Intro:
Again thank you to Zlinka and Phoronid for the guide format. Here I hope to convey my initial thoughts and experiences for those that wish to walk a Discipline path of Healing. Keep in mind that these are my personal thoughts and ideas and in a number of cases, contradict popular sites that contain guides. I do not involve any simulations or theory crafting. These experiences are based on Regular and Heroic Dungeons as well as Non-Heroic Raids.
Priest Race choices:
Ultimately itâs a matter of preference. We are on a role playing server and a player is more likely to choose their race according to how they wish to role play. With that said, the only races where I have seen a PvE benefit are Trolls, Blood Elves and the new race of Goblins. Trolls are given a racial ability for Haste, Blood Elves are given a racial ability for Mana gain with a side effect of Silence, and Goblins get a racial passive of an Attack and Casting speed increase. Tauren now have the ability to become Priests as well; however their racial abilities seem to lean more towards a PvP benefit with the additional health bonus and âStompâ.
Spec:
Eru'Adan's Spec
Above is my priests current talent spec. I have found it to work extremely well for someone who uses
Archangel/
Atonement. The added benefit of the
Surge of Light talent has been very beneficial for mana conservation. Also, because I use
Smite, I took
Train of Thought which provides a means to use
Penance more often. You may be asking why I did not take
Strength of Soul, my answer is that I believe it to work against the talent
Renewed Hope, I want that added critical strike chance for as long as possible. You may also askâ¦âWhy didnât you take
Soul Wardingâ, to that I would respond, âBecause it is not necessary. A good Discipline priest will use all the healing spells available to him and not just focus on
Power Word: Shield as the only means to prevent your targets deathâ.
I feel obligated to inform you that I have seen players opt out of
Archangel/
Atonement because, I assume, they do not or cannot use
Smite as a healing ability. Later on I will have a useful macro that will make it easier to switch between it and a healing ability. Typically I see them take both
Train of Thought and
Strength of Soul. The only reason I can think of is that Discipline Priests continue to believe that all we have are shields in our healing arsenal and nothing else. This is not true and I urge other Discipline priests to teach themselves to use other spells available to them.
Currently I have not seen any WoW Popular spec I would recommend to you. I have had a look at them and they seem to be PvP oriented which is not the focus of this guide at this time.
Gear Choices:
Ideally we will want âHealingâ gear. This involves gear with Spirit on it. As a Discipline priest however, we utilize an alternative method of mana regen above that of Spirit, and that is with a high mana pool. This will mean that we are OK to reforge Spirit into other secondary stats. With that said, below is a list with my thoughts in order of priority.
Intellect: Intellect is our most favored stat above all, this will come naturally with gear so something you do not need to focus on to any great extent, other than gems. Stack this as high as you can go. Blizzard has updated this stat to increase Spell Power on top of increasing our mana, benefitting mana regeneration, and our spell critical strike chance. So many benefits packed into one stat.
Critical Strike/Mastery: Despite a very popular community, I believe these stats to be equally important. Without a sufficient Critical Strike chance, our
Divine Aegis will not proc enough for it to benefit from the added bonus of Mastery. It is true that Prayer of Healing automatically procs Divine Aegis but I donât believe that should be the only means for us to get them. Mastery is also important as it improves the intended focus of our tree and that is Shields, I would say balance these stats as best as possible.
Spirit: You are classified as a healer, and healing gear will have spirit on it. Spirit will provide you a significant increase to mana regeneration both while you are casting (50%) and while you are not. It is not AS important for a Discipline priest, but you should do your best to ensure your gear has it. Feel free to re-forge the Spirit on your gear into Critical Strike or Mastery.
Haste: Believe it or not, but I do not place much value on this stat anymore. It takes an insane amount to reduce our global cool down and most of our abilitiesâ cooldowns are longer than that, so it doesnât seem necessary for that. True it reduces cast time, but it hasnât been detrimental to me while raiding.
Gems:
The best internet resource I know of for finding particular gems is wow-gem.com it has a very good filter system for finding gems that are available or the gem you want.
Meta Gems:
Ember Shadowspirit Diamond
Pure Gems
Red Socket:
Brilliant Inferno Ruby
Yellow/Blue Socket: There are none that I would recommend. Us a hybrid gem with Intellect to fill this socket colour if you desire the bonus.
Hybrid Gems:
Purple:
Purified Demonseye
Orange:
Artful Ember Topaz OR
Potent Ember Topaz
Green: I wouldnât recommend a Green gem. All the socket colours can be filled via Purple or Orange hybrid thems.
Jewelcrafterâs Only:
Pure Gems
Red Socket:
Brilliant Chimeraâs Eye
Yellow/Blue Socket: Unfortunately I havenât really put any value on gems of this socket colour. Use the Red gem only as it provides us with the most benefit.
Regarding Socket Bonuses: Many nowadays disregard socket bonuses to stack a particular stat. This is up to you as a player. In some cases socket bonuses are beneficial others are not. When it comes to ratings I would probably go more towards disregarding the socket bonuses. When you are dealing with raw stats such as +Intellect for example, I would suggest you try and accommodate and take the socket bonus. Itâs completely at your discretion.
Enchants:
As far as I can see currently, nothing has changed with our list of enchants. I will keep my eye on it and update accordingly for you.
Weapon:
Enchant Weapon – Heartsong OR
Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent
Head:
Arcanum of Hyjal
Shoulder:
Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone
Inscriptionists Should use
Felfire Inscription
Chest:
Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
Waist:
Ebonsteel Belt Buckle (Yes I know this is not technically an enchant, however you can place any gem stated above in this socket)
Legs:
Powerful Ghostly Spellthread
Tailors Should use
Sanctified Spellthread
Feet:
Enchant Boots – Mastery
Wrists: Typically you want
Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect however for those that cannot find it,
Enchant Bracer – Critical Strike will work fine.
Leatherworkers Should use
Draconic Embossment – Intellect
Hands: Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
Engineers can use
Synapse Springs if they choose
Ring (enchanters only) :
Enchant Ring – Intellect
Back:
Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect
Tailors May use either
Darkglow Embroidery OR
Lightweave Embroidery
Glyphs:
Prime Glyphs *New*: So, here we are with the new glyph overhaul and right off the bat we have very little choice in our glyph selection for the new Prime glyph slots. Glyph of Penance is a must have, as well as Glyph of Power Word: Shield. Neither of these has changed at all and is very important for us. I would recommend personally Glyph of Power Word: Barrier as your third. It’s a very useful emergency tool and the added healing benefit would synergize well with the other healers.
Major: My recommendations are…dun dun dun, Glyph of Smite, Glyph of Divine Accuracy and Glyph of Prayer of Mending. There isn’t much else I can see. Your Evangelism will benefit greatly from Glyph of Divine Accuracy as you will be guaranteed a hit. Glyph of Smite is for when you initiate with Holy Fire (you should be doing this as it now works with Atonement and Evangilism).
Minor: Recommended glyphs are Glyph of Fortitude and Glyph of Shadow Protection and the âfunâ Glyph of Levitate. Aside from Glyph of Levitate you could go with Glyph of Fade OR Glyph of Shackle Undead however there are only two truly beneficial minor glyphs and they are the recommended. This part remains the same as the original guide.
Cataclysm Note: Blizzard has made glyphs a one time use where we then have permanent access to it. Carry a Stack of Dust of Disappearance from any reagent vendor that will permit you to replace any glyph to cater to any encounter.
Consumables:
Food: Without a doubt, consume the delicious
Severed Sagefish Head
Flask: No question, drink a
Flask of the Draconic Mind with your Fish Head.
Comments on Healing:
After healing as Discipline since Cataclysm release, I have come to realize that healing has become a lot more enjoyable now that I have something to do in my “downtime”. Typically through trash or non-critical moments during a boss fight, I can help my teammates by adding a small amount of DPS while that damage is given to them as healing.
Some things that you will need to learn is:
-How to manage my Mana (it’s not like it was before people, use Heal).
-What heals to use and when (Start using Heal as filler).
-When is it appropriate to begin Holy Fire/Smite to stack Evangelism for Archangel.
-When to use your cooldowns Power Infusion, Pain Suppression, and Power Word: Barrier
Those are just a few things to consider when you begin healing as Discipline. I cannot educate you here as it is experience that teaches us in game. I can say though that you will no longer be standing there when the raid is not taking damage. If played correctly, you will have the means to add damage to the boss/trash while maintaining an adequate mana pool to ensure your assignments stay alive.
Special Talents and When to use them:
Power Infusion â This spell should be used on cool down. Macro it to your favorite caster and hit it as soon as its available. Targets that will benefit are Moonkin Druids, Warlocks, Shadow priests and yourself. Mages are iffy sometimes as there is an ability that I have yet to identify, that does not stack with this.
The following macro will send a /tell to the player it is cast on advising them that they are under its influence (feel free to change the chat message to whatever you like):
Quote://cast [help,nodead] Power Infusion
/run local t="target" if (UnitName(t)~=nil) then SendChatMessage("You are infused with Power! Unleash your magic upon the enemy!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName(t)) end
Pain Suppression â This spell is one of our emergency skills. Use it at your discretion, be careful when casting it on a tank. *If you know a tank will be taking big damage on the pull cast it PRIOR to him approaching so the threat reduction isnât applied*
The following macro will send a /tell to the player it is cast on advising them that they are under its influence (feel free to change the chat message to whatever you like):
Quote:/cast [help,nodead] Pain Suppression
/run local t="target" if (UnitName(t)~=nil) then SendChatMessage("The Light suppresses your pain!","WHISPER",nil,UnitName(t)) end
Power Word: Barrier – This ability is best used when your raid is grouped up to maximize its damage reduction/bonus healing (If following this guide, its glyphed for the bonus). It is essentially a group Pain Suppression with a relatively short cooldown. On rare fights where a single person is going to take extensive damage, it is acceptable to use this ability as long as you know it won’t be needed later on during an Enrage/Burn Phase.
Other Helpful Macros:
The following macro will send allow you to cast an offensive spell when targeting an enemy and a healing/beneficial spell when targeting an ally.
Quote: #showtooltip
/cast [harm] ‘offensive spell’; ‘heal/beneficial spell’
Add-Ons:
Get all the typical raid add-ons you are comfortable with. Blizzard has added a new Raid UI but I donât find it particularly useful as a healer. Other mods add certain utility that the existing UI doesnât allow. I prefer mods that do not alter the natural UI of the game, but the following are ones that I use or have used.
Omen Threat Meter â Not entirely necessary as threat isnât normally an issue, but its handy to know if one of the DPS is riding a tank and you can Pre-Shield them if they bump over the top of the tank.
BigWigs/Deadly Boss Mods â I use BigWigs personally so I cannot say anything about Deadly Boss Mods, but an updated version of Bigwigs is very useful for boss fights. It does not alter the default UI and contains warnings and timers for boss abilities as well as a Range tracker for fights where you should be standing alone. It also allows noise warnings and screen shake options for added warning.
EruâAdanâs recommended Addon:
SmartDebuff â This is the handy addon that I have been using since Burning crusade. It displays all the raid/party members in a small window and allows for easy dispels/disease cleanses. It has the ability for a player to set quick cast buttons for certain spells when you click on player boxes in the mod. For example you can set Renew as right mouse click, Dispel as shift + right mouse click, or Smite as Ctrl + Right Click, it also allows you to customize the Left mouse button and the middle mouse button if you have one. It is also possible to use this add on to track the Spell "Weakened Soul" debuff as you apply it to other raid members. It does not modify or alter the current in game UI and can be turned on/off with a simple command.
Beyond that, much in the way of add ons are based on player preference. There are lots of add-ons that give visual clues for aspect, range, mana, pet control, and stings. Look at what you tend to forget to do, and check the add-ons on curse.com and see what pops up!
I certainly hope you enjoyed. Again comments suggestions and discussion is welcome!