Holy or disc?

[Moyuru]

So, I think I've mostly figured out what I'm doing again. I spent the cash to dual-spec, and I'm leveling shadow again, which is great. (I usually find my mana starts to get low right at the time that shadowfiend is availabe, so I don't have to stop for nuttin'.)

While instancing yesterday, I realize I still have useless leveling talents in my holy spec (flash of light, specifically, but there are probably others focused on damage or survival rather than healing.) If I'm going to respec, then I should consider whether I really want to stay with holy as primary spec, or switch to disc or some hybrid.

Disc seems to be the most sought-after build for raiding, but how about regular instance groups? How well does disc work with a five-man? How different is the healing / surviving style if I switch to disc?

Thanks in advance...

[drokknar]

Disc rocks!!! You can definitely heal 5 mans without issue and you can raid heal pretty easily in five man. The biggest thing to remember about disc is you do alot of preventative damage. When you see someones life going down always bubble first then heal either top off with a renew or flash heal. always keep pom up on the tank and a bubble and renew. When ya need big heals penance is great especially when you get 3 stacks of grace on the mt and divine aegis procs just keep topping off with flash heals. anyway i could go on and on how disc healing is but just gimme a shout in game if ya have anymore questions. And btw ive been a priest in wow forever ask around lol!!

[Aenerb]

I was originally thinking disc, but since I benefit from reactive healing than preventative healing as a paladin I think I might be more inclined to say Holy. I loves me some manas.

EDIT: actually, reading through the talent list, I think disc looks fine enough for my purposes.

[Moyuru]

I'm inclined to give disc a try, if only because I've never touched it before . But I do have a question on mechanics...

Back when I first played a priest, I recall that tanks didn't want shields. If I recall correctly, they absorbed hits that the tank would block, generating threat. (Warriors and paladins, anyway, not sure about BARE DURIDS.)

Have the mechanics changed now so that shields only absorb unblocked hits? So that blocking still generates threat through a shield?

[Orckus]

I think you got that a little off.

We don't generate threat so much from being hit persay... its we gain extra rage from being hit, thus the shields were essentially taking away our rage in turn taking away our abilities in turn taking away our threat.

Now, we still gain the rage on a hit to the shield so yes. We want shields now. Shields are good.

[Moyuru]

Oh, is that what it was? I know paladins worked the way I described, so shields screwed up their threat from block; I thought warriors were the same. I do know that they got upset with shields, and lack of rage would definitely do that

OK, so if you still get rage when shielded then shields are a Good Thing.

I switched last night and tried shielding Aen - only solo mobs, but lots of them - and he didn't lose threat any more than when using holy. Plus it doesn't seem quite as annoying to solo as holy, having plenty of mana for blasting, so mobs died quickly even without boosts to shadow / holy damage. Still, I was happy to switch back to shadow to continue questing.

I'll see you guys at 80 Real Soon Now