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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 style="">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.

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style="">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.

style="font-weight: bold;">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.

style="font-weight: bold;">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 style="">one  class="MsoCommentReference"> style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%;"> style="">target
shielded at a time, and they disappear 12 seconds apart…

style="font-weight: bold;">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 style="">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.

style="">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.