maelstwom
Legend
Context
I. General Priest Mentality
II. Gear and Stats
III. Race
IV. Spec
V. Playstyle
VI. Tips and Tricks
VII. Psychology
VIII. Videos
IX. Closing Words
General Priest Mentality
I. General Priest Mentality
II. Gear and Stats
III. Race
IV. Spec
V. Playstyle
VI. Tips and Tricks
VII. Psychology
VIII. Videos
IX. Closing Words
General Priest Mentality
A servant of god, a holy man in an unholy world, a healer in a dress. This is a nineteen priest. A healer, a killer, a lover. A priest is probably the most influential class as of 4.3, now, what exactly does that mean? Well, i'll tell you. It means one of several things. First off, it means that you tend to be the greatest pain in the ass, and inturn the number one target to kill or cc. Your livelyhood is often directly tied in with the livelyhood of your team. You die, they die....you live, they live. You have the most sway, you're the biggest kid on the playground, hunters shouldn't run after you, they should run from you. No target should want to engage you if they're alone (at least not for the intention of killing you), with the exception of a ret or warr who have high burst and limited mobility. Though, engaging a well off priest in mid with anything less than full cds, is more or less suicide. Now, we've established this class as a dominate force, so, how should a dominate force act? Should they make use of their utility in both an offensive and defensive way, dictating the game to a high extent, or should they be disillusioned into perceving themselves as nothing more than a squishy clothie healer, and get pushed around? Naturally, the former should sound more appealing.
Gear and Stats
Bis is subjective, what's bis in terms of raw stats isn't always bis in terms of events. Though, as for actual gear which compensates the priest class, well umm....you'll have to look at another guide since I don't feel like listing two or three dozen pieces of gear. As for stats, i'm a fan of spellpower and haste, as that makes for the most mobile and (imo) effective build. Relying on a slightly higher crit chance (which will overheal the target more often than not), or a few more stamina, will generally not make up for the momentum of a constant increase to both the quickness and power of your spells. As such, I still prefer crit to stamina, so my professions are skinning and herbalism.
Here are two armories which you can reference.
Fortt @ Bleeding Hollow - Game Guide - World of Warcraft
Livingforce @ Bleeding Hollow - Game Guide - World of Warcraft
Race
Human- In general, the best race for a priest. You really can't beat both a passive one hundred and twenty health, and a two minute trinket.
Gnome- Perhaps the most underrated race for a priest, escape artist, arcane res, and a larger mana pool make gnomes a strong contender for second.
Worgen- Shadow and nature res, a buffed crit chance, and a sprint make this class a strong contender for second also.
Belf- Arcane resistance and arcane torrent come in handy quite the bit, as a priest in a premade setting, this tends to be the superior race.
Undead- Shadow res, wotf, and cannibalize aren't to be overlooked....between laughing at shadow dmg and cc, you also have a pretty convienent way of restoring mana.
Tauren/Troll/Goblin- These races have their places in wsg, however it's very situational. Though in regards to dueling, and to a lesser extent 2s and 3s, they're pretty useful.
Spec
Disclipline- The way of the offensive priest. Disclipline was my spec, and it was amazing. If played correctly, this spec gives you more variety to damage and healing, which is more than warranted in a bracket filled with flash heals and flash of lights. Disc priests have one of the highest bursts in this bracket (because of both the increased spellpower, and penance), and on top of that, you still have great healing, a substantially larger mana pool than anyone else, and one of the most overpowered spells in this bracket (powerword shield) becomes that much more overpowered. This spec is both more aggressive and precise (thanks to penance) than it's counterpart, holy.
Holy- The way of the defensive priest. From BC to a few months into Cata, this was my spec. The spec offers superior flash heals, superior renews, desperate prayer, and a short stun (chastise) on a thirty second cd. The playstyle of a holy priest tends to fall somewhere between that of a holy pally, and that of a disc priest. Which is to say that their playstyle is more aggressive than a pally's playstyle, but less so than that of a disc priest.
Shadow- Completly overshadowed (^.^) by disc.
Playstyle
Making your own playstyle- It's not impossible to do, yet, I rarely see it done. Almost everyone has negatively adapted some style of play, and they rarely reflect on why it's not as effective as they would hope for. They play a certain way without really knowing why. A copy of an effective playstyle (no matter who it's based off of) will always fall short, unless you can pinpoint its mistakes, and diagnose the style as a whole. In which case, you transform the playstyle from a mere shadow of someone elses, to your own. As of now, the playstyle of this bracket is more or less dictated by a few, and the numerous failed attempts at mimicing that style of play deludes the quality of the players, and the bracket. It also makes things very predictable, and inturn easy to read and counter.
As for an actual playstyle for a priest, I enjoy mine (which is both calculating and aggressive), but again, theres room for improvement, and there is probably a substantially different way to play a nineteen priest, which would yield similar, if not possibly better results. Every month I played a priest, I improved. There is always room for an improvement, and you should always be looking for it. No one is without mistakes. Play proactively, learn and adapt. The reason WT wins is because Pizza proactively thinks. He learns, he adapts, he plays in the present. This is how all good players play.
Tips and Tricks
1. (The power of the dot)- Shadow word pain is your friend. When healing the fc in a pretty "intense" game, assume there's a good rogue ready and willing to sap you at a moments notice. If your fc or other teammates aren't in dire need of heal spamming, and you can get a short breather, swp. Besides the damage it does, this keeps you in combat, preventing rogues from sapping you, preventing rogues & druids from restealthing, and preventing warriors from charging.
2. (Burst dem fools)- If disc is your spec, use that damage increase to your advantage. This spec has one of the highest bursts at 19, and people are often caught off guard when I pop herb and holyfire, followed by mindblast, and then penance. The 1200 or so damage dealth in five or so seconds (if geared) is often enough to push the tide on returning a flag or just dropping that pesky hunter whose pewpewing you from 25 yards away. A very good spell to cast before this burst is psychic scream. If psychic scream is placed correctly (mainly directed at the healers), the accompanying damage will typically lead to your team returning.
3. (Feng Shui priest)- If you damage too heavily people will inevitably die on your side, but...if you damage too little the d or o will likely overcome your group, so they'll die anyway. Find a balance to it, a priest isn't a pally, the benefit of playing a priest over a pally comes from the utility presented by SWP, psychic scream, bubble, and the damage dealing abilities.
4. (Heart of a lion)- There are times when all your bubbles and heals will be less effective than that one opportune psychic scream. However, to get to that placement, you'll often have to willingly jeopardize your own life.
5. (Unless you're flying, I ain't dying)- If you're on defense as a priest, and on the second floor or roof of your base, make sure to have your back hovering over the edge. This will prevent those delightful ambushes.
6. (It's tuff to buff)- After the gates open, most priests tend to forget that they have a buff which adds 17 stam to all members. Throughout the game people will die, and now they're down almost 200 health. That multiplied by several people makes your team substantially less intimidating and quite a bit more vulnerable. To avoid that for the most part, whenever you respawn from gy, you should toss a fort at wherever the major combat is taking place. As you run through the gulch (assuming you're okay with mana) you can pick up the few other stragglers who are also missing the buff.
7. (Good ole bubble)- Assuming you're on d with the fc or are helping him or her cross mid, keep bubble renewed on the fc at all times.
8. (Psychic scream mastery)- Learning when and where to use this ability is vital in the life of a priest. However, it's not as simple as it seems. This ability has a range, and with all ranged abilities, placement plays a huge role. You have to be at the right place, at the right time. If a right place doesn't exist at the time, make one. As I mentioned earlier, priests tend to get focused. This means that several other players should have their eyes on you. The weaker players can more or less be aggroed, and feared in clusters. However, to fear multiple strong players, you will have to display a false sense of being. Never make your intentions clear, play obscurely. If you play in an unpredictable fashion, you'll be harder to read. This will increase the number of opportunities and potential of psychic scream.
9. (Penance use)- The first part of penance comes instantly, making it an instant heal/attack. The second part comes midway through the channeled spell, and the final part comes as the ability ends. What this means is that this ability can and should be used in multiple ways. Cutting the ability short is often beneficial, and i'll explain why. Two out of three of the penance beams come as the spell is only halfway channeled. This means that you can use two thirds of the ability in only half the time. Similarly, you can use a third of this ability instantly. Typically I waver between stopping penance midway through, or using it to its end. However, there are also numerous times when i'll use it as an instant heal/attack. Using penance in this fashion will only improve your play.
10. (Wsg healing n dealings)- In essence, you should always be doing something in wsg. There are nineteen other players, and several of them at any time warrant your interaction. Whether it be a simple dot, a wand, reapplying fort, or a bubble in anticipation of things to come...there should be something. You should never sit at 100% mana for more than several seconds, it's a waste. When healing, you should be doing more than healing, there should be bubbles up on teammates taking quick damage, renews on those taking slow damage, and bubbles and heals on those being focused, on top of that, some enemies should be dotted, and some should be feared. Also, you have the ability to drop people in several seconds, so if your clench bubbles, heals, fears and renews aren't enough, make use of that damage. Sometimes damaging is far more effective than healing, even as a supportive role.
Psychology
Nineteens are based around the aspect of player versus player. Now, how do you get the better of your opponent? Well first off, you note patterns, and then you take advantage of that. Everyone has a certain predictability to them, the weaker players more so than the better ones. Even the better ones fall pray to it though, very few players, even very strong ones, are unpredictable. To unpredictably make strong moves is quite difficult, because well, there is only so much you can do (even more so at nineteen). However, I came into nineteens with a strong background in math and chess, which made analysing silly nineteen situations quite easy. I digress. After you note their patterns, you need to note your own. A good player will be reading you as you read them, so you either need to read deeper or drastically change up your style of play, adding in the benefit of unpredictability to your side. After that, you simply need to keep track of obscure situations which may arise. I had no addons, and my only macro was /startattack when I tabbed a target. It didn't hinder me one bit, because the addons I lacked on the screen, were present in my mind (I sound crazy, I know >.>).
Videos
Maelstrom's Last Video (extended and revamped) By Mealstrom - World of Warcraft Movies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLCjB7JNDxg
Closing Words
A nineteen priest is easy to play well enough, but hard to master. The reason that many situations ended favorably for me, and not for other priests isn't purely because I'm better at smashing the same ten buttons (though that surely helped). Playing a nineteen well, hell, doing anything well requires more than meets the eye. If you want to improve in this bracket (and probably life?), play in the moment, and with an open mind. Alright well, I've done all I can for you silly kids. I hope you guys can fix the bracket, and just maybe these words and videos will someday spawn a super priest/priestess, beyond the likes of any before. That would be neat...I always wanted that to happen.
