Please, get rid of +Healing as a stat! (repost)

[BoddoZerg]

A post I made on the battle.net forums:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-priest&t=630423&p=1&tmp=1#post630423

It's a good idea but I doubt Bliz would implement it.

First, some history:

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Before World of Warcraft was released, it was marketed as a MMORPG that would be playable solo. Blizzard trumpeted that you could jump on for 30 minutes, farm some easy mobs, and still get something accomplished. You wouldn't have to search for a group or fight through an instance every time you log on. For the most part, this has proven true. WoW was released as a very soloable MMORPG, and it remains so. Although you can't solo endgame instances, you can always solo a few minutes and "grind" your way toward useful consumables, valuable items, or priceless Reputation points. Better yet, every character class is capable of soloing. Even the Holy/Disc healbot has the ability to Pain and Smite down mobs. We might not kill as fast as a Hunter or Rogue, but at least we can kill.

It is only unfortunate that, as increasingly powerful endgame items are introduced, the class disparity in soloability grows without bound. A Rogue with a Perdy Blade can farm much faster than one wielding a Shanker. A Protection Warrior may not kill as fast as a rogue, but when he dual wields Thunderfury and Chromatically Tempered Sword, stuff dies. In contrast, a Priest wearing +700 to healing tosses the same old 400-damage Holy Smite that he did while wearing Devout. This accounts in part for the terrible phenomenon of "healer burnout" experienced by many guilds. A healer goes to raids, earns DKP, then wins epic +healing loot that is only useful to him in raids. When he gets off the bat at Stonard and starts soloing for his +50 INT buff, the Priest sees that he's still doing the same 400 damage with his Holy Smite. For all the mana, regen, and healing that he has, the Priest sees no sense of progression as long as he is alone. It is no wonder so many Priests never log on except for raids, leveling a harem of lv-60 alts instead.

However, this growing rift between healers and non-healers is not an insurmountable problem. Ultimately, the issue lies in itemization. High end healer gear contains vast quantities of +Healing, a stat which only helps when we are healing. For as much healing as is involved in soloing, we might as well collect "+73 I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty" as a stat. Meanwhile, "reduce enemy HP to 0 before your HP reaches 0" remains the ultimate strategy to win every fight, and the more DPS gear you've got, the faster that enemy HP ticks down. A DPSer feels the power of his epic gear in any situation, a luxury that healers are denied.
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As a solution to this, I propose that +Healing be eliminated as a stat on items. Instead, if you want to increase your healing power, you collect items with spell power in the correct school of magic. Priests and Paladins should collect "+ Holy Spells" to increase their healing, while Druids and Shamans collect "+ Nature Spells". Hypothetically, one point of "+ Holy Spells" might give +71% to Holy Smite, +100% to Flash Heal, and +233% to Greater Heal.

So whereas the Transcendence set currently gives +300 to Healing, which works out to +128 to Flash Heal and +300 to Greater Heal, it might have "+128 Holy Spells" instead. This would translate to +128 to Flash Heal, +298 to Greater Heal, and +91 to Holy Smite - similar numbers for healing, vastly improved for DPS.


Some might call this suggestion impractical, or merely wishful thinking. However, I believe that the history of World of Warcraft proves otherwise. The mechanics of "+ spell damage" items have changed several times during late Beta and Release. Before release day, we were promised that every class would have the ability to perform as a solo player. And on the day we put our hands on a World of Warcraft CD, we saw this promise fulfilled. Yet, as gear scales up in the dizzying spiral of new instances, the solo speed of healers is stuck in a rut. This simple change, the "elimination" of +healing, will renormalize a healer's ability to do DPS, so that it keeps pace with his ever-increasing ability to heal.

Forgive me for writing a novel, but this is a subject that I care about. Too many of my friends, healers in my guild, even myself, are burned out on healing. Is it too much to ask that our healing gear give us a slight increase in DPS as well?

[HToWNHoGG]

Then stop getting +healing and get +shadow. It's not just priests, DPS warriors have the same issue. Might and warth are nice, but +defense is for tanking, not dps. WHile I do understand your plight, you can't have it both ways. Either ya take more +healing or you take +shadow (or whatever else increases priest dmg). It's either one or the other, not both.

[AeroJonesy]

I thought this thread was really going to suck when I read it, but I couldn't agree more. I'm a restoration druid, and I'm lucky in that I can put out a little more DPS than a holy/disc priest.

If you haven't played a healer, you probably aren't going to understand this. A DPS class gets to do DPS in raids and when they solo. Ever wonder why there are an abundance of rogues in every guild on every server? The role doesn't change between raiding and soloing. Yes, I know it does slightly, but not like a healer. Healers can't heal mobs to death. We do raids and we get gear to do more raids to get gear to do more raids. But that doesn't help at all in soloing or grinding or questing. And pvp isn't that great of an option unless you have a pvp group to play with. I stopped pvp because there are too many people busy honor farming or trying to be the hero that they don't protect the healer.

Healers have to have fun playing their class. It's fun for awhile, but when it comes down to it, you can't do as much on your own. That makes it harder to get gold and harder to gain reputation. Servers are always short on healing, people run around sending whispers to healers begging them to come places. It can easily get to the point where it's not fun anymore. I don't think some players realize the frustration that a healer can go face Hakkar and the Molten Core bosses, but I can barely down a 60 elite over in Tyr's Hand.

So what's the solution, get different gear? Well the problem there is that guilds gear up their mages and warlocks with +damage epics before their priests, and their rogues with the agi/str/sta leather before their druids.

[Aprilhelmina]

Nice idea, then again there was holy resistances in the beta, and they were removed except for base holy resitances when it went live. Priests are the only class that have a zero-damage reduction from holy fire and smite when hitting a target, you can bet that if it was switched to +holy, people would be crying NERF very quickly. Yes I do know what you mean however, and I'm suffering from healer burnout, I have a 60 priest. I only run her on request now, I'm back to my mage and warlock for the most part.

[NewtoWoW]

This is a good idea for so many reasons. Too bad bliz doesn't read its own forums.

I originally rolled my priest with the idea of being a holy warrior, but was let down to find out there is really only one route for everything but instances. The holy tree damage just doesn't scale, and since it has no +dmg items, no one uses it. Every other class has options, and multiple builds. We get:

Two builds for Instances
One build for Leveling/PvP

Everyone I play with has a priest alt, not because they like playing priests, but because they want to help the guild/friends/get DKP for their main, etc. Every Preist I play with also has an alt - because they're bored. Its really cutting into my 'fuzzy snowflake' feeling to know that I picked as my favorite character a 'utility' class. :sad:

Cross your fingers that 1.10 will fix this, but I'm already considering what my 'main alt' will be.

[Texsus]

They did fix this somewhat for druids at least. Except to get the gear you do have to spec into resto so you can be usefull enough in the raids till you can get your gear. They made the Genensis set and Unending life set, these two together would actually make a very powerful feral who could also heal. You feral/resto guys would love these sets. But alas, priest dont get gear that incorporate your +dmg and +healing together like the new feral/resto gear druids can get now. I feel for you, i hate being a healbot, but i have to bite the bullet in order to raid and get the gear i want so i can respec later back to feral.

To see how unlucky priests are, go check out these two sets for druids, and youll see what i mean.

Poor squishies :(

[bloog]

Cry more noobs. Role playing games require roles. In raids every character is a utility character. Some classes use 2 buttons, others use 50. A priest is conveniently in the middle. Learn to play. Get an alt.

[nosoup4crr]

It seems to me that the original post is complaining that priests can't solo, and some of the subsequent posts are complaining that priests don't do anything but heal. I might be wrong, but it seems that way to me. As for the latter, I would have to agree with bloog's comment (although I don't agree with his methods). The priest's job is to heal. So...a warrior can be a tank w/ a shield, or a backup tank w/ a 2Her. So, a warlock can use fire or shadow. Priests heal. If you didn't know that when you signed up for the character, then you're not familiar with the idea of a priest. Your value lies in party play.

As for the second argument, that priests can't solo...I don't see this as a major problem. The only reason one solos is to get better equipment, mats, or stuff to sell on AH. The best priest equipment (for healing, which IS the job of a healer) is found in instances, where you don't have to kill the enemy to get his loot. Mats fall in much the same manner, and often times you can collect 2 or 3 people from your guild to go material farm. As for getting more items to sell on the AH, that's your prerogative. But if you're in an effective guild, anything you really need (not want) should be provided for you in a hasty manner. If you're really that into farming for stuff for the AH to become independently wealthy, then raids aren't your priority, and you can respec to shadow, and deal very efficient damage for soloing.

[DoctorSlaps]

Agree with original poster.

[moopy]

Who drops the +73 "I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty" trinket, anyway? Can I farm it solo?

[skazz]

If it's so hard to get a set of endgame gear with +damage as a shadow priest, how come shadow priests can outDPS anything in the game?

While I agree with the sentiment that endgame healer gear doesn't help you outside instances, there is no reason atall to only collect healer gear. It's just as possible to collect mage/lock gear with high +spell damage. Sure, you don't have a set to collect for that, but then my main is a druid with no "default" set to collect for feral cat, feral bear or balance roles, so I don't exactly sympathize much.

Personally I'd much prefer just having 2 sets of gear: one with +healing and another one with +damage. Compared to my druid (cat gear, bear gear, healer gear, fire res tank gear, etc...) only keeping 2 full sets is peanuts.

[bloog]

If it's so hard to get a set of endgame gear with +damage as a shadow priest, how come shadow priests can outDPS anything in the game?


Given enough mana breaks they will. When chain pulling they got to drop for drinks. Locks don't drink. Ow well maybe they drink renews =).

[Trepidation]

I think the poster fails to realize is that they are limiting their viewpoint to "ooh, its purple". It is very possible w/o purples to build a DPS HOLY priest. The only difference between shadow and a holy DPS build is mana efficiency.

Smite can be reduced to two seconds and you can get fairly powerful pure damage gear. The proportionate power is still equivalent between MC/BWL capable and non.

Here is a nice list of just +damage gear that doesn't need onyxia/MC/BWL

Head: Crimson Felt Hat = 30
Back: Advisor Cloak = 14
Chest: Robes from DM = 27,
Shoulder: Burial Shawl = 20
Wrist: Sublime Wrist Guards = 12

Damage Enchant: 30
Wand: Scholo 11

Waist: Advisor Belt = 18
Legs: Bloodlord Leggings = 28
Boots: Tony Boots = 30
Ring: AB Faction = 15
Trinket: Reed = 29
Green Gloves from silithus = 13

Total = 266

There are lots of good DPS staffs out there but I have not listed them because i'll probably go SoD w/ +damage. If you can do MC and get hakkars heart you can easily achieve +350 to +400 damage.

As for talents, reducing smite cast time by 0.5 seconds is huge. That is a 20% DPS increase from "FIVE" talent points. Throw in the fact that holy specialization increases you smite crit by 5%. You get the drift.

If you do the math smite becomes a 300DPS spell w/o crit...NON TRIVIAL. Throw in your now non-augmented dot you throw in another 50DPS to the equation. If they reduce the mana costs of smite (as expected)....being holy isn't so bad.

-tReP

[Granom]

Who drops the +73 "I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty" trinket, anyway? Can I farm it solo?

No you can't solo it. You are a priest. That was the point of this whole thread. :wink:

And I agree with Trep, though I admittedly am not very familiar with the priest class from a damage stand point. Lots of the gear that mages/locks use before MC is also available to priests. Plus, priests get anathema/benediction and there are a few items in MC that aren't hard to get like sash of whispered secrets and choker of enlightenment.

[swaldman]

Who drops the +73 "I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty" trinket, anyway? Can I farm it solo?

You're a NE. You don't need it.

HTH, HAND.

:-)

[HToWNHoGG]

Like I said, it's either you do dmg or you heal, not both. Either spec shadow and do insane dmg or spec holy/disc for insane healing. The OP sounds like he wants to do both at the same with only one set of gear, which would totally unbalance the priest class.

[moopy]

No you can't solo it. You are a priest. That was the point of this whole thread. :wink:

People have all but given up saying "you can't solo that, you're a priest" ingame now. I am very very stubborn indeed, and my inherent masochism and love of tinkering has caught a few people out.

Yep, I am the one who respecced for healing significantly before 60, for a bit of a challenge. While it may be the case that I truly can't solo something, I will only believe you after 30 or so deaths. I could give stubbornness seminars for donkeys, on a good day. Ok, so it may not be the most useful character trait, I admit.

Now damnit, who drops that trinket? *duck*

[AeroJonesy]

Cry more noobs. Role playing games require roles. In raids every character is a utility character. Some classes use 2 buttons, others use 50. A priest is conveniently in the middle. Learn to play. Get an alt.

If you copped that attitude with all the healers, you'd never get yourself healed in an instance.

[poweroflove queen priest]

uhg, i feel so stupid saying this, im not gonna write you an essay...GO SHADOW!

[ash2ash]

Everybody says to go shadow as a solution to this problem.

Problem is, holy/disc helps priests ALOT in group pve and does next to nothing for them for solo/pvp. Alot of guilds who run endgame instances won't accept priests who refuse to respec out of shadow.

I tend to agree that while +healing is great for raiding, it really doesn't do much at all for me in any other situation. I've gotten some of the best holy/disc gear possible on my priest, yet my rogue equipped in greens/blues can tear thru mobs much faster than my priest ever could. I log on my priest for BWL/MC but I spend most of my day pvping/farming solo on my rogue.

Another issue is that while dps benefits both in PvP and PvE from any gear they get, healer gear tends to be mostly one dimensional - Only helps you in PvE. I don't have the dkp to spend on 2 completely different sets of gear and even less gold to spend constantly respeccing between holy/shadow depending on whether I want to solo or raid.

Truth be told, this is mostly an issue about the endgame - if you aren't in a raiding guild you probably don't realize the restrictions raiding impose on certain classes. It's a valid point that blizzard will hopefully be addressing come next patch.

[Kyras]

What's with all of this aggression? A man posts an idea with at least some merit, and you guys get caustic? I don't see your ideas anywhere, except to take what's given to you as you slowly chew your cud.

I also completely agree with Trep. Just because you have purple gear does not mean you cannot build a very decent +Dmg build while you solo, but I don't think it addresses the original problem, which apparently some of you didn't get. So I'll lay it out for you in laymans terms.

When a Rogue goes on a raid, and gets a new toy, it helps him in practically every area of his game.

When a Priest goes on a raid, and gets a new toy, it only helps him on raids. Pretty much.
--

The bottom line is that priests are an integral part to any encounter with some level of difficulty. Anything that promotes playing priests (that doesn't erode game balance) is, in my opinion, a good thing. The tricky part is that changing +healing to +spell damage, or +holy, effectively makes priests get a double bonus in both their healing power and in their DPS power.

Does this unbalance priests? I don't think it's as obvious as HToWNHOGG makes it out to be. It would at least be interesting to look at the ratios before jumping to conclusions.

Razumihim,
Dorf Priests

And the +73 trinket should be Dwarf only. So maybe you lesser races can finally see us for our obvious radiance, without your twisted projection.

[Aerath]

In compliance with the original poster's point of view... it's largely why I'm at all not interested in Molten Core with my Druid.

There's one or two items to be had there (Heavy Dark Iron Ring which will go to 15 warriors before they'll let a Druid have it) which'll add something other than healbot abilities.
Cenarion/Stormrage does not even have a single point of Strength/Agility on it to try n pretend it's anything other than a healbot set.

But, don't despair just yet... Blizzard finally got round to implementing some drops for Ferals and rumour has it that they might finally implement a few bosses better tanked by a Druid.
With your love patch coming up shortly, one can only hope they'll address some of those concerns for Priests as well. Otherwise I fear the shortage of Healbo -- *err* Priests on the servers will never fade.

----

On a sidenote bloog - for people like you, Blizzard invented the 3 second and 4 second heals... and healers who can time it so that the heal lands just 0.5 seconds after that mob ate you alive. :wink:

[Shellar]

But, don't despair just yet... Blizzard finally got round to implementing some drops for Ferals and rumour has it that they might finally implement a few bosses better tanked by a Druid.
One of the four raidbosses in Silithus is like that ("I laugh in the face of your AoE-Disarm! Mwahahaha!"). In addition, there is a school of thought postulating that Hexxer is best off tanked by a Druid, due to his or her immunity to polymorph.

[Thalassicus]

I feel the same, even on my druid alt. Warriors or mage friends can easily go out and dominate PvP with good epic tier 2 gear, while a healing priest is pretty left out. I've got a rogue alt, but it would be fun to be able to do both PvP and PvE on the same character.

[ash2ash]

I'm actually quite pleased with the priest changes.

Sure, it's not gonna allow me to go full shadow and melt faces AND heal in instances at the same time, but I've come up with some pretty interesting builds that would be viable both for endgame raiding and pvp.

A 21shadow/30disc build doesn't look so bad now since it allows for both Meditation AND Silent Meditation (aka subtlety).

[Baboon]

I'm actually quite pleased with the priest changes.

Sure, it's not gonna allow me to go full shadow and melt faces AND heal in instances at the same time, but I've come up with some pretty interesting builds that would be viable both for endgame raiding and pvp.

A 21shadow/30disc build doesn't look so bad now since it allows for both Meditation AND Silent Meditation (aka subtlety).

It seems to get a bit less tight indeed, which is good.

[ash2ash]

I meant silent resolve not silent meditation btw :P

[Lattyho]

Just to rub it in our faces, it looks like greater heal will receive the same kinds of bonuses from+healing as flash heal since it is now under 3.5s cast =(

Although they could change this (and i hope they do).

[Trepidation]

Just to rub it in our faces, it looks like greater heal will receive the same kinds of bonuses from+healing as flash heal since it is now under 3.5s cast =(

Although they could change this (and i hope they do).

Three second base on Gheal means you will only get 85% of your +healing bonus. However, in return you actually get a spell which will actually be useful in heavy combat situations. I call it equivalent exchange.

Effective +healing = Base Casting Time / 3.5 * Total +healing

I just find it amusing that you are upset about turning a spell which had limited uses into something much more useful with talents and then gripe because you lose 15% of your +healing effectivity? :shocked:

[Loriel]

Well, first off they probably won't change it - +dmg and +healing scaling based on cast times has to my knowledge been in the game from the start, and that's unlikely to change.

Not to rub it in, but Flash Heal and the new improved Greater Heal will not receive the same bonus from +healing:
- Flash Heal: 1.5/3.5 = 42,8% bonus
- Greater Heal: 3.0/3.5 = 85,7% bonus

So not quite a 100% bonus from +healing items, but it's imho really no big deal. As someone has stated in another thread, the effect over time evens out due to the fact that the new GH has a shorter casting time. Do the math and revel in it.

Greater Heal drops to a 2.5 sec cast (with talents) and finally becomes useful, plus it gets a +10% boost to mana efficiency - what's not to like?

[moopy]

Well, first off they probably won't change it - +dmg and +healing scaling based on cast times has to my knowledge been in the game from the start, and that's unlikely to change.

I am pretty sure that +heal items weren't in the game at the start of beta..

[HToWNHoGG]

The point i originally made was that most of the raid drops, for warriors anyways are geared mostly to 1 side. The warriors set are pretty crappy for DPS warrior. All that defense is great for tanking, but not for DPS. The same applies to Priests. ALot the stuff that is cloth and has +healing goes to priest. At the same time, alot of the stuff that does +spell dmg, usually goes to a mage or lock. That is the unfortunate reality. True, a dps priest can really do some dmg, but what good does it do when your main tank is dead cause you have a priest who would rather dps than heal the only thing keeping the group from wiping? Raiding isn't for everyone, it really forces alto of classes into specific roles, and many people hate this. Feral druids. shadow priests just to name a few. The only suggestion i can offer is to simply wait for blizzard to implement better itemization or just reroll. Sounds crappy, and it is, but there really isn't no other options unfortunately. :undecided:

[Kyras]

--That is the unfortunate reality. True, a dps priest can really do some dmg, but what good does it do when your main tank is dead cause you have a >priest< who would rather dps than heal the only thing keeping the group from wiping?--

What happens if you replace the word >priest< with mage who wouldn't reroll priest?

You have a limited number of spots. If a priest can DPS while increasing Lock DPS, offer buffs, is able to res AND can heal, I think that makes him a viable raid member.

I mean, if you want to force someone into a roll, why not just raid with core groups. 1 of each of the support classes, and then a whole slew of priests and warriors.

Because I guarantee you it would be more effective. As long as priest is a viable DPS raid member, it's a valid strategy, and imho, a damn good one.

Razumihim,
Dorf Priest

[moopy]

The point i originally made was that most of the raid drops, for warriors anyways are geared mostly to 1 side. The warriors set are pretty crappy for DPS warrior.

I don't know about that. We have warriors who do fearsome DPS wearing wrath gear.

[Trepidation]

True, a dps priest can really do some dmg, but what good does it do when your main tank is dead cause you have a priest who would rather dps than heal the only thing keeping the group from wiping?

How much 40 man raiding do you do? When you go into a 40 man raid, jobs are assigned BEFORE hand. The same goes for 5/10/15/20. If the person leading the group does not verify that a class that has multiple functions will operate within that functional paramater...then that is a failure on their part.

If anybody in our guild pulled the attitude of "I am only gonna play this way", then we would be fine with that....they would just be playing their way, but not in our raids.

-tReP

[Dolgr]

I think it would make the most sense for Blizzard to turn the +healing gear into +healing/damage. That way your not just limited to a damage boost in one school and you get still get the bonus to healing in PVE.

[Trepidation]

I think it would make the most sense for Blizzard to turn the +healing gear into +healing/damage. That way your not just limited to a damage boost in one school and you get still get the bonus to healing in PVE.

That would be overpowering and completely misbalancing. Why would we even need a mage...water? Might as well ditch warlocks as well. I know it is fun to think you picked the most perfect class and you should be uber above all else, but there is balance and trades. You get to pick one....great healer or great DPS....just not both at the same time. You must pick a path and head down it. It is your choice. Eventually you should be able to have both gear sets.

There are a TON of +healing/damage gear that are purple. The same with blues. Just because it doesn't say PRIEST on it, doesn't mean the itemization isn't there...because it is. Nobody says you can't roll on a Crimson Felt Hat. I'm pretty darn sure you can get a complete set of +damage gear from MC/Onyxia as a priest. Also, Blizzard could turn all your +healing gear into +healing/damage....but be prepared to lose 50%+ of your +healing due to the itemization weighting values (you do know these, right?).

Your argument just seems completely boggling to me. With 1.10 and your proposed change...priests would be the most overpowered class out there. That is just not cool. There would be a nerf stick swung at us so hard it would make you spin around the earth 7x.

Priests were always meant to be the primary healers for this game....that was supposed to be their "nitch". Therefore, a majority (NOT ALL) of the gear is itemized to support that "EXPECTED" nitch. I just think you are upset that you really want to pwn face in 40 man but are expected to heal (especially since you pwn'd all the way to 60). People have known practically since this game started that priests would be healing in raids...what makes you think it would change? Really...if you want to pwn and cast spell, roll mage. Now if you want both worlds, be prepared to pay the piper for a while.

I'm not mad at you or anything...but what you propose seems to lack any real thought other than "give me powa".

-tReP

[Dolgr]

Trep, I know there is already a lot of gear that has + to damage/healing already. I have the blue pvp set on my priest as well as quite a few pieces of my prophecy set so I know what time it is.

BTW in a raid you still need mage for aoe's and decursing not just their DPS and the last time I checked they don't heal which is the only thing that I do in a raid with my guild. Warlocks? yeah no SS? I think our guild will still want locks coming too. You assume that I don't understand how to play a priest. In fact, I have been 60 and raiding with him for quite a while. Like I don't know about the whole healing part of my class. Please don't condescend me and try to explain this game to me. Having 3 60's I think I understand it pretty well.

Being a holy/disc priest all I am saying is that you so gimped trying to farm mobs. It looks like 1.10 will fix a lot of that which is nice, but I still prefer gear that is + to both. You have your opinion and I have mine. Leave it at that.

[moopy]

gief powah!

(Well, it was worth a try :)

[Dolgr]

Moopy :laugh: Or should I call you Schultz? :rolleyes:

I know nothing!

[Trepidation]

Being a holy/disc priest all I am saying is that you so gimped trying to farm mobs. It looks like 1.10 will fix a lot of that which is nice, but I still prefer gear that is + to both. You have your opinion and I have mine. Leave it at that.

That my friend is something I can have no problem agreeing on is to disagree. It is what makes us different :flowers:

-tReP

[Nuhera]

if bliz kept the AP bonus for inner fire, and changed str to add +2 AP to priests, you'd see a few more melee'ing priests out there...

wish bliz would overhaul some EQ for that case too... then !complaints

[Steamboat]

What about a 30 point talent called "Curse of Undeath" or something. You throw it on a mob, and after that you can cast your heals on the mob, but your heals damage them. Just make it like Curse of Doom - cannot be cast on players. Now Holy/Disc can solo PVE. If they whine about PVP then I guess they'll have to spec shadow.

I'm not sure if this would be overpowered, if so all you have to do is make the heals do a % of their heal as damage instead of the full amount of the heal.

(How sweet would it be to cast this, then pop a shield, then bandage a mob to death. :) )

[AeroJonesy]

Ooooh, a healbot's dream! The ability to actually heal a mob to death. I like it.

[YuanTi]

what i don't understand is that most highlvl mage stuff has +healing/damage on it,wtf do they need the +healing for??
As it stands now we priests rarely get to roll for +healing/damage equip wich is really pissing me off since these items has plus to two of our main skills,not just one as the mages has!
It seems to me that i can utillize those itmes better then a mage atleast,the warlock has a pet to heal so i can somewhat see it as ok for them to roll on it
On the other side anything with +crit i would let the mages have!

[Loriel]

This is a pretty common argument, and as you probably/maybe know there are no pure +dmg items - they are all +dmg/+healing. If you are a healing oriented raiding priest (like me) you would normally prefer straight +healing over +dmg/+healing, as the healing bonuses tend to be a fair bit higher.

That doesn't really help much in PVP, though, so I do feel for the Shadow priests who lose out to the dps squishies. If you keep at it you will eventually get it, but probably only after the Mages and Warlocks have got their pieces first - most guilds will give priority to these dps classes, and I can't really blame them for it.

I have passed on both Ring of Spell Power and Talisman of Ephemeral Power in MC - both of these I could have gotten for not a lot of dkp, but I think they are better suited for a Mage. I would rather have straight +healing items, and the ToEP is easily outdone by Blessed Prayer Beads (lvl 50 quest reward) - assuming you focus exclusively on healing. But hey, that's me - I understand that not all Priests think like this.

The same problem is experienced by Druids who want to get gear to support their Feral mode, which puts them in direct competition with Rogues wrt loot. Or a Shaman/Paladin wanting cloth +healing gear etc. Once you step outside of what is defined to be your core role, you end up playing second fiddle to other classes who have that as their primary role - period.

[moopy]

This dropped in BWL last night:

Band of Dark Dominion
Binds when picked up
Unique
Finger
+12 Stamina
+6 Intellect
Requires Level 60
Equip: Increases damage done by Shadow spells and effects by up to 33.
Sells for 8 Gold 8 Silver 63 Copper to vendors
Item Level 70

Only one person bid on it, got it for 15dkp, which is our minimum for purples. I was soooooo tempted to bid on it, but knew that if I did, I would use today's free respec to go shadow.

I must eschew the path to the dark side, that's why I made a pvp-priest too, precisely to help me fight this urge. I simply am not content with "good enough" mixed spec healing and dmg either way- I'd probably spec as a purebred pvp death machine just as surely as I specced as an industrial healing machine.

Very tempting, since I have picked up quite a few bits of very sweet +heal/dmg now (be the envy of major governments and your warlock friends, etc etc).

[YuanTi]

I do agree that this is a common argument but still,i wish blizz would see it fit to implement pure plus damage items instead of plus heal/damage..but ,that is alas just wishful thinking!
Atleast i can get my anethema without mages/warlocks screaming at me!
And yes,i dknow there are enchants for pluss spellpower:shocked:

[Loriel]

By "common argument" I meant that some Priests are of the opinion that they should get first dibs on +dmg/+healing items, as they can use both bonuses. The +healing component would naturally be wasted on Mages and Warlocks, but this is still a fairly weak argument. It is hardly the fault of the Mages and Warlocks that Blizzard have itemized like this, so in my opinion they should always get priority when it comes to these items.

I doubt Blizzard will introduce pure +dmg items, so this itemization is probably here to stay. If people want a choice wrt +dmg items they can always collect items that boost the dps of a particular school, i.e. +shadow for Priest, +fire or +frost for Mages and +shadow / +fire for Warlocks.

[moopy]

I do agree that this is a common argument but still,i wish blizz would see it fit to implement pure plus damage items instead of plus heal/damage..but ,that is alas just wishful thinking!
Atleast i can get my anethema without mages/warlocks screaming at me!
And yes,i dknow there are enchants for pluss spellpower:shocked:

The good news, of course, is that now the staff doesn't lose the enchant when you transform it.

Needless to say, it would be far cooler if each form could have a different enchant, though..

[YuanTi]

Gah,that hurt moopy,i was planning on a 55 heal enchant on benediction and a plus 30 spellpower on anethema,now why did you have to go ruin my day!
Oh well,plus 30 spellpower here i come!
Btw is there a cooldown on the transforming?
If so,how long is it?:shocked:

[moopy]

Gah,that hurt moopy,i was planning on a 55 heal enchant on benediction and a plus 30 spellpower on anethema,now why did you have to go ruin my day!
Oh well,plus 30 spellpower here i come!
Btw is there a cooldown on the transforming?
If so,how long is it?:shocked:

30 minutes. If you see me in Ironforge wearing Anathema, you'll know that I have been out farming herbs within the last half hour :)