And to the people saying holy is better in 10s on Deathwing because of the GSpirit ability, your tanks should be rotating CDs well enough to never need it. Plus, HF/Smite spam works wonders for the first 3 platforms (I can smite almost entirely for the first 2.5, then toss some PoHs on the 3rd and back to Smiting), and is a great way to prepare to tank heal on P2.

I have switched full time to disc and actually went A/AA before reading this as its always been one of my favorite varations of the Disc spec. I do however have a quick question for you.

I have noticed that when I am doing the Atonements for fights on world of logs and this also includes recount my Efective Dps seems to drop is there a way to actually avoid this? Would you normally weave in one Smite to one Actual heal or get the 5 stacks and just maintain it? I’ve had issues lately balancing this problem and I am wondering what your take on this is.

It’s interesting to see that your raid wanted you to go disc for Deathwing while mine has asked me to go holy for this fight simply for the Guardian Spirit cooldown on tanks. (And I like holy better too on this fight because of the 3 min divine hymn) I’m currently going with the haste>crit>mastery stat priority (since I’m Disc for 6 out of the 8 fight) and it seems to work ok for me as holy.

#>_<#

It’s interesting to see that your raid wanted you to go disc for Deathwing while mine has asked me to go holy for this fight simply for the Guardian Spirit cooldown on tanks. (And I like holy better too on this fight because of the 3 min divine hymn crit>mastery set up (since I’m Disc for 6 out of the 8 fight) and it seems to work ok for me as holy.

So next question: How useful are the old T12 bonuses compared to the new T13 ones as an A/AA Disc? Meaning is the T12 Heroic Set worth keeping as a Disc and/or when is the best point to drop them for T13?

I remember at the beginning of cataclysm we were a Disc, me as Holy and the holy pally and it didn’t go so great, especially since our pally still had to learn not to spam in blue with a hint of epic gear and Disc and Pally seemed to collide and not work well alongside at all. Me being a Holy didn’t help in this combination at all. That’s one reason why I touched Disc only for Dungeons.

And I agree, just because a special spec lessens dmg income, one shouldn’t forget how to play properly since both combined would be even better. I think it’s perfectly heal-able as a holy priest, if the rest of raid uses their brains for once. My raid-leader agrees with me on this, so they’ll have to move their feet, but I’ll take steps to get to know Disc a bit better, since I actually like the tree, but always lingered in holy since I have more of a grouphealer attitude, and well, let’s face it, holy is the way to go there, with charka, CoH, Serendipity, and all the fancy shiny stuff holy priests can easily outmatch most other healers. Even more so since the holy hymn is crazy right now.

@Derevka
Well, we don’t really have the luxury right now to choose to make ‘the perfect setup’ for our raid, since we are only 13 people right now and in there 3 Healers. The only thing I would pass on, or loosing my slot to, is speccing Shadow for fights with 2 Healers. Either I’d pass completely or our Druid would skill Moonkin, and do way more damage than me as a shadow.

I also found Sora’s post interesting. :>
I actually am a heavy haste pusher. 2338 right now, with 3463 Spirit, almost zero Crit, spiked with a hint of Mastery.
After ehrm… killing the bunch of Trashmobs in LFR a few times, I experienced some things: Of course Holy Mastery rocks in 25s, it’s insane how much Mastery heals there, not mine, but the one from a guildy who’s focused on mastery. My nhc Alysrazor Trinkets isn’t as usefull as i thought it’d be, around 50k each fight. The LFR Deathwing Mace on the other Hand works quite well for other holy priests. My 4piece T12 still is valuable, and some pallys are just plain insane.

It’s been my personal experience so far that discipline’s shining a bit more in 10s, whereas holy really stomps the meters on 25s. The way I have handled stats for both holy and disc is to get enough haste to get a 2.1 cast time on gheal/PoH (1290 with 2/3 darkness) and then a balance of crit and mastery if you play both specs equally. I’ve been playing disc more recently so I actually went heavier on crit. I run with about 2500 spirit currently and have no problems as disc, though do have to watch my mana more as holy (if you’re in 10s unglyph that CoH!)

Like I’ve said before.. I think the major hurdle that priests have with the AA spec is they think you’re just spamming smite. This is not true, at least not for me. There are always phases in a fight where there is less damage, or damage that another healer can cover (you can let druid hots top people off during a slow phase, for example). You weave holy fire and smite in with your other heals. Holy fire especially is a quick cast and you can maintain your stack by just using that before they drop.

All you need is a power aura that shows your stacks, with a timer on it, and it’s easy peasy. Bind smite/holy fire to some place convenient (I use naga mouse buttons).

Like Derevka said, it’s all about knowing the fight. And god I do love having that mana return (plus arcane torrent >.>) on H Yor’sahj!