Tivoli, your take on a shadow priest

[iowa]

Just curious what your take is on the shadow line for preists. I remember reading sometime back that you used a holy/discipline mix. I also read alot about shadow priests in pvp being a decent challenge to kill. Thoughts?

[Tivoli]

Shadow priests are nice for solo/duo playing, but the bigger the group the more time you spend healing, so your shadow talents get less and less use. Shadow spec is nice i spent some time playing with the shadow line, but overall if you group more than you solo (which for a priest it isn't hard to get a group) the holy line will give you more benefit than the shadowline.

[HeychP]

agree.

Holy priests have a HUGE diffrence on heals then a shadow priest.

[Envie]

For a priest in the PvP world, the choice between shadow and holy/discipline is a pretty tough one considering you do a fair amount of both PvP and PvE. The Shadow talents are clearly for the priest who wants to play very offensively in PvP and lend more of a mage-like role to groups with damage. The problem is, 99.9% of all groups you're in will probably expect you to play the role you were born to do -- heal.

Obviously, like Tiv says, if you're a mostly solo player, then Shadow priest spec is pretty lethal and is a lot of fun. Solo players usually don't choose priest as again it's typically a group heavy mandatory component.

In Beta, you can try all the talents, and wipe them clean and try again, as part of testing... but of course in final game we won't be able to do that and it's going to be hard for many to decide which path to take. For me, the choice isn't hard. I play a priest to be group supportive and therefore the holy/disc talents are where I'll be playing too.

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[MrO]

On my priest, I spec Holy/Disc and solo'd my way to 60 (some grouping, but mainly solo) and never had trouble one on one. Unless the warrior used Recklessness and my fear was resisted, I never lost a fight. The priest is an all around strong class in my opinion.

I see talents as molding the class to your playstyle. In PvP you might have multiple priests; with one spec'd in holy and the other in shadow they mix VERY well.

The only difference I can see is when it comes to PvE where the holy line helps reduce the mana cost of your heals and that can go a long way.

[BrandX]

Blizzard did say there will be a way to respec talents on release, but there might be a penalty or something, or something meaning they didn't say.

[HeychP]

Blizzard did say there will be a way to respec talents on release, but there might be a penalty or something, or something meaning they didn't say.

Well would you really risk it?

I personnally would wait until i know the EXACT way of resetting talents.

[iowa]

thank you for the input.

[Hybby]

I'm just stuck with that I love the extra 50% shadow damage I get when I go up shadow.

I mean... who can honestly deny 130+ points of damage per second (that's not counting sw:p)

I dunno, I'm still figuring out exactly what I want. My only beef with holy/disc is that I -do- feel weak when I'm specced like that. :(

[HeychP]

I'm just stuck with that I love the extra 50% shadow damage I get when I go up shadow.

I mean... who can honestly deny 130+ points of damage per second (that's not counting sw:p)

I dunno, I'm still figuring out exactly what I want. My only beef with holy/disc is that I -do- feel weak when I'm specced like that. :(

Well like its been mentionned in many posts, it depends of the situation and personal tastes. Lets say your going on a pvp event and there are many priests, if only you would go shadow , it wouldnt really bother, again if your soloing, shadow is great for it. Ive been there as well :P.

But if your goin on a duel 5v5 , you will be much better and much more useful if your holy/disc priest, your group will be very strong if each are doing what they are meant to do. :P

[iowa]

im wondering if the simple human factor of paying attention and quickness on the keys could overcome the advantages of the holy line. perhaps not but just maybe.

[JonChron]

I prefer to get alot of the crowd control from the shadow tree and the mana efficiency from the discipline tree.

You won't be a savage healer and you won't be a dps master. But if you're a quick thinker and twice as witty you can perform better than a holy or shadow specced priest in group or solo pvp. Engineering beefs this build up to crazy cheap levels and it is MUCH easier to play a holy or shadow priest.

[Tivoli]

im wondering if the simple human factor of paying attention and quickness on the keys could overcome the advantages of the holy line. perhaps not but just maybe.

Well you still have 1.5 seconds between each spell of reaction time, so you dont' have to be super fast to be good, just fast enough to react in those 1.5 seconds.

[Hybby]

im wondering if the simple human factor of paying attention and quickness on the keys could overcome the advantages of the holy line. perhaps not but just maybe.

Well you still have 1.5 seconds between each spell of reaction time, so you dont' have to be super fast to be good, just fast enough to react in those 1.5 seconds.

Not with instants. If you time it right, you can get an instant off right at the end of your cast without waiting for refresh. Very tricky to do, but it can buy you that extra second or 2 that you need.

I specced pure disc/holy (might get spi tap, but dunno.... don't use a lot of spells when soloing)

The thing is, the fact that you should be using renew with the heal talents and the insta cast mana cost reduction and healing items as your main spell... and using a lot of big heals (which you get a buff to in holy) it makes going shadow very undesirable.

[alcaras]

But if your goin on a duel 5v5 , you will be much better and much more useful if your holy/disc priest, your group will be very strong if each are doing what they are meant to do. :P

<ponder>

Why aren't the warriors taunting the enemies off me, the mage, eh?!?

Better yet, why doesn't the 5v5 stack nicely together so I can AoE them!

...

PvP roles are different than PvE roles. I know mage != dps for sure, which is sad for me :( Mage = cc... poly and slow things for the warriors to kill.