Originally Posted by
Blachshma
Really? I feel proactive healing feels like a "cheating" mechanic more than anything. Obviously many disagree with me because most play disc, but I still think so. Shields should be used as a niche, not as avoiding all damage in a given fight with PW:S, SS, DA, and Barrier. It has reached a point where absorbs are so powerful, they became from disc's niche to their main heals. Its not only unfair to the other healers who have to settle for leftovers, its also unfair to disc priest who receive very boring, unchallenging gameplay (and their current OP mana state isn't helping either). Healing should be reactive, because that's the term. You heal someone after he got injured, and not before. I can't blame Blizzard for trying to create variety, thus making absorbs another way of healing, but in that they have ruined balance. If absorbs are a niche, you don't count on them for pre healing an entire boss fight. Instead, you use the absorbs on truly important things like tank damage/rapture.
Avoiding overhealing and not having to ever get people up just kills the whole idea of being a healer, imo, which is why I've played disc for a short while in Cataclysm only to go back to holy, the real healer.[COLOR="red"]
This has sadly become the state in WoW. Instead of players going with the spec they enjoy and feel comfortable with, they are forced, pretty much, to go with the strongest spec, the spec that will buy you a raid spot in the higher guilds. This concept is just wrong. Priests shouldn't have to "go disc if they have the option", they should be able to choose one of 3 specs and be viable for raiding no matter what they choose.