why dont shadow priests ever heal? even when theres a priest in the group im still normally the primary healer .

Because many people find healing boring and they make a shadow spec priest so they won't have to heal others.

Is it right? Nah, they should still heal in an emergency but this is World of Dps in which most players see it as a sign of their manhood how much dps they do.

I just refuse to come out of feral mode when my priest is being a dumbass.

you think a full shadow spec priest can out dps a full feral spec druid?

I just refuse to come out of feral mode when my priest is being a dumbass.


So you just die?

I will heal if needed. Either that, or leave the group and start over. Why leave if you can get the job done yourself.

I have a lv 39 shadow priest (4 bars till shadow form woot), and love it for pve solo. I am druidic in nature with my priest, and have 2 sets of gear - one with +stam and +intel for BG's when all that matters is how long you can stay alive to help your team, and one with +spi and +healing for instances. I find that in instances I always heal. I occasionally cast a mind flay if the target is running, or cast shadow word:pain if we are fighting a tough mob. Though shadow priests can generate aggro quick in instances, and I learned the hard way a few times not to do that.

If im with a druid or another pirest, I'll ask politley if we can take turns healing, cause melting faces with shadow is pretty fun. In my experience, being a shadow priest really is only for soloing and looking cool, and being able to kill any poor horde that is within 3 lvls of you that has the cojones to come near a shadow priest. Even in BG's, I heal a majority of the time, cause a hunter and warrior alive do much more damage than I. And its ok for a shadow priest to dps at the beginning of instances when the mobs aren't too tough, but they better heal once the going gets tough. They are priests after all :)

The only classes spec that really matters is a Main tank having the primary protection talents so that they are not getting creamed near as fast as they other wise would. All the other class's talents are mainly for that persons enjoyment/play style. If the player is not going do what thier class's role is suppose to do then guess what... That player is dork and either does not know thier class or is plan dumb. Only way to figure that out is by either trying to exspain to them what is exspected and see if they improve. If they refuse to listen then they or you need to find somewhere else. Perfact example is my wife. She plays a shadow speced priest. She has been one since day one and gets flack about being so on every PuG we have been on. However, she is the one thats DPS'ing and healing the group while the other healers are waiting for the rez. It takes no longer for a shadow spec priest to shiftforms to heal then it does a druid to shift forms to heal. And the shadow priests have Vampiric's Embrace to turn all that DPS they are doing into additional healing. People spend to much time worring about what spec, level, or class, is in groups. I'll take someone that knows how play thier character any day over two people that only know how fight thier way. Oh and only one type person I refuse to play with is that person that refuses to listen to the others in the group. Have been killed more then anything else be people that wont/cant listen.

Shadow priests can heal....trust me...I have a 52 Shadow priest and I was main healer most of the time. The nice thing is I could use Vamp. Emb. to help with damage and healing. I even ran with a Druid quite a bit in instances, but I would be the main healer and they would back me up. Sometimes if we wanted to be real cautious they would heal one person all the time and I would heal another and we would kinda work on the 3rd together. It worked out great....with very few wipes.

I hear the same thing said about feral druids all the time.

In a game where dps>everything I can understand why priests stay in shadow and druids stay in feral.

How many people really spec for the benefit of their group on this game anyways? (i do but majority doesn't)

One thing I did was create 2 priests on a server that I used to play on....one that would be holy and one that would be shadow. That way I can help out the guild with the holy one....and play how I like with my shadow...melting faces =)

Wow thats masochistic buttons :) 2 priests, same server ?! lol

Shadow talents are a huge pvp advantage. Shadowform isnt really THAT much of an advantage. As such, when I play my priest in bg's I rarely get into shadowform, unless I am fighting 1v1. I heal primarily, but if some random hordie comes after me (unless its a hunter), I go straight into shadow and watch them turn around and run.

The 15% extra damage of shadowform isn't a huge amount (though definitley noticible) and the 15% less damage taken isn't worth not being able to heal one's self or others in group pvp situations. Direct analogy to LoTP. Its a nice talent to have, though the other talents in feral are what make feral worth speccing. hotw, imp bash, feline swiftness, etc etc. The talents in the shadow tree are huge for pvp. Mind Flay ftw. Silence ftw. VE ftw. Vampiric Reach ftw. Darkness + Shadow weaving gg.

I think being a shadow priest is about being able to kill those that attack you, and if you are winning a battle, being able to win it that much quicker. Holy priests are stronger healers, but when someone sees a holy priest, its open season. When someone sees a priest and comes at them, only to see them drop into shadow, /cry. Almost everyone I know is scared of shadow preists, and almost everyone I know loves picking on holy priests. I have never been unable to heal in bg's properly (as I remember, ALL priests get flash heal, prayer of healing and renew, the only realistically useable heals), and when necessary slow down runners / dot / mind blast for the kill.

I disagree with you Clari.....Shadowform is an advantage. I noticed a huge difference in my Shadow Priestess when I got Shadowform. And if you have Vamp. Emb. then you can do some healing...and in Shadowform the 15% extra damage = extra healing thru Vamp. Emb. Never overlook VE! I have gone into Shadowform in a few instances when my friend (a druid) was there.....and I would VE and DoT and Mind Blast and we never had to worry about the healing....she even went into Bear form quite a bit.

I'ld agree with that VE = FTW. With the all the shadow damage a shadow spec priest puts out VE is almost like a rejuv on every person in your party not just that one tank. Heck my wife has been know to tab though her targets and drop a couple dots and VE on all them. With good tank and support you get ton dps and healing that way. They dont call them face melters for nothing. Oh you must not forget once those Shadow spec priest's shadow varnibility starts to stack on those mobs the shadow damage goes up as well as the VE healing.

I am thinking of starting a shadow priest after I get my druid to a point where I can no longer solo. Buttons, So you enjoy playing your shadow priest as much, more, or less than your druid? I think I will also make a horde shadow priest since I am alliance now I would like to see the other side of the world :) Sorry, a bit off topic I know, but I was just curious.

Go for it.

I played alliance at first and loved it. I switched to horde about 2 months ago and I like it alot more.

If you go Horde choose UD Shadow Priest....they are the best for Shadow Priests....

I think I love the shadow priest about as much as I do the druid....and that's alot. I took a break from my old one when I switched servers....and made the druid....but now that I have had that break....I am going to be playing my shadow priest when I am out of rest xp on my druid....atleast after I hit 40. Right now I have plenty of rest xp because I haven't been playing lots and when I have it's been WSG for now. I want to get Honored before 40....haha!

It will be a while till I make the switch I am still lvling me NE hes is at 26 right now ont the brink of 27 will have that today. I only have the time to concentrate on one char at a time so like I said once I get to the point where I have to raid I will start anew as a horde.

That's cool.....if you ever have any questions feel free to ask me. My 52 NE Shadow Priest is on Durotan and my UD Priest (soon to be shadow when I get talent points) is on Dalaran. If you ever join one of those servers look me up.

I disagree with you Clari.....Shadowform is an advantage. I noticed a huge difference in my Shadow Priestess when I got Shadowform. And if you have Vamp. Emb. then you can do some healing...and in Shadowform the 15% extra damage = extra healing thru Vamp. Emb. Never overlook VE! I have gone into Shadowform in a few instances when my friend (a druid) was there.....and I would VE and DoT and Mind Blast and we never had to worry about the healing....she even went into Bear form quite a bit.

Lol buttons, I wasn't saying that shadow form wasnt an advantage. It most certainly is. Just that in BG's, where mana conservation and healing are key (at least for my playstyle), swapping in and out of shadow form doesn't work well for me. I LOVE shadowform for grinding / questing in open world - I am in shadow form about 80% of the time, though in BG's I find that I need to heal more than I need to dps.

V/E rocks! I healed the first half of a Ulda run the other day with V/E. Then we hit the 45+ elites, and I had to switch back to spamming flash heal and PoH. My v/e heals heal a lot for the group over time, especially with shadow weaving up and a big Mind Blast.

Well then your playing style and mine are different. For some it is an advantage and others it must not be.

How many Shadow priests do you see running around in BG's?

Well I would be one.

It's just a preference of playing style. You can't really tell someone they are wrong for the way they play. So it really doesn't matter how many. It's just if it works for people or not. Some it will some it won't.

Was I attacking your playing style? Wow buttons, you really took offense to that. I asked you a simple question, and you accuse me of telling you what to do? Jeez, what happened to the open dialogue we had been having.

As I recall, you told me that I was wrong about shadowform not having adavantages, when that is not actually what I said. I said it is not THAT much of an advantage, considering what you lose in the short run, imho. Forgive me for saying that healing abilities were more important to me than moderate added damage and moderate damage mitigation.

I am in no way trying to tell you or anyone else what to do with their toons. And there is a reason that my priest is a Shadow Priest, not holy or disc. There is no argument here.

you think a full shadow spec priest can out dps a full feral spec druid?

No one answered this question...I would really like to know whether a feral spec'd druid will out dps a shadow spec'd priest.

And on the other side, which will heal better (i'm guessing it'll be the priest but you never know)

Oh and a side note...what does FTW mean???
noob>>>>>>>>>Ittles (sorry lol)

I think that with multiple targets the shadow priests can out dps a feral druid if they (the priests) are putting their massive DoTs on all the mobs.

If the priest isn't switching targets all the time and landing DoTs, the feral druid will out dps the priest. Basically, the feral will pull ahead when the priest runs out of mana. When don't have mana their isn't a ton that they can do.

I think both feral druids and shadowpriests have their place. A smart shadowpriest can really help out a group alot because they do pretty good dps with a decent group benefit of heals from vampiric embrace (or whatever it's called).

FTW = For the Win

Edit: I will add on that it is frustrating for any druid when the party is starting to die and you are the only one healing when other healers aren't helping out. Unless a miracle happens the party wipes and you get blamed (instead of blaming the person who could have changed forms and healed helping the group).

Thank you for the reply...the reason I was wondering is because I've been thinking about my next character and I'm trying to decide between rolling a Priest and going shadow spec with it or rolling a Warlock. Both seem like a fun style of play :)

Shadow priests are perfect for soloing, but in groups u get priests to heal.

A feral druid can out damage a shadow priest in open PvP like BG's because he's harder to kill. Not because he has higher DPS.

Wars charges priest > Priest most likely die.
Wars charge druid > Druid can hide behind massive armor.

Hunter shoots at priests > Priest most likely die.
Hunter shoots at druid > Druid can charge anf fight or run away.

Get my point? Burst damage isnt really the only factor. :)

i have a lvl 9 prest and havn't decided yet its my frist preist too.

But I am in no way shape or form afraid of any class.

K. Thx. :texla:

Be afraid of teh WaRLoCKs