This is an experiment. :)

One of the things that has confused me a little are all of the posts from players who say they don't understand the role of the priest class. It is unclear to us why there is so much confusion about this particular class, which seems to us to be fairly straightforward.

We are often reluctant to lay out our design goals very clearly, because frankly some players tend to use those statements to attempt to lawyer us into changes ("I'm supposed to be the master of AE damage") or would rather argue about the design instead of providing feedback on how the class actually works.

Nevertheless, because players have asked for it so often and in the interest of trying to foster the discussion, here is what we think of as the role of the priest class.

The Role of the Priest

The priest is a caster class that uses Holy and Shadow magic. Priests can only wear cloth armor and have a limited selection of weapons, but do most of their damage and healing from range. They make up for their low armor with spells that offer protection and healing.

Discipline -- this is a healing tree that emphasizes survival and single-target healing. Discipline specializes in damage absorption and prevention rather than restoring health, although they are very capable in that department too.

Holy -- this is a healing tree that has a spell suited for every situation. Holy priests can heal groups, heal individuals, heal tanks, or do all three in a single encounter. They are better at group healing than Discipline priests, but don't have as many damage prevention capabilities.

Shadow -- this tree sacrifices healing for damage. Shadow priests can restore health and mana to their group while casting their spells. Like the Shadow damage of warlocks, Shadow priest damage tends towards drains and damage over time spells.

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Q u o t e:
Have you considered the idea that the "what's our role" argument has propagated because it's the one that got Blue's attention? All the priests I know don't have any sort of identity crisis.

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I do not at all believe all priests have an identity crisis. I know there are plenty of priests out there who love their class, can compete with any other healer and wonder what all the fuss is. But it is clear there are some players who don't feel that way, so maybe this post will give them something they are looking for.

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Q u o t e:
GC, that is more of a description of a priests abilities rather than their 'role'. I suspect the vast majority of the players would say that a 'role' is something like Main Tank, Primary DPS, Primary Healer.

We all know what abilities a priest has, how about telling us what 'role' the designers have us in?

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Um, under your definitions: Discipline - primary healer, Holy - primary healer, Shadow - primary dps.

If you're looking for the word "secondary," that's not one I would use except perhaps something like Shadow - secondary healer, Ret - secondary healer.

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Q u o t e:
PS for GC. No offense, but every time I see a crawler in game I stop whatever I'm doing and go kill it.

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Oooh. Bad karma. :(

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Q u o t e:
If Holy wants to be a "a healing tree that has a spell suited for every situation," it currently falls well short. The tree gives 3 additional spells, only one of which (CoH) does much to expand the flexibility of Holy priests. Meanwhile, we still have to dump 14 points into Discipline if we want to heal for more than 20 seconds consecutively. And yes, the "jack of all trades, master of none" problem that was introduced with 3.0 is not a popular decision with many players.

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I'm pretty sure "jack of all trades, master of none" is something the community came up with, not us. All I have ever said is you can't be "jack of all trades, master of all." You can't be "the best healer in the game." We have no problem if Disc priests can equal Holy paladins or if Holy priests can AE heal as well as Resto shamans. Priests just can't AE heal so well that Resto shamans become pointless. A group that takes all Holy priests for its healers should feel like it is missing out (though it should still be possible). I would say the same thing about every class in the game. :)

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Q u o t e:
If you look at the class description for shaman on the WoW website it has that very phrase in it saying it's an excellent way to describe the shaman class.

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I think it also says shamans can tank....