Holy PvP - Better than Disc?

[Tarien]

I recently decided to give serious PvP a whirl, and with my trusty and time honoured Discipline spec and some crafted PvP gear set out to grind gear. That was about two weeks ago, I ground out full Bloodthirsty and now with 4.2 I am rocking full Vicious.

However, about half way through the grind to full Bloodthirsty, I came across a priest who was Holy specced and topped the heal meters in the BGs I kept encountering him. I asked how he managed to play so well as Holy in a PvP environment and he gave me a quick overview.

Basically you're all about instant casts. HW: Serenity, Renew, Prayer of Mending, PW:Shield, and Circle of Healing. There's very very few globals where there isn't an instant to be cast, which reduces your interrupt/counter spell issues. Your 4s speed boost (which is epic in flag games) combined with the 4pc healer bonus from PvP gear let's you escape melee and even kite them for short periods. You can remove poisons from yourself (screw you rogues!). Guardian Spirit (which can now be cast while stunned with the right glyph) heals you for about 90% of your max HP when 'killed'. Spirit of Redemption let's you keep healing allies for 15s with no hindrance. Casting Flash Heal gives you Serendipity, which increases the cast time of GHeal, great if there's a lot of damage flying and you aren't focused.

I've gotta say that I just LOVE holy. I tried going back to disc for a day, and it sucked compared to Holy. I churn out TONS of healing/dispels, and am extremely hard to kill now that my gear is better. My favourite trick is getting a warlock SS from a friend. If I get focused, I can cast Desperate Heal, then Guardian Spirit, then 15s Spirit of Redemption, then resurrect, and do it all again

Anyone else finding Holy to be awesome?

[PlatedPriest]

i think it is safe to say holy can hold it own in BGs very well. i think disc is a bit more powerful when it comes to arenas but that ok. because i find disc pvp style terrible. holy is amazing....

sad thing is not alot of ppl will ever come out of the "it" spec to try something new for themselves and will try to tell you your bad for playing holy.

[Tarien]

sad thing is not alot of ppl will ever come out of the "it" spec to try something new for themselves and will try to tell you your bad for playing holy.

Actually I get a lot of compliments about my healing, no one ever comments that I am holy rather than Disc.

Just curious how Disc is better in arenas? I can't really think of any advantages tbh...

[[-Spiritus-]]

I've come to enjoy holy in BGs more as well.

To answer your question Tarien, Disc has better tools for the "I need to counter your counter that my bro countered because he was countered by your bro" game.

BR is great when you're stunned, silenced, counterspelled, interrupted, and being trained by 2 warriors, a rogue, and a feral druid and your Resto shaman buddy is dumping big heals from 40 yards away...

It's less awesome when you cannot count on healing from anyone else... its much better to have a stronger shield, FW, PS, & PW:B.

Also, in arenas, you cannot exploit your mobility nearly as much, since it's a fairly small battle map comparatively to a BG.

[hikamiro]

i don't know. I think 20% flat damage reduction, mitigation being better than pure healing, with a un-dispelable cooldown on top of better regen.

Holy priests get Light well which is reliant on the other team not knowing they can kill it, and a Gouge like ability which admittedly is fun and can do some great things.

[PlatedPriest]

one thing we can be happy about is the fact that holy actually has some pvp viability as compared to the past!

[Deleted]

I wouldnt say Holy is better than Disc, for arena atleast.

[Danner]

@OP: I find holypriests quite fun. In battlegrounds at least. Awesome mobility, and very useful healing. On the downside is that you kinda have to choose between having lots of spirit, or lots of resilience. PVP gear for priests is frankly a whole lot better designed for disc priests. That said, I found that if someone want me dead, I will die unless I can get away or get a peel regardless of gear, so these days I tend to run around in PVE gear. It works surprisingly well, as long as you don't run into the front lines.

In arenas, holypriests are still rubbish. Awesome mobility doesn't give you much when the game is rigged around taking two steps around a pillar. And in arenas, healers die first. Holy just don't have what it takes to survive when being pressured.

[Darkener]

Holy brings 1 extra CC ability to the fight. Lightwell is also very powerful. BR works great to turn a GS or Desperate Prayer into a big self-heal, but I don't think either of those heals activate EoL, which would help immensely if it did. Holy needs to use Inner sanctum and the Glyph to improve surivability more so than disc. If you talent and play the spec right Holy is pretty damn hard to kill.

[Deleted]

doesnt holy spec rely more on hardcasting spells? wich makes it worse for arena, compared to disc instant bubbles and absorbes, wich are a huuuge plus. Dunno why, but holy priests when trained feel a loooot more squishy and easy to kill. also the disorient they bring might fck up DRs with other longer CCs so im not sure about that.

[Powell]

Disc is better because it has better pre-emptive tools compared to Holy. Hence the reason Paladins are on such a low representation other then cleave teams, because they also have no pre-emptive tools to use, for LoS or CC.

[PlatedPriest]

doesnt holy spec rely more on hardcasting spells? wich makes it worse for arena, compared to disc instant bubbles and absorbes, wich are a huuuge plus. Dunno why, but holy priests when trained feel a loooot more squishy and easy to kill. also the disorient they bring might fck up DRs with other longer CCs so im not sure about that.

a holy priest would only hard cast just as much as anyother healer in pvp. between renew(a stupidly strong for hpriest), PoM, talented PW: Shield, HW: serenity holy is just fine in the instant cast department.

holy priest also still have the best and reliable (imo) burst healing tool in pvp, serendipity

as far as squishiness, holy priest are not disc priest and should not be played like they are. you do not want ppl to just sit on you and pray PW: shield will hold. between psyhco scream, HW: chastise, body and soul, and any other peel teammates bring it very easy to slip away.

[Jax Omen]

holy rules for bgs but you oom too fast in arena. holy's mana regen is all spirit and there isnt enough spirit to make it work for long fights on pvp gear.

[worsthitmanNa]

holy is awesome in 2's if blizzard would just give us guardian spirit when we are stunned and mana regen comparable to disc we would be op. I survive vs melee cleave easy except ferals 140% movement speed is retarded ty blizzard. and hard casting isn't an issue chastise = 2 flash heal and if u need to heal more speed up bubble + los its pretty pro not bragging. light well ticks for like 5k and with a spell power trinket like 8-9k i can just use light well, pom, and renew to keep myself up. holy priest aren't squishy unless your bad. Every time i see someone go holy they don't use there speed boost to kite or spam chastise when they need to heal them selfs. holy is good if u know how to play and the skill cap is pretty low lol.(that guardian spirit glyph that let u use it when stunned would be nice i get tired of having to use my trinket to save my own ass : )

[Ynna]

holy is awesome in 2's if blizzard would just give us guardian spirit when we are stunned

We can already do this.

[Powell]

Holy is far to vulnerable to interrupts, silences and CC to be effective in PvP.

[Phenetix]

Holy is far to vulnerable to interrupts, silences and CC to be effective in PvP.

Sir, I believe the majority of this thread says otherwise.

[Tarien]

Holy is far to vulnerable to interrupts, silences and CC to be effective in PvP.

How's that then? You have more instants as Holy than as Disc, Disc you get some protection via Inner Focus I believe but that's about it.

[Deleted]

Inner Focus is only 45second cooldown, if you cant keep your target up with instant spells as holy then you're gonna have to start casting some heals

[Vampyrr]

Holy is made out of tin foil but has stronger healing. If a good dps looks at you funny you die. But if ignored you can keep your whole team alive forever.