Will Disc really be viable in raids in Cata?

[Scrubble]

P W S
Enjoy wearing off your '1' key for another 2 years

[raivyne]

problem holds to shields as well as heals.

[Surea]

Right now on PTR I have 3832 SP and pretty good gear. Healing is not different really than from live. Mana regen is still ridiculously high and heals hit the same as on live.

On beta I have 5000+ SP, I'm level 85, everyone has 80k+ health, mobs hit 3x as hard and my heals do pretty much the exact same as they do in PTR.

The smite mechanic is OK, but the heal does half as much as a flash and takes longer to cast. It is nice that it seems to heal multiple targets.

I honestly don't think mana would be as much an issues if heals were higher.

Anyone else on beta seeing the same thing?

Yeah heals are the same as they are now, but mobs hit harder. I sometimes feel like wrath was a lite version of wow and cata will be the harder version, with the same amount of heals but more difficult pulls and more damage.

[Frozenshiva]

this hard impact is also due to the insane scaling that was around in wotlk which dulled out everything.
Giving TBC as an example. gearing up from Kara/Gruul/Mag gear into SSC/TK was never a big taxation as it was in wotlk from toc to icc due to the looting system awarded separately for 10 and 25mans and last but not least normal/heroic. This made scaling go to mad proportions and numbers popping on the screen would close to double.
As a general fact in TBC you could raid BT/Hyjal with Kara/Gruul/Mag gear as long as you understood the mechanics of your class and played it right. Heck i even knew one priest back then who was healing BT in t3 (yes the lvl 60 naxx one) with only trinkets/weapon/enchants from tbc and was doing extremely well because he was also playing extremely well.
Nowadays such a feat is close to impossible due to the gear inflation.
Putting all this to the side, it is normal for people to not see a huge difference in damage/healing increase at first glance since they've lowered these numbers a bit. I'm guessing the one place you'll see these numbers start to grow is when you start raiding. Think about your damage as a fresh 80 compared to when you first hit Northrend and you will notice the numbers back then weren't that high either.

Also i believe Disc will be entirely viable for raiding in Cataclysm. I admit i haven't played a priest since Vanilla, but i tried one out on the Betas and i must say i like how it works, though i personally am not a high fan of smite spam. The shield mechanic that the disc provides is extraordinary. Even if its not a direct heal simply having the opportunity to let the target take in another hit or two before dying (therefore indirect healing), gives the whole raid not just that one healer the change to land that cast they had in queue. That alone i believe is a major point to take a skilled disc over another healer with a lesser or no bubble.
I do have to look around and tinker some more with it, but i can say for sure i'm rolling a disc priest when cata hits.

P.S. my 2 cents: Don't cry too much over the viability of one spec over another for a mere 5% difference or less. Play what you mostly enjoy, With the new learning curve and change to WoW, the spec wont matter AS much as it did now, as long as you play at your best, i'm pretty sure you'll be ok and no one will want to replace you for another healer/dps spec.

[Nezzeldorr]

Of course disc will be viable for raids in cata.
-They give something no other healers really can - Absorbs (at least not nearly as good as a Dpriest)
-Even though a Dpriest cannot match up with healing with any other class, a good disc priest who combines shields with heals can compete for #1 on a absorb+healing meter (skada for ex)
-PW:B=Win
-Pain Supression, great when played with tank/other healers cd's
A perfect 25 man healing comp would consist of a Dpriest, Hpriest, Rdruid, Rshaman, and a Hpal.
... if you'd ask me holy healing is a bit op atm....

[doomsjay]

Raid utility is as much important as sheer numbers alone.
It's not so much about topping the heals/dps meters, but contributing to the raid and downing the bastard as a team.

[Apostolic]

Of course disc will be viable for raids in cata.
A perfect 25 man healing comp would consist of a Dpriest, Hpriest, Rdruid, Rshaman, and a Hpal.

I have said this throughout WotLK and it will be true for Cata. One of each heal class will complement each other if played to the maximum potential thus providing greater DPS to down bosses.

It should be a fun expac for disc.

[Kristya]

I think Disc will be fully viable for Cata raids. While smite healing through atonement is very cool, it's not going to be the end-all be-all of our healing rotation. The determining factor between good and bad Disc priests will be seeing who falls into the trap of trying to smite their way through content. No one is going to fully rely on Heal without using their other spells, but I'm worried that some people will rely too heavily on Smite healing "cuz it does dmg too lulz". I'm very excited about re-learning my class in Cata. Smiting as a filler heal. Learning when to pop Archangel for maximum benefit. Learning the optimal time to use Power Word: Barrier. Plus we still have our old friends PW:S, Penance and all the others. Going to be good times indeed.

[Nezzeldorr]

I think Disc will be fully viable for Cata raids. While smite healing through atonement is very cool, it's not going to be the end-all be-all of our healing rotation. The determining factor between good and bad Disc priests will be seeing who falls into the trap of trying to smite their way through content. No one is going to fully rely on Heal without using their other spells, but I'm worried that some people will rely too heavily on Smite healing "cuz it does dmg too lulz". I'm very excited about re-learning my class in Cata. Smiting as a filler heal. Learning when to pop Archangel for maximum benefit. Learning the optimal time to use Power Word: Barrier. Plus we still have our old friends PW:S, Penance and all the others. Going to be good times indeed.

Sometimes i wish mmo had a "like button".