Thread: Disc PvP Help?

  1. #1

    Disc PvP Help?

    Basically I've been a shadow priest all of my wow life but now want to go Arena due to my guild slowly but surely falling apart. My best friend is a rogue and we basically want to start a 2v2 team together as we've heard that they are a pretty good combination with great synergy.

    Basically what should my key bindings be set to, whats our aim against certain combinations (Warrior & Pally, Druid and Pally, etc) and what is my aim? Should I try and keep my rogue alive or should I concentrate on myself?

    What spells should I be using etc, etc.

    Thanks heaps in advance.

  2. #2

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Disc/Rogue is a very powerful setup but requires some effort from the priest. The rogue has to care about damage and CC, you have to care about damage, CC, healing and regeneration.

    Be sure to choose the right spec. There are tons of good ideas and guidelines, i'd recommend arenajunkies.com.

    Concerning gear: Resilience comes first. Although rogues are a popular target as well, most teams (especially 2 DPS setups) will try to bring you down as soon as possible. The more the better, aim for 900-1000 resilience in the long run.

    Most 2on2 arena matches are over quickly, but that doesn't mean you should neglect mana regeneration. Do not go for Satin gear but choose Mooncloth instead. 3 Mooncloth / 2 Satin is ok for the beginning in order to get the 50 resilience set bonus twice, but you should upgrade to 4 Mooncloth for the 2 second shorter CD on Power Word: Shield.

    Be sure to get 4-5% hit rating from gear. Ring, Cloak and Off-Hand/Belt will be enough, and try to get some spell penetration as well. Gem for stamina/resilience/spell power. When pondering whether to enchant stamina or spell power, choose spell power, your job is to heal after all.

    Gameplay:

    Healing - Power Word: Shield, Penance, Flash Heal, Renew, Pain Suppression. If hastened after casting a shield, you can try a Greater Heal, but only if you're sure you won't be interrupted. Getting locked out of your healing spells usually means you're going to lose the match. Prepare to adapt to switch healing targets quickly, most teams will open on the rogue but then focus on you. Don't use Pain Suppression to late - 70%-50%. If you cast it at 20%, your target will die anyway.

    Damage - be sure to have Mind Blast, Holy Fire and your DoTs available. Assist your partner in periods of burst damage whenever possible, especially if the other team's healer has just been CCed. DoT stealth classes whenever possible.

    Utility - prepare to Mass Dispell immunities like ice block or a paladin's bubble VERY quickly. Futher use normal dispell to cleanse enemies of their buffs in order to weaken their attacks and lower their HP. Against teams with Death Knights, try keeping Disease Cleansing up whenever possible, it'll greatly lower the incoming damage.

    Mana burn enemy healers whenever possible. Try to burn mana-using DPS with low mana pools (ret paladins) as well, but healers should always come first. That's what you primarily need the hit rating for. Try to use Power Infusion and possibly the Wintergrasp-Haste-Trinket together with mana burn for extremly fast burning.

    Fear on every cooldown. Preferably healers, but everything else a well. Try to communicate with your partner when to leave enemies alone in order to have fear not break on damage.

    Try to drink whenever possible, but take into account that it'll take 4 seconds before it starts working. Pillars and obstacles are your friends there. Use Hymn of Hope when you can spare 4-5 seconds and Shadowfiend if you're sure it won't be insta-gibbed or feared away.

    Use Shackle Undead on Death Knight minions, especially the gargoyle. Will save you a lot of trouble. Gargoyles will have to/can be re-shackled once or twice.

    Your key bindings should be set to whatever you feel comfortable with.

    Concerning enemy setups - you'll have to see what works for your team. You'll have a hard time against rogue/mage and good hunter/healer teams due to very much CC. Try to stay clear of warriors, their fear immunity and whirlwind + hamstring/shout makes them very dangerous. Try to save your trinket for the worst forms of CC (blind). You can get yourself out of sheep with Shadow Word: Death if you time it correctly, but it'll take some training.

    Playing a discipline priest can be a very rewarding experience, but it's very challenging as well. You'll often find yourself in situations where you have to choose between 4 or 5 actions which should all be done at the same time, but you'll only have one GCD available. :P

  3. #3

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Disc/Rogue is a terrible setup in regards to the fact it is completely countered by every team in the upper brackets. Literally. Once you pass 2000, 85% of your games will leave you feeling hopeless. No matter how well you play or how terribly the other team plays, there's absolutely no way to win unless they make some huge, inexcusable mistake. Like disconnecting. Or chasing you behind a pillar while their team mate is feared in the opposite end of the arena.

    If you just want to do it for fun, it's fine, but if you're serious and want to go for high ratings.. Uh, reroll away from Priest.


    Warrior + Paladin is pretty much an auto-loss if they play correctly. Sap the Paladin, completely blow up the Warrior. As soon as your Rogue opens on it, run in and Holy Fire -> Mind Blast -> Shadow Word: Death -> Smite if there's time left over. If the Warrior goes defensive and pops Shield Wall, you just lost the match, leave and hope you don't lose many points. The same goes for not being able to get a kill on the Warrior at the beginning. The Warrior will completely destroy you and your Rogue, you won't have time to Mana Burn enough to matter, and the Paladin will destroy you in mana because the damage output of your Rogue isn't comparable to the Warrior's.

    Druid + Retadin, same thing, CC the Retadin and blow up the Druid. If you don't blow it up early, you pretty much auto-lose.

    Other comps you have absolutely no chance against:
    DK + Paladin
    DK + Druid
    Warrior + Druid

    Have fun. If you run into any of these teams, your only chance of winning is blowing one of them up at the start. Which normally isn't going to happen, period.

    Side note, Mana Burning Druids and Paladins is a waste of time, you'll go OOM before they do. Don't waste your mana.

  4. #4

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Quote Originally Posted by zsuper
    Disc/Rogue is a terrible setup in regards to the fact it is completely countered by every team in the upper brackets.
    This made me lol irl.

    Side note, Mana Burning Druids and Paladins is a waste of time, you'll go OOM before they do. Don't waste your mana.
    Druids, agreed. Paladins, only agree if it's a prot healer. Traditional pally healers are still a prime target.



    Lethal, Thunderhorn-US
    (US #1 2-night guild WoD)
    Tues/Thurs 7-11pm CT
    EN 7/7 Heroic

  5. #5

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    The problem isn't the Paladin, it's the DPS they're mixed with.

    Try to tank a DK or Warrior sporting 400 resilience, a 2350 weapon, and assorted PvE gear.

    No amount of peels are enough to keep you alive, let alone give you time to do anything other than spam heals on yourself.

  6. #6

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Here are some good macros for Arena.

    I use this for when I see a DK gargoyle

    #showtooltip Shackle Undead
    /target Ebon Gargoyle
    /cast Shackle Undead
    /targetlasttarget



    Incase someone vanishes, FDs, shadowmelds, etc... use this to put your mana fiend on aggressive and use shadowcrawl, since ATM, it doesn't always auto cast.

    #showtooltip Shadowfiend
    /cast [harm,target=targettarget] Shadowfiend; Shadowfiend
    /petaggressive
    /cast shadowcrawl


    I also macro Inner Focus and Divine Hymn. First reply is great advice.

  7. #7

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    first post was very helpful. go by most of that advice.

    My add-ins, YOUR GEAR MATTERS. after you have had a little practice with what you have, remember that you don't suck if you lose a bunch of games when you have 400 resil. You aren't getting the time to make decisions.

    Anyone with Top-end gear is difficult for rogue-priest just because you cant afford to stop protecting. But first just worry about learning to communicate with your partner and LEARN TO DISPELL. talented, it doesn't cost that much and you have to figure that on the defensive side its never a bad thing to dispell something like a dot or a disease, the trick comes with ret pallies, they put up something thatll pop up on your raid frames every attack, it can be a waste of time to bother dispelling some of their attacks.

    Use fear properly and pop shadowfiend for damage if the rogue is locking down and you have 60% or less mana, itll be worth it.

    Mana burn is still a dealbreaker. But dont stress over it, I'll mana burn if we're both over 90% health and I don't see any huge incoming damage, but you cant risk anyone dying before anything else.

    I think 24stam over 19sp if your an enchanter, but thats just me.

  8. #8

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Thanks heaps guys! Just one more thing what add ons should I be using?


  9. #9

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    I use gladis and powerauras classic for seeing when innerfire drops, and when I got Weakened soul. Guess there are some more useful ones though.

  10. #10

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Quote Originally Posted by Shockk

    Mana burn enemy healers whenever possible. Try to burn mana-using DPS with low mana pools (ret paladins) as well, but healers should always come first.
    Is this still true after they changed mana burn to be a percent (13) of the target's mana, instead of a fixed amount? Possibly mana burning high mana pool dps such as mages or whatever might be good now?

  11. #11

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Quote Originally Posted by frankster
    Is this still true after they changed mana burn to be a percent (13) of the target's mana, instead of a fixed amount? Possibly mana burning high mana pool dps such as mages or whatever might be good now?
    No. Never cast Mana Burn on anything other than Priests or Paladins who are already low on mana.
    The only exception is if you're in a 1v1 against a Mage, otherwise any comp a Mage will run is capable of killing you through Pain Suppression in 3-4 seconds flat, so you won't have time to Mana Burn.

  12. #12

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Quote Originally Posted by zsuper
    No. Never cast Mana Burn on anything other than Priests or Paladins who are already low on mana.
    The only exception is if you're in a 1v1 against a Mage, otherwise any comp a Mage will run is capable of killing you through Pain Suppression in 3-4 seconds flat, so you won't have time to Mana Burn.
    Using mana burn on non-healers is situational at best, correct. Don't take it as a general rule to burn everything with a blue bar; however, don't ignore your possibilities either. Although they are rare, I have won matches because ret paladins / moonkins etc had no mana after a few burns. Still, healing your team should always be a priority over burning enemies.

  13. #13

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    So i have a ? about MS. How do you other priests handle being stringed, MS'd, then twirled on? I've been trying to shield, LOS or trinket, and desperate heal myself but that only works once.

  14. #14

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Quote Originally Posted by Zanduby
    So i have a ? about MS. How do you other priests handle being stringed, MS'd, then twirled on? I've been trying to shield, LOS or trinket, and desperate heal myself but that only works once.
    Rely on your partner to take pressure off you (in case of warrior/x - CC the x). Be shielded every second possible, shield prevents some of the warrior's bonus damage to to bleed effects not contributing. Even though mostly ineffective, try to fear the warrior as soon as bladestorm ends - everything that interrupts his playing counts. Macro Penance+Power Infusion for very fast heals. Cast pain suppression on yourself the moment it's clear you're being focused.

    But then again, MS + snare + melee is every priest's hard counter. Pray your partner can help you, pray some of your heals come through. That's all you can do.

  15. #15

    Re: Disc PvP Help?

    Quote Originally Posted by zsuper
    No. Never cast Mana Burn on anything other than Priests or Paladins who are already low on mana.
    This is great advice. If they are at a high amount of mana, you will just drain yourself trying to mana burn them. When they start getting low, drain them quick, but be careful not to kill your mana in the process.

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