Discipline Priest Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.1.0)
On this page, you will find out the best talents for each tier for your Discipline Priest in World of Warcraft — The War Within (11.1.0). We also have default talent lists for various types of content, such as raiding or Mythic+. If you play with Warmode on, we have your PvP talents covered as well.
If you were looking for WotLK Classic content, please refer to our WotLK Classic Discipline Priest talents.
Recommended Build Import Codes:
The War Within Talent Builds for Discipline Priest
Oracle Raid Build for Discipline Priest
Note: This talent build intentionally talents
into Miraculous Recovery without being talented into
Power Word: Life.
While in game this will highlight as red indicating an issue, this is done on
purpose.
Waste No Time front-loading the
Atonement duration to
the beginning of the GCD without compensation results in an HPS loss.
This build will be your primary build for raiding content. Utilizing the
strong burst of Premonition of Insight and
Premonition of Piety
together combined with every
Evangelism results in incredible bursts of HPS.
While this specialization may not be able to hit as frequent of timings as Voidweaver, it brings a lot to the table.
Twinsight on every
Penance
cast (automatically targeting an injured raid member), stronger
Power Word: Shields,
Premonition of Solace, and even stronger
Pain Suppression via
Foreseen Circumstances all contribute to
improved Spot Healing capabilities. Increased
Atonement duration via
Preemptive Care provide much longer healing window as well allowing Oracle to do very well into extended damage events or sometimes even slightly covering multiple in a single ramp.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
While the above build is the default recommendation, there are a handful of ways to modify your build slightly depending on the situation. The following are alternatives and why you may want to run them:
Run this build in scenarios where you have multiple targets to spread Shadow Word: Pain to via
Encroaching Shadows. This build can, depending on the encounter, provide a significant amount of mana return via
Throes of Pain by naturally spreading your dot via
Penance casts to adds that quickly die.
Voidweaver Raid Build for Discipline Priest
This build is an alternative build for raiding content. Utilizing the
extremely short cooldown of both Mind Blast and
Voidwraith,
this build can push solid HPS very frequently. With the addition of
Ultimate Penitence as well, this build can meet a high variety of
potential fight timers/incoming damage patterns.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!
While the above build is the default recommendation, there are a handful of ways to modify your build slightly depending on the situation. The following are alternatives and why you may want to run them:
Run this build in scenarios where you have multiple targets to spread
Shadow Word: Pain to via
Encroaching Shadows.
Run this build in scenarios where you are looking to meet a 30 second
Cadence or some other scenario where you can benefit from the reduced cooldown
of Power Word: Radiance.
Run this build in scenarios where there are large gaps in major damage
events that better line up with the minute and a half cooldown of the
Shadowfiend version of
Voidwraith.
Voidweaver Mythic+/Delve Build for Discipline Priest
This build will be your default build for Mythic+ and Delve content. With frequent and consistent burst windows via Entropic Rift and
Voidwraith on such short cooldowns, you are able to meet the hectic requirements of Mythic+ content.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Oracle Mythic+ Build for Discipline Priest
This build is an alternative in Mythic+ content with less frequent, but solid burst windows. We overall due not recommend this build due to the overall lack of output in regards to handling the frequent incoming damage in Mythic+.By rotating between Premonition of Insight,
Premonition of Piety, and
Premonition of Clairvoyance combined with
Mindbender you are capable of matching
Voidweaver's output. The unfortunate downside is that your out of cooldown healing is significantly weaker than what you have access to in
Voidweaver, so any mistakes in regards to mismanaging your cooldowns will leave you in a very dangerous position. As a result, while this talent tree is viable, its complexity leads to it being a bad general choice.
Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!
Talent Breakdown
In the following section, we will break down the more situational options or choices to be made within the talent tree. Talent nodes that have value but may not be good or generic enough to be played in all situations. If a talent node is not mentioned, it is due to it either being an instant pick already or too bad to ever take. Please refer to the above-linked talent builds if you are unsure of which category a talent falls into. If you are looking for a description of all talents/spells, please take a look at our spells page linked below:
Flexible Talent Points
While we do not have the most flexible tree possible compared to some other classes/specializations, we do still have some points that are considered low value that can be moved around when needed. The following are some points in both the class and spec tree that are not high value that can be flexed around to fit the specific situation:
Mental Agility is mostly taken as a pathing point and not because the point itself is super relevant. You're welcome to path through either
Inspiration or
Body and Soul instead, but both of those are also low value and come with their own issues. Inspiration requiring a crit from a defensive
Penance cast or
Flash Heal to provide a tiny physical defense reduction when such a large percentage of damage is magic damage anyway results in the node being insanely low value. Body and Soul will struggle to provide value due to
Power Word: Shield being an actual strong spell for discipline's healing kit. In addition, random movement speed increases are rarely useful. Since one of these is needed to path to
Unwavering Will, pick whatever one you wish as they're all incredibly low value.
Crystalline Reflection provides a solid DPS increase and a tiny direct heal onto
Power Word: Shield. This is far from a mandatory talent, but can provide some solid damage benefit specifically in keys if the points do not need to be spent on CC, dispels, or defensives.
Light's Inspiration provides a solid increase in HP percentage gained when using
Desperate Prayer. This talent can be a solid defensive choice in situations where you feel you need Desperate Prayer to be even stronger than normal.
Phantom Reach is a single point to gain some added range. The value of this point heavily depends on the key/encounter you're in and the group you are playing with. In scenarios where the encounters allow the group to stay close together and your group is likely to do that, this talent loses a lot of value. There are also some niche mechanics that can be outranged as a result of this talent.
Painful Punishment's primary value will come from bosses where you're fighting a single target for extended periods of time. On trash packs,
Revel in Darkness plus
Encroaching Shadows spreading capability will cover the majority of your DoT needs. Feel free to run this in situations where you expect to need less single target healing and are more worried about saving globals during dangerous heal check bosses.
Luminous Barrier
The design intent behind Luminous Barrier is great. It provides an alternative cooldown to Power Word: Barrier on fights that force the raid/group to spread during damage events. The problem is that Luminous Barrier is currently fairly undertuned. As a result, we do not recommend using it in most cases. Feel free to give it a try, but often, in situations where Power Word: Barrier is low value, simply talenting out of Barrier and into a completely different talent node will provide more value.
Enduring Luminescence vs Bright Pupil
While Enduring Luminescence is the default in both the recommended Raid and Mythic+ builds above,
Bright Pupil is still viable dependent on the exact incoming damage needs and will be found in various alternative builds and boss specific talent selections.
Pain and Suffering and Throes of Pain
Unfortunately, with how little damage our Shadow Word: Pain does per tick, investing multiple talent points into a multiplier is not efficient and very low value.
No Escape vs Dark Energy
While Dark Energy is our default for both forms of content as having a high uptime movement speed buff is generically valuable, keep an eye out for opportunities where the movement speed slow attached to your
Entropic Rift via
No Escape can provide significant value.
PvP Talents (War Mode)
In The War Within, there remains the option to go into "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:
- PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
- 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
- 10% more experience gained while leveling.
- Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.
With the benefits of enabling War Mode for PvE content minimal in this expansion, it is not recommended to enable the feature. War Mode remains an attractive option for leveling purposes due to the increased experience gain.
Discipline Priest War Mode Talents
In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of Discipline Priest-specific PvP talents. For more information on what is valuable in a competitive PvP setting instead of an open-world focus, please take a look at our PvP guide.
Discipline Priest PvP Talents
Inner Light and Shadow is a toggleable ability that grants you either 10% increased spell damage and
Atonement healing or 15% less Mana cost on healing spells. Leaving this on the damage increase portion while leveling will result in a solid DPS and survivability gain.
Catharsis provides a solid amount of damage when doing solo content as disc. If you're doing group content where you are not the one taking heavy damage, swap this for
Trinity
Dark Archangel increases your damage and the damage of all allies with your
Atonement by 15% for 8 seconds. This is great for small group world content where giving your group a DPS buff will be more impactful than taking a small boost to your own damage via any of the above three talents.
Changelog
- 01 Mar. 2025: Updated post recent tuning.
- 25 Feb. 2025: Fixed incorrect talent string.
- 24 Feb. 2025: Updated for Patch 11.1.
- 15 Dec. 2024: Updated for Patch 11.0.7.
- 21 Oct. 2024: Added flexible point and some additional talent discussions.
- 11 Sep. 2024: Reordered talent recommendation and added note about bender bug.
- 10 Sep. 2024: Added section clarifying expected pet CDs.
- 09 Sep. 2024: Reviewed for The War Within Season 1.
- 26 Aug. 2024: Fixed raid string import issue.
- 22 Aug. 2024: Fixed m+ talent tree linking to the old patch talents.
- 21 Aug. 2024: Updated for The War Within Release.
- 23 Jul. 2024: Updated for The War Within Pre-Patch.
- 07 May 2024: Reviewed for 10.2.7.
- 22 Apr. 2024: Updated for Season 4.
- 27 Mar. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.6
- 15 Jan. 2024: Reviewed for Patch 10.2.5.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Removed outdated reference.
- 07 Nov. 2023: Updated for Patch 10.2.
- 04 Sep. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.7
- 10 Aug. 2023: Updated post hotfix to Rhapsody and VE.
- 19 Jul. 2023: Fixed formatting issue.
- 12 Jul. 2023: Updated to new page format.
- 10 Jul. 2023: Updated for patch 10.1.5.
- 06 May 2023: Updated to include Season 2 Dungeon Specific Talent Choices.
- 01 May 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.1.
- 24 Jan. 2023: Reviewed for Patch 10.0.5.
- 22 Jan. 2023: Updated talent recommendation for patch 10.0.5.
- 11 Dec. 2022: Fixed Talent Calculator M+ Link.
- 28 Nov. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight launch.
- 25 Oct. 2022: Updated for Dragonflight pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide is written and maintained by Clandon, Healer in Vindicatum and Owner of Warcraft Priests (join them on Discord. This guide is peer reviewed by other staff at Warcraft Priests and other notable members of the healing community.
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