Getting the conversation rolling

[Rhom]

Shields are outstandingly cool on a Disc priest because they are so buffed up. BUT, simply topping the healing meters because you spam an ability that prevents a chunk of damage, but rarely saves anyone's life, is missing the point to healing. There is way too much emphasis placed on individual healing meters, and way too little placed on healing tactics/team work/synergy. All of the classes compliment each other. Pigeonholing any class to just one duty, let alone one spell is a mistake... even to a shammy healer or a holy paladin.

[Akesson]

Disc Priests are good at supporting tank healers. In an emergency, no healer can match a bubble+Penance. This is true. However, they are only good in that event. Penance should be burned wherever it will be most useful. It doesn't matter if it's a tank or not. A tank shouldn't need it consistently, provided you have a Holy Paladin, unless said Pally has been disabled or is dead.

As I said before, Disc Priests are great life-savers, but this does not make them good tank healers. Their Greater Heals are only slightly stronger than a Paladin's Holy Light, but with a much, much longer cast time, no matter the haste proc. Their Flash Heals are not worth speaking of. That's like a Paladin gemmed with int trying to play a FoL style and spec. It doesn't work. What you're going to have is a tank floating, not topped off, with Flash Heals being spammed while waiting for Weakened Soul and Penance to come off cooldown.

A Disc Priest by itself cannot keep a tank up consistently in IC. Not in 25.

With Paladins as strong as they are now, it's a waste to put Disc Priests on tanks using spells that aren't strong and leaving the raid unbubbled. Nearly every fight in IC has a "fair amount of raid damage". Marrowgar's bonestorm, Deathwhisper's frostbolt volleys, Festergut's aura, Rotface's slime spray, even. Putricide has a 2k DPS damage aura that affects all members of the raid. There's no aura in BPC (except glittering sparks), but everyone is always taking damage anyway from one thing or another. BQL has the nastiest damage aura in the game. Sindragosa has a damage aura that scales up once you hit p3. There is no tool better than bubbles to heal through Lich King's Infests.

Numbers can be misleading, sure, but you've missed a crucial part of my point. If all the healers are working together properly with a workable composition, then they, I guarantee you, will be doing what I have outlined the vast majority of the time. It's not just that Disc Priest bubblewrapping numbers are ridiculously inflated. It's that their contribution to the raid when bubblewrapping is just plain enormous. The other healers will feel it, and the other healers will either appreciate it greatly, or get bored with so much less healing to do.

Adapting when things go wrong is a given, and I'm not worried about that. Every competent healer knows to break rotation in order to save a life or wipe and how to do it. I'm worried about healers being given assignments in a role they're not designed for and are just not good at.

I hate the way every class has been pigeonholed, but this is the way this game works as of now, and, thank god, Blizzard is working to fix this for the next expansion. Until then, I will be stuck 5x1'ing until I go OOM.

[Malstryx]

...simply topping the healing meters because you spam an ability that prevents a chunk of damage, but rarely saves anyone's life, is missing the point to healing. There is way too much emphasis placed on individual healing meters, and way too little placed on healing tactics/team work/synergy.

I find this rather contradictory. You're suggesting that the point to healing is simply saving people's lives by, well, healing, but at the same time, the way we perform in a raid is supposed to be part of a team strategy. What if that strategy actually calls for us to not actually 'heal'? In a team of healers, the role of the disc priest is not to actually bring people back up to full health but to provide a unique buffer between the raid's health and incoming damage that eases the load on the other healers' jobs, which is to top off people's health. And, actually, saving lives at the last second is probably also best done by disc priests as well via penance. Like Ham said, penance is an amazing lifesaving ability, and as it's one of the best single panic heals in the game, I have to strongly disagree with the statement that penance is wasted on anyone but tanks.

I don't believe I ever said that bubble spamming was good merely because it places disc priests at the top of healing meters. As I said in my initial post, disc healing is meant for damage prevention and mitigation. We are the only healing class in the raid that is capable of such a thing, so why not utilise it to its fullest potential? Pallies are good for nothing but tank healing, so they will NEVER be put on anything but the tanks. On the other hand, disc priests are great at raid healing, and though yes, they are capable of support tank healing, putting a disc priest on tanks without a very good reason for a specific fight or incident is a complete waste when pally healers are having absolutely no trouble keeping up their assignments on their own. Basically - don't put a disc priest on tanks when you've got someone else who can cover them much more efficiently, and instead take advantage of the unique healing we're capable of. Yes, we could be lump healers or support tank healers, but our efficiency and effectiveness at either is greatly eclipsed by our mitigation capabilities. And by that I don't mean that our numbers are lower doing anything but bubble spam - we simply contribute a great deal more to the raid with bubbles than trying to step into roles that other classes are much more suited to handle.

Tbh, I'm actually really not sure where you're getting the impression that we're only interested in competitive charts and numbers. I've said before that this strategy of healing is favoured and used because it allows the most effective, not to mention unique, use of heals we're capable of contributing to a raid.

[Hammaer]

If it was all about chart topping, I'd be pushing Chain Heal spamming for all resto shamans. Nothing can come close to CH spam for charts, because they're huge numbers, and they're smart heals so other than the initial target they have minimal overheal. Last night I was in an ICC25 GDKP and was assigned to CH spam on all trash. I out-did two 6k GS (264+ ivl) holy pallies and one 6k GS druid on the meters (I'm at 5.5k GS). NOTHING can compete now that CoH spam is dead.

(Btw, if you have an opportunity to go to one of these without disrupting your OOM raiding, DO IT. I made 1960g in just under 2 hours and got some 264 gloves for 700g. I guess that technically means I made 1260g. Whatever, either way it's easy money if you don't bid on the gear and just go to get frost badges. Just be aware that if it's one of the really good items or a Token, it'll go for 4-10k. It's still a great way to pickup some basic pieces for an alt).

My main focus is raid success and player enjoyment. I couldn't care less about the meters (ok, I broadcast a dps meter for pre-Marrowgar trash. Sue me, it was my first time ever on top of any raid dps meter in LK ). Yes, bubble-spamming can get dull. So can Holy Light spamming, CH spamming, Healing Wave spamming, Arcane mage spamming, etc. It's always dull, right up to the point where Shiri pulls aggro . Then it's not dull anymore, because you're the only thing between him and the dirtnap. And I know how much he appreciates not taking dirtnaps. I'm told its bad for his dps. His gratitude is incredible (I...lived...?)

Ultimately though, diso-healingis best served for healing the raid (spcifically for single-target spike damage), and as a 2nd/backup healer on tanks. The math nerds at EJ have come to the same conclusion. Blizz has messed up priests this Xpac. They've admitted it, and they're going to fix it in Cata. For now though, this is the reality.