Holy/Shadow or Disc/Shadow

[Tucows]

Hey all. I had a quick question about choosing the correct builds.

I just recently started playing my priest. I'm currently working through heroic dungeon runs for gear and I decided to go with Shadow to gear up. My second spec is disc. I have all my macros set up and have a pretty good understanding of the class but I just haven't had to run as healer (one of the guildies that usually runs with us is disc/holy and much better geared than I am). So far the only things i've healed are old raids (for 4.3 trans).

Part of me wants to go ahead and just start stacking haste and get my shadow dps up higher, reforge my gear so i'm reforging for haste and not spirit or mastery.

I guess now my question. Would it be better to run shadow/holy since they both rely on haste than shadow/disc? Or should i just focus 100% on shadow and try to get two sets of gear?

Thanks.

[Arlee]

Ideally you would still want two separate sets anyways, though any pieces you have that have spirit on them can easily be used for healing too. Also... I would suggest you try both Holy and disc and see which one you like better. Though if you are looking to raid with that toon it would prob be the best advice to pick one spec and get that together well before worrying about a second spec too much.

[Deleted]

Holy and disc both like haste.

However if you're healing in mostly shadow gear and lack spirit disc might be the better choice from a gear PoV as holy relies on spirit a lot more than disc does.

[Tucows]

My armory link is: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Maylei/simple

I'm mainly picking up any +Spirit items right now as I'm trying to gear for healing through Shadow. I guess I'll take the advice higher up and try to focus on gearing one spec at a time.

I guess for the most part I just want to be able to heal because I have two RL friends that play on that server and they both play dps. I guess that doesn't really matter if we don't mind the longer queue times .

[microtonal]

All three priest specs have fairly similar stat priorities (haste == mastery > crit, for the most part). If you want to raid current content with any seriousness, you'll eventually need to build separate, fine-tuned sets for DPS and healing, but if you're just doing heroics and maybe a bit of casual raiding, you can perform either role just fine with the same gear (with the exception of tier pieces, of course). Try both healing trees and pick the one you like better.

[Tucows]

Ok, that sounds good. I doubt I will do any serious raiding for awhile. Have a 4 month old at home and cannot find the time to dedicate to weekly raiding (at least not right now). I would like to do casual raiding though or fill in when my guild needs a spot filled. I will probably put my focus into shadow and get that spec geared up first.

Thanks everyone for the input.

[Munki]

I leveled as Disc/Shadow until 85 and found i couldn't keep people up in dungeons as disc so i switched to Holy and am loving it.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...akeia/advanced

There is my armory, have a few pvp pieces i need to replace still but i am getting there. Regs are cake to heal, heroics depends on the tank but usually can get throught hem fine.

[Tucows]

Yeah, I will have to try holy out. I guess the number of healing spells makes it look more complicated than disc. I got the same feeling from the holy/disc priest in my guild. He told me he had an easier time as holy than disc, but also said he has played holy a whole lot more than disc.

[Bluepoet]

I think, in your present situation, Shadow/Disc works pretty well...basically, you can use the same gear, and switch out trinkets/rings, as you pick them up...

I would suggest you run normals, in your healer spec (whichever one you choose), to get a feel for the fights...they will be lots more forgiving, while you learn. Then, try Heroics...most of them have the same base mechanics, just lots more hit points, and maybe more adds, and the like. Otherwise, you may get discouraged before really getting much experience, if you know what I mean?

Just a suggestion...

[Tucows]

Thanks for the suggestion and I agree with it 100%. I definitely do not want to jump into priest healing by doing heroics. When I start healing, I plan to run several random normals until it feels second nature.