Throne of Thunder Discipline Priest Style

[Krazyito 521]

You've piqued my interest. Let's do some calculations.

Assumption 1: you cast PW:Solace or holy fire every 10 seconds, so 18 times every 3 minutes.

Assumption 2: you use mindbender or shadowfeind on cooldown (3x per 3 minutes, or 1x per 3 minutes.)

Assumption 3: Mindbender will attack 12 times per summon. Shadow fiend will attack 8 times per summon.

Assumption 4: Evangelism x5. (archangel will cause one non-5 holy fire at most per use so i'm ignoring it.)

holy fire costs 3780 mana(evangelism), but talented is free and gives you 3000 mana, a difference of 6780 mana, x18 is 122040 mana per 3 minutes because of PW:solace.

Mindbender/shadowfiend. Mindbender returns about 4383 per attack. x12 (12 attacks) 52596 per summon, x3(3 summons per 3 minutes) is 157788. Shadowfiend returns 9000 per attack, x8 (8 attacks) 72000 per summon. Mindbender above shadowfiend is 157788-72000 = 85788

122040 solace per 3 minutes compared to 85788 mindbender per 3 minutes

So it seems that Solace is, in fact, the better choice. Thank you for challenging my beliefs =)

If someone can double check my calculations I would appreciate it.

Just to mix things up a bit, doesn't mind bender get affected by haste? or in the specific case of heroism?

[Brutalpriest 60]

If you have an INSANE amount of haste, you could possibly get mindbender to pull ahead (big maybe.) And in the case of bloodlust that's once a fight (sometimes at the start...) so I'm not too concerned about it.

EDIT: Admin, I've defeated Lei Shen(it was a near thing...) and added commentary to my original post.

I'll be starting heroics next week. Though I expect my guild will only have heroic Jin'rokh down, will there be another thread for heroic commentary or should I just keep appending to my comment?

Edited March 26, 2013 by Brutalpriest

[MoacaBogdan 23]

Just to mix things up a bit, doesn't mind bender get affected by haste? or in the specific case of heroism?

Yes indeed Mindbender/Shadowfiend are affected by Hero/TW ONLY if they are out before TW/Hero is cast.

However, it only is usefull on fights where Hero is saved for the last push, like Megaera or Lei Shen, otherwise it just benefits the raid with a bit extra DPS on the hits, since mana won't be an issue. Remember to ask RL or whoever casts it to announce it a few seconds in advance so you can release mindbender berforehand.

[Krazyito 521]

If you have an INSANE amount of haste, you could possibly get mindbender to pull ahead (big maybe.) And in the case of bloodlust that's once a fight (sometimes at the start...) so I'm not too concerned about it.

EDIT: Admin, I've defeated Lei Shen(it was a near thing...) and added commentary to my original post.

I'll be starting heroics next week. Though I expect my guild will only have heroic Jin'rokh down, will there be another thread for heroic commentary or should I just keep appending to my comment?

No need to append, just add a new post. Would be easier for us so we know what we have added and what we have not. As long as you don't post twice in a row, its fine to make a new post.

I also added your tips for Lei Shen to the OP.

Edited March 26, 2013 by Krazyito
Added Lei Shen tips.

[MoacaBogdan 23]

Primordius:

From the get go, our strategy was to kite him endlessly around the edge of the room, in order to clump up adds behind him, ready for AoE. For me that meant that Mindbender would not be able to fully perform,so Solace and Insanity is the best bet here.

With RnG on your side, you can get some preety OP buffs, and Atonement can absolutely shine. Glyph of Holy Fire + Glyph of Penance + Glyph of Smite for the best Atonement money can buy. Killed adds until 5 stacks, switched to boss after.

Depending on playstyle, Power Infusion or Twist of Fate can both work here, and again depending on boss' mutations. If you don't care about Erupting Pustules hitting you, you can PI for some spamming during intense damage. I went for Twist of Fate, since most of the time, I had an add or raid member in my vicinity that had low HP, enabling me to proc it almost constantly during the last half of the fight.

Cascade is the winner here as well, either for healing up the raid, who usually runs around all the time, avoiding stuff and killing adds, or, if mutated and low raid damage, Cascade the boss and watch it rebound off of the billions of adds present.

[Brutalpriest 60]

Heroic Jin'Rokh. Took us longer than expected to kill this guy. Do not underestimate him >_>

Most of the fight's the same. Bring glyphs Inner Sanctum and Penance to this fight, ditch Holy Fire. Most of the fight's the same, two new things: thunderstorm bolts and Ionization. I trust anyone reading this is already passably familiar with this fight from other sources (Fatboss, or this site's explanation, or even just raid journal.)

Ionization. When he's about to cast it, be standing outside the puddle, full health, ready to shield and dispel yourself. Organize with other heals and the individual players about how you're going to dispel, but try to have each with some kind of damage prevention (your pw:shield or something else before it pops.

New thunderstorm. Bolts are hell. Have your group move to a predefined general area so nobody is getting out of range of the healers. Penance the boss on cooldown, and throw your Barrier out the first and third time he does it. (2nd on CD, 4th he enrages.) Bolts are random, so it doesn't matter if everyone is standing under the Barrier as long as they still dodge. I find it extremely helpful to spirit shell the raid before going into these phases, but if he sends a focus lightning after you that gets shot down since you have to run to the grating.

[Brutalpriest 60]

@MoacaBogdan

Out of curiosity, what part of my calculation above did you disagree with? It seems to me solace > mindbender for disc priests in all cases.

In any case, I like your idea about Twist of Fate! This would be especially useful if you were on slime duty the entire time and didn't pick up any yourself, leaving them for the dps. Hell, even if you got your 5 and attonement heal against the boss, you could still use cascade every 25 seconds and pick up your twist of fate buff almost every time. I'm really eager to see how well this works out next time I kill Primordius!

[MoacaBogdan 23]

@MoacaBogdan

Out of curiosity, what part of my calculation above did you disagree with? It seems to me solace > mindbender for disc priests in all cases.

In any case, I like your idea about Twist of Fate! This would be especially useful if you were on slime duty the entire time and didn't pick up any yourself, leaving them for the dps. Hell, even if you got your 5 and attonement heal against the boss, you could still use cascade every 25 seconds and pick up your twist of fate buff almost every time. I'm really eager to see how well this works out next time I kill Primordius!

I'm sorry if my previous posts gave you that impression, it was in fact your calculations that made me switch from Mindbender to Solace. It's just that, at least for out team, on fights such as megaera, and more recently iron qon, where a substantial amount of healing was needed, that Atonement could not provide, I just could not afford the extra gcd on solace, instead opting to just pop Mindbender on cd.

The rest of the fights, I am doing my best to remember using Solace on cd, ty for doing the maths.

Edit: When I said on my Primordius post that Mindbender would not perform, I was giving a tip to all priests who still use that talent most of the time, that it would not be the most beneficial way to go, if they want the best way to keep their mana up.

Edited April 5, 2013 by MoacaBogdan

[Krazyito 521]

I always find that when learning to use new abilities more often, to make a Weak Aura somewhere around my raid frames to remind me that it is off CD, or if I have a # of stacks of something.

[Satamoita 0]

It helps a bunch in Council fight to use the talent Void Tendrils on Loa Spirits since the spirit do not attack the tendrils and it do not fade on attacked, also de cd are almost the same so u can use it everytime the spirit is cast.

[Vertebraillemery 0]

Just a note on Twin Consorts for Disc priests:

"In Phase 1, make sure to Power Word: Shield tanks affected by the Beast of Nightmares(watch boss mods, or have them call it out.) Power Word: Shield does not trigger the Corrupted Healing debuff, while Penance does "

From my experience, this is not true. Atonement does not trigger the debuff, but Power Word: Sheild DOES.

Apologies if someone has already mentioned this, I don't have time at the moment to check the other posts.

[Krazyito 521]

Just a note on Twin Consorts for Disc priests:

"In Phase 1, make sure to Power Word: Shield tanks affected by the Beast of Nightmares(watch boss mods, or have them call it out.) Power Word: Shield does not trigger the Corrupted Healing debuff, while Penance does "

From my experience, this is not true. Atonement does not trigger the debuff, but Power Word: Sheild DOES.

Apologies if someone has already mentioned this, I don't have time at the moment to check the other posts.

Did you have Power Word Shield Glyphed? that could make a difference if it does or not. If someone could please comment on their results.

[Brutalpriest 60]

I stand by my claim that PW:S does not trigger the beast's debuff, and attonement does. Shield might trigger it if you glyphed it, though I can't imagine why anyone would willingly use that garbage glyph.

I do nothing but attonement heal for 90% of that fight, and I watched myself shield the beasted tank and not get the debuff, but once the shield was torn down and my attonement heals kept flying out, the debuff trickled in slowly.

[Brutalpriest 60]

Heroic Ji-Kun. Glyph of Penance, Binding Heal, Smite.

If possible you should make an effort to have a Nutrient buff if you're on the platform when the boss does his Quills. It'll take a lot of trial and error to get this process right, trying to decide when to fly and when not to. But you can do it. You might consider jumping off a nest instead of flying back to the platform.

Try to save power infusions for Quills if you're on the platform. Use Archangel every quills. Watch your boss mods and pre-cast shield on yourself so you don't take as much damage during Quills as the rest of your raid, -50% healing when you heal yourself remember. Try to remember to PoM somebody before Quills as well.

Please make sure that when you're flying to one of the upper nests (feeds 4, 5, 6, or 10[double spawn], 11, 12) that you fly through a food on the way, both so you can dps/heal better, and so there's fewer puddles on the ground.

If you're on the platform during downdraft, Body and Soul the tank so they're still within melee range of the boss when it ends and Ji-Kun doesn't one-shot somebody.

When you're on nests, consider using Mind Sear for the lower nests with 4 eggs, and SW:Pain the upper nests with 2 eggs.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Brutalpriest

[Brutalpriest 60]

Heroic Iron Qon. Not defeated yet, only gotten to phase 4 and died horribly a few times, but here's my thoughts.

Glyphs of Smite, Binding Heal, Inner Sanctum. Not really enough movement to warrent Penance

This fight is almost exactly the same as normal mode, just with more abilities used more throughout the fight. Phase 4 is hectic to start, and that's the big difference.

Phase 1, just watch out for the wind dog to land as he'll throw out a tornado that will do a knockback. When you stack so the fire dog throws a fireball at you, do NOT stack near lines, lifegrip somebody accross if you have to. PoM on cooldown. Cascade on cooldown. Archangel on cooldown. Attonement heal as much as you can, and use glyphed binding heal when it's not enough.

Phase 2, make damned sure to archangel+spirit shell before the lightning storm comes (and pray you don't get stunned.) If you don't have a warlock portal, save power infusion since you'll need to shell both groups. But the rest of the time, try to do as much attonement healing as possible for more dps as you really really don't want a second tornado phase from this guy. Keep in mind the ice dog does frost spikes, but honestly you can ignore them completely (sheild the tank while you're in the air or something.)

Phase 3, not too bad, just make sure your attonement heals aren't being blocked by dead zone, and if you see any of your raid members suddenly taking insane damage, lifegrip them immediately; they're probably stuck in the spear's lines.

Phase 4, I have no real experience with this phase yet other than the dogs shredding the raid because we planned poorly =P I'll update this when I have more experience. But my analysis. In this phase from normal to heroic, you have about 60% more health to burn through, and the boss does 20% more damage from fist smash. Your healing will be tested to the very limit: enter this phase with as much mana as you possibly can because you're going to be spamming PoH a LOT.

[Vertebraillemery 0]

Did you have Power Word Shield Glyphed? that could make a difference if it does or not. If someone could please comment on their results.

I definitely did not have it glyphed. I was shielding the tank intentionally during the beast to test this. As soon as I PW:S the tank, I received the debuff. I can test it again during raid next week, and if someone could test it in the meantime that would be great :)

[Brutalpriest 60]

/shrug I might be fighting them Sunday. (Might, as I don't need anything from them and might give up my spot for a back-up raider who does.) I'll retest everything and see if my original findings were correct if I do fight them.

EDIT. Arright what the frack. I shielded the tank and got the debuff SOMETIMES. (obviously i'm not using that stupid PW:Shield glyph.) Attonement did give me the debuff. TL;DR, No idea whats going on.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Brutalpriest

[aftrglw 0]

I definitely did not have it glyphed. I was shielding the tank intentionally during the beast to test this. As soon as I PW:S the tank, I received the debuff. I can test it again during raid next week, and if someone could test it in the meantime that would be great

I found this too. We didn't really have much trouble on this fight in our normal progression so I didn't pay too close attention, but I was pretty sure that any heal cast after Beast of Nightmares gives the debuff, including PW:S, PoM, Atonement, etc. I added the debuff to Vuh'do and found it better just to shield whoever had the debuff and just use direct heals. If a Cosmic Barrage is coming up soon, it's also a good time to use Spirit Shell to stack shields on ranged and healers.

A few thoughts on other fights:

On Lei Shen we found Body & Soul to be quite helpful, casting it on whichever tank is moving Lei Shen from pillar to pillar helps to minimize Discharged Energy uptime and mitigate tank damage. I also found stacking Spirit Shell helpful before every other Thunderstruck, since they hit quite hard unless everyone manages to get miles away. Obviously Body & Soul is helpful there too. I generally found Body & Soul to be very useful with the high amount of movement in this fight. Lifegrip is amazing too, particularly if you get an ugly combo during a transition phase (e.g. really spread out Bouncing Bolts with Static Shock or Overcharged), someone doesn't notice how close they are to a Thunderstruck or are trying to run against the wind to get away from it in P3.

On Iron Qon we found Lifegrip to be useful in many situations, such as helping stragglers during Wind Storms or if you need to stack up or get stunned in a bad area due to Throw Spear. It is just a high damage fight and Spirit Shell was useful throughout just to mitigate damage as much as possible and to keep from overhealing. Cascade is really the only 90 level talent I could justify taking after Megaera since everyone is spread out until P2 of Lei Shen...

.

[Nyfsa 1]

My thoughts

Ji-kun

• Try time spiritshell for Quills.
• It is also valid to stack up for Barrier on Quills in the start of the fight, at end of fight the aoe is a bit too heavy for stacking.
• Discs are nice flying to platform with the extra dps and shields on Quills.
• I go with mindbender which I pop on the boss everytime I fly past it to another platform, for extra dps.

Durumu

• Spiritshell before the add-phase begin helps take the edge off.
• Either use barrier on the start of the maze-phase or on tanks standing in the blue light on add-phase I found being the best places.

Primordius

• Cascade is really really nice since everyone is often very spread out.
• Smite the bloods rather than the boss, but when you're fully transmuted go full on boss.
• Shield and penance on the people with the bleed-dot basically keeps them om full health.

Dark Animus

• Cascade is working fine since everyone is spread out.
• Gripping the tank from the blood-ring to avoid them getting debuff.
• If you're tanks have troubles with linking adds, pre-spiritshelling the tanks on pull helps.

Iron Qon

• Cascade works well with people being spread
• Not that bad with mana, as long as you keep mindbender up and going at every cd.
• We use 3 groups of 3 people on 1st "dog", and im using my barrier for that, aswell as shielding the people in my group.
• The frost-debuff that hits people and does aeo, put a shield on them and the damage is basically none (all i do in that phase is shielding the people with the debuff)
• Spiritshell as often as possible on last phase, fighting the boss (aswell as barrier).

Twin Consorts

• Cascade works well with people being spread.

Lei Shen

• Body and soul helps your mates to reach to the ball-puddles. But be careful, the debuff might ruin your next static shock.

[Brutalpriest 60]

A few comments.

1) Why are your tanks standing in the blue instead of yellow? Durumu.

2) Please look back and see me prove that Solace > Mindbender if you use holy fire on cooldown.

3) Iron qon, frost debuff. Does that really work? If so that'll make my life so much easier on heroic qon.

4) Bird. Make sure that if you're flying to a nest you get the nutrient.

[Nyfsa 1]

1) uhmmm, yeh ofc tanks in yellow

2) well, if you dont use holy fire on cd mindbender is better :) I've tried solace a few tries (not really good to learn using it while progressing horridon) and i didnt feel i got the mana back that i get from mindbender, but it might just be how it feels.

3) Try it, from what i can tell, shielding the ones with the debuff makes the damage basically none. But there's alot of debuff's going out so it still takes a chunk of your mana, but as a discpriest you rather shield than heal up :P

4) Nah, we manage superwell without the nuitrent :) We never used it and we're killing it way ahead anytime so we never bothered with the risk of getting it

:)

[Brutalpriest 60]

1) "tanks standing in the blue light"

2) As I said, it's only better if you use holy fire on cooldown, or close to it.

4) Do it anyway. If you're not doing it when you start into heroic you're going to make it much harder on yourself.

[Brutalpriest 60]

Whew, it's been way too long since my guild had some heroic progression! After much drama and a new member, I present to you, my thoughts on Heroic Iron Qon, cue wild applause.....

This commentary is written by someone who ran with 1 tank (pally), 3 healers (2 disc priest, 1 holy pally), 6 dps. So, obviously we have obscenely high raid dps (priests averaged 45000 each, tank pulled 171000.) Our strategy was: P1: ranged group takes 3 stacks, melee takes 7, ranged takes 3 (dog flies away.) P2: Lock portal half the raid for tornado phase, lifegrip and speed bubble to help out everyone that's running (stampeding roar or that stupid 15% movement speed leatherworking drum help.) Only one tornado phase. P3: Relax. At 28%, stop dpsing, when he deadzones again, lust and burn. P4: kill ice dog first(deadzone mans half the raid stops dpsing, which is bad), then fire, then wind. Once all are dead, start stacking as debuffs fall off. Start rotating raid defensive cooldowns from second or third Fist Smash on (PW:Barrier, shaman totem, Rally Cry)

Your first dillema is "Divine Star or Cascade?" The answer is Divine Star. Useful for when people have to stack (P1) and also the undisputed king of Fist Smash phase after you are able to stack. In fairness, cascade is really handy during phase 1-3 and before the raid is able to stack in p4.

Glyph of Inner Sanctum is a must, Smite is probably good, and either Penance or Binding Heal.

P1: Binding Heal if you're taking damage. Archangel on cooldown, and Spirit Shell the group taking damage if you can.

P2: For tornado phase, Archangel+Spirit Shell anyone who's running (warlock portals help.) If you get out before everyone else, lifegrip to help out your comrades. Don't be afraid to run back in and PW:Shield or Pain Sup someone that's having trouble! Don't get caught yourself. Help dps by Attonement healing; you really don't want a second tornado phase, and damage during this phase is negligable. Ice dog will be casting Freeze on people, make sure they are PW:Shielded or the entire raid will take damage!

P3: No attonement healing when you're standing in a deadzone. Continue casting PW:Shield on people with the Freeze debuff. Take it easy on this phase, attonement heals should be all you need. Try to restore as much mana as you can during this phase.

P4(dogs): Hopefully you're entering this phase with 80% or more mana. Remember that standing in deadzone means you can't attonement heal against ANY enemy. PoM on cooldown. Pain Sup the tank just before he starts taking hits from all 4 enemies, he'll need it (maybe not if you're doing 2 tanks.) Archangel on cooldown. Ignore the first fist smash, but archangel+power infusion+spirit shell the second.

P4(dogs dead): PoM before every fist smash. Archangel on cooldown, and Spirit Shell every Fist Smash you can, tieing in power infusion for cheaper casts. PoH during the Fist Smashes. Make sure to set up a rotation among the raid to have a raid cooldown used at every fist smash after that. (not really disc centric but) encourage the raid to use lock rocks and personal cooldowns =/

[Brutalpriest 60]

Another week with progression!

Heroic Horridon.

Glyphs of: Penance (really helpful for this fight), Inner Sanctum, Smite.

Since you're going to be using attonement this whole fight, don't use mindbender. Use Power word: solace instead. I've proven earlier in the comments that Solace is better if holy fire is used on cooldown, which it should be for this fight.

This fight was done with 2 tanks, 2 healers (me and holy paladin), and and 6 dps. No dps was attacking the boss directly except between doors, as phase 5 is laughably easy, and adds are the only dangerous part of this fight. Large adds are priority, smaller adds were AoE'd down hard along with priority. Obviously, dinomancer is priority until half health, at which point his priority is as low as the boss (dead last.) Have someone pick up the orb immediately. Obviously, Jalak was killed as soon as possible.

In almost every case, I was getting a direhorn spirit on you late in the fight (door 4 or p5.) I dealt with it by either smiting or penance(knocks it back twice.) Don't use Pain, it's mana inefficient and doesn't attonement heal. Also ki

My basic strategy is attonement against the boss most of the time. This deals 50, 100, 150, 200 percent extra damage (to him) and healing (to your raid) so it's the best way to heal here and gets better as the fight goes on.

P1) Attonement heal against the big adds. Ignore the rest. This door is pretty standard healing, you shouldn't need any cooldowns.

P2) Try to help kill the first venom priestess, as well as her effusion. Consider archangel + spirit shell between doors, depending on how much poison got out and how much poison was dispelled.

P3) Once the 2nd + 3rd priority adds jump down, your dispell should be be used on cooldown; disease damage gets out of hand extremely quickly. attonement against boss full time. After Horridon headbutts the door, archangel(if up) + spirit shell since he'll be out of range of your raid.

P4) Attonement against the boss. Archangel + spirit shell when he headbutts the door. Say hello to your direhorn spirit.

P5) If your second healer doesn't suck this phase is a joke. Attonement heal against the boss for a whopping +200% damage/healing the entire phase. While you can smite or penance to push the direhorn spirit back, it's probably better to just kite around while you're penancing the boss, or using Power word: Solace. Blow cooldowns when Jalak does his thing, or during dire call.

helpful macro.

/target direhorn spirit

/cast smite

/targetlasttarget

[Brutalpriest 60]

Well. It appears that nobody uses this thread anymore, so I'll head out.