Discipline vs Shadow - my experience so far

[Owltoid]

-I resubbed four account this weekend. All my experience is based on about 6 hours of AV at level 79
-My gear sucks, even for PvP at 79. Experiences likely will differ with great gear
-I was able to test shadow with 4 priests, but then 2 dinged and was only able to test disc with the last two
-the massive healing nerf to holy nova sucks bad. I am healing my other toons for about 400 each now. When I looked at my old video I was healing my other toons for 1k+ each... holy nova may not be viable for keeping anyone alive unless they buff it back to usefulness

I started with shadow thinking that was the way to go for Cataclysm. Here are my initial reactions:
-shadowy apparitions aren't that useful, even when multiplied by 4, for PvP
-mind flay doesn't cut it for PvP as the burst just isn't that high
-mind spike (level 85) could change everything, but until then shadow is weak
-I was able to set up a "CC button" that would practically allow me to psychic horror, silence, and fear on command. With four priests you can basically do this whenever you want, which is very nice. However, it would take a lot of practice to be good
-Summary: with practice this team may be ok, though going to have to figure out how to survive without holy nova. However, we'll have to wait until mindspike is ready, because using mindflay just doesn't do enough damage quickly enough.

A little bit out of frustration, I switch to disc. Here are my initial reactions:
-until I get mindspike, there is no question that I will be playing discipline... it was fun!
-penance hits hard, and I'm guessing 4x penance will be a nice source of "burst" damage every 10 seconds
-though I'm still crafting my way to cast PW: Barriers on demand (95% of the way there) I can see it's usefulness. It really does help and I feel "safe" as long as that barrier is there. With the proposed two minute cooldown, and four to use, at least one should be available for every fight
-holy nova still sucks, but at least divine aegis helps a little


TL;DR - disc is fun, shadow is gimped without mind spike, holy nova nerf hurts bad... real bad

[Oatboat]

You must've had a bad day or something cause shadow is a blast.

Devouring plague talented almost 1 shots people... followed by 4 shadow word deaths = instant kills.

Only thing is they arent for killing large numbers of mobs like druids/shamans. But get about 4 -6 people you can just run around dotting people and never dieing. With the mana fix I hardly ever run out of mana like i used to.

[Owltoid]

Mana was certainly not an issue. Perhaps it's my very crappy gear for damage. I know that at 85 I won't be casting mind flay at all when mindspikes for instant mind blast is available.

My gear sucks so my devouring plague sucks.
My gear sucks and yet my penance still hits pretty hard.

If you have a free dual spec and don't mind testing it out, I'd be curious to hear how hard your geared penance (even in shadow gear) hits for. I'm wondering if with gear if one round of 4x penance will kill anything.

[Ualaa]

I'm leveling (for tradeskills) 5x Disc priests...

Smite (glyphed, gets +18% Hit), with Atonement (2/2) heals the most hurt friendly target within 15 yards of the DPS target.
With smite spam, they're basically immune to mob damage, so far.

Holy Fire, Smite, Penance... as Holy Damage.
Mindblast, SW: Pain, Devouring Plague, SW: Death... as Shadow Damage.
Smite, Holy Nova, Renew, Penance, Flash Heal... as Healing.

Haven't messed with Divine Barrier yet.
But have PW: Shield (Self) and PW: Shield (Round-Robin) set up.
Mobs (which is totally different from PvP) die well before the shield is gone.

Will have Fear Ward glyphed on all five.
With a Round-Robin, targeting the active toon.
And Mass Dispel, that's my fear protection.
Plus the team can AoE fear as easily as be feared.

Was initially planning (during RAF) on having them as a secondary team.
Stay way back in AV's, and heal/shield/manaburn/mass dispel.

[Owltoid]

I'm leveling (for tradeskills) 5x Disc priests...

Smite (glyphed, gets +18% Hit), with Atonement (2/2) heals the most hurt friendly target within 15 yards of the DPS target.
With smite spam, they're basically immune to mob damage, so far.

Holy Fire, Smite, Penance... as Holy Damage.
Mindblast, SW: Pain, Devouring Plague, SW: Death... as Shadow Damage.
Smite, Holy Nova, Renew, Penance, Flash Heal... as Healing.

Haven't messed with Divine Barrier yet.
But have PW: Shield (Self) and PW: Shield (Round-Robin) set up.
Mobs (which is totally different from PvP) die well before the shield is gone.

Will have Fear Ward glyphed on all five.
With a Round-Robin, targeting the active toon.
And Mass Dispel, that's my fear protection.
Plus the team can AoE fear as easily as be feared.

Was initially planning (during RAF) on having them as a secondary team.
Stay way back in AV's, and heal/shield/manaburn/mass dispel.

Unless something has changed, I believe it's only an 8 yard radius for smite healing.

[Ualaa]

Could easily be 8 yards, have not tested it.
The wowhead talent builder shows it as 15 yards.

In game, when I Smite mobs, they're in my face so a 2 yard range would work.

But for PvP, 8/15 is a rather large difference.