The Egotistical Priest
An irreverent and opinionated discussion of the many classes
in the World of Warcraft gaming universe.
Vonya…Respeccing Discipline?
by Vonya
That’s right.
Disc.
This is going to be interesting. The strats for ten man sarth+3 say that a disc priest can make the difference between toast and success (mitigation beats reactive healing when you’ve got a 75k breath weapon from the boss).
I will share what I learn with you guys. Expect a gear/stat change, a talent post, and a rotation post. If I don’t pony up, yell at me.
Research begins now.
Matticus
- 10 Tips for the new Discipline Priest
- Making the Switch : Holy to Disc
- Holy Priest vs Disciline Priest
Snarkcraft
Ego (hey, yeah, me too)
Dwarf Priest
And, always, Elitist Jerks
Wish me luck! <3
Has anyone else already made the switch? Anyone thinking about it? Any advice?
January 1st, 2009
I switched today, but I’m not sure if its a good idea. I did some heroics and the healing sure is fine, even if I still struggle to control overhealing from penance.
But what about raid healing? Sure, in 5 mans use POH, but what about 10 man raids with just 2 healers? I’m not really sure if my restro-druid partner will be able to heal the damage from Malygos if he pushes you up in the air and POM doesn’t seem to bounce much in 10s. Sapphiron might also get a bit awkward, but its mostly Malygos who is giving me a headache.
January 1st, 2009
I made the switch after 3.0 when they took away my downranking and I had problems with overheal and mana versus wanting to keep the tank topped off in 5 mans.
Disc is… weird, but I really am enjoying it.
One thing to warn you about, is that some aspects of it are currently broken.
Reflective Shield- Currently only reflects damage when it is cast on the priest. Blues on the forums confirmed that they plan on fixing this eventually, but for now they are just changing the tooltip in the next patch.
Rapture- Intended to return mana based on the priest’s mana pool (which is huge since Disc priests stack a lot of intellect) it is currently bugged to return mana based on the person receiving the heal’s pool. This makes it easy to mana starve, especially in 5 mans when you do not have a group where another member has replenishment. You’ll proably find it helpful to keep a set of all your best gear, and keep a spare set of gear with MP5, which you can switch around pieces of.
Kiseran- Try fortifying your friends with shields rather than just hoping for a lucky POM bounce. Do continue to cast POM, as crits from it will also proic Divine Aegis to help mitigate damage. Give your druid power infusion, and if there is someone already low, give them pain supression. Discs priests are the best healers at stopping damage, not healing it. Making the switch also involves a lot of changing the way you think and react to situations (Which is hard and annoying and goes against all you’ve learned for the previous 80 levels)
January 2nd, 2009
Awesome.
Only a few things to note. First, and mainly, forget everything you know about the 5sr. Seriously. You are no longer subject to its destructive power. Rapture is your main mana regen, spirit & mp5 are second. You will be spamming like a pally, not dancing like a holy.
Second, stack every ounce of spellpower you can. Followed by every ounce of crit you can. That’s about it. Everything else is gravy.
Use shield on every CD. Use Penance on every CD. Oh, and leave renew in the dust; keep it up on the tank at all times, but otherwise it’s your least useful spell by a mile. (Because it does not proc Grace, Rapture, or Divine Aegis, the disc wundercookies.)
January 2nd, 2009
I switched and stayed like that for like 3 days… did a few heroics and 1 naxx 10 and hated to heal in discipline…. now I am back to holy and don’t have problems with lack of mana, overhealing also gives me mana back so I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
January 2nd, 2009
Don’t worry about overhealing with Penance – it’s refreshing/restacking Grace and that is fundamentally made of win for its damage reduction.
January 2nd, 2009
The mantra I beat into my guild on a daily basis; “…I don’t heal…I mitigate…”
Over and over….I say it in vent, I write it as a comment when LFG, I beat it into pugs heads when overzealous dps DK’s start trying to do a tank impression.
January 2nd, 2009
Ho ho, Discipline. My exotic little honeysuckle wishes to experiment with whips and chains. I find this most exciting.
January 2nd, 2009
You might want to take a stroll through PlusHeal.com and read the Priest section. It’s full of useful advice and also mild rantings.
On the subject of group healing, abuse PoM, try to keep your Shield up on tanks and anyone else you can reach (others clothies will love you and it’s been known that gratitude might even cause one of them to sacrifice himself to save you) and finally go and pick some glyphs that really help. Either Holy Nova or Prayer of Healing depending on what you think is best for you. Don’t snicker at Holy Nova before reading this: http://www.plusheal.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=559.
Have fun
January 2nd, 2009
I approve.
January 2nd, 2009
Best of luck! I went Discipline with the big 3.0 changes and never looked back.
As said before though, while still felt to be a “healing” spec, it is a COMPLETELY different beast than Holy. Flash Heals are your friend (with the glyph), Shields and PoM are your bread and butter, and all teh cookies of the tree help prevent damage.
If your group uses healing meters, you will hate how “bad” they make you look, since many do not count mitigation properly, which is the strength of the tree.
It’s amazingly fun once you get your head wrapped around it.
January 2nd, 2009
I’ve switched to disc a few times, but then again, I have a serious addiction to respeccing.
January 2nd, 2009
Whoa…get outta mah brain, Vonya!! Actually, I’m not (seriously) considering going Disc. However, the thought has tickled the back of my mind for a couple weeks now…ever since our first Naxx-10s. It’ll depend on what our healer mix is in the next couple weeks–so rest assured, I’ll be waiting with bated breath for your reports and analysis (as opposed to baited breath, which smells like worms).
January 2nd, 2009
I had retired my Priest after Kara in favor of a resto Druid. I got tired of dancing with the 5SR and I had a severe love affair with HoTs at the time.
With the changes to the discipline tree, though, the Priest is fun again. I’m not 80 yet–just got to 78 last night–but my impression right now is that discipline-Priest healing is much more proactive than holy-Priest healing.
BY FAR the most important stat is intellect. For my build, it’s followed by crit chance, then spellpower, then mp5. I keep some spirit gear around since I’m still leveling, but it’s no longer the prime attribute it once was.
You could check out http://www.discpriest.com for some informative discussion. It’s a relatively new forum, so it’s not all that active, but there’s some quality information.
If you do decide to go discipline, keep in mind that you lose your utility as an effective raid healer (no Circle of Healing), but you gain so much in damage mitigation and FUN that, for me anyway, it’s worth it. For now. Ask me again when I’ve had the patience to level my Druid.
January 2nd, 2009
I’ve been a deep Disc since the 3.0 patch and I have to say that I’m loving it. (Fair warning, though, I was a half-n-half Holy/Disc ImpSpirit priest beforehand.)
The folks above me have given lots of good advice. (Also, for fun, it’s cool to get a DA proc on ghostwolf and see it running around like in a hamster ball…)
You’re going to be dependent on cooldown-abilities moreso as a Disc. I recommend the Ghost:Pulse addon that will flash a see-through icon of the cooled-down-ability in the middle of your screen. I just got it and it’s helped my itchy fingers from trying to activate something that hasn’t cooled down yet. I recommend having the major glyphs of PW:Shield and Flash Heal at least and I also have the PoH one as well to help out in a nonCoH way.
January 3rd, 2009
Some comments as a Disc priest who is just starting Naxx and doing heroics.
Disc priests are excellent tank healers but weaker raid healers. You role has/will change. You will have issues in 5 mans where there is heavy party wide damage until you get used to it. PoH is no CoH.
Disc priests prevent damage and heal less. The style is quite different. Coming from holy spec is probably harder than starting as a new priest in Disc as you have a number of habits to unlearn.
You are faster. Your spells are mostly instant and you tend towards having more haste.
Penance is cheap. Cast it on cooldown.
PW:S is your friend. Your tank needs it most of the time. You will love pally and DK tanks, but can heal warriors and druids fine.
You will still need Greater Heal in your bar but you will use it a lot less.
Gobble gobble.
January 5th, 2009
I been Disc since 70 and just dinged 80 a couple of days ago.
I donw a couple of heroics and managed no problem at all, i think people are now realising that Disc is an amazing healing spec.
January 5th, 2009
Discipline is awesome. Just don’t get discouraged from WWS parses/Recount… they don’t really say how much you’re technically preventing (which in a roundabout way, is doing heals… I guess).
Angry laser heals, pew pew. Penance machine gun + PoM ray gun.
Intellect is a big stat for Discipline because of Rapture and don’t completely forgo spirit as it can still be beneficial for you… but I wouldn’t stack it. MP5 is pretty sweet as well, and there are multiple pieces of loot that have Spell Power + Crit + MP5. Those things are super awesome. Crit is a big deal for those Divine Aegis procs, and don’t forget you get bonus crit for having the Weakened Soul debuff from your PW:S.
… shazam?
January 6th, 2009
[...] anyone looking for more information on Disc, the comments on my previous post about Respeccing Discipline are incredibly insightful – I recommend going through and taking a look at [...]
January 6th, 2009
[...] build for raiding, or at least experiment with it. However, one of my very favorite bloggers, Vonya, the Egotistical Priest, did the heavy lifting on this idea. As I commented there, I’ll be sticking with my current [...]
January 14th, 2009
I recommend reading the excellent strategy writeup and possibly watching the narrated video guide on the fight at http://www.stratfu.com/strats/Sartharion3D if you haven’t beaten it yet. There are ways that you can reduce the top end damage on the breaths. As a side note, our experience has been that a Holy priest is more valuable than a disc priest in terms of cooldowned abilities to prevent tank gibs. Guardian Spirit is just as good or better than Pain Suppression. I say this with us having gotten our first kill with a Disc priest and never using one again.