I’m certain I’m going to be rolling priest when classic launches. I’m trying to decide which race I want to roll between Troll and Undead. I’m primarily a PvP’er and intend on going Shadow.
Which do you think has the better Priest racials, and why?
undead are THE pvp race. with WotF being able to neuter 2 classes main escapes on top of 10 shadow resist against those two classes.
the DP dot is pretty nice too if youre going shadow.
trolls and other priest races just dont compare.
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As I recall, Shadowguard required the priest to be hit, so as PvP that could be quite useful where it’s mostly pointless in group PvE. It does take advantage of spell power, so it scales with gear and even works with some trinket benefits. It’s a lasting buff (10m?) so nothing to be cast, just a proc with the limitation on how long between. I’m not sure if it could be stolen by a mage - maybe someone else knows.
Devouring Plague was a spell that had to be cast. It was categorized as a Disease so it couldn’t be dispelled as magic, instead requiring a class that could cure diseases. It’s a damage over time, so also could keep a rogue from stealth, and while not significant it provided a heal to the priest as well.
Will of the Forsaken really is more the decisive racial. (Troll regen isn’t as significant as that one meme implies.)
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im regening 5 health per second and theres nothing you can do about it!
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In reality it comes down to what type of player you are. While undead sounds good on paper the majority of players probably forget to use WOTF at the proper time if at all. Devouring plague is very nice and is fantastic in PvP. 1v1 there is not much that a SPriest cannot handle. Bottom line, play what you want! If you feel you will be good at PvP and thats your focus, undead is the clear winner for options.
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People forgetting to use WOTF? Maybe in 2004 man… Today, I think in general the PVP playerbase is much better now.
Undead all the way. Another dot thats in the disease class instead of magic class like your primary dot. And self healing plus breaking fear/seduction without a trinket and Cannibalize can even find its uses in PvP at rare times. Undead is the hands down pick.
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Devouring Plague is an instant cast.
Shadowguard has great utility in PvP because it is able to proc Blackout. That’s the real challenge for me in deciding.
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It’s actually a pretty tough choice between shadow priest races for horde. Undead have the better base racial with Will of The Forsaken, but trolls have the better priest racials with shadowguard and hex of weakness.
Devouring plague is, in my opinion, a pretty sub-par and way overrated priest racial. It doesn’t do a ton of damage, it has a 3 minute cooldown attached and it costs a boatload of mana.
Compare that to shadowguard, which does more damage to most classes, costs less mana, has no cooldown and the real kicker: it can proc blackout! Everytime it triggers it has a 15% chance to proc blackout. That is nuts!
For undead we also have touch of weakness. This again, is a pretty underwhelming priest ability. It slightly reduces damage done by the target. It’s not useless, but it’s not great either.
Compare this to hex of weakness on trolls, which has a similar effect but instead of dealing a miniscule amount of shadow damage it reduces healing received on the target by 20%. Not as good as mortal strike, but it can still make a difference. A better preist ability in PvP compared to touch of weakness.
It’s pretty close, but I’ve been considering a priest as one of my alts and if I go for it I’m definitely playing a troll priest.
Most people will say undead. But I think most people forget that devouring plague had a 3 minute cooldown in vanilla and that shadowguard can proc blackout.
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Instant cast, yes, but that still means you have to think about when to use it as opposed to another available spell. Whereas Shadowguard is a buff that you only have to remember to refresh when it falls off (or after you rez), so your battle-casting is otherwise unchanged. (I only ever had a troll priest Horde-side, but didn’t PvP, so it wasn’t something I thought about.)
Shadowguard is superior to DP in every way. But WotF is incredibly powerful.
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Mages can steal nothing until Burning Crusade.
Priests, paladins, and felhunters can dispel magic; priests, paladins, and shaman can cure diseases–only warlocks have an easier time with magic debuffs than diseases, and that’s really niche (i.e., only when felhunter is out).
(Beast Mastery hunters can cure both from their pets, but I’m pretty sure that’s not relevant here.)
Precisely. I think people are overrating Devouring Plague and underrating the utility that Shadowguard provides with blackout.
I’m still not convinced that WoTF is going to save my life more than Shadowguard will with Blackout procs.
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Ah, thanks. (I didn’t touch BGs until BC, when I pocket-healed a mage, so not my area of expertise at all.)
Everyone got at least one entirely new power they were supposed to be super-excited about, somewhere between levels 68 and 70. Priests got Mass Dispel, warlocks Seed of Corruption, hunters Misdirection, paladins Avenging Wrath, shaman Bloodlust.
For mages, that power was Spellsteal.
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majority of players probably forget to use WOTF at the proper time if at all
You should absolutely NOT count on this as a variable. In my time from Vanilla to Wrath, people forgetting to WotF was a very rare occurrence. Don’t count on it.
Even if forgetting WotF is a fairly common occurrence now, you’re betting against time and progress. Eventually, people will get better and start using it more.
I’ll just start by saying which race I think is best: Undead.
Here’s my reasons. Consider how a shadow priest fights. For the most part, they can stand still and tank a lot of damage while beginning their casting rotation. You know the legendary melt faces thread? That face melting happens if you let a shadow priest sit still. So if a stationary attack is a shadow priest’s strength, then losing control is definitely their weakness. Consider a warlock attack. They typically start with a fear after a couple dots, depending on how quick you react to the initial attack. You WotF the initial fear. He attempts to fear again, and you use your trinket (Fear, Poly, Stun). You’ve blown 2 of his fear DRs and his third fear is going to be short if I remember the DR system correctly. All of that was without even considering the use of the Silence talent.
You can most likely tank that third fear IF he even manages to start casting it. You could have him in your rotation by this point and the lock is going into defensive mode. Obviously duels are not this cut and dry, but you can see the rotation of removing fear (aka, an effect that causes you to lose control of your character, which prevents your greatest strength, the shadow rotation) and couple all of that with the fact that WotF is a 2 minute cooldown. After WotF > Trinket > ?? you could be back at WotF before the fight is over for a third full DR fear removal.
You don’t really even have to talk about Shadowguard vs DP to see that WotF is far too powerful to leave off the table. The two spells in my opinion are so minor that it doesn’t tip the scale for me any time I roll a horde priest.
But I will say one small thing: Shadowguard effective vs melee only, DP effective vs all classes.
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Yes shadow guard procs black out but so does touch of weakness for undead so you can spam rank 1 of either spell.
The real kicker is that undead priests have 4 different ways to heal themselves in shadow form with DP, VE, cannibal, bandage while other priests only have two…
If someone can show me how much damage shadow guard can cause with a T1/T2 shadow priest, it won’t be much…
Undead is superior in every way.
Anyone arguing for undead shadow priests for pvp are in for a rude awakening when they are oom after casting a huge cool down ability that will be dispelled as soon as it’s applied. Dwarf if the correct answer in all scenarios
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Alliance is not an option for me.
Personally, I’d just not cast it. WotF worth it still.