Seeking wow classic priest tips/opinions

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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Hey neighbors.

Priest is calling to me. I’ve watched a lot of guides on priesting in classic, talent builds, gearing strats, etc, but I haven’t seen much content discussing why people like it.

I know some of you here are prominent priest players, and I am hoping you can give me some…oh, I dunno, ‘emotional fuel’ to play a priest? I’m looking for reasons why you like it and what you love being able to do with it. Nothing will be considered invalid (eg: mind controlling your ex off the boat to booty bay counts!).

Help me out here…

Side notes:

  • I think shadow looks fun but I don’t mind if I never get to seriously play it; I am more oriented toward what is useful to my wpvp/raid/bg group and I enjoy healing & support roles in games about as much as I lile tanking or dps.

  • I love cheesy BS, and I’ll admit that the mind control gimmicks are part of the draw for me.

  • I heard spriests rock in wpvp/1v1 (with the right gear), but how do other builds fare? Can I still fight back or at least ward off ganks if I am in a healing spec, or am I just a heals vending machine punching bag?

  • Will my wife question me for wearing a dress?

waaay TL;DR:
I’m requesting a list of reasons why you think priest is fun & worth maining in classic.

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This is going to be a long list so I’ll edit this one…

Wpvp;

Healing: Believe it or not, you actually can destroy people 1v1 in world pvp as a healer. The name of your game is to cast SWP, let them dwindle down, and win through your massive mana pool. The only issue you really have is against hunters which can mana drain you and there is really nothing you can do. Your only hope is to go all out on them.

But, you actually destroy mages. Ice barrier? Dispell. Mana shield? Dispell. He roots you? Dispell. Cast SWP and mana drain, if he counters it then just cast a healing spell on you. If you play it correctly or your not grossly undergeared you will win 100% of the time.

Not to mention fighting against other healers in smallish fights I believe you have the advantage as long as you have a team that can peel for you. Offensive dispells and mana burns and crazy good. Especially if you’re horde because you won’t have to deal with shamans and Paladins are basically sitting heal turrets that are asking to be burned.

I won’t lie, if you have a team who can’t peel or you’re undergeared melee will run through you. Which is why I personally went dwarf for that extra little defense.

Shadow: Oh buddy you’re in for a treat. Besides SL locks which can be pretty annoying, you’re destroying everyone and everything if you have full mana. Melee have a tough time doing any damage at all to you because of IF and shadowform. Casters you eat alive with offensive dispells and your mindblast crits on top of your blackout procs.

Just be prepared to go oom a lot and drink as much as possible out in the world as starting a fight when you’re almost oom means you’re dead.

Bgs;

Healing: I believe you’re the single best healer for bgs. Yes, Paladins are the defensive utility kings, but a priest will turn the fight in an instant if you play it correctly. Offensively dispelling important targets, mana burning if you’re being ignored, instant heals of every flavor, and even doing cheeky stuff like MCing other healers off of LM or BS will win you fights.

Shadow: this is more of a… pug spec where you’ll shine. You can sit on flags and defend them decently, you can really mess up mages 1v1 or others… but you do oom quickly which sucks unless you’re just absolutely destroying them

Pve;

Healing: once again, I think you’re simply the best. Everyone wants a priest. You got a Rez, amazing buff, raid heals AND main tank heals, you have utility for the undead 5 mans so you can cc, you will have NO issues finding any groups whatsoever. Just for the love of god, don’t PW:S the warrior tank unless he is about to die

Shadow: this is sort of controversial… but in my opinion, if you have a dedicated guild and don’t really pug a lot shadow is just fine. No, you do not need top min/max dps to clear raids. No, you will not wipe your raids because they brought an spriest. No, spriest are not useless. Shadow priest is just fine in raids, they provide another rezer in case of wipes to speed things up, they also give your warlocks a %15 damage increase which is amazing especially in later raids. And they can off heal if too many healers die in a fight with little to no issues. On top of this you can 100% heal 5 mans as shadow. Yeah if your group makes bad decisions then you might wipe because of your spec. But if they play safely it’s 100% doable.

All in all priests are awesome for whatever you’re looking for at end game.

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I am having serious fun with my priest. I have never played one before so I can’t add anything else, other than it’s not a dress. It’s a long kilt.

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Priests are the one class that isn’t really bad at anything.

Except tanking. Don’t try to tank on your priest.

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Well first of all you have to be Undead.

Then you go shadow.

Then, you melt faces and mind control players off cliffs.

That’s all I remember from back in the day.

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I’ve mained priest since Wrath. You will be asked to heal. A lot. I have a guild that will let me play what I want. Remember the early goings will be slow. Get a wand asap and abuse it. Mana will be an issue. Welcome to the cloth! It can be as fun as you make it.

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Unless you have all possible fire resist gear, and then you can tank Baron Geddon till someone else aggros him. I did that in vanilla, and the Warrior promptly grabbed him, I went back to healing, and we all had a good laugh.

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Greatest variety of healing of any class. Very engaging and interesting healing rotation (or rather lack of repetitive rotation). I’ve never player a Spriest. That doesn’t appeal to me as much as the other spell casters like mage and warlock. But they’re probably the most versatile healers, so if you love healing roles the most, go priest.
MC is pretty dope. I have memories of being upset during an Arithi Basin BG at the lumbermill. I’d be fighting allies for the flag when, all of a sudden, my character decides it wants to jump off the cliff to my death. I would think that the amount of rage I have in those moments equates to delight for that priest.

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Spriest is a lot of fun. Respecc’ing all the time because your guild needs you to heal, well that’s just expensive. Definitely a good choice though in Vanilla. You’ll be a tier 1 class unlike…the Pally haha.

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I enjoy priest, it lets me combine warlock with “actually help other people, too”. I love randomly buffing people, or rezzing someone who died out in the middle of nowhere and saving them a lengthy ghost run. I don’t really do group stuff while leveling, but I’ve grouped up here and there for quests other people in the area are also doing, and it’s nice to swap from face-melt mode to keep-someone-alive mode occasionally.

The biggest downsides would probably be relatively slow kill speed and mana management. You will burn through your mana, and early on, the target will often still be punching your face. Invest in a good wand ASAP, you don’t even need to buy weapon training for it.

I’d say give it a shot for awhile, see how you feel about it. Classic or retail, it’s still just a game, so do what’s fun!

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Also, as a discipline or holy priest (i’d guess more so discipline), you should have a fair chance to defend yourself while being ganked in WPvP. Rogues will always be able to stunlock you, but they can do that with just about any class/spec if done properly so a healing specced priest doesn’t have a disadvantage if you ask me. I think their power word: shield is actually a big advantage in WPvP and makes them possibly one of the better classes when it comes to surviving a gank sesh.

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Edited first post

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This reminded me of playing a Warlock in Vanilla, and completely Mana Draining a Pally in AV who wasn’t paying close enough attention. I could even spot the moment when he froze for a second and clearly asked himself, “wait, why are all my abilities blacked out?” Then he tried to run. He didn’t get far >:)

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Dude, that was a great breakdown, thank you.

Really appreciating all the input from everyone, thanks guys!

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I play priest because I love the healing role.
Priest for me is far and away my favorite (though monk is growing on me).
Priest healing is very reactionary yet forces you to make decisions that include consideration of impact on short term future.

As an example in classic: Warrior is down to where your top rank heal will cause a bit of over heal but will buy you a moment to deal with that rogue standing in fire. But… you’re mana is slipping to a point you are worried about OOM too early.
Will you full heal the tank? Will you bubble the rogue? Will you let the rogue diaf (literally)? Will you down rank both and catch up later but maybe oom?

Those decisions go unnoticed but have a big impact. If you need to see big numbers on a meter or need to get recognized for your skill then priest might not be best choice.

I also love the small things priest can do, buffing, cc, melt faces, dispelling, weave all those things in with healing and you can get satisfaction you really helped. The meters wont reflect that.

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Dude that is a great example. I totally dig that kind of personal meta game to manage while playing.

I also don’t need recognition, nor do I really give a crap about meter numbers. I just want the boss to die and for the group to go home with the victory and the loots.