Cataclysm Classic Discipline Priest Talent Builds

Discipline Priest has 2 different builds, one that focuses entirely on the highest healing output possible, and the other is a hybrid healer that converts some of the damage it deals into healing with Atonement. Below you'll find our recommended talent builds for all PvE content as a Discipline Priest.

This build focuses more on dealing damage with Holy Fire and Smite to deal damage and converts the damage they into healing with Atonement. While this spec isn't the most healing output possible, it has the ability to help DPS during healing downtimes, or helping beat enrage timers.

This build focuses purely on healing, forgoing the Atonement talent and the glyphs associated with it. This is the highest healing output possible, and will be the main spec you use in 10-man based content as a Discipline Priest.

This spec gains Strength of Soul, reducing the duration of your Weakened Soul debuff when you heal targets with Greater Heal, Heal, or Flash Heal. This is especially great on tanks, allowing you to use Power Word: Shield on them much more frequently. You also get Train of Thought, which allows you to use Inner Focus much more frequently. Train of Thought also lets you Smite when you have a free global to reduce the cooldown of Penance.

In this section we will go over some of the key talents you will use when you are playing a Discipline Priest. Be sure to understand your most important talents as they are vital to play the build to its fullest strength.

• Evangelism — Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%. You will naturally stack this up while following your rotation.

• Archangel — 30-second cooldown. When you have 5 stacks of Evangelism, you can activate Archangel to regenerate 5% Mana and increase your healing done by 15% for 18 seconds.

• Power Infusion — 2-minute cooldown. Increases casting speed by 20% and reduces Mana cost of spells by 20%. You will want to use this on a DPS when they have their cooldowns up, be sure to coordinate this with them.

• Atonement — Atonement causes Smite and Holy Fire heal an ally within 15 yards of the enemy target for 100% of the damage they deal, or heal yourself for 50% of the damage dealt. Allows you to heal people through DPSing.

• Inner Focus — 45-second cooldown. Use this to make your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing cost no Mana and have a 25% increased crit chance. If you took Train of Thought, you will reduce the cooldown of Inner Focus by 5 seconds every time you cast Greater Heal.

• Rapture — This talent was reworked in Cataclysm can can only proc once every 12 seconds. When your Power Word: Shield is fully absorbed you gain 7% of your maximum Mana. You will want to shield the tank on cooldown to get this proc as much as possible to sustain Mana.

• Borrowed Time — After casting Power Word: Shield your spell haste is increased by 14% for 6 seconds. The tooltip of this talent is deceiving, as the 14% spell haste does not go away until you actually cast a spell. Other instant casts such as Prayer of Mending and channeled spells like Penance do not remove the buff. A crucial part of playing Discipline Priest correctly is keeping this buff active as much as possible.

• Divine Aegis — Causes all of your crit heals and Prayer of Healing to create a shield on the target for 30% of the amount healed. If Prayer of Healing crits Divine Aegis will be applied twice, shielding targets for 60% of the total healing. This shield also scales with Shield Discipline, making mastery a powerful stat for Discipline.

• Pain Suppression — 3-minute cooldown. Reduces targets damage taken by 40% for 8 seconds. Coordinate this with your tanks cooldowns so you don't overlap defensive cooldowns.

• Strength of Soul — Healing targets with the Weakened Soul debuff with Heal, Greater Heal, or Flash Heal will reduce the duration of the debuff by 4 seconds. This lets you use Power Word: Shield on specific targets, such as tanks, much more frequently.

• Grace — Whenever you heal a target with Heal, Greater Heal, Flash Heal, or Penance you increase all healing you deal to the target by 8% per stack, stacking up to 3 times, lasts 15 seconds. Keep this buff up on high-priority healing targets, such as tanks, as this will increase your healing done to them by 24%.

• Power Word: Barrier — 3-minute cooldown. The final talent point in the Discipline tree. Places a Holy barrier at the targeted location. Players inside the barrier will take 25% less damage for 10 seconds and their spellcasting will not be pushed back by taking damage. If you are using Glyph of Power Word: Barrier, people inside the barrier will also receive 10% increased healing from all sources.

Prime glyphs are new to Cataclysm, giving you a third "row" of glyphs you can use on your character. You don't really have many options when it comes to prime glyphs as there are very limited options, usually only three avaiable for each specialization.

• Glyph of Penance — Reduces the cooldown of Penance by 2 seconds, making this a mandatory glyph.
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield — Causes your Power Word: Shield to heal the target for 20% of the absorb amount. Since Power Word: Shield is the main ability of Discipline, this is a mandatory glyph.
• Glyph of Power Word: Barrier — Increase the healing targets receive while inside Power Word: Barrier by 10%. Helps your other healers get the raid quickly topped up.
• Glyph of Prayer of Healing — Adds a heal-over-time to your Prayer of Healing. Since this is your only AoE healing spell, this is a great choice for high AoE fights.

Your major glyph choices will change depending on which talent tree you choose. If you are playing with Atonement, you must use Glyph of Divine Accuracy and Glyph of Smite. If not, grab the two other options.

• Glyph of Prayer of Mending — Increases the healing of the first charge of Prayer of Mending by 100%. Try to use this first charge on the tank.
• Glyph of Divine Accuracy — Increases the hit chance of Smite and Holy Fire by 18%, making them never miss.
• Glyph of Smite — Increases the damage of your Smite by 20% against targets debuffed with Holy Fire. Use this if you are playing the Atonement build.
• Glyph of Mass Dispel — Reduces the cast time of Mass Dispel by 1 second.
• Glyph of Dispel Magic — Heals the target for 3% of their max health if you Dispel Magic a debuff off them.

Minor glyphs typically provide very minor benefits. Priest does not really have many options when it comes to minor glyphs, limiting your choices down to these three for almost all PvE content.

• Glyph of Fortitude — Reduces the Mana cost of Power Word: Fortitude by 50%. This is mostly useful when rebuffing a player in combat.
• Glyph of Shadowfiend — Grants 5% max Mana if your Shadowfiend dies early. Usually your Shadowfiend won't die, but you don't have many other options.
• Glyph of Levitate — Removes the reagent cost of Levitate, allowing you to cast it for free.