Question and Answer

March 20th, 2010 |

Author: ronne

So this week I would like to start something new with a Question and Answer article where I take your wow questions, and I try to provide the best information I can about it.

First question this week comes from Thomas, and he asks ” Which is better for Healing, Discipline or Holy?”

Yup, get this one alot, hear it all the time in trade, guild, you name it, so its time for me to put this one to rest folks. BOTH. The priest was the first class in the game to be designed as a full healer. Yes, pallys could heal and so could druids, but never with the full power of a priest. As time and expansions have come along, many other classes have really become amazing heals as well, but I still love my priest. As a priest I am dual spec for both Holy and Disc and I can tell you, neither is better than the other over all…but for specific jobs there is a difference.

Discipline is designed to be for targeted heals, that’s why its the prefered spec for tank heals in raids as well as an arena spec. Discipline offers big single target heals fast, as well as having very powerfull shield effects. You get a much larger Power Word: Shield than with Holy, it casts faster, faster cool down, and you also get Shield of the Aegis as a proc on crits which absorbs more damage. Put simply, disc allows you to heal your tanks fast and prevent alot of the damage they take. Hands down disc is the way to go for tank heals in a raid.

Holy is a mass heal spec with big group heals and a very powerful Renewal spell. Holy is meant for your raid heals and perfect for party healing. Circle of healing has a fast cool down that gives a big AOE heal, Prayer of Healing, while still available in disc, gives bigger heals in holy, and holy specific is Prayer of Hope. Holy is all about saving the group, healing groups of people in a raid at one time is a very power full thing. Having improved Renewal on top of that to keep Heal Over Time spells up on the raid is just icing on the cake.

Cathy asked “Gear is very confusing to a somewhat noob like me. How are you supposed to know what stats you need and what gear is best?”

Well…thats a really tough one there. You see, there is never a simple answer for such a question because it can be different for every class in the game. For my priest it depends on my spec, as Holy I am a total mana whore and focus on Intellect first then mana regen. In disc, I have no mana issues so its all Intellect and Haste for faster heals. If i was still Shadow, Intellect and Spell Power all the way.

You really have to take a minute at look at your character, what are your most powerful spells or attacks? Are you a melee class, are you ranged? Does your character get more of a bonus from strength or agility, do you rely on haste or critical strikes? I really wish there was something more I could say about this, but its such a complex issue, without a classs and spec specific question I can’t get much deeper, sorry Cathy.

Feel free to ask more questions for next week, send inquaries to Ronne@worldofweirdcraft.net or connect with us on facebook or myspace.