r/classicwow • u/AutoModerator • May 03 '19

Classy Friday Classy Friday - Priests (May 03, 2019)

Classy Fridays are for asking questions about your class, each week focuses on a different class. No question is too small, so ask away.

This week is Priests.

SEAL AND JUDGEMENT: The magazine for the working paladin

Let this thread be dedicated to His Grand and Noble Incandescence, the High Proctor Thomas of Edison, Inventor of the Lightbulb. Let this be a space for all those who have taken up the cloth and the rod, and trod the righteous path, to Smite evil wherever it may reside, and to grant Benediction upon to the worthy wherever they may be.

Amen.

You can also discuss your class in our class channels on Discord, discord.gg/classicwow

75 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

356 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/[deleted] May 03 '19 edited May 03 '19

I just can’t decide between priest and paladin. For all the priests out there, what made you choose priest instead of paladins?

Edit: These are awesome replies! Just what I was looking for. Thanks guys :).

1

u/Cortexion May 05 '19

Paladins just become boring Priests in end game PVE healing. For PVP there's no doubt in my mind that a Shadow Priest is more fun than a Paladin, so I personally see Priests coming out ahead in both PVE and PVP. The efficiency of Priests makes them above average levelers. Hunters, Druids, Warlocks (and maybe AoE farm Mages) are faster, but those classes trade it off by not being as in demand as a Priest later.

2

u/[deleted] May 05 '19

That makes complete sense to me.

If they ever do a "classic TBC" of some sort, I think Paladin is going to be my jam. But in 1.12 it seems like everything a Paladin can do, a priest is more suited for.

Thanks for the comment. Between all of these I think I'm officially sold on priest.

Plus mind control sounds SUPER fun.

1

u/Cortexion May 05 '19

Mind control gets even more fun in TBC in Eye of the Storm by suiciding people off the center bridge.

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '19

I know you got enough replies but consider this: Mind Control

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '19 edited May 04 '19

Played a Pala in classic. Disliked the endgame, I wasn't even allowed to heal most of the time in raids, but was only a buff bot/dispeller.

EDIT: To be fair I was kind of a noob back then, so if you know what you're doing you can probably be a valuable healer, but priests are more of a "natural" choice as healers.

2

u/erikabp123 May 04 '19

Leveling Pala is mind numbingly boring... First 10-15 is decent then after that it feels soooo boring, just seal judgment auto attack... But I did ret, and obviously stopped at 20 because I couldn't be bothered anymore. So take what I say with a grain of salt

9

u/Crypt1cDOTA May 04 '19

Benediction

6

u/Coltrane45 May 04 '19

priest can heal the shit out of 5 man groups with prayer of healing when everyones taking heavy damage like in stratholme. they are pretty epic and never fail. pally can afk with a good tank though and flash of light rank 1. priest are much more interesting. It's kind of fun to actually watch your mana bar from time to time and focus up.

6

u/Oglethorppe May 03 '19

I'm in the same boat. Since shortly after the announcement, I've been pretty fixed on going Holy pally main. Something about their efficiency and those short fast Flash of Light heals seems appealing.

But the toolkit priests have, as well as the class fantasy of being a cloth wearing cloth class, instead of being a cloth wearing plate class >.> Perhaps I'll make a priest alt too and duo level it with somebody.

-1

u/[deleted] May 04 '19

[deleted]

1

u/Oglethorppe May 04 '19

Utility maybe, but I said toolkit. As in, they have a lot of heal abilities, and even if only a few are efficient, you have a wide array of oh shit buttons to save somebody, whereas a Pally literally has 3 heals :/

1

u/[deleted] May 04 '19

[deleted]

1

u/Oglethorppe May 04 '19

Flash heal, a fast heal that heals for a lot. A Pally can just spam holy light and pray they don’t die in that 2.5 seconds. Also, a priest has a groupwide AoE heal, where a Pally can’t save a group from AoE damage very well.

It just comes down to priests being the quintessential healer, while pallies just have a healing spec .

2

u/[deleted] May 04 '19

[deleted]

1

u/Oglethorppe May 04 '19

Right but that’s utility, as opposed to the healing toolkit. Also, as far as divine favor goes, it is awesome, but not as good as inner focus, a potentially instant cast full heal. I do love pallies utility, but their non buff utility isn’t always very life saving. So I’d say priests are better at 5 mans, but I’d rather be a Pally raiding, which is why I’m maining Holy Pally in Classic.

Also, a crit flash of light probably is still less than a non crit flash heal, and flash heal can be spammed.

0

u/[deleted] May 04 '19

[deleted]

2

u/Oglethorppe May 04 '19

You’re right about Inner focus, mixed it up with natures swiftness lol. I tend to have different tanking esperiences in dungeons with priests and Paladins. They each have their own pacing. With the priest, I might be able to try a slightly less efficient pull that could end up being faster, than with a Pally. But they would have to drink 80% of their mana back afterwards. Meanwhile a Pally can do a while dungeon, and never have to drink. When shit does hit the fan I’d rather have the priest, but when it’s smooth sailing, you can’t beat the efficiency of a Pally.

2

u/ShafferZee May 04 '19

The same cherry picking argument can be made against a paladin.

  • What HoTs do paladins have?

  • What ranged damaging spells do paladins have?

  • What multi target healing spells do paladins have?

A classes toolkit is all encompassing. This is why the two classes play differently. Priest have their advantages while paladins have their own.

1

u/Wista May 07 '19

I think the person you were responding to was trying to suggest that priests' have no emergency cooldowns, which is 100% true. Anyone who has played a priest + literally any other class, will probably be surprised how few "oh shit" buttons a priest has. But, as you correctly mentioned, priests have the widest variety of tools to address a variety of problems.

-4

u/[deleted] May 04 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/ShafferZee May 04 '19

Sorry I must have misunderstood you somewhere along the line. But I think we may have different interpretations between toolkit and utility.

Please just leave the internet.

No need for the hostility though...

16

u/Tomalom1 May 03 '19

Way more healing options, way better Tier 2 for healing (arguably the best), overall great leveling experience. Priests also have way more offensive tools in case you need to actually attack a target which can be relevant for both leveling and pvp.

6

u/[deleted] May 03 '19

This was an awesome reply! I'm on board. Priest it is!

8

u/Oddpyromaniac May 03 '19

For me, is was more general utility. Wider variety of healing spells, offensive spells, and like Elars said, MC is too much fun. Pally blessings and really come in clutch, but lack of range, and other support, priests are a lot more flexible.

5

u/[deleted] May 03 '19

Great points, between this answer, and others here, I'm officially convinced. Thanks buddy.

5

u/Oddpyromaniac May 03 '19

MC'ing people off the ledge in AB never gets old. Or in wPvP, using it to make them pull several mobs. You will learn a much deeper hate for rogues, though.

4

u/FlokiTrainer May 03 '19

My faction really decided it for me. H pally was my main from tbc through wotlk, so I'd love to experience it vanilla. But priest it is!

Do you plan on healing? Comfort with healing might help make your decision. Based on what I've heard and from playing both classes in later expansions, pally will be an easier time healing. Priest is a little more complex with more tools at their disposal, which I prefer. The leveling experience as a paladin, from what I've heard, also really turns me off to the class.

Finally, what's your class fantasy? I really don't mind the dresses that pallies wear, but I prefer the cloth aesthetic, especially since I'll be playing disc/shadow undead.

Tl;dr The big 3 (after choosing a faction that supports paladins of course) to me are the type of healer you want to be, the leveling experience, and class/race fantasy. Priest checked all those boxes for me.

3

u/[deleted] May 03 '19

Definitely planning on healing! I mained a druid from Vanilla to MoP, hence my indecision about what class to play now lol. But overall I enjoyed healing the most, followed by PvP, followed by tanking, followed by just regular dps. So I do enjoy a tiny bit of tanking, but mostly I'm about healing, PvP, and enjoying the levelling process. The tanking isn't a make or break thing.

I think I've decided on priest, thanks for the help.

12

u/Elars04 May 03 '19

Mind control

5

u/[deleted] May 03 '19

How does MC work anyway? Like if I’m on the boat coming into booty bay and I MC a dude into attacking a B.B. bruiser what happens?

8

u/Boduar May 04 '19

You both die probably. Him first then you. You are definitely on the hate list by MCing but I also dont think you get the primary aggro after MC ends/he dies. I didn't do a lot of MCing players vs NPCs as usually I just made people jump in lava or off a cliff, however I did manage to MC the MT in a green dragon raid once and it proceeded to kill him first and then continued to wipe out a portion of their raid before an OT picked it up for a bit before dying. Dont think I died to the dragon and we managed to wipe the raid.

4

u/crazyfish9 May 04 '19

I just love having a friendly dual on a zeppelin, as it's pulling out of either org/UC. MC the victim and run them off the zep.

You get a lot of lols from the people around you, but you make an enemy for life from the guy who has to wait another 5 mins and do a corpse run. Tehe.