Raid healing 10's: to disc or not to disc, part 2

Raid healing 10mans:

Assuming the same skill level, assignment, and sustainability, when comparing the differences between the holy and disc on raid healing there's only two important metrics to look at: (1) Effective Healing per Second (EHPS) and (2) Practical Application.

(1) EHPS: the evidence from all the worlds public logs aggregated onto a single page of comparative data on EHPS shows no significant throughput differences between the two specs on the latest content -- i.e., WMO Top 20 Scoreboard for ICC10. 

(2) Practical Application: which spec is more effective in keeping the raid alive. Disc and holy heal differently and the majority position is probably that it depends on the encounter. I would disagree. As a general rule, preventative measures tend to be safer than reactionary measures; so in general, disc offers the more effective application than holy.

So, if you had to choose which spec to raid heal with disc should generally be the stronger option. It's throughput is just as strong while around 30% of it is the safer kind -- negative healing.

For further on disc vs holy, I have a more detailed write-up looking at this question for 25 mans: "Raid healing: to disc or not to disc."

Discipline Raid Healing in 10 mans vs 25 mans

Disc, 10's vs 25's:

It's true that disc heals differently in 10's than it does in 25's. Namely, we have to do more positive healing in 10's because a greater portion of the raid will have the weakened soul debuff.

For a comparative study, I'm going to use Professor Putridcide as our example since it's a recent and unforgiving, leaving little room for any slacking or meter padding.

In terms of EHPS:

Disc is no less powerful from a strictly throughput point of view in 10's compared to 25's:

          - 25man: Top recorded EHPS is 5699 (http://www.wowmeteronline.com/rank/clazz/ehps/pri/9/6/3/3)  

          - 10man: Top recorded 10man EHPS is 5824 (http://www.wowmeteronline.com/rank/clazz/ehps/pri/9/6/1/3)

In terms of negative healing:    

Disc healing in 10's has more positive healing of their percentage of healing done than in 25's.

          - Top 25man: percent of negative heals: 77.3% (http://www.wowmeteronline.com/combat/detail/295550743#healingout)

          - Top 10man: percent of negative heals: 47.2% (http://www.wowmeteronline.com/combat/detail/296362571#healingout)

We see more positive healing in 10's because weakened soul prevents further shield spamming. That doesn't mean less effective: just the opposite. It means we've maximized the negative healing potential of PW:S on the raid, with ample room to spare.

Further, the DA procs from additional positive heals in 10s means disc is actually doing more negative healing per person in 10 mans than in 25 mans.

Conclusion:

Quiet defensibly, disc is stronger in 10's than it is in 25's. Not only is disc throughput just as strong in 10s as it is in 25s, it can do a relative amount more negative healing in the smaller raid environment.