Hello!
I’ve been playing around with my priest and been considering maining it, but the information I want is kinda scattered around, so I figured I could ask a couple of questions here. 
1) I don’t like how Holy plays atm, so I’m stuck with Disc for a healer. I’m still a bit on the learning stages of keep up damage to heal properly, but I suppose is just a matter of getting used to. My question is: There’s a Disc build + Hero set (which I assume it could be Oracle?) that allows me to heal effectively without doing as much damage? I’m aware that I must still keep up some damage going no matter what, for Disc.
2) In PVP, this Mindgames spell - it reads really strong, but in practice it is? I’ve tried to use a couple of times on opponent healers in Skirmishes, but amidst the chaos of pvp I couldn’t really notice how effective it was.
3) I know I said I don’t like Holy… and I’ve been reading a lot about the bad state it is atm, but how it is in PVP, at least? Both in arena and bgs (because most of the PVP literature seems to focus more on arena matches).
4) I’ve been reading that you can use PW:D defensively to break CC’s… but I suppose that’s only doable for cast time based CCs like Fear, Poly, right? It’s possible to have a Weak Aura to announce somebody is casting a CC at you? 
5) Silly question but… I presume there’s still not a way to remove the sparkles from Levitate, does it? This annoys me immensely and ruins the spell for Shadowform. I’ve tried the cloud glyph but somehow it manages to be even worse with the holy farting.
6) Shadow AoE is SO BAD now… What they’ve done to it?! There’s any hope in a near future for this to be improved? Any hints…?
Thank you and happy priesting!
I’m going to answer everything from a PvP perspective with the knowledge I have. It’s pretty basic knowledge, so maybe more people can come in and help more in depth, but it’s a start.
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in PvP yes Oracle is the hero talent tree most players use. You can get away with playing defensively (meaning casting heals on your allies) more often, but do NOT go into playing Disc if you think for a minute you won’t be casting your damage spells to heal with Atonement as well. Don’t even play Disc at all if you don’t like doing damage to heal. You won’t have a good time if you can’t get used to it.
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Mindgames is good in high intensity situations where people are at very low HP. So let’s say someone is like 20% HP and you Mindgames their healer. Doing this would mean their healer would panic heal that DPS teammate at 20% but Mindgames would cause their healing to damage their ally, effectively negating a lot of that healing and maybe even allowing you to get the kill easier.
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You can also use it to negate a DPS player’s burst on you or another player for a short moment (until their healer insta dispels Mindgames). You just have to know when they’re doing their burst, so watch their cooldowns, and watch who they’re training down.
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I personally hate Mindgames because most players in PvP will see the Mindgames debuff on a WeakAura or something, and instantly dispel it. Then it does nothing anyway. Basically, good players and addons kill this spell. I don’t think it’s really worth it, but it can be fun to use.
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Holy in PvP is extremely annoying sometimes because you have to hard cast many healing spells. This leaves you open to getting kicked very often, which means you will be completely locked out of the Holy magic school. This can be a death sentence for you and your team. To play around this huge weakness, you kind of have to be a god at Holy and have a lot of experience. The frustration might not be worth it though.
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*Shadow Word: Death is used just like you said, to break CC that breaks on damage. It does nothing for actual stuns. You have to use it preemptively of course at the perfect moment when you see you’re about to get CCd. Sometimes it’s very obvious (like another Priest literally running into melee range to Psychic scream you). So you can time it, but it takes getting used to.
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There is no way to get rid of the golden holy sparkles on Levitate.
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Most of Shadow’s AoE is done through a talent called Psychic Link. Shadow Crash is the other spell you will mainly be using to spread DoTs in AoE, and this spell can be pretty frustrating, also it has a relatively long CD. Hero talents further prop up Shadow’s AoE with Archon making your Halo spell much more powerful, while Voidweaver has Entropic Rift which does some AoE damage and explodes for damage.
You asked about being able to tell when CC is being cast on you, you can use an addon called GladiatorlosSA2. You should probably turn EVERYTHING off in the addon, and only the CC you want to hear. It announces every spell being cast in the arena and BG. Doesn’t matter the target, so you still have to know who they are targeting.
It can be nice to have an audio cue, but I really recommend just developing the game sense on your own instead of using this addon if you’re serious about PvPing.
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Thanks for the tips!
Yeah, I’m fully aware that even in a more defensive-oriented spec I’d still have to do damage as Disc, but for now, under learning stages (esp. in PVP), I’d opt for a build that is not as reliant on it until I get used to everything.
Getting used to everything is certainly step 1, but don’t train your brain and muscle memory to spam Flash Heals and Defensive Penances on your allies from the start in my opinion. You should be weaving DPS off the rip as often as you can to learn the windows where DPS is possible and where defensive healing is required.
You’ll find yourself out of mana very quickly if you lean too heavily on defensive healing. You’re going to be fighting the dampening debuff in arenas as well. Disc’s biggest strength is its extra damage that it provides to pressure the opposing team. Good luck!
Mind games is quite strong for holy in world PvP. Since you’re trying to max out every dps skill you can, not to mention it’s a shadow spell. We have a pretty good burst kill setup .