Resto Druid rerolling Priest

[Sylvius]

Hi there. As the title says, I'm a resto druid.

My 10m raid team has another druid (boomkin & off-tank) and no priests.
Also, I dislike the situation druids are at PvP at the moment.
So, I'm thinking about rerolling to priest.

My question is, how is Priest comparate to Druid on PvE heal?
My raid team has a Holy Paladin, a Resto Shaman and me. Would it work just as good as it's now with a Priest instead of Druid?
Which spec should I play? I've never played seriously, so I don't know which I prefer, but I believe I'd rather be disc. Disc, although, is more for tank-healing, no? Would it work with that team or should I go Holy?

Thanks very much for your attention.

Sylvius/Shadowmoon-US

[Quinafoi]

My question is, how is Priest comparate to Druid on PvE heal?

In the current tier Druids are the most effective healers on the majority of encounters. Though the actual value of other healers is often understated when considering the additional benefits and cooldowns they provide, a druid's cooldowns are primarily a buff to themselves where as other class cooldowns are buffs or mitigation granted to others.

My raid team has a Holy Paladin, a Resto Shaman and me. Would it work just as good as it's now with a Priest instead of Druid?

You are already comfortable with Druid healing and adapting to a new class will take time. Additionally, Druids have the highest efficiency due to Innervate (Innervate out performs all other cooldowns in 10 man). So no, it likely wouldn't work as well. Also your current composition of healers is fine. There will always be some competition for gear regardless so just because you have a Balance Druid is not a really good reason to swap. The most you can actually get is 9 different gear selections however in a 10 man raid there will always be at least one conflict.

Plate Tank
Plate Intellect
Plate Strength
Mail Intellect
Mail Agility
Leather Intellect
Leather Agility
Cloth Spirit
Cloth Hit

Those are the nine types. No matter how you try to balance your raid, you will always have at least one conflict for gear.

Which spec should I play?

Whatever you want.

I've never played seriously, so I don't know which I prefer, but I believe I'd rather be disc. Disc, although, is more for tank-healing, no? Would it work with that team or should I go Holy?

Holy would likely serve a similar function in the raid as it is closer to raid healing than Discipline, however, Discipline provides some very potent raid cooldowns. The big difference in raid healing will be that a Druid would buff their own throughput in order to heal more damage and deal with increased damage in that matter where as a Discipline Priest would use an ability like Power Word: Barrier to mitigate damage making it easier to heal without increasing their throughput.


In conclusion...
You're trying to justify bringing a priest because you don't have one now, but when you do that then you don't have a Restoration Druid. I'd say just play what you want and to hell with the gear conflicts because on some degree they aren't avoidable. Now if you "WANT" to play a priest, go ahead. But don't try and justify it over stuff like that, play it because you want to, not because it's convenent for loot.

[Sylvius]

The main reason is based on PvP. And I'll reroll on PvP, that's for sure. Resto Druids are the worst PvP healers and I find the Priest way of PvP heal very interesting. Considering there is no priest on my raid team, I could use it too for PvE. It's true that I could play the druid for PvE and the priest for PvP, but my available play-time is not that much and I'd rather have a real main.

So I just wanted to know how priests are on PvE...

It's just that I believe that druids are better then priests on PvE, but considering it would be a "buff" on gear for me and for the boomkin, it "could" surpass the "nerf" of rerolling to priest. Or still our raid would be losing? It's something like that: if it's the same, I'd reroll, but if it's a big downgrade, I'd not.

About the adaptation thing, I'd probably reroll like in a month and do "farm" bosses with the priest and heroic bosses with the druid in order to gear it (and by that time I'd probably have the skill) to play the priest as efective as I play the druid atm.

[Blue]

I can't comment on PvP...

In PvE, I think it would certainly be doable, to have a Priest, with that team, although you may want to talk to the other healers, to get a take on how they might see it?

As for which spec--go with what you like--you can certainly go with either spec, particularly in that raid heal team. My own preference would be Disc, but that's just me, and only because I would be thinking it a good fit, with the Shaman. Not that Holy wouldn't work...but, you'd probably be spending a lot of time on Off-tank, and raid duties. Would the raid miss the Druid heals? Yes, I think so, but not an insurmountable loss, or, as you put it, not a "big downgrade", theoretically. The bigger question is, "Could the raid adjust?" I can't answer that, but, again, should be possible.

I'm kinda with Quin, on the reason(s) for you wanting to switch...gear conflicts shouldn't be a factor, so that leaves just the PvP part...and, I don't know why you're willing to level up another healer, and yet not keep the PvE healer you have...to me, that's the ideal answer to both your PvP concerns, and your raiding concerns...heck, it even gives you more flexibility to the PvE part.

Since it looks like your going to roll the Priest anyway, you'll no doubt be answering these questions, in the best way, anyway--by actually doing it!

Good luck!

[Sylvius]

I've talked with some raid mates and they - all of them - would rather me staying as druid.
So yeah, I'm gonna stay with one char for PvE and another for PvP.
Let's see how long I can keep with two toons.

Thanks for the answers!