The point of disc?

[kronpas]

Yea, nothing like gimping 300-400 of my SP just to get greater viable.
Sounds perfect.

Im at 800 haste, and BH-ed GH is actually part of my heal 'rotation' when damage gets spiky. Nothing beats 17k crit GH and 6k aegis following it. Trading spirit for haste isnt a bad idea provided your DPSs dont complain, since spirit is useless for a disc priest anyway.

[Kelesti]

if you want numbers roll a pali or go holy

I don't really understand this way of thinking. Holy's nowhere near a meter topper (and even Paladins lose on most fights to Druids). And most of the people saying this are running Skada or a RecountGuessedAbsorb anyways; a blatant hypocrisy.

It is the harder of the two priest healing specs and certainly the least rewarding.

And this I'd have to disagree with. It's easier to get away with being mediocre for both specs than either realise, neither are truly rewarding except for the "oh snap" things they can pull off (in which both are capable). Discipline may look bad on recount, but they still shove a guessed-absorb report in anyone's faces the second someone brings it up. But both take a fair bit of skill to pull off well into endgame content (which at this point is ICCHM).

[cruxxy]

Yea, nothing like gimping 300-400 of my SP just to get greater viable.
Sounds perfect.

Why do you think you would need to sacrifice SP to gain haste? You don't have near enough haste to make GH viable so why are you even posting as if your experience with it is at all meaningful?

Disc provides a unique synergy with all other healers for both tank healing and raid healing. If it's a pure throughtput race, a druid will beat a holy priest, so if you feel the need to be the best tank healer or the biggest raid healer, you may need to reroll.

[talrob]

As a disco priest off-spec who has healed everything including arthas, the point of disco is spam shields if there is any aoe, Use a hasted PoH if you need more aoe, drop prayer of mending on cooldown, use penance when someone takes over 10k damage and spam flash heal on people as a filler.

Of course on fights like mimiron p2 or arthas you don't really get beyond the shield spamming part (soul reaper that's it).

[Waddy]

What's the problem with throwing a renew on both of the tanks along with keeping bubbles and pom going? Also, what's the deal with gheal as disc lol? I duno about any of you but I'd never get one of those off before I coulda just double flash healed.

[Ândrömèdâ]

Yea, nothing like gimping 300-400 of my SP just to get greater viable.
Sounds perfect.

Yes you're right, you should definitely take some spirit gear to avoid haste... and DF points are not preventing any SP scaling talent for disc. Aren't you tired of repeating the same pointelss thing?

Revitalize we all KNOW that YOU don't see any interest in GH and that's fine for you. I won't be starting again the debate since this is something like 10 or 15 different threads in the last month that you repeat endlessly the same thing. Today my priest is at 800 haste approx. with 38% holy crit and 3400 SP, unbuffed. Do you mean that I could trade 800 haste to some niiiiiiiice 400 SP? Just let me know your trick I am very interested.

omg haste and disc is a really frequent thread... always the same by the way : some shout 'haste is crap you should be shielding always' with answers from the opposite site saying 'if you're juste PW:S spamming whatever fight you are in then you fail. And when you're not shielding then you don't have BT' etc etc. Like and endless story... be prepared for the next one in some days ;D

Here we go again :

[Fishfeast]

spirit is useless for a disc priest anyway.

Not true.

[Crusoe]

The point of disc, like any spec of any class is to have fun. If you are not having fun, respec, or reroll. This is a game after all, and games are meant to be enjoyed. It looks like you have your eye on the holy spec, give it a try. It sounds like you have played disc for over a year, it might be good to try something else for a bit.

What does Disc bring to the table? Like others have mentioned:

-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=14769
-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=57472
-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=47515
-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=15363
-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=33206
-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=10060 (more to help the highest dps caster than to use on yourself)
-http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=52800+http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=14751 with http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=48072 is also potent

As far as the side conversations go

My understanding of stats priority for disc are SP>Int>Haste>Crit>Spirit

I find renew to be acceptable because it benefits from the http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=52803 and http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=17191 not to mention http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=14781 that are in my talent build.

It is true that with that build, I don't have room for http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=18535, but because of http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=63506 I would rather cast two FH in the time it takes to cast one GH when a tank is at less than 50% HP and neither my Penance nor PW:S are available.

[Azyoulike]

we were trying to do mimiron hard mode earlier and gotta say, it was tough and there was a hell of alot of wiping. with a druid or shammy off healing the tank I was still not able to keep the guy up through the crazy burst that mimiron has

The mistake you're making there is that with a druid and disc the druid should be doing the main lifting on the tank with nourish spam. You should be covering burst on the tank - and shielding like mad on the napalm shells etc. You shield the whole raid between phases, you shield+PoH though P2, you focus the range tank in P3. You just go nuts in P4.

I did firefighter 10 with a druid back at the end of 3.1 (after the Penance nerf), it was fun and I felt like the disco toolbox was amazing for it. I was in a mix of 25 man ulduar gear and 10 man hard mode gear.

[Izenhart]

Yea, nothing like gimping 300-400 of my SP just to get greater viable.
Sounds perfect.

I've 160 haste coming from my gems, taking 1 off needed for the Meta bonus, If I change from fifteen 12sp+10haste to fifteen 23sp, I'll gain 135 spell power.

So, unless they've created a way for wich you can transmute the Haste bonus from a piece of gear into Spell power bonus, you ain't gonna loose 300-400SP to reach 800 haste.

AT ALL.

[Rayzan]

ah this is very interesting. what I usually do is throw a shield whenever weakened soul falls off and then just flash heal in between (pom on every cd as well)

so I think what Im struggling with is, say on mimiron plasma blast, I get a big warning for when its happening, but I dont have a shield ready for the tank because of spamming it and having weakened soul up. When really what I should be doing is saving my shield when I know big burst is coming and using it just before it happens? this would probably absorb 10k of the plasma blast which makes my following heals much easier as I dont have as much HP to pick up

If this is the way that disc is truly meant to work (ie knowing when big damage is about to arrive and being ready for it) then maybe holy is a better spec for me? I tend to prefer reactive healing, seeing HP dip and then throwing some heals out to pick them up, as opposed to preparing for it beforehand
In all honesty I dont enjoy PVE that much, im a PVPer, and its a chore for me to learn encounters in so much depth that I know exactly when big burst is about to come and all the timers for these abilities etc etc

so basically when it comes to healing I want to see hp get low and then have the power to bring that back up to full. I dont want to have to plan out beforehand everything I do based on what abilities the boss has and when, because in all honesty, I dont enjoy raiding enough to learn every boss in this much detail. correct me if Im wrong but Im pretty much describing the holy playstyle right? Even when tanking healing?

and as a side note, how do paladins tend to heal? like disc or holy?

pallies are reactive and premeditated healers IMO. It might be something you might be more interested in. They're reactive in a way that they really don't have anythig they can do before the dmg is taken besides sacred shield. Sure they have proc'd hots but it's nothing to great that would qualify as something you would depend on to make a difference. Everything is 'tank takes dmg, pally heals them up'. Although I believe they are also predictve ( or premeditated) healers because they have the longest cast time for heals. So you have to be ready and be on your toes. An extra second between a boss hit and a heal could be a death of a tank. It's definately a fun spec IMO.

From what you said I think you would have more fun as a holy paladin. Although, if you pvp a lot as a disc priest you should be golden right now.

[Ândrömèdâ]

I am not a good expert in paladins but I often play with some of course, and it doesn't look like it is very diversified. Basically you chose who you're gonna put your beacon on and then non-stop spell spamm (holy light and/or flash am i right?). Paladin are more or less the most infinite mana healer (compete with drood probably) to me, far better than any other (just check at mana gained on recount...) with crazy spell power and free doubling of spell with beaconlol.

This is just a matter of taste I guess, but my paladin fellows told me they were more or less bored with it feeling almost constantly spamming. I wouldn't call it premeditive

[Revitalize]

Yes you're right, you should definitely take some spirit gear to avoid haste... and DF points are not preventing any SP scaling talent for disc. Aren't you tired of repeating the same pointelss thing?

Revitalize we all KNOW that YOU don't see any interest in GH and that's fine for you. I won't be starting again the debate since this is something like 10 or 15 different threads in the last month that you repeat endlessly the same thing. Today my priest is at 800 haste approx. with 38% holy crit and 3400 SP, unbuffed. Do you mean that I could trade 800 haste to some niiiiiiiice 400 SP? Just let me know your trick I am very interested.

Here we go again :

I see 3179 unbuffed.
And no, I didn't mean trade literally 800 haste.
Im currently 3391 spellpower unbuffed with 475 haste.
Also, you have 330 mana regen.
Regen generally doesn't matter, but how do you manage with 330?
Are you just not casting at times?

Im not saying this to spite you, but to understand other people's viewpoints to gain a better understanding.
I'm not saying greater heal isn't viable, but it's not worth enough points to use it regularly.
Maybe in a 10 man, and that's understandable.
But for 25 man, I don't see me using it more than once or twice.

[TheRabidDeer]

If you find yourself having to tank heal often I'd suggest getting a few points into divine fury. My tank-heal oriented disc spec allows me to get 3 points into it.

When you need burst healing, chuck a shield, do a greater heal. It'll go out almost as fast as your flash heal, and will heal for a good bit more.

Other than that its just about shield, penance, prayer of mending, and renew. Toss renew when the tank is topped off, it provides a nice buffer when the tank is dipping down.
...

Surely you mean shield -> penance -> gheal since the penance doesnt eat the borrowed time proc. ~2-2.5 seconds and youve healed 20-30k+

[Vanquisho]

The point of disc?, here it is:

A disc priest reduce all dmg taken for the whole raid by 3%

A disc priest got shields that soak alot damage which makes it easier for other healers (atleast I got told its easier for them to heal the raids where I come)

A disc priest got helpful buffs (atleast HAD in bc)

They got very good heals and combined with divine aegis its great.

[TheRabidDeer]

Disc is very useful without a doubt. You cant argue with 13k absorbed/sec + ~3k HPS in heavy AE fights like twin valkyr's. Its also nice to have such a strong shield + penance available for the tank + 3% reduced raidwide dmg + PI for a caster, among other things.

[TheSpid]

@OP:

As you said it yourself it seems like you prefer the holy style of play more. As Rayzan said pallies are more or less the definition of reactive healers. Whether or not you find it fun i guess you will have to find out, but reactive healing is the pally middle name

Personally i like spamming my spells as pally and love to see those big numbers. If you enjoy being a tank healer and want the reactive playstyle, pally is probably what you want.