I occasionally look at the population breakdown by class for kicks* and today I noticed something curious. Of the 5 classes and 6 specs, there’s a yawning gap between them.
At 120, the top two classes (druid and paladin) can heal, but the other 3 - Monk, Shaman, and Priest - are 12, 11, and 9. I was a little shocked by how low the Priest has fallen in playability.
What gives there? I personally hate playing Priest currently, but I was under the impression everyone else loved them (esp. Disc.). Is this just a content-lag bringing out the alts, or is there a trend happening? I also see DH shot up from monk-like levels of unpopularity, to being tied for 4th with Hunters. Might have something to do with it.
I can only give my opinion on the state of priest, but I started BFA as a disc main. From the perspective of PvP and some light M+, it was personally disheartening seeing nerf after nerf come at me when it already felt like I had to work harder than my fellow healers. After a while it was just easier to throw my hands up and say “OKAY Blizz! I’ll play a freakin Druid!”
8.0 i was still doing RBG on my priest and it was overpowered at that point. I was expecting a nerf, so when the first wave came it wasn’t bad. I felt we were in a good place for the long haul. But then it just kept happening…
Disc is difficult and unforgiving. It is hard to pick up and is not rewarding until you know the fights and what you are doing, then it is amazing. So chalk disc to a high barrier of entry.
Holy is a jack of all trades, master of none. We can do everything, but why bring us when you can bring someone who does it better and has better utility. We lack utility(compared to other healers) , Zero mobility even locks have better mobility than a priest, and we are so “balanced” that we do not put out the numbers we should, call it the price for simplicity.
Priest is a vastly different class now than it was in Vanilla and even pre-Legion. It’s only gotten weirder and they’re not at all balanced. At least other healers can do well in a variety of content, but Holy and Disc feel very one-note in playstyle and limited in places where they shine. And at least for me, the places where they shine aren’t necessarily where they’re most fun - Disc is great in raids, but irritating and spammy to play. I enjoy Holy more for raids and Disc feels better in 5 mans.
I have a Priest I usually main, but I’ve been having more fun on this HPal lately. They should take a look at the Priest in Classic and find some middle ground between that and BfA Priest. Neither is perfect, but Classic Priest is better between the two of them. It feels more fun to play and is a more well-rounded class in both capability and variety of the playstyle. BfA Priest is essentially 3 vastly different classes right now and it needs to be re-united and rethought out. It’s having an identity crisis.
It was nice to see Disc moving into a damage tree, but IMO they should make it a primary damage ability that passively off-heals, and more the major healing portions into Holy.
I guess I’m differentiating between speed and movement. Hardcasting is what I consider bad mobility but I think I’m the only one who frames it this way.
That is never going to work. Priest has always had two healing specs and always been the only class to have that. It’s been the traditional RPG healer class and a reason why some flock to it. There would be so much backlash if you removed one of the healing specs. Disc has always had a different identity from Holy that’s attracted people to it. They just keep changing what that identity is and messing with it. It’s almost not even a healer any more and that’s not a good thing.
This doesn’t comport with the reality on the ground. Survival went from Ranged to Melee despite the backlash. And the difference between Holy and Disc in vanilla was viability.
Druid’s have an incredibly strong kit, access to all 4 roles (melee and ranged dps being separate here) and have generally been in a good spot for a very long time. Resto Druids being the defacto M+ healer all of BFA.
Paladins are another super popular class and Holy Paladin has been a staple in raids for a while now.
Priests suffer from Disc being stressful in situations where people are taking unnecessary damage and just if you don’t know encounters well. Holy is much more straightforward, but to it’s own downfall as it doesn’t really have much going for it to separate it from the pack.
Monk/Shaman are both in an awkward spot as being generally less played and not offering the same strengths as Resto Druid in M+ or Hpally/Disc in Raiding. Though Resto Shaman has an incredible utility kit and the whole “battle shaman” thing has popularity.
I play my priest in battle ground alot, and the reality is half maybe 5 out 10 games top the healing chart.
One on one it’s hard to kill a good gear priest . Instaint spells buffs and etc well it’s just rare to get just wreck by a single player. And plus so many AoE’s that can bring up a group,
This is calcuatling class distribution, not spec. In modern WoW, druid will most likely always be the highest due to its versatility with 4 specs. Paladins have always been popular, for lore reasons and aethetics, and straight-forward playstyle.
Monk will probably always remain the lowest. It’s a very unique playstyle that a lot of people don’t seem to enjoy. It doesn’t have a clearly defined aesthetic like other classes do. Plus, starting at level 1 isn’t helping it.
Shaman and Priest have always been this unpopular.
