invested a ton of time into shadow gear, only to find we aren't raid viable past T7.
I still raid as shadow for the most part and heal on the side when we have people away. I think you're misinterpreting the changes to shadow from TBC, yes we were a mana battery, but by no means were we doing great DPS. Thats basically all that was changed. At the moment I'm still able to stay competitive on damage, we scale a lot better than we used to.
At the end of the day, you can't just judge a class on what it brings to a raid any more. Apart from fortitude, there is no priest buff/debuff that isn't catered for by another class. See http://www.wotlkwiki.info/index.php/Game_Mechanics#tab=Buff_Stacking_Changes for details. This of course applies to other classes also and therefore is far less important than it used to be.
If you're worried about going shadow, and then not having the option of speccing another way because your gear for the other spec is behind then don't. Raids at the moment are loot buffets. I already have a full healing set comprising of heroic and non heroic raid gear from all raid instances. There is just that much stuff to be had.
At the end of the day, you can't just judge a class on what it brings to a raid any more. Apart from fortitude, there is no priest buff/debuff that isn't catered for by another class. See http://www.wotlkwiki.info/index.php/Game_Mechanics#tab=Buff_Stacking_Changes for details. This of course applies to other classes also and therefore is far less important than it used to be.
If you're worried about going shadow, and then not having the option of speccing another way because your gear for the other spec is behind then don't. Raids at the moment are loot buffets. I already have a full healing set comprising of heroic and non heroic raid gear from all raid instances. There is just that much stuff to be had.
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If you're worried about going shadow, and then not having the option of speccing another way because your gear for the other spec is behind then don't.
Shadow sorta excludes holy in terms of gear, but the switch from shadow to discipline seems easy enough. Toss hit rating, add intellect, and you're essentially good to go. Everything else, like spellpower, haste, and crit - things you'll be looking for as a shadow priest will just carry over.
Slots for AoE healers are limited too as you'll find yourself competing with Shamans and Druids amongst other holy priests, whereas as a disc priest you can fill a niche that's truly unique.
I don't see how you're limiting yourself in any way by staying shadow for the time being.
My point was that loot is so easy to get now that there's practically no excuse for not building a healing set also. Its better than letting the excess loot get disenchanted.
I've been die-hard Shadow ever since I could first shift into Shadow form. Unfortunately, on my server there seems to be some kind of healing shortage because 99% of the instances I've done, have been to heal rather than DPS, much to my disappointment. I've finally sucked it up and re-spec'd as Disc to run some instances and get some gear until the mythical day that dual specs are released (of course, I've found soloing as Disc kind of sucks compared to Shadow where I blew through stuff with no issues).
Ironically now, I spend hours LFG now and get like no invites. -.- I must just have horrible timing. At least I have time to (try to) fish up my Giant Rat pet in the Dalaran Sewers.
I do miss Dispersion though so much.
Ironically now, I spend hours LFG now and get like no invites. -.- I must just have horrible timing. At least I have time to (try to) fish up my Giant Rat pet in the Dalaran Sewers.
I do miss Dispersion though so much.
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Ironically now, I spend hours LFG now and get like no invites.
Seems to be quite common these days. Probably not coincidence that feral druids pretty much disappeared. Works for me, though, as it allowed me to actually switch the other way - to the dark side - and work on finishing all my quests while still having no problem to find a group to dps for. It also improves my healing quite a bit since I get to focus a little more on surroundings and fight mechanics rather than just watching health bars. Thanks to Outfitter and Talented, a respec is done as fast as I can get to a trainer, so I'm getting some healing time too if I have to.
Almost have all the gear I could possibly want for all 3 specs from heroics, resulting in one stack of shards after another. Works for me...
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