Advice for discipline priest

[Edo 6]

My raids priest was wanting to see if anyone could give her any advice on anything she could do better.

 

Armory:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/whisperwind/Mommajugs/advanced

 

Recent log

http://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports/4gtd3KkMnFTWfGmh

 

One specific question, although this may be better off posted at Ask Mr Robot.

 

AMR is suggesting she gem mastery / int instead of crit / int.  It seems to me that crit would be the superior stat.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[CheriseBuckley 2]

Hi, Ed posted to try to get some advice on my priest.  Last night (when the logs were taken) I followed AMR and had gemmed for mastery / int.  Basically, pumped up absorbs but lower heals from penance etc.  I also had a 16k spirit cap (which is really high but with this build, I was having mana issues as well.  I swapped back to crit / int gemming and dropped my spirit to 12k (at least until I get the blackfuse trinket).  Any advice is greatly appreciated (especially with the spirit cap since there is no real set #).

[Espiee 161]

Why the obsession with AMR? Discipline has fairly straightforward priorities, although AMR gets them very wrong. In general, don't use AMR unless you know the theorycrafting behind the weight it proposes and alternatively use your own. If you don't, the end result can be disastrous.

 

Disc is crit>mastery>>spirit≥haste

 

Gemming is ok, I might personally have skipped blue sockets like the one in your ring, but that's minor. Nothing on the enchants either.

 

Try to get rid of the thok trinket though. You're spectacularly smite-happy and the thok trinket doesn't interact with neither atonement nor absorbs. Try to get either Yu-lon's Bite, DSoD, BBoY or PBoI to replace it, they are all far better options.

 

AA uptime seems fine, you're using penance roughly 90% of the time you could've on a fight like sha. Solace is cast 70% of the time which is suboptimal. If you're using Solace as your regen talent(you should) you need to peak around the 5 uses a minute or more.

 

Because the log is done without ACL it's hard to say anything about the proper L90 talent, but are you using Cascade on everything? Fights like Norushen, Galakras, Protectors all lean themselves towards DS yet you're using cascade, sha too if you stack up. If you're running with Cascade on Sha, it should absolutely be used once every 30 seconds when AA is up, if you're stacking, get two DS' off within each AA. Either way you got off four cascades in 7 minutes, when you could've easily hit 14.

[Gwenymph 414]

Going to give you a second opinion and it's going to piggyback on Steve's recommendations.

 

Gems are correct for color but you should be skipping socket bonuses on your the Blue Socket Ring and Feet and putting Smooth there as well.

 

If you insist on using AMR, Krazy put together a some weights that can be used as a rough guideline.  Except for the two gems and Reforging out of Crit into Spirit on your Staff, you might already be there.  Here is the link to his post though, it's at the bottom:

 

Krazy AMR for Disc

 

Just as a minor suggestion, pick up the Minor Glyph of Sha for the GCD reduction.  Drop ABulwark and take DPrayer too.  I don't see any Void Shift in your logs and there are always OShit moments when you can save a life w/ it and use DPrayer to bring yourself back up.

[CheriseBuckley 2]

I was just telling Ed earlier that I've been screwing up and not using DS on the stacking fights (minus Thok since I always remember on that one).  I will check my bags and see if I still have Yu'lon's bite or any other trinket to replace the cleave one since it's crap for me.  I stopped using AMR for this exact reason and I should have just stayed with my 1st instinct which is.....it sucks lol.  I really appreciate the tips and next week I'll make sure to try them all.  I'll change my gems in my ring and feet today!  Did you have any advice on the spirit cap for my ilvl?  Does 12k seem a bit much or not enough?

[CheriseBuckley 2]

Nevermind, I just looked at Krazy's AMR stat weight suggestions and it answered the spirit cap question.  Thanks again for all the help!  You guys are awesome for taking the time out to analyze logs for people!

[Gwenymph 414]

Glad you were able to get positive things out of it.

 

GL next lockout!

[Espiee 161]

Spirit levels are circumstantial.

 

Do people in your raid screw up a lot? Are you offensive in your use of PoH or PWS? Do you often find yourself spamming FH(necessarily)? Are your fights exorbitantly long? How many mana bitches do you have(priests, shamans and dps dudus)?

 

These are some of the questions you need to answer for yourself.

 

I'm usually at 6.7k for example(10k with the 4pc recently), but our fights are getting shorter since we're 3-4 healing everything and have everything on farm, not to mention a resto shaman and other priests to bug for their hymns(they are rarely needed anymore though). Unless it's really short fights like Norushen I don't bother much with PoH outside SS, things like that mean I can go rather low in spirit and could probably push it lower if I could get the damn PBoI to drop.

 

Yu-lon's Bite(the 535 one) is probably one of the better options in my opinion. The static int is great and the crit proc is phenomenal and predictable given it's 115 sec ICD. With 1k valor it becomes a 551 beast rocking 1.9k intellect and 19.2% crit chance on proc. With AA that's easily 80% crit in heroic gear.

 

I used it up until I finally got my hcwf PBoI and it's only marginally more useful(given the already high crit levels you get in full heroic gear) with its 10%~ increase to mastery and critical heals and strikes.

Edited July 2, 2014 by steve

[LostDignity 12]

Reviewing the kill attempt on Sha of Pride.

  The first part i looked at was the death. This death (http://i.imgur.com/CCZbZiE.png) i can safely assume it was definitely her fault the DPS died early in the fight. She had no contribution to keeping the shaman alive . I believe he had an overkill of about 30k. Almost any direct heals (PoM, Penance, PW:S, etc.) would have saved him (even atonement). I can't seem to find any good excuse for her. 

 

  In this picture we can see a limited portion of her activity (http://i.imgur.com/2UuHs1Q.png). You can easily see several mistakes.

- She used her spirit shell really late. Every Spirit Shell she should get at least three and more optimally four PoH casts in. She only had time for one. I usually begin Spirit Shell about 13seconds before Swelling Pride. To get the fourth cast in easier she can utilize Borrowed Time by using PW:S before spirit shell.

- Her Poh only hit one person, Herself. This is really horrible. Before Swelling Pride hits, the Manifestation on the back should be top priority for dps, she can stand closer to the big add and hit most if not everyone. If she was out getting a rift then, well, bad decision.

- PoH and SS out of sync. What do i mean by this? There is about a one second delay between her cooldown usage (SS/IF/PI) and her heal casts(PoH). There shouldn't be any. To fix this macro PoH with the cooldown. One button for PoH, and another for PoH+PI+SS+IF. This way you have higher uptime on casts, instead of wasting time with finger movement and lag.

 

  I did not review the whole fight, i think this is enough to work on for now. Also i'm not the best log reviewer, so i may have looked at it wrongly.

 

  Spirit Shell test (http://i.imgur.com/hW2TCVS.png). This really has no depth, i just skimmed through this part. However, this shows her weakness against the boss: Neutralizing Swelling Pride.

 

  One more thing, her shadow fiend uptime is HORRIBLE. Macro it to every atonement spell.

 

P.S. tell me if the pics help

 

 

hope this helps

-LostDignity

Edited July 3, 2014 by LostDignity

[CheriseBuckley 2]

Thanks for all the advice.  This has helped me tremendously.  The Sha fight is a high movement fight and I find myself losing SS because I chose to move out of something instead of finishing my 4 casts of PoH (and yes I typically get 4).  Do you just take the swirlies to the face and finish the casts?  I was thinking of adding pain suppression into my macro (I do have a macro that includes inner focus, power infusion and spirit shell) so that I can finish the casts without getting face f*ed (excuse my almost language) lol.  There are many times that the swirlies from the rifts just become relentless (I'm normally yelling at the raid at this point to CLOSE THE DAMN RIFTS lol)  Thanks again for the time you are putting into this.

[CheriseBuckley 2]

Oh, and I'll be sure to macro my shadow fiend.  I'm normally pretty good at hitting it at 80% mana and then every time it's up but high movement fights are definitely my downfall on just about everything.  I'm working to improve that with your help. 

[Brutalpriest 60]

High movements should be when you really shine.  Disc priests have a LOT of mobility!  Penance, HF/Solace, PoM, PW:Shield, renew (lol don't use renew)?  And let's not forget the unbelievably useful feather.  No that wasn't sarcasm, feather will get you places FAST.  Drop one when you start moving, penance... oh i'm done moving =D

 

I think everyone else has gotten you the tips you need =)

[CheriseBuckley 2]

It's just the spirit shell that ends up being a pain in the arse on high movement fights.  I use everything else in my arsenal (minus renew which I rarely throw but probably should toss out more often).  I love the mod PoM Tracker as well since it tells me who my PoM is on and when it's not up.  The Sha of Pride is by far the worst fight for me (although we've only killed heroic sha like 3-5 times) so I'm sure some mistakes can be corrected with just becoming more comfortable with the fight.  That fight rattles my nerves quite a bit right now.  Oh, while I'm thinking about it....LostDignity said he/she uses spirit shell at around 13 secs. for the Swelling Pride.  I use BigWigs and I have it emphasized which pops up a warning at 5 secs. prior.  That isn't near enough time to proc 4 PoH's.  I try to watch the timer bars to the left (cannot figure out how to move just one out to the middle of my screen) but there are like 10 friggin timers going and I often miss it and then it's too late......I get 1 PoH before Pride hits.  My question (and trust me I know this is probably a stupid question) but do you guys use any mods that will allow you to have more control over the timer bars?  That would be a huge improvement for me because I can time my SS's so much better!  BTW, I'm glad you are all blunt but polite.  I read some of the other forums (warlocks etc.) and those guys are just down right scary at times LOL.

[Brutalpriest 60]

Sha of pride is one of the better fights for disc priest.

 

Feather helps you close far away portals, because feather priests have the best movement speed in the game (except for one of the monk talents, I think.) 

 

Shell, used correctly, helps you almost completely negate the boss's nuke.

 

Anyway, normally I start channeling SS when "Gift Blockers!" is called.  The gift dps walk over and I start preparking for the nuke. 

 

Anyway, even if you forget until the last moment, react appropriately to the pride debuff and then keep casting PoH until everyone is at prayer of health. 

 

Help attonement down the Shadows, and get the Pac-man out.

 

Finally, Win and token for heroic warforged BIS weapon or trink =D

[Gwenymph 414]

I start:  AA>PWS>IF>SS>PoH at 15sec prior to Swelling Pride then L90 (based off raid size and strat) halfway through his cast.  I only move once during that time and take the rest to the face.  I move based on how far through my PoH cast I am and how close to Swelling it is.

 

The HWF Trink still escapes me after 9 months of 25m and 10m runs.....

[LostDignity 12]

I use BigWigs and I have it emphasized which pops up a warning at 5 secs. prior.  That isn't near enough time to proc 4 PoH's.  I try to watch the timer bars to the left (cannot figure out how to move just one out to the middle of my screen) but there are like 10 friggin timers going and I often miss it and then it's too late......I get 1 PoH before Pride hits.  My question (and trust me I know this is probably a stupid question) but do you guys use any mods that will allow you to have more control over the timer bars? 

 

 

Personally i keep track of most of the boss cooldown, it isn't too hard once you get used to it. I use DBM and you can pick which boss cooldowns it keeps track of. Otherwise you don't really need a tracker to get 3-4 casts of PoH, Just wait for your raidleader to tell the team to interrupt/kill the big add on the back. That should be your queue to casting holyfire(sw:pain as an laternative)(for ToF buff, otherwise ignore)->pw:s->spiritshell. The big add spawns about 15seconds before the boss. You can also pw;s right before the big add spawns then holy fire the addfollowed by SS if you want that extra 1.5seconds.

 

 I'm normally yelling at the raid at this point to CLOSE THE DAMN RIFTS lol

 

 

If you want to call them out specifically you can track the debuff and you'll know when it wears off.

[CheriseBuckley 2]

You guys are awesome!  I think I might switch to dbm for this fight in general for the simple fact that I can move those damn timer bars.  I can't wait to test all of this out!  Honestly, if I had just stood still to finish the SS cd's......I could have saved myself a lot of grief on Sha.  Thanks again.

[Gwenymph 414]

Another option is to Glyph for Fade to help you if you have any survivability issues during your SS for Swelling Pride