Holy Priest vs Discipline Priest (Healing wise)

[sneakysneakywalrus]

Alright, so I have had lots of mixed responses on my 60 Priest that Discipline is better for healing than Holy and vice versa, I'd just like to know what you all thought rather than random people who could or could not be trying to help for my best interest. Thank you very much, reply away

[partizan]

Disc at lower levels, Holy at probably 65+

[MagusUnion]

Disc keeps damage from hitting you, therefor is an extra layer of mitigation

Holy heals your health rapidly, and keeps you top'ed off while taking damage...

They are both situational healing specs, and require a bit of self-discipline and mastery to get the hang of both... but I honestly think one is as good as the other in terms of overall performance... But there are cases where one spec. is preferred over the other, and this is usually situationally per content faced...

[Vook]

Holy IMO, once you get Circle of Healing you're set for anything that normal dungeons can throw at you, with Holy's huge toolbox.

[sneakysneakywalrus]

Thanks for the help you guys, and I have one last question... Do you guys know a good rotation for a shadow priest at 60ish, I don't have Mind Sear or Mind Spike yet? I keep running out of mana and I was asking if anyone knew a better mana efficient rotation. (sorry I asked this, considering it is completely off-topic, just came to my head)

[Velenei]

Thanks for the help you guys, and I have one last question... Do you guys know a good rotation for a shadow priest at 60ish, I don't have Mind Sear or Mind Spike yet? I keep running out of mana and I was asking if anyone knew a better mana efficient rotation. (sorry I asked this, considering it is completely off-topic, just came to my head)

Put dots up, mind blast, mind flay. Glyph Dispersion and your mana issues should go away

[Voytrekk]

Thanks for the help you guys, and I have one last question... Do you guys know a good rotation for a shadow priest at 60ish, I don't have Mind Sear or Mind Spike yet? I keep running out of mana and I was asking if anyone knew a better mana efficient rotation. (sorry I asked this, considering it is completely off-topic, just came to my head)

I'm leveling a spriest right now. At 54, I just do Vampiric Touch, SW:P, Mind Blast if shadow orbs are up, then spam mind flay until it's death. I generally don't have any mana problems with this.

[sneakysneakywalrus]

Hmm, thats weird I do about that except with devouring plague and Im going to like half mana before they die.

[Deleted]

With full cloth heirlooms and obviously dungeon blues I've been attonement smite healing my way up to cata instances, and more often than not embarrased some dps players on the meters while doing it as well, while keeping everyone up the whole time, sometimes a shield, poh and a penance thrown in for o-shit situations, but not needed most of the time.

Quite fun as well!

[Ishimura]

Shadow word: death with masochism and you get mana back!
shadow word: death glyph and you get spirit tap1

Never OOM! EVER!

[DomBomb1]

Put dots up, mind blast, mind flay. Glyph Dispersion and your mana issues should go away

It's a shame you don't learn dispersion til level 69 :-p

[maquiladora]

use shadowword death more frequently = mana reg

u also neednt use full dots on every mob - just use vampiric touch + mindblast for replenishment, then spam mindflay and kill with sw:death.

[Sageadvice]

Just finished leveling my shadow priest and my rotation changed from bracket to bracket. I had the heirloom shoulders, robe & staff, and I had Glyph of Spirit Tap, which in my mind is absolutely essential to quick and efficient leveling. Basically, in Outland and Northrend my rotation was something like: Vampiric Touch -> Mind Blast -> SW:P -> Mind Flay, then finish them off with SW:D (Which is key for Spirit Tap to proc). I rarely used Devouring Plague on regular mobs, and I didn't really care about the whole shadow orb business as the fights weren't long enough for it to matter. The reason I did Mind Blast directly after VT was to get the Replenishment ticking immediately, then I'd start stacking the DoTs. Once I did the rotation and started mind flaying, it was usually enough to get them below the 25% health mark (if not, mind flay again) so I could finish them with SW:D and get the Spirit Tap buff.

In Cataclysm it's a bit different. The mobs have significantly more health, so my rotation changed to something like this: Vampiric Touch -> Mind Blast -> SW:P -> Devouring Plague -> Mind Flay -> Mind Flay -> SW:D. It's okay to cut the second Mind Flay short, or skip it altogether, as the priority is getting Spirit Tap to proc.

I was able to use these rotations, along with the gear that I had, to minimize downtime. I rarely had to drink when leveling and it was usually only after taking down elites or large groups.

Hope this helps.

[Bullarkie]

Thanks for the help you guys, and I have one last question... Do you guys know a good rotation for a shadow priest at 60ish, I don't have Mind Sear or Mind Spike yet? I keep running out of mana and I was asking if anyone knew a better mana efficient rotation. (sorry I asked this, considering it is completely off-topic, just came to my head)

I just leveled a priest to 85. If you really want to avoid mana issues and are killing only one mob use this rotation:

Vampiric Touch
Mind Blast
Mind Flay x 2
Shadow Word: Death

You can go forever without stopping using this rotation. I added a SW: Pain in there when I got to Cata zones.

[Sentinel]

I just leveled a priest to 85. If you really want to avoid mana issues and are killing only one mob use this rotation:

Vampiric Touch
Mind Blast
Mind Flay x 2
Shadow Word: Death

You can go forever without stopping using this rotation. I added a SW: Pain in there when I got to Cata zones.

Exactly this. The only time you really need to use Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague is when you're fighting an important quest mob or a boss in a dungeon.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the help you guys, and I have one last question... Do you guys know a good rotation for a shadow priest at 60ish, I don't have Mind Sear or Mind Spike yet? I keep running out of mana and I was asking if anyone knew a better mana efficient rotation. (sorry I asked this, considering it is completely off-topic, just came to my head)

Mind Spike and Mind Sear are situational spells you won't use in your standard rotation, even at L85. Mind Spike is great if you need burst damage on low health targets, where your DoTs wouldn't tick through (mostly adds on boss fights) or if you need to remove your DoTs from a specific target. Mind Sear is a very nice AoE, but it's only for situations where you have more mobs than you can reasonably DoT.

When those circumstances are not given use your three DoTs, Mind Blast and Mind Flay. Don't forget Shadow Word: Death, with the Glyph of Spirit Tap, and you should be fine. Once you gain access to the Shadowfiend and Dispersion, your mana problems should be gone for good. Until then do not forget to use SW even if the target is above 25% health, because you will gain 10% of your mana each time you damage yourself with SW (through the talent Masochism).

[thebeefster]

Id say disc for lower levels as for the mitigation. Since there isnt much health anyway.
But around 60+ I'd start using holy because damage dealt increases and holy heals rapidly.

[SonsofDisaster]

I LOVE an Archangel Discipline build for 60-80 if you are running a lot of dungeons (more dungeons than solo-leveling). It puts out enough DPS that I can avoid Shadow (I really dislike Shadow... I don't know why ) and it gives you one more thing to do when healing those lower-level dungeons, so that they don't feel so monotonous.