Tip of advice for fresh 80 healing priests.

[Veyne]

If you are in the process of spamming the hell of heroics, I'd highly recommend you go Holy. I've seen so many undergeared Discipline Priests in heroics, especially the new ones, struggling to keep the group topped off through some of the more intense AoE moments. Circle of Healing plus hasted Prayer of Healing through the Serendipity talent makes group healing, especially when you only need to worry about 5 people. I know discipline might feel like a more "fun" healing spec, but coming from an experienced priest - heroics are so much easier as Holy. Just something to keep in mind.

[exeq]

The only problem with going holy undergeared is mana. As holy you can go OOm very fast, especially if you lack good gear.
But most of the time you get a well geared tank and at least one good dps so you're main problem will be boredom and you will be either following the group or dpsing for fun

[gamerguy19876]

Good 2 know ima try both though and see which fits me better

[Samurai]

If you are in the process of spamming the hell of heroics, I'd highly recommend you go Holy. I've seen so many undergeared Discipline Priests in heroics, especially the new ones, struggling to keep the group topped off through some of the more intense AoE moments. Circle of Healing plus hasted Prayer of Healing through the Serendipity talent makes group healing, especially when you only need to worry about 5 people. I know discipline might feel like a more "fun" healing spec, but coming from an experienced priest - heroics are so much easier as Holy. Just something to keep in mind.

I find it the other way around tbh.
Most of the undergeared disc priests just don't know what to do, the reason they struggle is cause they are trying to heal like a holy priest.

[Deleted]

just dinged 80, 2 weeks ago and started as disc, it is very easy keep group topped with pre-shielding and even with poor gear u dont need to drink maybe once or twice per run.

I suggest disc for sure.

[Deleted]

Disc all the way. Holy requires timing procs and stuff to not go oom insanely fast, whereas you can spam in Disc for twice as long and not go oom.

[Tezmata]

Discipline to priests is like Retribution to paladins. It's easy to faceroll and still do well. I know that completely contradicts your post, but I healed as a Holy priest in DF and just hit 80 less than a week ago. I changed my Shadow off-spec to Discipline and I don't even have to pay attention. It's just shield.... wait... shield.... penance.... shield... wait... shield... wait... shield... wait... shield... penance... mayyybe flash heal... shield... wait... etc. I enjoy Holy much more because it keeps you on your toes. Plus, I plan on being a raid healer for my guild and love Holy's AoE heals.

[Sarcasm]

I have to disagree with the OP. In the time it takes to build a hasted PoH+CoH as holy I can use Borrowed Time as disc to haste two PoHs for considerably higher group healing. Holy is also a large mana sink where disc generally needs to take quite a beating before it goes OOM. Don't blame the spec, blame the player. I see a lot of disc priests who'll spam only Flash Heal + Penance because they reason that disc is a single target healing build so they don't bother with AoE heals.

[AetherMcLoud]

If you are in the process of spamming the hell of heroics, I'd highly recommend you go Holy. I've seen so many undergeared Discipline Priests in heroics, especially the new ones, struggling to keep the group topped off through some of the more intense AoE moments.

What are these "intense AoE moments" in heroics that you speak off? Because I can't remember any. Well maybe when we all hit 80 fresh more than a year ago, and tanks took lots of damage and mobs lived for minutes. But nowadays? As Disc, just shield everyone and Penance the tank if he needed and spam holy nova inbetween.

AND, when we all were fresh 80s Disc was still, just as today, a much better (and forgiving in terms of manamangement) spec for a freshly dinged priest, because the the mana regeneration being tied to the shields instead of willpower like holy (and you won't get lots of willpower from heroic drops at first).

[exeq]

AND, when we all were fresh 80s Disc was still, just as today, a much better (and forgiving in terms of manamangement) spec for a freshly dinged priest, because the the mana regeneration being tied to the shields instead of willpower like holy (and you won't get lots of willpower from heroic drops at first).

And by "willpower" do you mean spirit ?

[Myzrael]

Holy nova, when mana allows you is great in heroics. It's instant heal to whole group, some minor damage ,and most important it makes no threat. Ideal for cave in Pit of Saron, or Hadronox in AN, clearing zombies in CoT: Stratholme, UP on the way to Skadi etc.

[AetherMcLoud]

And by "willpower" do you mean spirit ?

Hehe, yeah of course I do. Spirit is called "Willenskraft" in german which translates back to Willpower in english. An also Dragonage Origins had a Willpower stat which also gave mana region, and I played that a lot in the last weeks, so got things mixed up

[Lark]

Disagree completely. Discipline has better starting mana management and holy doesn't really offer any compelling rewards in term of tank healing - which is, more or less, the bread and butter component of day to day heroic activity. I'm also fairly certain you can haste out poh with a pre cast borrowed time proc. While I can't really comment on high end priest healing* or divergence on the specs as you progress through healing 5 mans I can say I definitely felt like discipline was the right spec when my priest was newly 80.

Holy nova, when mana allows you is great in heroics. It's instant heal to whole group, some minor damage ,and most important it makes no threat. Ideal for cave in Pit of Saron, or Hadronox in AN, clearing zombies in CoT: Stratholme, UP on the way to Skadi etc.

In a good group holy nova should be literally 90% of your healing.

But only in a good group.

[Funky303]

The first and (imho) most valuable advise for fresh lvl 80 priests is to get a decent healing addon (in my case Vuhdo http://www.wowinterface.com/download...239-VuhDo.html).

The configuration is sometimes pain in the ass, but as fresh dinged lvl80 you mostly can't just spam your heals, you need to use the right one.

I for myself have configured my Vuhdo with Flashheal on left mouse click, Greater Heal on right mouse click, renew on middlebutton/mousewheel, Power Word: Shield on Mouse 4 and CoH on Mouse 5.

Dispells on Shift + Mouse 1 + Mouse 2.

Prayer of Mending is on Button 1, so i always keep the MT/Tank as maintarget to PoM him, and rest goes with Vuhdo.

[Lianora]

I agree with the OP that holy is easier, but perhaps that's simply because I've always been a holy priest since vanilla, and I really enjoy the timing aspect that some of the posters have mentioned. Spamming spells is no fun Even as a lower geared priest back when I first dinged 80 I didn't find myself ever having mana issues so when people complain about holy's potential mana regen issues I'm always a bit confused. It's been many many years since I've found myself worrying about going oom in a fight. Particularly in a 5-man, and not just because I'm well geared now, it was never really an issue. I find disc to be somewhat difficult, but again, that may be due to having to break the holy healing habits :P

[tehmark]

OP is incorrect and probably hasn't ever played a disc priest.

[Zeuq]

As others have said, Discipline is generally the way to go for fresh 80s. Yes, I leveled 70-80 as Holy and did all of my initial gearing up through Heroics as Holy as well, so it's definitely doable, but Discipline is easier primarily because of the mana situation. It took quite a bit of concentration then to make sure I used my cooldowns and had a supply of mana pots. Then again, these days one can get 232 gear as a fresh 80 and the LFD tool can often teams me up with a tank that is overgeared to the point where I toss a Renew on before a trash pull and just DPS, and maybe have to throw a heal or two on a boss fight.

Yes, Holy is a better AOE healer, but the difference in that ability drops sharply on the size of the group. That is, it's a pretty big difference in 25s, it's much smaller in 10s, and it's virtually non-existent in a heroic. Both specs have PoM and PoH, CoH is largely replaceable by Holy Nova in heroics, and pre-emptive shielding is safer and easier than spot heals as Holy. If you're having difficulty keeping up with AOE damage as Discipline, you're likely not making full use of the tools available to you.

The first and (imho) most valuable advise for fresh lvl 80 priests is to get a decent healing addon (in my case Vuhdo http://www.wowinterface.com/download...239-VuhDo.html).

The configuration is sometimes pain in the ass, but as fresh dinged lvl80 you mostly can't just spam your heals, you need to use the right one.

I for myself have configured my Vuhdo with Flashheal on left mouse click, Greater Heal on right mouse click, renew on middlebutton/mousewheel, Power Word: Shield on Mouse 4 and CoH on Mouse 5.

Dispells on Shift + Mouse 1 + Mouse 2.

Prayer of Mending is on Button 1, so i always keep the MT/Tank as maintarget to PoM him, and rest goes with Vuhdo.

I love VuhDo myself, but I'd suggest keying every spell, except for one like Divine Hymn that doesn't use a target and has a massive CD, to a key. Not only do I find it's just more intuitive to to not have to switch between hotkeys and click combos for general healing, but PoM isn't always ideal on the tank (eg, Twin Val'kyrs) and you can use your target for other things (eg, watching boss cast bars). I have every heal for both specs, dispels, single target buffs, and targetable CDs (GS/PS/PI) all keyed in VuhDo; it takes some getting time to learn them, but I found it gives me more versatility as a healer.

[Clown.Eround]

I couldn't disagree more with this "Tip". Holy has heavy mana issues early on, especially in heavy aoe fights.(Sla'dran in Heroic Gundrak for example) However as disc it's very easy to just prebubble everyone and just keep hots on tanks. Wait for bubbles to break throw some renews/lesser heals/penance. Worse case scenario you end an aoe fight as disc with half your mana pool, and everyone topped off.

There is one thing I see a lot of new priests not taking into consideration, THERE TANK. Most of the time regardless of your spec if your freshly 80 in shit blues and your tank is horrible you're going to wipe regardless. Now I rarely run into bad tanks but every now and then I'll get a tank in a heroic with less HP than I have MP. Of course I have no issues healing him because my priest is decently geared in 232+ gear but that might not be so true for a freshly hit 80.