Disco Priest general raid healing strategies.

[PriestLuna]

So although I'm a good WoW player and an insanely good Resto Druid player, I must admit my first week of raid healing has been a bit awkward as a Disco priest. Turning to you guys for advice.

Don't get me wrong, I'm doing fine and people aren't dying, but I think I could be doing better. I've yet to venture into ICC as my gs is borderline acceptable to the gs = skill WoW society (possibly this weekend), so the only experience I can speak of on this toon is VoA and ToC.

My gameplan, in order
1. Weakened Soul on tank(s)
2. PoM on CD
3. PW:S raid/FH or GH spam tanks (depending on the fight, inc damage, etc.)
4. ???
5. Profit

I think that's about right, but it leaves me wanting more. Also, I understand my value is in mitigation, yet I still feel like damage has been bursty. This could be attributable to not having a good Tree with us, or having subpar raid heals. Not to mention all my raiding has been in PuGs. My average HPS is between 2200-2400 each pull, which seems on par with similar geared Discos. (yes I know HPS means nothing, just sayin), my top heals seem to always be coming from PoM, then it's either PW:S Glyph if I'm on raid heals or FH if I'm on tank heals.

1. It seems completely possible, and justifiable for one to spam shields the whole time on raid, while casting PoM everytime it's on CD
This upsets me, because I want to be more than a blanket and I want to use the arsenal of spells better than just PW:S & PoM. I understand it's fight specific, where tank/spank fights require tank healing opposed to Saph-like constant raid damage fights that need blankets. What about something like Jaraxxus, Lady Deathwhisper, or Rotface where damage can be anywhere so is it best to blanket all?

2. What do you do when say...you have shields on everyone you want, and the tanks are already constantly topped off?
I find this situation a lot. It's either...tanks are getting owned and I have to FH/Penance/PoM my nuts off, or tanks are barely taking any damage whatsoever so I feel worthless and might as well Smite spam. On my Druid I would roll more HoTs, on Disco I understand Renew is meh at best, so what do you do during peacetime? I suppose Hymn of Hope, but I hate HoH when I could do a similar action with 1 GCD in Shadowfiend rather than juice 8 seconds via HoH.

3. What do you do in a panic moment when loads are people are getting nailed?
Any panic moment really where at least 5+ people are getting/just got wrecked. Do you FH spam them like crazy? Shield spam them and let other heals top them off? Which leads to my next point...

4. Divine Hymn/Shadowfiend/Hymn of Hope
I'm honestly impressed with Divine Hymn's throughput. Do you make it a point to use this each fight? Or is it just w/e.
When do you cast Shadowfiend? 50% mana? 75% mana? 25% mana?
Hymn of Hope...same as Shadowfiend, when? As I said above, I hate HoH, and would prefer to never use it.

Sorry for the wall-o-text, just want to get off on the right foot here by taking any and all raid healing suggestions before I grow into bad habits. Any non-trolling advice is appreciated, thanks.

-Lunä

[Revitalize]

I use hymn of hope in conjunction with shadowfiend.
Amazing mana return.

However, I see nothing with any of the thoughts you have about disc healing.
Everything was spot on.

[PriestLuna]

I use hymn of hope in conjunction with shadowfiend.
Amazing mana return.

However, I see nothing with any of the thoughts you have about disc healing.
Everything was spot on.

Hmmm...maybe I need to do some more raiding then to find out if I'm truly satisfied with this toon and its playstyle. Thanks.

[Frmercury]

couple o' modifiers

Toss Renew on the tank(s) if you're really bored and Pre Shielding will be completely wasted
Divine Hymn if $#!^ really hits the fan, macro it to Inner Focus
As disc you can PW:S, Shadowfiend, Hymn of Hope to full mana. Use when you're at or near oom
Get a feel for the damage models of the fights and be smart about pre-shielding. Get 10+ up before bonestorm etc.

[Sunrath]

I ran into the same issues/thoughts when I started raiding on mine.

There are a few fights where there's general downtime, I usually toss dots/MB/Holy Fire. Mostly cause I feel that it helps the raid over all more than just standing there.

With the proper gear, you won't need to worry about mana regen too much. I've done the first two wings of ICC with undergeared healers, and still not had mana problems/wipes/deaths.

The biggest piece of advice I can give, Get a healing addon that will enable you to show threat. I use vuhdo, as it's options for costomizing are amazing. I have my bars light up red every time someone has aggro, even for a second. For all boss fights this is amazing, as it allows to put a PW:S on them right as/before they take damage. (ie, deathwispers shadowbolts. She targets someone random, i shield, the shield usually eats the whole shadow bolt.)

other than that,

Everything was spot on.

[kronpas]

1. It seems completely possible, and justifiable for one to spam shields the whole time on raid, while casting PoM everytime it's on CD
Depend on fights. I found myself spamming shield quite alot on Festergut for example. IMO shield spamming ~ rejuv/renew blanketing, so dont focus on that much if your raid already has a decent druid/renew holy priest.

2. What do you do when say...you have shields on everyone you want, and the tanks are already constantly topped off?
Do nothing. Really, its an early sign your raid having too many healers.

3. What do you do in a panic moment when loads are people are getting nailed?
Any panic moment really where at least 5+ people are getting/just got wrecked.

Its a disc's job predicting these moments to preshield them all before that happens. If its truly RNG related, shield spam then penance/FH.

4. Divine Hymn/Shadowfiend/Hymn of Hope


I use DH as a heal CD for heavy AoE situation, or whenever more than 10 players got hit at once so its used almost all fights. It heals ALOT, plus nice buff for your fellow healers' healing done on raid.

Shadowfiend casted at 30% mana in conjunction with Hymn of Hope & blood elf racial. Usually the pet brings me back to ~85-90% mana pool, which should lasts me through the rest of the fight without any mana problem.

IMO, disc priest stuffs aint complicated. The biggest difference between a good and bad one is that players in a raid with good disc priest wont find themselves in 'almost-dead' situations as often as in with a so-so one.

[Beshar]

The main thing that seperates a good disc priest from the rest is the knowledge of the fight.
I prefer Grid for Boss debuffs on the raid. I check every debuffs on wowwiki and add it to Grid.

For me the best thing to react on debuffs.

Always have a look at Bossmods. For example, 25 sec before bonestorm I start shield spamming the hole raid. This is REALLY helpful in heroic. Or stop shielding 15 sec before sindragosas air phase. when she casts frost tombs you should instantly shield the targets. people will survive even when they stand to close to eachother.

you have to think about the diffrent encounters before the raid to perfectly help your raid.

but to maximize your healing, you find yourself 95% of the time shielding/pom on cd.
I hate this to, but on icc25, specially heroic, it will help your raid extremly.

PS: Sorry for my bad english...

[harky]

1. It seems completely possible, and justifiable for one to spam shields the whole time on raid, while casting PoM everytime it's on CD
This upsets me, because I want to be more than a blanket and I want to use the arsenal of spells better than just PW:S & PoM. I understand it's fight specific, where tank/spank fights require tank healing opposed to Saph-like constant raid damage fights that need blankets. What about something like Jaraxxus, Lady Deathwhisper, or Rotface where damage can be anywhere so is it best to blanket all?[/q]

You'll find a lot of people that claim that Disc is just there to raid shield and it's why Disc is brought. In most fights this is not true. Look at ICC for a moment and analyze the fight mechanics. The vast majority of Disc Priests are raid shielding, including some in very good guilds. That does not mean what they are doing is the correct thing to do. The GCD usage compared to actual damage prevention in ICC is very low. The best raid shielding fight in the game is Lich King and raid shielding is still only preferred for 2/3rds of the fight, not the entire fight. The next best fight is Festergut and Blood Queen at about half the fight, then Putricide and a few others at ~1/3rd of the fight.

2. What do you do when say...you have shields on everyone you want, and the tanks are already constantly topped off?
I find this situation a lot. It's either...tanks are getting owned and I have to FH/Penance/PoM my nuts off, or tanks are barely taking any damage whatsoever so I feel worthless and might as well Smite spam. On my Druid I would roll more HoTs, on Disco I understand Renew is meh at best, so what do you do during peacetime? I suppose Hymn of Hope, but I hate HoH when I could do a similar action with 1 GCD in Shadowfiend rather than juice 8 seconds via HoH.[/q[

What you're describing is a situation with too many healers. Discuss a Shadow off-spec with your raid leader. Keep in mind that most fights in ICC, even hard mode 25 man only take 5 healers. Most in 10 man only take 2. It's not only an issue with Disc and is a symptom of poor raid leadership. Good guilds do not waste spots on superfluous healers.

[q]3. What do you do in a panic moment when loads are people are getting nailed?
Any panic moment really where at least 5+ people are getting/just got wrecked. Do you FH spam them like crazy? Shield spam them and let other heals top them off? Which leads to my next point...[/q]

Same group? PoH. What's the situation exactly? The question is too vague. In general shielding them and letting other healers help is optimal. Raid shielding is almost never the answer, but shielding people who are in danger is almost always a good idea. Never buy into anyone who tells you that you shouldn't use your shields, it's essentially an instant cast Greater Heal. Use them liberally on people who are in danger, but don't become complacent and use them on people simply because they took damage. They're only worthwhile on people who will be taking high damage, not on people who have already taken it.

[q]4. Divine Hymn/Shadowfiend/Hymn of Hope
I'm honestly impressed with Divine Hymn's throughput. Do you make it a point to use this each fight? Or is it just w/e.
When do you cast Shadowfiend? 50% mana? 75% mana? 25% mana?
Hymn of Hope...same as Shadowfiend, when? As I said above, I hate HoH, and would prefer to never use it.

You should never use Shadowfiend as soon as you hit 65% mana, unless you are saving it for DPS purposes. Divine Hymn is good and needs to be planned. Flight phase on Blood Queen, just after Festergut's exhale, things of that nature. As far as Hymn of Hope, you should not be underestimating it. Become close friends with your local Holy Paladin and make it very clear to him that he should ask for you to use Hymn when he's at low mana and needs to use Divine Plea. Just tell him to say, 'Hymn.' When he does, hit Hymn. This will add a multiplier to his Plea gains and you'll have a friend for life. As Disc you won't have many mana problems, but your raid will. Other good combinations: When another Priest needs to use Fiend, just before Mana Tide, just before Innervate. Don't think of it as the Priest version of Evocation. Think of it as an AOE version of Innervate. Get your healers vocal and let them dictate when you hymn. Let the encounter dictate when you use Divine Hymn and let your mana needs, or DPS needs dictate Shadowfiend.