Two Questions Regarding Priests for Healing Comps in MoP

[Saladface]

#1) Will holy specialization be viable for competitive 10-man raiding? Up until now I was discipline, but it seems that holy is parsing much higher for level 90s so I wanted to get input from you guys. It was my impression that in 4.2 and 4.3 holy specialization was best suited to a 25-man raid.

Edit: Here is my definition of "competitive" 10-man raiding. My guild killed Spine of Deathwing at the 15% nerf and we're shooting for faster progression next time. So when we're talking about ideal raid compositions, think along those lines.

#2) Does it matter that we would not have a discipline priest or holy paladin? Our healing composition would be — restoration shaman, restoration druid, and holy priest. I know this is a lot of raid healing. Tank damage never seemed to be much of a problem for us in Cataclysm (since it was non-existent), but I don't know if that would change in Mists of Pandaria. Additionally, having a restoration druid and a holy priest seems like it might be redundant. Once again, this is for a moderate level of "competitive" raiding, roughly equivalent to killing Spine of Deathwing at the 15% nerf or sooner.

Edit: In case you're interested, our tank composition is likely to be guardian druid and protection warrior.

What do you guys think?

[Deleted]

I think it depends upon whether absorbs are a major benefit on the fights. It also depends if you have a resto druid in your group (you do, as do I). I made a post on the Blizzard forums regarding this...

"My take...

Mogu'shan Vaults

The Stone Guard: you'll be spread but close enough for PoH to probably catch 5 players, it won't hit the off tank though obviously. The damage is constant however, and provided you don't mess up the explosions there is no 'huge' damage. Holy priest for me.
Feng the Accursed: spread out most of the time, aside from the lightning phase. PoH is mostly useless outside of that phase. Holy for me.
Gara'jal: you're stacked up but PoH is pretty useless because only 3 targets at a time take damage. You're much better off just single target healing, PoM is REALLY good here. The pre shielding could be very good on the voodoo dolls, since the damage tends to stack up. I'm currently unsure which is better. Rolling renews is very good though.
Meng: spread or stacked depending on the one you're fighting. I must say it's more spread than stacked though, with only one of the four being a stacked encounter. Holy for me.
Elegon: stacked in p1, spread in p2, stacked & moving in p3. The biggest damage is probably in p2, although the encounter was bugged when I tried this. Holy for me.
Emperors: you could stack on normal, you could not stack on heroic. This is a very hectic fight on heroic & people are all over the place, PoH is pretty useless. Probably holy, but it depends how you deal with the sparks. We were considering just soaking the sparks instead of trying to kill them (they had huge HP), and if you were to do this disc would be very good.

Heart of Fear

Imperial Vizier: you're mostly stacked for this fight. I mean you're spread out, but it's only a minimal amount. The raid does split up on heroic though. I'd probably go holy.
Blade Lord Ta'yak: people are spread out & only one person takes major damage with Wind Step. To be honest, rolling renews & serenity was king here by a long way. Good synergy with shields & overwhelming assault / blade tempest though. I think if I was healing with a druid I'd probably go disc, they can deal with the wind step debuff very well.
Garalon: heavy heavy raid damage, with most players being stacked (tanks & person kiting pheromones isn't). I believe crush was every 45 secs, and I can see spirit shell being pretty awesome here, especially later into the fight. Holy will deal better with the aoe damage, disc will help a lot with crush. I'm still undecided, but leaning more towards holy to be honest, the aoe damage is just too high.
Wind Lord: spread but not so much that PoH is useless. Disc is very very good while Recklessness is up, so much so that they may even be mandatory on heroic, or at least will save you chaining CDs on Whirling Blade. I'm unsure currently.
Amber Shaped: you could PoH, as long as your group has good control they won't be spread too much. That being said, I'd still prefer renew here due to greater control, the fact the damage isn't constant, and because of parasitic growth. Holy for sure.
Grand Empress: p1 stacked, p2 spread, p3 stacked. Spirit shell very good in p1, but disc incredibly weak in p2, strong again in p3 due to Calamity making shields very efficient. Despite a terrible p2 disc may actually be pretty good on this fight. Unsure currently.

Terrace

Protectors: spread fight as far as I remember (got very very little testing done). Unsure, no proper testing of late fight.
Tsulong: spread out fight, holy priest is very good on this encounter - they were doing similar HPS to druids & monks on testing.
Lei Shi: disc is either utterly useless or great depending on how long "Get Away!" lasts on live. If you can pre shield the raid with SS, and then cast shield on the raid while it's active (you're moving constantly during Get Away!), they'll be very strong. It depends on mana, and whether or not the entire raid ends up with weakened soul. Tank damage is obscene on this fight though, so if they can get through Get Away! disc is going to be the far superior choice. Unsure because of the above."

It should be noted that we have a holy Paladin & they'll probably deal with the tank healing. If you're running resto druid / resto shaman, then disc priest may be better on fights like Stone Guard, that have A LOT of tank damage.