I started Holy and switched to Disc in wrath and never looked back (well I tried for 2 days as holy in Cata and went back).
I started in a 10 man and now in a 25 man. I am the switch hitter; shadow then Disc as needed for certain fights/healer vacations. Had a FIGHT with Healing leader where he thinks ONLY 1 Disc in a 25 man. However, when I tried Holy the 2 days and could not work it well, AND I beat him healing, I was ALLOWED to stay Disc since it was my OS and it worked. The RL agreed with me that 2 can do just fine with 25 shield targets but let him handle healers.

THEN here comes Heroic Spine in a 25 man with 1 other Disc Priest (he is in charge of healers so no chance on him switching lol). This is a fight where 1 disc is AWESOME; however, two SUCKS. He is poH spamming, going oom but topping charts tell I went holy. Shields do little against the debuff; however awesome keeping low health peeps alive tell we heal it off!

Me and another Shadow/Disc Priest went holy as well and we rocked the fight! I did LFR and 5 mans to get a feel for Holy.

Soooo, take this from someone who is new with experience as listed above!!

I strongly agree Holy needs to have the chakra as a CD! Stance dance is not fun and can get ya in wrong stance with a CD limiting ya and takes a 2 step process to change. Yes in mists it may end up as 1 step; however, as OP says we need to be balanced no matter what we are doing.

Playing Holy I feel like I have less CD’s/options! No grace/shield(weakened Soul)/activate wings output options available! I can stance dance but limited to 30 sec dance!
Disc has the 3 things to boost output and can weave all 3 in a LOT shorter time frame. Even GS requires a glyph to use as a boost in throughput and not totally loose a valuable CD!

NOW in Mists; Disc gets ANOTHER Cd in Spirit shell!!!! Holy gets what???

Shield nerfs inbound! lol. I actually preferred Spirit shell as is was. just an option and not a CD. Had a cap and a cast time so it was a tool we could use when needed; not, a CD. STACK Disc until it’s nerfed!

Anyway, I really think Holy needs a CD over a ‘stance dance’ option that nerfs part of what you are doing.

Tanks go below 50% health fairly often so Shaman get fairly good use out of their mastery when tank healing. But the point is, if they want to fire off a CH, they can, and it will be at its maximum effectiveness. Popping it on the tank actually helps them AOE more since it will use a Riptide that’s most likely on the tank. What’s more, they can go back to maximum tank healing effectiveness by popping another riptide on the tank and it will be as if nothing has happened.

More AOE healing spells != better AOE healing. Disc does just fine with POH and PW:S, thanks.

Finally, classes really are ‘benchmarked’ to be relatively equal. More and more, you’ll hear devs say things like “we want to get rid of healer niches”. That means everyone’s going to have to be able to ST heal effectively – or in other words have roughly equal ST healing overall (same with AOE healing – example A would be 4.3 Paladins). That means Holy gets the same abilities as everyone else, but they have to lock themselves out of one side or another, while other healers just…heal.

Basically, Holy went from “flexible healer” to “straightjacket healer” overnight the day Chakra was implemented.

I do like Chakra when I have to dance, but the 30 sec CD is too punitive. I wouldn’t mind seeing the CD removed and replaced with a 1.5 sec cast to prevent being macroed into every spell cast. I’d love the ability to cast Renews in Sanc (when it was buffed 15%) and then swap into Serenity and keep them up on the tanks for awhile and then when damage is low slip into Chastise and dps a tendon for 20 seconds and then swap back, etc.

I wholeheartedly agree about the 15% buffs being moved to Holy passives. I’m not fussed on your idea of having HW’s share a CD. I’m happy with the stances but rather than the 15% buff, each stance should have a HW, and two utility/mechanics. So Serenity would have HW: Sere, Renew Refresh and say perhaps critical single target heals refund a mana %. Chastise would have its HW,maybe Atonement and perhaps Holy Fire dots refund a mana % per tick. Sanc, likewise, would keep its HW and COH CD reduction but add another mana return mechanic at a similar strength to the others.

Also, I really like your Align Chakra idea for a CD. With the exception of PI, Holy really is going to suffer a lack of AA/Divine Favour/Elemental Mastery type thru-put CDs. Shamans are talking a lot about spread AOE healing being a weakness in their toolset, but Holy Priests especially will be vulnerable to damage patterns that require a significant boost over normal throughput.

My most favourite trinket of Cata was the one from Sinestra – not for the mana reduction (which was nice) but for the 10 sec haste boost every minute. I would love to see a similar type CD given to Priests, either in the form of Align Chakra, or Holy Form: Naaru/Elune/Loa (insert racial Holy aligned mythical body here).

As far as Barrier, preventing damage > restoring health. Always. You put down the barrier, use PoH and rely on your other healers to help put the health back.

PoM is arguably better for discipline on fights like Madness where there’s constant, raid-wide damage, because not only does it heal, it has a chance to proc DA and absorb more incoming damage. Echo of Light is ‘meh’ in comparison. Otherwise, PoM acts exactly the same for holy, except its heals are bigger.

But the difference between holy and discipline is that if a discipline priest wants to cast PoH, he’ll get a full heal and DA procs every time, while a holy priest in Chakra: Serenity who casts PoH (or PoM, for that matter) will get a less-effective version than a priest who’s in Chakra: Sanctuary. I think this is mostly true in reverse as well, but I could be wrong, considering Grace.