I am shocked, sir, shocked I say, to see priests whining about the priest Q&A and Rogues whning about the rogue Q&A. This is an unexpected development.


This is why we can't have nice things!

Shadow questions:

Q: Any ETA or a confirmation fix on the sw:pain problem in which you need to stack your shadow-weaving up to 5 stacks before casting it? (otherwise it is continually renewed by mf with however many stacks it was initially applied with). It has a work around but usually the rotation is a bit ugly.

Q: Based on your recent changes to shadow for pvp (3.2 thus far) it is clear that you want shadow to be a more viable pvp spec or atleast better represented. My question is how viable?

A while ago I remember reading a blue post that mentioned specifically that not all specs would be able to be in the top teams but specs even such as tank specs would be viable in a small capacity. Without asking for specific numbers is this something you expect/want to hit 2ks? maybe or a spec thats a viable gladiator contender?

Q: Throughout wrath you have been striving to make Spirit useful to all cloth/leather casters (both dps/healing) and are transforming it from purely a regen stat to a bit of a dps stat. Both warlocks/Mages have recieved changes that make it a superb stat to get instead of a throw away (like mp5 tends to be for caster dps now).

Shadow though seems to need it the least (which is kinda counter-priest since historically that was the priest stat to have) since it translates into less passive dps and even with procs its less appealing than it is to locks/mages. Any changes to the way spriests will use spirit in the future?

Q: Due to a dramatic dps boost and optional talent cd reduction of mana fiend, Spriests have their first dps cooldown. Are there any thoughts to build on this (either increasing manafiend dmg or adding another cd) in order to offer spriests a way to prioritize dmg output at specific times (aka when illidan was in the demonic trap or after heroism/bloodlust is blown).


Non-Shadow related questions

Q: Hymns.... What do you think of them now with the current changes made and are you planning future changes to them?... I definitely see use/purpose for both but i think Hymn of Hope is still underpowered and it sucks that a non-healing ability can't be casted while in shadowform.

Q: this is the long shot... with revamps being done to shapeshifts any chance at a spell detail effect boost for shadowform in the forseeable future. And on a another cosmetic note any thought behind letting ppl that are levitated glide to the target as apposed to the old "walking on air animation"?

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Q u o t e:


You have it backwards...the Rogue Q&A was a joke. I think the Priest Q&A really did a good job with addressing the Shadow Tree issues.

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I C WUT U DID THAR

<3

....really?

Darn, posted on my DK..but....really?!

So basically the response to every question was

"It's fine L2P"

My favorite part was

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Q u o t e:
Second, in a raid in which healers don’t coordinate well it’s easy for other healers to stomp on your big, slow heals. While you are casting, someone heals your target for you. I’m not saying these are bad players -- in my experience it’s just the style of raid. Some players are really talkative and coordinated. “Big heal coming.” “I got Jimmy.”

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Apparently this is how we're supposed to use GH, by communicating on vent when we're healing the tank. This works for which encounters btw? General and.....?

All I know is I GOT JIMMY!

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Q u o t e:

To the contrary, the questions were specifically gathered from players all around the world. Similar posts were made in every region and language requesting class feedback. Whether or not we addressed the most pressing concerns is a matter for debate, though each player's opinion on this is subjective.

There is one argument that could be made about the class Q&A's that's absolutely true though. Every Q&A will be followed with criticism that the most important class concerns are not addressed in full, if at all.

We do what we can to make sure the most important and frequently-asked questions are touched upon in every Q&A. That said, your individual questions are no more or less important to us than questions from players in Korea, Russia, Latin America, France, Germany, Britain, or any other region.

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So why was shadows scaling problems blatantly ignored when it was a frequently asked question in both US and EU regions?

Blizzard has no idea what they're doing with Priests, it has been this way since pre-bc.

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Q u o t e:

To the contrary, the questions were specifically gathered from players all around the world. Similar posts were made in every region and language requesting class feedback. Whether or not we addressed the most pressing concerns is a matter for debate, though each player's opinion on this is subjective.

There is one argument that could be made about the class Q&A's that's absolutely true though. Every Q&A will be followed with criticism that the most important class concerns are not addressed in full, if at all.

We do what we can to make sure the most important and frequently-asked questions are touched upon in every Q&A. That said, your individual questions are no more or less important to us than questions from players in Korea, Russia, Latin America, France, Germany, Britain, or any other region.

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Meh, nobody will ever be happy. I didn't see everything I wanted to see addressed, but who gives a crap? You can't answer everything... Hell, I'd argue that you really can't get away with answering anything 'cause we tear you open about it every single time.


I once thought I'd want to do your job. I think I'd probably shoot myself, in retrospect.

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Q u o t e:

Blizzard has no idea what they're doing with Priests, it has been this way since pre-bc.

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My god, you're a stone guard, I don't know how you can possibly say that. Do you REMEMBER the days before 1.10? DO YOU!?


Why is nobody around here even the slightest bit happy that we can actually do ANYTHING? We used to suck at everything but healing. I know, I levelled Holy back when that was retarded. So they havn't got it completely right yet... I'd cheerfully see you do better, with respect to the WHOLE game. Not just our pet class. Jesus.

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Q u o t e:
Huh... well, that was mildly disappointing. It's like they practically copy/pasted the mini Q&A from a couple weeks ago.

Anyone else tempted to spec out of Dispersion so that we can demonstrate that it's not as popular as GC thinks it is?

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This - it is a call to arms all Shadowpriests must now Obey.

PvE shadowpriests - hear our words! Spec out of Dispersion in protest! Put the point in something silly like Imp. Mana burn! (that's right, we're going to mana burn that boss of his 8 million mana pool, 1000 mana at a time!)

Q: Is it too easy to dispel DoTs right now?

Ghostcrawler: In a word, no. Priests of all specs used to benefit a lot more from “junk” buffs and debuffs to “protect&rdquo; their spells than we typically allow these days.

What "offensive junk debuffs" for shadow are you referring to, pretty sure misery does not get targeted by dispel and I can't think of anything else, so yeah all we are left is the 30% dot dispel everyone else gets. (save warlocks with unstable affliction silence, hint hint)

Q: Would you consider removing the cast time for Mind Blast to make it a more desirable direct-damage spell given that it already has a cooldown?

Ghostcrawler: No. We’d be more likely to mess with the damage rather than the cast time. Obviously if the spell was no cooldown, no cast time then Shadow priests would not ever cast anything else -- it’s a great spell. So the trick is to keep it powerful while giving the player space to cast all those other Shadow priest spells as well. We honestly don’t want too many more instant-cast spells. That suggestion keeps coming up to handle interruptions in PvP and having to move in PvE. But we don’t want you to be able to opt out of those situations -- they are supposed to be challenges. If you’re looking for high direct damage with no cooldown, Mind Flay is supposed to be that spell.

Yes, here I agree with you, a high damage, instant, no cooldown direct damage spell would be OP, but the question was not about mind blast having no cooldown, it was about it being an instant with the 8-5.5 second cooldown still in place. Please at least edit these Q and As before rushing them out to us.

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Q u o t e:


So why was shadows scaling problems blatantly ignored when it was a frequently asked question in both US and EU regions?

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Didn't you hear? We're working as intended. Haste = Candy, yours is in the mail.*




*actual candy may not be present

well... that answered pretty much nothing at all.


Nice going Blizz glad to know we don't rate even a half a day of your time.


What about our non-healing utility
What about our Piss poor DPS
What about counter CC abilities


As for Dispersion. I TAKE IT FOR MANA it's worthless for anything else.

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Q u o t e:


You have it backwards...the Rogue Q&A was a joke. I think the Priest Q&A really did a good job with addressing the Shadow Tree issues.

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Actually, I think the Shadow Priest-only Q&A Ghostcrawler responded to in the DPS forum a few weeks back was a lot more informative, at least regarding Shadow Priest issues.

IMO, this Q&A was pretty much par for the course, as far as these Q&A's are concerned. I think a good number of questions infer what I already knew.

This is what I took away:

- They think Inner Fire is "fine".
- They think Dispersion is "fine".
- They think Lightwell is "fine" and it's the (DPS) players' fault for not using it. I almost suspect that they might be thinking of having DPS take more damage in fights so they might be more inclined to use a spell like Lightwell, but we all know that really will just stress the healers more.
- Divine Hymn is "fine".
- They think Priests should be using Greater Heal a lot more.
- Priest mana in PvE is "fine". (No mention of Priest mana in PvP, I notice.)
- Shadowfiend duration is "fine".
- Shadow Priests getting locked out of their one damage school is "fine".
- Mind Flay glyph *might* get a buff.
- Shadow Priest DPS set-up time is "fine".
- Shadow Priest DoTs are "fine".

Hey, I agree with a few of those, but there's nothing here that should surprise those paying attention to the Blue forum posts. Is the Q&A for people who don't read the forums? Well, the link to them is posted to the forums, so I'm not sure what to think about that.

I also like this section:

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Q u o t e:
Q: What makes a Shadow priest effective in a raid environment versus a PvP environment?

Ghostcrawler: Shadow priests have some start up time to get all of their DoTs going before the damage really starts coming in. This is easier in a boss fight that lasts for several minutes and harder in a really dynamic PvP environment.

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Okay, so do they think Shadow Priests have it hard in PvP or what? I know some changes are being made in 3.2, so obviously they must think so a little bit, but do those changes have anything to do with the time it takes setting up DoTs or ramp-up time for dealing damage?

Anyway, after seeing all the previous Q&A's it is pretty much exactly what I expected, so I can't really say I'm disappointed. I think the GC or other Blue responses to the feedback on the Q&A will probably be the most interesting part.

I would have really appreciated if they went into depth with lightwell. Its completely useless, not because what it does but because no one uses it. They can easily change it, or take it out and replace it, but they simply agree what the problem was and went to the next question.

I thought this was Question and ANSWER not question and statement.

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Q u o t e:

To the contrary, the questions were specifically gathered from players all around the world. Similar posts were made in every region and language requesting class feedback. Whether or not we addressed the most pressing concerns is a matter for debate, though each player's opinion on this is subjective.

There is one argument that could be made about the class Q&A's that's absolutely true though. Every Q&A will be followed with criticism that the most important class concerns are not addressed in full, if at all.

We do what we can to make sure the most important and frequently-asked questions are touched upon in every Q&A. That said, your individual questions are no more or less important to us than questions from players in Korea, Russia, Latin America, France, Germany, Britain, or any other region.

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I'd still love to know why of the Q&A, 65% was shadow focused, 30% holy, and 5% Discipline. Playing a healer that's done almost every hard mode 25 now, I know Holy is fine, but Disc still has a lot of unanswered questions. Hell, some of the questions I have for it are the same ones I had way back in Beta when I asked on the beta forums and still haven't gotten answers to.


1) Is Discipline too bloated late in the tree?

2) Does the tree provide sufficient choices(like Holy does)?

3) Since Discipline can focus on different stats, why not have two different healing tier armor for priests when no additional artwork would need to be done?

4) Failing 3, why can't set bonuses be universally good for both specs, like is done with other classes?

5) Why does Grace still have such a harsh limiter on it, even though it doesn't bring Disc output up to Holy's?

6) Is a Disc's tank healing output where it needs to be at?



These have been asked repeatedly since this tree was first even shown, and we're still waiting on answers.

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Q u o t e:
So basically the response to every question was

"It's fine L2P"

My favorite part was



Apparently this is how we're supposed to use GH, by communicating on vent when we're healing the tank. This works for which encounters btw? General and.....?

All I know is I GOT JIMMY!

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What about guilds who don't have vent? Guess I now need a macros to emote every time I cast a heal. Wow, that could end up becoming annoying.

Raid leader: "Get the pally healer whose heals don't need that annoying emote..."