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Priest 4th Spec Idea: Shadow Healing/Holy DPS
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Post by
747425
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Post by
951967
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Post by
Aylia
Not to rain on your parade, but it's
very
unlikely that other classes will be given four talent trees in the future. The only reason that they did it for druids is that the feral tree did end up being two completely different specs over the years as more talents became specific to cats or bears. It makes sense to just separate the two into their own talent trees rather than continuing to cram them together into one. None of the other classes have a talent tree situation anything like that. The only one that ever came close were DKs, and they already addressed that.
That said, I don't care for the idea of a shadow based healer. It just does not fit thematically with shadow priest lore at all. Smiting at least makes sense as a concept. Healing people with darkness and evil, not so much.
Post by
BrigKline
Versatility, variety, and viability are something that I would love to see in expanding the roles and skills of each of the classes. And really, branching out into a '4th' spec would be an interesting way to offer variety. The old DK talent trees in Wrath achieved this same end in the style of the Feral tree, though this design was considered hugely difficult to balance properly, since at the time, there were SIX tanking specs that Blizz was required to balance. Encounter design almost always takes into account who might be tanking, or healing, which is why we've seen a lot of tank/heal homogenization in Cata...its for the flexibility of raid design, so a tier of raiding doesn't blacklist an entire Tree.
At the moment Blizz has 31 specs to balance (3 per class+kitty), 4 Tanking trees, 5 Healing trees, 12 ranged trees, and 10 melee trees. Allowing for a fourth spec adds another TEN trees (11 come MoP) to balance, and the addition of healing and tanking for several classes, creates both a creative and balance hurdle to overcome.
Don't get me wrong, I've always loved options, and versatility in my games, but this sort of thing seems to be going against the current design philosophy of the game.
Post by
951967
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Post by
451227
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951967
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Post by
Sweetscot
I've always wanted those shadow ravens :P I like it, doubt it would happen but nothin wrong with dreamin :D
Post by
Aylia
Living healers, suffusing the bodies of the target with Light for healing, which we are familiar with
Undead healers, withdraw the damaging Shadow from the target, instead of healing with the Light
Draenei shadow priests, do damage by withdrawing the Light from the target
non-Draenei shadow priests, wield the Shadow, injecting Shadow into the target
That still really doesn't work for me as a concept. In order to heal by "withdrawing shadow from the target" there would have to be something that says that all damage is somehow shadow related. Fire damage? Shadow. Smacked in the face with a mace? Shadow. Bit by a bear? Shadow. Stubbed your toe? Shadow. Doesn't make sense to me, sorry.
I find the "withdrawing the light" weird too, to be honest. According to lore, the light is an abstract concept of connection with the universe as a whole and seeking personal virtue and perfection. I think trying to say that draenei priests somehow just... yank that out of people is even more of a stretch than forsaken priests feeling pain while healing or being healed.
For that matter if draenei were somehow doing exactly that, it strikes me as being something even more evil than just wielding shadow in the first place. There's a story somewhere on the blizzard site called "Unbroken" which is the backstory of Farseer Nobundo, who was the first (broken) draenei shaman and who taught shamanism to the draenei. He was originally a paladin who was corrupted and lost the ability to connect with the holy light because of exposure to fel energy during the siege of Shattrath. According to that story, the loss contact with the light was so traumatic that it drove some of the survivors to suicide. Can't really see how that works out to being the lesser evil as opposed to just using shadow like everyone else.
Feel free to disagree. I just don't personally like the idea of making huge changes to the concepts of how priests work.
I've always wanted those shadow ravens :P
That part I do agree with, giving that spell effect to shadow priests would be pretty sweet.
Post by
759807
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852431
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Post by
mckevr
It should be called 'fiddling with young boys'...
Post by
SgtFrog
Please, no. The Discipline spec is excellent as it is now. Please don't change it!
Post by
Nooska
Please, no. The Discipline spec is excellent as it is now. Please don't change it!
Relax, changing Disc os not anywhere on the drawing board in the near future (and probably not in the far future either, in regards to it beinga healing spec).
Druids got a 4th spec to differentiate 2 role sthat were 1 spec, because it was deemed too powerful (though I did enjoy it a lot myself back in TBC) - that is all, there are no reasons to give a 4th spec to any other classes, as no other class is in the position druids are in.
Post by
759807
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Post by
Nooska
A 4th spec will not add the same play options as a new class or a new race - a new class or new race means lvl 1 to max, a new spec adds nothing in that department, as you would be levelling the same class you would already be levelling.
Adding specs would also bekind of hard for some classes, hence only druid got it because they already had 4 "specs", unless you were to add a heal or tank spec to all the hybrids (excepting paladin) and another dps spec for the pures and paladins - honestly, what would the gain be for the game? other than more specs t hat need to be balanced, especially for the pures it would add nothing.
Post by
759807
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Post by
Nooska
You're clearly not interested in anything but support, so this will likely be my fibal post in this topic.
A) you cannot compare how wow classes work to how rift classes work. There is so many differences.
Also, if you don't think people want to start over at level 1, why not just add premades at max level? (No, I'm not advocating doing so)
B) I am not going to go to another topic and find a link to a third place to see what you are talking about, I read and responded to what was here
Further you are just listing the hybrids, and thats exactly what I said, they could only get the role they don't have (which leaves paladins in a weird place) - as for priests, your suggestion is not another healing spec, its another dps spec, as you want to replace heal/heal/dps with heal/heal/dps/dps.
If you want to add a tank role or a heal role to the pures, they would no longe rbe pures, and I would like to see you argue for mage heals from a lore position, warlock, rogue and hunter tanking or healing.
Apart from the lore that doesn't fit, adding 6 more tank/healer specs would make raid balancing a nightmare and slow releases to a crawl.
C) Yes a new class needs balancing, but balancing a new class from scrathc is easy compared to making a 4th spec that has to be balanced agaoinst a class' other three specs as well as all the other classses/specs that perform the same role, and ultimately it would - the way you are arguing for it and proposing it - destroy grouping and the benefits of grouping, as the devs cannot count on any specific buffs or debuffs being present unless all classes get the - I could easily straman your argument to not be a 4th spec for all 10 classes, but 1 class with 4 (tank, heal, meelee and ranged) specs and complete homgenization - becaue that would be the ultimate and logical result of it
Post by
759807
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