Disc Help

[Damerflinn]

So I'm leveling a new priest, too cheap to server change my other one, and I've decided now is the time to learn the Disc spec. As I do not like the direction of holy at the moment, and while I would never have admitted it before it is the stronger spec, I was just too bad at it for that to matter.

The issue is that the reason that I could never get a hang of it before is that it is much more complicated then holy. (At least in my opinion.) I've had issues with mana especially, as well as the whole smite healing thing. So I have a few questions, hopefully getting this stuff figured out now while I'm leveling will give me a chance to learn it all as I go.

1. Does anyone have a string import for Weak Auras to track rapture? I may get the add on that is being updated at the moment when it will work again, but if I can get a WA for it, I would prefer that as I use WA almost exclusively for tracking buffs and such.

2. One of the reasons I didn't like Disc before was that is is a much more proactive healing method then I am used to. But that is much more about my level of skill in an encounter then learning the class necessarily. However, I wonder what to do about damage that you know is coming, but not where it is going to come. For instance, an attack that will come at specific intervals that can be memorized, but on a random person. So you know the damage is coming, but not exactly where.

3. Is there a more detailed guide anywhere on playing Disc? I have read through the one here, and I'm a regular reader of several of the forums on EJ, but disc discussion usually goes right over my head because I don't know the basics, and it seems like all the talk now assumes a certain level of knowledge that I just don't have.

Any other suggestions for possible add ons (mostly if it's something not well known as I use most of the staple add ons for healing) reading material or anything else like that is welcome as well.

[KidCanuck]

For predictable damage on a single random target, just heal it up afterwards. I'd advise after the person gets hit, use penance to stack grace, then hit them with a GHeal.

As for more detail on playing disc, basic tank healing rotation is Shield (nearly) on CD (Rapture), penance if it's up, Heal / GHeal / Flash as damage dictates. If there's raid damage going out, keep mending on CD (for 5-mans etc, glyph mending and start it off on the tank). For heavy AoE, use PoH. You can pre-bubble a little bit with PoH since it procs Aegis, but that's usually not required. If the damage is predictable, use spirit shell and PoH to pre-bubble people. Barrier and Pain Supression are your 2 big CDs, it's best to throw them out before big damage spikes.

As for 'smite healing', Atonement is a reasonably sized smart heal. In periods of low damage, you can do some light DPS and keep the tank topped off. The rotation is (Glyph holy fire and possibly smite) HF, Smite x4 (until Holy Fire DoT has worn off), Penance (DPS), repeat. I find it helpful to write a macro for HF and Smite, priority targets (prefer target, focus, target of target).

Hope this was helpful.

[greyseraph]

Whereas holy focuses on healing up damage after it happens, disc's premise is preventing as much damage as possible before it happens. Experience with the fights and knowledge of when your shields and Spirit Shell are going to be most effective comes with time.

Your question #2 has always been a problem for disc priest. How to prevent damage to random targets? Blanketing the whole raid in DA shield from PoH is an option, because you will get the people targeted by the ability but you'll also waste much of your mana on those not taking the damage. This is a valid option however if its somewhat frequent damage, because DA will keep stacking if you can refresh it before it falls off. Track DA on raid frames and hit a group with a PoH before it falls off.

The other option for this dilemma is a more mana-efficient strategy, using more of a 'triage' style healing rather than trying to cover everyone. Like if you know random raid damage is coming up and you see a couple raid members might be low health, use a shield on them to cover the possibility they could be hit by more random damage. An example that comes to mind is the Stone Guards, lets say someone triggers a cobalt mine and takes significant damage. You can throw a quick shield on the 1-2 people who are low before they get hit by the jade guardian's AOE. Same goes for a fight like Feng. He fires spirit bolts at random targets, so if you see someone low you can throw a shield/penance/GH on them while the raid itself gets topped of from aoe healing from monk/shaman/pally.