Can't decide which to boost...

[Revoke]

So I want to get back into healing. Haven't healed or played a healer since WOTLK, and never PVP'd on a healer before. I main'd a priest in WOTLK, but never PVP'd much. I have two classes that Im stuck deciding on but I can't make up my mind!!! I'm thinking either a Holy priest or a Holy Paladin. I seem to enjoy the playstyle of both, but I heard Hpala is really lacking this patch. Although, this patch is not a huge concern for me since 6.0 will be dropping somewhat soon. How do H/Disc priest and Holy Paladins look for the future and for right now? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Thirteen]

From a PvP point of view, I can only say that holy priests are in a good place right now, and disc aren't. No idea about paladins. As far as PvE goes, holy paladins are both good now, and will be in 6.0. Holy priests aren't great at the moment, but will be in 6.0, and the opposite applies for disc; amazing now, not so amazing in 6.0. Obviously, beta is beta and subject to change though. All I can say is, priests occupy 1/3 of the healer specs, so there's a good chance at least one will always be viable.

[Revoke]

From a PvP point of view, I can only say that holy priests are in a good place right now, and disc aren't. No idea about paladins. As far as PvE goes, holy paladins are both good now, and will be in 6.0. Holy priests aren't great at the moment, but will be in 6.0, and the opposite applies for disc; amazing now, not so amazing in 6.0. Obviously, beta is beta and subject to change though. All I can say is, priests occupy 1/3 of the healer specs, so there's a good chance at least one will always be viable.

I do also enjoy both DPS specs of both classes, which make it more difficult for me to decide. How does Ret and Shadow look in Pve/PVP now and in 6.0?

[Yvaelle]

We don't usually allow "pick my class" threads because it's subjective to you - what playstyle you enjoy, what advantages and disadvantages you prefer, what class lore you prefer - we can't tell you these things and we don't know them: and it makes the predominant difference. I'll give my beta opinion though and then close it.

For PvP at 100 (not 90, no idea at 90), Holy Paladins are looking quite strong, while Holy Priests are pretty good - and Disc is... all over the place. Holy Paladins are high survivability healers with very strong healing throughput in 6.0 - and are still pretty effective with instant casts only. Which means they don't make great kill targets and sitting on them doesn't reduce their healing very much.

Given the expected dominance of melee+melee+healer or melee+hunter+healer - Holy Paladins are going to be a strong healer for those comps - and will likely see high representation, particularly at sub-2.2k brackets (where both melee will likely just tunnel the enemy healer, and the tougher healer will determine who wins the match - if an Hpal can out-tank a Priest or Druid, then the Hpal wins). So comps like TSG - Warrior+DK+Hpal - will be back in a big way, or Warrior+Feral+Hpal, or Warrior+Hunter+Hpal.

I think we will see Hpriests, but only in much higher skill comps - with rising representation at higher brackets (compared to sub-2.2k, where I expect to see mostly Hpals and Rshamans). Alternately, Disc Shields are quite strong on the beta for PvP - Disc seems to be awkwardly positioned for PvE - but I haven't personally tested it in either (just fought them). Generally though, the advantages that Hpals have in being tanky versus melee+hunters (which will be the entirety of next season), having good enough instant casts, and not going OOM - will make them stronger than H/D Priests for PvP (except maybe at the very highest levels of play, in comps like RMP or WwMP).

As with all things though, it depends on what you like - and we really can't tell you that - so we close these threads because no matter what we tell you, the class you will settle one will ultimately be based on your preference, not on our advice.

For Ret / Shadow - Shadow is pretty fun in PvE right now, lots of variety of play based on talent combos, which is great news - above average damage that we might actually get to keep, etc. For PvP, we're too squishy to survive the melee train right now - kind of true for most casters, but at least locks / mages / druids can snare/root/teleport away from them: maybe this will be fixed, maybe not.

I haven't PvP'd on a Ret yet, but their support healing is very strong with the right build. Alternately, I was experimenting with an Offensive Word of Glory build using glyphed WoG, mastery stacking, and and Avenging Wrath + Holy Avenger - which allowed me to half-spam (every second GCD) offensive WoGs for ~50k per crit, at range, for ~18 seconds (as Holy damage). So their burst window is very real, and their support healing is equally real (Selfless Heal Flash Heal is I think the largest direct instant heal for any hybrid DPS, Feral Healing Touch can be a good bit bigger - but it's divided between the Feral and their partner - where as a Rets is purely on their partner). So that heals for something like... ~5 priest Flash Heals per Ret proc (and of course is instant and doesn't require 5 GCDs).