Page 1 of 6
1
2
3
... LastLast
  1. #1

    Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I have heard a lot of opinions that a disc priest is more fun to heal as rather than a holy priest. Why is that? It seems to me disc would have a lot less buttons to press and their proc abilities are more passive rather than active (divine aegis vs surge of light). What are your guys thoughts?

  2. #2

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    disc is like a pally healing. Your spamming shields, flash, and penance. Being a tank healer your always presented with a target needs healing. Holy is burst aoe healing, then waiting to regen mana/waiting for aoe damage till the next burst. (in a raid setting that is)

  3. #3

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    Interesting that you compare it to pally healing, since I hear pally healing is often the most boring of healers.

  4. #4

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    Once you go Disc you never go back!!!! lol

    Holy seems so slow after being Disc for so long, But just watch it.. If your guild goes by healing
    meters they may start looking at you thinking we need a better healer if they dont know how
    disc works, i kinda have that problem in my guild, in my guild 10 man grp its me and a Druid
    healer, he always has 3 times more healing done than me.

  5. #5

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    because you shoot energy balls out of your hands to heal stuff

  6. #6

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    It depends really i have both specs (holy pve and disc pvp) even tho i use some times disc for pve, Holy can be really awsome you can see like numbers every where, try to heal hodir on 25 its amazing in holy. But i guess shooting energy balls its fun aswell ^^

  7. #7

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I always was wondering that myself. Having a Disc Dual spec, and using it whenever necessary i notice the following.

    With Disc:

    You know heavy AOE damage is incoming: Shield everyone

    Burst damage on various raid members: Shield

    Someone about to die: Shield

    Healing Tank: Shield

    Healing Off-tank: Shield

    Someone got aggro: Shield

    Yea its fun alright. Oh yea you get to spam FH and Penance on the tank. On the other hand its a damn effective spec, and every raid should have one.

  8. #8

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I find it a lot more fun than holy, it may be simpler, but that doesn't mean I can't love it. Plus on fights like Vezax it's incredibly efficient.

  9. #9

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    There are a few things about Discipline that make it "stand above" Holy as far as "fun-level".

    The first: Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis. The focus is less "Whack-a-mole" style healing, and more pre-emptive, so you actually feel like you're working towards accomplishing something, rather than just fixing holes on a sinking ship that're about to re-open again.

    Secondly: Penance. It's fast, it looks cool, there's no animation like it, and it's a very strong effect.

    Finally, Borrowed Time. Speed. Oomph. While the "numbers" of Discipline are much lower, the completely different feel from Holy does tend to be an extremely welcome change of pace. Especially those of us that've been "preesting" for a few years.
    ~Former Priest/Guild Wars 2 Moderator~
    Now TESTING: ArcheAge (Alpha)
    Now PLAYING: MonoRed Burn (MtG Standard)
    Twitter: @KelestiMMO come say hi!
    ~When you speak, I hear silence. Every word a defiance~

  10. #10

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I leveled a holy priest for Wrath, coming from a pure dps class. I stayed holy all throughout Naxx, simply because it was needed for my guild-- we'd have more paladins as holy than we'd have deathknights and/or hunters. Holy, to me and most others in the guild, even after the CoH "nerf" was spamming FH, CoH, and PoM when it's off cooldown. Every now and then you throw in a PoH, and in some situations, a GH, and when you could spare the mana, renews.

    Not much changes with holy, you basically do the same thing in every fight, maybe change a spell here and there, but it's the same thing-- you heal through the damage.

    I went disc for Ulduar, after hearing that disc was doing well and might be needed, since no one else in my guild wanted to. After our first night, I instantly fell in love with it. Sure, I originally was drawn to holy for the insta-heal on renew, and the changes to serendipity. It's why holy is still my dual-spec, but disc... just felt amazing.

    Pretty much endless mana through PW:S and intellect, never have to call for an innervate, even after dying and being brought back, knowing that even though I'm low on the healing meters, I'm reducing the actual amount of healing the tank needs, because my shields absorb it, thus lowering the amount everyone else heals.

    Sure, I cast about four spells out of the crapload I have as a priest, and yes, at times, it feels repetitive, but the procs are what makes disc feel godly. Being able to throw out Power Infusion to boost dps, and having an extra "ohshit" button for tanks through Pain Suppression--- hell! It even becomes a salv if needed!

    It's not just that disc feels more fun, but that disc feels needed. I feel useful in my raids. I can MT heal while throwing out some random raid heals. I can end a fight with more absorbs than the top healer has heals. I rarely make it half-way up the overheals list-- I feel like a god.

    Disc is hands down, no doubt, without a question, my favorite healing spec.

  11. #11
    Mechagnome Kuismar's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    The Grim Guzzler
    Posts
    658

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I've personaly not tried Disc. Every priest coming up as I leveled my alt was Disc and it seemed the most issues came from AOE healing, or lack there of. Therefore I leveled Holy and stayed that way.

    Personally any spec can become boring Holy or Disc because it is the same over and over. I guess for most priests it was the fact you finally get to heal differantly, especially if you healed Classic and TBC.

    When it comes to Holy I love empowered renew and surge of light. Guardian Spirit is nice as well. AoE heals are my thing I guess and I don't mind not being MT heals, I just throw a renew on them & PoM while keeping the raid up.

    I could use an example of my first Naxx tanking and had to take three healers, Pali, Shaman & Disc priest. Went in the other day (couple day old 80) with a rag tag (random gear levels) of pugs and two man healed it out the bag holy with a resto shaman. So who knows.

  12. #12

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    Discipline is more fun because to me because every penance feels like it's doing something useful for the raid.
    Honestly, I don't notice the damage absorbtion, but I do notice the mana gain from Rapture, so I still shield a lot.
    My main complaint with disc is how weak my Flash heal is from missing Spiritual Guidance and Empowered Healing. I run 10s frequently, so I need to toss out flashes.

    So I'm back to Holy to make my Flash Heal hit for the amount I expect from it, plus the addition of Circle of Healing (an incredibly boring spell compared to Penance, but effective). Serendipity gives you an occasional speedy Greater Heal that can give me the feeling of Penance.

    And quite simply: I find holy to be more effective than disc. I can run the same fight, same group, only changing my spec, and unless it is a strictly tank healing fight, I'll be much happier with my performance as holy.

    To make Holy more fun, get Body and Soul (drop the renew talents, because that spell is still bad for me due to hots getting healed over). My favorite use is when I bubbled a rogue who'd just gotten b-rezed to get him back to Kologarn faster (and not die to raid damage), but he wasn't expecting the speed boost and ran off the edge.
    Win.

  13. #13

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I think people confuse the concept of 'easier' with 'more fun'. It is much easier to heal effectively as disc than it is holy. First you are presented with far less buttons to heal and a target that is usually taking consistent damage. You have less to concentrate on and you can pretty much pre-emptive heal and get sufficient effeciency to never go oom. There is less resources to balance and the spec is far less gear dependant than holy.

    Holy on the other hand can be a handful until you have decent gear and then you need a decent UI to be able to raid heal effectively. Holy priests are also rarely given the MT healing job which is something they always did in previous expansions. To some holy priests, the fact they no longer raid heal is annoying and as such going disc for a change simply feels more fun (at the moment).

    At the end of the day which spec is more fun is entirely subjective. IMO holy is more fun because there is mroe buttons to push. It's a far less niche spec and as such there is a lot more adaptive aspects to Holy that really makes it a dynamic healing spec. To me this is why its more fun.

    That doesnt equate to Holy is better than Disc, i'm a believer that you really can't compare the 2, they are both entirely different. They have different strengths and they are built to do different things. Both are useful in any raid but at the end of the day I really do think Holy is a lot more fun than Disc.

  14. #14

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    As Disc you should always be doing something with your spare time, when I was holy I was constantly trying to find ways to do effective healing as well as do nothing at all so I could sneak OO5SR regen ticks. Watching my blue bar go up isn't as fun as trying to figure out who I can shield most effectively if my tank is doing just fine. Although it may have been fixed with the whole nerf the shit our of spirit regen thing that went down.

  15. #15

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    Discipline is less spam, at least for me. I think holy is more pally-esc but with an aoe heal thrown in. Pluss you can pvp with disc, and if you pull agro from a add that spawns or somthing you can live (asuming fade is on cooldown), vs holy where you cant.
    When people say "pls" just because its shorter then "please", I feel totally justified to say "No" just because its shorter then "Yes".

  16. #16

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I have both specs, PvE holy and PvE disc and although disc has its fights, I overall very much prefer holy.

    But as my disc gear isn't optimal it could actually be a closer race if I optimized it.

    But unlike others, I usually use disc as raid healing (MT healing is mindnumbingly boring) and just pop heals on the tank when it's needed (Frozen blows, punch on council, plasma thingie on mimiron).

    I had a nice tactic pre-nerf of soul warding to just shield half the raid before a big aoe, took about 12-15 seconds and when the aoe happened all the shields would pop, giving me around 7k-10k mana.

    But with the increased cost to shield I'm running oom with this tactic, but I like how it doesn't involve any other gear than int and spell power, which is lacking on my spirit heavy holy gear.

    So atm I only spec disc if we have 2 other priests healing or fights like razor, where single target heals are superior.

    Too bad all our priests are dual specced disc though so we usually have to fight for the position :P

  17. #17

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    Quote Originally Posted by Worshaka
    I think people confuse the concept of 'easier' with 'more fun'. It is much easier to heal effectively as disc than it is holy. First you are presented with far less buttons to heal and a target that is usually taking consistent damage. You have less to concentrate on and you can pretty much pre-emptive heal and get sufficient effeciency to never go oom. There is less resources to balance and the spec is far less gear dependant than holy.

    Holy on the other hand can be a handful until you have decent gear and then you need a decent UI to be able to raid heal effectively. Holy priests are also rarely given the MT healing job which is something they always did in previous expansions. To some holy priests, the fact they no longer raid heal is annoying and as such going disc for a change simply feels more fun (at the moment).

    At the end of the day which spec is more fun is entirely subjective. IMO holy is more fun because there is mroe buttons to push. It's a far less niche spec and as such there is a lot more adaptive aspects to Holy that really makes it a dynamic healing spec. To me this is why its more fun.

    That doesnt equate to Holy is better than Disc, i'm a believer that you really can't compare the 2, they are both entirely different. They have different strengths and they are built to do different things. Both are useful in any raid but at the end of the day I really do think Holy is a lot more fun than Disc.
    lol'ed
    how can disc be easier then CoH/Renew mashing ?
    okay dont anwser that dont want a flame war about somthing THAT stupid.
    and disc do suck at low crit/haste levels

    personaly im Disco main spec and holy off spec (bouth PvE) and i simply love the disc style whith BT and DA.
    BT works for alot of healing types and shod have about 40-70% up time.
    tanking taking loads of damage? throw a shield on random target (if tank got debuff) then lazor > GH

    thing i dislikes about disc is that we as the only healer ingame gets hurt on MT healing throwing off heals (grace)
    ohh and inner focus + Hymn = nice DA proc's

  18. #18
    Scarab Lord AetherMcLoud's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Wandering Isles
    Posts
    4,492

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    Quote Originally Posted by TwistedPower
    Discipline is less spam, at least for me. I think holy is more pally-esc but with an aoe heal thrown in. Pluss you can pvp with disc, and if you pull agro from a add that spawns or somthing you can live (asuming fade is on cooldown), vs holy where you cant.
    You can't arena with a disc pve spec. And you can't mt heal the harder 25man encouters with a disc pvp spec though.
    You know what is better than drinking a beer? Brewing your own beer. And then drinking it. And then... Drinking another beer. And then, punching somebody in the snout! That's what!

  19. #19

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    When you're bored and something new comes around this is considered
    fun ... and the last year or longer healing was boring (CoH-spam followed
    by FH-spam). So its just normal that it feels like fun while its the same
    boring stuff (having choice of one or two heals).

    Still for me its fun to be holy. No matter if you have time and stand still
    you're a great healer or if you need running around you can still keep
    ppl alive. I read that someone feels needed because he can shield someone
    before he gets damage ... guess I should feel needed, too when I heal
    someone who really needs it

    Fun is a strange thing ... some even consider ganking lvl 10 fun
    --
    The cataclysm broke the world ... and the pandas could not fix it!

  20. #20

    Re: Why is Discipline supposedly more fun than Holy?

    I am disc priest from pre Wotlk patch. Just dont like raid healing actually=) It depends on healer i think what is more fun.
    Who says that disc uses less buttons? I use liek 9 bind on grid+clique and some binds for my CD like Power Infusion etc.
    But ofc main are - PW:S, Flash Heal, Penance and Renew.
    As for me - i like work with tanks, and they love me for insane damage mitigation=)))
    And one more reason - we have alot of aoe heals in our guild (but we dont have any holy priest =/) and only few decent target healers.
    Ofc i have my dual-spec pve-holy and when we need it - i use it, but my gear is better for disc.
    Cant say disc easier or harder than holy...depends on player ^^
    I would say - try it=)
    And to all ppls whos guildies can only look on numbers - install recount+addon "guessed absorbs" - shows absorbs done.
    Another way - make WWS log - go to your tank page for event - look for damage mitigation list - there should be string "absorbed" in %% of damage done to tank.





Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •