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As I played Hpal back in retail I have no clue what groups are looking for as a healer in terms of disc vs holy.
How well does one fare against the other in 5 man content (while I gear up) and then raids?
I'm aware of the differences between the specs as I started playing priest in late cata and beyond in terms of their fundamental differences (shields and proactive vs reactive and chunkier heals).
Just wanna know for the content if one is more/less popular or more/less in demand and such.
Holy is a mana-hog which relies heavily on regen stats, while Discipline's mana regen relies more on talent usage and max mana pool. Not exclusively, of course, but they do lean in those directions. As a result, playing Holy at low gear levels can leave you drinking frequently, while Discipline will be a lot more friendly towards your mana pool. This is most apparently in the gearing process during dungeons.
When it comes to raid content, it really depends on your group comp (the healer comp especially), what you're good at, what your gear looks like, and what content you're doing. Both of the specs perform very well and are useful in pretty much all areas and aspects of the PvE portion of the game. So when it comes to deciding which you should play in a raid setting (personally, I have both a discipline and a holy spec, I dont hardly play shadow), you should consider two very important key factors. They are as follows;
1. What type of heals do you think your group will need more given the comp they have and they content they are doing? (Shields vs Chunky heals)
2. Which utilities do you think your group will need more? (Power Infusion&Pain Suppression vs Guardian Spirit&Body and Soul talent (if you get it)).
That said, Discipline used to be the go-to on the server and everyone "hated" Holy or thought it was a bad spec. Nowadays, that's not so much the case, as both are recognized as good specs that have their own strengths and uses.
Disclaimer: This is assuming you're speaking to the effect of Holy Priest vs Discipline Priest. I know you mentioned that you had played Holydin, but I'm assuming here that you are asking about Priest specs. That said, a lot of the logic here will still apply to a Holydin, just exchange names of utilities and etc.
If u wanna ez raid invites, than make disc. Shields covers a lot of ppls mistakes, so for pugs and most of gruns disc is mandatory.
As for holy:
1) Strong aoe healing and enough healing for solo target to hold tank. But it is not linear, it is like burst-w8-burst-w8, and ppl can die in this waiting period, same as u mooved from some mark/slime and ppl can be almost dead.
2) Haste from shield for marks/defile/tank's kitting have great impact.
3) Mana issues even with pretty geared char.
Holy can be great, but it requires reaction and skill, disc is ezier and more sustain damage absorb that makes him more reliable. Another point that disc has only absorb and can't really heal, so in situations where u need to hold 2 tanks from huge sustain dmg: shields have debuff and can't be applied, u used ur healing spell for 1 tank other one still dying, and what u have to do? nothing, also u can't heal vdw.
Hpriest is most fun healing spec in tterms of rotation, but it is like pwar hard to play, hard to find group,and always lack of mana. Disc ez 1 button, ez heal+absorb numbers, ez raid imvite, but u know like hpala can do everything with u or without u, u just letting ppl make mistakes (stay in fire/pools little bit more, eat malegoo, don't heal lk dot and so on).
holy in cata+. In wotlk most fights demands raid to spread out. In cata most fights you stack up. Wotlk bosses such as halion are where holy truly shines.
Disc has more keybinds than holy and requires 100% of time to be focused on raid frames tracking down shields and WS.
With holy you have more time to focus on battlefield. Pretty much as any other heal.
Fun fact, if you have shield from bis disc - necrotic plague won't kill you, instead you survive with low hp.
Thanks a lot for the in depth breakdown between both specs.
Considering this is my first character on the server and I'm gearing up I'll stick to disc for now. I'll see if i want to try Holy down the line when I have a solid set of gear to start with.
Usually we do icc with 3 heals - holy pala, resto shaman and disc. It's decent balance with healing and not relying on healing to stay alive. Also healers are not dying of boredom.