Why are people hating on Holy in PvE and PvP?!

[Aleksej89]

Although i do have a lvl85 Priest, she has only been Shadow ever since she got level 80.

Lately i have heard/seen a lot of hate (rude or negative comments) being directed towards the Holy spec in both PvE and PvP!
This makes me very sad because i always liked the Holy spec, and i used it a lot during my Priest's leveling ...

Can you fellow priests please tell me why is Holy being treated so bad?
What makes Holy so much inferior (weaker) than Discipline or other healing specs?

[Pottsy710]

PVE - Holy lacks the utility of a traditional "raid saving cooldown", they have amazing throughput, up there with resto druids... but raid leaders have been conditioned to stock pile cooldowns like candy... therefore, if he has a healer slot available, and he's filling it with a priest, generally that raid leader's going to want that priest to be disc over holy... part of the problem is the current raid tiers design favors classes that can help mitigate large chunks of infrequent burst damage...

PVP - The inherent issue with the holy spec in pvp is the inability to effectively mitigate damage, you are capable of pumping out an incredible amount of healing IF you're able to freecast, however that is rarely the case in today's pvp environment... without the absorbs/damage reductions that the discipline tree offers, a holy priest is more likely to succumb to the popular double melee cleave teams... also, since so much of a holy priests mana regen is reliant on spirit, and the lack of spirit on a lot of pvp gear (in favor of resilience) the static mana return from rapture is better for efficiency...

of course i'm no pvp expert, but that's just my personal experience...

holy is most certainly viable in 2s, however, in the 3s/5s brackets the weaknesses are easier to exploit....

[Aleksej89]

So they are just missing a cooldown or two?

Blizzard really gotta give em at least one then, even the most ordinary one >.>

[Ynna]

So they are just missing a cooldown or two?

Blizzard really gotta give em at least one then, even the most ordinary one >.>

The thing is, Holy is a pretty powerful, balanced spec. Adding a cooldown would either make us overpowered or get us nerfed on other parts, neither of which is fun.

Anyway, I love Holy but in PvE there's currently no real reason not to be Discipline. Healing revolves a lot around cooldown at the moment, and Barrier is really powerful. In between these heavy phases of raid damage, incoming damage is pretty low, so no spec has a real advantage.

In PvP Holy is less likely to survive being focused and Discipline has more tools to keep a single target alive, which is often the focus in PvP. In organized battleground Holy should have chance, but I don't really play those.

[obao98]

That's the thing. People here in these forums are morons (most people at least).

Because Paragon and other top guilds clearly take Holy priests over Disc priests (with the exception of a FEW fights).

[zakaluka]

Holy has higher spike potential and is able to spike up to maximum more frequenty than disc.

Holy however suffers from sustainability troubles because their max spike lowers efficiency by a considerable amount.

Disc max spike revolves around timing cooldowns (AA/PI). If timed properly these give us a ramped-up AoE healing spike that, in total, nets INCREASED efficiency (or at least, efficiency doesn't change at all for non-aa specs).

Disc also has insanely good sustainability.

Disc benefits from lower overheal (thanks aegis!) than holy in normal heal comps.

The net result: discs compete better on the meters in a normal healing comp (due to high sustainability/low overheal). Holy can still perform very well in limited-healer comps (2 heal 10 man, 5 heals 25 man), where spike capability will decide success or failure. Mastery overheals for less, and carrying those aoe spikes means the hpriest is far more able to post some solid numbers.

[crawdaddy029]

the thing I dont like about the holy priest is a good prtion of thier healing requires other raid members to stop what they are doing and go click click click. The only healer that requires the non-healer to do some of the work.

[mooseypants]

If you're unable to click a lightwell once, or twice on its 3 minute cooldown, you're doing something wrong as a DPS. You shouldn't need to keep your mouse hovering over the target you're attacking at all times, and you don't lose target, can click while stunned etc.

The problem is, Holy is really a Raid healing class. You can absolutely tank heal, but it gets expensive. Holy is best suited for fights with a burn phase where people are mostly stacked. Serenity is an amazing healing spell, especially combined with Divine Hymn. Not a chance that anyone's dying for those 8 seconds.

I view holy mostly as a spec that can make up for the mistakes of other healers (and sometimes DPSers), while supplying ample raid healing. The raid cooldowns are obviously lacking, but you can pick up a tank heal extremely quick, and Guardian Spirit is amazing.

[Afflictid]

No raid cooldown leaves little room.

[Deleo]

It's not just lack of CDs. Druids have even less CDs and they are still there. It's mostly because they only bring throughput and the throughput healer spot is currently filled with resto druids who beat holy priests in almost any given fight. I wouldn't worry about it though as it only matters to few min/maxing guilds remained out there. nd the gap is close enough for the player skill to matter.

[Danner]

Holy PVP

Holy can be very fun in battlegrounds, assuming you are able to stay behind the rear lines of any skirmish and heal uninterrupted. When you eventually run OOM, throw yourself into the fray and die (this usually takes 5-8 seconds; PVP players tend to prioritize healers), and spirit ress with full mana. Repeat. I usually do this in full PVE gear, since I really shouldn't get caught anyway and mana longevity is much better with tons and tons of spirit. If I am a designated flag defender however, then PVP gear is required.

But you will simply die in arenas. You have few "outs", no answer to silence or spell lockout, and no protection if that happens. If someone with an interrupt button wants you dead, you cannot really avoid dying. It's a lot easier to kill a holy priest twice (DP + GS) than killing a disc priest once. Which is why noone goes holy. As they say on arenajunkies: "It's just plain common sense that Holy don't work".

Holy PVE

Holy is viable in the firelands. I will also claim it is pretty powerful. But a druid does what a holypriest does, better, and with fewer mana concerns. A discpriest does what a holypriest does, but also brings incredible tank healing and barrier. Most fights become considerably easier with a supply of raid cooldowns (and I count tranquility as one), and they are all but required to even down most bosses on hardmodes. While many priest healers still prefer holy, they are forced to go disc on a large amount of encounters. And unless you are doing HC Ragnaros, it's really only stubbornness that warrants speccing back to holy after respeccing disc. For an in-depth analysis; check out http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2973016175

[Purpleisbetter]

I gave up on Holy pve wise. IT's no just about the raid cooldwns, u could eventually manage the barrier lack. The fact is that u either be the one raid healing (no druids around) or go disc.

Raid healing 10n with a druid, for example, is plain frustrating.

[BillyStGlitch]

What the hell? A lack of a "raid saving cooldown?"

Last I checked, a 3 minute cooldown that boosts healing by 40%, prevents a tank death from being possible and brings him back up nearly 100k health after that is pretty damn raid saving.

[Deleted]

Everything about disc over holy in pvp was said but...
Dungeons : I much much prefer holy there. Even if they have mana problems they have less than disc... imo better heal too .. shields and other disc's tools sometimes fail and there are wipes. Also ... less mbs = faster dungeon complete.

[Pikapika]

What the hell? A lack of a "raid saving cooldown?"

Last I checked, a 3 minute cooldown that boosts healing by 40%, prevents a tank death from being possible and brings him back up nearly 100k health after that is pretty damn raid saving.

That saves the tank, not the raid. PWB, tranq, aura mastery, etc save the raid.

[Deleted]

What the hell? A lack of a "raid saving cooldown?"

Last I checked, a 3 minute cooldown that boosts healing by 40%, prevents a tank death from being possible and brings him back up nearly 100k health after that is pretty damn raid saving.

Whilst I definitely agree with this, Cataclysm has nullified it somewhat, during the days of unpredictable heavy tank damage, it was a god send, nowadays most heavy tank damage is predictable, and as such it rarely outweighs Pain Suppression.

[Detonation]

PVP - The inherent issue with the holy spec in pvp is the inability to effectively mitigate damage, you are capable of pumping out an incredible amount of healing IF you're able to freecast, however that is rarely the case in today's pvp environment... without the absorbs/damage reductions that the discipline tree offers, a holy priest is more likely to succumb to the popular double melee cleave teams... also, since so much of a holy priests mana regen is reliant on spirit, and the lack of spirit on a lot of pvp gear (in favor of resilience) the static mana return from rapture is better for efficiency...

QFT. Disc is just SO much better for PvP than Holy. You actually have to hardcast your heals, rather than mitigating that damage with bubbles. Not to mention Penance is such a good spell all around. Although Holy isn't awful, it's just not as good. You could pull off Holy in BG's so long as you have friends who can peel, but Arenas I just don't see it working out for the better. :/

[Purpleisbetter]

1 more reason Holy needs the old glyph of GS back. If it rarely triggers, no reason to make it on such a "huge" cd.

[Ynna]

What the hell? A lack of a "raid saving cooldown?"

Last I checked, a 3 minute cooldown that boosts healing by 40%, prevents a tank death from being possible and brings him back up nearly 100k health after that is pretty damn raid saving.

Yeah, and Discipline brings something similar and brings a raid-wide cooldown.

Dungeons : I much much prefer holy there. Even if they have mana problems they have less than disc... imo better heal too .. shields and other disc's tools sometimes fail and there are wipes. Also ... less mbs = faster dungeon complete.

Are you talking about non-raid dungeons? Because your spec hardly matters there and both are perfectly fine at it. Shields can't fai, how do they fail? If you're wiping in dungeons because you're one spec or the other it has nothing to do with the spec. I'm usually Discipline, since I can Smite somewhat to alleviate the boredom.

[Afflictid]

What the hell? A lack of a "raid saving cooldown?"

Last I checked, a 3 minute cooldown that boosts healing by 40%, prevents a tank death from being possible and brings him back up nearly 100k health after that is pretty damn raid saving.

Unfortunately, the saving portion is really glitchy and only works about half the time. A lot of times it will go on cd and the person will still die anyway. It is pretty lackluster seeing as the saving portion can't be depended on. That being said, it still provides the 40% healing buff, and I now only find myself using it for that buff instead of saving someone low.