How the hell do you heal as a disc priest?

[kramjam]

So priest is the one class i always wanted but never really leveled up. Well finally i am at it (currently level 82) and i playing mainly as disc. Problem is i really confused on how to actually heal as one, the only healer ive ever played is shaman which i know inside and out. Ive read noxxic and icey veins but im still a bit confused. It seems as though all you really do is use PWS, Penance, and Smite spam. Greater heal and heal have a real long cast time, renew seems to be more for holy then disc. All my passive point to me basically using PWS, spamming smite then using penance when the tank or dps get low. Is this right?

[Ssith]

just spam penance and holy fire, use smite as filler*. top meters, and laugh at DPS who can't beat the healer. PW:S the tank if you REALLY want to. CoH when things get all AoE-y.

*only applies to LFR and below.

and yes, you might as well take renew off your bars, it's not worth the mana to cast. sometimes a gheal is worth it, most of the time just penance them.

[Deleted]

Inner Focus + Prayer of Mending is always nice. For AOE try get Spirit Shell off a bit before it hits as you'll have a very hard time casting CoH as Disc :P

[Venaliter]

Inner Focus + Prayer of Mending is always nice. For AOE try get Spirit Shell off a bit before it hits as you'll have a very hard time casting CoH as Disc :P

Inner Focus doesnt affect PRoM in any way. Do you perhaps mean PoH?

[Zolvolt]

Heres a quick run down.

For atonement penance>holyfire>smite. Atonement is mostly a filler or used to keep archangel up.
You need to be good a predicting incoming damage as a disc priest. For large aoe damage an archangel+power infusion+spirit shell macro is going to be really nice. You hit that and then prayer of healing to stack spirit shell on the raid for the incoming damage. You'll absorb a lot. You also want to macro inner focus into your prayer of healing spell.
Using Prayer of Mending on cooldown is a good practice.
Using Penance on cooldown is a good practice. (If one person doesn't need a lot of healing, hitting it on the boss is a good practice)
Renew is extremely situational and almost is never used.
Greaterheal / flash heal are mostly used on tanks or people just taking high damage.
PW:S use is the most obscure thing because "perfect" use of PW:s is one of those things that is really difficult to do and it depends on how comfortable your mana feels. Keeping it on tanks all the time is pretty much a must as a disc priest. Using it after that to negate incoming damage (much like spirit shell) is good practice when spirit shell is on cooldown. Throwing out those raid PW:S depends on your mana management though. So do what feels comfortable and if your mana is good try pushing some more PW:S out.

If you use Power word solace talent, then use it on cooldown. Don't forget you have shadow fiend!
If you're using mindbender, don't wait too long before using it!

Level 90 talent use has mostly come down to this -Cascade is probably the best for those with low gear, low spirit etc. Mostly tier 14 players or entry level tier 15 players. Halo is costly but does a lot of healing and in tier 15 is often times a very good choice spell. Proper use of it does require your mana to be in a good place though. Divine star use is great when it hits the entire raid ofcourse, is friendly to your mana pool and is just great for stacked up fights.. Use good judgement on which fights to use which spell.

[Heathy]

smite and solace and penance on enemies , pw:shield the tank, when you know lots of damage is coming, use spirit shell and PoH, borrowed time from shield works well for this, at least you can speed up your Pohs like that. as for the lvl 90 talent zolvolt said it best. don't forget to pom aswell.

i failed miserably raiding as disc, although to be fair i hadn't done so for at least 2 years so, when i go holy i do just fine, disc on the other hand in a raid setting REALLY must get full use out of spirit shell, it will be your nr.1 output. or it should be.

when i did it for me it was smite/solace/penance till 5 stacks use arcangel, then pom shield spirit shell/ poh/shield/poh/shield/poh .. thats the way i did large damage and single target. my trouble came from not using spirit shell as often as i should have. or just not popping it at the right time, it really must be pre-emptive so you get a nice buffer on everyone before the damage comes in.

[espoire]

Penance, Solace, Smite, Penance, Smite, Smite

Repeat

[Anastacy]

Penance, Solace, Smite, Penance, Smite, Smite

Repeat

Was wondering when this would pop up.

[Deleted]

Atonement isn't the only type of healing that disci priest can do (and I really hate it).
But you still need to cast at least 5x Holy Fire for Evangelism, pop up Archangel/Power Infusion/Inner Focus and Spirit Shell PoH OR Archangel and Cascade.

But since you're talking about low lvls (82), just one-shot bossed with 1 penance in LFD.

[holydoc]

Atonement isn't the only type of healing that disci priest can do (and I really hate it).
But you still need to cast at least 5x Holy Fire for Evangelism, pop up Archangel/Power Infusion/Inner Focus and Spirit Shell PoH OR Archangel and Cascade.

But since you're talking about low lvls (82), just one-shot bossed with 1 penance in LFD.

Either I dont get what this guy is saying or it is really poorly written.
5x holy fire for evan?
if you didnt know evan procs from penance and smite also.

OT: healing as disc is really simple when you get used to it.
penance, holy fire, and smite the boss
PWS tanks and dps that are taking dmg for rapture procs
penance on cooldown
cascade when necessary
spirit shell with IF and archangel with haste from PWS
mind bender on cooldown
when you are geared, pick up the binding heal glyph. its really useful in many of the fights in TOT

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I just tried healing as Disc. It's much more fun as it due to attonement. Kind of hard to do healing roles when I get bored a lot during Healing But Disc...seems pretty nice.

[Deleted]

Either I dont get what this guy is saying or it is really poorly written.
5x holy fire for evan?
if you didnt know evan procs from penance and smite also.

Beucase you HAVE to use penance offensively, right?

[Anastacy]

Beucase you HAVE to use penance offensively, right?

I would assume the comment about using more than HF for Evangelism would have more to do with the fact it takes considerably longer to build up Evangelism if you only use HF than anything else.

[Deleted]

Beucase you HAVE to use penance offensively, right?

Why would you use penance defensively? 90% overheal.

[Deleted]

I would assume the comment about using more than HF for Evangelism would have more to do with the fact it takes considerably longer to build up Evangelism if you only use HF than anything else.

It takes 40 seconds to build up Evangelism with only Holy Fire. And I didn't say that I don't use Smite if I really need to build up Evangelism really fast, just that it's not my primary heal.

Why would you use penance defensively? 90% overheal.

Not if you time it right, it's life saver most of the time.
Or do you really need to use it even if it's not needed?

[Anastacy]

It takes 40 seconds to build up Evangelism with only Holy Fire. And I didn't say that I don't use Smite if I really need to build up Evangelism really fast, just that it's not my primary heal.


Not if you time it right, it's life saver most of the time.
Or do you really need to use it even if it's not needed?

10 seconds is considerably longer, especially considering that you delay your Archangel usage as well. And offensive Penance (also being a very nice smart heal) speeds up the Evangelism stacking process.

No one said it HAD to be used offensively; it was just implied that Evangelism stacking is faster if you do.

[Deleted]

10 seconds is considerably longer, especially considering that you delay your Archangel usage as well. And offensive Penance (also being a very nice smart heal) speeds up the Evangelism stacking process.

No one said it HAD to be used offensively; it was just implied that Evangelism stacking is faster if you do.

4x Holy Fire, 1x Smite, 30 seconds.

Because Atonement heals only for 90% of the damage done, offensive Penance is:
1st tick 90%
2nd tick 90%
3rd tick 90%.
And defensive Penance is:
1st tick 100%
2nd tick 110%
3rd tick 120%
because of Grace.

Do you know that Evangelism stacks not only increase damage of offensive Penance, but also healing of defensive Penance? Small bug.
Why would you want to cripple your healing?

[Deleted]

3 stakcs of grace from defensive penance is pretty damn nice

[Thelxi]

At low levels whenever a dps takes damage just throw a renew on them, whenever the tank gets a bit low shield and renew him. Smite and penance mobs whenever you feel like it. Should be more than enough in heirlooms.

[Abstieg]

You'll want to make sure you pop Rapture as close to its ICD as possible.

Also, I tend to use Mindbender whenever I'm below 80% mana, since the cooldown is so short. Sometimes I'll pop it as soon as I dip below 90% in the beginning of a fight. Do try to time it with any stacking mechanics.