Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Strengths and Weaknesses

Last updated: 10/26/10 for patch 4.0.1.

Strengths:
  • Good buffs and damage mitigation
  • Can resurrect fallen comrades
  • Has a damage absorbing shield spell
  • In groups, is able to stand back at a distance from enemies
  • Can perform some “crowd control” on enemies
  • Able to heal quite well, regardless of talent specialization
  • Have the option of specializing in doing damage or healing
  • At higher levels, are one of the best AoE damage dealers in the game - This is currently up for review as we wait to see how Blizz works out the Mind Sear changes
  • Priest healers are one of the best healers in the game, making them high in demand for groups
  • Shadow priests increase magic damage done by other casters, and can regenerate other players’ health and mana while doing damage to enemies (making them a great “utility” for groups)

Weaknesses:
  • “Squishy” (low in HP, can only wear cloth armor)
  • Crowd control abilities are situational, and can hard to use if expected to be healing at the same time
  • Have no permanent loss of threat (“aggro dump”)
  • Healing requires constant attention
  • Often targeted first in PvP, regardless of spec
  • AoE damage spells are mana-intensive - Again up for review based on Mind Sear changes
  • As a support class, priests often have little control over the pace of group play
  • Shadow priests may have trouble finding groups as priests are sometimes expected to heal in groups. The introduction of the Dungeon Finder tool has gone a long way towards being able to be a full time DPS purple death dealer. 
  • Shadow priests have a shorter range on their spells than other ranged damage dealers - Thankfully this was addressed and you can melt faces at the same general range as the other classes.



No comments:

Post a Comment