Priests vs. paladins: Blinded by the Light
It's always interesting to see two classes go at it like hungry dogs fighting over a bone. Warriors versus druids about tank roles, mages vs. rogues about DPS and Cloak of Shadows, warlocks vs. pretty much everybody. Now the big fight on the forums is between two classes devoted to healing and being all-around good dudes: priests and paladins.
Priests have noticed that in post-TBC raids, they haven't been healing as well when specced holy/disc. They die quickly to AOEs and run out of mana rapidly. I talked to a priest in a Serpentshrine Cavern raiding guild about the priest's role in raids. She said that her main problem is that she goes OOM faster than before -- possibly due to a lack of spirit scaling -- and has noticed that pallies (and one resto druid) tend to be tops on healing, although she admits that may be because the Horde hasn't had pallies before and they tend to stand out. Plus, the pallies bring enviable blessings and auras to raids, while she has the less-than-exciting Fort. The mana problem has led her to have to stack more mana regen instead of plus healing gear in raids. On top of that, shadow spec is so appealing for raids nowadays that she's actually about to respec shadow to "help the group." Priests specced shadow for raids? Has the world gone mad?
This has led to two separate movements -- one to buff priests, and one to nerf paladins. Pallies have been fighting hard against the latter. If their DPS is bad and they're inferior tanks, pallies argue, what are they supposed to be good at besides healing? Personally, I'd like to see a buff to priest healing and pally tanking. The priest holy tree is really, really ... bad. Circle of Healing? Lightwell? The raiding priest I talked to suggested a talent that would increase combat mana regen, perhaps by a factor of spirit or something (assuming the priest has Meditation.)
Who do you think should be the top healer? How would you redesign the priest healing trees? Do you think that paladin healing needs a nerf in PVE?
