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Opinion on Healing
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Post by
557649
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
DraconisAerius
Personally I'm in favour of holy right now. It's more versatile.
Post by
Magnerz
Holy as i'm a die-hard holy fan.
There is nothing more satisfying than playing in a relaxed mode, knowing that the heals you pump out are HUGE! and as long as you pre-cast/anticipate you will rarely be playing catch-up.
That being said, personal style has a large impact as the two spec's are fairly close in terms of capability. One is not a country mile ahead of the other, so play whichever you prefer/perform better in : )
Post by
xenoblad
Holy as i'm a die-hard holy fan.
There is nothing more satisfying than playing in a relaxed mode, knowing that the heals you pump out are HUGE! and as long as you pre-cast/anticipate you will rarely be playing catch-up.
I wouldn't necessarily say that holy priest can pump out huge heals(atleast no more bursty then the other healers). Holy tends to feel pretty consistent and flexible when under dynamic situations. In my own opinion, Holy may lack in performing under singular extremes for prolong periods of time.
For example, a holy priest can heal well while moving but will not be sufficient without using "some" casted spells while a druid can get away with mobile healing a bit longer. Another example would be healing two targets taking large tank-like dmg, a pally can juggle between the two with a bit more ease via beacon, LOH, etc; a holy priest would have to rely on lucky POM bouncing, juggling renew and eventually GS and DH. On the up side both pallies and shamans aren't nearly at good with mobile healing, and druids and shamans have fewer and less effective "Oh $%@#" CD's to keep multiple tanks up with.
It's funny but I felt that disc is just as dynamic as holy. I mean they both can do pretty well on the move. They can both heal AOE, tank(s), and when moving as well.
I always felt that holy had a bit more of an RNG factor due to SOL procs and trying to find good times to use Serendipity with inefficient heals, but holy is allowed to react more freely then disc.
Disc tends to give you more control and almost no RNG spare DA which is fairly reliable. Even+Arch and PI controls burst healing at a desired rate and Train of Thought can help you control your penance CD and Inner focus CD. The only draw back to disc is that aside from penance, you can't do too much when you're surprised. It tends to reward/punish your knowledge of the content or lack there of.
In a Nut Shell
Pick Holy if you are internally open to understanding the fluid dynamic values of various spells who's combined efforts may exceed their binary sum.
Pick Disc if you prefer predictable tools to plan ahead in order to counter or take advantage of what you know about you're enemy and what he/she/it will do.
Keep in mind that they share some qualities as well. A holy priest still needs to predict and plan well, as proper chakra states are a must. Disc also can benefit from reaction skills, as knowing who received a lucky DA can alter the order of healing priority.
DAMN IT, I CAN NOT STOP RAMBLING!
Post by
Zerul
After beginning to raid a bit, I started to find Holy a bit boring. I've been Holy since Vanilla (though, to be fair, Disc was never viable until Penance). I found Holy to be especially fun during Ulduar (the most fun I've had PVEing, in fact). It was fast (serendipity stacks out of free flash heal procs, etc.), powerful (especially aoe healing), and versatile.
With Cataclysm, things have reverted a bit, and I find it a bit stale. No longer do we have free Flash Heals from frequent Surge of Lights. Thus, we also rarely get Serendipity (super fast Prayer of Healings are awesome, yo). Renew's expensive and not nearly as spammable, though 4.0.6 cost reduction + Inner Will may say otherwise in the near future. Single target healing sucks even more than ever.
Discipline, on the other hand, seems to be a much more "fun" spec (though I haven't tried raiding with it yet). You have several non-passive tools such as Archangel, Pain Suppression, Power Word: Barrier, etc. Single-target healing is AWESOME. AoE Healing is actually pretty cool as well, thanks to the guaranteed Divine Aegis effect and the numerous ways in which you can beef it up (trinket, Power Infusion, Borrowed Time, Inner Focus, Archangel). Sure, your AoE healing will fall even further below Holy with the new patch (nerfs both specs' PoH, buffs CoH by 30%, which is honestly much needed to give Holy back some of its older variety). Just the many things you have to watch out for (Evangelism stacks, attacking the right target, Penance CD, Weakened Soul debuff, Rapture CD, any many other cooldowns and timers) make Disc more difficult, but intrinsically rewarding as well.
Though I think Disc is abysmal with poor gear.
Post by
462489
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
bdeboare
In my opinion a person that switches specs to something that's "better" because he heard it was is just as bad as one that rolls classes because they are "overpowered". I played Discipline ever since I can remember (before WOTLK also yes) and just stick to it because I like the style. Which is what I think it all comes down to, what do YOU prefer to heal as, not what someone else prefers in your place.
Not to be rude or anything but WoW forums everywhere are always filled with questions like this: what's the best this, what's the best that. There should be some sort of auto reply almost for them.
Post by
Kreamy
Though I think Disc is abysmal with poor gear.
I concur. I leveled as discipline right from the get go (about 3 months before woltk was released - never had the chance to raid in BC) and I've continued with it right through until now. I initially felt like I hit a wall entering into heroics and it took me longer than I'm happy about to adjust to it.
Now I have a little gear and experience I'm glad I stuck with it. Disc really is a lot of fun - although a lot of anecdotes from the community suggested holy was a lesser curve to contend with I'm glad I didn't switch. I still trail a little on logs to holy priests in 25's but the gap is closing week by week (encounter specific). It sure didn't feel like that initially, but to disc priests who are low on the gear level and wondering, stick with it. You'll be glad you did.
Post by
xenoblad
In my opinion a person that switches specs to something that's "better" because he heard it was is just as bad as one that rolls classes because they are "overpowered". I played Discipline ever since I can remember (before WOTLK also yes) and just stick to it because I like the style. Which is what I think it all comes down to, what do YOU prefer to heal as, not what someone else prefers in your place.
Not to be rude or anything but WoW forums everywhere are always filled with questions like this: what's the best this, what's the best that. There should be some sort of auto reply almost for them.
I agree with you mostly.
I agree that no spec is significantly superior to another to the point where a healing spec can be made obsolete, so there isn't much use or much of a performance benefit in switching specs.
Playing based on preference is a better alternative but you may have mislead the OP and other readers that preference is established for the future, once it is chosen in the present.
Everyone is different so this may not apply to some, but I (along with other friends I know) prefer to switch between specs often due to our mood or based on what we find is new and fun.
I know a good amount of disc friends who switched to holy to pvp for a while because they enjoyed using body and soul when it first came out. I primarily heal as holy but sometimes I'll stick to my resto shaman for an entire tier and have him out gear priest for a while cause green lasers are pretty damn sweet to look at (though POM, and penance are pretty smexy spells to look at).
To the OP, experiment with both and
play what you prefer knowing that you preference is malleable
over time. You may be surprised over time at how significant(and fun) certain changes can be to a spec you haven't played in a while.
Post by
269245
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
karlusdavius
The best spec is the one you are most comfortable in using, because you will get the most out of it.
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