Class Feedback - Healing Priest Edition

It's time for me to answer the Blizzard Class Feedback questions. Hey, everyone is doing it, so I must too right? In fact, when I first read about them I didn't think they were that interesting. Quality of life, who cares? But then I read beyond the first three questions and realized thinking about the answers might actually be more fun than I thought. I've been reading some of the answers over at the forums and I'm happy to see most priests are as happy about priestlyhood as I am. Here are some of those posts;

Cannot Be Tamed
Type "H" For Heals
WTS Heals
Scribblings on the Asylum Wall (Shadow Priest)

There really isn't much to fix about priest healing. So without much further ado, here are my answers.

What type of content do you focus on? [PvE/PvP/Both]
Pve. And primarily as a healer, have very limited dps knowledge.

If PvE, what type of PvE? [Heroics/Raids/Other]
Mostly raiding, although I have started doing more and more dungeons lately (albeit in a shadow spec then, and not healer).

What are your biggest quality-of-life issues? For instance, no longer requiring ammo could be considered a quality-of-life improvement for hunters.
Honestly, I've cared very little for quality of life issues, which can either be because I don't think much about details or because they've overall worked very good for priests - I don't know. I like the design philosophy of the class, the way the spells look and the mechanics overall for both discipline and holy. If I had to say anything it would be to fix the spinning around that Penance forces us to do. And also I would like it if Divine Aegis perhaps didn't have the same visuals as PWS.

What makes playing your class more fun?
Successfully coordinating my skills with that of anothers (either dps, healer or tank). Feeling like I have my niche to fill. I sometimes imagine myself, and all the others in a raid group, as different Pokémon, and when a certain situation arises I hear "I choose you PRIEST!" yelled out and I have to go do my thing to save the raid group. Although I don't actually mind the homogenization that much, it still removes some of this aspect. I do realize it's difficult to design fights where every class have their own responsibility but still are equally needed, but it's still where I have the most fun. The feeling that me playing a priest actually matters, not just that I am a healer.

What makes playing your class less fun?
I could say "the opposite of above" but I still enjoy healing eventhough the classes look more and more alike. And also, priest healing still differs a lot in feeling over the other classes. Overall I think both disc and holy work really well, we have interesting tools for countering most situations and I rarely feel like there is something we can't tackle because of the design of the class. Stat choices are interesting for both specs too.


How do you feel about your “rotation”? (Rotation is the accepted order in which abilities are used to maximum efficiency.)
I think it is good for holy, we have a great mix of direct heals and hots, big and small heals, aoes and point healing. Discipline has interesting point healing, but the aoe healing does become very PoH spammy. I don't know how many fights in current content that end up with me just pressing basically one button for 3-4 minutes straight, or throughout the majority of a fight. The only challenge becomes to time the bubble between PoH clicks. It's mindless, not to mention it also removes out possibility to point heal unlike for the other healers. Mana regeneration (HoH and Shadowfiend) tools for priests are interesting and fun too.

What’s on your wish list for your class?

• To finish the discipline talent tree, it doesn't feel completely polished the way that I think holy does. The holy gimmick Chakra works well and adds some depth to holy healing, whereas the discipline tree offers many different choices that none in themself feel completely interesting or like they make a big difference (Train of Thought, Strength of Soul). Most notably is of course Atonement healing - a really interesting tool that just doesn't matter enough today to warrant spending those points there.
• Make Divine Hymn more interesting, I really like the idea of making it increase healing done by other healers - it feels very much in line with the general holy priest idea, however it too doesn't really feel like it matters enough for such a long cooldown.
• I like the challenge of having to choose between stats as discipline, but since they synergize so bad, it often ends up with choosing one and go only for that. Making the stats work better together than they do now would definitely make me happy.
• Please make Smite and Holy Fire reach 40 yards like the majority of our spells! Atonement isn't good enough to be hampered by something like this, quite needlessly.

What spells do you use the least?
Something I really like about priests is that most of their spells have a place in their healing arsenal and is useful at least at some portion of nearly any fight. But there are a couple that aren't used very much;

• Holy Nova - The hps of this is pathetic, right now I'm not really sure what this spell is supposed to be good for.
• Mind Soothe - I like the idea of this spell, and would of course love it if could find more uses - nowadays things rarely need to be soothed, they're either ccd or killed.
• Shackle Undead - Even when things need to be ccd, there just aint that many undeads to shackle.
• Mind Control - Time for another Razuvious fight perhaps?
• Mind Vision - Much like sentry totem, this probably never has much use, but I think there is room and a need for spells that are just there for "fun" as well.
• Heal - I use more as holy, but barely at all anymore as disc.

Thanks for taking your time!