Disc, Holy, or both???

[Mortifer]

Hey all,

Here is my ? in hand. What is most wanted in a raid and what are their assignments? I am currently a disc priest. But it is an alt. My main is a shammy with i am really happy with the play style, healing assignments.

I am currently gearing up http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...dge&cn=Sanatus just need some gear so i can start doign TOC, but im just not really familiar with priests. In 5 mans i have no problem as disc, but it seems like when im doing VOA, im just casting alot of renews and PW:S on people and keeping PoM up. And spot healing with flash heal. But i guess im just used to raid healing and the only option i have with that is prayer of healing. While not bad it just doesnt have the punch im used to.

So basically im wondering if i should go holy or just keep a spec of both. Right now i have a shadow spec, but i dont see myself going dps anytime soon. But i was just wondering what are priorities of each spec and what kind of healing they are meant for (raid/tank/offtank).

Also, glyph options for priest and is there a difference in how i should be gemming between the two? I appreciate any information given :-)

[AetherMcLoud]

Disc Priests are pretty much a binary option for the raid. You can do without one, but having one shieldspam and snipe the raid really really helps. But you never want more than one in your raid. Holy priests on the other hand are always nice to have no matter how much of them are in your raid.

For tanks you want a paladin anyway, so disc is usually on raidshielding and sniping duty, and they do that much much better than tankhealing.

[Ndogg]

Its people and comments like this that give disc priests a bad name. Paladins do have big heals yes, they have OP beacon yes. Disregarding that a disc priest cannot effectively be assigned to tank survival like a paladin is just being ignorant.

Binary option ? 9k mitigation shields with stackable DA shields, hasted heals and 3% damage deduction, and one of the best "oh s***" buttons in the game in Penance, lul what ? Not to mention Pain Supression for when your tank starts to take really big hits or his cd's are down. Only reason holy paladin became a necessity was for heroic Anub, and now BQL. Even in these cases with proper cooldown management tanks are more than manageable to keep up.

Disc priests also thanks to rapture never run out of mana, even when shield spamming. This also inturn makes all healers use less mana since raid damage is so low from mitigation shields. More mana ? Less healing chaotic raid damage ? Binary option ? I think not...

OH and you will also get non-stop whispers from all caster dps for your PI :P

[tehmark]

if you aren't running out of mana as a disc priest you..

1. are poorly itemized
2. aren't doing jack

[Gankenstein]

if you aren't running out of mana as a disc priest you..

1. are poorly itemized
2. aren't doing jack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnGKkc4p6XA

[Mortifer]

So i got 4 answers that havent answered any of my questions lol. Please can someone atleast attempt to answer them???

[Lotharion]

So i got 4 answers that havent answered any of my questions lol. Please can someone atleast attempt to answer them???

Holy = Great raid heals, strong tank heals
Disc = Prevention of damage, so can go either way. Disc priests are generally considered tank healers, but can do either with versatility.

The healing priest I have in my guild runs Disc/Holy and switches between them during our ICC runs. It's a very useful set up.

[Mortifer]

So i got my disc set up then, what do you suggest for holy...talents plus glyphs?

[Worshaka]

Its people and comments like this that give disc priests a bad name. Paladins do have big heals yes, they have OP beacon yes. Disregarding that a disc priest cannot effectively be assigned to tank survival like a paladin is just being ignorant.

Binary option ? 9k mitigation shields with stackable DA shields, hasted heals and 3% damage deduction, and one of the best "oh s***" buttons in the game in Penance, lul what ? Not to mention Pain Supression for when your tank starts to take really big hits or his cd's are down. Only reason holy paladin became a necessity was for heroic Anub, and now BQL. Even in these cases with proper cooldown management tanks are more than manageable to keep up.

Disc priests also thanks to rapture never run out of mana, even when shield spamming. This also inturn makes all healers use less mana since raid damage is so low from mitigation shields. More mana ? Less healing chaotic raid damage ? Binary option ? I think not...

OH and you will also get non-stop whispers from all caster dps for your PI :P

GS > PS for the record... GS can be used late or reactively whereas Pain Suppression needs to be used early or proactively. Giving the tank 40% bonus heals and a free life is a far more powerful tool than a flat 40% damage reduction which may not prevent death. And the 40% extra healing usually results in no tank death meaning GS usually has a 1min CD (it should be glyphed) compared to PS 2.4 mins (talented).

Our guild has specifically moved away from disc priests, I don't necesarily agree that a disc priest wouldn't provide some nice utility, but at the end of the day that utility isn't necessary. The raw output healing of holy is far more desirable, particularly in our healer setup. So when it came down to getting a 2nd holy priest or a disc priest our guild chose holy.

Holy priests never run out of mana either... and i'm talking about appropriately geared holy priests for ICC25 content. I'm quite sure some around the ilvl 226 gear can but once you hit 251 to 264 gear your mana pool is a joke, they might as well remove it.

In summary I think disc priests are nice utility, they are more than viable but all thier perks don't make or break a raid. I personally find disc healing extremely boring and I would have thought the preist community would be over with such a simplistic spec... I still find it bizzard how disc was snubbed in 3.0 and then became the best thing since sliced bread in 3.1 which what were very minor buffs. After about 1 patch worth of healing as disc for my OS I had enough because its not even remotely challenging and the play style of holy is just a lot more fun because of its layers of complexity.

[Zeuq]

I agree with a lot of what Worshaka says. Discipline has some major advantages over Holy, such as improve mana efficiency and regen and superior single target throughput/absorption, but it also has some major weaknesses including relatively poor scaling and a more montonous style. The real problem is that a lot of those advantages vanish in the context of 264+ gear, while the weaknesses, at best, remain the same. For instance, as Holy, I gem primarily SP and Haste (SP/Spirit in Blues), and the only way I have serious mana problems is if I don't manage my cooldowns well. Similarly, the superior single target healing simply isn't much of an advantage if you run with at least 1 Paladin, and is essentially gone if you have 2.

That all said, I still think having a Discipline Priest in raid is useful in most raid set-ups. I also still run it as my off-spec primarily for 10-mans, since I tend to heal with a Shaman or Druid, but when we're 5-man healing, and we only have one Pally and the usual Discipline Priest can't make it, I'll generally bring more utility as Discipline.


As for the specific question of the OP, the simple answer is that both healing specs are raid viable and which one you should play depends mostly on which style you prefer, but also should consider what content you're doing and what the rest of your healing team is composed of. So my suggestion is to try both specs and see how much you enjoy each one. If, for instance, you're running ToC, where Discipline is equal or superior in 4/5 encounters, but you prefer Holy, unless your healing team is also heavily lopsided toward raid healing (say, 3 Druids and another Holy Priest), there's really no reason you can't do all of it as Holy. However, if you also don't see yourself doing DPS, as you mention in the OP, why not grab both and use whichever spec you feel is most appropriate to the situation.

[muto]

disc priests can out heal anyone by just shield spamming only.

[supa]

Hint: The Disc T10 to go for is shadow gear, so I'd suggest at going for that depending on how much you play the alt.

[Nikoll]

i prefer disc because preventing damage > healing damage. t10 shadow is better for dis than the holy gear. But if this is an alot you just want to heal on keep a spec for both. if you plan on having a dps spec go disc and get t10 shadow because the gear is good for both specs. Disc CDs are amazing and a boost to raid dps.

[Ândrömèdâ]

disc priests can out heal anyone by just shield spamming only.

omg, this is just the worst argument ever for disc (or for any other healer I'm affraid). If you're just spamming PW:S for topping the meters then this is pointless I am sorry to tell you that, even if you can top the meters this I agree.

The disc playstyle is very particular this is true. But certainly not boring or simplistic in my opinion. Damage anticipation is far away for being boring and you have to be aware of many things within your raid composition. Playing pure tank healer like a paladin is boring, then I agree. 2/3 spells chain-spamming IS boring.

But taking care of the tank (which can be quite effective even in 25man) while keeping an eye on the dps to burst top them in case of panic (PW:S, 1sec FH (with BT), or penance) + damage anticipation is everything but boring I think. But this is a matter of personnal taste I guess ;D

Basically I don't really find so huge differences between the backgrounds of holy and disc, let me just try to be more specific without flamming me please :

- PW:S spam in disc / Renew spam in holy : participate to mana regen. Main difference is that PW:S is far stronger than renew with more or less no overhealing (if PW:S is not randomly spammed of course)
- Both specs have a haste bonus : BT for disc, SoL + Serendipity for Holy.
- Crit proc : DA for disc (damage mitigation) , SoL (haste proc) + Mana regen for holy
- Burst heal : penance for disc (channeled, strong single target), CoH for holy (instant, medium group target)
- Panic button : pain suppression for disc (40% damage reduction on target), Gardian Spirit for holy (+40% healing received + prevent death)

I see many corresponding talents, but the difference is that disc is single target oriented and damage mitigation whereas holy is multiple target oriented and damage healing. One is mostly preventive, the second reactive. One is strong damage mitigation with low healing throughput, the second is no damage reduction with very high healing throughput.

Of course a raid encounter can succeed without a disc, but it can as well succeed without a holy one. A restau drood/chaman combo works very well as well

And to finish, yes agreed, GS is far better than PS this is obvious : prevents death and increase healings a lot + a very low CD with glyph... Obviously better no one can deny this