Back From Absence and Need Advice

[Cyi]

Hello All,
Well I am back from an extended absence from playing my priest and after getting back into playing her yesterday as Disc I was left with a question. In 5 mans I am finding that I do a lot of smite/holy fire healing and that along with a few PoM seems to get the job done pretty easily.

My question is what happens in raids? I read through the stickies and was left more confused. Are Disc priests supposed to dps in raids as a form of healing or are they supposed to just focus on heals? I suppose this would also matter on what size raid and what other healers I am running with?

Anyway, I love playing the Disc priest I just wonder if I am doing it right or if I would be better off switching to Holy. Keep in mind for the immediate future I will be running in the LFR as I am gearing her up to run with the guild I just joined. I like doing my job well and supporting the team regardless though so I want to make sure I am doing it right.

Thank You All In Advance

[zakaluka]

no.

On early progression you might have trouble with enrage timers, in this situation only disc can smite/hf spam to add a little baseline healing with a little dps. It's like having a third of a healer and a quarter of a DPS that can transform at will into a full healer when things get hard. Generally speaking "smite healing" is out.

[constantduty]

Can't post links yet, but google disciplinaryaction/wordpress. Gives you a quick and dirty guide to what an approximate "rotation"/"spell priority" would look like depending on your role. LFR is hit or miss. One of the few negatives I would ascribe to it is that it does a poor job of educating the average player on how to play their class in a raid environment. Stick with Disc, it's a blast, and hit some BGs and get to know your CDs etc.

More on topic - in a raid environment you want to weave in your holy fires and smites. Your goal should be to pop AA on a phase like Zon'ozz's (sp?) black phase for a little more oomph to your healing. On a fight like this you'll find that you can't rely on attonement to keep anyone up (TANK!); however, it will keep you healing while you build towards AA. There are always other factors to consider, but this should give you an idea of "how" you heal as an attonement specced Disc priest in the current tier. So: Zon'ozz P1 - Stick with your healing assignments while tossing in the occasional Holy Fire/Smite to build up 5 stacks of Evangilism. Zon'ozz P2 - Pop your wings and enjoy a moderate boost to your healing.

[babylon]

drop smiting for a week or two, spec sos and do some instances in this build. just to learn to use other spells and use relying on other spells (yes i know you know other spells, but its really different to know them on forums and to know them in the middle of a heavy-damage fight)

you can pick aa build back after that, its fine for raiding