New 80 Disc Priest, tips on healing 5mans?

[Herbert]

Hi,

I recently hit 80 (now 81) on my disc priest which I did LFD/LFG all the way from 15-80 with minimal quests in between. I was Disc spec since level 10 and haven't looked back.

Pre-Cataclysm dungeons, I basically dps'd, bubbled and randomly threw out heals (since dps'ing heals as well with talents). Which was fun and pretty easy (sadly I was usually #2-3 on the dps meter).

I ran my first Cataclysm dungeon yesterday, Throne of Tides, and I noticed that it's much more healing intensive. My gear is mostly Deathsilk and random quest gear from Cataclysm... but trinkets/neck are from Halls of Lightning or worse.

Is this a big change in Cataclysm? Are healers (such as Disc) no longer supposed to smite heal as much as they did in vanilla/bc/wrath?

Thanks

[Sakamae]

The cata dungeons are VERY different in terms of mob design and damage output as compared to WotLK dungeons. At low gear levels, which you are at, they will be a lot more challenging to you. Getting your stat values up as quickly as you can will help you a lot. From what I remember, Atonement didn't work as well at low gear levels. I think you will find a traditional disc spec easier until you get better gear. Your stats take a nose dive every time you level, so scaling is a big issue until you hit 85.

Atonement Disc has it's time and place to shine, but I don't think it's viable until your intellect values are higher, and even then it's largely situational in raiding anything more than LFR. Since Atonement was an addition in Cata, disc healers didn't "smite heal" before this xpac.

[ramennoodleking]

My advice would to be go holy since the god in the very heavens above knows they will demand you become disc as soon as shit starts to get serious.

[Ethas]

Flash Heal is only thing you need to heal 5 mans on level 80. Even Cataclysm ones.

[Deleted]

You'll have an easier time keeping the tank alive as disc. If dps die tell them to L2p.

[babylon]

smiting and holy fireing can be fun thing but it also can be somewhat 'mind tunneling'.

you have a lot of other spells, much of them better in terms of healing output then atonement is. try using them.

1. shield on tank always. can use addon for raptures tracking, ingelas raptures? i think is the most popular one.
2. penance - is your very fast way to react when (for example) tank suddenly gets low. if dmg is high use it on cd.
3. pom - keep it bouncing, make sure you can see it on your frames
4. greater heal - amazing and very powerful single-target spell, dont be scared to use it
5. flash heal - emergency spell (unless you never struggle on mana, then use it more, i think pre-85 can almost spam it)
6. binding heal - always when you and someone else takes dmg, heals you and your target, very handy
7. poh - POH - (glyphed!) is an amazing tool. you can start casting it earlier to have da stacked on group when you expect big aoe damage on the raid.

i think that for the start this should be enough. notice, that i didnt mention renew there. seen disc priest with top healing spell renew in lfr, dk outhealed him, so sad.

expect another shock once you ding 85 and before you get some decent gear, healing becomes funny for a moment then.
i very recommend, maybe once you reach lvl 85 and get some gear, to drop atonement spec for a week or two and pick standard sos spec - just to learn to use all tools and realy on them. you can pick atonement back again after that

[Deleted]

To be fair, Attonement is actually very effective healing as long as it hits the target you want it to hit. It also double dips from the 15% buff in 5 mans meaning you get first 15% increased dmg then 15% increased healing on top of that.

Holy Fire is one of your most efficient heals and smite is a great filler.


That said, at your gear level, Attonement just won't be enough to heal throug dungeons. That doesn't mean you should completely discard it however.
The one thing to learn here is that you look at attonement like another tool in your toolbox. you need to be able to "read" the situation and use whichever heal is the most appropriate at that time and you need to do this over and over agaun until it just flows naturally and isn't even a thing.

Some people say you should learn to play disc without attonement before picking it up. Might not be a bad idea, but it shouldn't really be needed.

[Vereesa]

My advice would to be go holy since the god in the very heavens above knows they will demand you become disc as soon as shit starts to get serious.

You shouldn't touch Holy until you're level 85 with a bunch of spirit, even less so at lower levels with even less spirit.

[ramennoodleking]

You shouldn't touch Holy until you're level 85 with a bunch of spirit, even less so at lower levels with even less spirit.

Totally missed my point

[Herbert]

Thanks for all the tips. I managed to get some gear from 5 mans (almost full blues now) and it makes such a difference. As for roation, I do use all my spells according to the situation (I don't only try to heal via Atonement).

Also, it makes a huge difference when the tank is geared appropriately and the DPS don't stand in stuff or pull aggro.

I was thinking of using the PowerAuras addon, are there any specific spells that I should have it notify me of? I guess Holy Fire, Penance?

[Deleted]

U can set power aura's to show u everything u want.

I set my PowerAura's to show me the Evangelism stacks, my major CD's the smaller CD's (pom/penance) duration of buff's/cd's
Procs thats usefull to know, power torrent (to sync with Fiend/AA enz).

Set it to how u want and what kind of info u want to know during a dungeon/fight.

[Madam]

A few links to help you out:

Ingela's Rapture, simple bar to show Rapture procs, can move bar easily and can play sound if you like. http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/ingelasrapture

Derevka's Power Auras, He has an aura for every CD, to start at the least use Archangel and Evangelism aura, truly a must have to manage your stacks and wing timer. http://talesofapriest.com/discipline-power-auras/ Note that these Auras can be moved/re-sized on your UI, worth the time invested.

Helpful Disc Macro's http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...or-New-Raiders

[Herbert]

Wow nice, I will try those imports when I get home from work.

My only healing addon I use is Healbot and now Power Auras. Rest are auctionator/bagnon/dbm/skada/tidyplates/MikScrollingBattleText/npcscan/atlasloot/selljunk.

Any others I should try out?

[Madam]

Wow nice, I will try those imports when I get home from work.

My only healing addon I use is Healbot and now Power Auras. Rest are auctionator/bagnon/dbm/skada/tidyplates/MikScrollingBattleText/npcscan/atlasloot/selljunk.

Any others I should try out?

Bartender, really great for hiding key-binds that you don't click, re-size CD's, move bags, toolbar etc... http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/bartender4

(Not sure if tidyplates does this sort of thing, have never tried it)

[Rfx]

Sorry if im just recycling information that has already been posted, I haven't slept for 30+ hours.
- Keep your shield on the tank to keep your rapture on CD as much as possible, PW:S isn't soulbound to tanks so take advantage of it on the rest of your party when you can.
- Penance for moderate damage
- Flash heal is pretty much going to be your best friend as well as the ocasional Gheal
- Don't forget about [HEAL], especially for 5mans it is quite useful for the mana it costs.

Smite healing will also provide you with good sustain + the healing buff from AA.

[Roxie]

Best way to heal in 5mans is just keep bubbles are the whole group throughout the dungeon and if you need to (Not recommended) Keep Renew up on the tank just to help if you ever have a really squishy tank

[babylon]

Best way to heal in 5mans is just keep bubbles are the whole group throughout the dungeon and if you need to (Not recommended) Keep Renew up on the tank just to help if you ever have a really squishy tank

gl with keeping bubbles constantly on whole group at early 85 with early-85-mana.

[Azutael]

I am leveling my own disc priest right now, and all I did when I came to cata normals was to stack/reforge into mastery, then I threw shield on tank. Prayer of mending now and then.
And if it was group dmg I just used prayer of healing.
Using heal for light dmg, greater heal after a shield on low hp targets. Penance I kinda just use to get grace stacked to 3 asap...

And I speced out of atonement and archangel, because i found it to be useless after 70.

ofc it will get harder closer to 85, but so far it's been a snoozefest. Can always swap to holy if disc doesn't do the job then anyway.


Oh and is "ingela's rapture" broken or something, it doesn't seem to be working for me

[Ethas]

gl with keeping bubbles constantly on whole group at early 85 with early-85-mana.

Title and OP says level 80 not 85.

[Veyne]

You shouldn't touch Holy until you're level 85 with a bunch of spirit, even less so at lower levels with even less spirit.

I felt healing was a lot easier as Holy leveling my Priest to 85. Then again, I've played my Priest for almost 6 years now and about half of that, before I discovered the joys of Shadow, I was healing as Holy. So I guess I'm just a lot more used to it than Disc.