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Q u o t e:


How about you read my post and take a second to think about what I said.

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You are all about the catch 22, vicious circle thing arent you? Well, Aren't you?

"Well I wouldn't have to be if you stopped responding"

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Q u o t e:
I'm kind of at a loss here, because apparently neither responding that we are looking into the bugs nor choosing not to respond at all accomplish anything. The only acceptable response to you seems to be "we fixed it," and that just isn't going to happen immediately with every concern that players bring up. We have a long list of stuff we want to look at. No matter which issues we look at first, someone else is going to be unhappy.

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To be completely honest, every day I look at MMO Champion and other WoW-related websites. And every day I feel more and more despair that I'm playing some game that is not going to work in my favor. I love my priest class - I don't want to roll another. Overall I enjoy the game, the instances, and my company. But each time I've held out hope - mostly for the shadow tree to make a comeback.

With the arena season around the corner, I would really like (almost need) to know if I should be getting Shadow Priest gear or Disc gear. A good start to the arena season is critical to the long term. Or perhaps I just go take another 7 month break to come back and finally say, 'wow, this Disc tree is a lot of fun' only to find my friends have moved on.

Each day I look at the proposed changes and responses and hardly ever see a single Priest-related item mentioned.

Take today for instance on MMO Champion:
1. DK response
2. 3 Druid responses
3. 1 VERY long Hunter response
4. 1 Mage response
5. 1 long Shaman response
6. 1 Warlock response
7. 1 Warrior response

I'm amazed rogues haven't been mentioned yet. This list has been like that every other day. Compared to the other classes, I think Priests go the longest stretch without any significant announcements.

Shadow has been down since Season 2. Disc came to the forefront of PvP for Season 4. Now we have incoming nerfs when our bugs haven't even been fixed. It really seems the devs are busy working on other 'most popular' classes while our player base has been sidelined/largely ignored.

My ultimate question is why does it seem like we are at the bottom of the list every time and what can everyone do to make it better?

Thank you.

Thanks for the responses.

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Q u o t e:
We can't let Divine Aegis stack with itself though. That gets into crazy situations.

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It seems like there could be a solution to these situations. Possibly make it so Divine Aegis can only stack with itself up to a point where it is absorbing a certain percent of the target's max health? I'm sure there could be others. Like making it so Divine Aegis can only stack up to say three times (which would give it 'synergy' with three penance crits).

Defiantely a solid start :)

Please consider adding in a stat -> spell power conversion to help with underwhelming amount that our heals do.

My suggestion is stacking i with Divine Aegis, especially since you're not wanting it to roll into itself anymore.

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Q u o t e:


We have long term plans to let you cast it on others again but it would require rebuilding the spell, which takes some tech we don't have available at the moment.



Dispels are already very powerful in PvP. We didn't want anyone to be able to just heal via dispels. It was too powerful.



It is supposed to stack, just like we said. We haven't released a build for months though. The next one should have it. We can't let Divine Aegis stack with itself though. That gets into crazy situations.

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Thank you for addressing the problem.

Ghostcrawler the biggest problem for disc right now is Rapture.

Also another poster said a few days ago, how about converting int into spell power in the disc tree? This would allow disc to stand on its own feet.

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Q u o t e:
Dispels are already very powerful in PvP. We didn't want anyone to be able to just heal via dispels. It was too powerful.

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Unfortunately, it was one of the few things that could have given Shadow Priests some form of viability.

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Q u o t e:
It is supposed to stack, just like we said. We haven't released a build for months though. The next one should have it.

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That's some good news. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

That was all we were asking for.

Have a Christmas cookie!

( : : )

(It can also be a button if you prefer!)

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Q u o t e:
It seems like there could be a solution to these situations. Possibly make it so Divine Aegis can only stack with itself up to a point where it is absorbing a certain percent of the target's max health? I'm sure there could be others. Like making it so Divine Aegis can only stack up to say three times (which would give it 'synergy' with three penance crits).

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They're far too lazy to do something as elegant as this when it comes to a non-DPS class.

They'll make it non-rolling and just leave it at that.

PS. If you (GC) read the above and roll your eyes, keep in mind that your rabid attention to DPS classes is the reason that players think like this, not because of some ridiculous mysticism.

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Q u o t e:
Please consider adding in a stat -> spell power conversation to help with underwhelming amount that our heals do.

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Are you talking about Disc's direct heals? If you want big heals, go holy. Disc seems, in my estimation, to be about mitigating damage almost as much as healing it.

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Q u o t e:
We're not going to inflate our design department beyond a size at which we think we can stay in close communication.

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I was noticing in the back of the TBC manual there appear to be only something like two or three hundred total people listed, the combined total for everything from programming to artists.

Several million or more of WoW's officially-stated 11 million subscribers paying amounts like the U.S. $15/month or the equivalent would mean $50-$100 million a month and around the billion-dollar level per year, theoretically enough for up to many thousands of people. (For instance, $1 billion/year is nominally like up to $100,000 a year to >= 10000 employees).

Now, I'm not saying go quite that far, and, obviously, WoW being the most successful MMORPG in the world speaks volumes about the team being good at what they do.

But surely at least a few more people to fix bugs or do coding like make reflective shield work on other players again within months could be added without too many close communication issues? So much seems rushed recently, even on other topics like how the knockup effect was removed from Living Bomb apparently just because Blizzard didn't have the manpower to fix it in time.

It would seem at some point you would have to set up a hierarchy where the lead people and designers remain in close communication but with more supporting people underneath them anyway, especially as WoW expands over the years.

I know this is somewhat inappropriate, being a back-seat driver so to speak, but I hope you guys or your
management at least periodically carefully consider the option.

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Q u o t e:
Are you talking about Disc's direct heals? If you want big heals, go holy. Disc seems, in my estimation, to be about mitigating damage almost as much as healing it.

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Don't be obtuse.

Disc has a massive throughput disadvantage compared to Holy on non-Holy-specialist spells because it lacks talents like SH, EH, and DP.

There's no excuse for this.

A slightly stronger bubble and some crappy DA procs don't change this.

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Q u o t e:


I was noticing in the back of the TBC manual there appear to be only something like two or three hundred total people listed, the combined total for everything from programming to artists.

Several million or more of WoW's officially-stated 11 million subscribers paying amounts like the U.S. $15/month or the equivalent would mean $50-$100 million a month and around the billion-dollar level per year, theoretically enough for up to many thousands of people. (For instance, $1 billion/year is nominally like up to $100,000 a year to >= 10000 employees).

Now, I'm not saying go quite that far, and, obviously, WoW being the most successful MMORPG in the world speaks volumes about the team being good at what they do.

But surely at least a few more people to fix bugs or do coding like make reflective shield work on other players again within months could be added without too many close communication issues? So much seems rushed recently, even on other topics like how the knockup effect was removed from Living Bomb apparently just because Blizzard didn't have time to fix it.

It would seem at some point you would have to set up a hierarchy where the lead people and designers remain in close communication but with more supporting people underneath them anyway, especially as WoW expands over the years.

I know this is somewhat inappropriate, being a back-seat driver so to speak, but I hope you guys or your
management at least periodically carefully consider the option.

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I love armchair managers. Like you have any clue what it takes to run a successful gaming company. Or anything for that matter.

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Q u o t e:
I'm kind of at a loss here, because apparently neither responding that we are looking into the bugs nor choosing not to respond at all accomplish anything. The only acceptable response to you seems to be "we fixed it," and that just isn't going to happen immediately with every concern that players bring up. We have a long list of stuff we want to look at. No matter which issues we look at first, someone else is going to be unhappy.

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I think the issue here GC (and I am a huge fan from your "Age of..." days at Ensemble Studios!) is that people are looking for some sort of confirmation that the things like Divine Aegis and Rapture ARE considered to be bugs by Blizzard. If they aren't bugs, tell us... if they are, tell us. Not saying anything and asking people to be patient is the WRONG way to go (and I know, I used to work in a QA department at a computer game studio).

Just a confirmation that these are considered to be actual bugs so we aren't waiting with breathless anticipation is what people are asking for.

Thank you for responding.

In agreement with other posters, the bug affecting Rapture is probably the most significant one. I'd love to mess around with Disc like I did on Beta and pre-WotLK 3.0, but Holy is just too good in comparison. Fixing rapture and Divine Aegis would be huge fixes for the spec.

I also agree with those saying that Divine Aegis should stack -- to a point. Find a way to cap it, and you're golden. I just don't think Disc Priests should be penalized for critting multiple times on the tank, who is generally assumed to be the healing assignment of a Disc Priest.

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Q u o t e:


Don't be obtuse.

Disc has a massive throughput disadvantage compared to Holy on non-Holy-specialist spells because it lacks talents like SH, EH, and DP.

There's no excuse for this.

A slightly stronger bubble and some crappy DA procs don't change this.

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What do you want Disc to be? I haven't seen many issues with Disc Healers in my raids, but I think that holy is the optimal healing spec. Is healing with disc viable? I guess, it's what people do. Is it optimal? I guess not, according to you.

What I think is obtuse is expecting disc and holy to have the same throughput. You can buff the bubble and those procs (which seem to be an issue), but there's been a viable priest healing tree for ages. I'm glad that they added something different for you, but as long as there are talents that do different things there will always be an effort to find an optimal spec. I'm sorry disc isn't it.

Thank you for some response on this matter GC.

On PvE Concerns:

We see ourselves as competing with Paladins for tank healing spots. Given the current mana regen issues with Rapture on PW:S targets, the Penance facing requirement and some issue with Divine Aegis and PW:S not stacking, I feel somewhat lacking in comparison. No, I don't want to be a Paladin but I would like the tools that I can bring to the table to function correctly.

Our raid healing as disc is not on par with shamans/CoH priests/druids and there's nothing wrong with that but given the above concern, leads to us feeling somewhat gimped.

I'm the co-gm of my guild and I feel I compete well and earn my spot every night. Would I feel the same if I weren't in this leadership position? Possibly not.

In short, these are not game breaking issues but it would go a long to to improving my game experience to have this fixed, whenever that may be.

On PvP concerns:

I have never seriously PvPed before but in rolling this character for Wrath was hoping to compete in Arena. Given the experience I've had in BGs I'm still hopeful that with resilience and better PvP gear it will all balance out but I am wary.

I look forward to the new arena season but am slightly wary about how our performance will be and am considering going shadow to gear up. I don't mind doing this but having to question my PvP viability as Disc in the first place is ideally not a situation I would like to be in. I

I have empathy for your situation as much as I'm sure you have empathy for mine/ours. The only really frustrating part is that the issues and problems we face are bugs for the most part rather than design choices. That just doesn't sit right with me and does detract from my experience in-game. I feel that is why much of the outcry is so vocal, although I do disagree with the way most choose to raise their concerns.

Enjoy your Christmas break GC, I have a feeling you need it.

Cheers my friend.

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Q u o t e:
The Levitate buffs mean that no one has to stand on their own two feet any more.

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Q u o t e:
The Levitate buffs mean that no one has to stand on their own two feet any more.

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Q u o t e:
The Levitate buffs mean that no one has to stand on their own two feet any more.

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Q u o t e:
The Levitate buffs mean that no one has to stand on their own two feet any more.

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Q u o t e:
The Levitate buffs mean that no one has to stand on their own two feet any more.

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Q u o t e:
The Levitate buffs mean that no one has to stand on their own two feet any more.

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