Reposting my beta feedback in response to once again clear negligence toward Priest and general class favoritism with the most recent 11.0.5 patch notes.
A Woe for Modern Class Development: Priest
From Legion to Shadowlands the priority of class design shifted in favor of expansion specific borrowed power. This shift in priority was justified when the systems like Legion Artifacts, Azerite Armor/Essences, and Covenants were the main selling point of the expansions and so took the majority of development time. But since Dragonflight classes have been the selling point of the expansions. Yet as a Priest I cannot help but feel that classes continue to have a lower priority.
Why is it when the selling points of Dragonflight and the War Within and classes are at the forefront of marketing and features, that class changes during development feel similar to when they were not the focus of the expansion? Why must my class go for two years and two development cycles without addressing core issues identified by the community? It is my impression that while the face of classes may have been lifted, they are still designed in a similar manner to when they were not the focus of the expansion.
In short, I feel that the process in which classes are designed is obsolete and needs to be revisited.
Consistency
Having 13 classes in the game and 39 specs poses a real challenge in keeping parity between them while keeping them unique across the board. The goal is to have a shared set of standards for the classes, no matter how or when they are being worked on, so each one feels like it is receiving similar treatment. As a player, I don’t want to feel like I am at the mercy of a developer when it comes to my class. That isn’t to say that individual developers can’t leave their personal touches on a class, but there needs to be some promises shared across classes. Whether explicitly stated or implicit in design, this consistency ensures that no class feels left out when experiencing the variety of content that is in the game.
I am not advocating for homogenizing classes. I am a proponent of class envy, but there is a difference between being envious of a class because they do something unique, and being envious due to being left out.
If you tell me that Shadow Priests are getting their instant cast procs removed because you want to reduce mobility, then why is it that Fire Mages can be lite Beast Mastery Hunters? If you nerf the Angel’s Mercy talent for our defensive mid-tier, why is it that you add absurd suvivability to Paladins in the same tier? If you remove Shining Force because you want to reduce knockbacks in PvP, why do you add it to Shamans in the next expansion? If you make interrupts accessible to every spec in the game, why are healing Priests suddenly exempt from that? Why is it that Priests are getting their utility spells nerfed for solving problems added by the combat team? Priest feels as if it is being designed with different standards than the other classes.
Aside from these statements of design goals given by the developers, I feel that there should be metrics that all classes adhere to to stay comparable to one another. If as a Priest I have one of the lowest survivability, lowest mobility, and most niche utility kit, how can I possibly justify playing my class if only for the Priest fantasy? Enjoyment for my class comes from how it plays, not just how it looks.
It frustrates me when I see the tools other classes have compared to mine, without any compensating factors for my class. Repeatedly relying on the tools of others of which my class has no access to creates a lack of agency that is simply not fun.
Completion
It has been exhausting to see Shadow Priest repeatedly reworked over the past 6 years, with each rework removing some problems while introducing others, and seemingly never finished. Admittedly identifying something in a creative discipline as “finished” is difficult, but by playing it a player can feel when a design is incomplete. This has been the case for Shadow since Battle for Azeroth, and recently Priests since Dragonflight.
While we may not know the full reasons for this incomplete state, as a community we know that Shadow Priest has not had the same developer per expansion since at least Legion and Priest’s developer quit at the beginning of Dragonflight development. It is understandable that people leave and move around in companies, but we as players should not suffer for it. The designs introduced by those who left can continue to be iterated on instead of reworked from scratch. And the community can be leveraged to complete that work when knowledge of the class is low for those new working on it.
I wish small wins were taken more often when it comes to iteration on classes. Even when no active development is happening on a class, small changes to it can make the largest of improvements. So much favor of the Priest community would be gained by making the smallest adjustments to address current gripes we have. We are no longer fighting Fyrakk so you can revert the Mass Dispel nerf. Give us our 20 seconds back on Power Infusion because Unholy Death Knight is now way less ramp heavy. Buff Spell Warding to 5% so it is comparable to Elemental Warding after Shaman rework. Make Shadowy Insight grant a temporary charge to Mind Blast so we can benefit from it with Voidweaver. And even if you’re planning on addressing these in the next Priest update, why make a class continue to suffer until then when temporary fixes can be made so effortlessly?
It’s small changes like these that can take an unfinished rework to finished, and deciding to restart the iteration process—instead of seeing it to completion—as many times has been done is the definition of insanity.
Communication
Frequent communication is paramount to the feedback cycle for development. Without it, it is impossible to discern why changes are made, and leaving it up to interpretation simply muddles the feedback process. It also creates rapport with those involved, so the sheer lack of communication of some classes during The War Within beta compared to previous expansions is confounding.
Continuous communication can massively speed up the development process. If when changes are introduced the intent behind those changes is also stated, we can immediately begin testing them out and tailoring feedback specific to the design goals. Without knowing the intent behind changes and instead needing to interpret them, feedback may no longer be valuable because the interpretation may be wrong. Without valuable feedback, how is an iterating design expected to move in the right direction? Without valuable feedback, iteration to a final design will take more time because the design’s goal is unknown.
This development cycle Priest received zero communication regarding changes to either the base talents or Hero talents, aside from Oracle prior to its rework. What we received was the opening blue that is the same for all classes and then copies of beta patch notes which we already knew. After around 1000 posts it’s no wonder the community starts to feel ignored when we are in fact being ignored. What’s the point of feedback forums when the communication is only one way?
Aside from lack of communication, the delivery of communication needs to be re-evaluated. It was both disappointing and frustrating to have months of silence broken by what was effectively a PR article using excuses to justify the negligence of Priest during the Dragonflight beta. Telling the community earlier that Priest would not be further worked on instead of months of silence would have received a better reaction from us. Then tell us you plan on revisiting the class in the near future, of which neither happened.
If you wish to reduce rework during development and retain the favor of the players, communicate more frequently and respectfully.
Did Blizzard forget about Priest? Do they not care? Do they not have the time? I haven’t played other classes so I can’t say if these problems are pervasive, but at least when it comes to Priest they have been problems for too long. My conclusion after years of these issues repeatedly occurring is that the process itself is flawed. Whether it’s Priest specific, or Priest is the only class I’m aware of that is affected, at best you are fostering frustration within an entire community.
Until there is a clear shift with the process of class design, the only feedback I can provide is the following:
- Better consistency in design philosophy
- Better completion of class changes
- Above all else, better communication
And as always,
#priestsdeservebetter