Dear Sprout: Discipline versus Holy?

Dear Sprout,

I've been toying with a priest a few times, and I think I understand their general role in comparison to other healing classes. They have the biggest selection of healing spells for any situation, and that's their big advantage versus say, a Shaman or a Druid healer.

But, there's still one thing I don't quite understand: Discipline versus Holy healing.

It's odd to have two different healing specs, and before Burning Crusade I had heard that Discipline was the PvP spec only, but further into the expansions, I see more and more Healers playing Discipline over Holy for PvE healing.

What am I missing here? What's the difference between the two specs for PvE healing? Why would a priest choose Discipline over Holy, or Holy over Discipline?

Sorry its Im just getting back to you. A Discipline priest is more beneficial to be a single target power healer, and it's more PvP based. With higher stats Discipline can be a stronger all around healer but it is much harder to use, and will be much more pressing when it comes to raid heals and being mana conservant. Holy is an easy way to get entire raids topped off very quickly, and be a secondary healer for the tanks. It is very mana con-servant, and requires less overall gear to keep everyone alive. Holy priests are way better for the scenarios that someone important is about die. A holy priest can use many spells to instantly save and heal that person up to full. Discipline can do this too, but overall Discipline priests are the pally version of healer, and holy priests are the druid version of healers. Both are versatile and can be used for multiple things, and usually are good for specialized fights. Some people will be looking for a Discipline priest some people will be looking for a holy priest, its a good thing to duel spec if your looking to be invited to everything as a healer.

I am starting a priest. Which is better to level