Is Disc playable in 5-mans? (With bad groups)

[Nokturn]

^ this

CoW is underutilized, and together with a PW:S over a penance to take advantage of Grace, it takes a long time for your tank to take any damage, letting you focus on the rest of the group.

If you're not doing well in dungeons as disc, it probably isn't for you. Take the right talents, gear for haste, don't forget to drink before pulls...do these things right, then practice, and you will find yourself critting for 2 mil in some situations with a single SM.

I prefer disc over holy in higher level keys because of survivability. A pull that would normally 1shot me in holy(leaping cats at beginning of DHT) are completely manageable as disc. If you're trying to atonement heal M+ as disc, you're doing it wrong; you should be geared for haste, not mastery, and only use penance/LW when the group is all low. that combined with a barrier is a great "oh shit" button. and use shield on cooldown!

[anon5123]

CoW is underutilized

because it sucks

It has a slower cast time while not healing any more than Shadowmend, and it also removes the AoE heal you get from Halo.

[Yunzi]

because it sucks

It has a slower cast time while not healing any more than Shadowmend, and it also removes the AoE heal you get from Halo.

It sucks? Really? So when the group is high health (pre-pull, early-pull, "downtime") you have two options - DPS and Clarity of Will. If your group is pushing the content it's a bad idea to try to squeeze in Disc's minor DPS - instead just Clarity of Will, preparing the group very well when the damage starts rolling in.

Even in difficult content there are lulls in every pull - points where you've caught up and there's nothing to heal. That's a great moment for Clarity of Will. Then when the lull ends the group will be in much better shape than if you spent those GCDs doing minor damage.

I second the mention of getting rid of Mastery - it's a really bad stat for every content in the game besides raids. Have a separate gear set for M+.

[DarthMuffin]

I'll piggyback on this thread a bit. I haven't healed since WotLK so I'm completely out of the loop. Yesterday I dusted off a level 61 priest alt that had been sitting in Outland for a while and healed a few dungeons. I was a bit shocked when I realised that I had to spam shadow mend non stop to keep the tank from dying. I put up PW:S whenever it was off cooldown but I simply could not afford DPSing at all. And even with the shadow mend spam there were a few close calls. This was with almost full heirlooms so I'm afraid to imagine what it would have been like if I had quest greens.

I know that healing in leveling dungeons is in no way indicative of "real" endgame healing, but this thread is leaving me a bit concerned since OP's experience seems to be remarkably similar to mine.

[Krbl]

Shadow mend with grace and twist of fate talented.

This. Also consider taking Schism as it provides better burst healing than contrition.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5X mit Tapatalk

[Deleted]

Pre-pull, early-pull, and downtime with Clarity of Will - then it's relatively easy when things go south - everyone has a damage cushion. CoW remains the most underrated spell for M+.

Downtime for disc in dungeons? When does that happen? You can always dps.

@OP, I don't know if I'd choose my spec based on the assumption I'll be playing with bad people that need others to make up for their standing in shit. Rather accept that some groups simply don't deserve to be carried.

[Arainie]

It sucks? Really? So when the group is high health (pre-pull, early-pull, "downtime") you have two options - DPS and Clarity of Will. If your group is pushing the content it's a bad idea to try to squeeze in Disc's minor DPS - instead just Clarity of Will, preparing the group very well when the damage starts rolling in.

Even in difficult content there are lulls in every pull - points where you've caught up and there's nothing to heal. That's a great moment for Clarity of Will. Then when the lull ends the group will be in much better shape than if you spent those GCDs doing minor damage.

I second the mention of getting rid of Mastery - it's a really bad stat for every content in the game besides raids. Have a separate gear set for M+.

This may sound boring and everything but if you're not going to be providing discs "minor" DPS (of which you can easily do 300k on a dungeon boss with adequate gear) you really aren't doing anything better than Holy in dungeon content. Now, you may favour discs playstyle and everything but at the end of the day the only thing Disc does better in dungeons than Holy is single target DPS. People may argue that Shadow Mend heals like a truck, but you also keep forgetting that Holy hides a ton of it's healing behind Mastery, especially with T19 4pc and 50+ traits if you'd ever be struggling with ST healing (which you won't be, not even in 20's).

I'm not saying Disc is bad, it certainly has it's place in M+ as well, but quite frankly I don't see any reason picking it over Holy unless you struggle with boss damage at high Tyrannical M+. There are a few niche moments I can argue for disc having better utility than Holy, for example 16-17 or higher Tyrannical DHT/BRH last bosses due to (near) one-shot mechanics, but with proper CD usage it's completely manageable as Holy as well.

To the OP:
It's perfectly playable. I'd personally never pick it over Holy in 5-mans but if you really like the playstyle stick with it and you'll learn to cope with most situations.

[Popokolara]

This may sound boring and everything but if you're not going to be providing discs "minor" DPS

You mean intentionally ignore an important part of the class's mechanic's. I mean why would you even put that sentence there?

[Arainie]

You mean intentionally ignore an important part of the class's mechanic's. I mean why would you even put that sentence there?

Because the person I quoted claimed it was a bad idea to squeeze out that "minor" DPS?

[Popokolara]

Because the person I quoted claimed it was a bad idea to squeeze out that "minor" DPS?

My bad i completely missed the context.

[apojaja]

Disc on ptr feels even stronger then the live version, in m+ at least. The fact that you can take both sc and grace in 7.2.5, actually make sc an excellent emergency aoe healing tool. I know most of you are skeptical about sc, i was too, but frankly give it a try when the patch goes live.

I also love the fact that i can take Ptw without giving up grace. With the smite buff, ptw and the smite belt, i can sustain 500k+ st dps on most dungeon boss fight without feeling like i am putting my grp in danger. When shit hit the fans i can always Pwr -> lw/penance -> sc -> continue dps.

All in all, i feel disc will definitly be strong enough for any 5 man content that other healers are capable of.

[Raiz]

It sucks? Really? So when the group is high health (pre-pull, early-pull, "downtime") you have two options - DPS and Clarity of Will. If your group is pushing the content it's a bad idea to try to squeeze in Disc's minor DPS - instead just Clarity of Will, preparing the group very well when the damage starts rolling in.

CoW is only good at 1 thing : Stalling. It's not bad, but it's not great either. I'd rather put barrier / shield / shadowmend > penance than use a spell that require you to stand still and doesn't apply atonement.
I've really tried to find something useful about this spell but I failed. I'd rather use the other two talent than this "useless" spell.

[Deleted]

Hmm i do not think it is useless. well i wish it would be faster or apply atonement, but i think it is useful for M+, or at least more useful than the other 2.
Discipline is only my 2nd specc, i was doing a M+15 this week (necrotic,teeming,tyrannical) and used CoW (i just feel the other 2 are really lackluster in m+) and it was totally fine. like you do not have to use it all the time to make it feel validated, just use it when you feel like it fits. i used it prepull 2-3 times or when tank was using cds (and therefore would not drop much in health).
I was still doing damage, i was just using less smite.
I take devine star for lower M+, because of the aoe damage, but i use CoW for 13+, not because it is good, but more useful (with MY playstyle !!) than the other 2 options.

i am not trying to convince people to use Cow, but i just want to say that i do not think it is useless.