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Some of you guys can be so extreme sometimes. :) Less emphasis on shields doesn't have to mean never, ever cast shields. Your mastery doesn't have to be junk just because you cast actual heals sometimes.
A typical Icecrown Disc priest today might have a healing breakdown that looks something like this:
40% Power Word: Shield
35% Divine Aegis
8% Glyph of PW:S
7% Prayer of Mending
4% Divine Hymn
2% Flash Heal
1% Penance
3% Other
Imagine that instead of 75% shields, you do 50-60% shields and the rest is made up by Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal and Penance. So instead of doing most of your healing, shields are down to doing only a majority of your healing. :)
A typical Icecrown Disc priest today might have a healing breakdown that looks something like this:
40% Power Word: Shield
35% Divine Aegis
8% Glyph of PW:S
7% Prayer of Mending
4% Divine Hymn
2% Flash Heal
1% Penance
3% Other
Imagine that instead of 75% shields, you do 50-60% shields and the rest is made up by Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal and Penance. So instead of doing most of your healing, shields are down to doing only a majority of your healing. :)
I have zero issue with this. I don't know what it's like in the higher end content, but in five mans and PVP I can count on one hand the number of direct heals I cast in an hour. Mainly it's Shield, PoM, then either DPS or /dance. In a battleground healing meter (doesn't count absorption), I'm often behind a warlock or two. And it's not like I'm doing a crappy job. People aren't dying around me. Shield is just that definitive of my spec. I'm cool with becoming a Priest first and Disc second rather than the other way around.