Leveling in Holy spec

[huurothu]

Hey guys, was just wondering if lvling in holy spec would be a good idea? i know holy shock has been nerfed but it still do a decent amount of damage, plus i dont feel like lvling as ret then starting to get holy gear from scratch since ive been a healer since like ZA back in BC.\

Thanks!

[Puri]

You can perfectly level as holy. Yes, you will do less damage than a prot or ret, but if you have your level gear you will still do a decent amount.
And from 15-52 you are able to level completely through lfg, from 52-58 you will have to level outside of dungeons unless you really are in love with BRD.
In Outlands you can again level without stepping a foot outside a city, but then leveling through dungeons during wotlk will be quite tedious and significantly faster done in the open world.
Having ret as second spec helps here a lot, but you also can continue leveling as holy (but when you are in scholazar trying to kill 90 beasts you probably WILL respec).
With cata everything changes anyhow, you will get equip for both specs while leveling.

[ChenStormstout]

Shockadins are back so you can be holy and still do good damage. There's a glyph that increases holy shock damage by 50% and another that lets you use WoG on enemies.

[Kakera]

Why not just play ret without getting rewards for ret? You can level fine to 90 as ret without new quest rewards at all. Plus, it's faster. I never understood why healers prefer to level in healer builds. It's just laziness.

[NPSlow]

In my situation it's not laziness. I don't have any ret or prot gear, besides the ungemmed and unenchanted strength gear I've managed to accumulate through justice and honor capping the last few days.

For me, I have no choice but to level as Holy until I can clinch some MOP ret gear (specifically a weapon, ugh)

To OP: You can do plenty damage as holy, surely enough to do quests. You lack aoe, but holy shock + denounce + wog is just fine.

In my opinion first glyph should be harsh words, just so you can dump holy power offensively. Next glyphs can/should be holy shock damage glyph and then word of glory glyph that will increase damage done after you use WoG.

It's the simplest of rotations but that is how it should be when you have health bars and mechanics to also worry about.