Anyone made the switch from Shadow to Holy?

[Stonz]

Howdy folks,

Just looking for some thoughts from people who have made the switch from Shadow to Holy for PvP.

While my ratings aren't all that great, I've done alright and enjoy the dps role. However, as I pretty much PvP exclusively these days, I've been giving some thought to going Holy when Season 3 drops.

I'm sitting at the saved honor cap now, and will be arena point capped by the time Season 3 rolls around. I figure if there is ever a time to make the switch, that would be the time.

Still on the fence about it though, and just wondering whether those that have made the switch have been happy with their decision or not.

Any advice welcome.

[Playdough]

I was all about shadow since release when I rolled priest, however I found very quickly in S1 that outside of doing decient in 2's and 3's priests really shine as holy in pvp.

I made the switch during the middle of season 1 and haven't regretted it yet, I found as holy you mesh much better with alot of other groups and classes.

Play styles are totally different though and will take some getting used to, you might have to re-work some of your teams as well or just join other teams in need of a holy priest.

I will warn you though trying to farm stuff holy does suck.

[Hereoh]

You need a good UA lock to be your partner in pretty much every bracket if you want to succeed.

Cue the "No way, my partner's a rogue/frost mage!" posts :P I've tried other combos, prefer by far UA lock.

[Asmodean]

I consider doing it. However, I chose the SP becaus of its PvP viability and playstyle. By now I am quite pissed since Blizz chose to make a PvE char out of the SP.
I did not want to play a pure healer but it seems that there are only few options if you want to excel at arena.

[Abira]

I consider doing it. However, I chose the SP becaus of its PvP viability and playstyle. By now I am quite pissed since Blizz chose to make a PvE char out of the SP.
I did not want to play a pure healer but it seems that there are only few options if you want to excel at arena.

how do UA/holy priest play together?


dot up both targets while the priest just heals you...?

[Asmodean]

Well, I am still SP. I think my mate will spec to SL if I go Holy. However, Holy + UA Lock might also work.

[Ebonics]

i was actually holy for all of season 1 and got gladiator that way. when s2 came around i went shadow and so far all season ive been shadow. its definitely a change of things but in my opinion holy is the strongest spec in the arena for a priest. alot more variety and survivability. so when s3 rolls around i will be respecing back to holy, ive already started collecting holy gear again.

also another word of advice, if you havent done both specs in arena, try the other for a while, it really does make you better in the arena imo. you see both sides of the healing / dps perspectives and going shadow and then back to holy ( i play holy on an alliance priest time to time) i definitely notice that ive gotten better at holy just by going shadow. and just the times that ive played the alliance holy priest its been really making me want to spec back to holy, which i am next season. the only draw back is that im pretty much going to have to reassemble my 5v5 and 3v3 team but i already have plans for that :P

[Asmodean]

I think you are definitely right Ebonics. The switch to holy would also give me some trouble wrt. 3on3 and 5on5. I think is have to discuss it with my guild mates so that we can set up some nice teams for the next season.

[Duckers]

im pretty much going to have to reassemble my 5v5 and 3v3 team but i already have plans for that :P

^__________^

I can't wait!

[Shouri]

I like healing and all but I just love shadow more, I probably just like the fact that I can do good damage and drop out and heal whenever I want. If I wanted to be a healer I'd definitely be a druid, not a priest.

[Bulzok]

My priest pvp buddy has been debating the holy/shadow issue for some time now, and he's been farming honor and arena holy gear lately. I'd say that along with playstyle, who your friends are that you arena with should determine your spec. Shadow works wonders if you have the right support in your teams, but holy is also awsome.

My question is if you make the switch from shadow to be a healy priest, in 2.3 are people going to keep the same hybrid holy/disc spec, or are more people going to spec deeper into disc?

[Disposition]

The buffs to disc arent enough to have people go further into it. Im sure most people will stay holy/disc hybrid. I could see some people going and getting priest wall for a 5v5, but that'd be about it.

[Potatoe]

I made the switch from Shadow to Holy...good decision I made, it opened up opportunities for me Arena teams, but I do have pretty much full Mooncloth and Satin and have all the Veteran's Dreadweave and most of the Mooncloth shit...so if I wanted to go back, I could.

[Chansobal]

I'm going the other way. Holy -> Shadow. Still make enough honor/points to grind out both sets. Looking forward to playing shadow next season. Time to mix it up a little bit. I havent really played shadow pvp since 60 so I'm just looking for some variety.

[buena]

Going holy -> hybrid and if I don't like that then hybrid -> shadow

I feel that holy priest top end potential is pretty low, it just doesn't have very many tricks. Poor mobility and the worse melee defenses of any class, poor mana efficiency aggravated by the need to stack stamina and resilience single-mindedly, and one really good offensive ability which nevertheless is fully interruptable and easy to LoS. My druid would be a better healer in nearly any situation.

[Earrl]

Going holy -> hybrid and if I don't like that then hybrid -> shadow

I feel that holy priest top end potential is pretty low, it just doesn't have very many tricks. Poor mobility and the worse melee defenses of any class, poor mana efficiency aggravated by the need to stack stamina and resilience single-mindedly, and one really good offensive ability which nevertheless is fully interruptable and easy to LoS. My druid would be a better healer in nearly any situation.

I actually agree with this 100%, and it was something that I have talked to my teammates about a lot. I feel that Priests are not good high end Arena Healers if your partners aren't beasts. I don't feel like Holy Priests add enough to the game, because as flexible as their healing may be, their potential to heal is greatly hindered by their lack of mobility and ways to prevent a beatdown from melee. No matter which way you look at it, in higher end Arena...teams aren't going to be letting you mana burn and all that other jazz. So it's tough, perhaps I just need new partners, and or maybe I gotta get away from the stereotypical setups?! :)

I actually wish I was a better Shadow Priest, because I would definitely do it...but my timing as Shadow is not too good. Though, if I wanted to learn Shadow, the beginning of next season would be the time. I just don't think I can hack it really, so we'll see how it shakes down.

But, I will say, if you want to get to like 2100-2300, you can do it as Holy fairly easy. I know there are Holy Priests that push 2400+ (and congrats to them), but when I am watching Noxn in my battlegroup (and he is a fine player) pushing 2600 in his ratings, it really makes me ask myself, "WTF is going on here?"

[Xeanor]

I actually agree with this 100%, and it was something that I have talked to my teammates about a lot. I feel that Priests are not good high end Arena Healers if your partners aren't beasts. I don't feel like Holy Priests add enough to the game, because as flexible as their healing may be, their potential to heal is greatly hindered by their lack of mobility and ways to prevent a beatdown from melee. No matter which way you look at it, in higher end Arena...teams aren't going to be letting you mana burn and all that other jazz. So it's tough, perhaps I just need new partners, and or maybe I gotta get away from the stereotypical setups?! :)

I actually wish I was a better Shadow Priest, because I would definitely do it...but my timing as Shadow is not too good. Though, if I wanted to learn Shadow, the beginning of next season would be the time. I just don't think I can hack it really, so we'll see how it shakes down.

But, I will say, if you want to get to like 2100-2300, you can do it as Holy fairly easy. I know there are Holy Priests that push 2400+ (and congrats to them), but when I am watching Noxn in my battlegroup (and he is a fine player) pushing 2600 in his ratings, it really makes me ask myself, "WTF is going on here?"

A team is only as good as the teams total skill divided by the number of players. That explains everything imo.

[Potatoe]

I agree with ya Buena, but it's not our healing so much as our utility we bring to the matches: best offensive/defensive dispel, compliments to a paladin healer with our instants and renews, a so so AoE fear, negation of mage/paladin immunes, mana burn...but what we can do is greatly overshadowed by what we CAN'T do as you mentioned. It's a rough class, but take solace that we require much more skill than others to be successful.

[faction]

I did it and I am never going back.

[Lilyi]

I've been playing holy/disc since the start of season 2 (I rerolled and leveled this character specifically to play arena as holy/disc from a holy paladin in season 1) and we've gained a good amount of power as disc with the 2.3 changes. The biggest buff for me seems to be chastise; I was using disc in 2v2 and 3v3 (ranked up Three Ten Mount (http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/team-info.xml?r=Medivh&ts=3&t=Three+Ten+Mount&select=Three+Ten+Mount&fl=1) and Bear Hospital (http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/team-info.xml?r=Medivh&ts=3&t=Bear+Hospital&select=Bear+Hospital&fl=1) as well as some teams that points were sold on as disc priest/rogue/mage, I team hopped in 3v3 a lot and armory is out of date) for a month or two anyway and the other buffs seem to have less of an impact, although I'm sure the new PS is a godsend for the spec in 5v5.

I'm planning on going shadow for season 3: it seems that spriest+rogue is still going to be more consistently powerful in 2v2 than disc priest+rogue, and I don't enjoy 5v5 much anymore. I also think that the value of chastise for an spriest is often overlooked, especially with the removal of GCD from dropping forms, but I'll need to try it out personally to know for sure. That extra spell interrupt or using it to catch a player running away from you to fear them can be huge. The new season 3 fear cooldown reduction bonus coupled with the shadow talent will certainly be nice as well (healing priests get it too but the power of an AE fear is certainly magnified the further the cooldown is reduced, going from 26 to 23 is better than 30 to 27).

I'm particularly interested to see how my rogue partner with the warglaives set pans out with the new burst potential of AR/hemo combined with an spriest. If maces still ends up better we've always got the option with season 3 maces or the supremus mainhand/BT trash offhand, but there's certainly potential for us to do some mean things to people with that amount of damage. I'm looking forward to blowing up all those warrior/druid teams that gave us so much trouble earlier in season 2 (although we've beat them now pretty consistently post-2.3 even with me still healing spec).

edit: It will also be nice to get my PvE damage weapon sooner in the season, since I raid as shadow and last season I didn't get my damage dagger until after I completed my whole healing arena armor and weapon sets.