I m hereby going to list and analyze what is brokenly wrong and bad about holy priest in pvp:
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Mana: Despite what is advertised in some sites holy priest is very bad in mana efficiency. Holy priest loses mana in everything he does and sometimes loses a lot, especially with Greater Heal. This is in connection with the following:
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Defencives: Every healer in the game can defend themselves for extended long periods of time without losing mana. Druids in bear form, shamans in wolf form, monks with mobility, disc priests by doing damage (smite doesnt consume mana) and holy paladins are the most mana efficient class (if talented right). Holy priests must spend mana to defend themselves. Greater Fade is too short to be considered good defence, its role is rather on avoing instant burst or cc.
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Healing mechanics. Let aside Greater Heal. How actually holy priest heals? Serenity and then flash heals or heals to have again the serenity thing. Now, flash heals or heals heal extremely poorly (flash heal = 16k - 20k, heal = 22k - 30k) and they eat a lot of mana considered the amount they heal. Thus, we have casting spells which heal bad and eat lot of mana in order to have an instant big spell every 30 sec or 1 min which also eats a lot of mana. BUT this is totally contradictory to the overall design of the game which seems to reward casting times, while instants seem to be fillers. Holy priest is the utmost contradiction to the whole wherever efficient system of the game mechanics.
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Greater Heal is an abomination, given to correct the rest of the mechanics. It s something isolated from the overall healing rotation and interdependence of holy tools. It works only if holy priests play together with other broken classes like destro warlocks or fire mages or maybe damage machines like DK. If a warrior sticks on holy priest, the latter will die for sure. Lets suppose h priest is good in juking. Cast greater heal when their life is about 60-70%, then in some seconds warrior manage to bring again their life at 60-70%, and then eventually to 40-50% etc. Even with no Greater heal, and playing perfectly all the juking thing their life will be steadily diminish and eventually their mana as well. This is a serious problem. If holy priest was mana efficient like let say paladins then yes it is doable to be versatile even with this bad class design.
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Stats: If you play Greater heal, you need haste. Let say 25-26% haste. Then your mastery will not be at 30% or above, but 30% mastery is considered a must for Echo of Lights, a passive heal which heals a lot. So, you cannot PVE efficiently too. So, you cannot benefit from other healing spells as well, you need to cast more, so to lose mana more too. If you play Greater Heal you cannot invest in Versatility since it contributes zero to Greater Heal. If you dont play Greater Heal, you must have lot of mastery to compensate with the poor healing of your basic spells. Which, again, you must cast them a lot, in order to cast serenity to heal big… or… not …?
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Serenity: you think you may be able to heal 70k - 80k with serenity but this is not the case in pvp environment. WIth heal reduction a warrior or rogue makes the serenity heal for 30 k - 40 K (this is your … big heal) which is what a resto shaman heals with healing wave (a really fast healing wave if he knows what he is doing).
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Schools of magic. Only holy to heal. Scream and Greater fade shadow, as also mind control. And this is a serious thing too. In the past mind control seems not to consume so much mana and yes it was a good weapon to holy priests arsenal if played right. Now it s very bad …
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Other spells. In the past when against boomies or affliction locks or unholy DK or shadow priests, choosing Prayer of Mending was a must. Dots made this spell to proc a lot. Now unfortunately this spell is so nerfed it heals below average. Renew is good. Renew gives holy priest a place among resto druids (hots class) and the holy paladin (a direct heal class). But Renew also seems so independent of rest of the spells and tools and its interconnection with (nerfed) prayer of mending is gutted too…
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Good things: cc and avoiding cc. Many times i win in arena with suitably coordinated greater fade, holy ward etc. But now in arena half of the matches are a PVE fest… The value of those spells seem to have been decreased a lot . .
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What must be done:
- Holy priest must be able to defend themselves also for extended periods of time without spending so much mana, as all the other classes do.
- Greater heal must leave or to be connected fluently with the rest of mechanics which also must be altered…
- Other mechanics. It s a madness to heal so little for so much mana… If these mechanics (as explained above) are to be kept then give holy priests mana efficiency as good as holy pala.
-Other mechanics II: Flash heal and heal must heal for more and serenity to stay as it is (70 k is almost nothing) or give mechanics which make those spells to have occasionally faster casting times or crits like holy pala or shaman.
-Other mechanics III: Renew, prayer of mending and other hots must be invented or redesigned and interconnected in a fluent way with rest holy priests tools.
Thank you…
