Through-out Wrath of the Lich King, healing Priests (Disc and Holy) have been non-existent at best and absolutely terrible at worst for me. In Obsolete, from Naxx to Yogg, the healing Priests I played with were inconsistent, poorly informed, slow witted or, on the one occasion we found a good one, only around for a few weeks. This left me more than a little bitter towards the class and I’d be happy to see the healing specs removed from them completely.
On Sunday night Pirates tried something a little different on Arthas. We’ve been having difficult in phase two with infest, mainly due to the fact that two Holy Pallies and a Shammy are not so great at healing ten people while on the run and spread out. So, at Clocky’s suggestion, we got our Shadow Priest to dust off his Discipline spec and one of our Holy Pallies (Naz) had the night off.
For the first time healing in Warcraft I was amazed at another classes abilities.
Disc Priests are amazing! We’d been wiping in phase two with three healers having healed over a million HP each. On Sunday, we were getting through Phase two with our healers not healing a million HP altogether! And this is because of someone that hasn’t healed in freaking ages!! Without the massive raid damage, I spent a lot of the night scratching my head. With a Pally healer keeping up the tanks, the Disc Priest preventing raid damage my heals were the lowest they’ve ever been. I could afk phase one and most of phase two and I doubt anyone would even notice.
I’ve got a bit of a man-crush on Disc Priests at the moment. I’ve always liked the idea – preventing the damage rather than healing it – but have never been able to level one myself and have very, very rarely been in a group with one. I have been taking advantage of the OP recruit-a-friend scheme lately though and have a Disc Priest at level 40. Already I know that if I was ever going to retire from Shamanism it would be for a more Disciplined path.
Power Word: Shield is now going toe-to-toe with Chain Heal as my favourite in game ability. With a few talent points in it, it is magnificent. My levelling partner is a Pally and I don’t think she has actually taken damage for ten levels. It’s a perfect spell in the 10s environment and I would give my left hoof for my Shaman to have something similar.
I’m tempted, so tempted, to play a Disc Priest in Cataclysm. I think the mechanics are great and now I’ve seen the massive value they bring to a raid group. Plus, it would be nice not to have to wait so long to see Fort buffed (Ok, it’s a minor thing, but why is it Fort is always the last buff before the pull? Do Priests forget about it or something?). Naz seems to be thinking along the same lines, spending her off night last night levelling her own Priest.
I could quiet happily dual spec PvP Disc, PvE Disc and spend my days Mind Controlling Horde of ledges, dropping instant cast fear bombs and feeling invincible as mobs tried to crack my awesome shield.
But who am I kidding? I can’t walk away from Serevok, not now. He’s done too much, got to many achievements and mounts and pets and all the other things that make a main a main. As much as I love Disc, Shaman is where my heart is.
Plus, waiting 30 mintues for a hearth is terrible.
erro disc heals and you can see how smooth stuff goes.
sure he doesn’t top the HPS meters but you see the smoothness of the fight.
of course we haven’t progressed as far Pirates, but meter watching has become an obsession with pugs especially.
OMFG that priest has t27 and a GS of eleventy billion (TM barramundi) and is only doing 2k HPS bum!!!!
A quick look shows that players have done a mass load of dispels or interrupts or purges or interrupts etc.
bah… u will get your fort buff when i am god damn ready and not before
I’m thinking you might just get your disc priest in Cataclysm, Vok….
Well my priest is sitting at level 70 as disc/shadow.
Up to level 70 instances i rarely had any problem with keeping the tanks up and reducing “raid damage” in a 5 man was just laughable. Throw a shield on all and heal the tank ftw. 2 easy.
Then i hit WOTLK instances. BAM.
Undergeared tanks galore trying to level quickly by Q’ing as tanks in 3/4 dps gear and making my life difficult has become the bane of my levelling enthusiasm. Guess who gets blamed when the “Tank” dies.
I love the way a disc priest works but they do not have the throughput required to carry other people not geared enough for the content (or more correctly – not geared correctly).
If i was a healer it would be Disc all the way – a very very underappreciated/undervalued spec.
“With a Pally healer keeping up the tanks, the Disc Priest preventing raid damage my heals were the lowest they’ve ever been. I could afk phase one and most of phase two and I doubt anyone would even notice.”
Look at the logs Vok. I thought u WERE AFK
(I suspected that you were sneaking in some Underbelly watching in Phase 1)
JK… but yeah pretty impressed with Funkys healing stats even without looking closely enough to factor in the disc damage reductions. Deaths/damage due to infest were way way way down and I think he also saved people from getting one shot a few times in the transitions too.
Funkalishous
:]
Not to take anything away from Funky who did an absolutly amazing job, but the fact that bringing one spec (out of 30 different specs) significantly alters the fight really pisses me off. I really think Blizzard need to spend a lot more time thinking about how the two different healing approaches (prevent damage/heal damage) interact with their boss mechanics, as right now they seem to be doing a pretty poor poor job at it.
Vok. Feel free to send me an email if you’d like to have my account (may be back cataclysm) but doubt it. I have stopped playing.
hoy is free to be yours if u want her
oh vok. don’t forget how funny it is to MC a horde and instead of dropping them of a cliff just right click and go crazy with ur mouse. then they have no idea whats goin on
I don’t know how you go so unlucky with the Priests you’ve met this expansion… good to hear you’re coming over to our side!
As for why Fort gets buffed last? That’s easy. EVERYONE wants it. I’m always waiting for that last person to run back after a wipe before I cast Fort. Spirit is always the first to go out (it’s never the spirit users who are slow I find)… then I wait.
[...] not so much that I’ve been spoiled playing the Discipline Priest (or maybe I have, they are pretty cool), it’s just that the way I approach healing is [...]
@vok
disc breaks infest because the person doesnt ever drop TO 90% for the infest to tick. you are definitely right disc destroys on that fight.
@mardhr
im sorry but you must not be finding many good disc priests. if theyre on their game i find that a disc priest is actually more capable than most other healers at keeping undergeared targets up. the shields act like having more effective health than they would normally.
i remember one time i healed a pally through Htoc back when it first came out in my naxx10 gear and his sub Dcap and quest greens at 19k hp fully buffed with under 2k GS (cant believe i mentioned GS now i need a shower)