When the class changes first came out my priest was in a shadow / disc spec. Discipline for healing. I had been disc for a few expansions now, I didn’t enjoy the holy spec at all. That completely changed as did my taste about a lot of classes when the revamps came. Fast forward to now: I’m level 106 and I’ve finally found the “perfect” spot for me to play as a discipline priest, and it’s something I wouldn’t have ever expected if it wasn’t for the fact that I was collecting all three artifact weapons.
I’m now using my discipline spec to level, and I love it. I found that while shadow is nice, it wasn’t quite what I wanted any more. Trying to manage my insanity and push out DPS while surviving was getting difficult and shadow spec doesn’t have any real nice heals that I could make use of. Since I was collecting artifacts anyway I decided on a whim to swap over to discipline, arrange my hotbars, and play through a few quests, just to get a feel.
I’m really glad that I did.
My DPS is slightly lower than it was in shadow but my survival has gone WAY up. I barely ever take damage any more, and I can take on huge groups at once. Instead of managing insanity I’m managing atonement, a much easier buff to manage because there’s just one person it’s usually on (or two, if I have my combat ally with me). I don’t notice an enormous drag in DPS at all, and I’m getting used to my rotations for leveling. It’s also nice not to be a shadow figure all the time – I can see my gear, and my character. I can do pretty good DPS or heal on a whim when needed. I don’t think it’s something I want to use in raids or groups, but for leveling up it has quickly become my new favourite.
Of course that also means that now my artifact bonuses are split between three completely different weapons. It’s not a big deal, but I know that means later on I’ll have to do more grinding than if I had of just focused on one (or even just two) weapons. My very casual goal has been to try to get a level a day, some days I surpass that (like yesterday) and others I don’t even come close. I’m still taking my time and enjoying the ride, though I see many of my friends already at 110 and working on alts. The stories have been intense and enjoyable, and I’m really just in no rush at all.
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
I actually switched right to holy after the recent class changes, no longer enjoying disc what so ever for a pure healing spec in raids / dungeons. Holy is incredibly awesome for those two scenario (IMO). Right now, if I were to give up anything, I actually think it would be shadow!
Sheesh, I just did my first dungeon as Discipline heals, and holy crap it was stressful. I definitely need to find some addon which can better display my Atonement buffs, I found it just impossible to track when I needed to apply them. And trying to heal while moving was a nightmare (this was Eye of Azshara where most of the fights seem to be movement fiestas).
I’m tempted to give holy more of a try, too, now.
You said you haven’t enjoyed Holy for a few expansions now.. but you are splitting your artifact development between all three specs. Do you find Holy more enjoyable now? Or are you leveling your Holy artifact just “to be on the safe side”?
I ask because I too have a Priest main and have been “Discipline for healing, Shadow for soloing” for years now, and have never gotten into Holy. But I will definitely try a spell of Discipline solo questing after reading this. I’m currently level 107 and have been splitting my artifact power evenly between Shadow and Discipline artifacts.