Holy Priest Healing in Cataclysm

Earlier I talked about my excitement for the upcoming paladin changes coming in cataclysm. Now it is the priests turn.

Currently healing as a holy priest offers a variety of different playstyles. With the prevalence of periodic damage in Icecrown Citadel, and consitent raid wide damage two playstyles began to take shape for priests. Most priests would spec to make Renew more powerful, while others would focus more on direct heals like Prayer of Healing. There wasn't a huge different between these specs, but the main staple was that single target healing took a back seat to AoE heals.

In Cataclysm, it looks like things are going to shift slightly. Holy priests have always been very well rounded. We can help with tank healing, raid heal, and offer support to other healers. With the current talent build the range of spots to place talent points allowed a holy priest to either boost spells like Flash Heal and Greater Heal, or spells like Circle of Healing and Prayer of Healing (of course there is some overlap here). With the new talent trees, however, it looks like we won't have to choose one or the other. If you decide to be a holy priest you will be able to fill any healing role. Which means that putting points into boosting Greater Heal won't seem like a mistake because there really isn't anywhere else to put them, (and Greater Heal will be more useful).

While one could argue that this could limit our options, I would say it enhances our veratility. Tanks about to take incoming damage, let me swap to Chakra(Heal). The Boss is shooting fire at everyone, let me switch to Chakra(Prayer of Healing). There is a constant stream of damage being dealt to the raid, let me switch to Chakra(Renew). We can tank heal, raid heal, and HoT with the best of them.

We still keep the cool talents like; Spirit of Redemption, Body and Soul (yay for Lifegrip), Guardian Spirit, and Lightwell (yay for the fixes to it), and we gain an awesome spell like Chakra. This is going to be really fun. If you're a holy priest in Cataclysm, you will be fully holy. There won't be a specialization within the spec. You'll be able to be good at everything in cata, and that is going to be awesome.