Priest alt Healing specc choice?

[Deleted]

HI, my priest alt is gonna be doing alot of mythic dungeons and maybe some alt raiding with my guild. I played shadow on it primarily, although I would like to have a alt to heal on. To this end I chose the preist and would like to do some healing in small group sontent and possibly alt raiding (probably normal hfc 15 people max) and was wondering if it would be nearly mandatory for me to play disc as it is soo much more powerful?

Thanks if u can help!

[Nzete]

Discipline is much stronger in raids (if you don't have one you are doing it wrong).

However, they are closer to equal in a 5 man situation. As discipline, if you don't know when the damage is coming, you can easily get to thinking you are screwed because people took damage.

[shanthi]

The choice you make doesn't really matter for the content you'll be doing, as normal raids aren't tuned tightly enough for composition to matter very much. If you are completely agnostic to which spec you play, then go discipline, as it'll make things a bit easier. If, for some reason, you really want to go holy, it's a perfectly viable choice...it won't stop you from killing normal mode bosses, especially if you're only going to be healing as your off-spec, but you will give up some power.

[Deleted]

Depense really if you are planning to play for fun and spec you enjoy the most or play to compete. Many will agree disc is strong and will make some fights easier to handle but the Pw:S spam and generally just the gameplay isnt that exciting and kinda dull. Holy imo is alot more fun and requires more skill, but wont compete with disc and most other healing classes. Both are totally fine for normal and heroic and also dungeons. If you ever decide to go Mythic then you really need to play at your top to play a holy priest well.

[anon5123]

Holy is much better for 5mans, IMO; Disc in 5man requires a good deal more thought and constant pre-shielding to mitigate damage.

Both are good in raids. Disc is better, but you don't want more than 1 Disc in a raid, if you've got less than 20.

[muto]

Holy is much better for 5mans, IMO; Disc in 5man requires a good deal more thought and constant pre-shielding to mitigate damage.

Both are good in raids. Disc is better, but you don't want more than 1 Disc in a raid, if you've got less than 20.

And what thought is involved in that? Disc in 5 mans is literally PW:S everyone, and dps stuff, and use Penance defensively if you need to, and then of course Flash Heal if you need to, Pain Supp. if you need to, etc.

[anon5123]

And what thought is involved in that?

Knowing when the damage is coming. Using your cooldowns wisely. Keeping CoW up on the tank while also pre-shielding people.

Mythic dungeons actually require you to think instead of mindlessly spamming PWS.

[muto]

Knowing when the damage is coming. Using your cooldowns wisely. Keeping CoW up on the tank while also pre-shielding people.

Mythic dungeons actually require you to think instead of mindlessly spamming PWS.

No they don't. Some trash mobs however might need to be CC'd.

[Nzete]

No they don't. Some trash mobs however might need to be CC'd.

That implies that you are running with a group of people that don't go in with an attitude of "CC? we overgear this... ha".

I prefer holy to discipline. I play holy when I can get away with it. Progression mythic kills discipline (Assault, Kromok), holy with someone else as discipline (Reaver, Council), as holy without a discipline in raid but 4 pallies with clemency (Kilrogg - tried both, prefer holy as I was third visions).

Dungeons I generally prefer holy (timewalking dungeons very much prefer holy). Guess I'm going to be running dungeons regularly for a while. Sigh. As someone in my raid said it last night "boo valor".

[Zorless]

Trust me when I say, holy is not bad. If you know how to snipe heal and use renew in the same way as pw:s. As a "bad" geared mythic raider we never ran in to any problems for me playing holy. Use lightwell as a cd when you know people will drop. Works like a good dream! good luck, play the specc that give you the most, and the specc you have fun playing!

[Ins0mnia]

Holy is pretty hard and complex, for starters I would deffo advice to start with Disc.

[Deleted]

If you know how to snipe heal and use renew in the same way as pw:s.!

Except that its not, you cant compare a pw:s to a renew or any non absorb heal.

Not saying holy is bad in any way, and i feel it can be competitive in Mythic if u mastered how to play it and really play at your top. An absorb healing class is just better. But in norm/hc this just doesnt matter as much

[Ins0mnia]

Totally agree with that statement. Holy is just shit, doesn't matter how good the player is. All other classes outheal holy bigtime.

[VelvetRealm]

For what its worth: Ive never had problems healing as Holy with all the other healers in game..until WoD and more to the point, with HFC. I can pull out all my tricks and my healing is tons behind the other healers. its dismal and disappointing.

[Ins0mnia]

Our spells scale bad, we have shitty tier bonusses and a trinket that is pointless. No wonder we lag behind in HFC.

The only thing that can keep my numbers up is a timed Divine Hymn

[Cien]

Totally agree with that statement. Holy is just shit, doesn't matter how good the player is. All other classes outheal holy bigtime.

just no. disc has easier more noticeable results (pw:s blanket derpz) or maybe some clarity of will derpz. holy is more complex to play if you actually use chakra properly depending on the raid size and situation

[Ins0mnia]

just no. disc has easier more noticeable results (pw:s blanket derpz) or maybe some clarity of will derpz. holy is more complex to play if you actually use chakra properly depending on the raid size and situation

I'm playing Holy since vanilla (I actually level'd in it). Yes it is more complex, but the past 2 expansions Holy priests cannot keep up with their other healing brothers. Thats why most mythic guilds refuse to take in a holy in their main raid team.

--

I swear I had a site somewhere that compared all the healers together that could backup my claim.

- - - Updated - - -

Here is one, but not the site i'm looking for. Holy priests are dangling below with some other un-popu classes..

http://www.worldofwargraphs.com/stat...0-0-0-0-0.html

[VelvetRealm]

The thing is: for YEARS people have said the same stuff about Holy: oh it has a great toolkit, oh given the right gear or tier gear it can shine, oh its numbers are there but other healers just overshadow it, oh just the majority of people have no idea how to play Holy like a good priest should, etc and the entire time Holy has been struggling. No matter how you sugarcoat it, make excuses/justifications, Holy has been in a shit spot period. There are hardly any guilds who *want* a Holy priest in their 4-5 healer setup (Unless you've been in said guild for years) and there are hardly any players who play the spec period.

The spec needs to be at a point where picking either it or Disc are something that would benefit the raid and bring something unique to it. Right now, and for a LONG time, its simply been: Oh a heal priest? Go Disc.

[Ins0mnia]

Ignorance is a bliss

[Nightstorm]

The thing is: for YEARS people have said the same stuff about Holy: oh it has a great toolkit, oh given the right gear or tier gear it can shine, oh its numbers are there but other healers just overshadow it, oh just the majority of people have no idea how to play Holy like a good priest should, etc and the entire time Holy has been struggling. No matter how you sugarcoat it, make excuses/justifications, Holy has been in a shit spot period. There are hardly any guilds who *want* a Holy priest in their 4-5 healer setup (Unless you've been in said guild for years) and there are hardly any players who play the spec period.

The spec needs to be at a point where picking either it or Disc are something that would benefit the raid and bring something unique to it. Right now, and for a LONG time, its simply been: Oh a heal priest? Go Disc.

You said it brother, I have been tweeting, submitting suggestions and complaining for years. They wont even dignify and answer for ignoring Holy for as long as I can remember. I have advocated and each xpac and said if they ignore holy this time I am done. I guess I am the sucker for continuously believing. I have been kicked from a few guilds for wanting to play holy, I have had to make deals for RBG spots. I have had pissed off arena partners when I want to push holy even though disc was so much easier. I am just a Holy die hard. Blizzard just flat out doesn't look at the number of holy priest actually pushing end game and always has focus on disc. Do yourself a favor and never get it in your head that holy will be good. If you are a die hard like me, welcome aboard the underdog express, no one likes you but the lore is great!