Discipline Priest 8.2

A Discipline Priest is something like a mixture of a Priest of Darkness and Holy with a completely unexpected result. A Discipline Priest has access to many Darkness spells, but their aim is protecting and healing their allies which they mostly carry out through damage delivery.

Introduction

Let’s take a closer look at the weakest and the strongest aspects of this specialization:

Advantages:

• Capable of absorbing damage;
• Has powerful frequent burst;
• Nice additional DPS for the group/raid;
• Barely depends on the group/raid’s positioning;
• Effective in raids.

Disadvantages:

• Poor survival;
• Weak single target healing;
• Not the easiest character to handle – you need to be able to anticipate and plane your actions long in advance;
• Weak in mythic+weak for affixes, particularly for affixes that demand regular periodic healing.

Basic information on the spec:

A Discipline Priest, like any other healer in the game, uses one key resource – Mana. Mana is spent on the majority of healing spells, and on some auxiliary ones, too.

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Glossary

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Main abilities

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Talents

General information. On achieving several new levels you’ll get access to new talent ‘Tiers’. Talents may have different effect on abilities: add new features, replace old ones, modify passively different effects and spells. Talents can be changed in Sanctuaries or any recreational zones. However, if you don’t have any of those places nearby you can use the Codex of the Tranquil Mind which allows you to switch channels within a minute. You can’t change talents in combat. You can’t change a talent if the talent you’ve picked in the last Tier is on Cooldown. You’ll have to wait until it’s restored first.

Tier 1. Lvl 15

• Twist of Fate. Healing any allies with below 35% Health increases all your damage dealing and healing by 20%.
• Castigation. Penance, over its active time, sends an additional charge of light energy.
• Schism. For medium Mana, this 1.5-sec cast spell deals your enemy Shadow magic damage, after which it allows you to deal 40% more damage to that target for the next 9 secs.

* Schism is used by default as the most effective talent in raids and mythic+.

Castigation is practically not used anywhere. Twist of Fate is used in raids often, if talent’s buff has high uptime and also in mythic+ kyes for a single target healing. Schism is a more popular choice for increased healing in short durations and increased damage in overall.

Tier 2. Lvl 30

• Angelic Feather. Place a Feather in a selected spot. An ally to pick it up gets 40% faster for 5 secs. You can place up to 3 Feathers. The spell has 3 charges. CD 20 secs.
• Body and Soul. Power Word: Shield also increases your target’s moving speed by 40% for 3 secs.
• Masochism. When using Shadow Mend on yourself, its periodic effect now restores Health and reduces the incoming damage by 10%.

* Discipline is not famous for their mobility, so, picking Angelic Feather would be the most reasonable move on this Tier as it provides a speed boost, and not only to you.

Body and Soul is not that good talent because Power Word: Shield is used to absorb damage on allies and this talent has 6 sec cd that makes it difficult to speed up who you need in the right moment.

Masochism is good for situations where you don’t need a lot of relocation, but rather survival. This is why additional reduction of the incoming damage is only welcome.

Tier 3. Lvl 45

• Power Word: Solace. A Mana-free spell, it deals instant Holy damage to your enemy and recovers 1% of your max Mana. CD 12 secs.
• Shield Discipline. If Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed, you instantly recover 0.5% of your max Mana.
• Mindbender. Replaces Shadowfiend. Summons, for 15 secs, a Guardian which would attack your target. Each of your Guardinan’s attacks restores you 0.5% of your max Mana. CD 1 min.

*Power Word: Solace is the optimal choice in the tier. It is free, deals good damage and should be used every cd unlike Mindbender. Shield Discipline can be effective in theory for mana regeneration but in Battle for Azeroth healing mechanic of this spec changed and makes you to keep up Atonement in raid and other ways to buff it apart from Shield became more effective.  

Tier 4. Lvl 60

• Shining Force. For a small amount of Mana, it helps you push the enemies near the selected ally of yours back and slow them down by 70% for 3 secs.
• Psychic Voice. Reduces the CD for your Psychic Scream by 30 secs.
• Dominant Mind. Allows you to control your character during Mind Control effects thus making the controlled target your familiar for 2 min. Doesn’t work against players.

* The whole Tier has no effect on damage delivery or healing. Usually, Shining Force is used as, in Mythic, it helps you save your tank from receiving damage or interrupt an unwanted cast with the throwback effect.

Tier 5. Lvl 75

• Sins of the Many. Your damage is increased by up to 12%, diminishing for each ally affected by your Atonement.
• Clarity of Will. When you heal with Penance, everyone with your Atonement is healed too.
• Shadow Covenant. For minor Mana, instantly heals the selected target and up to 4 allies within the range of 30 m. It restores every one of them major Health but does not apply the 6-sec debuff absorbing 50% of received healing with an ability. 12 sec cd

*The choice for raiding and mythic+ is between Shadow covenant and Sins of the many. Shadow covenant increases your healing outside of bursting phase and allows to heal targets without Atonement. It is the optimal raiding talent. Sins of the many should be used when you need additional dps and in mythic+ during the weeks without “healer’s” affixes.

Tier 6. Lvl 90

• Purge the Wicked. Replaces Shadow Word: Pain and get slightly cheaper in terms of Mana. Deals instant Fire damage, plus some more over the following 20 secs. When Penance is being applied to a target with Purge the Wicked on them, this effect spreads over to the closest enemy.
• Divine Star. For a small amount of Mana, it releases a star that flies 24 m forward. All the allies on its way restore Health, and all enemies take Holy damage. Once the star makes the whole distance, it goes back the same way – healing the allies and damaging the enemies. CD 15 secs.
• Halo. For a small amount of Mana, the spell creates a ring of Holy energy which expands around you until reaches the radius of 30 m. Allies receive healing, enemies take Holy damage. CD 40 secs.

* All the talents could be used in raids depending on the situation. Divine star is effective only if the raid is gathered in one spot and it is also a good choice for mythic+. Halo is a universal choice, practically good in any situation. Purge the wicked is good for multiple targets fights and in situations when you cannot use Halo ( for example: Adds on Mekkatorque)  

Tier 7. Lvl 100

• Lenience. Atonement reduces damage taken by 3%.
• Luminous Barrier. Create a shield on all allies in raid equal to Power Word: Shield. Replaces Power Word: Barrier. 3 min cd.
• Evangelism. Increases the active time of all the cast Atonement effects by 6 secs. CD 1 min 30 secs.

* The basic choice for raid would be Evangelism.

Lenience is a better choice for mythic+ because it reduces damage received by the tank and other 2 talents are weaker. Luminous barrier would be the best choice for heroic or normal raids with 20-25 players where you cannot use Evangelism every cd.   

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Azerite traits

Outer rings

A-tier traits:

• Enduring Luminescence – You should have 1 such trait ideally. Stacking up this trait improves only healing
• Depth of the Shadows – You should have 1 such trait ideally. Works just like the previous talent, stacking up this trait improves only healing.

B-tier traits:

• Meticulous Scheming – A significant haste buff with a good uptime
• Blood Rite – Especially good in mythic+ as its effect can be increased after an enemy dies
• Swirling Sands – – A significant crit increase with  a chance of extending it
• Blightborne Infusion – A significant minor stats increase
• Sudden Revelation – Replaces  Gift of Forgiveness in 8.1 patch, reduces coodlown on Power Word: Radiance. A few traits do not reduce cooldowns but when using Power Word: Radiance with a few traits you can gain buff stacks. Can be good in mythic + and raids where players stand together.
• Contemptuous Homily – Some Penance increase

С Tier:

• Weal and Woe – A minor bonus to Penance but too low to make this trait significant
• Unstable Catalyst – A good stat increase but the requirement for positioning sometimes makes this trait useless.
• Moment of Repose – The most useless trait with practically  0 efficiency.
• Seductive Power –  Unfortunately it is hard to keep up in raids or mythic + when Bwonsamdi appears. Even with good management this trait is still worse than its analogues from Battle for Dazar’alor.

Middle ring

A Tier:

• Synergistic Growth – a good trait for  haste increase when you need it. In 8.1 “snapshot” mastery problem was fixed so this trait looks really good now.
• Concentrated Mending – a really good HoT that increases during its duration
• Blessed Portents – A great trait for getting into raiding and mythic + because has an ability to heal when “it’s required” but loses its potential once the content is fully known and often farmed
• Blood Siphon –  additional mastery and self healing
• Overwhelming Power – A pretty good Haste proc that loses efficiency while it lasts

B Tier:

• On My Way – -a  constant stats increase
• Woundbinder – Another good haste buff. Has a less uptime than Overwhelming power but can easily replace it.
• Ephemeral Recovery – A situational trait that is good only if you can use a few times during the fight otherwise it’s pretty average.
• Earthlink – Pretty good stats increase but its not stable so won’t really grant even average boost when it is really needed
• Savior – a good trait if the players need to survive with low hp

С Tier:

• Bracing Chill –  A trait with a good potential but because it requires to keep up its procs makes it worse than others.

Inner ring

S Tier:

• Resounding Protection -Good constant healing increase.
• Impassive Visage – Constant healing. Grants more healing than shields, so it is less effective since shields let you survive lethal mechanics.

A Tier:

• Sanctum – A strong absorb when using Fade. Worse than the previous traits because can  be triggered only manually.
• Gemhide – A good survivability trait. Especially good against physical damage.
• Vampiric Speed –   A situational trait, mostly good in mythic+
• Longstrider – Some movement speed increase
• Twist Magic – A pretty strong trait if there is something to dispel.

B Tier:

• Azerite Fortification – A situational trait, mainly for PVP
• Bulwark of the Masses – Another situational trait, weak for raiding but pretty good for m+.
• Self Reliance – A pretty weak trait because requires certain positioning

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Essences

Gameplay

A Discipline Priest’s healing has damage delivery as an inherent part of it. A huge portion of your healing is carried out particularly with Atonement. For that reason, let’s first review the damage dealing priorities:

• Maintain Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked on as many targets as possible.
• Schism, if talented, to maintain the buff for the outgoing damage.
• Penance per CD.
• Power Word: Solace per CD, if talented.
• Smite, the rest of the time.

Raid healing:

The main idea is healing people through Atonement. This means you need to trigger that buff on your damage-taking allies with Plea, Shadow Mend, Power Word: Radiance and Power Word: Shield. At any time, about 3-4 buffs should be maintained simultaneously. More buffs would exhaust your Mana very quickly, and it is usually not needed with the group/raid receiving minor damage.

In case the damage is delivered to a small group of people, or the damage is small itself, to maintain Atonement, use Plea, Power Word: Shield and Shadow Mend, in case your target needs more healing. If a larger number of players is subject to damage, use Power Word: Radiance instead.

If there is upcoming damage to be delivered to a large group of players, or the current damage dealt to already injured players is about to grow:

• Keep up Atonement on ~5 players with the help of Power Word: Shield
• 5 seconds before the raid receives damage use  Power Word: Radiance 2 times
• Activate Evangelism
• Shadowfiend / Mindbender (anything available in the moment)
• Schism on an enemy
• Power Word: Solace on an enemy
• Penance on an enemy
• Smite for healing players with Atonement

Mythic+:

What differense this gameplay from a raid one is that Atonement healing is only effective when a group is subject to minor damage. Whenever you are subject to major damage, you’ll have to use different spells. You are assumed to be using the talent build suggested for Mythic+ in the corresponding section.

At a lower level, like it was said, Atonement healing is used. The renewal principle is the same as before – Plea, Power Word: Shield or Shadow Mend, if the incoming damage demands it.

With big incoming damage Atonement is not enough, you should focus on using Shadow Mend more often.

In case your whole group is subject to damage simultaneously, use Power Word: Radiance.

Cooldown usage:

• Pain Suppression is a powerful single target CD. It is most likely to be used to survive potent abilities cast against your tanks. To be utilized directly before taking damage, to provide max efficiency.
• Power Word: Barrier is a potent raid save which is quite peculiar about the raid’s disposition. Also keep in mind that, apart from reducing the incoming damage to the allies inside your dome, you also deliver more healing to those tagged with Atonement.
• Shadowfiend is used as a DPS cooldown. You should also keep in mind that its delivered damage heals people under Atonement.
  Its modified version among talents, Mindbender, restores you Mana. You should remember that, too, so that the Mana it generates does not overcap.
• Fade is your personal cooldown which not only lets you go off the aggro but also reduces the damage dealt to you by 13%+ (depends on your Vestments of Discipline score).

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Stats

The basic priority rating for the characteristics is as follows:

Intellect > Haste =>> Crit > Versatility > Mastery

*If you have Drape of Shame, Crit surpasses Mastery.

Haste reduces the cooldown of Power Word: Solace, reduces the GCD, shortened the casts, reduces the interval between your Shadowfiend‘s attacks, and increases the number of ticks by your Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked. Best of all, Haste increases your outgoing damage which eventually facilitates your healing.

Mastery in this spec  increases effectiveness from healing on the targets affected by Atonement.

Gems

• Leviathan’s Eye of Intellect
• Quick Sand Spinel 50 haste

Enchantments

• Rings: Accord of Haste
• Weapon: Enchant Weapon – Machinist’s Brilliance

Food

• Raid feast for 131 intellect or Baked Port Tato for Haste

Flasks and pots

• Greater Flask of Endless Fathoms 360 intellect for 1 h
• Superior Battle Potion of Intellect for general use
• If you need to restore mana instantly, use Coastal Mana Potion.
• If you have a time, for overall mana restoration Potion of Replenishment will be better.

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Macros

It is a good idea to set mouseover macros for all your healing and defensive spells as well as for Leap of Faith (meaning when you use these macros, the spell is cast upon the target which is at your cursor’s position). For example:

#showtooltip Plea
/cast [@mouseover] Plea

Or use addons that have input interface for such task, for example:

Vuhdo, Clique

Macros to dot with mouseover:

#showtooltip
/cast [@mouseover,exists][@target,exists]Shadow word: Pain
/cast [@mouseover,exists][@target,exists]Purge the wicked

Macros for Angelic feather that allows to cast it on yourself without targeting the spot

#showtooltip
/cast [@player] Angelic feather
/stopspelltarget

If it’s no matter wich target to dps with your Shadow Word: Pain, this macro will be very useful:

#showtooltip Shadow word: Pain
/cast [harm,nodead][@targettarget,harm,nodead][@targettargettarget,harm,nodead][@targettargettargettarget,harm,nodead][@targettargettargettargettarget,harm,nodead]Shadow word: Pain

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What’s next?

1. Leveling. If your character has been inactive since the previous expansions, the best  option to level up it is by Timewalking dungeons. You will gain a lot of experience, but there is one big disadvantage of leveling this way. Timewalks are available only for one week during a month, but Overgear is always here.
2. Equipment. At high level, the most important thing for you will become your gear. WoW is a multiplayer game, that’s why we recommend for you to play it with your friends, or to find a new friends for mythic+ runs. If you have any trouble with it – Overgear may help you to find not just friends for a run, but a complete well geared and experienced group that also will be glad to trade all the loot you need.
3. Raids. Raids are the top-tier PvE content in the game. That’s why the equipment’s base ilvl is higher than anywhere else. These dungeons require knowing all the tactics and have a good gear to kill the bosses. The possibilities of Overgear might let you skip those criteria.

Azerite. It is also not the best idea to forget about the Heart of Azeroth and not to feed it with more Azerite. Ignoring this won’t make your character stronger. The easiest way to do it – just complete all the world quests with Azerite rewards everyday. You can get extra azerite from Island Expeditions. Companions can be found at Overgear.