My guild's been working on the hard mode of ToC. I have to say, this is really the challenge I've been looking for, the challenge that ToC normal and Naxx and even Ulduar were not.
There've been some interesting things I've noticed...
1) Shield + Renew. We all know this maneuver from five-man instances; it's a common trick to heal up non-tanks. I've gotten to the point where it's my standard for tank healing, too. Because Weakened Soul and Renew have the same duration, always using Renew on your shield target immediately ensures maximum Renew uptime. Plus, that gives Renew the benefit from the four-piece Conqueror's set bonus.
2) Healing distribution. I thought this was very interesting. I tracked my effective healing over several attempts against the Northrend beasts, and this was my approximate breakdown:
26% Prayer of Mending
25% Flash Heal
18% Penance
14% Renew
11% Glyph of Power Word: Shield
And the rest was from minor sources-- Binding Heal, Forethought Talisman, Holy Nova, potions, maybe a Prayer or two, and not one Greater Heal.
This last was of particular interest to me, given the discussion that was going on recently about Divine Fury. I have Divine Fury in my build, at least partly because I had trouble imagining *not* having it in my build. Here's the thing. In the most high-end of encounters, I don't use the spell at all; the fact that I use it in lesser encounters is inconsequential because *anything* will work in lesser encounters (that's why they're "lesser").
I intend to do a bit of testing with my gearset later... if my talents and build have moved Flash Heal's HPM and HPS even close to GHeal, I may move away from GHeal altogether. That'll free up talent points for Improved Renew... which was a talent I'd avoided, by the same logic which is making me drop Divine Fury.
Prayer being so low on the list is too bad but, perhaps, unsurprising. Prayer of Healing was the signature priest spell at level 60, something no other class could touch. Those days are long gone.
The game has changed. Cancel-casting GHeal just doesn't work anymore because every GCD is being used. In the world of smart Chain Heals, Wild Growth, and CoH, Prayer of Healing is obsolete... at least for a Disc priest. A holy priest might still use it, what with Serendipity around to make it quick.
As a side note... is PoM awesome or what?!
3) Cooldown rotations. It's nice to have Pain Suppression available to supplement tank cooldown rotations, which you pretty much have to do when Gormak's Rising Anger starts stacking. Yet another reason to snag Aspiration.
4) Glyphs. The Discipline priest's PvE glyphs are Glyph of Penance, Glyph of Flash Heal, and Glyph of Shield. Period.
5) It's hard to find time in the Northrend Beasts fight where you can stop and cast Divine Hymn. I know that sounds wierd, it's hard to stop healing to cast a healing spell, but that's kind of how it works... I'm thinking right at the start of the Two Jormungars is probably the spot, when people are moving around, the tanks are still taking Impale damage, and then area damage starts kicking in.
I doubt I'll cast Hymn of Hope anywhere in the fight. Too much damage.
Any other thoughts about ToC hard mode? Fun times!