Topic Holy or Disc Priest, WHAT TO CHOOSE!!!
Zardan
Ravencrest
Zardan
90 Blood Elf Warlock
6160
Raiding, I know, holy by far, but what about dungeon heals and leveling? I've seen both holy healers and discipline healers do pretty well on dungeons but im not sure what to choose. I may wanna do some actual quests outside of the dungeons and I wanna make sure I was making the right choice on what spec does both good healing and some damage good enough for leveling.
Lumilth
Gurubashi
Lumilth
85 Blood Elf Priest
6945
as far as leveling, if you want to level in dungeons pick either holy or disc. if you want to quest out in the world heal specs arent fun imo. go shadow.


My main is disc but I always leveled as shadow so the other week I decided to level a new priest as disc only. Took 2 weeks to level 1-80. The new atonement/evangelism/archangel is amazing for leveling. Shadow seems to eat mana at lower levels, disc is pretty much endless damage output. I did some questing, some insta-queing, just smited the entire time in both and never really had to heal. If you intend on healing with said priest, level discipline and learn some tricks as you go, if you are going to be shadow, level shadow.
Sidheas
Cairne
Sidheas
85 Dwarf Hunter
4900
I personally heal as Holy whenever I can, and have never had any mana or throughput problems (at least in Wrath content). The key is to have a good sense of your cooldowns and when to use Renew vs PoM vs CoH, etc. Very fine line sometimes! Disc can get a little monotonous, imo (PWS... PWS... PWS... PWS... PENANCE!........ PWS)

But really, its up to you.
Lumilth
Gurubashi
Lumilth
85 Blood Elf Priest
6945
(PWS... PWS... PWS... PWS... PENANCE!........ PWS)


What a sad misconception. That's like me saying all you do is CoH PoH PoH PoH PoH PoH CoH.
Eurozz
Spinebreaker
Eurozz
85 Blood Elf Mage
4480
NOt really lum. i played a disc priest for the entire expansion and all through icc hard mode. thats pretty much exactly it, while tossing a POM in there. when your entire job revolves around just making sure the raid is bubbled it really does not get any easier than that. we rolled holy paladin, disc priest, druid for the most of icc until we over geared our 10 man group then switched to just me and the holy pally. not hard. keep bubbling. please dont try to make disc out to be more than it is. its not.
Mezmeryze
Aegwynn
Mezmeryze
69 Blood Elf Priest
840
I have both a holy priest and a discipline priest and I can tell you that both aren't very exciting at all. Leveling wise, I like discipline because when people eff up (and they do, ALOT) in dungeons pre-80, Penance is a savior. Usually if I'm playing a Discipline priest, I shield and toss a Renew. That's all that's really needed. Holy is good for dungeons with lots of AoE damage.
Sorania
Dunemaul
Sorania
85 Human Priest
5970

Raiding, I know, holy by far


Someone lied to you. Always Disc unless your raid already has one - in which case you go Holy so that the two of you don't have as many problems with Weakened Soul. For Dungeons and leveling, I prefer Disc because it feels like it compensates better for any lack of gear either on your part or the tank's. Disc also won't crown parts of its tree with talents that either require your raid to click something immobile or require you to be dead.
Woo
Archimonde
Woo
85 Undead Priest
4005
What about cata 10mans, from the vids ive seen i dont think a disc priest will be able to raid heal better than holy


Raiding, I know, holy by far


Someone lied to you. Always Disc unless your raid already has one - in which case you go Holy so that the two of you don't have as many problems with Weakened Soul. For Dungeons and leveling, I prefer Disc because it feels like it compensates better for any lack of gear either on your part or the tank's. Disc also won't crown parts of its tree with talents that either require your raid to click something immobile or require you to be dead.
Sakes
Frostmane
Sakes
80 Dwarf Priest
5210

No one knows, and if Blizz balances right there shouldn't be a difference in power, just perference.

Respecs are cheap. Try both. Stick with what you like.
Orphan
Bladefist
Orphan
85 Blood Elf Priest
4920
I leveled Holy through BC and WotLK, but switched to Disc back when raiding Naxx was popular. Both specs have gone through many changes since then, but it still all comes down to personal style. Do you want to be a reactive healer or a mitigator of damage?
I stuck with Disc because I liked the ability to prevent damage before it occurs. It required more study in knowing the encounters, when damage was likely to occur, what kinds of damage, etc. (not to say my Holy bretheren don't need to know that), but that's what makes Disc fun. Now, with a Smite / Atonement spec viable for healing, Disc is even more fun to play. And fun is what keeps you playing.
As for the whole "Disc is single target heals while Holy is meant for raid heals" debate, I'm sure there are many Disco's like me out there who raid heal just fine. Just bring the game, not the gear/spec, and you'll do fine.
Keiren
Kilrogg
Keiren
86 Blood Elf Priest
11345
Disc is more forgiving on gear/skill/experience.
Holy is not.

Disc is about PW:S spam.
Holy is about Renew spam.

Disc has a better single-target arsenal (Pennance).
Holy has a better group healing arsenal (CoH).

Disc is more simple.
Holy is more complicated.

Disc is more pigeonholed into its specific playstyle.
Holy is more versatile, especially with Chakra.

Both are fun.
Try them both and decide for yourself.
Malekus
Thrall
Malekus
85 Night Elf Priest
2950
as far as leveling, if you want to level in dungeons pick either holy or disc. if you want to quest out in the world heal specs arent fun imo. go shadow.


Actually, I found that leveling as disc was very fast and lots of fun. Shadow has mana efficiency problems at the lower levels (at least it did pre-4.0; not sure about now), while disc is a non-stop machine. And you can queue as healer and not have to worry about switching specs and drinking as soon as you zone in.

For all except aoe grinding, I think that disc is at least equal to shadow as a leveling spec.
Anant
Exodar
Anant
83 Undead Priest
8700
Holy.....Paladin
Nestaja
Proudmoore
Nestaja
85 Draenei Priest
6840
Disc is more forgiving on gear/skill/experience.
Holy is not.

Not quite. As with almost any other class, a more skilled player can outperform a better geared player. And while the learning curve seems gentler, getting really good at mitigation requires becoming intimately familiar with encounters and the players you are healing.

You can spec and gear a Discipline priest to be either a mitigation healer (or bubble blower), or a strong single-target healer (tank healer). I've been in raids with one of each.

A mitigation-priest that knows the mechanics of an encounter, that knows how and when to use his (or her) skills, is an incredibly powerful, versatile, and useful tool in a raid. Depending on the encounter (and the priest), one Discipline Priest can easily mitigate 20% to 30% of all incoming damage in an encounter. At least for a few more days, because nobody really knows exactly what commonplace raiding is going to be like for the next year with any absolute surety. A bubble blower just spamming shields is wasting time and mana.

But mitigation-healing and recovery-healing are two massively different playstyles. It boils down to whichever one you are more comfortable with, and whichever one you are most effective at. And getting really good at either one is going to take a lot of practice.
Woo
Archimonde
Woo
85 Undead Priest
4005
Whats the rotation for lvling as disc 80-85?



as far as leveling, if you want to level in dungeons pick either holy or disc. if you want to quest out in the world heal specs arent fun imo. go shadow.


Actually, I found that leveling as disc was very fast and lots of fun. Shadow has mana efficiency problems at the lower levels (at least it did pre-4.0; not sure about now), while disc is a non-stop machine. And you can queue as healer and not have to worry about switching specs and drinking as soon as you zone in.

For all except aoe grinding, I think that disc is at least equal to shadow as a leveling spec.
Puedo
Bonechewer
Puedo
85 Blood Elf Priest
4020
For leveling, I think both healing specs will have similar amounts of downtime. I would go shadow and pick whichever healing spec you like the most as you other spec (assuming you have dual spec).

As for picking a healing spec...
I like disc, but I switch to holy from time to time. Both specs are probably of equal difficulty. Just replace PW:S with renew for holy and throw in an extra raid healing CD, and they're almost the same.

Big Differences:

Disc will use smite as their standard heal, so a Disc priest will do damage while providing heals on the tank. Disc has Power Infusion and extra damage reductions CDs (Pain Suppression and PW:B). Inner Focus in conjunction with Train of Thought should be interesting as well. Also, Disc Priests will probably make better tank healers than Holy which might make them better for dungeons.

Holy has Chakra which has been oversimplified to "Is the damage single target or AoE?" and Holy Words. Holy also has Lightwell and Spirit of Redemption of which disc (or any other healer) also has no equivalent, and Holy Priests have Guardian Spirit which is arguably the most powerful healer CD in the game. Body and Soul is also very fun.

Regardless, you should try out both specs at 85 (not just 80) and see what you like best for raiding. I doubt either spec will have a significant advantage over the other at release plus they'll probably both be fun.

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