Basically the problem is that as dpsers they are way low when compared to mages or locks. It takes too long to build up all the DoTs and it’s totally mana inefficient. The end result is low dps and a spot that could as well be taken by a pure dps class that would do way more damage in comparison.

As healers, they lost their power, especially when Blizzard made downranking of spells no more a viable option. As MT healer, any paladin will do a much better job, with overhealing being channeled to their beacon. Even a disc priest can’t beat a paladin when it comes to single target healing. On top of that, priests have slower spells compared to paladins so it’s still a no-go.

As raid healers, they are being overwhelmed by druids and shamans. It’s simply a matter or rotation PoM, CoH and PoH but in the end by the time you casted, everyone has already been topped up by one of the other classes.

Thus the frustration being shown by our own priests. I talked to a friend of mine who’s playing a priest in one of the top European guilds and he confirmed that priest healing is no longer interesting. It used to require brain to do it properly but since the last changes it’s become just a mere, blow all your cooldowns to top the haling meters (for all it’s worth) and just brainless healing.

It looks like Blizzard is aware of the poor performance of shadow dps and I haven’t done a serious research but I’m pretty sure someone has already brought up the healing issues as well.

So what would you do as a priest to make your role in raids more active? What can the raid do about it?

What was I expecting? Well.. first of all the new 5 men.. and what else? hmm.. actually nothing!

So I copied my DK to the PTR, logged in, spent some time setting up the interface and enabling some addons I can’t live without (Bartender and Omen namely), respecced as the talents were wiped clean and started looking for a group for the Forge of Souls. I managed to get a resto druid, retri pally, warlock and enhancement shammy with me and off we went to try this new 5 men! Bear in mind that mobs and bosses do not drop loot yet, but at least we had a chance to see the architecture of the place and try out the encounters which are definitely interesting.  The first boss is Bronjahm, a sort of mage that you have to hug and nuke basically Then you move on to The Devourer of Souls which is a sort of Reliquiary of Souls from BT but smaller It’s a quite fun encounter as you have to pay attention to a lot of things during the fight in order not to kill whoever is being watched.

After cleaning the first 5 men it came natural to just went forward into the 2nd part which is the Pit of Saron. It actually looks like a pit, being a circular area. You can choose which boss to go for between the first two. It’s fun that when you kill the trash you’re actually freeing some human miners who will thank you and that you will see again later on. We went for the Forgemaster Garfrost first, which is similar to Sapphiron (not that he looks like it, but the abilities are similar). We killed him and moved on to Krick and Ick. If you happened to watch Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome you will probably recall Master Blaster. The encounter is just a matter of kiting the boss around, avoid poison pools and run away from the poison nova. And if you’re not quick enough with your dps, you will also want to kite him when he targets you (it happened only once to us).
Then you move on and go through a gauntlet (and now this is definitely cool) with snow and boulders falling from the top, undeads coming at you in groups, spawning here and there. You run through the gauntlet and end up at Scourgelord Tyrannus who is riding his dragon Rimefang. After a short talk, the boss will jump down from the dragon and the encounter starts. While you are fighting, the force of the Alliance (yeah I’m playing on that side of the force!) will keep the undeads busy at the entrance. The fight is just tank & spank, remember not to dps when you’re targeted and kite him on the frost patches when he empowers. That’s all you can find for the time being on the PTR.

And of course, if you’re like me and park your character in front of the quest giver for the heroic dungeon, you’ll find out that now the heroic is Naxx10/25!

I’ve added some images of both instances for those that want to have a look at them, they’re available on my Flickr set

On the other end, I’ve got back to raiding in World of Warcraft after a little pause sometimes after the release of TBC. So I ended up leveling a new main, gearing up through heroics, finding a new guild, and finally raiding again places like Karazhan, SSC, MH, BT, etc..

Time has passed and with the release of WotLK I kept raiding with my current guild, Malevolence (on Terenas EU) and I’ve recently been appointed Veteran which is a little step back into the life of those managing the guild. And this has been the spark that pushed me forward into starting writing this.

So, what is this all about? The main idea is to write a weekly (but hopefully I’ll post more often than once a week) blog about what happens in the guild, talking about raids, startegies, specs, roles, recruitment, dramas, almost anything that happens daily in any guild.

Think of this as a sort of diary of a journey that has started something like five years ago and that has not yet finished.