Viability of Human Priests

[Nuboda]

I'm looking to make a priest, was gonna go dwarf but wanted some feedback on maybe going human.

The spirit racial, does that make a noticeable difference?

Same question about Diplomacy. I've never played endgame so I don't know how much rep grinding there is. How much of a difference does Diplomacy make?

And Feedback, I'm assuming this is mostly a PvP spell? How often do you find yourself using it? Can it be dispelled?

[Dejekt]

Diplomacy makes a big difference. Spirit passive is nice if you heal, but most guilds would prefer that you were dwarf for fear ward. Fear ward and stoneform prob better in pvp.

[gotmilk0112]

Fear Ward & Stoneform are infinitely superior to 5% spirit bonus and 10% rep bonus. There's a reason why a vast majority of alli priests are Dwarf.

Fear Ward is insanely useful for lots of PvE encounters and pretty strong in PvP as well, and Stoneform is invaluable for removing bleeds and poisons. You can even use it to "trinket" some effects like rogue's Blind.

[Mimma]

Female Night Elf priests are best in raids! You can't just underestimate the power of sexiness

[PriestInOurTime]

Diplomacy is a nice bonus. But I personally wouldn't take it into account. I do however think that for pure raiding human is still the best choice, on the spirit racial alone. Fear Ward is good to have on a few easy bosses in early content, that's it. Whereas the extra spirit is at it best in the hardest fights in the game.

[res]

Diplomacy is a nice bonus. But I personally wouldn't take it into account. I do however think that for pure raiding human is still the best choice, on the spirit racial alone. Fear Ward is good to have on a few easy bosses in early content, that's it. Whereas the extra spirit is at it best in the hardest fights in the game.

Dwarves get stoneform and 10 frost resist on top of the Fear Ward. Frost resist is good in Naxx and Stoneform is good for bosses that do poison/diseases which is good for Chromaggus, AQ40 etc. So Dwarves still have racial bonuses that carry over to end-game raiding.

[PriestInOurTime]

Dwarves get stoneform and 10 frost resist on top of the Fear Ward. Frost resist is good in Naxx and Stoneform is good for bosses that do poison/diseases which is good for Chromaggus, AQ40 etc. So Dwarves still have racial bonuses that carry over to end-game raiding.

Sure, sure. I didn't mean to come across as saying that Dwarves are bad. Just wanted to state my opinion that not only are Humans viable but in my personal opinion even the best choice.

[Rhook]

I have never raided in vanilla but im looking forward for starting a dwarf priest. Ive asked some ppl and they told me that only human priests are preferred in endgame raids like aq and naxx. And that dwarfs are only needed in some fights.
My question is if mana is really a big issue in the endgame and late endgame so that the 5% spirit bonus becomes goldworthy or if a good skilled and equipped dwarf priest is also able to heal for example kel thuzad without mana issues.

[PriestInOurTime]

I have never raided in vanilla but im looking forward for starting a dwarf priest. Ive asked some ppl and they told me that only human priests are preferred in endgame raids like aq and naxx. And that dwarfs are only needed in some fights.
My question is if mana is really a big issue in the endgame and late endgame so that the 5% spirit bonus becomes goldworthy or if a good skilled and equipped dwarf priest is also able to heal for example kel thuzad without mana issues.

The benefit of 5% extra spirit will never translate to more than 1-2% extra healing. So don't worry about it.

That said mana is an issue at every stage of the game, if healing at all is since priest have tons of ways to convert extra mana into extra healing.

[HeadHunt0r]

Whilst not entirely relevant currently

Midway through TBC Spirit gets a considerable buff, making the Human racial insanely powerful for Healing Priests.

This is of course entirely dependant on if you can transfer a character over to a TBC server or you have to reroll when they release TBC content servers.