Gear Differences

[Ammit]

Hello Just have a question about gear difference between Holy Priest and Disc Priest.

I am Dual Spec Disc/Priest and I know that most of the sought after stats are similar for each but is there such a significant difference anywhere that would justify separate gear for each spec?

IF this has been covered please forgive me, and help me please by pointing me to the correct thread.
Thanks in advance.

[Amamaeth]

There are some minor differences in how you could gem. Disc favors more spellpower and wants to avoid spirit, whereas holy doesn't mind spirit. A lot of it is very similar though to the point where I wouldn't (and didn't) make seperate sets for them over giving gear to people who need it.

Now if no one needs the gear, then go for having a second set.

[Ammit]

Thank you very much that was the only thing I could think of as well just wanted a second opinion

[Aliena]

Disc is all int and sp and if you have no other choice, mp5. Holy is choice between sp and haste for throughput and int/spirit for mana regen. Int still outweighs spirit in terms of regen but spirit is converted in part to spellpower, so adding onto that the socket bonuses you gain by using purple gems in blue sockets, it makes up for the loss of regen.

[Espillion]

Disc favors more spellpower because it amplifies shield and healing coefficients in a big way than what spirit does. Spirit has a minor role because there would be few talents they would add from the majority Disc or the minor Holy tree tiers.

Holy however needs to last their mana for the raid and whether you can afford it or not, you're balancing SP and Mana Pool for a "healthy" amount of MP5 (and to a lesser extent, spirit) during casting because of your reactive group heal priority, so to speak. Reason I say this is based on PoV, Holy can heal effectively a raid without difficulty if it can handle the amount of time a boss fight takes. But the arsenal is fairly costly and there has to be measures to help soften that blow. Mp5 and Spirit then comes in.

[Aliena]

Disc favors more spellpower because it amplifies shield and healing coefficients in a big way than what spirit does. Spirit has a minor role because there would be few talents they would add from the majority Disc or the minor Holy tree tiers.

There are no disc talents that make spirit more beneficial except for Meditation, which is the ONLY talent that makes spirit work for priests at all. If it wasn't for meditation, no priest would want anything to do with spirit. Even for Holy, spirit vs. spellpower is never a question. It's always spellpower vs. haste and spirit vs int. Disc is strong in mana efficiency talents and low in throughput talents, so once a disc priest is happy with his/her mana endurace, spellpower should be the go-to stat to gem. Before that, intellect.

Holy however needs to last their mana for the raid and whether you can afford it or not, you're balancing SP and Mana Pool for a "healthy" amount of MP5 (and to a lesser extent, spirit) during casting because of your reactive group heal priority, so to speak. Reason I say this is based on PoV, Holy can heal effectively a raid without difficulty if it can handle the amount of time a boss fight takes. But the arsenal is fairly costly and there has to be measures to help soften that blow. Mp5 and Spirit then comes in.

While it is true that holy is less mana efficient than disc and will require more regen, mp5 is the worst regen stat for holy priests. INT's by far the best; Spirit, as I've said, is in part converted to spellpower (11 spirit = ~4MP5 & ~2.75SP, which is again modified by the total amount of intellect you have along with it). Holy does need a considerable amount of regen, and once that's reached, gems should go towards either SP or Haste depending on preference and playstyle.

[Espillion]

Mmm well I'm only going by speculation based on my fellow priest's performance in raids.

The numbers may alter my views but that's just how I see it. Mana does play a key role though.

[Amamaeth]

Mmm well I'm only going by speculation based on my fellow priest's performance in raids.

The numbers may alter my views but that's just how I see it. Mana does play a key role though.

I don't think anyone said mana doesn't play a key role. Without mana we can't heal. However, there is a difference between mana regen and mp5. Intellect, for either priest, is our biggest mana regen stat. This is because of things like rapture, replenishment, shadow fiend and hymn of hope. They all return mana based on a percentage of total mana. Also, consider that intellect also increases your crit percentage in addition to increasing your mana pool size while also being a part of how much mana regen you gain from spirit. If there was such a thing as a super stat, it would be intellect. Mp5 is very weak in comparison. It doesn't recieve any bonuses from talents, nor does it recieve a scaling increase from raid buffs like intellect does. 20mp5 on an item is just that, 20mp5. Spirit, for a disc priest, is roughly equivalent to .36mp5 point by point. That's including gains from blessings of kings.

Back to the topic, Aliena is spot on for which spec favors what. Like I said though, gearwise the stats you want are mostly similar. Disc priests want Spellpower, Intellect, Haste to about 11%. Holy wants Spellpower, Intellect, Haste and Spirit. Crit is valuable for both (how valuable crit is for disc though depends on role. If all you are doing is shield spamming then it is less valuable[ie, not at all] then if you were tank healing and needing divine aegis and inspiration proc's). So, you don't really need 2 seperate sets. Get a set that focuses on spellpower and intellect with about 11% haste and you are good for both. After that you can pick up seperate pieces for different sets if you think its worth it.

[Philosophist]

This is relevant to my question....I made a post below before i saw this one so this may be copy spam if so i am sorry

Since you said that disc is short on Throughput talents, is it best to go for "caster" type gearing choices, such as the caster version of the Bejeweled wizard bracers. Since you say Spirit is not so great for Disc, taking the extra Haste(or crit cant remember off the top of my head) in lieu of the spirit
seem like a logic thing to do.
Im i close or way off base with my assumption.... i am new to priest healing after being a resto druid for ever. So saying no to spirit seems so dirty and wrong

P.s. concerning Spell crit, i have read that 35% is a good soft cap for making sure you get good Devine aegis procs. is that true? Is it worth going any higher?

[Aliena]

Once your mana regen is enough so that you don't run out in any given fight, you might want to choose to go for throughput instead of spirit pieces, yes.

[Philosophist]

Would you say 30K mana pool in a 25 man is a good "marker" to try and reach?

Question: Do you have a separate gear for holy and disc? And if so is the only difference less Spirit gear on the disc set?

Thanks for such timely responses, they really got you guys working over there. =P

P.s. i tried to make a donation for being so helpful but all there is is paypal>.> I HATE PAYPAL. They ripped me off few years back, so i boycot them. Wish there was another way i could donate to the cause.