Holy - Ideal for new healers?

[Prag]

I have always DPS'd or Tanked and I am looking to heal for WoD to get a fresh look at the game. How does Holy rank in complexity and overall new healer friendliness? I'm interested in both Live and Beta opinions.

Thank you in advance!

[anon5123]

Live, I'm not entirely sure which is better, but neither are hard to play. I didn't play much Priest in MoP, I mained Monk for the couple of months that I played. But I did play my priest a bit, and both healing specs were effective and easy to play.

Beta, Disc is completely shit, Holy is the only way to go right now. Disc's healing/shielding is just way too undertuned, whereas Holy's healing is IMO the strongest on Beta right now, in both single target and AoE. I have 0 problems healing as Holy, whereas Disc, I can't heal for shit because all of the heal/absorb values are too low.

According to what other people said though, they're still in the process of tuning healing numbers on beta, so I'm hoping Disc will be fixed soon. In its current state, it is almost completely unviable.

[Jimjam38]

Both are viable and both are simple to learn with high skill caps for those capable of mastering them.

On live, disc is by far and large the undisputed strongest healer, and holy is considered the worst, but that is debatable. Disc has a number of overpowered elements to it in MoP, but a lot of things are changing for a lot of specs, so performance in MoP indicates nothing about WoD.

In the beta, disc is actually doing okay, I've seen a fair few logs where disc is equal with holy, but holy is indeed very powerful, so those logs could very easily be the result of player skill discrepancies. From the little information I have managed to gather regarding discs general performance in the beta, it seems like it does okay in raid environments, especially in fights with particular damage patterns that lend themselves to absorbs (ie intermittent periods of burst damage), but it sounds like disc has tank healing issues without one of the level 100 talents (Clarity of Will) meaning it is possibly not so good for 5mans.

Numbers aside, there is a fundamental difference between Disc and Holy - Disc is about damage reduction and pre-emptive or frontload healing with absorbs, and Holy is about reactionary or 'throughput' healing with hots and direct heals.

Disc uses a wide variety of pure absorbs - Spirit Shell, Power Word: Shield, Clarity of Purpose - as well as its main mechanic which is a hybrid absorb "Divine Ageis" which turns crits into a 100% heal+100%absorb instead of a 200% heal like other healers. Disc focuses on 'damage reduction' through these absorbs and its cooldowns - Power Word: Barrier and Pain Suppression. As a disc priest your job is to pre-shield both the raid and individual raid members before damage happens to reduce the impact of the damage and then to assist with healing them back up afterwards. Disc priests can have particularly important niche roles in certain encounters where their unique functionality allows them to bypass certain mechanics, but they also tend to be very gear dependent and have a lower overall throughput. Watching boss timers and having a good raid awareness to predict incoming damage are key elements to playing disc.

Holy uses a range of powerful hots and direct healing spells, both AoE and single target. Holy has three 'stances' known as Chakras, which enhance its damage, single target and AoE healing capabilities depending on which one you use, as well its unique "Holy Word" spell which changes to fulfill the role of the chakra you are in. Holy focuses on consistent throughput; It has a range of strong direct heals, both AoE(Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, Holy Word: Sanctuary) and single target(Flash Heal, Heal, Holy Word: Serenity) as well as some which are a hybrid of both (Binding Heal, Prayer of Mending) which they use to bring players back to full health after large bursts of damage damage and they also have two powerful HoTs - Renew, the iconic priest heal over time, and Holy's unique mastery "Eco of Light" which makes all direct healing spells leave a HoT for an additional % of the direct healing done - to provide a constant stream of healing to counter persistent incoming damage. Holy is very powerful for encounters with a lot of heavy and frequent AoE damage, but is less ideal for dealing with intense burst damage due to its lack of cooldowns. Key elements for playing Holy are good reaction times and being able to judge the best ability for the situation.

Priests are a good place to start for someone interested in learning to heal because they are unique in having these two different healing specs which allows beginners to try out different styles and choose the one they find most engaging. They are also generally very good healing specs and have a number of unique abilities that can make them mandatory for certain encounters. They also typically have at least one spec that's good for PvP, and one that's good for PvE at any point in time, but it is rare for both specs to be good for both PvE and PvP at the same time, so keep that in mind.

[Xar226]

The best thing about a holy priest is that it is basically the healing spec that works the way Blizzard has always wanted healers to work. Back in Cata (I think?) when they started fooling with healing rotations and trying to push healers to using the most efficient spells, the holy priest was basically their model. Other than bringing Heal back temporarily, they changed little.

That said, it has a great kit. It does well with HoTs like Renew and a mastery that can be quite powerful at high incoming damage levels, the standard big/little/fast direct heals, probably my favorite healing spell in the game in Prayer of Mending. Prayer of Healing is very effective, but it is still is a little clunky in the group-based targeting. CoH is a strong group heal. I can't speak to the level 90 talents on beta since I have not received a beta invite, but on live they are super strong. I personally really enjoy the talents and the way hey interact with your kit, basically making you more powerful at what you're doing at the moment. Spamming PoH because of high raid damage? Proc a free, instant PoM that automatically bounces. Doing a lot of single-target healing? Proc yourself some free, instant Flash Heals. Then there's Serendipity going "aww cool, you're using Flash Heal? Your next PoH is cheaper and stronger if you need to switch." It's a really delicious kit to me.

My only word of caution is that I don't think holy has ever been the best healer and it probably won't be again in WoD. That doesn't mean it isn't good or isn't viable, and a nice bonus of the priest class is if it gets really bad you have a second healing spec to try. Another word of caution in that I am not in beta, so I can't comment on our 100 talents. It does look like the focus on multistrike combined with our mastery could prove to be a strong combo too.

[Zka]

I have always DPS'd or Tanked and I am looking to heal for WoD to get a fresh look at the game. How does Holy rank in complexity and overall new healer friendliness? I'm interested in both Live and Beta opinions.

Thank you in advance!

In WoD beta this is the status:
- disc is almost useless. Bad HPS, bad HPM, zero mobility. They overnerfed it. However, it has much fewer buttons than holy.
- holy is very strong and pretty fun. This is coming from a guy who didn't play holy since T7. More buttons, more mobility, HPS and HPM are good.
Healer tuning is ongoing, so this is not final.

[Deleted]

OP's question is about holy's friendlyness for new healers.

I personnally don't think it's the easier healing spec, I'd even argue it's currently pretty hard to master, especially when you come from a dps role.
I'll explain myself : as a dps, you're used to a "rotation". For some healers, the concept of rotation is something you can hold on. For example, holy paladins' "rotation" consist in spamming HoPo generators and then cast a finisher. Same for disc priets where the "rotation" consist in using atonement spells on CD and then time your absorbs for spike damage. Of course, it's not that simple but it's just to show you that, for some healers, you're not far from a dps like rotation.

For holy priests, you can't use a rotation because you're extremely limited by mana and any kind of rotation would make you oom very fast. Don't even get me started on chakkra and PoH group management which can easily discourage new players...
So, no, I don't think it's the beginner friendlier healing spec outta there, to say the least.

BUT :
1) remember we're talking about wow so it's not really hard to learn the spec ;
2) plus, it seems that for WOD, holy's gameplay will mainly consist in renew blanketing in sanctuary. Without cascade to refresh renews, it's something quite easy to achieve ;
3) Holy priests are one of the most versatile healers in the game, our toolkit is amazing ;
4) as a healer priest, you can dualspec another healing spec ;

To sum up, I really think the pros outweight the cons. It may be relatively hard to learn the spec in the beginning but in the end, having a priest is by far, the most fun I've ever had with a healing spec.

[Jimjam38]

In WoD beta this is the status:
- disc is almost useless. Bad HPS, bad HPM, zero mobility. They overnerfed it. However, it has much fewer buttons than holy.
- holy is very strong and pretty fun. This is coming from a guy who didn't play holy since T7. More buttons, more mobility, HPS and HPM are good.
Healer tuning is ongoing, so this is not final.

Interesting perspective you have there. HN is getting up there as one of the most efficient HpM abilities around and its also instant cast. PWS is instant cast too. Penance can be glyphed and HF/Solace is instant. Considering that the discussion has been around PWS>HN weaving spam being probable default play for disc, I really wouldn't call that zero mobility. I've had fairly different reports on HPS, generally holy is said to be very strong, but I've heard a lot say that disc isn't doing half as bad as people think. If you can show me some logs that disc is doing terrible hps compared to holy then so be it, but I don't want to start perpetuating misconceptions about spec viability before WoD is even released. No one wants to be forced to play one spec because the RL heard the other one was bad and it actually isn't.

- - - Updated - - -

Disc's atonement rotation has all but died with WoD. It won't be nearly as beginner friendly now because archangel is going to require a pretty high skillcap to be used optimally, and its also going to be pretty mandatory to use it too, while using it poorly will result in fairly significant throughput losses. On the surface it looks like a very simple watered down version of MoP disc, but its actually going to be pretty punishing if played wrong I expect. Holy doesn't have nearly that kind of trap for new players if you learn not to go OOM.

I would personally advocate for Holy for a beginner. Its easy to understand the most essential basics and has nothing that can be really misinterpreted, its got great throughput, its got a good variety of spells without having too many and it's got a good learning curve from basic to high end skillcap. I think holy also introduces the fundamental concepts of healing and triage without obscuring it with RNG, cooldowns, psudo-rotations, secondary resources, things to maintain etc that all the other specs have, a holy priest just heals and tries to be careful with their mana.

[Deleted]

Well you're perfectly right about disc atonement rotation becoming irrelevant in WOD.

For the other parts, I'm not so sure :
- disc currently has 0 synergies between spells. beginners' cookie cutter : spec WOM and PI and then just spam 1 pw:s --> xHN on melee grp (most likely 3) with solace, offensive penance and archangel on CD. Suddenly you're high on HPS. OFC, it's not optimal but it's something quite easy to apprehend for beginners.
- Holy have to take advantage of surge of light, serendipity and DI proccs. Guardian, lightwell, Hymn, and POH which could be skipped for disc until tier bonus.

Point is, if I had to objectively advise for the most beginner's friendly healer spec, I wouldn't advise for priest. I'd go for Holy pala. But everyone is entilted to his/her opinion and it's just mine here.
But if OP has set his mind for priest, I too, would advise for holy. Once you've mastered holy, you have get used to plan for damage instead of healing them and you're good to go as disc.

[l33t]

I won't personally advice Holy for new unexperienced healers, because, while that spec has probably the best raw throughput and best versatility in game, it has historical problems with mana regen. I'd go with resto druid, and switch it to Holy when mastered the game of rolling hots/triage.

Although, if you master Holy priest, you could easily play any other healer spec, so feel free to try.

[Prag]

Thank you all so much for the incredibly quick and thorough responses! I will spend time reading the guide and trying it out on live to see if it's the class for me.

Much appreciated!

[Deleted]

As we said, we already know that gameplay will change a lot for holy coming 6.0. Guides are becoming somewhat irrelevant for the spec (especially 25man guide) so don't spend too much time on them ! You could try the renew blanketing playstyle, that's what currently looks the most similar to WOD gameplay.

If you feel that the spec is weak compared to other healers, it's perfectly normal, don't let that get you down : it will change for the better when 6.0 hits.

GL

[Noradin]

Holy is a good start for new healers.
Someone takes damage - you heal it; straight forward and reactive, you do not need to know everything that will happen in advance, but you do need to choose your spells.
It is a responsive healing style that can be used as base when you later decide to try out other specs.

[anon5123]

generally holy is said to be very strong, but I've heard a lot say that disc isn't doing half as bad as people think.

If you can show me some logs that disc is doing terrible hps compared to holy then so be it

My Beta healing experience is really only with 5mans. Disc is completely terrible in 5mans. I have to spam the tank nonstop just to keep him alive, leaving literally 0 time to heal other group members.

If I stop healing the tank to heal someone else, his health will drop and I won't be able to get him back up without tons of lucky crits.

Holy on the other hand, I have no problem healing. If group members take damage, I can just throw out a CoH, or DS-PoM, or Renew, and then go back to tank healing. On the tank as well, I've got a Renew and an Echo of Light ticking on him, giving him healing even when I'm not casting on him. Disc doesn't have this, only direct heals.

I can see Disc working in a raid, if you're just assigned to the tank and nobody else. But in a 5man where you're the only healer, Disc just falls flat.

[Illiterate]

Holy is miles ahead of disc now. It's impossible to keep anyone up as disc.