5.3 Holy vs Disc 10man

[ONIskier]

In my guild I current have to heal on my OS sometimes. I much prefer Holy over disc, but disc is/ was so powerful that I was disc to greater assist the guild. Has the changes to disc changed it enough to make Holy worth it in 10mans or is the absorbs/ Atonement still strong enough that disc is very powerful. The other healers are a Shaman, Druid, Paladin.

I know it is possible and plenty of people do run holy in their 10man, just wondering what people feel works best. Or is the simple fact that disc has absorbs just really good for 10s

[Deleted]

Holy will be a weak spec for most fights in 10 man regardless of how strong/weak disc is, and currently disc is still stronger on almost every fight (not mainly due to absorbs, it's more about the added dps).

[Meerah]

That nerf was nothing but deserved, and we are still doing very well. I'd stay Disc if I were you, especially for your offspec as a 3rd healer, Barrier, Spirit Shell and Shields are just too good

[Levictus]

Disc is still very potent, especially if your raid is lacking in cooldowns or needs big absorbs for a boss mechanic.

The biggest thing you need to realize is that atonement is your filler spell, casted in periods of low damage. When the damage starts to spike up, you transition into using gheal/pw:shield spam/PoH. Also, assuming all 3 ticks heal for the max amount, penance is best used to heal defensively, rather than offensively (Heroic Primordious comes to mind). However, if your entire raid is taking damage its best to use it offensively as to heal 3 different people with the 3 ticks of atonement (it's still a very potent aoe heal).

I'm in the same boat as you are when it comes to healing comp (MW instead of Druid, but they play very similarly), and I definitely prefer disc in a 10man environment. Not only do you enable your raid to live through huge spikes of damage without noticing, but you contribute a substantial portion of dps (yes 40-50k is substantial) which cuts down on enrage timers/mechanics. Heroic Durumu, for example, you can atone off of the crimson adds in order to end the light spectrum phase more quickly. There's only one fight where I have gone holy this tier, and that was on Heroic Tortos. We needed more burst aoe heals after stomps and holy provides that.

[Deleted]

My guild is a bunch of casuals who play what they love best, which for me is holy priest. We run 10-man normals. Our holy pala has clearly been nerfed a lot, and our disc priest is coming out on top now.

Patch 5.3 has done nothing much to help holy priests in 10s and I still find myself casting the usual mix of single target and AoE heals, wondering if I'm really in the optimal chakra. It seems to me that holy priests can do well on certain fights, but disc priests are good on those fights too. Where as disc shines on other fights, leaving holy in the dust!

If you don't mind disc, stick with it for 10s, it's only your OS.

[Darkener]

There really shouldn't be a difference between 5.2 and 5.3, Atonement nerfed to 90% but Penance buffed by 10%. The real difference with 5.3 is your Disc priest will be able to sink a ton of valor upgrades into more absorbs and your upgrades will go to more overheal.

[Fiof]

Penance buffed by 10%.

That is only a defensive buff. It's actually another 10% nerf if you use it offensively. You could use Penance exclusively as an offensive spell without any real drawbacks in 5.2 (no grace in exchange for a smart heal and contributing to raid dps). Now in 5.3 you're looking at about a 20% healing loss if you use Penance offensively instead of defensively.

[Libertarian]

Preventing damage is always better than healing damage and that's what disc does best.