Very disappointed with the current Discipline performance.

[Aleksej89]

Among other characters i got a Druid, a Shaman and a Priest - all 3 are healing spec.
While i am aware that current classes have been balanced for lvl90 (not 85), i am finding Disc to be severely under-performing compared to my other healers.

My Resto Druid has the weakest gear of them all, an average item level of 350.
Surprisingly, my Resto druid is healing so damn well that i am never below 90% mana and even a single HoT+Swiftmend or a Regrowth can bring an ally from 10% to 90% HP.

My Resto Shaman has better gear, an average of ilvl 380.
He is healing with the same awe inspiring results as my poor-geared Druid, holding at around 85-90% mana and handling any AoE healing situation with ease thanks to the new buffed water totems. His single-target spells are so cheap that they give more mana than they cost xD

My Holy/Disc Priest is in ilvl375 gear, with both Holy and Disc as specs.
Holy is performing very well, rarely dropping below 80% mana while easily healing both single and AoE damage. The new "Lightspring" actually is not so bad, while the Divine Hymn is even stronger than before. Chakra "stances" are also easier to use, though i still see no reason why they even exist.

Discipline, on the other hand, is performing very poorly for me - barely hovering around 65% mana.
While it's various shield/absorb spells/procs are doing their job properly, i find them a tad too costly on mana.
However a much bigger issue is with Disc's healing spells being so weak - even after stacking the Grace+Archangel buffs (which takes time and mana), my Disc's Heal/Flash Heal are barely keeping up with the Resto Druid's counterparts.
In other words, even after spending time/mana to stack up Grace/Archangel, my Disc is spending even more mana/time to heal up the same amount of damage my (poorly geared) Resto Druid heals with a fast/cheap Rejuv+Swiftmend or Regrowth.
Where my Holy spec or Druid/Sham could easily AoE heal a party to full with one or two AoE spells, my Disc needs at least 1 or 2 more AoE spells on top of that to heal the same amount of HP.
It also seems that Atonement is vastly weaker than before the MoP patch - my Disc could heal most of the 5man HC trash simply by spamming Smite+Fire, with an occasional heal or a shield; now i find it so weak that it can not handle even mediocre damage.

TL;DR: In short, i find my Disc priest to be performing very poorly - his shielding spells a tad expensive, his healing spells significantly weaker, his Atonement healing is down the drain, his AoE seem to heal for a third less than others, and the Grace/Archangel stacking buffs are annoying.
I used to love healing as Disc before this MoP patch arrived, but if Disc continues performing as it is right now - i do not see myself ever using this spec again.

[Venaliter]

TL;DR: In short, i find my Disc priest to be performing very poorly - his shielding spells a tad expensive, his healing spells significantly weaker, his Atonement healing is down the drain, his AoE seem to heal for a third less than others, and the Grace/Archangel stacking buffs are annoying..

There was a lot of this during the beta. No argument from me about AA though, I hate that mechanic with a burning passion. Now that it's basically mandatory, if I ever have to heal again, I will do so as Holy, but Holy has some pretty big problems of it's own, namely, where it fits in among the other healers.

As for the final balancing of numbers, time will tell.

[Kacie]

My main specc is holy, but my offspecc is disc, and for me disc is performing alot better with Spiritshell the output is alot greater than before the patch, I'm not really having problems with mana, I took solace, I shield for rapture procs then when it comes to raid dmg pop SS and poh.

Sometimes I do run out of mana but then I just pop shadowfiend + Hymn and I'm fine.

Disc imo is performing alot better than holy, as holy I feel weaker than I was before the patch healing wise mana isn't a issue as I've always been good at managing it, disc isn't much harder bare in mind I am ilvl 405.

Shamans seem the most powerful at the moment, in healing with druids 2nd then its holy/disc in my raids anyways.

[Aleksej89]

Spiritshell is very strong and might get a nerf - as i said above, Disc's absorptions are fine (a tad expensive but ok).

However i am most displeased with Disc's healing output (not absorptions), especially AoE healing, and the annoying stacking of Archangels/Grace.

[NoHealsForYou]

Not sure what you're on about really, I'm finding Disc both more fun and stronger as a spec than pre-patch. Attonement is certainly NOT weaker, if anything, it's stronger since penance now procs it on each tick and more than ever, Smite/HF/Penance is my go-to filler spell selection. You mentioned 5mans HC which I do almost exclusively with ATT now with the occasional ProM - just equip dps trinkets/weapon and you're good to go, like always.

AA is actually useful at 25% now and in HC DS, there's plenty of time to stack it up before AoE. Stack it, spread Spshell bubbles on the raid, activate AA/IF, Poh to heal if any damage even went through. Use PI either before Spshell or after, depending on the damage whether it's spikey big damage (morchok) or constantly increasing damage (Madness/Hagara lightning). Done. More fun than just mindless PoH spam.

I run Mindbender rather than Solace. Since Solace doesn't proc ATT, I'd much rather just stack AA and heal through Smite/Penance/HF.
On the longer fights (Spine/Madness) I'll run 2x T12 for the Divine Fire procs mostly because it's not a massive stat drop and it means I can be lazy on regen - but not essential.

Disc is more than fine currently. It's significantly better than pre-patch, you just need to adapt. Spshell use is essential to being a good healer.

[Kacie]

Disc is all about absorbs not actually healing, with SS + PoH they is one of the strongest possible AoE healing, and AA is stronger now than before, I find disc alot better than before.

I run solace so i could have shadowfiend + solace as there is not much to heal in hc DS due to 35% nerf now, i didn't need mindbender, I've taken it for my holy specc.

I don't think I will get to play disc much in mop as we have 2 discs already.

But why do disc think they need more AoE healing I see this in alot of posts asking for another AoE heal, they certainly don't need one.

[lwalker8]

I feel just as comfortable with disc as I do with my resto shaman. The shaman is healing for a bit more, but neither one feels unworkable or overly tight with mana.

[Mctriple]

Spirit Shell is amazing, and if you're using it well I don't see how you could think the spec is weak. I've found Disc to be really strong right now. To play Disc properly you need to be much more proactive than reactive. Perhaps your style fits much better with a Druid, since Disc seems to require more knowledge and thought of each fight/strat to properly setup absorbs before damage comes out? I know I'm much more successful when I've got a solid plan with what I'll be doing before many boss abilities.

[Junnia]

Make sure you have your spirit shell on skada/recount. I had to switch to skada because I was too lazy to insert it into recount. Once I did that it was incredibly eye opening. Personally, I buff up everyone with SS (I use PI for more stacks and/or time it with the Velocity buff if I'm lucky ... or just good ole regular stacking) and then AA/A to get buff and then use that buff for healing and then back to SS. I use Shield mainly for rapture only. With SS, AA/A and PoM, I'm hardly using another spell in 5 mans ...... in LFR I do the typical rotations of aoe healing if I'm not on tank duty.

I see shamans climbing the charts big time and the druids falling behind. But it's hard to say because LFR has someone different every time and our guild isn't raiding atm.

Edit: Bump up your spirit too. Disc is high mana cost but the more spirit I have the better off I am.

[Kirse]

SS is Amazing

Mana performs differently at different levels of content. I have 400 item level, and find anything except Heroic Ds find to heal (mana bars didn't even go down), but Heroic DS I was being outperformed by 15% (by a druid) when I usually top the charts. If I don't use mindbender on cd I go oom

[Fawther]

To reiterate Kacie...I don't think your complaint holds much weight, Disc isn't about "healing". Saying its under performing for flash heal to not meet or compare to any of the other classes spells is wrong. Its suppose to be that way as its suppose to be mitigation>raw healing and you said it yourself that our absorption is fine. Blizzard prob put such a priority on spirit and our spells costing so much because we were running with sub 2k in DS and just blanket spamming PoH. We have the tools for mp5 (new talents, rapture, inner will) that IMO sufficiently supply the mana needed to properly mitigate an entire boss fight.

I am having an absolute blast as Disc right now and not really seeing the performance issues you are pointing out. If you want to raw heal as a priest then go Holy.

[Kacie]

That's what I was trying to say not that Disc isn't about healing just that there main source is Mitigation, absorbs, of course, I do sometimes go oom as disc but I do try to only shield to proc rapture, shield spamming will make you oom.

Disc is fun, holy is fun both are great specs if your having mana issues try get more spirit, but I'm sure it will be better at level 90.

[Aleksej89]

I guess Disc's low healing + high absorption is good for Raids where you have 1 or 2+ other healers to actually do the healing, while you prevent a big amount of damage.

However, in 5man (or wherever you are the only healer) i must say it sucks very much not to be able to actually heal people's health efficiently.

[Junnia]

I guess Disc's low healing + high absorption is good for Raids where you have 1 or 2+ other healers to actually do the healing, while you prevent a big amount of damage.

However, in 5man (or wherever you are the only healer) i must say it sucks very much not to be able to actually heal people's health efficiently.

It's just figuring out how to balance it. In 5 man I stack SS to prevent damage and then I AA/A, PoM and/or penance after that. Works like a charm. You can still heal while using SS, just have to pick a heal that doesn't cast the absorption spell.

[yurano]

It's just figuring out how to balance it. In 5 man I stack SS to prevent damage and then I AA/A, PoM and/or penance after that. Works like a charm. You can still heal while using SS, just have to pick a heal that doesn't cast the absorption spell.

OR, you could get FDCL and Atonement heal up the butt. When someone gets low, you spend one of your many Surge of Light procs. Pretty excellent strategy although you're not going to be using PW: S, the signature discipline spell.

[emni]

I guess Disc's low healing + high absorption is good for Raids where you have 1 or 2+ other healers to actually do the healing, while you prevent a big amount of damage.

However, in 5man (or wherever you are the only healer) i must say it sucks very much not to be able to actually heal people's health efficiently.

It seems your problem is the preventive vs. reactive healing mindset.

The druid, the holy priest and the shaman are the purest reactive healers and so are easiest for newcomers to grasp. What does this mean? You basically folow the simple pattern of : Someone takes damage -> you heal it up. Job well done! In addition to this, druids and shamans have a pretty limited toolkit of spells and it's pretty obvious what to use in what situation. Priests are more complicated in that respect with not only a huge spell toolkit, but also Chakras and various mana regen options.

Disc priests, on the other hand, are preventive healers. This means that you need to prevent damage before it hits. You shield someone -> they take damage, not the other way around like with a druid or a shaman. This mindset might be a little difficult for people to get into, and it also means that you need to be familiar with the fight and know when a damaging attack will hit in the first place. Discipline priests are very strong in the hands of someone who has a firm grasp on preventive healing.

Paladins are slightly inbetween, but you can get away with a reactive healing style quite easily.