priesty

Angus_Og

Angus_Og

New Member
sorry did not know what to call this post so i just made one up.

since my long hiatus, my knowledge on what is a good talent tree for my characters is non-existent. so i looked around and asked a couple of people about priest healing trees. it seems like a lot of people like this discipline healing tree so i thought i would give it a try. well after a couple of runs i can tell you one thing, it sucks.

yes i know it is one persons opinion and opinions are like..... well we won't go there. but i found for general dungeon runs that it was almost impossible to keep a group alive as a this spec rather then spec'ced as holy.

i believe that the discipline spec would be good if you only had to worry about one, maybe two tanks in a raid, but for having to watch 5 people and keep them alive holy was way easier.

now of course i say this as someone that has been shadow spec'ced since it was available as an option and still knows it better then the back of my hand. i tried healing once since time around late 60 to 70. it did not last long. more things died then a pest terminator at a bug convention, and it wasn't mobs.

for those disc spec priests out there, how do you do it?
 
My disc priest is on 65, but I've struggled with aoe damage in instances. I've learned to ID the melee classes at the beginning of the run and bubble early and often. PWS should be up at all times; fill with Flash Heal. Save Penance for tank if possible. I also have told the pug to take it easy in aoe-damage areas or we will wipe. They're usually receptive.

Of course, all that's is just my level 65 experience wrapped in my opinion. :D
 
Disc priest healing is a more similar to Pally healing...Anita I think prefers to heal as disc these days, need to get her to post here.
 
From what I was told, Disc healing is very difficult in a 5-man, and healing in a 10/25 would be tough if all the priests were Disc spec. Basically, Disc is awesome as the 2nd healer.

But to be fair, I haven't tried.
 
Actually, Blizzard is looking at overhauling Disc (but probably not until Cataclysm) because it's not performing nearly where it should. But it is rather useful in 10mans if you have good other healers.
 
Wend has always been Disc (until recently when she dual specced holy). I can speak to a couple of things...Think of Disc as primarily damage mitigation..you bubble as often as you possibly can because bubbles not only keep the target from taking damage, they also restore health when they are hit and reflect the damage back to the mob..they also give you back mana every time a mob pops them. Healing 5 mans is definitely more difficult as disc than holy except for very rare bosses where mitigation is the key, especially where AoE abounds and you get behind, as a disc its VERY hard to catch back up. Remember that you get a haste buff on the next cast after a bubble, so find an open target, bubble and then cast your prayer of healing and even a couple of holy novas if you have em. Disc's are best in a healing team..they provide the mitigation and one/two target primary healing while the other healer helps with topping up those targets and raid healing. I don't have a lot of experience with holy yet, but it sure makes some fights a whole lot easier (H-ToC when you get the female shadowy boss person) because of the instant group heals (Circle of Healing). I personally enjoy disc but for pure heals go for holy spec.
 
ok, so next question i would have. how many holy priests and how many disc priests do we have floating around say L75 and above?
 
Imcu is currently dual-spec shadow/holy. Altho I've kinda stalled out here lately, and I'm still sitting at 79
 
Disc priests really shrine in some areas, an example is Saurfang in ICC, The bubble stops the tank from taking damage which means Saurfang doesn't get blood points which is huge.

I know Matt (Radiance) has played a Disc priest maybe as long as Anita as well, he should add something here. He tried holy and didn't like and does everything as Disc.
 
Having tried holy, I'm still leaning towards Disc, perhaps because its the way I've played Wend the most. Holy shines when you have intensive AoE dmg to cover, but other than that I think disc makes up for the lower heals in damage mitigation.
 
a few things i have learned

here are a few things i have learned by abusing buto as a holy healer these past few weeks.
  • renew is your friend
  • prayer of mending is useless in ranged dps groups
  • poorly geared tanks really do kill a run, as well as mana
  • overly aggressive tanks give healers headaches
  • flash heal is also your friend
 
I tried a foray into Disc at L70 when I was having problems with mana regen. Well, let's just say that the experiment completely failed as a primary healer for ZA (not a very friendly instance at the time for single-target healers). Not only were my heals hitting for far less, but the heals were slow, as well (believe me, you get used to a 1/2 second reduction on healing).

With all the changes that Blizzard's made to Disc, I've been tempted on trying out Disc for my second spec (primary spec will always be shadow), though Deimus is well behind the gear curve at present...
 
My priest (Biern) is Shadow / Disc. Actually, I have not tried holy, so I cannot strictly compare them. The Disc spec was for PVPing as they are nearly unkillable by non experts, such as most of what you see in the BG's and WG.

I healed 5 man heroics quite a bit with him using shadow dps gear and some pvp gear. The basic strat I used was mitigation before healing, as Anita indicated. THe shields from disc are just awesome. I guess it may have something to do with not knowing any difference, but with practice, they heal just fine in 5 man heroics, even with much less than current gear levels.
 
I enjoy Holy. I also enjoy light well. It's a beautiful thing when people use it properly. Never tried Disc. The reason is that I'd have to develop a new mind set to figure out effective healing, and I don't feel like doing that. I don't know about Disc but Holy has some really nice 'Oh crap!' buttons that have saved the day numerous times.
 
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guardian spirit is a nice 'oh crap' button, but i don't have/use lightwell. i really don't believe in it. to much hassle for the people that need it.

i am getting better gear now. will have to try healing again. the last few runs has been ol' faithful, shadow. i will probably copy wends' disc build and try it out. a few things i want to try out.
 
I think you did quite well on our CoS run the other day. I certainly didn't make it easy with my tanking. :)
 
I keep thinking to change my build but haven't yet...I have power infusion which I'm sure I'm not using to its fullest...I would take my point out of that and put it somewhere else..prolly the holy tree.
 
CoS is my absolutely favorite instance healing with my priest. I have gone through it using NOTHING but holy nova. Rocked the healing and was number 2 on DPS. This was as disc, I am sure it is just sick using a holy priest.
 
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