What made Holy so good in PvP?

[Tangra]

Hi, everyone, I'm sorry if this thread is repetitive, but I just came back from a long break and I'm having trouble figuring out what exactly made Holy very competitive in PvP this season. Could I get an explanation or a link to one please?

[Madam]

Not really sure but can I buy a LW and stun as Disc?

[Deleted]

The reason holy was incredibly strong last season, and at the start of this season, was mainly due to Prayer of Mending and Lightwell not being affected by battle fatigue. This allowed holy to completely dominate arena due to a combination of factors allowing Holy to pump out ridiculous healing, while never actually having to cast a spell - you just rotated instant heals all game. 100k PoMs wasnt uncommon in arena. They fixed that recently, which was a big hit to holy priests, and priests in general.

Now, holy is still good, but nowhere near the godmode they were before. However there are still advantages to being holy over disc:

- Much better instant healings. Holy Word Serenity heals for 50% more due to the 4P pvp bonus Holy Spark effect, and with all the interrupt effects in the game, this is a big deal.
- Holy Word: Chastice. This little 3 second disorient is huge. It makes it so easy to get fears on enemy healers, because chastise into fear can't be countered by the victim, and has to be stopped by a team mate (which is hard due to feathers+spectral guise combo). In 2v2 especially, this spell alone completely eradicated disc priests from competing, because holy priests will always win the "fear war", and also not having to deal with druids and monks running/rolling/blink dodging your fears.
- Holy does more damage than disc due to the 50% bonus damage chakra, which can be particularly useful in 2s, where you are often required to help out with dpsing to land a kill.
- Lightwell, as well as a strong HoT in Renew, provides decent healing while you are CC'ed. Disc doesn't have this safety net, although good use of Spirit Shell can have a similar use (providing mitigation/healing while you are sitting in a CC effect). Difference being that lightwell is instant, and automatic. Downside is, good players will try to kill lightwell and waste the cooldown.
- Lightwell as well as having a much stronger Renew, made it a lot easier to deal with spread pressure.


Disadvantages:
- You lose Inner Focus silence immunity. This wasn't such a big deal, because holy never had to cast (and thus leave their holy school vulnerable to lockouts), so you didn't really need this. After the battle fatigue nerf, it's a bigger deal.
- Disc can pre-shell to stop rushdown comps, or to get huge momentum in the beginning of games.
- Very weak absorbs.


TLDR: better instant heals, better damage, better CC, better anti-CC, and up until the battle fatigue, also better throughput. Now the throughput is kinda bad though, which is the current downside of holy.

[snaxattax]

its the chasise CC + off gcd heals from lightspring/well.

[Tangra]

Thanks for the info so far, Chastise on a DR different from other incapacitates/disorients, and instant, is pretty huge for sure.

[stickyjam]

Thanks for the info so far, Chastise on a DR different from other incapacitates/disorients, and instant, is pretty huge for sure.

And the ease of fears with the stun and feathers.

[Nightstorm]

The reason holy was incredibly strong last season, and at the start of this season, was mainly due to Prayer of Mending and Lightwell not being affected by battle fatigue. This allowed holy to completely dominate arena due to a combination of factors allowing Holy to pump out ridiculous healing, while never actually having to cast a spell - you just rotated instant heals all game. 100k PoMs wasnt uncommon in arena. They fixed that recently, which was a big hit to holy priests, and priests in general.

Now, holy is still good, but nowhere near the godmode they were before. However there are still advantages to being holy over disc:

- Much better instant healings. Holy Word Serenity heals for 50% more due to the 4P pvp bonus Holy Spark effect, and with all the interrupt effects in the game, this is a big deal.
- Holy Word: Chastice. This little 3 second disorient is huge. It makes it so easy to get fears on enemy healers, because chastise into fear can't be countered by the victim, and has to be stopped by a team mate (which is hard due to feathers+spectral guise combo). In 2v2 especially, this spell alone completely eradicated disc priests from competing, because holy priests will always win the "fear war", and also not having to deal with druids and monks running/rolling/blink dodging your fears.
- Holy does more damage than disc due to the 50% bonus damage chakra, which can be particularly useful in 2s, where you are often required to help out with dpsing to land a kill.
- Lightwell, as well as a strong HoT in Renew, provides decent healing while you are CC'ed. Disc doesn't have this safety net, although good use of Spirit Shell can have a similar use (providing mitigation/healing while you are sitting in a CC effect). Difference being that lightwell is instant, and automatic. Downside is, good players will try to kill lightwell and waste the cooldown.
- Lightwell as well as having a much stronger Renew, made it a lot easier to deal with spread pressure.


Disadvantages:
- You lose Inner Focus silence immunity. This wasn't such a big deal, because holy never had to cast (and thus leave their holy school vulnerable to lockouts), so you didn't really need this. After the battle fatigue nerf, it's a bigger deal.
- Disc can pre-shell to stop rushdown comps, or to get huge momentum in the beginning of games.
- Very weak absorbs.


TLDR: better instant heals, better damage, better CC, better anti-CC, and up until the battle fatigue, also better throughput. Now the throughput is kinda bad though, which is the current downside of holy.

Ya and it was impossible to get a group as holy last season to cuz everyone is a dumb $$@#@#$$%@%@##@!!!!!!!