Priest Leveling

I'm currently leveling a Night Elf priest on the new server we picked out. I've been dappling between all three specs at some point, and find that I enjoy aspects of each, but don't specifically lean towards one. I started with Discipline until level 32 simply because Shadow was not an efficient leveling build until I received Shadow Word: Death and the Glyph of Spirit Tap. Since then, I've been enjoying Shadow, and think I might stick with Shadow once I hit 85. I've always struggled with priest heals, sometimes because I feel overwhelmed by the toolbox. One of the problems might be that I haven't really leveled from start to finish, and since the LFD tool is now here as well, I can sufficiently grow with the talent specs.
I struggled a bit healing in the early levels, specifically while doing SFK. After a few teeth to nail fights, I respec'd Shadow and went DPS through SFK. I found I wasn't the problem while I watched another healer, in heirlooms, struggle. I also discovered the strangely inefficient leveling spec that is Shadow at lower levels. It doesn't make sense to me, but alas, once you hit 32, it's all in the past.
For healing, after the horrific experience that was SFK, I ended up switching to Holy when I hit 30 and got my dual-spec. Holy is a different story. While it doesn't have the DPS value that comes with an Evangelism/Atonement Disc build, I never ran out of mana and had the capacity to heal large amounts of damage when faced with it. I did not find this when I did Disc.
I do find Holy kind of boring.  Of course, it's cuz I'm  at lower levels. But it helps that I can queue as both DPS and Heals and I tend to get DPS most.  While tanks are still hot commodities, I guess most people think that being a healer will get them faster queues at lower levels.
The other problem I find is that I can never get the gear I want/need. Not only am I competing with a huge amount of Ele shamans and Balance druids, but since everyone can Need, I've lost robes to hunters and wands to paladins.While I understand the need for such a looting system at lower levels, sometimes it annoys the hell out of me. Speaking of which...
A while ago, when I was leveling a mage through LFD, I encountered a Shadow priest who flipped out on a healing Shaman for rolling and winning a cloth robe. I stood up for the Shaman, saying that caster leather is a bit rare to find at these levels, since most is designed for the more "efficient" leveling build, ie. Agility leather. The priest of course, started telling me I was dumb and that boohoo it's not fair that I can only wear cloth. Then we had someone else jump in and end all our discussions by reminding us that this is just a game. (btw. I hate these people. These people act high and mighty by saying oh noesss it's just a game. Yes it is just a game, but don't demean the way people spend their time.)

Anyways, aside from that...a side...
I've hit about 54, and respec'd Holy back to Discipline. I'm going to see if having Divine Aegis will help me out, but I have yet to try it out. I still enjoy Shadow, even though I have no AoE abilities, which my Paladin partner finds kinda frustrating (TOO BAD ANTHONY). 

Patch 4.06 Plans

-Respec.
I'm debating whether I should drop my Moonkin spec for a second Resto spec.
This is a problem because I still do dailies on Cov and might also effect other things I do. However, there are quite a variety of different specs I wanna try, because the new talents has created tons of different utilities we can spec in.
-Archaeology
First I have to dump the greys i've been carrying with me. Then I have to solve and dump some more greys i've been carrying with me. Finally I'll get back to digging for the Sword, the Staff and the Mount (Tol'Vir)
-I might work on Hellscream's Reach to get the trinket, Mandala of Stirring Patterns. Its a 321 Spirit, plus a intel proc instead of a mastery. This would be a mana regen option I may look at as opposed to having two specs. This is also why I'll need a dps spec. The TB dailies are grueling.
-Priest Leveling
I've finally settled on my Priest as my next 85. I also plan to heal on him. Disc is getting a needed boost and Holy is already pretty cool looking. Can't wait to get started.
-Try out my new flight form, mon.
Yeah I'm a bat. O.o

Finally! A patch i'm looking forward to is finally hitting the realms Yay!

Happy Healing!

Post 4.01: The Dpsing Healer (Discipline Priests)

Despite my contempt of forcing healers to dps more, (if I wanted to dps, I would roll a dps spec/class), I am very pleased with the Discipline Smite/Archangel mechanic. Unlike resto druids, where the only reason I dps is because I'm utterly bored, and unlike resto shamans, where I'm forced to dps to desperately control my mana, and yet find myself still oom, Discipline healing has not only incorporated the dps aspect effectively, but Blizzard has given priests the tools to dps properly.
Discipline priests are the correct way to introduce the "dpsing healer."
The Smite/Archangel build is focus on two talents, called Evangelism and Archangel. Evangelism (discipline version)  increases the damage done by Smite, Holy Fire and Penance, and also decreases the amount of mana it costs. This can be stacked 5 times. Once you stack as much as you want (you only need one to use), you can consume the stacks for Archangel. For Discipline priests, it restores 3% of you mana, and then increases the amount of healing by 3% for each stack. Archangel has a decently low CD (it's 18 seconds long, but the CD is only 30 seconds) and Evangelism has a decent timer on it, so you can take a break to drop a heal or two before going back to smiting.
This sounds great in theory, but trying to Smite in healing intensive fights seems like it might be risky. But there are several mechanics that Blizzard has given us to make Smite not only a slow, but decent dps spell, but a healing spell.
The talent Atonement (when maxed out) heals a target within 8 yards for 100% of the damage caused by smite. My smite does about 3k. It also crits quite a bit. So I'm dropping a soft heal on the tank (usually the tank gets it because they are taking the most damage) with every smite I cast. Smite is also effected by Borrowed Time, so I can drop a shield, Smite, drop a shield, Smite. This allows for a slightly quicker Smite, giving me breathing room while I can also shield people.
The best part about this whole Dpsing Healer thing for priests, is the one simple glyph that Blizzard gave us. The major glyph of Divine Accuracy gives us 18% hit to our Smite spell. Eighteen percent! Why didn't they do this for Lightning Bolt. With the importance of a dps spell within a healing build, it is important to give the healer hit so they aren't missing! The RND mechanic of WoW can make it so you never miss without any hit, but this is usually not the case. And when I'm desperately trying to gain mana back by casting Lightening Bolts as a shaman, but missing, I not only waste 2 seconds for a spell, but I wasted my mana casting a useless (completely useless) spell.
It seems like the mechanics of healing, as far as Cataclysm goes, is beginning to perhaps steer healers towards a rotation. I don't heal on a pally, but most people I have talked to who do, have said they are shocked that they have a rotation (instead of spamming one, two, three spells over and over.) While I can understand Blizzard wanting to overhaul the healer so they aren't spamming just a couple spells, (shamans and chain heal too) there are obvious right and wrong ways to do it.
I think Discipline priests are by far the most successful attempt at this. While a set rotation will never be the way of the healer, I think the Smite/Archangel build pushes priests to perhaps look at a rotation like healing style.
The resto shaman column writer for WoW Insider, has proposed a healing rotation for Shamans. However, with the way fights are these days, I was unable to dedicate myself to any sort of rotation. Everything as far as WotLK goes is still all about reflexive healing, even with the changes in terms of health. Damage for the most part, has remained the same. The only thing I have noticed about the Patch, in terms of WotLK is that, a.) things are dying faster (we have two mages in our group.) and b.) I'm healing dps more because they can't control their aggro and the tanks have a slower threat build now.
For Disc priests tho, Blizzard has given the Archangel build tools to make Smiting not only affordable, but effective. The extra heal, if although small, does help out in the long run. The glyph makes it so we never miss (which personally makes me feel good about dpsing.) and Borrowed Time can help us crank out faster smites if we don't need the heals.
For fights like Torovon, I can spot heal and build up Evangelism stacks, so that when Whiteout hits, I can pop Archangel and do some better healing.
This is the dpsing healer, done right.