Discipline Priest Raiding Guide 5.2 Edition

[Mazi]

Halo is absolutely amazing on Heroic Tortos. It's great for both healing people up and capping their shields. We were primarily using it once everyone got the buff. Sample wipes, we were also overhealing it. I know this is as Holy, but it would be just as efficient for Disc over the other 2 options.

[HPLathus]

Amazingly useful info as always mazi!

Personally I love the graphic halo has, so that's exciting there's a fight where it has significant usage this tier.

[Yuma8244]

Again, I just believe that in the time it took you to run to a proper spot to use halo, you could have cast PoH twice and use some atonment + cascade.

Again, you're assuming woefully bad positioning and having to run 25 yards. In a good number of situations (if you're used to the talent and planning ahead for it) that will be more like 5-10 yards, movement time in which you can snap of an instant cast or maybe two. If you're taking more than 2 seconds to position yourself for it, then you probably aren't making the best usage of it. I'll readily admit it takes more effort than the fire-and-forget cascade, but it makes for a fun play style and better awareness of your surroundings.

[HPLathus]

Again, you're assuming woefully bad positioning and having to run 25 yards. In a good number of situations (if you're used to the talent and planning ahead for it) that will be more like 5-10 yards, movement time in which you can snap of an instant cast or maybe two. If you're taking more than 2 seconds to position yourself for it, then you probably aren't making the best usage of it. I'll readily admit it takes more effort than the fire-and-forget cascade, but it makes for a fun play style and better awareness of your surroundings.

My assumptions come mostly from the high amount of mobility in this tier, and the fact typically before a large AOE(granted it lines up right) spirit shell should be highest on your priority; getting it stacked on your raid.

I guess at this point it's a choice of play style, and to each their own; but thank you for the discussion your input is appreciated and valued


As Mazi said above, theres at least 1 fight now where halo is very very good, possibly two if you read her holy guide; section about Horridon talents. Obviously each boss is going to have "Optimal" talents, but I think it's too early to justify later tier bosses until a larger portion of the community has done them as well.



On a side note: I updated the guide: Stat section now has global cooldown math + why it's important.

[Noradin]

You will only have dead time on casts with 1.5s or less (base line) when exceeding 50% haste (= 1s GCD).

[Tyni]

I tested a Haste heavy gear reforge, and under Heroism something painful happens with Smite casts, it seems when Smite cast is under the 1s GCD, Smite queuing is impossible.

[Noradin]

Any specific settings, because I didn't see anything weird with smite casts under 1s when I tested this.

[HPLathus]

Once you break 50% haste (Including lust/PI/borrowed time) and any other temporary haste buffs. Your GCD will have problems below 1 second.


So if hes at 20% haste with raid buffs, then bloodlust goes off, and he uses PI, his casting is going to have downtime due to his cast time on smite being below 1 second, and his GCD is still on a 1 second timer.

[Noradin]

Sure, but thats just what you called "dead time" earlier and nothing new. In fact, I still remember when the GCD wasn't affected by haste at all.

[HPLathus]

Sure, but thats just what you called "dead time" earlier and nothing new. In fact, I still remember when the GCD wasn't affected by haste at all.

It means you aren't going to be able to chain cast smite/instant casts without there being a significant delay. It's actually a pretty big deal when it actually happens in haste builds.

[Amaxas]

First I would like to say amazing work, been keeping up with the post since day 1 and I applaud your dedication to helping others and providing constructive discussion.

The one thing I would like to see added (and this may have been brought up already in the thread) is consideration to the mana cost of HF in your Solace vs. Mindbender discussion. If it were as cut and dry as the base mana return values nobody in their right mind would take Solace. The gain comes from priests already using HF on CD for AA purposes or for smite healing purposes, the mana saved from the 0 cost of Solace is the reason to potentially take it over Mindbender. I haven't calculated the math but I think it drops the requirement of Solace from 6 to about 4 casts per minute in order to make it more efficient than Mindbender (assuming Mindbender is used every minute on CD) and at ~100k per cast it is a beautiful instant cast available for free every 10s :P.

[Deleted]

Hi,

I played mainly shadow, always with Disc has OS, until this patch,were i'm considering changing to disc.

I've read somewhere i can't recall, about Haste builds so i decided to try it (easier to "balance" my gear from shadow) and i absolutely love it. My healing has improved alot ... probably coz i love atonement healing style.

Any thoughts about haste builds? pros/cons?

Any feedback will be nice.

P.S. Sorry about my English

[HPLathus]

First I would like to say amazing work, been keeping up with the post since day 1 and I applaud your dedication to helping others and providing constructive discussion.

The one thing I would like to see added (and this may have been brought up already in the thread) is consideration to the mana cost of HF in your Solace vs. Mindbender discussion. If it were as cut and dry as the base mana return values nobody in their right mind would take Solace. The gain comes from priests already using HF on CD for AA purposes or for smite healing purposes, the mana saved from the 0 cost of Solace is the reason to potentially take it over Mindbender. I haven't calculated the math but I think it drops the requirement of Solace from 6 to about 4 casts per minute in order to make it more efficient than Mindbender (assuming Mindbender is used every minute on CD) and at ~100k per cast it is a beautiful instant cast available for free every 10s :P.

Thank you for your feedback I am glad it's a useful guide to you!


I have actually been meaning to get around to this, I raid tues-thurs so updating on those days is minimal. I am going to put more work into updating sections this weekend, specifically what you stated on the free mana cost of solace!

---------- Post added 2013-03-22 at 10:14 PM ----------

Hi,

I played mainly shadow, always with Disc has OS, until this patch,were i'm considering changing to disc.

I've read somewhere i can't recall, about Haste builds so i decided to try it (easier to "balance" my gear from shadow) and i absolutely love it. My healing has improved alot ... probably coz i love atonement healing style.

Any thoughts about haste builds? pros/cons?

Any feedback will be nice.

P.S. Sorry about my English

Only feedback is:

That it has a higher regeneration rate depending on how you play it. You might need to socket a little more spirit for better rapture returns.

Big important thing to note, is to not let your haste INCLUDING BUFFS(Which i was discussing with a poster a few posts up) that once you hit 50% haste in a raid setting, any more haste and your smite and ANY cast with 1.5 seconds base. Is going to have a delay between casts, this lines up with the rule of GCD not being able to drop below 1 second.

So basically, if you are approaching 20%-25% haste in a raid setting, be warned that during a bloodlust your smites are going to be delayed between each other (And instant casts like PW:Shield/Solace)

Penance won't recieve the benefit unless you go far past 50%, which is achievable if you PI during a bloodlust.




I don't really find haste to be a better stat then mastery or crit right now, but as the tier progresses and expansion for that matter, the tide could shift (And usually does)

---------- Post added 2013-03-22 at 10:15 PM ----------

Also note that RPPM trinkets scale with haste.

[Amaxas]

For the sake of conversation, what are your thoughts on Twist of Fate for Megaera? Uptime is reliable but the hold up is it being directly before Rampage. This would be absolutely glorious but unfortunately ToF doesn't benefit SS (unless that changed with the crit changes in 5.2, to my knowledge it did not), which you are certainly going to be using during Rampage. I like the talent and want to make use of it but I feel like the procs here are almost entirely wasted.

[HPLathus]

For the sake of conversation, what are your thoughts on Twist of Fate for Megaera? Uptime is reliable but the hold up is it being directly before Rampage. This would be absolutely glorious but unfortunately ToF doesn't benefit SS (unless that changed with the crit changes in 5.2, to my knowledge it did not), which you are certainly going to be using during Rampage. I like the talent and want to make use of it but I feel like the procs here are almost entirely wasted.

I haven't tested, so what I am about to say is merely speculation.

I personally wouldn't pick it, typically for me. Once the head is sub 20% I am stacking spirit shell and power word sheild on the raid to free up some time at the beginning of rampage for atonment.

I find power infusion to come off cooldown at perfect timings on that fight, specifically when it comes off cooldown just before the last rampage. Power infusion also saves me from possibly using a spirit flask on that fight(and most fights).


Although, I think it might be interesting to test out on magera. If you solace the head just at 20% you could stack spirit shell caps faster, padding the raid better.

My only concern with switching out of power infusion would be mana as I said before. Flasking int vs spirit can make or break some fights.

---------- Post added 2013-03-22 at 11:18 PM ----------

I don't recall reading that ToF didn't affect spirit shell. ToF in a SS would be affecting the PoH applying it, not SS directly though. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[HPLathus]

More reason to dispose the talent even more. Blizzard makes no sense.

[Kalmah]

Wait, they fixed PI so it stacks with blood lust now? When did that happen?

[Kelesti]

It does not stack. Never did and it never should.

It does stack, and has as of 5.2

It was actually supposed to stack since Mists launch given the rules of castable haste buffs, when it went self-only. Blizzard just kind of forgot about that, and felt no one cared because "yay talent system working as intended" (wat o.O).

It does stack. And as a DPS cooldown how many people are whining about "AMG I WANT PUSH BUTAN FOR BIG NUMBRS" it fills that role just fine. Well, maybe not the bigger numbers, but for a button that's a solid DPS/HPS increase, on demand, it works quite well in that regard.

[espoire]

It does not stack. Never did and it never should.

Wrong. Confirmed that it does stack myself. It's amazing and awesome.

[Mythricia]

I skimmed through quickly but couldn't see anyone else mention this; in your mana regen calculations, you don't mention that Solace costs no mana. This is also a mana save versus Holy Fire, which does cost mana. Over the course of a fight, it adds up. Sure, it's not technically regen, but it's a notable difference. So, the actual mana gain of the Solace talent, is Solace gain + Shadowfiend + lack of Holy Fire mana cost - if you want to compare to the other options fairly.