Is Disc broken?

[Deleted]

Actually it is kind of broken, but unlikely you'll have reached any of the things that aren't working. Artifact traits that are not spell specific damage increases do not currently benefit healing. This includes the artifact 'level' from the number of points you put in it (0.5% damage per stack) and sins of the many. In a raiding situation that's going to be a pretty hefty cut to potential healing, unsure how it was balanced though. PS this is why you might have noticed you're healing for a much lower % of your damage done than you might expect. I was typically getting less than 40% of damage done as healing, even though base atonement without ANY mastery is 45%.

In 5mans I've found the main issue is that once mobs are dead the healing stops, which for most groups means you're entering the next pack without being fully topped, eventually this just outpaces the healing I can do, especially if there are a couple of 'tricky' pulls that I'm already struggling with.
You're also losing out on a fair amount of SWP damage as mobs die before the full duration and you probably aren't being afforded the setup time to apply it to multiple mobs each time you engage a new pack.

I'm sure it's more than doable as disc, but I think the group would need to progress through the dungeon differently than if they had any other healer.
Personally I've found holy to just be far more comfortable, especially in pugs when you really can't predict what's going to happen next.

[sponge5307]

I think disc is in a werid spot ATM. I mean if I want to HoTs my tanks party memeber I can easily play a druid in a much much easier fashion. I think blizzard complicated a lot of things. In order for disc to heal they do damage and it heals the party (so why be a druid). They also don't have a lot of spells for the "Oh shit" monents other than a few. Just look a holy pally there are tons of heals I can chose depends on the sutation. Druid also have some nice group and big heals to use.

Disc might be ok in raids but I can see disc being very difficult in 5 mans.

[Therougetitan]

They should just add a buff where disc gets 20% more healing while in 5-man dungeons. It may seem ridiculous but there's never been a spec quite like how disc is designed in Legion.

[Deleted]

It's really not so bad for 5mans, a lot of the disc power is stuck behind the later artifact traits too (not to say other healing specs don't get power later too ofc). Once you pick up power of the dark side, borrowed time and have all of the spell specific damage buffs you might notice it going a lot smoother, specifically power of the dark side can do a lot to help top up the group.
Also don't underestimate smite. In a lot of circumstances you may even wish to prioritise smite over penance, especially against single targets (large trash mobs, bosses). It's not just for tank damage, the absorb you apply to the target reduces all damage they do which can really make a difference; just remember it doesn't help with environment damage.

[Deleted]

I dont know if you can define it "broken", i mean.

Consider different point of views

1) People started playing again after the last expansion
2) People was "overgearing" dungeons in last expansion (at least, who played Heroic on PUG for example) so it was a "no brain delete dungeon for daily.exe" way to play
3) In general, not all PUG players knows exactly what are they doing, or how the dungeon plays out

So, excluding some other major point... yes, probably RDruid\RShaman can handle those handicaps better than Discipline Priest, but the point is: Healing is recovering from bad plays\bad players or keep up people that are playing not perfectly, but at least conscientiously, the game?

IMHO is the second one, which is the point of playing a game, doing it well - but i can understand why some players prefers RD\RS.

Bad play = Wipe is a concept that i understand and i like (it's a challenge) but can be a challenge also be a bit overtuned in healing and by that recovering from bad plays.

Just points of view.

[Deleted]

i would prefer to get rid of the whole atonement mechanic through "buffs" i need to spread.
Simply healing by doing damage and maybe a 6 sec CD shield.

[Deleted]

If disc would heal the same as "pure" healers and do damage why would anyone take any other healing class to the raid? I think it's fair this way.

Following thay logic it seems obvious a disc priest can strugle at those 'oh no' moments. They simply don't have the same output (or different output).

[Helelos]

I healed mythic dungeons at 803. It wasn't that hard and I didn't use mouse-over macros. The secret???? It was a guild group.

Anything is hard when you have uncoordinated pugs playing poorly. Alas, a resto druid can carry a bad group and disc cannot.

[Swizzington]

I enjoy disc. It's just by the end of the dungeon I fee like I've had to put so much more effort in, when I could just be sitting back mindlessly as holy. So if I'm spamming dungeons I would probably only do 25% of them as disc, otherwise its too much work.

Disc seems okay to me, other than the lack of a huge oh shit button like divine hymn or tranq. I find if I just stubbornly refuse to give into the temptation to use shadow mend and just keep on nuking like fuck, people end up alive.

[Deleted]

If disc would heal the same as "pure" healers and do damage why would anyone take any other healing class to the raid? I think it's fair this way.

Why didn't people just bring mistweavers and discs during MoP then? why did people play other classes when mw and disc did damage while also healing?

The point is that certain healing speccs has certain utilities, one of discs current utilities just happens to be damage, doesnt mean they should be healing less than other classes.

[Supliftz]

If disc would heal the same as "pure" healers and do damage why would anyone take any other healing class to the raid? I think it's fair this way.

Silly argument. Lets ignore the fact that other healers offer things that disc priest can't do.

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In 5mans I've found the main issue is that once mobs are dead the healing stops, which for most groups means you're entering the next pack without being fully topped, eventually this just outpaces the healing I can do, especially if there are a couple of 'tricky' pulls that I'm already struggling with.
You're also losing out on a fair amount of SWP damage as mobs die before the full duration and you probably aren't being afforded the setup time to apply it to multiple mobs each time you engage a new pack.

How does the healing "stop"? Do you simply not have shadow mend on your bars?

Considering the strength on the spell, I don't see how you can have this issue.

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Following thay logic it seems obvious a disc priest can strugle at those 'oh no' moments. They simply don't have the same output (or different output).

What type of "oh no" moments are you even talking about? Making blanket statements are a bit stupid.

I don't really understand how a class can be bad in oh shit situations when it has strong cooldowns on a short cooldown, and twist of fate.

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I enjoy disc. It's just by the end of the dungeon I fee like I've had to put so much more effort in, when I could just be sitting back mindlessly as holy. So if I'm spamming dungeons I would probably only do 25% of them as disc, otherwise its too much work.

Disc seems okay to me, other than the lack of a huge oh shit button like divine hymn or tranq. I find if I just stubbornly refuse to give into the temptation to use shadow mend and just keep on nuking like fuck, people end up alive.

lol disc does have an oh shit button like tranq/divine hymn. It's called mindbender and light's wrath?

it's not really the fault of the class when you misuse those spells

[PeopleReady]

Wasn't there a developer interview with Sloot where blizzard stated Disc was meant to be weaker than the other healers in 5man content?

[Deleted]

Wasn't there a developer interview with Sloot where blizzard stated Disc was meant to be weaker than the other healers in 5man content?

sloot said they were, blizz did not.

[Arainie]

I've been Disc since Ulduar but feeling more or less forced to go holy for the beginning of this expansion at least. Hell I even do more damage as holy pushing 150-300k trash DPS in heroics at ilvl 838 just spamming Holy Nova while still keeping the group topped up. Naturally this is due to overgearing, but I genuinely feel like Discs damage is far too low for atonement to actually have a proper place in Mythic+ dungeons and that you'll simply end up spamming shadow mend and weaving in shields and penance in between.

[amythist]

i would prefer to get rid of the whole atonement mechanic through "buffs" i need to spread.
Simply healing by doing damage and maybe a 6 sec CD shield.

they did that in MoP, it was broken because smart healing was too good, you would bring along a Disc priest that would basically just be another dps that would also be keeping the raid topped up and maybe tossing out shields from time to time, that's why the broke the legs of smart healing thus crippling atonement Disc, and Fistweaving Monks in WoD

[Supliftz]

I've been Disc since Ulduar but feeling more or less forced to go holy for the beginning of this expansion at least. Hell I even do more damage as holy pushing 150-300k trash DPS in heroics at ilvl 838 just spamming Holy Nova while still keeping the group topped up. Naturally this is due to overgearing, but I genuinely feel like Discs damage is far too low for atonement to actually have a proper place in Mythic+ dungeons and that you'll simply end up spamming shadow mend and weaving in shields and penance in between.

Really isn't even different than most healers. People have this idea that disc priest is a 100% dps healer, but that really isn't the case. You're a healer first, which means when the group is taking damage, you start spamming shadow mend.

This is a new thing for "dps healers" look at the history of disc in CMs or mistweaver back in MoP.

[oplawlz]

You're a healer first, which means when the group is taking damage, you start spamming shadow mend.

This is blatantly incorrect. You're doing everything wrong.

[Totaltotemic]

This is blatantly incorrect. You're doing everything wrong.

Good contribution to the discussion. This is the highest quality of analysis and input I have ever seen. You have helped countless players with this elaborate insight.

[CptEgo]

Good contribution to the discussion. This is the highest quality of analysis and input I have ever seen. You have helped countless players with this elaborate insight.

It is terrible advice though. He really is doing everything wrong.

[Arainie]

Really isn't even different than most healers. People have this idea that disc priest is a 100% dps healer, but that really isn't the case. You're a healer first, which means when the group is taking damage, you start spamming shadow mend.

This is a new thing for "dps healers" look at the history of disc in CMs or mistweaver back in MoP.

That's not the thing though, I never claimed they were all about doing dps. However, it was certainly not the design that you'd basically "ignore" half of your toolkit and spam one spell with fillers in the first place, not if you read the Legion design ideas behind disc priests and compare how they work in raids and less stressful content. Shadow mend spam is IMO purely bad design and I for one do not want to play the class that way when holy both feels and seems more capable of dealing with the same content while actually being rather fun at the same time.