Hybrid disc/holy spec

[Noxxx]

So i have been wondering for sometime now would it be possible to make a strong spec that was a hybrid of disc's shielding and holys aoe. this is what i have so far http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...UoZXq6G,,10505.
Im thinknig that this build would relay on spirit for regen but im not 100% sure. Anyone have suggestion?

[-Ethos-]

Not worth making a shielding build if it doesnt include borrowed time, 40% of your SP is alot of extra absorb.
The spec also has no ohshit cooldowns and lacks single target healing.
Surge of light flashes are huge when raid healing, take them out too and all you have is a build that uses CoH, PoH, Renew and a lesser Shield.

I suppose its workable if thats all you intend to do, but its not exactly the most favourable way of raid healing.

[Kelesti]

The problems with hybrid builds is if you run into a disc priest (which every raid should have at least one), then you're stepping on their ground. Plus, a shielded target still needs to be healed, and while this hybrid build does look better than any other I've seen, Trying to do both while excelling at neither doesn't really work well once you leave the theorycrafting paper trail behind.

Shields without Borrowed Time or at least Body & Soul is kinda pushing someone else's stomping ground. Plus, I can't imagine raiding without Guardian Spirit.

[Noxxx]

Im playing disc atm and i can see your points but im still going to give it a shot.

[Rurikar]

Im playing disc atm and i can see your points but im still going to give it a shot.

If this is for 10 man raiding, sure it's perfectly fine if you wanna try it out.

25 man? Your an idiot and you would be HURTING the raid with this spec.

Either way I don't understand why you would build like this. Your trading GS for Soul Warding, thats like a Mage getting half the fireball talents and half the arcane talents and then using frostbolt.

[Zka]

Specs like that are terrible, I would not let our priests spec that way. I can be OK if you only do normal modes, because these are undertuned.

[Noxxx]

If this is for 10 man raiding, sure it's perfectly fine if you wanna try it out.

25 man? Your an idiot and you would be HURTING the raid with this spec.

Either way I don't understand why you would build like this. Your trading GS for Soul Warding, thats like a Mage getting half the fireball talents and half the arcane talents and then using frostbolt.

Cant say i use gs alot anyway as holy. My guild normally has it covered but i can see why this build may not be the best for hard modes. As for it being terrible i think its just a matter of option. I duno, im going to play around with the idea and see how it goes if all else fails i can go back to playing normal disc. Dose not hurt to try right?

[Donolgann]

If you're going to make up some crazy holy build with Soul Warding, at least get Body and Soul and make your whole raid run faster ffs!

Seriously, it's not a bad idea on paper to try and get shields and AoE healing but in practice you'll find yourself choosing between either healing or shielding and since most your talents are in holy you'll end up healing and not using your subpar shields.

[Soulblaze]

I pretty much think hybrid builds are dead. Don't get me wrong, I don't intend to discourage you... but by now it's pretty obvious that Blizzard doesn't like hybrid builds anymore (I'm sure a lot of people will remember the famous DK hybrid builds and how relatively fast they got patched to death).

I've been an avid fan of Disc/Holy-hybrid priests, back in BC I used to go as far into the Disc tree as I could without my raid leader yelling at me for raiding with a PvP spec and spend the rest of the points on necessary Holy talents. I loved that, I didn't have a tool like CoH, but back then, going Disc/Holy meant having more mana than the "standard" Holy priest, decent regeneration and pretty good throughput.
I had a hard time accepting that with WotLK, hybrid builds just wouldn't work anymore. But in the end, you only hurt yourself and the raid, you're neither here nor there... You lack the real throughput of a Holy priest, and you lack the true damage reduction and "oh snap!"-buttons of the Discipline priest. Furthermore, as Kelesti pointed out, some way or the other you're "invading" someone else's stomping ground, but without the backup of the really helpful tools.

As sad as it is... hybrid speccing takes us nowhere now.

[olicon]

If you have access to dual spec, then hybrid specs are always great for BG or other larger group PvPs.

PvE usually comes down to a number game. Ultimately, if you complete the encounter, the spec works. If you have plenty of mana left by the end with normal spec, then clearly you don't need to worry as much about perfectly optimizing your numbers.

[Kelesti]

If you have plenty of mana left by the end with normal spec, then clearly you don't need to worry as much about perfectly optimizing your numbers.

There are so many things wrong with this statement it's not even funny.

[Izenhart]

The problem is, with this spec, you're gonna piss off Holy Priest with your weak PoM running around, and piss even more off Disc Priests with your weak shields running around.

[Azyoulike]

Also without rapture you will find that shield spamming becomes much more expensive. Remember the CD on rapture is bugged for simultaneous shield depletions. On fights with spike damage this means a real disc priest will regenerate mana from their shield spamming, but your hybrid spec will be pissing it away.

Basically the problem with your spec comes down to this: if shield spamming was viable on the fight you'd have been better as Disc, If it wasn't then you'd have been better as holy. There's no fight where you will be better as this hybrid.

Dose not hurt to try right?

So long as you're not in my raid, if you were I would mock you mercilessly.

[Danner]

The hybrid build in question is basically a holypriest minus GS plus Soul Warding.

A holypriest without Guardian Spirit is just a massive failure: the druid heals better, more, cheaper and have better oh-shit-buttons if you remove GS from the equation. Guardian Spirit is what makes a holypriest awesome; not using it is equivalent to a druid not using swiftmend because "it's complex".

[Zeuq]

I'm agreeing with the general sentiment here that this build just isn't worth it and I think Danner nailed one of the major reasons why. You're trading Guardian Spirit for Soul Warding. Guardian Spirit is just an awesome talent and it saves lives all the time. In exchange you get Soul Warding, which is awesome when combined with Rapture and Borrowed Time, but I still don't think it's enough to make PWS really worth casting because it'll only make it a bit cheaper and still won't absorb enough to make it better than your Empowered Renew or a Flash Heal. I also think the couple of points in Divine Providence will be noticeable.

I think this build could work in a 10-man if you're the only Healing Priest, but if you're in a 25-man, your shields will be stepping on the toes of a Discipline Priest, and since you still can't MT heal, your throughput will be less compared to heavier Holy Priest, and you'll still be lacking GS too.

[bigjenk]

The problem with preist hybrids is that if your going into the disc tree for more than medidtation but not for the top tier talents you are missing out almost every possible disc build fills out nearly the entire top of the tree there is just to much great shit up there and it is to lackluster down at the bottom and mid.