After a shameful amount of research I am torn between boosting a Priest, or boosting my old WOTLK-era main Shaman (because tradeskills and shit). As the consensus seems to be that monk is bad, and Ele Sham/Resto are top of heals and DPS. Or Priest as I have never really played a priest and Holy/Spriest are both strong looking into the expansion.
What say y'all?
- Monks are currently topping DPS simulations (
Simulationcraft Results). The DPS mechanics are pretty straight forward and work pretty well. I'd argue that their tank and healer design is all sorts of fucked up, though. Both specs were designed to fit perfectly into MoP's paradigm of smart healing and bursty damage, but look weird as fuck when the new design philosophy is no smart heals and attrition damage.
- Holy priests look strong on paper, they always do. The spec is still hamstrung by having no good way to avoid overhealing and/or react/defend against burst. If WoD design stays true to the intention, with raids/groups staying below max HP most of the time, Holy's tools fit the bill well. If it ever turns bursty, the spec is just as bad as it was in MoP. The spec is also leaning heavily on the strength of two spells - Renew and Circle of Healing. If those are deemed too good, there's very little to fall back on.
- Shadow priests are currently simming well, but that is entirely dependent on the strength of one Level 100 talent, which isn't being used the way it was designed to be. It's almost certain to be changed. With either of the other two level 100 talents, the class is right at the bottom of sims.
- Shamans are floating around near the bottom of DPS simulations. Ele shamans can no longer run and gun all day. I don't know how they play as healers, but their bread and butter chain heal is no longer smart so I guess they're a lot more like priests now.
Basically - no one knows how the game balance will look in a month, and you should play what is fun to you. I like playing priest, so I'll play one, but I'm almost certain we will be crap by the time 6.1 rolls around.