Need some advice/help raiding as disc

[Adelle]

Heya,

Been playing discipline since Wrath, always loved it and enjoyed it. Even through the beginning of Cataclysm I actually enjoyed healing those heroic dungeons and raiding afterwards. Since Cata my off-spec has been shadow.

Anyway, I leveled and entered MoP heroics and found my mana extremely painful. Mindbender quite insufficient, Solace creating some weird 'rotation' of the sort with Holy Fire and Smite which basically takes out too much time away from actually healing (Atonement aside).

My gear's not too bad (iLevel 466 with crafted chest and gloves and the ring from Golden Lotus); I picked up spirit gear or reforged to spirit, using spirit flask and spirit food.

Using - PoM, Penance on CD and Cascade when spread out. Using Heal whenever possible for a small cheap heal. Using Greater Heal on the tank only (if very necessary), pretty much with Inner Focus (when possible and trying not to overheal). Barely using Power Word: Shield because of the mana. I'm trying to use Spirit Shell when needing to PoH. I honestly forget Power Infusion too often and that's my mistake. I think I'm still a bit lost about MoP's disc healing and I don't have a feel about it.

We cleared 2 bosses so far; the third one got into the enrage 3-4 times yesterday and I dare to say it wasn't the healers fault (I was allowed to go in the spirit realm pretty much all the time so my mana was 100% and I managed to spam as much as I like; Feng was another story... ). Problem is I'm in a team of a paladin and a monk and they are mileeeeeeeeeeees ahead on healing (for what healing meter's worth at all) and much much much better at mana management. My RL and dps buddies delicately suggested me switching to holy but I've never actually enjoyed that playstyle and never played it - a.k.a. it will be completely new, keybinds and getting used to included.

How's mana management for holy nowadays compared to disc? Holy used to have a lot of mana problems or so I'm told.

Any tips and suggestions would really help.

Edit: Damn, reading my post now I probably didn't make much sense as to what is my problem - my healing sucks big time and I along with it. Help .

[hopezero]

I brought a disc/holy spec to my raid for the week. I was having horrible mana problems on guards as disc, and my healing was really far behind as well. I went holy, and AOE healed like a boss. I was the bottom healer by a lot when I was trying disc, on our kill (as holy) I was 2nd on the charts. However, on Feng I went back to disc, and I'm topping the charts easily. Spirit shell on that fight is really really OP, you are able to predict the damage so far in advance that you can get the full bubble up before the damage even goes out!

As for the mana returns, I haven't found a way to fit Solace into my rotation either but I am pretty happy where Mind Bender is at right now. You can even cheese it a bit, but you are going to have to use your Power Infusion as a mana battery and not an 'oh poop' button. Your Mind Bender is effected by your haste rating, the more he attacks the more mana you get back. So if you pop PI before Mind Bender, you should see additional mana returns. I have no data to support that, but it has been working like a charm for me.

I recently started using Weak Auras/Ignelia's Rapture Proc (I'm sure I butchered that name) and that was the single largest increase to my healing/mana management. I would highly suggest grabbing that in order to help yourself with CDs.

I'll make a post later (might be tonight) with all of my auras that way people can use them! Also look at howtopriest.com (use to be shadowpriest.com) it is fantastic!!!

[Adelle]

I was thinking of getting Ingela's Rapture since I used it throughout the previous expansion but changed UI for this one and missed it. Honestly I didn't see Rapture on CD as useful anymore so I didn't really try to cast PW:Shield for that either (use it very rarely atm).

Indeed about Power Infusion - have to remember about it more often. Thanks for the Mindbender tip.

[hopezero]

You should really always be using PW:S once a Rapture CD is back up. The mana return on it is worth the cost of the HUGE absorb you get.