Help me improve my disc play

[Deleted]

Hey everyone thanks for taking the time to read this.

As the title mentioned im aiming to increase my disc output and i feel that currently my logs are not really pretty :P
We did xavius heroic last night and those are the only logs i have currently. I will be gathering more data for research after next week.

www . warcraftlogs . com/reports/LGdZkJCAq3YWNfrm#type=healing
eu . battle . net/wow/en/character/twilights-hammer/Serphantim/simple

Those are the logs and my armory link.

A few things i feel like im missing/doing wrong:
-I started as holy so i invested a lot in mastery gear and havent been very lucky with obtaining haste gear for disc.
-I think im casting way too much shadow mend due to people dropping really low and just having to emergency heal them.
-I should be using power word shield on every gcd but I am really messing up there.
-I might change to power infusion as twist of fate isnt proccing that much anymore.
-Might change to purge the wicked as well but still doubting about that.

Those are the things I am noticing right now from looking at the logs but if any of you have suggestions or critique feel free to post it.

My intention is to learn and improve so if you need to be harsh be harse

Thanks in advance,
Serphantim

PS: sorry for the bad links cant post full links yet

[Ctz]

I can only compare with my NM Xavius kills, haven't done HC yet, but still:
I have the same amount of Shadowmend as you, a few less radiance,, a few more halo, but a lot more PWS (you had 24 while i casted 111)
If the log is correct, you never used plea, sure you can avoid a few shadowmend/radiance and apply attonement with cheap plea instead.

[Awakene]

welcome welcome....... lets help u out high priest.

First of all ditch plea. its completely useless and very situational, I use it in mythic +'s mostly.

here's what you need to do :

1. spec PI for xavius. when you're dreaming all your CDs are immediately refreshed on waking.
2. you have to have full awareness of when the adds are spawning and when will your raid get damage as to spread atonements and instantly top em off with LW, this will take time to master ofc.
3. You need to have the proper gear for disc, Disc priests are very reliant on gear, more so that any other spec. you need the seventh spine trinket from BRH.
4. Smite is your filler spell, penance over smite always , PW:S on CD, Rapture on CD, LW's, Use radiance if you have a lot of mana < fresh outa dream > or if you're lucky enough to explain to your druid that you get the best bang for your buck outa Innervates.

also enable advanced logs, so we can actually monitor everything =P

here's my log for Xavius H

www . warcraftlogs . com/reports/apG2LYgwTDx87bvr#type=healing

[Deleted]

Simply put, you aren't playing the class very well to it's strengths.

Your atonement healing should be about 60% or more of your healing not ~30%

SM should not be accounting for ~30% of your healing. You are massively over using this! Firstly, don't use it on someone unless you know they will take more damage again soon, it has a negative side effect if they don't (You did 1.09m damage to yourself over the fight because of this, awanke also does about 4.5m damage from his shadowmends). Most fights, I generally only cast this on tanks. To 'save' a DPS or healer you are better of using plea/pw:s and then using your atonement to bring them up. Just don't panic and throw out SM's left right and centre, it's a really powerful spell used wisely and the strongest flash heal. Another negative side effect of overusing shadow mend is that your atonement healing will over heal much more, this is particularly bad as your using a high mana skill and reducing the effectiveness of your low mana healing.

You don't even use plea.. this is essential for applying atonement in mana conservation phases where you only have a few people under atonement. Although don't use it over 6 atonements, unless you are really desperate, to apply atonement. After that you'll probably want to be use PW:R for the most part to spread as many atonements around as possible for a big burst phase.

PW:S is great, use it on GCD. It's mana consumption is consistent and is always a good single target atonement application spell to cast.

PtW is the best talent for Raiding, Grace is great in 5-mans where mana isn't an issue but raiding PtW is much more effecient for the gain. You want to keep this up as close to 100% as you can.

Power Infusion is a great CD for mana and healing and it's great on Xavius as you get to use it a few times because of the dream mode resetting cool down.

Don't burn hard when you don't need to, you'll spank all your mana too fast. Be prepared for the big damage spikes, this is your time to shine and unleash those fat burst heals.

This document that I found on howtopriest really explains very well how our mechanics work:
docs . google . com/document/d/1bYJ1KgX6cO6qHEoCVRTvsc0TCOYkQ_GUwUKd2672Ntg/pub

[Deleted]

Thanks for all the replies! I realise my plea usage simply sucks, and I understand the backlash of using shadowmend. I will try and use plea and shield more often and try and cut back on the shadowmends. I will keep working on my gear and try and use all the advice to improve my gameplay. Part of the beauty and why i like disc is the healing through damage so I should really put my focus back on that!

[PosPosPos]

welcome welcome....... lets help u out high priest.

First of all ditch plea. its completely useless and very situational, I use it in mythic +'s mostly.

here's what you need to do :

1. spec PI for xavius. when you're dreaming all your CDs are immediately refreshed on waking.
2. you have to have full awareness of when the adds are spawning and when will your raid get damage as to spread atonements and instantly top em off with LW, this will take time to master ofc.
3. You need to have the proper gear for disc, Disc priests are very reliant on gear, more so that any other spec. you need the seventh spine trinket from BRH.
4. Smite is your filler spell, penance over smite always , PW:S on CD, Rapture on CD, LW's, Use radiance if you have a lot of mana < fresh outa dream > or if you're lucky enough to explain to your druid that you get the best bang for your buck outa Innervates.

also enable advanced logs, so we can actually monitor everything =P

here's my log for Xavius H

www . warcraftlogs . com/reports/apG2LYgwTDx87bvr#type=healing

^

Don't listen to this person.

Understanding encounters and their mechanics and utilizing PWR for said mechanics is what every disc priest should be doing, not pretend to be a gimped Holy Priest spamming Shadowmend to pad meters(not even very good at it) like what Awakene is doing.

Your job on this encounter is to PWR blanket the raid before mechanics like Corruption Meteor and Manifest Corruption.

Download Mend's Weakauras which is essentially cheating by telling you when exactly to start your PWR blanketing for maximum benefit: https://wago.io/VJTP_vCpb

[Awakene]

You do know that their is more than one method of playing disc atm right?

shadowmend padding is fine and dandy if you've got the right set of talents aka grace, yes people may think this is more useful in a Mythic/ Mythic + but if you have the Amalgam's Seventh Spine trinket. it become a cost effective way of healing and applying atonement. the reason why I'm not using plea is I'd rather be at 5-10% mana towards the end of a fight, rather than being at 30-35% and knowing i could've done more.

also one of the key things I've stressed on is gear, I've got the set bonus from the head/shoulders that drops in Arcway/CoS which gives 3k Haste and it procs a LOT , and the chrono shard 15% movement speed and 5k haste, why not? as well as the neck enchant 550 haste/ 550 crit.. another +

I personally hate PWR, its slow, it costs a lot of mana and the atonement buffs are a bit random, it is key to use before raidwide damage is taken yes and that is your main job, but don't forget you're also responsible for being a healer and not a one trick pony, casting plea which is going to use a GC and then casting a penance isn't really going to cut it, Disc priests have so many choices and decisions to make for each situation that it really makes the class very interactive and enjoyable. Also you're not taking into consideration the most important mechanic of this fight (Dream) while you're dreaming you can burn all your mana until you wake and start out fresh again.


Also you're not even taking into consideration Shadow Convent which is another viable way of playing disc priest.

www . warcraftlogs . com /rankings/10#boss=1864&difficulty=4&metric=hps&class=Priest&spec=Discipline

I must be doing something right?

[Pnash]

^

Don't listen to this person.

Understanding encounters and their mechanics and utilizing PWR for said mechanics is what every disc priest should be doing, not pretend to be a gimped Holy Priest spamming Shadowmend to pad meters(not even very good at it) like what Awakene is doing.

Your job on this encounter is to PWR blanket the raid before mechanics like Corruption Meteor and Manifest Corruption.

Download Mend's Weakauras which is essentially cheating by telling you when exactly to start your PWR blanketing for maximum benefit: https://wago.io/VJTP_vCpb

Or you can simply watch timers. PWR shouldn't be used unless you're setting up for LW. If you're spamming it for every raid wide damage mechanic you are doing it wrong. Shadow mend is extremely powerful and should not be overlooked. If you are casting PWR outside of PI or innervate you are throwing away extremely valuable mana. Please stop misinforming people on how to play disc.

It's all about timing your abilities, knowing the encounter, and managing your mana. Plan your cds ahead of time. Do not spam radiance to try and pad the meters. Make friends with your druids and then you can spam PWR. If you cannot get innervate then use rapture to set up for LW. The difference between knowing an encounter inside out and timing your abilities properly will make or break your HPS. If you are OOM you are worthless.

[Pearl1717]

Or you can use your eyes and look at timers. PWR shouldn't be used unless you're setting up for LW. If you're spamming it for every raid wide damage mechanic you are doing it wrong. Shadow mend is extremely powerful and should not be overlooked. If you are casting PWR outside of PI or innervate you are throwing away extremely valuable mana. Please stop misinforming people on how to play disc.

Lul. Thats cute that you think PWR is throwing away mana, despite the fact its the strongest non cd aoe spell in the game. But go on, continue thinking that.

[Deleted]

Lul. Thats cute that you think PWR is throwing away mana, despite the fact its the strongest non cd aoe spell in the game. But go on, continue thinking that.

Radiance on its own is extremely weak but combined with atonement healing then yes it's what gives disc their omph, surely the likes a PoH is better on its own.

Is PtW really better then grace with the grace + halo combo its fairly decent healing but nearly every log I've looked at everyone picks PtW instead.

[longxia]

^

Don't listen to this person.

Understanding encounters and their mechanics and utilizing PWR for said mechanics is what every disc priest should be doing, not pretend to be a gimped Holy Priest spamming Shadowmend to pad meters(not even very good at it) like what Awakene is doing.

Your job on this encounter is to PWR blanket the raid before mechanics like Corruption Meteor and Manifest Corruption.

Download Mend's Weakauras which is essentially cheating by telling you when exactly to start your PWR blanketing for maximum benefit: https://wago.io/VJTP_vCpb

Actually don't listen to this person. It is the spamming of Radiance on full-health targets that is actually meter-padding. There is never any repeated AOE damage spikes (Ursoc doesnt charge twice in 3 seconds, Spider doesnt jump up, fall and immediately repeat etc), so there is never any reason for Disc priests to "burst" their AOE atonement. Oh wait there is, they have to land their atonement healing before all the Essence Fonts, Wild Growths and Circles of Healing top everyone off. Sniping other healers is the only reason disc has to hurry on their AOE, gotta pad those meters hard to make up for the other 80% of the fight standing around doing nothing.

Some Disc prefer to just tank-heal, and spot-heal seriously hurt DPS, which saves lives and actually contributes something useful to the group. Of course everyone has their own style and this argument will definitely last the whole expansion - but the objective truth is that if an AOE-burst Disc dies early then all that happens is that the other healers get 1-2 more ticks of their HOTS, or 10-20% less overhealing overall, and no-one notices any difference.

If the tank-healing, spot-healing Disc dies then tanks take spikier damage, hurt people tend to stay hurt for longer, and the raid is more likely to wipe.

So choose how you want to play, and how you want to contribute, think about what I said and make your own judgement because even 100,000 monkeys repeating the same stupidity doesn't turn it into genius.

[PosPosPos]

Actually don't listen to this person. It is the spamming of Radiance on full-health targets that is actually meter-padding. There is never any repeated AOE damage spikes (Ursoc doesnt charge twice in 3 seconds, Spider doesnt jump up, fall and immediately repeat etc), so there is never any reason for Disc priests to "burst" their AOE atonement. Oh wait there is, they have to land their atonement healing before all the Essence Fonts, Wild Growths and Circles of Healing top everyone off. Sniping other healers is the only reason disc has to hurry on their AOE, gotta pad those meters hard to make up for the other 80% of the fight standing around doing nothing.

Some Disc prefer to just tank-heal, and spot-heal seriously hurt DPS, which saves lives and actually contributes something useful to the group. Of course everyone has their own style and this argument will definitely last the whole expansion - but the objective truth is that if an AOE-burst Disc dies early then all that happens is that the other healers get 1-2 more ticks of their HOTS, or 10-20% less overhealing overall, and no-one notices any difference.

If the tank-healing, spot-healing Disc dies then tanks take spikier damage, hurt people tend to stay hurt for longer, and the raid is more likely to wipe.

So choose how you want to play, and how you want to contribute, think about what I said and make your own judgement because even 100,000 monkeys repeating the same stupidity doesn't turn it into genius.

If you want to spot heal, why are you Disc? Holy(both paladin and priest) does it miles better.

Disc has the best burst healing in the game, but you are choosing to opt into something they are terribad at. Not surprised that any person like you who opts into a vastly inferior healing style refuses to post their logs, because they know they can't support it, and hide behind their vitriolic misinformation.

Hint: there's something called Mythic difficulty where it's always better to top the raid up quickly rather than not.

- - - Updated - - -

You do know that their is more than one method of playing disc atm right?

You do know that methods can be categorized as right and wrong?

shadowmend padding is fine and dandy if you've got the right set of talents aka grace, yes people may think this is more useful in a Mythic/ Mythic + but if you have the Amalgam's Seventh Spine trinket. it become a cost effective way of healing and applying atonement. the reason why I'm not using plea is I'd rather be at 5-10% mana towards the end of a fight, rather than being at 30-35% and knowing i could've done more.

I mean, even you do know it's padding, after the freudian slip and all, but let's entertain your complete lack of consideration on this subject anyway:

1) Grace requires you to direct heal someone already with atonement to benefit from it
2) You have to wait 6 seconds to shadowmend a target you have cast shadowmend on earlier
3) In the meantime, Holy Priests can just go on to Flash Heal the next target and let Trail of Light and Echo of Light to continue topping up the previous target
4) And surprise, Flash Heal heals for much more than Shadowmend after factoring in Trail of Light, Echo of Light, and deducting Shadowmend's dot
5) So let me ask you again, why exactly are you pretending to be a gimped holy priest?

Oops, you aren't the top healer anymore.

also one of the key things I've stressed on is gear, I've got the set bonus from the head/shoulders that drops in Arcway/CoS which gives 3k Haste and it procs a LOT , and the chrono shard 15% movement speed and 5k haste, why not? as well as the neck enchant 550 haste/ 550 crit.. another +

Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because.....it doesn't necessarily proc when you need to heal. Omg, what a difficult concept to digest.

I personally hate PWR, its slow, it costs a lot of mana and the atonement buffs are a bit random, it is key to use before raidwide damage is taken yes and that is your main job, but don't forget you're also responsible for being a healer and not a one trick pony, casting plea which is going to use a GC and then casting a penance isn't really going to cut it, Disc priests have so many choices and decisions to make for each situation that it really makes the class very interactive and enjoyable. Also you're not taking into consideration the most important mechanic of this fight (Dream) while you're dreaming you can burn all your mana until you wake and start out fresh again.

Uh huh, so why are you not spamming PWR even harder? Starting to notice this pattern of really egregious cognitive dissonance among disc priests who insist on playing the "but it's viable(when it's actually not)" card when using an inferior playing pattern.

Also you're not even taking into consideration Shadow Convent which is another viable way of playing disc priest.

www . warcraftlogs . com /rankings/10#boss=1864&difficulty=4&metric=hps&class=Priest&spec=Discipline

I must be doing something right?

You didn't even bother to remove the healing absorb from their healing before completely embarrassing yourself.

[Awakene]

Link your logs.

[Pearl1717]

Link your logs.

Sorry hes only 7/13H on his hpally, he doesnt know what hes talking about.

[PosPosPos]

Link your logs.

Your wish is my command.

Oh, and your parses are depressing, really.

[Pearl1717]

Your wish is my command.

Oh, and your parses are depressing, really.

B&S. Confirmed bad.

[PosPosPos]

B&S. Confirmed bad.

An extra button is so overrated.

[amythist]

Is PtW really better then grace with the grace + halo combo its fairly decent healing but nearly every log I've looked at everyone picks PtW instead.

PtW has the advantage of being just a better version of SW:P more damage, so more atonement healing, and lasts longer, meaning fewer recasts so more Smite/Penance casts and in multi target situations it propagates out to other targets when you cast penance

the Problem with the Grace/Halo combo is that to take advantage of grace you have to spread atonement around to multiple targets already, to get a good boost from Halo, when instead you could be casting LW or Penance to use the atonement you have spread around. Grace is really a tool I see having more use in Mythic+ dungeons where the tank is going to be getting hit hard and you may have times you are just spamming SM on them, so having each subsequent cast boosted adds to that throughput

[Deleted]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the feedback. I realize the current discussion on disc is still pretty fired up but from this feedback alone i have seen improvement in my logs! I will keep improving on my gameplay and keep reading the forums here because there is a lot good feedback.

Many thanks.

[MendUS]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the feedback. I realize the current discussion on disc is still pretty fired up but from this feedback alone i have seen improvement in my logs! I will keep improving on my gameplay and keep reading the forums here because there is a lot good feedback.

Many thanks.

There is some pretty bad advice, and some pretty good advice in here:
- Don't use Shadow Covenant, it's not good.
- Don't Shadow Mend unless it's an emergency.
- Use Penance / PW:S on CD.
- DoT uptime close to 100%.

I'd recommend to read my guide as well to get a better understanding of Atonement healing:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ng-Guide-7-0-3

A couple thing's I don't have in my guide but I'll add soon are different burst rotations:
- PW:R + Lights Wrath + Penance + Smite Filler = first burst
- Rapture + PW:R + Mindbender + Penance + Smite Filler = second burst