Disc Priest Final Thoughts

[Thundorn 6]

I finally grew a pair and took my Disc priest into some pugs and decided to write some notes on my experience.

 

First observation was that Leap of faith comes in a lot more useful than it should. Because so many mobs now drop "shite" on the floor, not just bosses, and because there are so many people who seem completely oblivious to that purple / green / swirly thing they are standing in, you find yourself pulling them out of it a lot. As my main is a ret pally, it is sad to say that it is predominantly Melee dps who are the culprits for this one, and the overwhelming majority seem to be Demon hunters (not sure if this indicates that a larger number of idiots are playing DH class or or if I just experienced an unbalanced number of them on the day)

Atonement healing: Atonement healing is a great mechanic, but it only works if you plan well in advance. Discipline priests are not and never have been reactive healers, they have always been pro-active, and nothing has changed, now however instead of making sure your bubbles are refreshed, you are now making sure that your atonement is refreshed, so that you can spam your DPS rotation to keep those green numbers flowing. It is not worth keeping atonement up on everyone unless the entire group is taking aoe damage. As long as the tank is doing their job, the only people who should require attention are the tank themselves and the Melee dps who stray into cleave damage or damage pools. If you try to keep atonement up on everyone all the time you will have mana problems, as Plea gets more expensive the more people are buffed.

Shadow mend: Shadow mend is your panic button. for those times when that Melee DPS just wont get out of the damaging pool, or stands in cleave damage, and their health takes a sharp drop, provided you have planned ahead, you should be able to throw in a couple of shadow mends whilst your DOT ticks keep everyone else topped up via atonement. Remembering of course that for as long as you are in combat, Shadowmend also applies a dot on your target, which can be countered with atonement healing but it is worth keeping an eye on them just in case they continue to take high damage for whatever reason. Your healing priorities are still Tank > Yourself > DPS (or Yourself > tank > dps if you are so enclined) so if you are having to spam shadow mend and bubble on a DPS (thus preventing you from atonement healing everyone else) sooner or later your mana will run out and you will just have to let natural selection run its course.

Pain supression: to be honest I didn't need to use this often in dungeons, most tanks are pretty self sufficient in mitigating damage themselves, so its worth keeping it bound to a convenient key as a "just in case" buff, which based on my experience so far, is more likely to be needed by a melee dps than a tank. until the raids go live anyway. 

 

Overall, Disc healing pugs was a challenge, and quite frantic at times, and you do take some schtick for pulling idiots out of danger but better than than taking if for letting them die. This was certainly one of the most fun healer specs ive ever played, and once i have more experience and better gear, i can imagine it will be even more so.

[Valks 2,375]

As much as I am confident in the balancing of Discs by Blizzard, I still always feel slightly less safe when one enters my Mythic group. I pull less, pop more cooldowns and generally pay more attention than I would if I had any other healer in my group.

[Thundorn 6]

I expect that most other people (those with any sense) probably feel the same. Until we get more practise and prove ourselves capable, its only natural. Disc priests have a big job ahead of them, but the potential for greatness is there i reckon. 

[Valks 2,375]

Agreed. Once people get used to it, I'm sure I'll feel more comfortable. Until then, it feels like when MoP had just released and people were trying Mistweaver.