Disc vs Holy

[Nico87]

Right, leveling up a Human Female Priest. I plan to have at least Shadow at 85, but I can't decide wether to have Discipline or Holy as my second spec. Which one is generally better at 85 for raiding? Is the general opinion subject to change when 4.3 hits?

Sorry for a rather noob-ish question, but I haven't read much about Priests for ages.

[TehZmann44]

All depends on what you prefer, they are both great for raiding at 85. I personally like holy better, but that's just me.

[Deleted]

Disc is tank healing really whereas Holy is Raid healing but Disc can kind of raid heal aswell just not to the same standard of healing as its based on mitigation.

[Syantaa]

Both of them can tank heal and raid heal very well, so it comes down to a matter of personal preference. Just try them both out.

[Denae]

Disc is better overall as it stands right now, which is sad because I'd much rather be holy. The biggest problem with holy right now is that a resto druid does the raid healing role better in almost every way. While tank healing isn't that bad as holy, disc, paladins, and shamans are just better at it. Hopefully some of the fixes in 4.3 will change this.

[Deleted]

Disc is tank healing really whereas Holy is Raid healing but Disc can kind of raid heal aswell just not to the same standard of healing as its based on mitigation.

i have to claim bullshit on that one sry. a holy priest is aswell capable of tank healing

[Ynna]

I have to claim bullshit on that one, sorry. a holy priest is well capable of tank healing

Last I've seen not as good as a Discipline Priest can raid heal. But Discipline Priests raid heal pretty well.

[Deleted]

Holy for pure healing output, disc to mitigate incoming damage. Surely gonna try holy with the buffed Divine hymn :-D

[Danner]

As of patch 4.2, Disc is generally superior in all raiding situations.
If you ever have a choice, Disc will make any content easier and safer.
Some fights are downright impossible as Holy unless everyone is overgearing it.
And you won't really be getting much gear from the Firelands as a holypriest anyway.
But for normalmodes and 25mans, Holy is still a viable healer. You just won't excel as one.

As of patch 4.3, things are changing.
Holy is getting a significant buff in Divine Hymn, offering a raidwide cooldown. It will be needed in 4.3.
Spirit cloth is again available from raidbosses, meaning you actually have a business raiding.
Druids are no longer so overpowered that holypriests and shammies are invalidated.
And the fights are somewhat designed with shammies and holypriests in mind - they fit our heals rather than only fitting druids.
This is definitively reviving the spec as far as I can see, and Holypriests looks to be a strong raiding spec.
At the same time, Disc remains a stong raiding spec. So in 4.3, it shouldn't really matter which spec you use.
Then again, noone really knows how the 4.3 hardmodes will play out, so it's hard to say for sure.

[babylon]

both are viable to heal 5 mans and raids.

the way discipline and holy priests heal differs a lot, even though they share some tools, so its worth to spend some time trying out both to see which playstyle fits you more and gives you more fun.

[Rioo]

I prefer holy but really disc is so much better atm. Mana, single-target, two very powerful CDs, pretty good AoE.

I do hope holy will be equal in 4.3.

[Callypso]

Danner summed it up pretty nicely in my quote below.

Being a holy priest at heart myself, I have to admit I have no business playing holy in my 25m heroic group whatsoever aside from putting my own ego ahead of the raid needs. I actually tried speccing back to holy to try how it felt now we overgear the 6/7 hc content we're facing. I ended up feeling like an idiot and speccing back to disc before Baleroc, as Beth'tilac was pretty much the only boss where my Holy spec somewhat shined (and only because we didn't need the PW:B in p2 anymore thanks to the nerfs).

An overview, purely imho:
Shannox: Disc > Holy
Beth'tilac: Disc >= Holy (I'd recommend disc)
Rhyolith: Disc <> Holy (depending on assignment and strat)
Alysrazor: Disc > Holy
Baleroc: Disc > Holy
Domo: Disc > Holy
Ragnaros : Disc <> Holy (depending on assignement)

As of patch 4.2, Disc is generally superior in all raiding situations.
If you ever have a choice, Disc will make any content easier and safer.
Some fights are downright impossible as Holy unless everyone is overgearing it.
And you won't really be getting much gear from the Firelands as a holypriest anyway.
But for normalmodes and 25mans, Holy is still a viable healer. You just won't excel as one.

As of patch 4.3, things are changing.
Holy is getting a significant buff in Divine Hymn, offering a raidwide cooldown. It will be needed in 4.3.
Spirit cloth is again available from raidbosses, meaning you actually have a business raiding.
Druids are no longer so overpowered that holypriests and shammies are invalidated.
And the fights are somewhat designed with shammies and holypriests in mind - they fit our heals rather than only fitting druids.
This is definitively reviving the spec as far as I can see, and Holypriests looks to be a strong raiding spec.
At the same time, Disc remains a stong raiding spec. So in 4.3, it shouldn't really matter which spec you use.
Then again, noone really knows how the 4.3 hardmodes will play out, so it's hard to say for sure.

[Coro]

"Disc healing for tanks, holy for raid" is old school. That was true up until Cata. As 50% of this thread says, both are perfectly viable at whichever.

Holy priest have the same secondary stats no matter what they are doing (maybe crit being a little more valueable for tanking, but not by much), basically they just change their Chakra to dictate what role they are doing. Holy priests really, really depend on a lot of spirit, which is why a lot of people prefer disc over holy in FL, since there is not a whole lot of spirit gear in FL compared to caster gear that has no spirit and just secondary stats. Holy priests are a lot less mana effecient, but if you have spirit and know what heal to use when, you can make up for it and do a great job in either role.

Disc priests only require about 2200-2400 spirit to remain effecient, mostly because of the Rapture, which gives mana back on intellect, which means int (and essentially ilvl) is most important. You can get 2200 spirit in 253 gear and be an effecient healer, unlike Holy. Disc is good at either role, and anyone who tells you differently either hasn't played Disc in Cata, or is very terrible at it. Your secondary stats change though, and I'll share what those are below this. If you want to be be able to switch to either tank or raid healing, keep them balanced. You won't be gimmicked in 10man, and is actually probably recommended. In 25s tough you'll want to figure out your role and base it on that:

Mastary - Tank stat. Makes your PW:S & DA absorb more damage. Still beneficial for raid AoE mitigation.
Haste - Raid stat. Makes you able to spam PoH faster = more AoE heals, more DA procs. Can still be beneficial for tank healing, as faster GH = more reliable, and more inner focus casts.
Crit - Definitly a tanking stat. Compared to Mastary & Haste, less beneficial in both cases.

[Hawkyy]

For leveling, just go disc and spec into atonement. Smite spam your way through low lvl dungeons and fast que as healer. (stops being good at around lvl 65-70)

I prefer Holy at 85 but thats just me, i find it more fun thatn disc.

[Nico87]

Woah, thanks for all the replies!

I'm only level 28 at the moment, so will pick up Discipline at lvl 30 and go smithing. Won't be 85 before 4.3 hits anyway, so I'll have time to choose between Discipline and Holy then. Was supposed to have the whole week off but because of people being ill and stuff I have to work (including today)! Figured I'd get some valuable leveling time in, but nah.

Very good points about Holy that I wasn't aware of. My main is a Holy Paladin, so I guess I'd notice the difference a lot, specially as tank healing as that's what I do now (obviously).

[cleotaurus]

My priest is my alt and I have limited raiding experience (only 3 fireland clears) and I have tried holy in 5-mans (so I may just be doing it wrong but I dont think so) - my experience is this: In the exact same gear, holy goes oom like twice as fast as disc when outputting the same hps. I feel like holy is capable of doing the same output for tank healing, but chews through mana twice as fast as disc because they don't have inner focus and grace. All they really have is serendipity. Perhaps the issue is that holy needs to stack insane amounts of spirit to really abuse holy concentration, but that has to be done at the cost of other secondary stats (while disc does not need to sacrifice such stats). Perhaps this difference is made up by holy having much better baseline raid healing capabilities? I am not sure.

Perhaps holys strength lies in their raid healing efficiency. I feel that tank healing is really what sends me oom, but I have never actually performed a raid healing role as holy yet. One thing I can see being a problem is that since I do mainly 10-mans, healer roles are not so well defined as 25 man healers are. Every role sort of does everything, but I can't see holy being able to give additional tank healing while raid healing without burning some serious mana. This is coming from the perspective of my druid as my main. My druid can effectively provide a very considerable amount of tank healing almost passively through the use of lifebloom, rejuvenation, swiftmend (and the efflorescence that drops from it) while still providing almost 100% raid healing output. This is where I see holy priests being very behind druids because they cannot perform this dual role as well as druids. The raid CD buff might pad the meters more to balance out the numbers but I still think holy is going to be just a subpar druid.

[Aquabird]

Holy is much easier to learn. I'd start with that first. (The Holy complaints with patch 4.2 won't matter because 4.3 is coming out very soon. And Holy is getting buffed.)

The reason why Discipline is harder to learn is because it is proactive instead of reactive. Most healers are used to reacting after the damage is hit. Discipline is all about shielding before the damage comes. Discipline is the toughest healer to learn. On my server, they are in high demand with raiding guilds because there aren't too many good Disc priests around.

[Deleted]

The reason why Discipline is harder to learn is because it is proactive instead of reactive. Most healers are used to reacting after the damage is hit. Discipline is all about shielding before the damage comes. Discipline is the toughest healer to learn. On my server, they are in high demand with raiding guilds because there aren't too many good Disc priests around.

Maybe I'm just bad but I don't see much difference between proactive and reactive to be honest. A good Holy healer will be proactive anyways.

[Themos]

Holy tank heals perfectly fine. Anyone who says otherwise is either bad at the spec, or is just following popular opinion.

@ OP --- Play what you like more.

[Denae]

Holy tank heals perfectly fine. Anyone who says otherwise is either bad at the spec, or is just following popular opinion.

@ OP --- Play what you like more.

Heal H Baleroc as holy and then as disc and tell me holy tank healing is fine. It can be done as holy, but is SO much easier as disc.