Disc - Raid or tank healer?

[Lamar]

Ok, so as the topic sais: Me and 2 of my friends are discussing, and I'm getting gangbanged. Are Disc priests tank healers or raid healers?

[Zues]

Tank....duh. And disc is also more about preventing damage through power word : shield instead of just plain spamming penance. pain suppression, penance....all single target spells that are massively good....but just for 1 person. (the tank, if you haven't caught on). Sure, if the tank isn't taking too much damage, throw a penance at another raid member, but if you want to raid heal seriously, roll holy.

[Dragonb]

General is this:

Disc: Tanks
Holy: Raid

[conscript]

Obviously the tanks for the majority of the encounters in the game, but there are some mechanics where bubbling the raid has incredible benefits, like Infest.

Disc in no way has mechanics for raid healing when compared to Holy so this should have been an obvious choice.

[Lamar]

But it seems like a disc priest is more of a tank support heal. Pain sup, penance, Renew, all the heals can be thrown on the tank without having him targeted all the time. It seems to me that you should be shielding and healing the raid + tank, and go tank healing when needed.

[Squishypants]

Disc priests are the BEST raid healers in ICC through mass shielding and the buff being extremely effective. Disc can be very effective at both raid healing and tank healing. Depends on the raid comp for which you want to assign them to.

[DerGenerale]

wow, lots of clueless people here.

[Waerjak]

You can't possibly be serious? Yes, Discipline was mainly a tank healer spec prior to Trial of the Crusader, but nowadays Discipline is at best a support tank healer. More often you'll find Discipline is one of the most powerful specs for raidhealing in ICC, insofar as you can call absorption raidhealing. A hasted Prayer of Healing timed correctly can be immensely powerful, and Penance+Flash Heal can do wonders for quickly topping up people at low health if you don't think a shield will be sufficient. In a serious raid environment the only time you might be asked to tankheal is if you're doing 10-mans - 25-mans will generally always have enough more potent tankhealers, leaving you to do what you're best at: Shielding the raid and preventing people from dying before they can receive a heal.

[NPEC]

I always considered discipline a suport class, i mean someone that does an aceptable tank healing and also is able to help at raid healing.

To sum up discipline is not in the top tank healing or raid healing however is also not in the botton.

[Gemazarus]

wow, lots of clueless people here.

Idd. Very much so.

Disc is not so much Tank healing as you would think. They simply haven't got as much bollocks as say a pally, or any other point healer. They also do not have the kind of AoE healing that Holy Priests have.

I would say Disc priests belong to neither the tank or raid healing. They are support healers. They're job is not to heal damage, but to prevent it, and they do it equally well on both tanks, or raid.

Disc priests are INCREDIBLY OP in ICC atm thanks to the buff scaling. A suitably geared Disc priest can wipe the floor with most healers, especially when there is a lot of raid damage. Becuase of this, I find Disc Priests to be more effective on raid healing generally. Their shields are wasted when they are focused on just 1 person. Not raid leader in his right mind would have his Disc Priest healing a tank if he has any other options in my opinion.

This Disc = tank healing has got to go. Because it is total misinformed bollocks.

[Abstieg]

Support healing, raid and tank. Neither as the main healer. Please don't call disc priests primary tank healers.

[openair]

Support healing, raid and tank. Neither as the main healer. Please don't call disc priests primary tank healers.

This. Imo a disc priests main roll is to mitigate burst dmg regardless of tank or raid.

[Smoopie]

25, raid healers with peanace for tank spikes
10, can do both but better to have a shaman or paladin tank healing


ulduar was a long time ago

[Bigslick]

The later replies have pretty much summed it up: Disc is a support spec.

In current content, a disc priest is a great 'second' tank healer to reduce the degree to which a tank's health fluctuates, and to offer additional effective health - but then again, with the 30% buff tanks aren't difficult to keep up anyway. Disc priests are ill-suited to be the 'primary' tank healer due to poor scaling.

Similarly, a disc priest can effectively smooth out or nearly eliminate predictable damage spikes to the raid by pre-emptive shielding, making them an excellent complement to traditional raid healers.

So to the OP's question "Are Disc priests tank healers or raid healers?," the answer is no. We're both.

[Smoopie]

wow, lots of clueless people here.

Try pugging as disc.. almost 2 years later still the same bullshit questions/responses!! RAgE!!

[Morten]

To me, a disc priest nowadays in 25 man should be focusing entierly on healing the raid. After my guild started logging the healing done for the different fights, it becomes clear how imba having a disc priest in the raid can be. In several fights like marrowgar, lady, fester and not to mention lich king, a "skilled" disc priest can "outheal" every other class and spec by far. It is still a support spec, but the need of raid healers will be smaller, and for many fights we easily manage with one healer less than usual because of the good dmg absortion.

One of the major problems for the disc spec is the constant spamming of PW:S. In 10 mans however, I find the disc playstyle alot more fun than holy.

[Deleted]

Disc priests are there to make other healers look good on meters.

Seriously, you'll notice a significant difference between having a disc priest in a raid vs any other healer as the final heal spot. Boy, will you notice in the case of some encounters! The heal meter may show the disc priest at medium or low end of heals, but its missing half the picture. The preventative healing from a good disc priest can easily top even a druid's Rejuv spam in raid healing situations, for example. In other cases, the meters be damned, you just NEED that preventative healing to progress, period.

[Ynna]

Disc priests are there to make other healers look good on meters.

Seriously, you'll notice a significant difference between having a disc priest in a raid vs any other healer as the final heal spot. Boy, will you notice in the case of some encounters! The heal meter may show the disc priest at medium or low end of heals, but its missing half the picture. The preventative healing from a good disc priest can easily top even a druid's Rejuv spam in raid healing situations, for example. In other cases, the meters be damned, you just NEED that preventative healing to progress, period.

You don't NEED that preventive healing, since no encounter does regular fatal damage to half the raid. Heals and absorbs are more or less on the same level in the current environment.
On topic: I like to put disc priests on raid healing, but often use them as tank healer when our paladin isn't present. A disc priest is better tank healer than a Holy priest.

[macke]

Lich King without Disc priest, anyone?

[Deleted]

Lich King without Disc priest, anyone?

Precisely.