Rag, we need you a healer and we need you at 80!!! At the moment the only level 80 priests are myself, tilly, and dothuh. I'm the only healer priest atm.
And yes atm, there are better healing specs (well in my opinion) than deep holy, except that it is always really good to have a deep holy priest - that Guardian's spirit can often save the raid an otherwise unavoidable wipe, so don't completely count it out. But I've been experimenting since i dinged 80, eyeballing up some different specs, and I can say that my current spec atm, a hybrid spec can put out the best healing combined with a large mana pool and excellent regeneration.
The healing per cast is indeed dramatically reduced, so hps will be quite lower, especially without guardian's spirit, but as deep holy i noticed i would be going oom fast, between every few trash mobs I'd need to drink, last night we went to naxx and downed 11 bosses, i only had to drink 5 times in that whole period, and that was after some nasty damage dealing bosses. And mana potions are almost unneeded, the only time in naxx I've ever had to use a mana potion is on patchwerk when people are healing without healbot
.Spam healing as my spec i could pull off 2.8k hps on myself, and combined with 400mp5 casting for every other cast (combined with some talents for regen) I can cast another spell, effectively doubling my mana pool.
But anyway in summary, I can't wait for you to get to 80 because I feel a bit lonely
, and please don't rule out healing, and if I may add(without boasting, just as encouragement), in most raids I attend, I find myself on top of healing done, and on bottom of overhealing done.And If your interested in my spec, here it is -- http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVIbzhhtrxomZfLxcc0qV
With this spec stack spirit till you get about 1k unbuffed(from the talents you get 10% increase), and about 200 haste is helpfull aswell, then focus on your spell damage. For every 1 spirit as this spec you get .33 mp5 casting, .25 spell power. Crit would just be a benefactor in my opinion, after all, if a spell crits, often its going to be overheal.
Hope this helps and encourages you
--Eternal
By the way, when do you plan on getting wotlk?