Disc Priest or Holy Paladin

[wownerd2012]

Which one is stronger for a 10 man raid team? I just stopped at the release of Terrace of Endless Springs. I'm equally good at both of them as they are the only 2 toons I've ever had and I've always healed on both. I don't have time to manage both now and was wondering which one is a stronger healer atm assuming the raid group can choose any other healer to pair with me.

[twinkleblur]

i like pally healing i really do its just that even with a great amount of spirit...you go oom thats it your done you get 1 CD. and i dont like that. priests? i had 1 it was ok but i found priests really boring to do much with outside of dps. im not gonna tell you to make a monk..but secretly i am.

[wownerd2012]

Unfortunately I don't have time to level up another toon and both my priest and paladin are conveniently already 90.

[Noorri]

Depends on the rest of your raid group. Having one Disc Priest can be a huge asset to 10-man, but having 2 isn't really recommended since Power Word Barrier has it's limitations as a cooldown. I would recommend you try to get a healing team that is Disc Priest/Holy Paladin/any other healer with a DPS offspec.

[Celista]

Depends on your comp...I prefer disc in most scenarios if there isn't another disc priest in group. If you go disc, I recommend you get familiar with your holy OS in the off chance you end up with another disc in raid.

[Squirl]

Disc if there is not another disc. Disc+MW+Hpal is really strong.

[wownerd2012]

Yes, this would be assuming that the no matter which one i choose, I can pair up with another different healer.

[NightZero88]

Yes, this would be assuming that the no matter which one i choose, I can pair up with another different healer.

Disc priest then. On 2 heal fights you can smite and be half a DPS and healer. On fights like Horridon with bonus damage they own.

[meteo]

I'd vote for the priest. Disc is so strong.

Some bosses can be rated by normal, heroic and heroic without disc priest mode. He brings good damage and preventive healing (shields) is always amazing.

[twinkleblur]

1 more thing remember if this is to pair up with another healer priests = mana battery so pair up with a druid or pally pally = i need a hand, so pair up with a priest or shaman

[seijo]

It really depends on your comp.

I made this same decision at the end of t14. I healed on my paladin since BC up to that point and switched to priest. We ended up clearing t14 on normal with my Pally, but there were some very glaring weaknesses that made me switch.

1) Devo Aura: this is a very good cooldown... except when they decide to throw out raidwide physical damage, then it's absolutely useless. Rain of Blades? Force and Verve? Not to mention that my comp at the time who had a Ret and a Prot Pally so we didn't lose this cd when I switched. Myself and several paladins had tweeted at GC asking if there was any possibility of giving Devo Aura a glyph option to let us tweak Devo to mitigate physical; the answer was basically no because they don't want all cds to be the same. My hope was that they'd realize how bad this was in HoF and not do stuff like this going forward... Quake Stomp in Tortos (haven't yet much of the other bosses past this so not sure) makes me think they've forgotten. Sure you can Devo aura side stuff... like rockfalls, attentuation in HoF, pre-devo in case people derp into wind bombs... but you're not really using the cd for the major dmg mechanic at that point.

2) Offspec: Whenever we had fights where we didn't need 3 healers. I was NEVER asked to offspec. That's because out of all the healers, the Holy Pally unless they've made a hard effort to gear their offspec outside of raid or you guys have crazy loot rng (or have no melee dps, not even tanks wanting it), you'll have a hard time gearing your offspec. And most of the times when given the choice between range dps and melee dps... most would opt for range unless there was some garalon leg gimmick mechanic but even then. You can argue that a Resto druid who has a feral os or Resto shaman with an enhancement os who face a similiar issue, but they at least have the option of doing balance or elemental respectively and at least have a headstart on gear by using their ms gear (same with priest). My os set was so dismal that when doing dailies I just stayed holy and denounced things to death

3) DPS: My last group's biggest weakness was always dps. It was common for us to hit enrage on progression bosses then spend the next week or so eeking out every little bit of dps out so we can push past enrages. I really felt like I could not contribute in this regard on my Pally as much as with a Disc Priest or even Holy with dps chakra. Biggest source of dmg from me as a Holy Pally is if adds or Boss wanders into the Light's Hammer aoe lol. Stop healing and denounce?... not on progression fights Disc Atonement, nuff said.

4) Shield: Seriously there was 1 shield in t14. And it never dropped. I ran MSV every week on normal (even when our guild no longer ran it) and LFR and used 2 bonus rolls each week on both the normal and LFR... I finally managed to get one to drop in LFR With the priest... at least I have some more offhand options and if I really wanted to, use a 2h. YMMV here, maybe shields drop like candy for you? Was never the case with us. Prot tanks in my group also never saw their shield drop either. On the other hand... int plate is defaulted to you unless you guys are crazy and running more than one pally in 10m?

5) 2 spec vs. 1 spec: I knew going into it that I'd likely go Disc but I also considered that what if they nerfed Disc into the ground? Not likely but even if they did there's always Holy. Chances that they'd nerf both Disc and Holy into the ground? That's far more unlikely despite what the forum cynics like to think. More options = better imo.

Again it all really depends on your comp. How many other priests and pallys are there? Despite all this, a Holy Pally is a beast right now but I just wanted more options in terms of gear, cooldown, utility and offspec. Luckily my next group I'm now healing with a Holy Pally so I get the best of both worlds