Please help me enjoy playing a priest.

[Quixfire]

I started playing my Dwarf priest again on Stonemaul with my wife. She has gotten bored playing without me and our recent adventures with our Horde characters on Shadow Moon. I tried doing Zul? Farak last night with my wife?s guild mates. 51 Paladin, 53 Rogue (wife), 46 Priest (Me), 45 Priest, & 42 Rogue and I had an awful time. First let me state I know we should have had a Warrior with us but this guild is lacking in warriors more than priests. Second I?m a shadow spec priest and the other priest is Holy/Disc spec. I also haven?t played a priest for at least a month so I was a little rusty and was thinking more like a warrior than a priest.

We started by flying into Tanaris and I was able to land and summon my mount with no trouble. On the way to the instance six horde players attacked me and I was killed. They decided to camp my corpse but I was able to enter the instance without dying a second time. Once inside we where fine up to the point where the first tablet dropped. We killed the boss but a patrol jumped us and I was dead before anyone could pull them off me. (Did I mention I hate to die?) So I get rezzed and we proceed to the next area and we successfully complete the temple fight and I get the Divinomatic Rod. Our group decides to go after the two bosses in the center area after that door opens. We enter and try to pull one of the snakes away but end p getting all four on us. I die, the other priest dies, and then the rest of the party is killed. We run back to the instance and everyone but my wife and I make without incident. I get tagged by a patrol and was dismounted. I start running and my wife starts attacking the two mobs to protect me. I stand there knowing if I heal her the other mob will charge me and I?m dead again. (Did I mention I hate dying?) With her health below 50% I cast fade and I cast a healing spell. The other party members still haven't arrived to assist us. Once I healed her a second time the extra mob runs towards me and b1tch slaps me to death. My wife see me die uses vanish and meets up with the rest of the party. I get rezzed by the Paladin and we move on. Now I?m getting steamed and I let my group know how pissed off I am at playing this stupid priest. We move on to get the second tablet and while fighting the boss a patrol wipes us. We run back and the body of the boss is gone so we wait and wait and wait some more for the boss to respawn. While waiting I moved back down the path while the rest of the group waited near the spawn site. The group arggos another patrol and starts dying I decide to wait back so I can rezz everyone afterwards because I know if I starting helping the extra mobs will beat me to death within seconds. But my planned backfired and I was chased until I died even though I wasn't in combat while my other party members were battling. I apologized to the group because my plan failed. They were OK with what happened but I died again and I?m fuming mad now at how weak the priest class is. We regroup in the instance once again and try for the second tablet again. This time I don?t care what happens to me and I die in a matter of seconds. At this time I?m done and I let my party know I?m not coming back. BTW, I also suffered from random disconnects the whole time I played last night which is also pissing me off about this game.

Now what I have a problem with is now weak a priest is compared to a mage or warlock. We cannot deal any serious damage nor can we effectively escape mobs or other players. I?m at my wits end playing this class and after last night I am ready to delete my level 46 dwarf priest and say to hell with Stonemaul. Before I do so I would like to hear from fellow WoW players on how I can enjoy playing this class? Please understand I enjoy playing my warriors on Bronzebeard and Shadow Moon but the priest class drives me nuts.

Cliff Notes
1) I hate dying. (Did I mention that yet?)
2) I feel the priest class is too weak to be effective in PvP or in instances when things go bad.
3) I have had bad experiences playing a priest.
4) I want to understand what the hell I am doing wrong.
5) Or should I just give this bastard class up and stick with the warrior class.

I will say playing a priest has taught me to respect those priests around me when playing my warriors to the point that I will go out of my way to protect and reward them for their role in a group.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Originally posted by: Quixfire
I started playing my Dwarf priest again on Stonemaul with my wife. She has gotten bored playing without me and our recent adventures with our Horde characters on Shadow Moon. I tried doing Zul? Farak last night with my wife?s guild mates. 51 Paladin, 53 Rogue (wife), 46 Priest (Me), 45 Priest, & 42 Rogue and I had an awful time. First let me state I know we should have had a Warrior with us but this guild is lacking in warriors more than priests. Second I?m a shadow spec priest and the other priest is Holy/Disc spec. I also haven?t played a priest for at least a month so I was a little rusty and was thinking more like a warrior than a priest.

We started by flying into Tanaris and I was able to land and summon my mount with no trouble. On the way to the instance six horde players attacked me and I was killed. They decided to camp my corpse but I was able to enter the instance without dying a second time. Once inside we where fine up to the point where the first tablet dropped. We killed the boss but a patrol jumped us and I was dead before anyone could pull them off me. (Did I mention I hate to die?) So I get rezzed and we proceed to the next area and we successfully complete the temple fight and I get the Divinomatic Rod. Our group decides to go after the two bosses in the center area after that door opens. We enter and try to pull one of the snakes away but end p getting all four on us. I die, the other priest dies, and then the rest of the party is killed. We run back to the instance and everyone but my wife and I make without incident. I get tagged by a patrol and was dismounted. I start running and my wife starts attacking the two mobs to protect me. I stand there knowing if I heal her the other mob will charge me and I?m dead again. (Did I mention I hate dying?) With her health below 50% I cast fade and I cast a healing spell. The other party members still haven't arrived to assist us. Once I healed her a second time the extra mob runs towards me and b1tch slaps me to death. My wife see me die uses vanish and meets up with the rest of the party. I get rezzed by the Paladin and we move on. Now I?m getting steamed and I let my group know how pissed off I am at playing this stupid priest. We move on to get the second tablet and while fighting the boss a patrol wipes us. We run back and the body of the boss is gone so we wait and wait and wait some more for the boss to respawn. While waiting I moved back down the path while the rest of the group waited near the spawn site. The group arggos another patrol and starts dying I decide to wait back so I can rezz everyone afterwards because I know if I starting helping the extra mobs will beat me to death within seconds. But my planned backfired and I was chased until I died even though I wasn't in combat while my other party members were battling. I apologized to the group because my plan failed. They were OK with what happened but I died again and I?m fuming mad now at how weak the priest class is. We regroup in the instance once again and try for the second tablet again. This time I don?t care what happens to me and I die in a matter of seconds. At this time I?m done and I let my party know I?m not coming back. BTW, I also suffered from random disconnects the whole time I played last night which is also pissing me off about this game.

Now what I have a problem with is now weak a priest is compared to a mage or warlock. We cannot deal any serious damage nor can we effectively escape mobs or other players. I?m at my wits end playing this class and after last night I am ready to delete my level 46 dwarf priest and say to hell with Stonemaul. Before I do so I would like to hear from fellow WoW players on how I can enjoy playing this class? Please understand I enjoy playing my warriors on Bronzebeard and Shadow Moon but the priest class drives me nuts.

Cliff Notes
1) I hate dying. (Did I mention that yet?)
2) I feel the priest class is too weak to be effective in PvP or in instances when things go bad.
3) I have had bad experiences playing a priest.
4) I want to understand what the hell I am doing wrong.
5) Or should I just give this bastard class up and stick with the warrior class.

I will say playing a priest has taught me to respect those priests around me when playing my warriors to the point that I will go out of my way to protect and reward them for their role in a group.

Priest is a good class.
PVP Build:
WoW Talent TemplateSaved Template

Class: Priest
Level: 60




Discipline Talents (17 points)


Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%.


Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15
seconds.


Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.


Martyrdom - 2/2 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6
seconds after being the victim of a critical strike. The Focused Casting effect
prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage.


Focused Casting - 1/1 point
While active, you no longer lose casting time from taking damage. Lasts 8
seconds.


Mental Agility - 4/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 8%.



Holy Talents (0 points)


None

Shadow Talents (34 points)


Blackout - 5/5 points
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.


Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds.


Shadow Focus - 3/5 points
Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 6%.


Improved Psychic Scream - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream ability by 4 seconds.


Improved Mind Blast - 5/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds.


Mind Flay - 1/1 point
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds
and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.


Shadow Reach - 3/3 points
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 20%.


Vampiric Embrace - 1/1 point
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be
healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you deal for 1 minute.


Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be
vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage
dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.


Silence - 1/1 point
Silence the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.


Darkness - 5/5 points
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%.


Shadowform - 1/1 point
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical
damage done to you by 15%. However, you may only cast Shadow and Discipline
spells while in this form.

 

[ggnl]

In instances, a priest is only as good as his party. After SM, you have to have a warrior in your party. There is no other class that can keep the priest alive if things go wrong.
I ran ZF once with 2 lvl 60s in the party and we still had a tough time because noone could keep the mobs off the healer (me). Every fight was a race to kill them before they killed me.

The fun part of playing a priest is when you have a good party, and you sail right through a tough dungeon.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Priest PVE Build: I just made.
You also have to realize that since you can't fear in instances you have to rely on your groupmates alot. Especially important is how well your warriors hold aggro. The builds I showed you are balanced betw pvp and pve (non-instance). Priest is a really strong class...stronger than mages and warlocks in terms of squisyness. I don't post on at anymore but if you have any further questions you can try sending me a pm or finding me ingame. I play on shattered hand alliance as "profit".

WoW Talent TemplateSaved Template

Class: Priest
Level: 60




Discipline Talents (13 points)


Silent Resolve - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your damage spells by 20%.


Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15
seconds.


Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.


Martyrdom - 2/2 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6
seconds after being the victim of a critical strike. The Focused Casting effect
prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage.


Focused Casting - 1/1 point
While active, you no longer lose casting time from taking damage. Lasts 8
seconds.



Holy Talents (0 points)


None

Shadow Talents (38 points)


Spirit Tap - 5/5 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a
target. For the duration, your Mana may regenerate at a 50% rate while casting.
Lasts 15 seconds.


Blackout - 5/5 points
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.


Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds.


Shadow Affinity - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 25%.


Improved Mind Blast - 5/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds.


Improved Psychic Scream - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream ability by 4 seconds.


Mind Flay - 1/1 point
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds
and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.


Shadow Reach - 2/3 points
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 13%.


Improved Fade - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Fade ability by 10 seconds.


Vampiric Embrace - 1/1 point
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be
healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you deal for 1 minute.


Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be
vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage
dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.


Silence - 1/1 point
Silence the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.


Darkness - 1/5 point
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 2%.


Shadowform - 1/1 point
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical
damage done to you by 15%. However, you may only cast Shadow and Discipline
spells while in this form.

 

[chowmein]

2 priests in a party is too much. a L42 rogue has no business in ZF. you need a mage in zf for a smooth run.

i think your priest will get some invites to Maraudon.

 

[FearoftheNight]

oh yea zf = 46+ minimum

 

[torpid]

(edit: removed quote)

OK... here goes various points from reading your story:

1. You died frequently to patrols. How did you let this happen? Was this one of your first trips to zul or something? If so, I guess it's understandable. If not, then whoever was "organizing" the party was at fault, because the patrols run in predictable patterns. Unless your fights were lasting exceptionally long, you should rarely get caught in the middle of battle by a patrol. Not to mention that you had two rogues who were capable of scouting the area.

2. When the group wipes, you all go back together. Either you were too impatient in trying to get back to your spot or your group was selfish and did not wait to escort you. The group should never expect you to make it back on your own as a priest. That's just stupid.

3. It's hard to say why you were getting attacked all the time with two priests, but something was definitely wrong. It could be that the paladin and whatever rogue was the "secondary" tank did a poor job keeping aggro. Or it could be that you did not use "aggro efficient" heals. Or was it that the paladin was not tanking and you had to go heal crazy on a rogue?

More likely, it could be that your rogues did not do proper crowd control. Did you use mind control + sap? I'd say overall that you were getting attacked because the group did not do crowd control properly, most likely.

Priests do die more than most classes, but they shouldn't die as much as you were dying. And if groups die with two priests that frequently, well that's just wrong.

 

[abaez]

Agreed, two priests in a party is too much.

Second, if you were a mage or warlock, what situation/spells that they had would have saved you? You would have died anyway. It was just a bad night, and ZF is actually a pretty hard instance for pickup groups.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: abaez
Agreed, two priests in a party is too much.

Second, if you were a mage or warlock, what situation/spells that they had would have saved you? You would have died anyway. It was just a bad night, and ZF is actually a pretty hard instance for pickup groups.

I dunno, I like two priests in a group. Especially if they are shadow and one priest can be a part time damage dealer.

 

[Concillian]

I also have a level 46 priest.

If I am grouped with a reliable warrior I have a good time, and things generally go well

If I am grouped with a warrior who still thinks taunt is his primary aggro tool, things are extremely frustrating and I generally do not have a good time. Often we have several wipes.

rarely there is another party member who can ruin the group, but it happens. My personal feeling though is that well over half of party success rests on the shoulders of the warrior. This goes double when you are exclusively considering 'priest enjoyment factor'.

It's basically that simple. A priests life in a later instance is either a breeze or extremely frustrating, rarely have I found a middle ground. I have a person that I play regularly with. We have two duos, one is me priest / him mage, the other is me warrior / him shaman. We have been frustrated three times at Uldaman with the priest/mage because we have a hard time finding a decent warrior (and no paladins for us hoardies... maybe that's a good thing). However, our warrior/shaman duo has only been involved in TWO wipes. Why? because with Warrior as Main Tank and Shaman as Main Assist you have aggro LOCKED DOWN, and you have to have a really bent party member to ruin the group.

Priests are at the mercy of others, I don't really see any other explanation. There is only so much you can do when a warrior has four on him, is down to half health and has only attacked one target. I always dread that moment. I know the second I heal him three mobs are going to turn straight at me... and I know I HAVE to heal him.

You are used to playing a warrior, and I assume when you play your warrior you are well aware of your aggro tools and utilize them for party success. You have a large portion of the control that goes into party success when you are playing your warrior. You switch to priest and you suddenly have little control of "good" aggro... it is a very different role.

The game does a HORRIBLE job at demonstrating what a tank needs to do to hold aggro, and what actually happens behind him when he does not. It's criminal how little information there is in-game about tank aggro control. Healer aggro and damage class aggro is significantly more apparent, even though there is no formal instruction on that either. Personally I think this is a fundamental flaw in the game itself. WoW has been marketed as a casual friendly MMORPG, and as such you are not forced to group much... so there is significantly less 'practice' of group roles compared with other MMORPGs. Without instruction of how to handle group situations, you are very susceptible to a single misinformed or misfit party member ruining 2 hours of what should be a fun experience for 3-4 other people.

What you discovered is one of the hidden aspects that keeps people from playing priests. Priests are dependent upon others to do well in a group situation, yet others will often see party sucess hinging upon the priest. My opinion is that the healer has fairly SMALL role in party success, but I think only classes who realize this are priests and druids.

Bottom line though is that it's a game you play for enjoyment. If you don't enjoy playing your priest, then ... uh ... don't.

 

[magomago]

I'm not specced as shadow, and I'm much lower level (26) but what a level 60 shadow once told me was that a shadow preist in instances should play more support roles. They shouldn't be the first to attack an enemy, but when an enemy is around 25% and you know you can cast something very strong to knock him very quickly do it because he won't live long enough with a warrior on him to get to you. At the same time you have spells that can be very useful (fear? just don't cast when there are too many other enmies b/c you don't want him to grab enemies) when the group needs it, AND in times that you need to heal you can.

But it really sounds like you would enjoy a warrior more (obviously) or maybe a druid.

Concillian, I think you are right when you say that the warrior is an important role to a successful party. But i'll take it a step further and say that the interaction between the warrior and a preist is the most important FACTOR/KEY/BLA for a party. I think the roles between the two are too intertwined to say one is more important and you can EASILY make a case for both...but it is defnitely unanimous that they both combnied are the most important role. OTher groups have important roles to play, but if the warrior/preist cannot communicate for them it will be for naught. IF you have someone that isn't sure exactly what to do but a very solid preist/warrior the team has a much better chance at finishing, and even if tey do get wiped out you can guarantee they'll last a LOT longer.

 

[Shortcut]

on a side note, the pally in your group was a n00b for not casting blessing of protection on you when you got aggro.

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: magomago

Concillian, I think you are right when you say that the warrior is an important role to a successful party. But i'll take it a step further and say that the interaction between the warrior and a preist is the most important FACTOR/KEY/BLA for a party. I think the roles between the two are too intertwined to say one is more important and you can EASILY make a case for both...but it is defnitely unanimous that they both combnied are the most important role.

I don't think it's unanimous, because I don't agree.

Actually I do agree... IF the aggro control isn't very good. If the aggro control is not very good, a priest has to tell the warrior how to manage aggro, because the priest is a slave to the classes who can manage aggro and take a beating. But then doesn't that make healer / tank interactions of secondary importance to the interactions of the classes who the whole party wants mobs to be beating on, those who should be controlling aggro?

I feel that the most important factor is the MT/MA (main tank / main assist) interaction. Because these are who manage aggro even moreso than the healer. These are the ones with superior defense, the ones the whole party wants the mobs beating on. It is only when this breaks down that the priest matters much at all.

The basic concept of MT/MA is that the MT can spread aggro generation skills around to fight against an AoE breakout like a priest or mage might cause, while the MA can burst aggro single target breakouts as needed and has reasonably high defense in the case that happens, but mostly focuses the parties DPS on his target (everyone else attacks the MA's target by choosing his portrait, then hitting F)

If that occurs, the priests job is really easy. I mean what is healer's part of this tank/healer interaction if the tanks rocks? I've been in groups like this with my priest and my part of the interaction was like "Damn, you are an awesome warrior"

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: Concillian
The basic concept of MT/MA is that the MT can spread aggro generation skills around to fight against an AoE breakout like a priest or mage might cause, while the MA can burst aggro single target breakouts as needed and has reasonably high defense in the case that happens, but mostly focuses the parties DPS on his target (everyone else attacks the MA's target by choosing his portrait, then hitting F)

If that occurs, the priests job is really easy. I mean what is healer's part of this tank/healer interaction if the tanks rocks? I've been in groups like this with my priest and my part of the interaction was like "Damn, you are an awesome warrior"

There's heaps of things - from a skilled player's perspective many of them seem common sense and obvious, but they are all things that need to be learned somewhere.

Some examples -

Know when it's safe to do damage and when it's better to save mana
If using SW, DoT the correct mobs
Know the type and frequency of heals needed for a given fight - is it better to let the tank drop to 25% before healing to gain extra efficiency from crit heals, or is it imperative to keep them above 75% even if that wastes heal power due to heal debuffs and spike damage ?
Be aware of how aggro works, and how long it takes a tank to build sufficient aggro to prevent adds from rushing you when you use a given heal
Knowing that sometimes when you get aggro, that running around in giant circles and jumping is counterproductive
Be aware of positioning, line of sight and range to the tank who may need to move to maintain aggro
Know what mobs have abilities that clear aggro, and time your big heals accordingly
Know that in some circumstances a silence or nuke can be worth 10 heals, and be able to judge those circumstances on the fly

 

[EvanB]

Shadow priests are the most powerful pvp class in wow, keep that in mind. I would never play a priest to do anything but pvp, being a mindless healbot doesnt appeal to me. But I would enjoy being a shadow priest. If you get bored with instances spec shadow and see how you do.

 

[iversonyin]

your group sucked...2 rogues + 2 priests + a pally? thats must be one of the worst combo to begin with.

L42 doing ZF? second mistake

Shadow priest definitely 0wn in PvP, unless ambush by rogue...which can be instant death. as for instance, shadow priest should be a primary healer with Pally as secondary.

also, did you get blessing of salvation from the pally? that help awefully alot in instance

this was jus a crappy group to begin with, it has nothing to do with the priest class