Discipline
Strengths - Discipline excels at mitigation and damage reduction, it reigns supreme in encounters with predictable or consistent damage.
Power Word: Shield mitigates damage - quite a lot on the tank with Strength of Soul and Heal - and regenerates mana from Rapture. It also causes Renewed Hope and Weakened Soul for -3% dmg and +10% crit respectively.
+15% Intellect boosts your mana pool, spell-power and crit - very good scaling.
Divine Aegis makes Prayer of Healing (GLYPH IT!) a very potent group heal/shield. If you know group damage is incoming, use it to soften the blow and to top anyone off. No healing should be wasted as people should be kept at 70 - 80%.
Inner Focus gives you big free GHeals on the tank when you need them most - and Train of Thought makes it more efficient to cast occasionally.
Evangelism/Atonement/Archangel may not be the best use of talents, but it has it's uses. I'd skip it but thats a personal thing more than anything.
Penance/Grace make your tank healing abilities pretty strong, giving you bigger Heals on the one who THEORETICALLY needs them most (in practice it's the Rogue or Warlock (UGH)).
Weaknesses - Discipline will never have the raw power of Holy, and can struggle with heavy, random AoE.
Inherently smaller heals mean that without Grace stacks you will need to cast more spells to heal someone up.
While Power Word: Barrier is strong it's just not Guardian Spirit.
Reliant on more expensive Greater Heal and cooldown (Penance) for healing heavy tank damage.
Reliant on crit rating to proc Divine Aegis - current low gear levels can render this talent virtually useless.
Weaker AoE healing even with Divine Aegis on Prayer of Healing meaning you will need more Prayers to get everyone up after AoE - costing a lot of mana.
Holy
Strengths - Holy is all about pure, raw, healing power. Versatility is the name of the game with Holy, you can adapt to any situation - and excel at it.
A very potent and scalable mastery. Can easily reach 20 - 30% additional healing with current gear levels - making every heal more efficient.
+15% Healing means you're spells are inherently stronger. Not quite the scaling of Discipline but makes you more efficient with bigger heals.
+40% regen from spirit is uttterly amazing and means you can get truly absurd amounts of mana regen.
CHAKRA!
Prayer of Healing (GLYPH IT!) and Circle of Healing make for extreme AoE healing. Using CoH then PoH will heal the group for significant amounts and can trivialise most AoE damage. Heavy AoE fight? Pop Chakra: Sanctuary, cast Holy Word: Sanctuary, CoH then PoH and it won't seem so bad.
Powerful, efficient tank healing from Chakra: Serenity. Extra crit on your single target spells and they renew the rather expensive Renew. The Holy Word is very cheap and a moderate amount - and don't underestimate the buff. Holy Word: Serenity, Flash Heal then Greater Heal is a HUGE heal-spike which will save your tank from almost any situation.
Guardian Spirit - enough said.
Body and Soul makes kiting a dream and means you can get in range fast if the tank is knocked back or moves too far.
Test of Faith means you're even more potent when you need it most.
Serendipity makes Flash Heal and Binding Heal much more efficient and means PoH and GHeal are faster and cheaper.
Under used for it's poor scaling- but AWESOME at current gearing levels, Surge of Light gives you free Flash Heals and Serendipity procs.
Weaknesses - Holy is expensive and requires virtually perfect execution - picking the wrong Chakra or healing spell can cause a wipe due to lack of mana or throughput.
Slow heals can be a killer - the lack of Borrowed Time can hurt.
Lower mitigation than Discipline forces you to heal more.
Requires virtually every green number to be effective to be efficient and not to go OOM.
Reliant on mana cooldowns and spirit over more reliable Rapture.
Overall it's a very personal choice. Priest Healing is a strict but potent mistress, learn to love it. Pick a spec and fly with it. Play what you enjoy. Ultimately you're a Priest, you could even heal as Shadow. Healing is what we do.
Originally Posted by upheupheuphe
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