How to heal with 2 discipline priests without someone going crazy?

[Nzete]

My guild has been doing the 10s to 25s jump in preparation for WoD. We currently have a discipline priest applicant (heals well other than some odd timing on SS). Problem is that the first reaction for both of us for a spiked low raid member is PW:S. We both have a twitch to shield the active tank as well.

My first thought is "if we recruit this person, I'm going holy". Healing with another disc in the raid is just painful. I don't even like our shadow priest much because he shields himself (I haven't made him stop yet and have been trying off and on since Wrath).

Do you have to divide the raid in advance as "who gets to use PW:S on whom"? Or do you just say one person only get a rapture target? Or do you go with constant fuming that your shields only work part of the time?

[Ruud]

Been a while since I did it, but what comes to mind:

- have both pw:shield and weakened souls statuses and maybe time remaining on your raidframes, helps a lot

- no need to totally divide targets to PW:S, but you could make a rough arrangement: you groups 1,2 and tank, the other one groups 3,4 and 5. Doesn't mean you're totally not allowed to heal/shield the other groups, but you both know what to do when the shit hits the fan.

- even if you don't like the previous point, make sure you know who shields which tank, just like more shamans should divide earth shields. Wasting time is deadly on tankhealing, even though it's not as hard as it used to be.


Not that going hoyl is a bad idea. Assuming you would be the only holy priest, the more variation of classes / speccs in your raid the better, generally speaking.

[Sakamae]

Ruud has some good advice. I would also make sure you both are using the Weakened Soul glyph. This should help you guys in making sure you get more rapture procs. Sometimes only the active tank is taking enough damage to get rapture procs, which makes having two of you more difficult. It might not be a bad idea to get some holy practice in before the expansion. It's nice to feel comfortable in both specs, since you might end up playing one over the other after the class changes are revealed for WoD. And historically Disc has been the weaker of the two the first tier of a new xpac.

[derevka]

You are WAY over thinking this.

Just keep healing. Besides on 25's the vast majority of your healing is DA. Sure, you might have to 'fight' over the Main Tank as Raptyure targets, but if you can't find a target that will take damage and need a PWS there's a bigger issue. Ive healed on a 25 man with duel disc for the last 2 xpacs... its not the end of the world. Its even EASIER now that Rapture is mana neutral, not a net gain like it was prior.

As another Disc priest you have nothing to worry about... your other healers, on the other hand, might head for the hills this late in the Xpac and with the amount of Crit you both likely will be running. Sure "meters" will adjust given how absorb priority works, but who cares? Its just a healing meter.

The only thing that might suffer is your ProRaiders ranks, b/c you both will be dilluting eachothers ranking. [sarcasm]And ranking is important. [/sarcasm] [insert obligatory mockery for the whole concept of PR]

[Raugnaut]

Turn one of your disc priests into a holy priest. Probs solved.

[Sprinky]

Stop using shield you are wasting dps time. Moar smites plz.

[openair]

The only thing that might suffer is your ProRaiders ranks

No. Even following all the advice here. Even taking the steps outlined as "not totally needed." At the very least, two discipline priest will have fewer pw:s casts and less borrowed time uptime than if there were a single disc priest.

You can't both Pw:s the same target. If you do, you've wasted a global cooldown. Tracking weakened soul helps, but it doesn't solve both pw:s within a gcd of each other. "Just pw:s someone else for Borrowed time." You've still wasted a gcd. It still hurts your output. When a firemage gets a pyroblast proc, does he cancel the fireball he started casting while the fireball that procced pyroblast was still in the air? No, that would be a dps loss. Same reason you can't "just pw:s another target" and maintain the same hps.

Ranks are the not the only place hps matters. If you're doing anything less than heroic, sure you can make two disc priests work.

[Deleted]

/roll before each boss to see who gets to shield main tank.

[derevka]

If you're doing anything less than heroic, sure you can make two disc priests work.

Crap! In that case I better go respec!

[Mongoose19]

Just go holy or make him go holy.

[Deleted]

We're running with two disc priests, heroic 25. Only 'problem' I've encountered is that we sometimes need to plan Shell usage so that we don't both pop it at the same time. Simple Weakaura helps on that behalf though. Oh, and the problem of raid leader calling for "pain suppression", or worse, "give me cd" and we have no idea who should give what.

Especially in 25man heroic most of the time everyone takes enough damage for popping Rapture, and nowadays it's just free healing anyways, not a mana-positive outcome every 12 secs.. outside of LMG procs obviously.

[openair]

Crap! In that case I better go respec!

That was totally the only part of my post worth replying to. I guess if you can wait ~4months until your gear carries you through, you can make two disc priests work too. You admit two disc priests do not reach their full potential. I merely pointed out how that is true.

[PosPosPos]

What I never understood was people being obsessed with proccing Rapture especially after the changes. Sure, it's free healing, but unless there's a real need for a quick shield burst on a target or to limit mana consumption, people should be perfectly fine forgoing rapture and using other spells(such as smite and Holy Fire/Solace) that benefit the raid, encounter and situation better.

I don't find the argument that Rapture always procs when shielding the active tank a very compelling one when splash heals or even direct heals from other healers generally more than covers tank healing sufficiently.

- - - Updated - - -

No. Even following all the advice here. Even taking the steps outlined as "not totally needed." At the very least, two discipline priest will have fewer pw:s casts and less borrowed time uptime than if there were a single disc priest.

You can't both Pw:s the same target. If you do, you've wasted a global cooldown. Tracking weakened soul helps, but it doesn't solve both pw:s within a gcd of each other. "Just pw:s someone else for Borrowed time." You've still wasted a gcd. It still hurts your output. When a firemage gets a pyroblast proc, does he cancel the fireball he started casting while the fireball that procced pyroblast was still in the air? No, that would be a dps loss. Same reason you can't "just pw:s another target" and maintain the same hps.

Ranks are the not the only place hps matters. If you're doing anything less than heroic, sure you can make two disc priests work.

Nobody is talking about 10 man content - in 25 mans double disc is very commonplace, acceptable and effective healer composition.

And yes, precisely because it's heroic and there's pretty much at least one dps or healer taking significant damage that you can pws another target other than the active tank and still maintain comparable output.

[RugbyCub]

We healed on our 10 mans with 2 disc priests. One was purely mastery spec' and I was mostly atonement spec'. It worked out great during ToT and in SoO. If you are now going 25 man, having 2 disc priests shouldn't be an issue at all. Divide the tanks so you both get rapture and work together to find a good play style between the 2 disc priests. Having the 2 SS was awesome and between the both of us, we had no issues bringing ppl up during raid wide damage.

I know me and my buddy had a ton of fun healing heroic ToT as discs and we still do it in Heroic SoO now.

Have fun!

[Nzete]

Crap! In that case I better go respec!

Your philosophy for accomplishing the two disc 25 man heroic would be appreciated. We aren't in your range, Derevka, but we are doing heroic progression (4/14H now) while not quite having the roster for it (going 10 to 25 to not be one of the guilds that is screwed and folds in the face of 20 man).

[Deja Thoris]

I really don't see why this is a problem. All you need to learn is some co-ordination or that understanding that comes from playing with somebody for a while. Because really, all it is is the weakened soul debuff that makes you aware you just got "beat" to a heal.

Look at the situation where the player spiked and you both went to shield him, if it was a hpala that got an instant 3HP EF up he would have been saved. You would have twitched to shield him and that's effectively wasted since the urgent need to heal him was removed. With a hpala sniping you theres no weakened soul debuff so you don't rage that you got sniped, if a disc beats you then you're locked out so now its the end of the world :P (It's just a silly example that comes to mind)

If you need to then assign groups, first prize is developing an understanding and co-operating so you don't just sit there spamming PW:smileys on the tank so you can feel smug when the other hits up against your weakened soul debuff.

[Deleted]

We healed on our 10 mans with 2 disc priests. One was purely mastery spec' and I was mostly atonement spec'. It worked out great during ToT and in SoO. If you are now going 25 man, having 2 disc priests shouldn't be an issue at all. Divide the tanks so you both get rapture and work together to find a good play style between the 2 disc priests. Having the 2 SS was awesome and between the both of us, we had no issues bringing ppl up during raid wide damage.

I know me and my buddy had a ton of fun healing heroic ToT as discs and we still do it in Heroic SoO now.

Have fun!

From what i heard a full mastery spec arent reliable in SoO anymore. Mastery cant work without a decent amount of crit.

I ran 2 disc priest most of ToT and SoO in 10 man, both crit. It can work quite good if you communicate, even beter when we had a 3rd druid healer for fights that needed it. Don´t see a reason it would be a problem in 25 man, id say it be easier. Sometimes in 10 man its still frustrating, hench why im happy not to be double disc anymore. I don´t raid heroics but 2x disc works well there too in 25 man, not in 10 man tho (from what i read). If u communicate well im sure u can blank the whole raid in SS and spread the DA across.

[Splerks]

Blood Legion really struggled with two disc priests for all of their progression.

[Frmercury]

Spending this whole x-pac with 2-3 Disc Priests sure has hurt us.

[Splerks]

Honestly I don't think there is a single fight in SoO 25 heroic where 2x disc priest is NOT optimal other than Malkorok.