Stat priority for a disc priest?

[MomsBasement]

I know that this is something that comes up a lot, but it seems the answer varies....

right now im going SP>INT>CRIT>Haste>Spirit>MP5>Stamina

and am i the only one who sometimes refuses to wear a piece of gear when it is probably better than what is currently equipped because it looks like crap?

Thanks! other tips would be appreciated also...there is so much to learn for a first timer like me. Like what to expect on raids(never been on one), if I should use a UI, etc. etc.

[Fallacy]

...there is so much to learn for a first timer like me. Like what to expect on raids(never been on one), if I should use a UI, etc. etc.

Expect your PW:S button finger to hurt!

But seriously... I am no authority on this stuff but here is what I'd say: Int is only weighted that high if you are having mana issues, if not then it would be more like:

SP>crit>haste>int>mp5>spirit

MP5 is better than spirit unless you also use the gear for a holy offspec because spirit only benefits us via MP5 and a pure MP5 stat is far more efficient. That being said, the only gems you'll likely need are runed cardinal rubies anyway, rapture creates such mana efficiency that most disc priests I know, myself included, can do most ICC fights without popping any mana regen CDs like squid.

[llDemonll]

that being said, dont go for pieces with mp5 or spirit on them. spirit is OK if you go for things like tier pieces, bracers off 25m rotface, etc, but generally you dont want either. only time you would choose is if you have a piece with the exact same stats, except one has spirit and the other has mp5

[harky]

It should be: SP > Haste > Crit > Int > MP5 > Spirit

That applies to all gear once you break about 28k mana buffed. Up until that point Int is pretty useful.

Haste > Crit starts a lot of debates for no reason. Crit contributes virtually nothing when spamming PW:S and contributes very little when not spamming PW:S. Haste on the other hand contributes absolutely nothing when spamming PW:S, but contributes over four times more when not spamming PW:S. Now you may be thinking that 'virtually nothing' is better than 'absolutely nothing' when doing your primary role as Discipline, but that isn't the case. The gain from normal amounts of Crit when spamming shields is infinitesimal. You need to gain crit in chunks of 500+ to notice a difference. While that does make it better for PW:S spam technically, it is not a difference you will ever see. It is the type of difference you will see when comparing a couple hundred fights to see a compare with and without the crit.

Basically Crit vs Haste doesn't matter on PW:S spam fights because neither makes any impact. However, when not spamming PW:S Haste is almost as good as SP and at certain points Haste is better than SP. It's not really a tough choice, you can rank Crit > Haste due to PW:S spam, which is silly because Spirit is probably better for PW:S spam than either, or you can rank Haste > Crit because you know PW:S spam isn't the only thing you should do.

[Oneoldfogie]

Haste on the other hand contributes absolutely nothing when spamming PW:S, but contributes over four times more when not spamming PW:S.

Nothing except the fact that it lowers your GCD, so you can spam faster?

SP > Haste > Crit > Int > MP5 > Spirit
However is correct, or atleast what I would go for.

[harky]

Haste does not lower your GCD when spamming PW:S beyond 152 haste. As 152 haste is easily obtainable even in Naxx 10 gear it is not worth mentioning to anyone... ever.

[Pokemaster]

SP>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>rest

[Turokuruvar]

Nothing except the fact that it lowers your GCD, so you can spam faster?

SP > Haste > Crit > Int > MP5 > Spirit
However is correct, or atleast what I would go for.

Except with Borrowed Time you reach a soft cap for shield spamming pretty easily (154 haste iirc?) That being said, I still like my haste.

SP > Crit > Int > Haste

Any mp5 or spirit is completely irrelevant and you'd only be taking it on an item because you can't get a version without it.

Personally, I'm trying to get as much of the haste + crit pieces as I can. Unfortunately there aren't a ton of them.

[Oneoldfogie]

Ah, my bad. I didn't know that. Thanks for enlightening me!!

[Crazhr]

Disc stat choice is very intuitive, if you lack mana and by that I mean cant spam in a normal fight with out running out of mama--> Int.

If you end the fight with more mana then you know what to do with--> sp+haste and maybe crit.

It all depends on what content you are doing, how you are geared and what your role is in the raid. Since you say you sometimes choose gear based on look and have never raide then im guessing you are doing going to do normal content if that is all you are doing then it does not matter a whole lot. Just remember if you do not have mana problems then sp is almost always going to be better then anything else since 1. shields scale realy well and 2. it work with every spell.

Haste is easily capped with buffs and crit does close to nothing for shields so sp is always the best option.

[Citaxis]

Spell power over absolutely everything else, and then either haste or crit, depending on your role and raid makeup (for 25-man, it would be haste). Go haste if you'll be casting for a significant amount of time beyond bubble-spam, go crit if you're the bubble/Penance monkey in 10-man and you don't have any shaman in the raid. 10% reduced physical damage taken from Inspiration is ridiculously helpful to keep on the tanks for at least 8 of the 12 fights in ICC, and it works pretty well for throughput with Disc's smaller, faster heals. Even with no shaman, go for haste if you're casting a significant amount.

Spirit is okay for Disc with 3/3 in Enlightenment, but if you're worrying about itemizing between spirit and Mp5, you're either too undergeared to be concerned between crit and haste, or you're overgeared to the point where it doesn't matter. Mana regen should almost always be lower priority than throughput stats, especially with cooldowns available, and should only be looked at more significantly if you use every cooldown available in a fight and still go OOM. Also note that Intellect is very helpful for regen for priests/druids, since it increases the amount of mana gained from Replenishment, and also the amount of mana regen gained from spirit.

[Bigslick]

SP > everything else. Gem Int/SP in yellow sockets with a worthwhile bonus till mana is covered by the Int on your gear (somewhere around the ToC gearing level, quickly attainable via emblems even for a new 80).

That bring you to how do you decide on gearing stats between Haste / Crit / MP5 / Spirit. You'll pick up some Spirit on your tier gear, which you'll want for 4pc T10. Other items you want to give preference to Haste and Crit, though sometimes you'll still pick up an item with MP5 or Spirit in place of one of those since its still an upgrade.

Haste vs Crit is arguable both ways, and you'll certainly want to pick up a good amount of each on gear. Haste is much more valuable in 10-man than in 25-man as you'll spend a lot less time spamming shields and more time casting direct heals without the benefit of borrowed time. Haste = consistent increase in throughput in this case where Crit is RNG. Also, remember that the 152 basic haste softcap assumes you're getting 8% from raid buffs, which might not be the case -- especially in a 10-man.

TL/DR: SP first. Socket Int/SP in yellow only as long as you need to to make your mana manageable (though you should look to swap throughput and regen trinkets to balance this best). Haste & Crit > Spirit & MP5, with the value of Haste vs Crit relative to one another being tempered by your playstyle, raid size, and available raid buffs. MP5 > Spirit, though not by so much that you wouldn't favor the spirit piece if you dual spec using the same item for shadow or holy.

[Libertor]

SP is definitely your #1 priority. After that, it really all depends on what your role is. If your running 6 healers on most fights with 2 Holy Paladins, then your probably not going to be able to do anything other than shield spam with pom and maybe renew. As most ppl will be taken care of by the other 3 healers faster than you can. Therefor, I would go more crit than haste, at least your getting more DA procs for more absorption. However, if your running 5 Healers or less or maybe just 1 Holy Pally, then you'll want to get a good amount of haste so that you can use PoH, b/c it becomes more efficient hitting 5+ targets rather than trying to get off 5 shields always. Have to be willing to use all your plays in the playbook imo...

So I basically go SP, Haste & Crit...

Try to get your hands on the haste/crit items, but your going to have to pry them from DPS...

[MomsBasement]

ok thanks guys, for the most part, i am sometimes OOM when i have to buff everyone at the beginning of the instance im in.

i dont really know what gemming is, but ill learn lol.

thanks all

[Revitalize]

Spellpower is top priority.
If you're mostly focused on shielding,a nd feel like you're going oom, there's NOTHING WRONG WITH SPIRIT ON GEAR.
Yes, I said it, nothing wrong.

Stop saying spirit is a waste, tons of times, specially when you're learning you wont have the availability of multiple rapture procs.

And if your main focus is shielding, haste wont do much since you'll already have like 400-500 haste to begin with, putting your flash heal already at 1.1s

Seriously, don't listen to some of these people when they say spirit is a waste of stats on gear.
Spirit isn't wasteful, and about as wasteful as having absurd amounts of haste, because its hardly useful in raids.
Itll hardly increase your flash heal time, and the majority of your spells will already be affected by borrowed time.
The longest casting spell you'll most likely ever cast is Prayer of Healing, and that's still a situational spell at most times.

Items like Lingering Illness, The crafted boots, Holiday's Grace, Frozen Bonespike, Ring of Maddening Whispers are all great items despite having spirit or regen on them.
Regen isn't bad. More regen gives you the ability to maximize your GCDs more efficiently.
I'm not saying gem for regen, I'm saying that allowing to get regen pieces allows you to maximize your spellpower more, such as use the Ember Skyflare Diamond and gem full SP.

[Turokuruvar]

Spirit IS a junk stat though.

With the amount of INT on ICC level gear, with smart use of CDs, Replenishment, and using predictable AoEs to multi proc Rapture, mana really should never be an issue. On the other hand, getting PoH down to a near 1s cast with BT IS very useful when you need it.

If you are ONLY shielding, you are doing it wrong.

[fabian]

Spellpower is top priority.
If you're mostly focused on shielding,a nd feel like you're going oom, there's NOTHING WRONG WITH SPIRIT ON GEAR.
Yes, I said it, nothing wrong.

Stop saying spirit is a waste, tons of times, specially when you're learning you wont have the availability of multiple rapture procs.

And if your main focus is shielding, haste wont do much since you'll already have like 400-500 haste to begin with, putting your flash heal already at 1.1s

Seriously, don't listen to some of these people when they say spirit is a waste of stats on gear.
Spirit isn't wasteful, and about as wasteful as having absurd amounts of haste, because its hardly useful in raids.
Itll hardly increase your flash heal time, and the majority of your spells will already be affected by borrowed time.
The longest casting spell you'll most likely ever cast is Prayer of Healing, and that's still a situational spell at most times.

The difference between Spi and Haste is that Haste has a use, albeit a situational one, while Spi has absolutely no use in ICC because you should not be going OOM.

[Revitalize]

Spirit IS a junk stat though.

With the amount of INT on ICC level gear, with smart use of CDs, Replenishment, and using predictable AoEs to multi proc Rapture, mana really should never be an issue. On the other hand, getting PoH down to a near 1s cast with BT IS very useful when you need it.

If you are ONLY shielding, you are doing it wrong.

No one's only shielding, but the majority of your job is to shield, don't deny it.
PoH is only useful for Sindragosa, Professor Putricide these days, rest I don't see myself casting it at all.

Using Emberskyflare diamond, and full sp, without the proper balance of spirit gear, you will go oom, theres no hiding it.
I can tell you in spirit gear at times I can still go oom, not because I'm terrible, but because I'm constantly shielding.
Making use of rapture doesn't make you a better player, that just limits your capability of when to shield and why.

Using spirit gear doesn't nerf your crit rating and you'll hardly notice the difference in haste.

[Kelesti]

PoH is only useful for Sindragosa, Professor Putricide these days, rest I don't see myself casting it at all.

Sindragosa, Putricide, Festergut, Lana'thel, Marrowgar (lol?), and Arthas during the Phase Transitions.

I can tell you in spirit gear at times I can still go oom, not because I'm terrible, but because I'm constantly shielding.

Then shield less, heal more. You'll have less problems with:

Making use of rapture doesn't make you a better player, that just limits your capability of when to shield and why.

I promise.

[Revitalize]

Why would I waste my time actually healing people when there's 4-5 other raid members to do that?
Mitigating damage is what a discipline priest is brought for.
It's your top priority to.
Shield the raid, throw out PoM, Penance the tank when needed.

There's those "situational" moments where youll have to precast prayer of healing at times, but other than that, its not much.

Im saying haste is just about as useless for disc as getting more mana regen is in terms of mitigating raid wide damage.