Disc or Holy for Highmaul and beyond?

[Toxicus 1]

So we've had one of our players reroll Priest for our raid. We are currently attempting to figure out which of the two specs are better overall. Currently we have 2 RDruids, the Priest and a Pally that is gearing up to help our raid core.

 

My guild mate will want some form of information, but since I've had ZERO experience with healing, I don't even know where to start looking.

 

Can anyone help provide me some insight as to the pro's and con's of the two specs and which is better overall or for what types of situations?

 

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.

[Gwenymph 414]

At this moment in Highmaul both specs are completely viable.  Renew spam with CoH filler is back in a big way for Holy even without haste breakpoints.  The same thing can be said with PWS spam with Disc.  You'll look to stack as much MS>Haste as you can get as Holy and in Disc's current iteration of PWS Mastery reigns supreme.

 

Divine Hymn from Holy provides a strong raid CD that is more reliable to keeping less than par raiders alive.  Where Barrier is solid for a well oiled raid machine that stacks and overlaps the proper CD combination to fit the type of damage that is going out.

 

Let the Priest take both specs if he is not required to Shadow in raid.  Try both specs on each boss, it does not have to be during the same session, just get the feel of both.  They may prefer one over the other for the entirety of Highmaul or have a favorite for each encounter.  Both are competitive, both can top each other with proper mechanics as they apply to the spec right now.

 

I'm not going out on a limb by guessing that PWS will get a nerf of some sort in the future.  Blizz has said they don't want the ICC playstyle of Bubble spam only or Renew spam only to be the go to playstyle of Priests and history looks to be repeating itself.  So do not be surprise if you see some retuning early instead of waiting a month into Mythic.

 

Holy will fill up health bars quicker w/  Proactive Renew, Gylphed Binding Heal, Lightspring. and quick reacting CoH and raid CD w/ higher survivability Hymn.  GS prevents MOST killing blows on tanks compared to PS of Disc which is dmg red.

 

Disc will be the bubble master again. Weakened Soul Glyph, don't waste your time with PoM, Stack Clarity on the tank or prolonged Debuffed player. Proper combination of Hero/Lust/Power Infusion with pre-PWS will act as its own Raid CD.  Bubble 12 people carry your Evangelism to a EAA on the group that did not receive PWS and you have bubbled the entire Mythic raid for a strong CD w/o using your Barrier (or a 20man normal/heroic/lfr)

 

 

TL:DR -  Both specs are performing high and are competitive w/ each other. 

[Ichigaki 13]

Currently progressing with a less than brilliant small 10 man guild that lacks healing, and Im finding disc is a life saver for the raid, literally. But I agree, take both and switch around to find the best for each fight, no point in limiting for one spec, and currently the pre-raid gearing allows for multiple sets of gear to experiment with.

 

Personally I'm not locking myself into any one type of gear being so early on in the expansion, keep your options as wide as possible.

[Nklaus 6]

I´ve tried both of the specs, for my gamestyle i prefer holy, but in proper use of discipline you can do same healing/protecting as holy.

 

Best example of discipline priest is also on this forum : Gwenymph http://www.twitch.tv/comanchetv

I´ve learned a lot from him, give this link to your priest and he will master the discipline spec for 100%.

[leber 0]

I prefer holy as well, but disc is very viable as well, and actually parsing better in a lot of fights.  Have him play both and figure out which one he likes more.

[JiuJits 0]

Hello, i'd like to give my $.02 
my guild is just about to clear highmaul, i've been specc'd disc to see how its going, and i'm doing fairly well. I think overall Holy would be better because there is a lot of AoE damage, and i assume this expansion will continue to have heal intensive fights with lots of AoE damage. 

we were having almost no trouble keeping the tanks up, it is always the raid healing that is a struggle. shield spamming is effective, but you need to remember its not healing, its mitigation.  either are viable but i think holy has a slight edge, there are lots of opportunities to blow divine hymn so far in the raids.  our composition had 2 tranquilitys so i didn't feel the need to be holy, and we're getting by just fine with disc in the fights with good HPS. 

[Gwenymph 414]

I´ve tried both of the specs, for my gamestyle i prefer holy, but in proper use of discipline you can do same healing/protecting as holy.

 

Best example of discipline priest is also on this forum : Gwenymph http://www.twitch.tv/comanchetv

I´ve learned a lot from him, give this link to your priest and he will master the discipline spec for 100%.

 

Free promo!  Thank you so much, really appreciate it.  Both specs are great right now, get em while they last!  I'm currently working on a short write up to my approach to Normal/Heroic Highmaul kills based on my main guilds comp.  We are a pretty diverse community and any tips/strats that get posted there is the inevitable "more than one way to skin a Pally" which is great to promote more interactions going forward.

 

I stream every PM raid, and.. only a small portion of AM raids.  Please any and all are welcome to watch and ask specific questions.  There have even been some H2P people in stream chat lately giving their opinions on builds/strats.  Its been an awesome collaborative Xpac launch.

 

If you do the Twitter and plan on raiding as a priest follow these peeps or if you're not a big follower for spam, follow me, I retweet all their important class related information.  There are many more, these are just the ones that have been most helpful to my so far this launch.

 

@Derevka

@NaerThePriest

@ZosynPriest

@SacerH2P

@Zolmation

@Gwenymph

 

Just to name a few.  There are many! Start w/ some and find more based on the ones whos help you find most relevant.

[Nklaus 6]

Free promo!  Thank you so much, really appreciate it.  Both specs are great right now, get em while they last!  I'm currently working on a short write up to my approach to Normal/Heroic Highmaul kills based on my main guilds comp.  We are a pretty diverse community and any tips/strats that get posted there is the inevitable "more than one way to skin a Pally" which is great to promote more interactions going forward.

 

I stream every PM raid, and.. only a small portion of AM raids.  Please any and all are welcome to watch and ask specific questions.  There have even been some H2P people in stream chat lately giving their opinions on builds/strats.  Its been an awesome collaborative Xpac launch.

 

If you do the Twitter and plan on raiding as a priest follow these peeps or if you're not a big follower for spam, follow me, I retweet all their important class related information.  There are many more, these are just the ones that have been most helpful to my so far this launch.

 

@Derevka

@NaerThePriest

@ZosynPriest

@SacerH2P

@Zolmation

@Gwenymph

 

Just to name a few.  There are many! Start w/ some and find more based on the ones whos help you find most relevant.

 

You´re welcome, everything i´ve said is truth. I would love also to see how did you do your UI i would like to copy it and perhaps if you could write your exact rotation of discipline spec, i would really apreciate it.

 

Cheers

[Gwenymph 414]

Slowly working on an encounter guide that worked for my main guild and our healing make up.  First one going up today for Disc.  All the Disc will be first followed by Holy

[Nklaus 6]

Slowly working on an encounter guide that worked for my main guild and our healing make up.  First one going up today for Disc.  All the Disc will be first followed by Holy

I am looking forward to it :) if you would be so kind could you add also how do you keep up inbetween the evangelism stacks? or do you use only Holy shock?

[Gwenymph 414]

My old WeakAura is broken.  So at the moment I use Holyfire/Solace to keep it up.  There are times when There is PWS and CoW on the tank w/ a lull in damage, in those cases I will begrudgingly use Smite or Penance..... shhh..

[Nklaus 6]

Ok so i guess i am doing the right rotation for evan..

But is it so much worth to use archangel? i mean those % doesn´t look that much for discipline priest or?

[Gwenymph 414]

you want to use Archangel as a healing CD more so than a 5 stack healing increase.  Use it when you need it, do not hold it or force it to 5 stacks

[Nklaus 6]

Well i am always stacking it up at start of the fight with holy shock and 4x smite, then i just keep it up with holy shock and when i really need it for heal i use it for whole raid group.

[Wolfox 3]

I've been pretty comfortable with Holy spec so far. If you're having mana problems, Mindbender is doing wonders. When burst heal is needed Power Infusion is very useful too. I find druids a bit imba but usually I'm the first on heal meters followed by druids then monks but it's still pretty early to say something about this matter.