I just hit 60 and I’ve been doing dungeons and gearing up as a Disc Priest and the spec is just kicking my butt and I don’t know if it’s me or the spec and if I should just roll Holy.
I just started heroics and no one is dying so I think that’s a plus but my damage is only accounting for 7-8% of the damage. I know I’m not supposed to be competing with DPS (or am I?) but in the end is it really worth the extra difficulty of healing for 8% more damage brought to a dungeon?
I think there’s a misconception that disc priest is a DPS class masquerading as a healer.
They’re nothing of the sort, and while atonement is quite useful it might not even be the most important thing disc brings to the table compared to CDs like barrier or rapture, and you still spend a fair amount of time spamming direct heals like Shadow Mend.
Just focus on keeping everyone alive and improve from there.
So would it be better to just heal dungeons as Holy? I feel like they’re stronger than Disc with Healing and also for damage when there’s free time
It’s not that one’s better than the other, they just give you different options.
Say something unexpectedly gets pulled and you’re playing holy. Well, your reaction might be to immediately Guardian Angel the tank (buffing their healing received and providing a cheat death), use your holy words, pop Apotheosis, use another cycle of holy words as needed, flash heal into Heal if you have Flash Concentration, etc. etc.
On your disc priest you would use Power Word Radiance to quickly apply atonement, DPS like mad, and possibly pop Rapture into spamming shields into topping off with shadow mend, etc. to stabilize. They can both do the job in different ways.
How much damage you do is dependent on pull. Sometimes Disc does 2.5k on the pull. Sometimes it does 1.1-1.5k. You won’t keep up with a full DPS class in either case.
Disc is the better healer in M+, but it is also the more difficult healer by a wide margin. Because to have success on Disc you need to have some knowledge of each encounter and understand Disc’s healing profile. Wheras with Holy you can go in blind, mash some heals and probably do OK. As a Holy priestyou only need knowledge of each encounter to maximize how effective you are.
In short terms, Disc’s skill floor is high, wheras Holy’s is low. If you don’t plan on ever pushing the absolute highest key levels, Holy could be for you. Holy only really starts struggling when damage is getting high enough that Disc’s damage reduction (or another healer’s external cooldown) are needed.
If all you care about is +15 keys, you’re unlikely to ever hit the point where it matters that Disc is technically better, so you can play what you’re comfortable with.
Hmm, “mash some heals and probably do OK” is a bit of a loaded assessment of holy…
The truth is while disc may be mechanically more nuanced (some would say annoying) to play due largely to babysitting atonement, holy has more tools to use for every possible situation you’re likely to find yourself in.
And you need to be familiar with mechanics and damage spikes for all healers if you’re playing at an appropriate difficulty for your group…
I really like disc so if it’s worth sticking with then I guess I’ll continue to play it. I just felt like I was underpowered or something. Holy just seems like the best of both worlds though with them having so much healing utility and their abilities having higher base damage than Disc
It’s a literal assessment of Holy having cleared Normal and 6/10 Heroic Nathria on Holy as well as +8-10 keys (and going overtime on +11-12) on both specs. Holy’s playstyle isn’t very nuanced. It’s by far the most straightforward healer in the game. It’s great for building fundamentals with, and I don’t find it a boring spec, but realistically, you can succeed on Holy without utilizing half your kit even. You can mash your biggest Single target heal buttons and coast on through. You wouldn’t be good, but it would work. And they also are able to be played without any real active talents. You can skip apotheosis even and still do fine in a +10.
You don’t babysit atonement as a Discipline priest, and atonement really doesn’t have to do much with my assessment of them. My assessment there more has to do with Disc needing very liberal and intelligent cooldown use to even pass a certain point of play. You can see evidence of this in the forums everywhere. So many people struggle on Disc in low keys and normal raid, despite the fact that Discipline is literally clearing the highest key levels in the game right now.
Simply put. Disc has better tools, but tools that do take much more thought than Holy’s kit ever will. That’s not to say you can’t be a smart Holy priest. I’m also not trying to be elitist and say ‘well every holy priest is stupid.’ Just, simply put, the spec is great for people that don’t understand healing very well yet, or aren’t planning to push top content. It’s simple, it’s powerful, and even when you’re screwing up you’re gonna put out HPS.
Depends…
If you only main dungeon you should go for restro druid/sham or pug won’t invite you.
Disc really need Kyrian covenant to shine in m+, so you better play holy for easier life. Not saying Ventry Disc is bad but vampire Holy has a far easier play than vampire disc in m+ with same same performance.
Edit: Disc is better lol.
Sounds like someone is either going to get buffed or nerfed since Blizzard is all about “bring the player, not the class”
It’s a lie… well or they just don’t live up to their words.
They’ve point-blank repudiated “bring the player, not the class.” That was Ghostcrawler’s saying and Ion has basically said that’s not their philosophy and never really was.
Different classes and specs have different styles and strengths and there’s no such thing as a “mash the buttons and win” spec, no matter what someone tells you.
Play what comes most naturally for you knowing that you still have to make it all work in a real raid, dungeon, or PvP environment with its own challenges.
The ironic thing is that I recently switched from disc to holy because the game gave lots of great holy stuff and no disc stuff and I find that the difficult is mixed.
Disc has less options/buttons but is more mechanically difficult and require a proactive play style. But, holy is key bloated and has so many buttons that just heal in different way.
I found holy more difficult with all the buttons and especially more difficult when I try and do some DPS since disc has that built in.
All the above is for m+. In raid;however, I find holy much easier. 
Disc is harder but better. It also suffers from the problem of being as bad/good as the group is. It’s not a good recovery healer, so if your group gets hit by a lot of avoidable damage you’re going to have a bad time. Holy is much easier but with no good external for the tank, it’s pretty bad. Holy is easily the worst m+ healer. It was the same in BFA, blizzard doesn’t give a rats behind about it
I would say that Disc does well with groups that know the content and interrupt / move out of schtuff on the ground but will struggle to keep up with those who don’t and take a lot of damage.
Holy on the other hand can pump out more healing however in those pugs I find that I spend a lot more time healing and less dps because of so many people standing in bad stuff (looking at you hunters. :P)
Since the latter is the case for a lot of pugs right now it’s much easier to recover as Holy than Disc. At least that is what I have found to be true for me.
Holy is trash, dont play it.
Disc is only as good as the group is, and you’re going to have a lot of bad groups.
Paladin is OP, as per usual
Resto Druid is OP, as per usual
Shaman is OP (probably getting another nerf)
Monk is Good
Having fun with holy. I played disc all last expansion and wanted a change. I will say it’s more difficult because your tank can go splat at any moment if you ain’t on top of your heals and you don’t have as much survivability as disc.
Did a key yesterday where the tank insta left when he found out I was holy which was an interesting experience
Holy does more damage right now anyway. It can keep everyone up easily and has a lot of free time to damage … almost always does more than the tank, and during no incoming damage phases (i.e. Mists 1st boss after the add goes down) is more often than not higher than the 3rd dps.
Disc damage was nerfed and is very low, which in turn makes the heals low. Disc doesn’t bring anything at all to the table other than damage reduction, shields, and especially barrier … so it’s a useless heal spec other than super high end mythic and very high key progression where damage reduction will save lives.
A huge problem when learning disc (and every spec for that matter) is that people tend to hold onto their cds for too long…you can’t afford to do that as disc.
Your defensives should be popped proactively rather than most healers who use theirs reactively.
Also, your damage-healing rotation should be muscle memory and then you spot heal with shadowmend. Its just about playing the spec and getting used to its unique style…once you do, its extremely smooth, aside from people actively trying to take a toaster bathtub mid pull.
And seriously…the community needs to stop recommending solace and schism to beginners: twist of fate and mindbender…use them until you feel comfortable.
This is the most accurate statement I have ever seen about where DIsc healing usually goes wrong.