Sin dorei

I wanted to get some advice on whether or not I should stay disc or go back to holy for the sake of raid healing. Holy naturally seemed like the better choice solely for powerful raid heals, but I have been reading up on the potential of a discipline priest and now I am not sure. I am presently leaning towards disc.

There are a few reasons why I think disc might be a better option. The main reason has to do with power word shield. When spec'd for it, I think this may be one of the single most powerful and versatile spells in the game. It is an instant cast, somewhat spammable (not on the same target but you can spam if you are cycling through players), medium powered pre-emptive "heal". Mine seems to absorb around 5k dmg. Glyphed, it also heals a small amount (1.2k avg) and has a crit chance which provides a proc rate (for things such as divine aegis). Every time it is cast it reduces all damage the raid takes by 3% for 20 secs. Once the shield expires or is destroyed I gain 2.5% of my mana and anyone I shielded gains 2% mana, 8 rage, 16 energy, or 32 runic power. Whenever I cast a shield I gain 25% haste for the next spell I cast. Finally, the shield can reflect much of the damage it absorbs (though I am not spec'd for this).

Now there are a number of fights in Ulduar in which forum priests (elitist jerks, not WoW community site) recommend just focusing on keeping shields up on everyone the entire time (Ignis, for example) as being a very successful way of "healing". I have always been conservative with shielding, especially as holy. In part, I think I did not really consider how ridiculous this spell is and, in part, since absorption is not registered on healing meters I feel a bit self-conscious about it looking like I am not pulling my weight.

There are a couple other reasons why I am drawn to disc. Penance is a crazy good spell. Probably the best single target heal a priest can get (which is why it is on a CD). Also, I use flash heal much more than I use greater heal, even as holy. As Holy, greater heal is still too slow and heals too much. If I am the only healer or if I am the only healer on a tank, then it can be useful. However, at present it just overheals too much. I do not appear to be alone with this assessment. It could be that I need to focus on exploding my haste rating as holy to make this more useful, but it just does not seem as effective to me as some of the other spells (and this seems to be a complaint of many other priests).

Dispelling is necessary in Ulduar. Mass dispel on less than a 1/2 second cast is very, very nice. And makes it a spell I can actually use without worrying about dying from standing in a dangerous area too long. I can still cast this as holy, of course, but it is just much easier to use consistently as disc.

Finally, spells like power infusion and pain suppression are amazing. PS functions like a targetable shield wall. It does reduce the aggro generated by the target, but, I am beginning to thing I should be casting it on the MT a bit more anyway.

It is also worth noting that it is very hard to run out of mana as disc, at least compared to holy. Not that I was having an issue with it as holy, but certain fights later on will be hard because of that.

Now, the main downside. Really the only downside I see is less potential for AoE heals. No circle of healing. This is a fantastic spell, especially when glyphed, and it would be a sad thing to lose. I do not think, overall, it provides the benefits of a well played disc priest's shielding abilities, but it could be close. Prayer of healing is just gross in terms of the heals it can provide, especially when it crits. Disc priests can still cast this spell but it is not going to be as amazing as when thrown out there by a holy priest. There are only a couple of fights where I found it almost necessary to rely on this spell, fights where everyone starts taking huge amounts of damage. Finally, divine hymn, the priest's version of tranquility, works fine for both holy and disc. I could possibly rely more on holy nova, in place of circle of healing, for those emergency AoE heal situations, but this would not be as effective.

I downloaded an addon for recount that provides a "guessed absorption" meter. It is not accurate, compared to the other meters, but I figure it will at least give me a rough idea of my PW:S and divine aegis contributions vs. my heals. Wow, okay. I think this is enough for now. Anyone have any comments? Suggestions?

My thought that as a third healer the advantages of being shadow are out weigh the disadvantages especially with a druid healer in party. I can certainly cover the big heals on tanks. My big heals will hit for 14-20k on both tanks with Beacon of Light.

If we were to change to a two healer set up then I think holy is the best bet. Certainly we'll get to that point but it will be a while. Cali can easily shift to DPS, me not so much.

my 3 cents is that as long as people are alive, play the way you want. if you like disc, if it fits your play style best, then play it.

{deleted post} Nileist wrote:

my 3 cents

He has one more cent than most people

{deleted post} Birall Bloodwinter wrote:

{deleted post} Nileist wrote:

my 3 cents

He has one more cent than most people

Last time I checked, Nielist had no cents at all.

{deleted post} Van wrote:

{deleted post} Birall Bloodwinter wrote:

{deleted post} Nileist wrote:

my 3 cents

He has one more cent than most people

Last time I checked, Nielist had no cents at all.

I see wat u did thur.

yeah, i fat fingered the "3" instead of the two and didn't proof read my post, so there ya go

And Oki, no I don't have anything too constructive to say about priests... From personal experience, Disc priests are better all around when the player is skilled. Disc is also going to be a better PvP option. If you're talking strictly raids, I have no doubt that you can make either work, although I figure Holy is the easier way to go for raids regardless of skill level.

Ive raided up to and including Ulduar as both Holy and Disc depending on what was needed. 25 mans mostly as Disc. IMO for the extra utility as there was usually another Priest (holy) there. I only do 5 mans as Disc as the healing in those situations is very easy. My Disc build I find is great for PvE and decent enough for PvP, but is not quite the PvP Disc spec IMO. If there is no Pally healer, Disc. is the next best viable option I believe for good single target healing. Thats my dime on the subject.

Thank you all for your feedback.

I have spent the last couple of weeks researching online (mostly Elitist Jerks and a very nice Disc Priest website I stumbled across) and speaking with anyone who would talk to me about it. I also ran into a WoW-addict player IRL with a degree in pure mathematics, who theory-crafts, who plays several healers including a priest. Everything seems to point to discipline as being a better bet all around. So that is where I am going to be, for now anyway.