Priest (World of Warcraft)
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The Priest is a class in Blizzard Entertainment's MMORPG World of Warcraft.
Contents
Overview
The priest possesses the most powerful healing spells of any character class in World of Warcraft. The priest can also resurrect dead players, saving them a trip from the graveyard back to their corpse. Priests may also cast powerful buff spells to temporarily enhance a character's abilities. While a priest's primary role is to act as a healer for a party, the priest also has access to powerful damage-dealing shadow spells, making it a much easier task to solo-play. The majority of priests choose to either specialize in Holy (healing) or Shadow talents. A priest who has been configured with talent points mostly in Shadow talents is known as a Shadow Priest. The downside of this configuration is that the priest is now a less effective healer. However, the Shadow priest is now a highly formidable opponent, more than capable at holding his or her own in combat, and a dangerous adversary. A [thread] on the official World of Warcraft forums about the viability of Shadow priests in player vs. player combat made popular the term "melting faces." This thread spawned an endless series of jokes on the Blizzard forums about melting faces, the etymology of which is likely derived from the fact that the Mind Flay ability is represented by a blue lightning beam which streams from the Priests hand right into the face of the opponent, therefore "melting" it literally.It is common for a priest to initially start out as a shadow priest due to the far larger amount of damage a shadow priest can do. Once the priest achieves shadow form, he or she will be better equipped to gain experience alone. Once he or she reaches 60, it is common to respec their points and become a holy priest for end-game instances, which some people consider the goal of the game.
Priests can only wear Cloth armor, the weakest type of armor in World of Warcraft. Priests' weapons are limited to one-handed maces, daggers, staves, and wands.
Races
The priest class is available to the Human, Dwarf, and Night Elf races on the Alliance side and to the Undead and Troll races on the Horde side. When the expansion The Burning Crusade arrives, Blood Elves and Draenei will be able to become priests as well. Each race of priest has its own race specific spells. It was said that Blizzard intended this for all class/race combinations but was never implemented.Party dynamics
When partied with other players, the priest's primary role is as the party's main healer. A designated tank, a Warrior with backup tanks, Shaman, Paladin, or a Druid in bear form, holds the attention of enemies, while protecting the less heavily armored classes in the party. The priest concentrates on healing and keeping the main tank alive. The skill of a party's priests are often the difference between a successful fight and the death of all party members. Priests are also responsible for resurrecting dead party members after a fight.Strengths
- Wide assortment of healing spells.
- Extremely powerful Shadow Damage spells that make short work of enemies, even if solo.
- In groups, makes nearly every encounter easier through healing.
- Current rarity of Priest PCs makes joining groups easy.
- Has the ability to shield itself and teammates.
- Has several powerful buffs castable on both the Priest itself as well as other players.
Weaknesses
- Wears the weakest armor type (cloth) in the game.
- Strength in soloing comes at the expense of weaker healing magic.
- Generally has more mana management issues than Druids and Paladins.
- Is considerably less capable than main healing classes in other MMORPGs, in which a competent main healer (usually a Cleric) can often offset the incompetency of sub-standard or inexperienced players. In World of Warcraft, a Priest's ability to keep fellow group members alive is directly reliant on the competency of the players he/she groups with, most notably the tank.
Conclusion
Priests are much sought-after for pre high-end raids (Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Spire) but are very rarely played as of early 2006. Priests are one of the least commonly played classes (Warlocks and Druids are also rare). [link]This can be attributed to the perception that sitting back and healing other party members is not as fun as other classes' play experiences. High-level priests are quite popular however for PvP. The Priest is a very strong class for PvP and can decide the outcome of a battle if not dealt with correctly. Because of this, the ability to turn the battle with healing, they are considered to be the primary target in any party.
See also
| Races | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classes | Human | Night Elf | Gnome | Dwarf | Draenei | Troll | Tauren | Orc | Undead | Blood Elf
|
| Druid |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
| Hunter |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
| Mage | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" |
|
| Paladin | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
| Priest | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" |
|
| Rogue | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
| Shaman |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
| Warlock | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario |
Northern Ontario | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" |
|
| Warrior | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | | style="background: #ddffdd" | |
External links
- [WorldofWarcraft.com]
- [Allakhazam's Magical Realm]
- [Thottbot.com]
- at WoWWiki, a World of Warcraft wiki
- Blizzard representative [Eyonix explains the upcoming 1.10 Priest changes]
- [Origin of the "melting faces" joke]
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