It’s believed that Priests are to be the Healer of Healers, the Jack of All Trades, but the masters of none. We were told we had a large tool box of heals, but their power compared to other healing classes were hardly noticeable. When the change to the Discipline Talent tree were changed to be another Healing tree, Priests were stretched while Shamans, Paladins, and Druids had a single Healing Talent tree compared to Priests who now have 2 – Discipline and Holy.
A large tool box of heals we do have. Compared to other healing classes, we have far more than they do. Paladins have a total of 2 healing spells, Druids have a total of 5 healing spells, Shamans have a total of 3 healing spells, and Priests have a total of 7 healing spells.
This can make playing a priest difficult, deciding which heals to use and at which time. Since our heals were not as focused and as powerful as other healing classes, many Priests were thought of as fillers, for when a more suitable healer was unable to make it to a raid.
After the change to the Discipline spec, Priests are now just another version of a Holy Paladin, which can seem unfair to the Paladins. I wanted to take a look into a comparison between Holy Paladins and Discipline Priests. I got together with a friend who has been a Holy Paladin since The Burning Crusade, and used to be a Holy Priest. She is very good at playing as a Holy Paladin and when it comes to skill, even if I play a Discipline Priest she’d outdo me in skill alone.
Discipline Priests versus Holy Paladins
Holy Priests will often win over Holy Paladins hands down when it comes to raid healing. Discipline Priests and Paladins are very much the same; they are favorably the best single target healers. Paladins excel at being the best main tank healers. Discipline Priests are also the best at main tank healing. But if a raid leader had to choose a Discipline Priest or a Holy Paladin, it’d be a hard choice indeed, as the classes are too similar in roles that need played.
The Paladin’s Side:
Paladins are more utility healers, and have spells at their disposal to be able to manage their mana, heal extra targets through glyphs and be able to heal 2 targets at the same time with abilities. They also have emergency heals, such as Lay on Hands and Holy Shock. Paladins are very fast healers! Lots of Haste Rating and an ability to increase haste rating by 15%, while Priest spells can take time to cast (2-3 seconds), Paladin’s spells can cast in 1.3 to 1.8 seconds. Paladins also have divine plea which generates 25% of their mana pool, only 1min CD, healing critical strikes that regenerate mana, and Divine Illumination reduces mana costs by half.
The Priest’s Side:
Discipline priests cannot heal two different targets at the same time, but are able to only through Binding Heal, which heals themselves and their target. But unlike the Paladin, Discipline Priests still have raid heals at their use – Prayer of Mending and Prayer of Healing. Discipline Priests will never be able to see the top of any healing chart, but are very good support healers. They are also very fast healers, and can beat the Paladin in healing quickly through Borrowed Time after casting Power Word: Shield on a target, which increases spell haste rating by 25% for the next spell cast. Flash Heal will only take 1.3 seconds to cast and will only take 1.04 seconds to cast with Borrowed Time, and 1.09 seconds with Power Infusion. Mix Power Infusion and Borrowed Time together and you are one really fast healer at only .87 second cast on Flash Heal! But the amount healed for is below that of a Paladin, who heals for about 9k hp (Holy Light, Paladin’s version of Greater Heal), whereas a Priest heals for about 8k hp (Greater Healing, Discipline). Both paladin and priest heal for the same amount with Flash Heal and Flash of Light, depending on spell power. (Estimated amount compared from my Priest to a friend’s Paladin, amount healed for may vary based on gear.) Though Discipline priests do not have an ability to generate 25% of their mana back, they do have Rapture that refunds about 5% of their total mana when Power Word: Shield has been completely absorbed or dispelled. This can allow the priest to regenerate more mana than the Paladin, especially if the Priests has more than one target shielded at a time, and they disappear 12 seconds apart…
Comparison:
Now that you have read the two sides, Which one is better? They are both great at what they are meant to do - Main Tank Healing. Both have their ups and downs and abilities and spells that are better than the other. Paladins are good at Main Tank healing and only main tank healing, whereas a discipline priest can help with raid healing, having lots of haste rating will allow the priest to cast Prayer of Healing at a much faster rate than a Holy Priest, and can still use Prayer of Mending and Divine Hymn. Their only downside is they do not heal for very much, but do reduce damage done to their target and the whole raid, while generating mana/rage/runic power to the target with their power word: shield. Discipline Priests do not, however, have an emergency heal, like Paladins do with Lay on Hands, which does not take all of their mana away anymore. Discipline Priests only have Pain Suppression, reducing damage greatly allowing for quick and fast heals to save the target. Discipline Priests win over Paladins with lasting Mana, they can heal for a lot longer than a Paladin can who will run out of mana before a Discipline Priest. Even though Discipline priests have abilities to reduce their casting time and be faster than a Paladin, it’ll only be for a short time as Paladins can keep their speed constantly going, and can reach the speed limit and get their spells stuck in a cooldown for being too fast.
So, who wins of the two classes? Priests win. Not to be favoring my own class; the only reason that I (and my paladin friend) believe that a Discipline Priest wins over a Paladin is for the simple fact that Discipline Priests can still raid heal, whereas a Paladin is good at one thing and one thing only - Main Tank healing. Loken in Halls of Lightning is a good example; he does lots of group wide damage, which can make it difficult for a Paladin to keep up with all the damage. A priest, holy or discipline only needs to keep Prayer of Mending in the group and cast Prayer of Healing during the time his lightning nova is casting (timing it is key! You want Prayer of Healing to finish casting just after his lightning nova has hit everyone). Caution: this can make lazy players, but you’d get the achievement to kill Loken in a short amount of time.
Conclusion:
It sounds like the new filler class is now the Holy Paladins who have no other capable role to play other than main tank healing. As my Paladin friend said, any class can heal the main tank and other classes are capable of raid healing. Discipline Priests are becoming the new Holy Paladin.
I truly love playing as a Discipline Priest; the play style is completely different than that of a Holy Priest. Priests have an advance over other healing classes with two healing specs now, and Discipline Priests are far too much like a Holy Paladin and must now share roles, or with dual spec step down and let the Paladin MT heal. Maybe someday in the future Holy Paladins can join with the other healing classes and have more available spells to help in healing the raid rather than being only class that is good at one thing only.