Dual-speccing for a multi-role

[Zooggy]

Ahey,

So, lately, (or rather, today), I've been considering doing something I thought I'd never do, which is to actually go out and get myself a dual spec.

I don't PvP and I don't plan on starting, so getting a PvP spec isn't going to happen. Also, I've been a healer since I was level 10. I know nothing about shadow DPSing, and I own exactly zero pieces of off-spec gear. Thus, I won't dual spec into shadow either.

However, as healers, priests have that nice feature of being good both at raid healing, in a deep Holy spec, and tank healing, in a deep Discipline spec. This has the added benefit that gear that is good for one is generally good for the other as well, meaning I won't really have to worry about off-spec gear...

So, these are the builds I've been considering. After each build, there's a few points for discussion, which is where feedback would be most appreciated.

Holy

I'm going to tweak my build a tad and go with this.

Discussion:

Improved Renew, Empowered Renew and Glyph of Renew: Really, the second and third ranks in Holy are a bit crap for healers, so if I want to wade deep into the tree, I have to be willing to take some crappy talents. Thus, Improved Renew. But, since I'm taking that hit, might as well make something of those talent points and go all out. Glyphed, improved, empowered Renew is now a really, really great way of dealing with Kologarn's grip, Ignis's crotch pot, Deconstructor's light bomb, and other "I Will Own This Guy Now"(tm) boss abilities. The alternative is to assume that Improved Renew is a hit and go with this, instead. (Note the glyph change as well.)

Healing Focus, Desperate Prayer and four points of Spell Warding: Again, crappy early tree, so I figured I might as well dump some talents on AoE survivability, especially for those untankable fights, like Mimiron phase 2. Also, I find myself using Desperate Prayer a lot to combat those same boss abilities I mentioned above. Alternatives would be to either max out Healing Focus and Spell Warding and let go of Desperate Prayer, or to max out Spell Warding and leave only one point of Healing Focus.

Four points of Spell Warding vs four points of Divine Fury: I find that raid healing isn't really about the Greater Heal, so Divine Fury is a bit of a waster. I do lose a little bit of flexibility, though, as Greater Heal is such a looong spell to cast...

No Empowered Healing: Once I was willing to let go of Divine Fury, this becomes a no-brainer. Sure, the effect on Flash Heal is non-trivial, but really, I expect to be overhealing with Flash Heal (or Binding Heal) all the time, and only to prime Serendipity to use on Prayer of Healing.

Holy Concentration: My original build had it, my current one doesn't, this one does again. It's not overly critical, but I'm finding myself low on mana over long fights, even with 550 MP5 inside, and before, I didn't.

Surge of Light: Some people think it's a waste of points. Me, I'm love with it. I get a proc of it after about half my Circle of Healing casts, and it's an extra instant cast for those moments where I have to be moving.

Lightwell: I don't have it. Never have. Never saw the point. I've seen it pop up in a PuG or two, but I never did notice whether people actually have the presence of mind to go click it or not. Should I consider getting it? I don't know. There's also the question of what to give up for it.

Discipline

This is the spec that everybody and their mother recommends, and it seems pretty uncontroversial.

Reflective Shield: I find myself eerily attracted to this talent. Of course, it would mean giving up on Power Infusion, and possibly docking a point off of Improved Flash Heal.

The third glyph: Power Word: Shield and Pennance are the real work horses of this build, so those are a given. Flash Heal seems to be the most useful third glyph. Mainly, it's in there because I couldn't find anything better, but I find myself wondering if there's anything I'm missing.

Should I Do This

That's the main question. Is the added flexibility worth the 1000 gold? I used to think it was irrelevant, but a couple of weeks of Argent Tournament dailies, and suddenly, I find myself with the cash for it.

I was thinking of using the goldz to get dust and cloth from the AH, to see if I can finally push myself above the 445 tailoring mark, but this may well be a better use for that cash.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
J.

 

[Thunder]

Hey, it's your main raiding character, so a dual spec should be well worth the gold. You might even find yourself having more fun in other specs. On top of that, it's a great way of learning the other aspects of your class

And really, what are you going to gain by spending more on tailoring?

 

[Windzarko]

A few tips as someone who's played Discipline (although don't take what I say as completely 100% accurate; it's what I've gathered and it's from my experiences; you've healed much further into the game than I have, and are at a higher gearing level, which affects things a lot):

First up, Reflective Shielding is actually a bit of a disappointment; it only reflects damage that YOU absorb with your own shield. If you cast it on someone else, it won't reflect damage. It's been like this for quite a while now, and they still haven't made the tooltip 100% accurate. Trust me, with the strength of our shields, we'd be doing significant damage if it worked on anyone we cast it on, and that'd be great fun, but sadly it doesn't work that way.

For the third glyph, you have two main options; Flash Heal, as you say, because of the mana effeciency. However, if you don't struggle without the Glyph, the Prayer of Mending one is really good as well. Despite Disc's primary strength being on single-target healing, you can do some seriously powerful group healing with the removal of the cooldown on casting Power Word : Shield, and the crit-heal of Prayer of Healing putting a Divine Aegis on them. If you add the HoT of the glyph to the Divine Aegis, that's a lot of group healing and damage prevention all rolled into one, but is obviously at the cost of making Flash Heal (your primary heal when Penance is on cooldown) less mana effecient.

As for the talent build; it's one of the main ones and it's a sound one. Most of the main variations I've seen revolve around the points spent in Focused Will, Improved Healing, and Healing Focus. Healing Focus (the pushback resist at the top of Holy) can be critical in some fights, although if you can keep yourself perpetually shielded, then it's little to no problem (plus we typically have a Holy Paladin with us for Concentration Aura). Improved Healing is a general mana effecieny one, and one that's critical if you're having mana issues. Focused Will obviously gives a tasty amount of crit (one of our best stats), and is the most attractive talent to take if the other two aren't an issue for you; it really is just a case of how you're faring in whatever content you're doing at the time.

I've been tinkering with points in those three talents a lot recently, and although I have yet to test this most recent build, it's the one I'm happiest with in my current gearing:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuhhVRusffRtbxxcz:bAmz0V

Because of the possibility of healing in high-AoE damage situations, I took the two in Healing Focus, and split the remaining two points one each into Focused Will and Improved Healing; I feel my mana effeciency is only slightly below what I want, so it justified a point in Improved Healing, but I'm also a critwhore, so I couldn't totally surrender Focused Will. Also, I don't tend to take Desperate Prayer (I'd much rather use Binding Heal, so I can keep healing other people, plus it can potentially let me Divine Aegis two people at once).

Final note is that Disc tends to generate a lot of threat where Holy wouldn't; overhealing doesn't generate threat, but shielding does, and we do a LOT of shielding. It isn't viable for us to take the threat reduction talents, so I took the Minor Glyph of Fading instead (and if you see me heal, you might notice that on many fights I'll be using Fade quite often, so the mana cost reduction is a godsend).

Like I said, these are largely just my thoughts and stuff I've garnered from personal experience; your gearing is far superior to mine and you would likely have substantially fewer mana concerns than me, which affects things greatly.

If you want to know more, I'd suggest taking a peek at the Elitist Jerks Disc thead:
http://elitistjerks.com/f77/t54629-discipline_healing_compendium_v3_1_a/

Don't take absolutely everything in there totally to heart, as some of it is situational, or can be based on tiny changes, or based on best gear, etc. But some of it is very helpful, especially in terms of stat weightings and simple tips.

 

[Zooggy]

Ahey,

First up, Reflective Shielding is actually a bit of a disappointment; it only reflects damage that YOU absorb with your own shield.

I see. In that case, never mind!...

For the third glyph, you have two main options; Flash Heal [or] Prayer of Mending

Ok, cool. I'll need to experiment, then.

If you want to know more, I'd suggest taking a peek at the Elitist Jerks Disc thead

Yes, that thread is where I got all this stuff in my head in the first place.

Anyways, thanks for the advice, then.

Cheers,
J.

 

[Angelic]

Zoog,
I will comment on this further when I get back home and have the time, I think I may have a couple tips up my sleeve Regarding experienced disc raiders, check out Celeria, she is fairly good.

Angi