Racial Traits vs. Priest Racial Spells -WWJD?

[Envie]

Ok, humor me here for a little bit.

Lets just say, hypothetically of course, that you were choosing the type of priest you want to play based entirely on the combinations of racial traits and priest specialty racial spells given to each combo.

Here's a simple, yet comprehensive list that a priest on the forums compiled. It's easy to understand which I like:



Human

(Traits)
-Perception: Activate to increase stealth detection radius
-The Human Spirit: Increase Spirit
-Diplomacy: Bonus to faction point gain
-Sword Specialization: Increase Sword skill

(Spells)
-Desperate Heal: Instantly heals the caster for x amount, most likely has a long cool down.
-Feedback: Enchants weapon to cause feedback on enemy targets. I am assuming this works like feedback in wc3 in that however much damage you deal thats how much mana is taken away. It might not be a 1:1 ratio anymore however.



Dwarf

(Traits)
-Stoneform: Activate to gain immunity to poison, disease, and bleed
-Gun Specialization: Increase Gun Skill
-Frost Resistance: Increase Cold Resistance
-Treasure Finding: Activate to see treasure chests on mini map - lasts until canceled - no cooldown.

(Spells)
-Desperate Heal: Instantly heals the caster for x amount, has a long cool down.
-Fear Ward: Wards the friendly target against fear. The next fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 10 minutes.



Night Elf

(Traits)
-Shadowmeld: Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode
-Quickness: Dodge chance increased
-Wisp Spirit: Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase
-Nature Resistance: Increase Nature Resistance

(Spells)
-Starshards: Rains starshards down on the enemy target's head, causing x Arcane damage over y seconds.
-Elune's Grace: Reduces ranged damage taken by x for y minutes.



Troll

(Traits)
Berserking: Activate when "Wounded" to increase melee & spellcasting speed
Regeneration: Increase health regen bonus
Beast Slaying: Increase damage bonus to Beasts
Throwing Weapon Specialization: Increase Throwing Weapon skill.

(Spells)
-Hex of Weakness: Weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused by -x for y minutes.
-Shadowguard: A buff similar to lightning shield, the attacker will be struck for x Shadow damage. Attackers can only be damaged once every few seconds. Lasts y minutes.



Undead

(Traits)
-Will of the Forsaken: Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and charm effects
-Cannibalize: Increase health regeneration while consuming a corpse
-Underwater Breathing: Underwater breath increased
-Shadow Resistance: Increase Shadow Resistance

(Spells)
-Touch of Weakness: Self cast spell. The caster's next damaging melee attack will cause 50 additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target by -x for y minutes.
-Devouring Plague: Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 300 Shadow damage over 30 seconds. Damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.

So now, based on this list ONLY and not talents, or other environmental factors involved with faction choice... WHAT WOULD JOO DO?

(Jesus was surely a priest with a soulstone btw) :wink:


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[osnaps]

it really does depend on what exactly the x's and y's are, but dorf priest4win (shadowbane anyone?)

[Envie]

Yeah I know... I dont' have the exact numbers that those x's and y's are, but I think someone said they're all fairly comparable, no one race has better damage or defense specialties based on priest alone... but then, combine that with overall racial traits, and some of them certainly look more attractive to me.

Specifically, I'm looking at the base value difference (which one's better) between: Human, Nightelf -vs- Undead. Since I would probably not play a Dwarf or Troll priest unless someone forced me to, but there again, those are outside environmental (looks) factors I said I didn't want factored in, lol. :roll:

Why do you think the dwarf priest is the best combo?

-

[osnaps]

why dorf? because single target undead racial trait looks vicious, especially if the duration exceeds the recast timer.

As for night elf, I personally think they have the worst racial traits in game. I havent found any good info about shadowmeld (and I havent been able to test myself), but im sure it's probably not a gamebreaker. And their "dodge increase" is a whopping 1%...

If it's Human vs Night Elf vs Undead, then go Undead... so you can use my patented shadowbane-esque Kodo superstack!


BRING BACK THE STACK

[Envie]

hehe thanks...

I agree that the nightelf racials are pure crap. I've been reading feedback from the nightelf priests (where I got this nice list of comparisons above from) and most of them are saying that Starshards is a mana waster, and Elune's Grace is worthless.

Being a Nightelf priest has no real value it seems... being a nightelf anything else seems to make more sense. Shadowmeld is cool and all, but is it really useful to a priest? (Can't do anything while in it)

Overall, I'd say dwarves and undead get the best in relation to the priest. For other classes I'd choose human or gnome!

=)

[Nox]

I've heard it said that the best use of shadowmeld is that the nightelf priest can start out the fight hidden and wait to start casting until someone needs heals etc.

I.e. they won't be the first target.

I dunno if that seems valid to me.

[osnaps]

I've heard it said that the best use of shadowmeld is that the nightelf priest can start out the fight hidden and wait to start casting until someone needs heals etc.

I.e. they won't be the first target.

I dunno if that seems valid to me.

it's completely worthless.. the slight benefit that you get from having your priests stealthed at the beginning of a fight is only available if theyre not moving in the first place. it might be somewhat effective at 'tricking' uncoordinated people/noobs, but it wont win any fight that you wouldnt have won anyway. and it wont do shit to anyone with vent/ts/a week's worth of playtime.

edit: if you've played shadowbane, just think about the scout's single target hide. how often did you see that used?

edit2: I need to make a gnome rogue with a dwarf priest buffbot :lol:

[Anomandaris]

Desperate Prayer (rank 7) Instantly heals the caster for 1324 to 1562.
-Instant, Free and 30 min cooldown.

Feedback (rank 5) Enchants the Priest's weapon to cause feedback on enemy targets. Each hit has a chance of draining 105 mana from the target. For each mana drained in this way, the target takes 1 damage.
-Instant, 580 mana, lasts 5 minutes on the weapon.

Starshards (rank 7) Rains starshards down on the enemy target's head, causing 798 Arcane damage over 6 sec.
-Instant, 505 mana

Elune's Grace (rank 5) Reduces ranged damage taken by 29 for 3 min.
-Instant, 518 mana

Touch of Weakness (rank 6) The caster's next damaging melee attack will cause 64 additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target by 20 for 2 min.
-Instant, 320 mana

Devouring Plague (rank 6) Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 904 Shadow damage over 24 sec. Damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.
-Instant, 985 mana, 3 min cooldown

Human spirit bonus is 5%.

There's some info I gathered from my own priest and thottbot. Didnt find Fear Ward, Hex of Weakness or Shadowguard from thottbot.

[Jumai]

Stoneform defeats viper sting (evil mana drain hunter arrow) and fear ward is powerful for very obvious reasons. Since it's a level 20 spell, unless it has a scaling cost it's probably VERY easy to spamcast during a lapse in pvp, and pre-warding is strong. I feel dwarf has hte strongest array of unique options here, but I can understand no wanting to be a female dwarf. If you don't mind playing a male one they're not so bad.

Human gets the spirit boost. It's 5%, so probably 17 spirit or so. Nothing to scoff at, but it can't compete with fear ward. Neither can feedback. It's a minor and very situational boost to soloing. You could argue that the spirit boost is always useful and therefor better than stoneform (which requires a hunter generally, although helps a bit against rogues and warriors who actually reach you, and is only active for a few seconds with a moderate cd), I score them about the same.

Undead beat troll hands down. Priest below 20%? You're gonna need more than faster casting. I hope Hex of Weakness is better than the Touch version but you don't have mana for this sort of thing, and -20 damage against some 300 business hits from rogues and more from warriors isn't helping that much. Devouring Plague beats Shadowgaurd by not requiring someone to be meleeing you. And of course, the fear immunity.

[JonChron]

Considering all the stats and spells, Dwarf priests are still the toughest to beat in mass pvp (most possible AC), especially if they're smart about picking a good location on the terrain.
It's not alwyas easy to target the smaller guys without a macro, you can waste a a precious second or 2 trying to find em from a distance some times.

Dwarf priests are also sexy, and that immunity to fear buff is dandy.

UD priests are valuable with the CC immunity, but their racial spell eats up mana. :(

Trolls probably won't make the best priests, but if played right, they will be tough to kill.

The human priest will really shine in small scale pvp, but in a zerg, only his spirit bonus comes to use.

I'm most likely going with Dwarf, considering the UD spell can probably be dispelled. :(

[SomeoneRandom]

honestly I didnt want to play an ud priest again... but the other races got nothing that really makes them useful.... will of the forsaken is awesome to save your allies (keeps you from getting cc'd while healing) and devouring plauge is probably the most awesome racial spell there is.... with devouring / SW:P / Renew on / mind flay ( which i do often ) im dealing 80 or so a tick + the 42 a sec from flay + I am being healed for 100 life a tick

I am only level 29 btw.... :D but i imagine it gets much more awesome

[Sharur]

I m gonna go for Dwarf/Priest, seem to be a very good pvp combo, and "Find tresure" not so bad for PvE.

[Ralrra]

Can't UD Priests be sheeped now? even with will of the forsaken? I may be missing something but weren't they immune to sheep before because they were undead and not humanoid?

[Real]

Should of added a poll.

[Jumai]

Polymorph counts as a "sleep" spell. Will blocks it. I'm not sure if it breaks it like it does fear.

[Envie]

Should of added a poll.

Polls are for noobs. I want real feedback on the benefits of choosing one race over the other. It -almost- looked like we might have been going Alliance and so I needed to rethink my priest build plans factoring in the racial/priest combos. Thanks for the input guys.

Now that the faction debate is settled, and we're staying with Horde, it seems pretty clear that the Undead priest is a better overall choice than the Troll Priest. horde only get two picks for priest whereas Alliance gets three. Alliance I'd have to say dwarves will make the best priests, but for Horde, it's got to be undead.

Thoughts?

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[IN-QQQQ]

Wheeeeeeeeee

Good to see your getting back into the swing of things. Espically since Release is right around the corner.

[Rekuul']

Go UD!

I have silently channged my talent build yet again to something along the lines of... suicidal? I will be a flash in a pan warlock, but its going to be fun so what the hell.

-Rek

[Nail]

Instant self heals will always be the win. Of the listed alliance classes, dwarf appears the best. I like the feedback for human by description, but it would be mostful vs a paladin who needs mana and relies on melee. It'd be marginally useful vs shaman and useless vs warriors. Druids...oh yes, and useful against the rare druid. Fear buff is cool and would be a nice group buff prior to starting out. Imagine what that TB raid might have been like if they'd have all had that fear buff prior to being feared off the cliffs by warriors and warlocks. Handy.

Since you're going with the horde the clear winner is undead. I like the lightning shield thing for trolls, but in PvP it's not being to be an important consideration since you'll not be on the front lines. It'd be nice for PvE I suspect. The life steal looks handy however and racial traits for undead are nice (though the will of the forsaken only lasts 15 sec and does not protect from sheep afaik).

[Qool]

I think your impression of fear ward is slightly off. It would be great if someone could confirm this.

I believe what it says is that one fear ward protects the group, and one fear on anyone in the party will use up the ward. Still very nice, but not as nice as everyone in the party having immunity to one fear.

Also, does anyone have the specifics on feedback. I have read people saying that it steals mana, and also gives the user some ratio of mana back. However, that's not what the description reads.

thanks.

[Dernx]

I plan on going UD priest, simply because my guild is going Horde and troll priest looks bad and has worse abilities; however one thing about the nice Devouring Plague DoT/HoT is the huge mana cost. All throughout open beta when I used this spell in a 1v1 situation (it dominates your opponent) but went out of mana extremely fast. I ended up having to melee people into the ground after using it, so I don't automatically pop it in the beginning of a fight.

And I'd say that human is roughly = to UD, and dwarf comes out slightly better than everyone else. Though, that 300% undead breathing timer is really useful when drowning people with mind control :D

[Tlear]

Feedback does dmg and gives you the mana back. SO for example it can do 15 mana dmg, 15 hp damage and give you 15 mana its a random proc on a melee weapon. Completely useless