Disc Priest Assessment

[Maggoo]

Hi, I wasn't sure if there was a dedicated thread for this and didn't want to post in other peoples threads and shift the focus from their priest problems, so here we go:

I am worried about my raids disc priest (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...enshand/simple). I feel his healing is awful, and perhaps too atonement heavy? I'm not sure, it just seems like he's not putting out the healing he should, be it ST or AE.

Here are our logs: http://www.worldoflogs.com/guilds/22...alendar/09-13/ (Note he switched to a druid for the 25th, 1st, and 2nd days of the months)

[Skandulous]

should use spirit shell way more than he does. Divine star is better than Cascade for disc and he uses power word shield way to much also any fight with add he should use twist of fate not divine insight and if it has no adds for good TOF use then go with Power infusion. His gear looks ok and he should atonement heal alot more than he does and use spirit shell on big damage.

TLDR smite your butt off and uses spirit shell on big damage and stop spamming PWS

[Maggoo]

Hmm, I agree on the talent choice suggestions. Maybe I'm in the "Cata" mindset of atonement healing, but when you have 3-5 people below 50% do you actually continue to atonement spam? Some death logs have people being healed solely by atonement...

[Skandulous]

Hmm, I agree on the talent choice suggestions. Maybe I'm in the "Cata" mindset of atonement healing, but when you have 3-5 people below 50% do you actually continue to atonement spam? Some death logs have people being healed solely by atonement...

3-5 ppl below 50% sounds like a problem or it was big damage which should have been spirit shelled beforehand. 10 man 3 healers the Disc priest should be smiting and atonement healing for absorbs and damage on boss and using spirit shell when big damage is incoming im 25 man so it might be a lil different but i crush the meters and rank on most fights as disc atonement healing

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...m/healingDone/

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Skinnyd/simple

[Maggoo]

Well, that case was spoils, but we're trying to 2 heal everything now, and his thoroughput is not sufficient to do that, so we have to make him go shadow or improve.

[Dierdre]

Divine star is better than Cascade for disc

Not always, no. It depends on the fight: DS > Cascade only for stacked groups.

and he uses power word shield way to much

If you can spare the mana, PWS will seldom go to waste.

[Heal Adinne]

I will compare your Sha log from the 19th with mine: /reports/rt-tiq7x790o0g0ki97/details/5/?s=4188&e=4621
Similar duration. I was hitting around 100k hps with 50% overhealing, your priest was around 60k with 40% overhealing.

First biggest difference is the number of Penance casts, which is our highest priority spell and immense throughput. One should have around 18 ticks per minute, so 126 ticks on a 7 minute fight, preferably most offensively. Heavens had 70, I had 123. He had way too many Smites instead, 83, to my 25. Smites are really just filler, indeed he should be using it less, but more importantly he should be using Penance more.

His number of PW:S is actually fine, comparable to mine.

He should have had more Spirit Shells in preparation of Impending Pride, or whatever the name of his 1 min thing is. Every one of those should be prepared with at least one SS PoH per group, and followed by a Divine Star (which is a much better choice of lvl 90 talent for that fight, as everyone is tightly stacked.)

He seems to have spent a fair bit of time casting PoHs on that fight, and they were 70% overheal, I had next to none.

He had no uses of Inner Focus, not good.
He did pretty good with PoM, casting it on the right group for starters.

Talentwise indeed ToF is almost mandatory on most fights, especially a fight like Sha where the last 30% is brutal, and where dpsing the reflections can give you ridiculous uptime.

I think the biggest difference in our numbers on that fight is because of Divine Star, Penance and ToF.

He did fairly well on the Protectors though I think he would have benefited from Divine Star and ToF there as well. Though again way too few Penances. He really needs to be pressing that button on CD.

Okay one thing I noticed, he occasionally clips his Penances, missing the third tick. That's a considerable loss. He needs to get into the habit of delaying the cast after a Penance till he's "heard" the third tick. Trying to hit something just after Penance will make it fire on the GCD, which happens milliseconds before the 3rd tick goes out.

[Noradin]

Penance sometimes just breaks before all ticks go off due to lag, be careful not to cast AA right before it for example.

[prestilence]

I came here to laugh at the forum topic.. And btw if your disc priest is "bad" he should be not only kicked from your raids, but off his computer for life, his keyboard must be upside down or something. In PvE disc is retarded OP, and in PvP you almost need a disc priest for a cheesable comp. I got a 496 (tyrannical priest-full) in a normal siege "clear" and was the top healer when going against a 530 resto druid and a 545 holy paly. If he stated correctly and knows the fights well enough to know when a specific amount of players in your raid is going to take damage, you can literally snipe heals before they even need to be healed. "Swelling pride, inc 5 secs, barricade, spirit shell prayer of healing spam.. and the raid MIGHT go to 90-95% hp. So a popped tranquility will heal for maybe 10% of its actual effectiveness. 2 ticks and raids already topped off. I find it incredibly easy to snipe heals from any other healer as disc.

Please be more respectful of other posters: consider this a warning.

~ Yva

[Maggoo]

Now for Inner Focus, I can easily just say "USE IT DAMN YOU", but what is ideal usage for Inner Focus? What spells?

[Sillychan]

Preferably in combination with AA + PoH. I generally use it in combination with SS on the tank group (+ AA + PoH for application).

Sometimes if the fight requires a lot of tank heavy healing (ie Shamans, Garrosh), I'll use it with a hastened great heal form PW: S.

As a penance clipper myself, is that I turned the sound up quite a bit to listen for it. I was constantly (like 50% of the time or more) clipping it. Breaking the habit early will help a lot.

[Deleted]

the "most" healing it will produce would be in conjunction with PoH (either regular or a Spirit Shell'd version) but the "correct" usage would be whatever the situation calls for.

if the tank is sitting at low HP with a big strike incoming, then a Inner Focus'd FH/GH will be best, but on something like Thok where its more a PoH spam then a single past could be close to 1.5mill of healing/absorbs

[Shockeye]

This seems as good a place to ask as any as some 'best practices' are being discussed. What is the best way to manage Grace? Do you tend to try and keep it up generally, or stack it in a hurry before damage comes out, and which spell(s) do you use to build it up?

[Sillychan]

I weave grace up onto tanks as needed via penance.

I try not to worry about it, but during fights where tanks will be taking HUGE cleaves (Garrosh), it's best to use every other Penance to stack grace on the tank.

Otherwise, it's really sort of a clunky mechanic. I try not to really worry about it. It's (imho) best used as a way to keep tanks up when no one else is really taking a lot of damage and you want to smite away.

[Shockeye]

Yeah, for something called Grace I do find it awkward to use as it's another "break" in the flow of Atonement healing or AoE (PoH/PoM, DS/Halo etc) healing.

[Sillychan]

Generally, if grace is NEEDED, it's already NEEDED that you stack some penance on the tank anyways, if that makes sense? As in, he's taking such huge hits that a penance will save his life (and stack grace--score?)

[Rangoo]

Hey,

Inner Focus is a great disc's skill, your disc should use it almost on CD.
I prefer to use it with PoH (prayer of Healing).
When I know we will have a good incoming damage I use archangel + IF + SS + PoH on tanks group and in the second group.
archangel + 25% heal, inner focus my next heal will crit + SS to stack shield instead of heal and PoH to heal.

I can use PoH 3 or 4 times until SS goes out.

Divine star and PoM should help to keep players alive on great damage fase.

If 3 or 4 people are below 50% I use my PWS and spam my ofensive penance, HF and smite.
If I'm one of those guys I heal myself, and then HF and smite, to smart heal.

[Skandulous]

Not always, no. It depends on the fight: DS > Cascade only for stacked groups.



If you can spare the mana, PWS will seldom go to waste.

DS hits players 2 times so even if everyone is not stacked if you hit enuff ppl with the double hit its better than cascade which only hits a player once plus cascade is slow on bounces and by the time u hit it to go out the damage can be healed up by other healers. Also spamming PWS is a waste of a gcd and theres alot better stuff you should be doing and if 3-5 ppl are at 50% health they either stand in fire and are slow or you didnt SS the big aoe damage that was incoming. IF you bring a Disc priest just to straight up heal and not smite spec stacking crit then your are playing the class to the lowest standards and would probably be better of going holy. As a good Disc priest your top three heals should be Divine Aegis, Atonment and Divine star or Spirit Shell

[Deleted]

I got a question about crit/intel - sorry to a little offtopic

Since how many spell power/intellect are you starting to stuck clear crit instead of intellect?
- i mean how many spell power is enough for us as a disco to start gem +320 crit and give away gems +80int+160crit

Thanks for reply

[babylon]

DS hits players 2 times so even if everyone is not stacked if you hit enuff ppl with the double hit its better than cascade which only hits a player once plus cascade is slow on bounces and by the time u hit it to go out the damage can be healed up by other healers. Also spamming PWS is a waste of a gcd and theres alot better stuff you should be doing and if 3-5 ppl are at 50% health they either stand in fire and are slow or you didnt SS the big aoe damage that was incoming. IF you bring a Disc priest just to straight up heal and not smite spec stacking crit then your are playing the class to the lowest standards and would probably be better of going holy. As a good Disc priest your top three heals should be Divine Aegis, Atonment and Divine star or Spirit Shell

on normal modes, yeah, but sorry - on hc modes you spam shields. sometimes you dont have time to cast anything else before your target will die. sometimes you cant stand long enough to cast anything not-instant (ie sha of pride bolts with high pride, immersus moments, thok screeches with no pala).
gl making any decent use of ds on hc iron j if your group decides to keep positions best for dps (ie spread so dont have to move from their stuff). gl with ds on hc nazgrim if you mostly have melle dps. gl with ds on malkorok hc (assuming they let you go disc). 3 ppl under 50%? isnt it like usual on galakras on ground-pov raid-split phase? isnt it expected on sha when ppl actually try to close rifts?

there are many ways of utilizing discipline priests toolbox not just fixed one for all occasions.
i get it that you have your fav playstyle that fits you, your group and pace of your progress, but saying that any other playstyle is bad is just so very wrong. (10man pov)