Over the years the Priest class has changed significantly, Cataclysm is no small exception. The days of being forced to respec Shadow every time you want to quest or to apply Holy Fire and Smite spam are long gone. The introduction of dual-specs, new spells including but not limited to Penance, Mind Spike, Holy Word: Chastise and the varied talents that accompany them have vastly changed the way Priests think about soloing. Even Mind Spike for example, a clearly shadow dps spell is affected by talents deep in the holy tree.

While Primary and Secondary specs are extremely useful in assisting a healing class in completing their dailies and farming, they are limited to only 2 specs. With this limitation if a priest wants to go with Atonement/AA spec and Holy healing spec, or pvp, and raid healing, etc. They're then forced to no longer have a dedicated DPS/solo spec.

The topic of this discussion then is, how do you compensate? Do you Solo as holy or as Disc? Do you keep your shadow tree as a secondary spec so that you can quest faster? Do you find shadow unnecessary to quickly and effectively farm/quest? What rotations do you find most effective if you are soloing as Atonement or holy, or any other spec for that matter? What are you tricks of the trade?

Please try to keep answers as informative as possible. If outlining your personal strategy please include some sort dps output, gear lvl, stat weighting, whether you solo in healing PVE gear or if you have a secondary set for soloing, etc. Remember the purpose of this post is to effectively outline and determine the most successful strategies for healing priests to perform well outside of groups.