Returning to my priest since.. Vanilla

[agli]

I've recently after moving house, re-found my original vanilla account cd-key so I can re-activate my WoW account which has a level 60 priest in what was then high end gear, I'm currently either debating returning to my beloved priest, yet there seems to be ALOT of changes since then, if someone could answer a few questions for me that would be a big help.

1. Am I correct in saying that if i like healing as-well as soloing PvE quests and a bit of PvP I'm to go discipline?
2. Is spirit still a must stack statistic?
3. If I'm to re-pick up my priest, I'm contemplating race changing to a gnome for the extra 5% intellect.
4. Will I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it in vanilla?

[Terahertz]

I've recently after moving house, re-found my original vanilla account cd-key so I can re-activate my WoW account which has a level 60 priest in what was then high end gear, I'm currently either debating returning to my beloved priest, yet there seems to be ALOT of changes since then, if someone could answer a few questions for me that would be a big help.

1. Am I correct in saying that if i like healing as-well as soloing PvE quests and a bit of PvP I'm to go discipline?
2. Is spirit still a must stack statistic?
3. If I'm to re-pick up my priest, I'm contemplating race changing to a gnome for the extra 5% intellect.
4. Will I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it in vanilla?

1. Lvling and stuff as disc is always possible (and lvl 85 quests) but it's faster to go Shadow for that IMO. PvP healing = a must to go disc. Oh and, unlike in vanilla you can now have dual talents. If you want.

2. Spirit is a must to the point you feel like you can sacrifice spirit for a secondary stat.

3. Gnomes no longer have the 5% intel buff, but rather 5% extra mana. It's not really worth ging for gnome just for 5% extra mana. And if you are going to race change into a class for its benefits you better go Human for the 5% spirit ^^

4. We can't tell that for you, really. Classes itself have changed A LOT compared to vanilla.

[Sakamae]

I've recently after moving house, re-found my original vanilla account cd-key so I can re-activate my WoW account which has a level 60 priest in what was then high end gear, I'm currently either debating returning to my beloved priest, yet there seems to be ALOT of changes since then, if someone could answer a few questions for me that would be a big help.

1. Am I correct in saying that if i like healing as-well as soloing PvE quests and a bit of PvP I'm to go discipline?
2. Is spirit still a must stack statistic?
3. If I'm to re-pick up my priest, I'm contemplating race changing to a gnome for the extra 5% intellect.
4. Will I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it in vanilla?

If you are planning to reactivate soon, you can make a max level premade character on the PTR and try out all the changes. That would allow you to get at least some kind of feel for the different facets of where the priest class is now. All of the talent trees change in one week when 5.0.4 goes live, so what you will see in one week is quite different from the current state.

[Junnia]

I've recently after moving house, re-found my original vanilla account cd-key so I can re-activate my WoW account which has a level 60 priest in what was then high end gear, I'm currently either debating returning to my beloved priest, yet there seems to be ALOT of changes since then, if someone could answer a few questions for me that would be a big help.

1. Am I correct in saying that if i like healing as-well as soloing PvE quests and a bit of PvP I'm to go discipline?
2. Is spirit still a must stack statistic?
3. If I'm to re-pick up my priest, I'm contemplating race changing to a gnome for the extra 5% intellect.
4. Will I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it in vanilla?

1. Disc is awesome for PvP as it stands now. Come MoP I'm sure it will still be the preferred class. You can dual spec for shadow as well to quest in.

2. At the moment spirit is important but disc often gets away with lower spirit whereas holy tends to need more. With MoP spirit will be an absolute must again.

3. In MoP, the int will buff your spellpower, not your mana pool. As a PP said, the racial changed? Does that stack on your mana pool? I love the belf for arcane torrent and I think pandas may be a decent race change for the double food buff.

4. It has changed a lot. Not sure your playstyle in vanilla. For holy, CoH has a CD, renew spam is no longer done, Chakra has 2 heal stance to pick from. lightwell is back in action, divine hymn has a 3 min cd ...... you will catch back up quickly. For disc, I didn't play disc in Vanilla but, atm, it can be an awesome tank healer or aoe healer.

I've played my priest as a healer for over 4 years. Disc is my favorite but disliked very much in beta. I started holy and appear to be going back to holy.

[Velerios]

The first MOST IMPORTANT THING IS:

DO !!!NOT!!! ACTIVATE YOUR ACCOUNT YOURSELF!!!

Let someone cast a Scroll of Ressurection on you! Not only you get WotLK and Cata 4 Free (Burning Crusade is now included on every classic-account), you also get 7 days Playtime and a free Level 80. So you don't need to race-change your Priest; instead you can simply make your Gnome-Priest if you want.

So about your questions:

1.) I would not say that Shadow is faster: if you played your Priest in Classic to 60; believe me then Disc is fast enough. Also if you play Disc with the Atonement-Talent you will simply NEVER die while Questing: NEVER! (And after the next patch all disc-priests have atonement that also effect penance)

2.) After the next Patch YES! Int does no longer affect the mana pool, so Spirit is a must have. Rapture is now also affected by spirit so that when you Shield get completely absorbed or dispelled you get 150% of your spirit back als mana.

3.) Gnomes does no longer increase your intellect; only increase your Mana-Pool by 5%. In Cata this talent is not really a big deal; in MoP it is. Since your Mana Pool is always the same (100k at 85, 300k on 90) thiis is one of the two things that affect your mana-pool. The other one is the Meta-Gem that increase your mana-pool by 2%). And yes, 105k mana or 315k mana is a difference in MoP! But in the end don't forget to play the race you want!

4.) Yes, even more. You can no longer downrank your spells, but they have a lot of style now, even more in 5.0. Disc have a lot of Cooldowns, Holy is a stance-healing-style; and with the new talents that get dramatically reduced after the next patc

Be not afraid: nearly all talents that are not simple +damage or +healing-talents are now included in the spec, so with the talents now you have finally a real choice to chose a talent you want.

@ Junnia: CoH does not exist in Vanilla, this is a BC-Spell. The same is true for Divine Hymn. I don't know when Lightwell were introduced...

The best thing would be if you want to heal to dual-spec disc/holy and try what you like the best!