Rawr Priests!

[Mithwen]

So I've been reading all the whining on the various forums about priests in LK, and I've been feeling kind of negative. However, yesterday when I hit the PTR, I noticed a new awesome MF animation, which is pretty cool. Also cool is the blue post about it:

Priest
About the new Mindflay animation
The new one targets the face too for proper meltage.

RAWR!

Now if only the lag was less horrible so I could actually see the numbers on my MF and watch it crit.

Also cool is the post reported on WoR from Koraa:

In an upcoming build all Priest racials have been retired, except the following:

Desperate Prayer - This is now the 11-point talent in Holy, Holy Nova is now a base ability. Cooldown also reduced to 30 seconds.
Devouring Plague - Now a base ability. Cooldown reduced to 30 seconds, mana cost greatly reduced.
Symbol of Hope - Now a base ability. Now restores 5% base mana every 2 seconds for 8 seconds to your party. Renamed "Hymn of Hope."
While this change does reduce the "uniqueness" of different Priests, we feel game balance as a whole will benefit.

Note: These new "racials" are not racials, they are trainable to all Priests.

Devouring plague yay! I never used it much on my UD priest cause I'm a nub, but extra dot with heal? Yes please. I wonder if I get something extra now since they took all my op racials and gave them to everyone. I mean, trolls still have shadowguard, belf and UD touch of weakness, and then there's the mighty starshards ... I want a useless racial too!

Pika.

[Nortibiry]

It kinda reads like they mean _all_ priest racials are gone -- the ones you listed are going to be trainable and the rest are lost to the world (of warcraft).

[Mithwen]

Oh, I think yer right. Thanks! No overpowered starshards then. haha.

P

[Nortibiry]

I'll miss it myself, especially on Illidari Council where I always panic and think it's blizzard. It's also a nice visual indicator that your priest is bored.

On the plus side this means that my tragically nelf priest alt is no longer tragic... or no more tragic than any nelf alt!

[Mithwen]

So after my initial exuberance about the changes to priests, I have to say that I am bitterly disappointed with shadow priests. So far we suck in 3.0. Blizz making potentially lame ass changes in a later build because they don't know what they're doing is ashes in my mouth.

[Vand]

Welcome to the world mages have been in since TBC beta. I wouldn't worry too much about it because Blizzard has said multiple times that they're not done balancing yet, and we don't really need to be balanced before we start Naxx raiding.

[Mithwen]

I don't see a lot of parallel between what mages experienced in BC and Blizz just plain not initially following through on their promise to make dps specs roughly equal, and moreover, not seeing how they could make your spec roughly equivalent given the way they designed the class. There's a huge difference between being maybe 2-300 dps under the rogues vs. being barely above the tank with his new amazing thunderclap. 2-300 dps can be made up with superior skill and cleverness (and staying alive in a given encounter). Not being able to beat the tank is just an insult.

Also, as much as mages may malign and hate it, they come with the ULTIMATE group buff. I friggin hate running without a mage because while I SHOULD carry enough water, sometimes I forget. Now that shadow priests offer absolutely no utility that another class can offer (and a smaller spectrum of utility), then yeah, if my dps isn't competitive, we absolutely shouldn't run with a shadow priest. As much as mages bitched whined and moaned, their dps was still decent (and well in excess of mine by BT) in skilled hands, and mages were only missing out on the bleeding edge.

Anyway, I got side tracked getting off my chest what I've been wanting to say to mages for ages. I really wanted to post and say yay, the recent patch made things look good. I was back in the thick of the charts, with a glimmering hope that I could do better with better skill (spell rotation is kinda messed up with a new dot, and SW:D being a waste of time maybe) and gear (now that crit matters, that changes things!). Things will likely change a few times before we start raiding again, but at least I don't want to park all my priests in the bank anymore.

P