[Archived] Discipline Priest 5.4

[Damien 1,514]

On your gearing up list, is there a reason Scent-Soaked Sandals doesn't show up on your list? Spirit/Mastery + socket is a pretty decent item, after all...

There is a reason :P The item did not exist in Blizzard's API: http://us.battle.net/api/wow/en/item/89953

Our own database for transmogrification and the gearing up guides relies a lot on Blizzard' API, so if an item is missing from there, it will always miss in our lists :(

[Guest Atheldane]

What are your thoughts on the 5.2 Patch removing the mastery benefit from Spirit Shell?

Personally I am not worried much about it as I have been trying a talent and build that is reforging into Crit not haste or mastery as most people seem to in most places I have read. I take whatever spirit comes with the gear, gemming crit and spirit when possible and I am more often than not reforging out of Mastery or haste to do so. And thus far I seem to be topping a good number of heal/absorb charts in LFR or normal 10 man even with other disc priests that out gear me.

My intention is to have an extremely high in combat mana regeneration, enough that I can usually just keep spamming POH during medium or low damage spots in a fight to trigger shields regularly (Thus the need for crit), and use Spirit shell 10-15 seconds before a major raid or tank damage spike and using Cascade at key damage spike areas to bring the raid back up in health. I glyph for penance on the move, so for fights where I am having to do a ton of movement, I can do some prayer of mendings, and if targeting a friendly player (or nobody) I can toss out Cascade on the move, or if I am targeting an enemy player/NPC I can move and heal via penance damage/splash healing.

I have limited 10 man normal experience, but it seems to have worked in the few fights I have done in 10 man, and LFR is great for learnring when damage spikes will occur, and to be honest to see how my gear and stat selection stacks up against other healers and especially other DISC priests. So far so good, obviously my overheals are pretty high, but in the case of a Disc priest that is mainly pre-applying shields to the tanks or raid.

I do have one question though before I get to it in 10 Man normal: On the Garralon fight I have had issues with getting my mana regen out on CD as I try to keep targeting his legs to send my shadowfiend out to do mana regen, but sometimes if the leg near me has been killed its untargetable, and I am paranoid that if I target the body with my shadow fiend that will trigger a "CRUSH" mechanic, can someone confirm for me that the body can be targeted for mana regen purposes without triggering that? On that fight even in LFR, I'd prefer not to experiment and risk killing folks if it does.

[MoacaBogdan 23]

i don't use Spirit Shell that often, and when i do it seems to screw me over rather then help me. Somehow i must be using it wrong, be it bad timing, or incorrect use. Whats the best way to use it? Is it better for aoe or single target? Should it not be used for one of them? also do inner focus or archangel affect it?

For me, that spell proved its worth many times over on the Empress encounter in HoF. Pop it when there is around 10 energy left on one of the Disonance Fields,and start spamming PoH, Inner Focus the first, and watch as the raid takes almost insignifiant damage from the explosion. I had to PoH both groups, but I can only imagine what 2 disc priests can achieve there.

Edit: for a bit of extra oomph, spec into Power Infusion.

Edited January 14, 2013 by MoacaBogdan

[Guest Atheldane]

For me, that spell proved its worth many times over on the Empress encounter in HoF. Pop it when there is around 10 energy left on one of the Disonance Fields,and start spamming PoH, Inner Focus the first, and watch as the raid takes almost insignifiant damage from the explosion. I had to PoH both groups, but I can only imagine what 2 disc priests can achieve there.

Edit: for a bit of extra oomph, spec into Power Infusion.

I agree with the previous poster, that spell rocks its just getting into the habit of anticipating damage spikes. I try and line up arch angel and power infusion when available for the haste buff and reduced mana cost for Prayer of healing (Raid damage) or Greater heal (Tank damage). And remember its EVERY heal spell you cast within that 15 second period that builds the shield. before a pull you can pre-shield a tank at a pull for about 260-270k+ (or more if your health pool is larger than mine which is about 413K raid buffed) with a couple of greater heal spells cast on them.

I love LFR for one thing, it gets me used to the timing of the obvious damage spikes in a fight, so i have a better idea when to smite enough to get 5 stacks on my archangel, pop spirit shell and Power infusion for the haste and reduced mana benefits and spray down the raid with shields before they start getting hit with damage. The only thing it takes a little bit t get used to is if peoples health bars are below full its a little weird at first to be spamming heals and not see health bars moving up, but thats the other healers job for that 15 seconds you can shield people up. throw in a cascade and the health bars come back aawfully fast and your screen is swamped with all sorts of healing numbers with lotsa crits.

[Krazyito 521]

try and line up arch angel and power infusion when available for the haste buff and reduced mana cost for Prayer of healing (Raid damage) or Greater heal (Tank damage). .

While Spirit Shell is active Greater Heal is a waste of mana because it would proc the same absorb as a heal or flash heal (or PoH for that matter , per person)

[Guest norpsa]

With the change to Divine Aegis it seems that stacking crit is the only viable way to play a disc priest (both attonement and absorb styles) nowdays. (spirit>crit>mastery>haste)

Also, holy fire no longer has a casting time so the glyph got redesigned to increase holy fire, smite and pw: solace range by 10 yds.

[Guest Siphae]

Hi,

You seem to have forgotten to update the Glyph of Holy Fire.

[Mutterkorn 8]

Hi,

You seem to have forgotten to update the Glyph of Holy Fire.

I fell it's rather useless now. I switched my glyphs.

Now using: Penance, Prayer of Mending and Smite.

[Guest Whitemaiden]

You can be quite creative with Spirit Shell, but in essence, if the target(s) you want to use it on just need healing (meaning that they have already sustained damage), then it is hardly worth using.

It's best used when you anticipate damage that will occur on someone, and you want to dampen it before it happens. This could be when you know that a boss ability is going to hit the tank, or when you know that a big burst of raid damage is going to come and you want to pre-shield a lot of people (not to mention you get some Divine Aegis stacks).

We have just finished reviewing and updating all of our DPS spec stats. We are going to focus on the tanks and healers next, so this issue should be resolved. But in any case, for Discipline Priests, it's very much up to preference, assignment, and healing style in general.

So u say it will be fixed, will it be fixed so mr. robot want u to go mastery first and then crit? or will the guide want u to go crit-mastery? Im really confused in this patch, many says crit is the best stat now, but no matter what page i go to no one wrights that. I usally use icy.veins cos I think its the best.

[Guest Aaron]

The guide on rotation for AoE damage neglects to take into account that Prayer of Healing NO LONGER stacks Divine Aegis. In fact, in the early days of the patch, I now find Prayer of Healing pretty poor for straight healing without a bubble, and even if it does critically hit, I can't count on it to do so. Thus, if you ask me, EVERYTHING has changed for the Disc Priest in the raid environment. I look forawrd to your revised rotation recommendations, as I'm trying to discover my own new play style with this MAJOR change.

[Krazyito 521]

I failed to see this in the path notes. Can you show exactly where it says this? I haven't gotten a chance to play my priest yet, but i will try it when I get home.

[MadMonk 154]

I failed to see this in the path notes. Can you show exactly where it says this? I haven't gotten a chance to play my priest yet, but i will try it when I get home.

They changed Prayer of Healing so it no longer always applies Divine Aegis. It was too strong and now only applies the shield on a critical heal. I believe this change made it to live, but I can't find any mention of it in the patch notes either, so I'm not 100% sure.

[Guest Aaron]

They changed Prayer of Healing so it no longer always applies Divine Aegis. It was too strong and now only applies the shield on a critical heal. I believe this change made it to live, but I can't find any mention of it in the patch notes either, so I'm not 100% sure.

It was in the patch notes early as crossed out, but then they just rewrote the Divine Aegis text to read "All critical heals" and just simply left out the part where it use to read "And Prayer of Healing." Thus, technically it is not in the patch notes, but the key point here is you can not apply Divine Aegis without a critical hit, thereby dramatically diminishing the impact of Prayer of Healing (and for the most part eliminting the entire none-SS rotation for Disc Priests in the raid environment during AoE damage or in preperation for AoE damage).

[Guest Rallanh1432]

Prayer of Healing does not always apply Divine Aegis to every party/raid members anymore. It only applies it to all of them if it manages to be a critical hit on every single one.

[Guest norpsa]

basically divine aegis only pops when you get a critical heal. this makes crit a far more valuable stat than mastery or haste, just under spirit.

[Krazyito 521]

basically divine aegis only pops when you get a critical heal. this makes crit a far more valuable stat than mastery or haste, just under spirit.

Not nessceraily true. Mastery got a slight change where it increases total healing done. Not a total waste of stats. Haste also becomes more valuable because it allows you to heal targets faster or use PoH to group heal faster.

Crit Is still valuable though because a disc priests crits will never overheal.

[Veroswene 0]

Just wanted to make a correction...Holy Fire is now instant cast.

Glyph of Holy Fire now extends the range of Holy Fire, Smite and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards.

[Guest Savio]

Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but I just did some tests and I can consistently stack Divine Aegis on myself up to 60% of my max health, rather than just 40% which is what the article stated.

[Vlad 411]

Thanks so much for all your contributions, guys. I've made some sizable updates to the guide, including most (all?) of the things reported here recently, as well as some changes of my own. They should be going up some time later tonight :)

[ayllien 0]

Lots of thanks for your guides, I always keep 'em at hand!

Edited April 14, 2013 by ayllien

[Guest DrKazza]

Small Typo:

../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_surgeoflight.jpg From Darkness, Comes Light passively grants you a 15% chance, whenever you use ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_holysmite.jpg Smite, ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_lesserheal.jpg Heal, ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_flashheal.jpg Flash Heal, ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_blindingheal.jpg Binding Heal, or ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_greaterheal.jpg Greater Heal to cause your next Flash of Light to be instant cast and have no mana cost. You can have a maximum of 2 charges of this buff at one time.

should be to cause your next FLASH HEAL to be instant cast...

[Vlad 411]

Small Typo:

../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_surgeoflight.jpg From Darkness, Comes Light passively grants you a 15% chance, whenever you use ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_holysmite.jpg Smite, ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_lesserheal.jpg Heal, ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_flashheal.jpg Flash Heal, ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_blindingheal.jpg Binding Heal, or ../../../images/wow_icon_spell_holy_greaterheal.jpg Greater Heal to cause your next Flash of Light to be instant cast and have no mana cost. You can have a maximum of 2 charges of this buff at one time.

should be to cause your next FLASH HEAL to be instant cast...

Oopsie! That's right. I'm on it now.

Thanks so much.

[Guest Evologics]

Do you think Mastery is still the top stat for disc priests even after the change to it?

Mr. Robot suggests something else as far as I know and says Mastery > Crit > Haste is outdated.

[Vlad 411]

I do not believe that Mastery > Crit > Haste is outdated. I think it's very much a valid gearing priority in 5.2. We mention in the guide that Crit over Mastery is also a good alternative. Haste is dead last though anyway.

[Guest Shugal]

maybe the Addon DiscShieldHelper is very good at least for beginners. it shows the amount of shieldabsorb on the target seperated by Spells. So for example you can see when you have a full Spirit Shell on the Target.

sorry for my very bad english