Disc or Holy?

[macnuke]

my main is a lock.. so I don't know.

which spec would be better in 10mans for 4.1 and 4.2 content? and why please.
edjumakate me so we can finish getting our team together.

[Velenei]

I would say disc, because it brings powerful CDs holy can't for hardmodes.

[Wass]

Got a restodruid? Go disc. Holy is situationally good but disc just is moping the floor with it if you can play it.

[Zka]

edjumakate me

w...what?
btw disc looks better in most FL fights, but play whatever you prefer, it doesn't matter a lot unless you go into hardmodes

[Nanaboostme]

Disc is better unfortunately, I love the playstyle of holy for PVE and disc for PVP but it I find it much more convenient to stay disc for pve. Waiting for blizzard to equalize it hopefuly

[babylon]

both are perfectly viable for 10man ALL normal mode fights (yes even holy for baleroc can work fine, not as well as disc but still easy kill).
for heroic fights you may want to switch between them a bit, depending on your other healers and raids cds.

if youre not interested in works fine but in biggest-numbers-ever, then go wol, check yourself there.

[Noradin]

Our other priest always goes Holy for Baleroc heroic even if he likes Disc more most of the time. I dont know why but it does seem to work fine. I myself always stay Disc for all fights I heal since I'm normally Shadow and don't like Holy very much. There hasn't been a fight where I needed to respec, yet.

[Oradraffe]

Disc for sure its just to OP imo right now

[Deleted]

Disc is great for pretty much everything now, including 5mans.

Holy is meh.

[macnuke]

thanks for the answers guys.

[Themos]

Holy, while less popular, is very viable for the majority of content. This includes FLs normals, and most of its hc modes. Play what spec suits your playstyle. First hand experience with either tree will be more telling than asking someone else to make the decision for you.

[Nanaboostme]

Holy, while less popular, is very viable for the majority of content. This includes FLs normals, and most of its hc modes. Play what spec suits your playstyle. First hand experience with either tree will be more telling than asking someone else to make the decision for you.

I'm tired of people saying "play what suits you", sure that's a prinicple you should follow, but as a newly 85 holy priest trying to gear up with epics at the moment, it's much harder to keep everyone alive in heroics and keep mana up as holy compared to disc although I prefer the holy playstyle in pve. Because it gets frustrating sometimes, I almost feel obligated to switch to my alt disc spec because its more beneficial for the team and saves time. All im asking is blizzard to equalize holy with disc.

[Deleted]

Disc is great for pretty much everything now, including 5mans.

Holy is meh.

I find holy much easier in 5man (especially Zandalaris) because of the awesome aoe you got. Disc is to stressful with everyone taking huge chunk of damage.

[Ultima]

I can tell you that Discipline is the popular choice. I can also tell you that I healed every fight in Tier 11 as Holy without issue.

I have healed a few bosses in Firelands and I am sad to say that I have found Discipline to be the better spec of the two there, though I still healed them as Holy previously.

[Stormtov]

For a new healer i would of thought holy would be easier as you get higher passive regen, disc you have to proactive with you regen(inner focus and popping shields every 12 seconds). Im not saying disc is hard but if you are not using inner focus on cd and getting the mana return from shields regularly you will strugle. As mentioned both are quite viable. Main difference really is waht you bring to the raid. Holy brings a tank(well normally tank but single target at least) cooldown in the form of guardian spirit where as disc has a raid cooldown in the form of barrier. Barrier is usually in higher demand but are definately times for guardian spirit too.

[Collins]

If you're going to be hitting up firelands eventually, your best bet is Disc. The reason being, is because there's absolutely 0 spirit gear in FL, disc relies much less on spirit then holy. Disc is also a pretty good spec because its quite a good tank healing spec, and it also does the job of raid healing spec. But of course I would suggest to you that you try out holy as well, because they're both obviously great and viable specs, and ultimately it comes down to your interests in healing.

[Themos]

I'm tired of people saying "play what suits you", sure that's a prinicple you should follow, but as a newly 85 holy priest trying to gear up with epics at the moment, it's much harder to keep everyone alive in heroics and keep mana up as holy compared to disc although I prefer the holy playstyle in pve. Because it gets frustrating sometimes, I almost feel obligated to switch to my alt disc spec because its more beneficial for the team and saves time. All im asking is blizzard to equalize holy with disc.

I've never had an issue in heroics this expansion as holy. And I dinged the first week the expansion hit, when heroics were harder. DPS were doing about 8k max back then, and tanks were barely geared enough. It's pretty simple, use Serenity chakra, Inner Will, and don't use Fheal as your main heal. You shouldn't hava mana issues at all and if anyone dies it's either their fault or yours.

Holy is fine for the majority of content. It is harder to play at times but it also has a higher throughput if done right.

Disc has its advantages, but it is far from a perfect spec. The tree has many flaws that are only outweighed by the fact that the spec brings Barrier to a raid.

If you're going to be hitting up firelands eventually, your best bet is Disc. The reason being, is because there's absolutely 0 spirit gear in FL, disc relies much less on spirit then holy. Disc is also a pretty good spec because its quite a good tank healing spec, and it also does the job of raid healing spec. But of course I would suggest to you that you try out holy as well, because they're both obviously great and viable specs, and ultimately it comes down to your interests in healing.

Between the vendor gear, drops in the instance, and crafted boots, you can get spirit in every slot save the belt.

[macnuke]

thanks Themos.. our heals will be happy to hear.

we decided to alternate weeks with them... and see who does us all best.
then the other can go dps .. both know shadow pretty well, so as long as we have a full heals team, one gets to dps.

thanks again.

[Danner]

Holy and Disc are both perfectly viable in 5mans. As others have stated, Holy brings slightly more throughput, while disc brings slightly more longevity. As long as you compensate accordingly, healing the 5man as either is not going to be a major problem. But yes, the troll dungeons do give the preferential treatment to the healer offering superior throughput. And that means Holy will have an easier time.

For Firelands normalmode raids, the situation has usually reversed. Disc scales better than Holy, and the two specs are much closer in terms of throughput, while Disc still retains (and increases) its longevity advantage. Holy is still offering superior throughput when stacking up thanks to a bugged Sanctuary spell, but in general Disc is going to be the choice that allows you to relax a little. That said - both specs can absolutely do firelands normalmode raids, and while going disc may make for easier progression, don't let anyone tell you it is unfeasible to go Holy. I am doing a majority of the bosses every week as Holy myself, and I feel I am contributing a lot to healing.

For Firelands heroic raids, I have just been in a heated debate with Themos over whether Disc beats the crap out of Holy or not. We never managed to reach a consensus, so since he is giving his view, I will also give mine: Disc beats the crap out of Holy. The barrier is incredibly useful on almost every fight, leaving you with nothing but excuses and frantic "for the love of all cute bunnies everywhere, please click the lightwell!" spam as holy. The higher DPS requirements will likely not be filled by a mid or low-end guild, meaning the healers have to compensate by healing harder and longer, leaving Holy at a distinct disadvantage. And don't even get me started on Baleroc.

In time, your raid DPS will increase and your raid's ability to move out of fire will improve, making the difference between Disc and Holy smaller. At that point, Holy should again be perfectly viable. But for now, the only fight I can go holy on in Firelands HC with my guild is Shannox. And disc would still be the better choice. I'm just stubborn

[Deleted]

I find holy much easier in 5man (especially Zandalaris) because of the awesome aoe you got. Disc is to stressful with everyone taking huge chunk of damage.

I agree with this. Used to have disc pvp and disc pve until I realized I can't keep up people in zandalari hcs as disc (their fault as well since they all took huge damage and not all the time) so I respecced my disc pve to holy pve and I find it amazingly easy...with the high amount of aoe healing and 80% combat regen is just so easy to heal. For me holy meant switching from stress of keeping people alive to actually having fun, for 5 mans definitely holy is way more fun.