You still have to hard cast flash heals at times. That’s about it though. You can put off having to open yourself up to interrupts for quite a while. Especially with good Surge of Light RNG. My priest feels so much better than my shaman to play based on time spent casting and available cooldowns. Shaman externals CDs are terrible, and they rely much more on landing healing surge and chain heal in bgs.
The mobility on priest is so bad though it can feel like a real liability. I’ve only had 1 dk try to do it to me but I agree with other priests that it is absurd that a dk can trap you in water indefinitely. You can’t get away. The fade slow remove talent and the 40% speed from feathers barely does anything compared to other classes.
If I had to recommend anything now it would be monk. I’ll likely play it a lot next season. It doesn’t seem to be getting any relevant nerfs, most buffs in 10.2 while it’s already in a great position (#1 rated BG healer). Good healing, good utility, great cooldowns, and great mobility. A little low on damage, cc, and surviving heavy focus but those are all minor drawbacks.