Warrior Priest Revisited

October 6, 2008 – 6:54 pm

By: Geoff

It’s been roughly over two weeks since I last reported on my thoughts of healing with Warhammer Online. I’ve decided it’s probably time to revisit the ordeal and give an updated impression of my personal experience with one of the game’s most unusual healers; the Warrior Priest.

Now I do realize that I am only rank 12 and that there is still much left to discover about the game, but, in all honesty, the last time I wrote about this issue I was rank 5 and a lot has happened since then. So, despite my only being 7 ranks higher I feel like now would be a good update on my primary class.

When I last wrote on this subject, some of you may remember my being cautiously optimistic about the healing style of the Warrior Priest. For those that don’t know, the Warrior Priest plays as a melee healer instead of just a solid healer. This brings about many hiccups into the typical healing scheme where a healer would actually stand back from afar and pick and choose his healing targets. It all changes once you are actually in the heat of battle and you must make healing decisions in the midst of dealing devastating melee blows. In some rare occasions I have had to be the main tank and main healer, something I definitely have no desire to repeat.

As I began trudging through the rank 5-10 march I noticed something very bad happening. While I was gaining many new abilities for both healing and damaging, I wasn’t noticing either my healing or damage output increasing to scale with the enemies I was facing. It was beginning to look like a bleak picture for the Warrior Priest and my future with it. At some points in the game, I would spend a good two minutes on each enemy I fought. While that may not sound like a lot, when you have nine more baddies to kill to complete just a single quest, you’ll begin to take notice on how aggravating that can be. To make matters worse, it pained me each time I saw a Bright Wizard or Witch Hunter fighting off enemies with such ease. The thought of switching classes almost won me over. And then something happened…

Upon ranking up to 10 there was a noticeable difference in the way the Warrior Priest scales. It was partly brought on by a very specific skill that heals as you do damage, but it was also noticeable by either the way your skills scale at that time or the type of equipment you begin receiving at that mark. Whatever the primary cause, as soon as I broke the “10″ barrier, the Warrior Priest began to really come into it’s own and become a viable option to play. As shocking as it may seem, I was able to best, quite handily, a rank 14 Black Orc who decided to attack me while I was dealing with another mob at the time. It was quite a feat for me, after coming off what was looking to be a disastrous first 10 ranks.

Of course, what kind of revisit would this be if I didn’t mention the healing abilities as they scale with other healers in the game. As I am currently playing Warhammer Online, it should really come as no surprise to you guys that I PvP quite a bit. I love the scenarios and I usually try to get in at least a few games during my play sessions. Now, prior it hitting rank 11 I noticed that I was usually never anywhere near the top of the healing charts despite being my primary focus. When I PvP, melee comes second and healing comes first. However, after a few more play sessions at rank 12 I have noticed my healing abilities start crawling towards the upper echelons of healing. Don’t get me wrong, however, I’m still unable to reach the top spot and currently my best healing placement thus far has been third, but it’s a far cry from where I was at rank 9 when I was the sixth or even seventh best healer. Maybe I won’t ever be the top healer in a scenario, rightfully so probably, but it makes me feel better that, as a melee/healer, I am still able to make a notable difference on the battlefield. Something I definitely didn’t feel I was able to do prior to rank 11.

Bottom line, the first few Warrior Priest ranks are rough. No doubt about it in my mind. However, as you progress through the ranks and you begin to fully understand your place on the battlefield, as well as gain some notable abilities, you’ll begin to really feel like and integral part of the game and not some lackluster class the developers seemed to forget about half-way through making the game.

I’ll do another write-up once I hit rank 20 and give me further impressions on the class.

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Post tags: Geoff, opinions, Order, Warhammer Online

11 Responses to “Warrior Priest Revisited”
Your impressions are accurate, it can be brutal leveling up a WP, but as I’ve played nearly every Order class to 20 now except the pure healers, the WP IMO at 20 still doesn’t shine.

You don’t have the DPS or ability to still kill off a pure healer, and your defense with your melee attacks that heal you plus hots still can’t hold off attacks against you worth a damn, you quite simply get mowed over in many fights. Plus your combat tends to be much slower paced than playing as an IB or SM, which I personally found much more engaging, and a heck of a lot less micromanagement of changing your secondary target all the time to heal others (or yourself if you managed to remember to target yourself before smashing a heal button). The other problem is regenerating your 250 points for healing, you’ll easily run out through fighting off attackers with your healing melee abilities just trying to keep yourself alive, and if you try to heal anyone else it’ll usually leave you empty where you’re lucky to get a few seconds to replenish.

At this point I much prefer playing a Tank which order needs desperately right now to win against destruction, and hope to SIGMAR that we actually have some people playing pure healers that are out there healing. If it works out, we win constantly.

By Scott on Oct 6, 2008
I have found this with a lot of classes. When i initially got into the closed beta, I played low level characters for testing, and I was worried. Some of my favorite classes seemed to be drastically underpowered. When I played the same classes at 40, things seemed way more balanced. For example, my personal favorite, the engineer seemed in desperate need of a buff, but at 40 his abilities allowed to fill a specific and useful niche that allowed order to win more consistently. Thankfully they have fixed a bit of the the ability and stat scaling distribution so the days of useless 1-10 classes are gone, but the game still has some of these early level imbalances that people just need to play through before calling the certain classes over or under powered.

By Dahras on Oct 6, 2008
One thing to keep in mind when looking at the healer charts is that it (stupidly) counts the hp gained by the bolster buff as healing done by a player. So a level 1 constantly dying will have a lot of healing, without actually doing any healing.

By Sithlet on Oct 6, 2008
Great review of the warrior priest. I have noticed that a lot of T1 characters seem underpowered. Hopefully T2 will be better.

By Warhammer Army on Oct 7, 2008
This seems to be one of those really good at one thing but not at another situations. Warpriests are unbelieveably useful in RvR and scenarios.

By RadarX on Oct 7, 2008
I’m loving my Warrior Priest (R15 RR11) and in fact I find him easier more efficient and more enjoyable that any of my various alts. I find that in Scenarios I am competitive in both healing an damage dealing (always at or near the top in healing and far exceeding other healers in damage). The only other careers that give me problems are Zealots and Ranged DPSers who really know how to kite well.

I think the issue with WPs and DoKs is that it takes “getting” them to be able to play them well. Not to say that they’re hard, they’re just different and I believe that it’s a difference that a lot of people who come from a “pure” healer background have difficulty wrapping their head around. I saw the same thing with Bear Shamans during my brief stint in AoC. It seems that the people who “get” melee healers are beasts on the battlefield while those who don’t are shark bait. It may take time but I think that anyone who dedicates themselves to the play style will eventually get it and show everyone what Warrior Priests are really capable of.

By Psnacky on Oct 7, 2008
I have a 25 WP, RR 22 or so. I’d almost say I didn’t take off until 24. I never thought I was gimp; I was consistently doing pretty well on both dps and heal charts pre-24. After 24 I started rocking people, including healers. My only problem now is that it seems that sometimes I just get hit so hard I fall over dead.

If you want damage, thats the point where you can stack the +25% damage tactic with the 15% crit tactic. Add that to a nice two hander and you get really solid dps.

Salv spec is crazy on the other end. Like AOE group heal for 1000 crazy. I don’t use it because its not so hot for solo work, but I don’t really have too many complaints about the class. I don’t think its caught me quite as hard as I’d like; the last couple of nights I’ve been leveling an engineer just because its so much fun. That class is very underrated.

A lot of the classes just don’t click for certain people. White Lion did nothing for me at all, for instance. Eh.

By toxic on Oct 7, 2008
It’s the ever-present “Don’t judge it until 40″ conundrum…you have to enjoy play enough to *get* to 40 in the first place.

By Atis Kleinbergs on Oct 10, 2008
All I got to say is the melee dpsing healers, need a little nerf, but als, it seem like everything has their own exploits. But as a level 21 Witch Hunter, I had a hard time killing a level 14 Disciple of Khaine, so ya. However I bet once people get the reduces healing stuff everything will even out.

By Forced to order on Oct 10, 2008
Can you talk about what spec you are going to take in your next piece.
Wrath seems sub-optimal but with fairly nice abilities in it,
Salvation is obviously the healbot tree but i wonder if that sacrifices some of our hybridity i like the idea of a melee healer,
Grace is my preferred spec but reading about it on the WHA forums seems to indicate it falls short in later tiers

By james on Oct 10, 2008
Ive played a warrior priest to 27 so far and plan to play it as my main. Just some advise for all the sub 25 people out there. I would stick it out. I have topped the damage meters (VERY rare) and I top the healing meters MOST games in t3. You have to remeber that the class IS hybrid but gear/tatics/blessings have alot to do with the way the class plays. You cant switch gear and tatics in the middle of combat so you cant expect to top damage and healing in a single game by any means. But if you decide what you are going to do in a game, heal/dps and stick to that you will be a VERY viable asset to your fellow players. I find by staying in the back and using suplication and smite i can USUALLY top heal meters. Dpsing is a little more difficult but if you have a dedicated healer and you concentrate on keeping yourself alive and dps ONLY you can do a fair amount with the right gear and tatics selected even as salvation spec. Just my personal opinion.

By Bainn on Oct 15, 2008