Discipline Priest PvP Guide for WotLK Classic

Discipline Priest is a powerful healing option in Wrath of the Lich King PvP, having multiple powerful cooldowns as well as a very diverse toolkit that fits almost every situation.

Strengths

• Strong cooldowns that can be used defensively or offensively.
• Wide array of spells available, often having something useful in every situation.
• Both offensive and defensive magic dispels.
• Versatile playstyle that fits in well with almost any other class.

Weaknesses

• Considerably weaker when major spells are on cooldown.
• Limited crowd control abilities; can only really focus on healing.
• Very immobile; difficult to escape from enemies when they get on you.

The talent build listed above takes a lot of the major bonuses from Discipline and Holy to help maximize your healing output and defensive capabilities. This build takes all of the key talents you need, such as Pain Suppression, Power Infusion, Silent Resolve and more.

Depending on which PvP activity you are focusing on, you may choose to swap some of the talents around. Changing Reflective Shield to Improved Mana Burn is a good idea if you are focusing on 2v2 arenas. Spell Warding is also lower value in bigger PvP scenarios such as 5v5 arenas or battlegrounds; instead put points into Improved Renew and Holy Specialization.

1. Glyph of Pain Suppression — This is a must-have in PvP, allowing you to use Pain Suppression even when you are stunned, oftentimes saving you or an ally from certain death.
2. Glyph of Penance — Penance is your best spell and this allows you to use it even more, another must-have.
3. Glyph of Power Word: Shield — This third glyph slot does not have a "must-have" choice, but Glyph of Power Word: Shield is the most useful, allowing you to quickly heal someone up.

1. Glyph of Shadowfiend — This helps you sustain your Mana if your Shadowfiend happens to die.
2. Glyph of Fortitude — Helps if you ever get the chance to rebuff your ally with Power Word: Fortitude.
3. Glyph of Shackle Undead — This one is minor, but sometimes you will be able to use Shackle Undead on an undead pet, or even a player, such as a Death Knight while under the Lichborne buff.

As a Discipline Priest in PvP there is no real set rotation you should be focusing on. The usage of your abilities will largely depend on multiple different factors in the situation. Become accustomed to your main healing abilities as well as your damaging and utility spells, and you will quickly learn when and how to use them properly.

• Penance — This is your main healing ability. Very quickly heals an ally up over a short channel.
• Power Word: Shield — Is what the Discipline talent tree builds around. You will want to use this as often as possible on any ally being attacked.
• Flash Heal — Is a quick, small heal, but with a high Mana cost. Useful for quickly topping up an injured ally or getting a fast heal out in an emergency.
• Renew — A powerful heal-over-time, especially if your enemy cannot remove magical buffs. Great to use when you know someone will take a lot of damage-over-time.
• Binding Heal — Works very similar to Flash Heal, except this will heal both the Priest and the target. Great whenever you and an ally are low health.
• Prayer of Mending — Whenever an ally is buffed with this and takes damage, Prayer of Mending will heal them and then bounce to a nearby ally. Great for healing multiple people taking damage, especially from DoTs.

Priest has a very versatile spell kit; taking full advantage of your offensive toolkit is what really separates a good Priest from a great one. This is oftentimes needed when you are pushing for a kill by helping to finish a low health enemy.

• Shadow Word: Death — High, instant damage. This spell can also be used to break crowd controls if timed properly, such as Blind or Polymorph.
• Shadow Word: Pain — Deals high damage-over-time. Try to apply this to enemies your allies are attacking.
• Devouring Plague — Deals high damage-over-time. Try to apply this to enemies your allies are attacking.
• Mind Blast — Deals very high damage with a short cast time and cooldown. You will want to use this as often as possible.
• Penance — This spell can be used both on allies and enemies. If you and your allies are not in danger, you can choose to use this offensively on an enemy for even more burst damage.

Discipline Priest has powerful utility spells that can be used in many situations, sometimes either offensively or defensively. Knowing when and where to use these abilities is vital to your success in PvP.

• Pain Suppression — Is an iconic Discipline Priest ability, greatly reducing the damage taken by a target. With Glyph of Pain Suppression, you can even use this ability while you are stunned.
• Power Infusion — Grants the target faster casting speed and reduced Mana costs. This can be used either offensively to help damage someone or defensively to help you heal even better.
• Mass Dispel — Dispels magic buffs from enemies and debuffs from allies. Can also remove spells that can not be removed normally, such as Divine Shield or Ice Block.
• Dispel Magic — Dispels magic buffs from enemies and debuffs from allies depending on your target. You will use this often both offensively and defensively.
• Abolish Disease — Removes diseases from an ally if possible. Has some uses in PvP.
• Shadowfiend — Great for restoring Mana in long, sustained fights. Can also be used for additional damage when all-in on a kill.
• Inner Focus — Gives you a free cast. Try to use this on an expensive spell as it has a 3-minute cooldown.
• Shadow Word: Death — Causes damage to the Priest equal to the damage it deals. This backlash damage can break crowd control effects that break on damage, such as Blind and Polymorph if timed properly.
• Shackle Undead — You will mostly use this when fighting a Death Knight to crowd control their pets or if they use Lichborne.
• Psychic Scream — This is a Priest's only real form of crowd control. You will mostly use this to help setup a kill or to peel for yourself or an ally.

As a Discipline Priest your largest focus stats-wise will be Resilience. You will often be focused in a PvP environment, and Resilience aims to prevent you from dying in a short window.

Resilience is the largest source of damage mitigation you can get from stats. Resilience is a flat damage reduction from all PvP sources, as well as a reduced chance to be crit, and reduced damage taken from crits. Getting as much Resilience as possible, especially early on, can help you drastically in most PvP situations. Until you can reach the soft-cap of 1414 for Resilience, you will be aiming to get as much as possible.

You will want to maintain 4% hit rating to help land your offensive spells, such as Penance, Shadow Word: Death and Psychic Scream. This is crucial whenever you need to help secure a kill or crowd control enemies.

Similar to Hit Rating, Spell Penetration helps you land your offensive spells when fighting enemies that have higher than base magic resistance. The two breakpoints to worry about are the 75 Spell Penetration soft cap and the 130 Spell Penetration hard cap. Try to aim at least for the soft cap when choosing gear, gems, and enchants.

Spell Power increases the effectiveness of your healing and damaging abilities, giving you the highest power gain possible. Aim for this stat whenever Resilience is not available.

Both Spirit and Mp5 are of about equal value. Both are needed in longer PvP matches to help sustain your high mana costs, so be use to not completely neglect these stats.

If you are looking to maximize the potential of your Discipline Priest in Wrath of the Lich King PvP, these are the recommended professions:

1. Jewelcrafting — Gives you 3 powerful gems, Mystic Dragon's Eye, giving you a huge Resilience increase.
2. Engineering — Hyperspeed Accelerators gives you a large Haste increase, allowing you to get heals off much quicker. You may also instead choose to use Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket to give you an additional burst of damage.
3. Tailoring — With Lightweave Embroidery you will have much higher burst window opportunities. Darkglow Embroidery is also an option if you find yourself often struggling with Mana issues.
4. Enchanting — Gives you a nice, passive Spell Power boost with 2 x Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower.

The list linked below includes the best possible gear setup for a Discipline Priest in PvP.

When it comes to evaluating Discipline Priest's place within the Arena, we have created a number of guides devoted to listing a variety of popular team compositions which you can find below.