No, I don't actually believe the hyperbolic extreme of the thread title, but god damn, something has to be done about the discipline skill floor.
Yes, I know, dear hardcore reader... your dick is huge and you disc heal mythic+agjillion with one hand tied behind your back, you're so skilled. All hail.
But the leveling disc priest, responsible for the same workload as every other healing spec... is half a healing spec in the hands of an unskilled or newer player, far more so than if they chose any other healing class. There needs to be a frank discussion about the skill floor, the role of the dungeon finder, the social mores of said dungeon finder, and the "master of none" that is the still leveling, still gearing disc priest.
I've heard holy paladins have a rough time leveling, but at least their core gameplay has a single bank of targets: the party. You heal the party. That's the core of what you do (yes you can do damage but it's not required for you to do your core job). Like every other "full healing class" from level one to cap. The disc priest, almost from the get go, has to juggle the party and the enemies. Now yes, O big dicked reader, that's not a lot to ask of you... but everyone is new once, and literally every other class has an easier ride at healing. By a lot. And people will choose the class they think looks cool, and think "well this is a AAA head of its genre, clearly it's developed well so my experience will be reaonably on-ramped and approachable just like everyone else's." They'll be wrong, they will struggle, and it will show.
As a career tank, flanked by career healer friends who come and go from the game these days, we are in universal agreement that a good disc priest is a superhero, but a new or "more enthusiast than expert" disc priest is the weakest link of their group. By an obvious lead.
I can't be the only one seeing a problem here. Why isn't this a bigger discussion? Disc started BFA where they should be: good enough at both damage and self sustain to solo effectively (the only priest spec that could claim that), and maybe a bit OP in groups. Honestly, that's how you do a class like that. A jack of all trades. They went from the jack of all trades to the master of none. You can't have a master of none still responsible for healing a 5-man group that can't be expected to care how new they are, as well as a similar player using a different class. "The holy priest was fine, what's wrong with you newbiedisc?"
Again, your dick is huge O hardcore reader, but this is an issue. It just is.
WoW has had this problem for a while where classes have strengths and weaknesses and baked in "difficulty levels" from one to another, which in theory is fine, but when the weakness of the class is SOLOING (don't get me started) or in this thread's case "learning to do what the community expects of you," those baked-in difficulty levels are just manifesting in bad ways. It's a bad concept.
Solutions I can possibly think of:
1) Go back to "smart atonement." Let them be DPSers that throw the odd heal and don't have to do so as a way to keep atonement active. Make atonement passive. I beg you. Make them the chloromancer from RIFT.
2) Give them a fully supported, switch-flipping talent or two that gives them a fully viable "you just heal the party" playstyle. I'm sure some big-dicked hardcore superhero can make the current iteration sing, but there needs to be an approachable on-ramp to the class. I've tried it, it's too much.
The whole "the disc priest just needs to anticipate the phases of the fight-" idea is a flowery way of saying "don't be new." We do that enough to new tanks, and EVERYONE IS NEW ONCE. This is not a sustainable or fair model for tanks, and it's not fair for one healing spec out of many!
High ceiling, some people's dicks are big enough to hold that ceiling up, but there needs to be an idiot-proof skill floor because some players, bless their hearts, are idiots, and I need to be able to rely on them even if disc priest fits the character they want to play. I honestly can't do that right now. My whole gang groans when they see health yo-yo'ing in a dungeon and, without fail, confirm that the priest is a disc priest.
Some of you are great, some of you are not. You all need to be as useful as the newbie [insert other healing class here], and that's not happening. That needs to change.
Thank you for reading, regardless of dick size.