Observations of a Horde Priest

Long post warning: skip to the very bottom for the point if you prefer

I've recently been playing a Horde Priest, a troll and speccing shadow while leveling. I have intentionally not twinked, as I intended to level him.

It has been a long time since I played BG's as a Horde toon, and the first time ever in this bracket. Xiel, my priest, is currently level 19. I have thus far played five games of WSG and won four.

I played three games last night and won all three. The first thing I noticed is the queue times where great. For my Alliance toons, I'm am accustomed to at least five minutes in queue. Every game on the Horde side, even on the weekend, I had only about a minute in the queue before getting into a game.

The other thing I noticed right off the bat was the distinct lack of immaturity. This in and of itself was such a nice break from the Alliance side. It put me into a great mood.

I have to say that the difference between paladins and priests is huge. Xiel dies fast. It sucks, if I get into melee then I'm pretty much toast right away. It took some fast learning on how to play a Priest in the battlegrounds. I'm finding that I enjoy it alot though. It is a serious challenge, and I thrive for challenge.

The very last game I played last night was a great game. We were facing a premade twinked out team, but they were more focused on HK's than on flag caps, at least at first. We were getting wftpwned like mad. After a couple of deaths trying to force our way through to the Alliance tunnel, I rezzed and hopped off the side behind the big crane.

Weak little me ran all the way to the enemy flag room along the wall up the ramp, grabbed the flag and ran back the same way. I did not see a single enemy until I got to the Horde GY area where they were fighting my team. I ran behind them and straight into the tunnel with out being intercepted. Entering the tunnel I get Hunter Marked and start to panic. "Oh crap, here's another death and I'm so close!" But lucky me, here comes a twink rogue running down the tunnel from our FR. So I shield self, HOT self and call out in /bg chat "Blood, take flag!"

Someone how I managed to break LOS from the hunter, drop flag, this rogue picks it up and turns back to FR just in time for half the enemy team to show. I shield him, HOT him and get concussion shotted. He gets gouged, s'striked by the enemy supreme twink, a gnome rogue named "Strawberry" who I've actually fought with before. She's very good at what she does. But she can't get through my sheild fast enough, Bloodkilla, the belf rogue carrying our flag turns, gouges (returning the favor) and starts to run just as shield runs out. I HOT him again and continue following, target Strawberry, Shadow Word: Pain follow with Scream and she and the hunter's pet next to her take off in fear. A couple other Horde show up just in time to save the day as I die. Screen pops up with me in the GY followed immediately after by a flag cap. So I'm rejoicing, my death was not in vain. They still manage to kill our fc anyway and take our flag. But that flag cap seemed to reinvigorate our team. People started communication, I could see an instant difference in the teamwork and a reduction in our formerly rapidly climbing death toll.

So I rez with a couple of other people who immediately jump over the side and chase after the enemy fc. Me? I ran along the wall again. Again, no resistance, saunter into the fr, grap flag, and flee! I get up the ramp to the second floor of the alliance base and what happens? Oh no! Hunter's Mark again! "I'm like, crap!!!!" But silly nelf hunter tries to wing clip instead of conc' shot. I get lucky and dodge! Woot! I hit SW:P and Scream and her and her little pet go running off like punks. I haul toosh as fast as my big two-toed feet will carry me, over the hill, down the ramp and through the woods. Along the wall as far as I can. I get to about mid-field when I get hit with a conc'shot. I shield, HOT and head straight into the middle towards my crew who are still fighting the enemy. They see me coming thanks to the Big Fat Red Arrow on my head (thanks hunter chick) and slaughter her.

I keep running, straight into the tunnel and up to the flag room. The enemy fc got away and I know I will not stand up to an enemy assault. Fortunately for me, a 19 belf pally comes to the rescue. I give him the flag (mad props to Miladin!) and we wait. And we wait. After 10 minutes, we are still waiting. We're moving around a little, roof, fr, second floor, gy, trying not to stay in one spot and delay an assault. We're sitting on the ledge above the second floor in our FR when I get sapped by Strawberry. Crap! I call out in /say "sapped" just as she restealths and tries to ambush. He turns just in time to get tagged by not critted and they start duking it out one on one. She gets him down to 20% health or so, he shields and starts to heal. She gets him down to 20% again just as sap wears off, I shield him, HOT him and have enough to time to try a scream on her. She resists and begins to mow me down. I shield, HOT myself and leap off the edge trying to get away. My buddy belf Miladin though now has had time to heal up to full (probably a crit heal) and hits her with HoJustice so she can't follow me. He jumps down after and gets between us. They start to slug it out, I SW:P her, shield him again, HOT him again, she comes at me, I shield me, and out of mana. Crap! So now it's wand, wand, and she's running circles around me just waiting out my shield. I know I'm gonna die, but I see she's finally down to less than 25%. I get off a big heal on Miladin just as he gets a big heal off on me! Woot, I may yet live! Now Strawberry is worried and she gouges me and goes after Miladin. But she doesn't seem to notice or care that I resisted, lucky me! So I mind blast, reapply SW:P, shield him as he's wailing away and start to wand. Result, one dead twink. Took a while but what an epic fight! It was great! So Miladin and I are both basically out of mana, more than half-dead, I HOT us both which is the last of my juice and bandage him. Then I sit and drink and eat. Just as she and another twink rogue come back to finish the job, our team returns out flag and Miladin runs and caps just as he dies. I follow him a moment later as Strawberry and her buddy wreak their vengeance.

They wait in our FR and clear out a few of us trying to get them out. Miladin and I are stuck with a full 30 second rez, so we rez in time for them to have already made off with our flag. Half our team is dead or just rezzed at this point so they basically get an undefended cap.

We Horde regroup and charge straight down midfield. I follow a little behind the group, tack on a couple SW:P's on the way through the alliance group coming to meet us. I think I really pissed them off though because FIVE of them chased me from midfield to just outside of their tunnel. I HOT, shield, pot and thinking I'm gonna make it, but nope. Another death, but no worries, because I lead a bunch of them away from the actual fight and my team wins their way through.

A few of my guys make it through to the enemy FR, grab flag and run back... Right into the the alliance who just rezzed, and get slaughtered. But meantime, I've already rezzed and begun my trek down along the wall again. Once more I saunter into an undefended FR, grab flag and haul tusk back to Horde side. I try to run up the tunnel, and right into a massive brawl. I say to myself "Self, this is it, time to win it!" I shield and charge on through, get wing clipped, conc'shotted, gouged and am getting beat on like crazy. But! The wonders of teamwork. A fellow priest heals me, HOTs me, (You rock Kotetu!.) Miladin heals me, just as I finally win through the crowd. Lucky me, the boots are floating there like a Godsend, I grab and sprint it home for a 2-1 win against a premade full of twinks.

So besides needing to share that with everyone, I actually have a purpose in this post. :) What are some pointers my fellow forum'mates can share with me to increase my survivability and usefulness as a priest in the Battlegrounds. Any comments on the tactics I used above? Anything I should or should not have done?|||zomg kuddos for rolling Horde side, WEST SIDE!! And u get UBER KUDDOS FOR ROLLING A TROLL (we teh least played race in teh game, some of the numbers on warcraftrealms.com give me teh shivers)

Yes, the immaturity is soooo low on Horde side, except in barrens, it is exactly why I dont play alliance, but I was astounded that u won all those WSG games. I was grinding there for 3 weeks because we lost almost every game.

I have never played a priest, although I am going to, so I don't really have an first hand expierience for u, but, I have fought shadow priests in BG's be4 and can tell u this: from what I have noticed is that alot of priests like to hang out on the outskirts of the battle or zerg killing any staglers or any reinforcements. Try that out, you might see an increase in HK's, also, ur strategy of going around is good too, as u get good bonus honor from flag caps, and the allies are to busy trying the farm mid-field to notice u.

So yah, remember ur UBBER KUDDOS, and keep up the good work.|||How to live forever as a priest in a BG:

First, you hide somewhere for 2-5 minutes, so that the scoreboard actually gets some numbers on it. Then you look at those numbers, and find the guy who's doing the best (I find the most important stat to be Damage Done divided by Deaths). Then you look at you map, and go to him. Actually, before you do that you'd want to spec Holy or Discipline.

Oh and preferably "he" should be a very visible class, meaning no stealth and high range - mage or lock are both good, hunter is better.

Now you start healing him. Sure, you'll get attacked, so you shield yourself and wait for your friend to kill your would-be assassin. Most likely the 2 of you will be so annoying to the opposing team that they'll focus all their DPS on the hunter/lock/mage who'll just shrug it off thanks to your healing, while the rest of your team helps him take out all the enemies. Then you'll have captured the flag as it was undefended.

Oh and just so you don't think I'm making this up: Tried it with my lvl 49 hunter. Being BM I got a range of 100 yards, although I'll only be doing full dmg on the last 45. Eventually I'm sure the Horde realised that they should've done more burst-dmg on me while keeping my healer interrupted, but if they did that would've been just when I entered our tunnel carrying their flag.

And the priest? Well, he might've died a few times, then again so did I, but from just my Killing Blows he recieved 41 Honorable Kills.

Healing in BGs = Winning in BGs. Simple as that. Of course I'm waay too lazy to make a healer just to win BGs, but that's the point of my now rather long post.|||heh i got a 19 mage for wsg, decent...im great at assisting our flag carrier or slowing theres down.

but i noticed when i play my 19 druid and do 10-12k healing we win more often. and im pretty good at carrying the flag. =)

so annoying to see lvl 10-16 priest/pally/shaman/druids do wsg...and do their 300ish damage and have NO healing...in a 30minute wsg.|||I appreciate the replies, and hopefully I'll see some more. I've been playing quite a few more WSG matches with this toon over the weekend and last night. It is hella fun and I think I'll make a twink priest at some point, who will be holy.

However, I am not interested in changing spec's all the time for BG's. I intend to level this toon, and will be staying shadow priest. Basically I've gone to using SW:P on as many enemies as possible, and running with FC's. If that is not an option, I run with the biggest crowd of teammates I can find and shield the mages & rogues. Knowing I'll be the first one targetted by the enemy, I maintain my shield and health as much as possible and keep manuevering so the enemy's backs are to my rogue & warrior teammates.|||well well well that really shows the power of trolls :).i'm new and i have a L20 troll shammy and a L19 troll rogue,do u think i should make a troll priest.im kinda focusing on my shammy right now so he can get high enough to support my rogue.i am gonna run SFK a couple of times and try to get the shadowfang and/or assassin's blade.should i still play my priest|||Horde priests have to heal. Alliance priests don't have to.

Or was it, they're too selfish to...I forget.|||Quote:








Horde priests have to heal. Alliance priests don't have to.

Or was it, they're too selfish to...I forget.




lol

Nah, alliance heals just as much as horde. I have a dwarf pally and I spend a lot of time healing in BG's. One thing I have noticed is there seems to be a better ratio of priests to non-priests on the horde side. But this is probably just a facet of the lower player count.

The biggest advantage I've seen so far being horde is the significantly less queue time for BG's.

Warriortamers, play what you want! :) More priests are always welcome, but do what you find fun. I've found being a priest to be very fun. It is a challenge of survival, which to me is what PvP is all about. It is less about how much pwnage I can dish out and more about how well I can survive and how much I can contribute to winning. I am more happy knowing that it was because of my efforts that our flag carrier made it through the enemy zerg than I am being # one on HK's or Damage, or even the healing #'s for that matter.|||Quote:








Horde priests have to heal. Alliance priests don't have to.

Or was it, they're too selfish to...I forget.






I wish that was the case. I have a NELF priest 36 and everytime I go into a BG with her I get ignored and ganked and no one helps. I have even seen them watch me die . Last night I thew out 33K heals in a BG and everyone of the players let me get ganked and when I said look out for me in /battleground I got basically told to shove it and fear. What gives? Not many in Ally take care of their healer...|||I wish I was in your battle group. Playing Horde in the lower level brackets (10-19, 20-29 and 30-39) isn't fun at all. We loose 90% of all games. In the level 20-29 bracket I never won a single game. The alliance in our battle group is not only super strong equipped (not a single non-glowing weapon) but they are _very_ organized as well. Their rogues and hunters are killing everything while their healers (mostly paladins) are keeping them alive. And quite often two rogues and one hunter are camping our graveyard to prevent our players from taking part in the game.