Healing Talents, and Discipline

[Lissa]

Lystral my Night Elf Priestess is focusing on Healing at this time, however some of the Talents available in the Holy Tree make me wonder at thier worth in investing 5 points in them.

Currently I have maxed,

Improved Renew
Spritual Healing
Subtlety
and Holy fire, for an offensive opener.

I can see that improved Prayer of Healing, and from what Mongo has said in his writings, that Spirit of Redemption is worth a look at. However if I am to gain these skills by continuing down this track, where to invest?

From my current skill investment I require 4 more points in the Holy Tree to unlock these skills, the question is where to put those 4 points?

Inspiration does not entice me as it seems a waste of 5 points, so I will skip that. So onto the available choices.

Cristcal Strikes. Is a 5 point increase in this area for a 5% increase in critical chances, worth the investment? ( I would most likely put 5 in here not 4 if I took this skill at all )

Failing Critical Strikes for healing, I have the choice of Improved Healing or Improved Flash Heal.

Firstly I am a fan of shielding to avoid casting delays, so I am not sure whether the benefit of taking Improved Flash Heal will be worth it when I shield if under attack or fade, and with such a short cast time, if you are hit, are you losing out on much?

Again the mana reduction for the other available skill of Improved Healing seems small compared to the investment.

So some advice here would be appreciated.

Extrapolating things a little further past an investment in IPoH and Redemption, are the top tier skills in this tree, those being Master Healer and Holy Nova, worth the final push?

The Divine Spirit Talent for the Discipline Tree, seems a worthy skill to push through the whole tree for, something which is quite tempting to do, as are many of the skills located therein, but to do so I would have to sacrifice Improved Power of Healing and Redemption.

I am looking to invest in Discipline after filling my Holy Tree slots, but I am wondering where the more points will go, and whether the ultimate skill in the Discipline Tree is worth the sacrifice of Redemtion and Improved Prayer of Healing.
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Skip Holy Fire in all seriousness. It takes 5 seconds to cast, has a refresh rate of 1 minutes, and barely does better damage than smite (and you can get two smites off if in the time it takes to cast Holy Fire).

Also, I disagree with Mongo on Improved Flash. If you really need to not be interrupted while casting a flash, cast PW:S first, it's two talent points better spent elsewhere.

Unlike Mongo, I am also a fan of going atleast 11 points into Shadow to get Mind Flay as it has a lot of utility uses (like stopping runners from getting away in an instance along with it's soloing and PvP aspects).

I also think that Improved Healing really is all the farther you need to go into Holy tree as most the talents beyond that, while nice, aren't necessary.

I'd also steer clear of Divine Spirit in Discipline. While it looks nice initially, at max level it only will give you about 10 to 12 more mana a tick, not really worth it in the long run.

My prefered build is something like this:

Holy
Improved Renew (5/5)
Spiritual Healing (5/5)
Subtlety (5/5)
Improved Healing (4/5)

Shadow
Spirit Tap (5/5)
Blackout (3/5)
Improved Shadow Word: Pain (2/2)
Mind Flay

Discipline
Unbreakable Will (5/5)
Improved Power Word: Shield (3/3)
Improved Power Word: Fortitude (2/2)
Mental Agility (5/5)
Mental Strength (5/5)
Inner Focus (1/1)

This build is more versatile that specing either Holy/Disc or Shadow/Disc as is combines some of the best of both the Holy and Shadow Trees while giving you the best from Discipline. This build allows you to be a great healer (not the best, but still very good), a good soloer, and a alright PvP (full on Shadow spec up to silence and grabbing Improved Manaburn from Discipline is probably best for PvP).