Bubbles, Power, Pain, and Archangels (Discipline Guide)
#1
So, here we are again. I have used a similar format as the original guide but modified it somewhat for current/upcoming Cataclysm features/changes. Ultimately none of this is set in stone and you are free to make your own choices. This is intended to be a guideline for new/existing priests. I certainly welcome questions and feedback as there are some views that I am currently unable to see.

It is a work in progress at the moment so some information may not be entirely accurate but I intend to update as Cataclysm is released and I make my way to Raiding level. Unfortunately I am unable to assist with Player versus Player information as I have not partaken in that aspect of the game with Eru'Adan that much (which may change).

Thank you and I hope you find this helpful.

-Eru'Adan
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#2
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 it’s 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 “Stomp”.

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 ask…”Why didn’t you take Soul Warding”, to that I would respond, “Because 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 death”.
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 “Healing” 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 don’t 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 abilities’ cooldowns are longer than that, so it doesn’t seem necessary for that. True it reduces cast time, but it hasn’t 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 wouldn’t recommend a Green gem. All the socket colours can be filled via Purple or Orange hybrid thems.

Jewelcrafter’s Only:

Pure Gems
Red Socket: Brilliant Chimera’s Eye
Yellow/Blue Socket: Unfortunately I haven’t 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. It’s 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 “fun” 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 – 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 – 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 isn’t 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 don’t find it particularly useful as a healer. Other mods add certain utility that the existing UI doesn’t 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 – Not entirely necessary as threat isn’t 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 – 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.

Eru’Adan’s recommended Addon:

SmartDebuff – 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!
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#3
I heard male humans are best at disco. <.<

But for srs...

Have you tried the RecountHealAndGuessedAbsorbs plugin for recount? I don't know much about it or if it is even useful, just wondering.

Also, I used to use SmartDebuff in BC for healing and thought it was great. Since then I've tried Grid+click2cast and HealBot and I still prefer SmartDebuff. However, I'm currently using VuhDo, which is quite nice, though I haven't optimized my healing setup yet. It's worth a look as another healing UI alternative.
[Image: IST_Noodle2_sm.jpg]
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#4
Noodlemortis Wrote:I heard male humans are best at disco. <.<

But for srs...

Have you tried the RecountHealAndGuessedAbsorbs plugin for recount? I don't know much about it or if it is even useful, just wondering.

Also, I used to use SmartDebuff in BC for healing and thought it was great. Since then I've tried Grid+click2cast and HealBot and I still prefer SmartDebuff. However, I'm currently using VuhDo, which is quite nice, though I haven't optimized my healing setup yet. It's worth a look as another healing UI alternative.

Regarding the RecountHealAndGuessedAbsorbs plugin...I have not used that and was unaware of its existence. Jabadue uses the combat log in game and it does a fantastic job when uploaded to world of logs. I will try and get it for this Friday and test it out with a review to follow.

Thanks for the comments, Noodlemortis!
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#5
I know we don't have very many Discipline priest prospects in the guild at the moment but I just wanted it to be known that I have updated some of the links in this guide. Also I will be reviewing some of the things said given the future of itemization as well as the value of some stats/gear choices.

Also, I am currently testing Recount's Guessed Absorb addon. Last time I looked there was a Discipline priest with over 3 million damage absorbed through Power Word: Shield and Divine Aegis. I am not sure if that just adds the amount a shield can absorb, or if it adds the amount of damage actually absorbed. It doesnt seem entirely unrealistic as the last raid report Jabadue had posted clocked me at almost 2.5 million damage absorbed. It will all depend on how liberal you use it.

Stay tuned!
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#6
Sweet, thanks for doing this post! I was just browsing to ask a question on disc priests and here it is already done.

I have one that just hit level 70, shes a dedicated healer for Eddge and I've been totally confused about what stats to bulk up on. No forum or website seem to agree on gear stats. Everything else about her right now seems pretty cookie cutter. I'll shift my focus from Spirt to Int then and go from there.

What about mana regen? should I just ignore that? (For gemming and gear; I'm pretty good with my mana but again, different sources disagree).
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#7
JettaNyx Wrote:Sweet, thanks for doing this post! I was just browsing to ask a question on disc priests and here it is already done.

I have one that just hit level 70, shes a dedicated healer for Eddge and I've been totally confused about what stats to bulk up on. No forum or website seem to agree on gear stats. Everything else about her right now seems pretty cookie cutter. I'll shift my focus from Spirt to Int then and go from there.

What about mana regen? should I just ignore that? (For gemming and gear; I'm pretty good with my mana but again, different sources disagree).

I went ahead and had a look at Jettanyx. I would agree with gemming for Intellect as that will provide you will a larger mana pool, increase your critical strike chance somewhat, as well as augment the mana regeneration you recieve from the Spirit on your gear. I am going to be evaluating gear choices for those that are dual speccing and adding that to this guide in the next week or so which, I hope, will help those further with item selection.

As a priest, Spirit is always a useful stat in any tree, in my opinion. Select gear with Spirit on it, instead of MP5. However, as you are still levelling, it wouldn't make a huge difference if you selected MP5 over Spirit. Once you reach level 80, you will need to determine which path you want to choose. Its usually a trade off...either Spirit or MP5, never both from what I have seen. I have only recently made the shift from MP5 to Spirit in the last couple months, and I have not noticed a major difference. Here is some reading that you might find enlightening on your path Mana Regen from Plusheal.com. This person has done a good job at explaining the different Mana regen scenarios.

Hope that helps!

-Eru'Adan
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#8
I re-gemmed for Int and just finished a dungeon with Eddge...I do see a difference. I think I was healing for more and hit my buttons less panicky (he pulls whole rooms).

So, thanks alot for that tip!
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#9
Just wanted to let you know that I have been closely watching the Cataclysm information for Discipline Priests. I am currently on the pre-patch PTR however have found it somewhat difficult to get into a group to actually put anything into practice for a basis of my thoughts. My goal is to have a short guide for you when the pre-patch comes out that will immediately benefit you.

Keep in mind that when the pre-patch does get implemented I will be revising this guide to the new changes and it will no-longer be available as it is after that time (I will however have a word document version for those that wish to keep a copy for whatever reasons). I expect that very little information will remain the same so please bear with me as Blizzard works the kinks out.

-Eru'Adan
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#10
Thanks for keeping an eye on it, i can't even get the ptr to install to play with it.
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#11
I have updated this guide. It is a work in progress but please have a look if you are interested and let me know if there is anything I haven't considered or added.
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#12
I have fully updated this reference guide for those who rely on it. I hope you enjoy it and dont be afraid to ask me any questions.
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