Disc: Schism > Twist of Fate

[Fuor 0]

I would like to make the argument that Schism is a superior talent to Twist of Fate (which is currently recommended) and it will be difficult to detect this through simming.

Twist of Fate is a passive that states: After healing a target below 35% health, you deal 20% increased damage and 20% increased healing for 10 sec. Getting someone below 35% is not the plan, but it happens. It's a healing burst, but not on command, and I'd remind everyone that direct healing through Penance and Shadowmend is not ideal.

Schism is an offensive spell that states: Attack the enemy's soul with a surge of Shadow energy, dealing X damage and increasing damage that you deal to the target by 40% for 9 sec. Situationally, when people start dropping to about 55% or lower you want to have cast Power Word: Shield (if 2 or less) or Power Word: Radiance (3 or more), then attack an enemy adding Schism to rotation to get a 40% damage boost to that enemy which is a 40% healing boost through atonement. Healing through atonement is the ideal rotation already, Schism boosts this.

So much of playing disc priest is anticipating damage that's going to happen. Schism embraces this by making you more powerful when correctly assessing a fight. We are shields and powerful, unpredictable burst heals on a ramp. Embrace it. Schism also causes a lot of overhealing which will throw off simulations. Twist of Fate is a good talent for people learning the class, the offensive rotation is less difficult, it's passive and activates when things are not going smoothly. It makes direct heals more powerful which is what a lot of disc priests do when they're panicking.

I'm at this logically, but haven't simmed. Though I think a sim would be thrown off though overhealing. I would be interested to get some feedback.

 

 

Edited August 31, 2018 by Fuor
correctly phrase how atonement turns damage to heals

[Yunzi 1]

Schism encourages you to keep damaging that same target for 10+ seconds (including the Schism cast itself). So targets that die quickly (much of dungeon trash) are bad for Schism. If you're focused on killing dungeon *bosses*, however, such as during a tyrannical week, then Schism's value increases.

Twist of Fate's primary value is in it's uptime - the more often players are below 35% health, the better Twist of Fate becomes. What this means in practice is that the more progressive the content, the more difficult the content relative to the group's ability, the better is Twist of Fate.

You mentioned the rotation being "simpler" without Schism - it might be more accurate to say it's more *flexible* without Schism - one is not encouraged to have a 10-second dps window every 24 seconds, but instead can switch between direct healing and dps every GCD. Castigation remains a viable option when Twist of Fate is not needed but one wants a flexible rotation.

[jinsu2301 273]

1 hour ago, Yunzi said:

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This is an old thread. The guide has already been updated to consider Schism equal to or better than ToF.