Forced to go discipline because of Saurfang

[Ynna]

Hello fellow priests,
I'm part of a casual 10-man raiding guild and we've just downed Saurfang for the first time. I'm extremely glad to see the guild making progress, but I've got a bad feeling as well, because I was forced to go Discipline for it.
I've been Holy as soon as level 10 and while I tried discipline and love a discipline priest in the raid, I don't particularly enjoy the spec. But now there's this boss on which we've wiped plenty of times and suddenly became a whole lot easier, just because I was trowing around shields. I've asked an officer if I should stay discipline and he said: "it's needed to down this boss'.
So, what do you guys think, is a discipline priest really needed to defeat Saurfang?
And do you know some arguments to convince my guild that me being holy is valuable to?
I'd like to thank you all in advance.

Ynna

[TheNerfherder]

Needed? No. But with one the fight is a pushover. When I do it he has roughly 40 runic power at the end of the fight and no marks on the raid.

[Soulssong]

One of our regular healers in our 10 man is holy with a disc offspec. To be honest, she tried healing once as disc but she didn't care for it but kept the offspec. After having a LOT of issues with that fight, I asked her to swap over her spec to disc. Worked like a charm.

So, in order to assist your guild, I would suggest to dual spec holy/disc.

**To clarify, she continues healing as holy except on that fight to help us out. And, no, it's not necessary to beat the boss. However, like other people said, it simplifies the fight by quite a bit. If you guys are struggling on the encounter and find it easier to use a disc priest, then just use dual spec to help the guild out.**

[Nangz]

it isn't needed, if it is needed your raid is doing something wrong. my group does it every week on 10 man and we are under 70 blood power without marks every time

[zenkai]

Interesting, what makes disc easier? just the shields? I have done it with every healer in 10 man and we won. I use to play a raid healer but since TOC guild wanted me to go shadow so I only know the fight from a DPS and Tanking (alt) stand point.

[Phalax]

It's interesting to start seeing more of these fights where certain healing spec's are more dominant, similarly to how certain tank classes on specific bosses have an easier time.

[Jeanclaude]

It is not needed, I did it last night with 2 resto druids. Its more the player then the spec

[TheNerfherder]

One of our regular healers in our 10 man is holy with a disc offspec.

Ye that's me in a nutshell.. Fucking pain to not be flexible sometimes but it always gets the job done regardless of fight. Some fights disc is just blatantly better while sometimes it's the reverse.


The whole point of disc is that you shield and spamheal the person who gets boiling blood debuff. Ever time it's completely absorbed (each tick) the runic power boss would gain is 0. Therefore he gains runic power WAY slower.

[Piscesthepally]

oh cry me a river... whats the big deal.

[Danner]

It is not needed to bring a discpriest to the 10man version. The fight is very simple anyway, and you can prevent a lot of damage as holy just by shielding targets of opportunity like a discpriest would. But either way, just spread out and the fight is a pushover.

It is not needed to bring a discpriest to the 25man version either. But I am fairly sure the fight is tuned for having one. There will be more damage going around, which in turn means more runic power on the boss. A single discpriest can reduce this income - and thus the difficulty - down by 30% easily. Again, if your raid learns to not take damage and manages to spread out, you should still be able to avoid most of it. But in practice, people will fsck up. Bigtime. You can keep on wiping. Or you can bring a discpriest.

[Soulssong]

Interesting, what makes disc easier? just the shields? I have done it with every healer in 10 man and we won. I use to play a raid healer but since TOC guild wanted me to go shadow so I only know the fight from a DPS and Tanking (alt) stand point.

Yes, it's their shields. The shields are able to absorb quite a bit of damage, which in turn is able to prevent him from gaining as much blood power or whatever it's called.

[Wulon]

oh cry me a river... whats the big deal.

That we don't get to chose what our other part in dual specc should be? Like shadow or some pvp specc?

On topic, I play holy on most of my time, i used to have a shadow specc that i used when we had alot of healers / low on dps in ulduar times. HC anub changed my off specc to disc and i have keept it ever since. But that isn't really cause of Saurfang, think its only once or so that i've actaully played as disc on that encounter, most of the time im holy and it worked fine.

[PromiscuousPenguin]

Hello fellow priests,
I'm part of a casual 10-man raiding guild and we've just downed Saurfang for the first time. I'm extremely glad to see the guild making progress, but I've got a bad feeling as well, because I was forced to go Discipline for it.
I've been Holy as soon as level 10 and while I tried discipline and love a discipline priest in the raid, I don't particularly enjoy the spec. But now there's this boss on which we've wiped plenty of times and suddenly became a whole lot easier, just because I was trowing around shields. I've asked an officer if I should stay discipline and he said: "it's needed to down this boss'.
So, what do you guys think, is a discipline priest really needed to defeat Saurfang?
And do you know some arguments to convince my guild that me being holy is valuable to?
I'd like to thank you all in advance.

Ynna

Now as much as I do perfectly understand how a player can have a preference for one or the other spec, if Disc gives you an extra edge for the fight is it that much of a big deal for you to have to heal as disc for the one fight? As mentioned you don't have to be disc to down him but it helps. Hence why not.

[kronpas]

keep disc as off spec, and go on with your holy love. My main spec is disc, my toon is geared for disc stats, but I always switch to holy for Twin ToC HM, since I find myself to be easier to heal that fight as holy.

In short, no big deal :\

[Evee]

TBH, they shouldn't have forced you to switch. A suggestion, yes. Something to try, yes. But a "you have to swap specs" eff that. After spending a couple weeks running into the brick wall that is sourfang my guild finally got him down. And guess what, no disc priest. It is not needed, and only serves as a scapegoat for the weak. Ranged need to be on top of adds, and tanks need to be on their A game. Next time you get told to switch, ask everyone else if they would mind not playing like a bunch of bitches who need a crutch.

[PromiscuousPenguin]

TBH, they shouldn't have forced you to switch. A suggestion, yes. Something to try, yes. But a "you have to swap specs" eff that. After spending a couple weeks running into the brick wall that is sourfang my guild finally got him down. And guess what, no disc priest. It is not needed, and only serves as a scapegoat for the weak. Ranged need to be on top of adds, and tanks need to be on their A game. Next time you get told to switch, ask everyone else if they would mind not playing like a bunch of bitches who need a crutch.

Deep thoughts my friend...very deep...Each guild, raid group is different...if a disc priest helps and worked for them how is that a big problem or require that kind of attitude. If one of our guildies asked a question like the one you suggest every time he was asked to make a small concession for the benefit of the group the said player would soon be guildless.

[tehmark]

Hello fellow priests,
I'm part of a casual 10-man raiding guild and we've just downed Saurfang for the first time. I'm extremely glad to see the guild making progress, but I've got a bad feeling as well, because I was forced to go Discipline for it.
I've been Holy as soon as level 10 and while I tried discipline and love a discipline priest in the raid, I don't particularly enjoy the spec. But now there's this boss on which we've wiped plenty of times and suddenly became a whole lot easier, just because I was trowing around shields. I've asked an officer if I should stay discipline and he said: "it's needed to down this boss'.
So, what do you guys think, is a discipline priest really needed to defeat Saurfang?
And do you know some arguments to convince my guild that me being holy is valuable to?
I'd like to thank you all in advance.

Ynna

Dual spec disc and stop complaining. Disc is waaaaaay more helpful on that fight than holy could ever be. Its one fight, get over it. I spec disc during 10 and 25 for this fight gladly because I recognize how beneficial it is to the raid. Heck, in a ten man you can avoid blood boil completely with good SP and sticking a crit heal bubble on the target for when your regular shield expires.

[Ynna]

Thanks for the replies. They've helped my thinking a lot.

it isn't needed, if it is needed your raid is doing something wrong. my group does it every week on 10 man and we are under 70 blood power without marks every time

Could come up with sompething specific on what we'd be doing wrong? Not spreading out properly? Too slow on the adds? Too low overall dps?

oh cry me a river... whats the big deal.

The big deal is that I really don't like discipline pve. I also like to have a pvp spec as well and I'm not planning on respeccing every week.

It is not needed to bring a discpriest to the 10man version. The fight is very simple anyway, and you can prevent a lot of damage as holy just by shielding targets of opportunity like a discpriest would. But either way, just spread out and the fight is a pushover.

Thanks, I'll try that.

Dual spec disc and stop complaining. Disc is waaaaaay more helpful on that fight than holy could ever be. Its one fight, get over it. I spec disc during 10 and 25 for this fight gladly because I recognize how beneficial it is to the raid. Heck, in a ten man you can avoid blood boil completely with good SP and sticking a crit heal bubble on the target for when your regular shield expires.

I'd like to keep my duel spec for pvp/farming. So my choices are either Disc pve and Disc pvp or Holy pve and Disc pvp. And like I've said I'm not particulary fond of discipline healing. While I appreciate the concept of preventing damage it just doesn't fit my playstyle.

[tehmark]

I'd really like to say that you should just join a 25 man guild because you wouldn't have this problem most likely.

Its a problem with the class. We have two healing trees that work quite well but fill drastically different roles. You don't find that in a shammy/druid/pally.

If you continue to do 10's do whatever makes you happy I guess. Hardmode guilds on the other hand have the right to force you to spec as needed. It sucks because like you I was faced with giving up my dps offspec but I got sweet gear so I didn't care. Alts take care of my farming/pvp.

[Worshaka]

Hello fellow priests,
I'm part of a casual 10-man raiding guild and we've just downed Saurfang for the first time. I'm extremely glad to see the guild making progress, but I've got a bad feeling as well, because I was forced to go Discipline for it.
I've been Holy as soon as level 10 and while I tried discipline and love a discipline priest in the raid, I don't particularly enjoy the spec. But now there's this boss on which we've wiped plenty of times and suddenly became a whole lot easier, just because I was trowing around shields. I've asked an officer if I should stay discipline and he said: "it's needed to down this boss'.
So, what do you guys think, is a discipline priest really needed to defeat Saurfang?
And do you know some arguments to convince my guild that me being holy is valuable to?
I'd like to thank you all in advance.

Ynna

It's not needed but it does provide a significant advantage. There are other things that can be done however, you can Hand of Protection people with boiling blood and you can also ensure everyone is 15yds away from each other so they don't chain the blood nova. In addition you can ensure the blood beasts never hit anyone by utilising snares and knockbacks. I guarantee if you were to link a combat log of your attempts there are several things your guild is doing wrong which is making the encounter more difficult than it needs to be.