Tuneing and next steps for a Disc Priest. :) Personal Feedback Requested <3

[Azelric]

To get it out of the way, here's my armory: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Azereil/simple

So, I'm a disc priest, clearly 8), and I've finished up pretty much everything I can get from heroics. At the moment I'm farming herbs for my darkmoon card trinket and I am trying to find anything I can do OUTSIDE of raiding to get myself some gear.

I'm working on my rep for Baradin Hold for the trinket, but other than that I am at a loss. Does anyone out there happen to have any suggestions for gearing or tweaking this guy? I know that Haste-Mastery-Crit are about even for stat weight, but I'm not 100% sure on how to check that I'm keeping a relatively good balance (if anything I assume my crit is super low)

I am raiding TotFW and BoT, though we're just getting started. I just want to tweak my guy out as much as I possibly can so that I can bring the maximum I can to my raids.

^_^ In exchange I offer cookies, my gratitude, and any feedback on your toons that I can possibly give if you'd like it! I'd love to discuss with a few other disc priests their choices of gear/stats in contrast to me own if anyone wants to post their armory.

Stay frosty!

[zito]

If you run with a resto shaman I would take the points out of inspiration and put them in surge of light. With the new surge of light coming to us very soon it will be worth to pick it up. If you want to keep inspiration (like me) I personally would take the points out of darkness and pick up divine fury and surge. With borrowed time and your trinket haste becomes slightly a weak stat.

[[-Spiritus-]]

The two most important questions need to be answered first:

(1)What other class/specs of healer are you raiding with?
(2)What will be your role in the raid? [tank or raid healing]?

[Azelric]

I am a going to be healing with a resto shaman, but we're working on TotFW atm, so we're seperated for the conclave fight. The raid goes with her first, me 2nd, her 3rd, etc. for the switching so she has a bit more raid heavy healing than I do. I'm fairly sure I will be tank healing mostly, though I may need to raid heal in a few other raids (I am subbing for a BoT raid)

As for the darkness points, that's an interesting thought. I like inspiration since I tend to get pulled into heroics a lot and I like my shadow off spec for questing and such, but I will have to look at switching them. Is surge that much of a big boost to through put? Either way I guess you're right on the haste with my trinket. Im solid when it's not procing, so I guess when it does proc that haste is more or less wasted.

[zito]

I am a going to be healing with a resto shaman, but we're working on TotFW atm, so we're seperated for the conclave fight. The raid goes with her first, me 2nd, her 3rd, etc. for the switching so she has a bit more raid heavy healing than I do. I'm fairly sure I will be tank healing mostly, though I may need to raid heal in a few other raids (I am subbing for a BoT raid)

As for the darkness points, that's an interesting thought. I like inspiration since I tend to get pulled into heroics a lot and I like my shadow off spec for questing and such, but I will have to look at switching them. Is surge that much of a big boost to through put? Either way I guess you're right on the haste with my trinket. Im solid when it's not procing, so I guess when it does proc that haste is more or less wasted.

The new surge change is surge of light can proc off flash heal, heal and greater heal and surge of light itself. Borrowed time + your trinket would be an overkill of haste. If you need a quick heal pop a quick bubble then your selected heal (this also works for PoH). For throne of 4 winds there is not a lot of melee heavy damage so you really don't have to worry about the tanks much.

[Azelric]

Oh it can proc of itself? That's awesome!

Yeah, I switched my spec and just by looking at a few numbers I already like that change. Thank you for that!

TotFW doesn't seem like to complicated of a fight, it's more or less just a coordination and execution fight than a gear check. Healing it hasn't been any sort-of trouble so far. Im curious to see how the other raids are though!

Thank you for your help! I guess I just need to keep farming for my trinkets and hope I get lucky to get some better gear now. We'll see!

[zito]

Of course the change to surge won't go happen till 4.0.6 goes up :'(.

Edit: Are you using fade a lot? You should drop fade glyph and pick up mass dispel glyph or pain suppression glyph instead you will get better use out of them.

[Azelric]

I have to use fade almost on cooldown in some fights, which is why I have the fade glyphs. As I get more into raiding I will probably switch to mass dispel, but that's assuming I stop pulling healing threat. -_-*

[zito]

I have to use fade almost on cooldown in some fights, which is why I have the fade glyphs. As I get more into raiding I will probably switch to mass dispel, but that's assuming I stop pulling healing threat. -_-*

Bad tanks, replace them. Unless its due to some kind of fight mechanic possibly adds you shouldn't be force to use it every cooldown.

[Azelric]

Bad tanks, replace them. Unless its due to some kind of fight mechanic possibly adds you shouldn't be force to use it every cooldown.

Im aware of the tanks. Can't do anything on my end but fade harder until they sort out the fights better.

Also, out of curiosity what are people using: Inner Fire or Inner Will?

[Krogh]

I´d Get my hands on Following things, Wich should improve your overall Raiding experience.

Ill start with the gear. First of all, Haste is what you want... The more Haste you have, The better spirit gets, And even better the Intellect gets, There shouldnt be a peice without hatse, Unless it holds Extream amounts of intellect.

Baradin hold trinket, And Every one "Use effect" trinkets arent worth it for healers, Unless wer talking Shard of Woe. (http://www.wowhead.com/item=60233)

Tear of Blood Normal:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=55819
Extends your mana even further than The Heroic Egg shell... Plus, The Intellect is simply too important for ya..

Tear of Blood Heroic:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=56351
Same Reason as above, This one is just even better!.

Tyrande´s Favorite Doll:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=64645
BiS if you dont got Alchamy, Until you can get your hands on Fall of mortality.

As you mentioned, Darkmoon card, BiS period, Nothing beats it.

Kyrstel Mantle:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=56324
BiS For Any Disc priest out there.

Wand of Untainted Power:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=64645
BiS wand pre raid for any Priest out there, Hell even for shadow!.

Desert Walker Sandals.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=62450
Even tho they have hit, with reforge they only grant about 100, I still find them BiS. The only peice i might even take into consideration of changeing at this point.

Kibble.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=56307
with Mastery reforged into Haste, i find this one of the most potent rings out there, Its not good, But its one of the bests. You need the spirit you lack from Diamants ring of temprance.

Quicksilver Amulet:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=56300
While The Rep one is better at many points, For longer Raid fights i´d take this baby over it at any time, But just for the dayli heroic, Where mana aint an issue anymore, And all you do is smiteing anyway, I´d take the rep one.

Belt of the depths:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=54504
While yours surely are good, And almost on pair with this belt, I´d still get those 4 dreamcloth and use this one over the other. Min maxing, And IF Mastery gets more potent in next patch, i´d take Ravens, But for now, I´d use Depths.

Solar Wind Cloak:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=56434
Beats your cloak out of the way. Period. BiS pre heroic raid / BoE Epics.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spec:
I tottaly see your points in talents when it comes to heroics, Heroic farming, And dayli Geez, But when it comes to Raids, Atonment is just shineing trought, Being able to supstain an 11k+ Hps, Along with 2-3k Dps Is just rought. People mistake Archangle, You do not need to proc it everytime you can, You need to supstain it at 5 stacks, Until given points:
Aoe healing time, And Really heavy Incomming tank damage. Ill take you trought how i deal with both siturations.

Aoe Healing, If we take maloriak Red phase as an example. I always start out with penance on the Fired target, Popping arch angle, Power world barrier then followed by a Inner focus. Smiteing until His Fire Aoe pops then throwing out 2-3 PoH on each group, Going, G1(Tank group, hence the Inner focus proc,). G2 G2 G1 G1 G2. Followed by a penance on the Newly Fired target..

Heavy incomming tank damage, Readying your self with a penance on Tank to stack up grace, Returning to smite spam til 2-1 Second before the damage goes in, Popping Arch angle, Power word shield, Pain suppresion, Inner focus, GH Until the damage ends, Or hes ready for another mending/Shield.

Hence the smite spamming is really.. Really worthy, It reduces your mana cost on penance, And its ALMOST free to cast, If your sitting around 2700 Spirit in a raid, and around 110-120k mana, smiteting shouldnt really cost you anything. Therefore i use this spec.

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfMorRsbsRMochr

And yes. i 100% Stand by smite healing. I´d show you an WoL, But it doesnt seem to work for my guild, ( insert sad face ) My Atonement almost did up agiasnt 60% of my healing on our first Omnitron defence kill. Altought you dont have enoght spare time to use it on a boss on magmaw. yet, I still find my self throw in smites for the melee group.

As for the glyphs here goes:

Viable glyphs.

Prime
Glyph of Prayer of Healing (10)
Glyph of Power Word: Shield (10)
Glyph of Penance (10)
Major
Glyph of Divine Accuracy (10)
Glyph of Holy Nova (5)
Glyph of Mass Dispel (10)
Glyph of Fade (5)
Minor
Glyph of Shadowfiend (2)
Glyph of Levitate (2)
Glyph of Shackle Undead (10)

Ive rated each viable glyph from 1-10 as you might have noticed, I tend to find my self useing Holy nova alot on Heavy aoe phases, Even Thought it might not be as potent healing as PoH, It heals quicker, Much quicker. Why do you pick Flash heal over Greater heal? For the same reason eh.
As you might have seen, Ive not listed Glyph of dispel magic.. 3% healing for that amount of mana, Time or anything wasted on Dispel magic just isnt worth it. When theres So many other viable glyphs out there. same goes for Glyph of Pain suppression, You wont be stunned, At any given time, If the tanks need an cooldown, If someone needs a cooldown, Simply wont happen in PvE Content.

- As for the Fadeing discussion, On maloriak i find my self useing Glyph of fade, almost in all raiding encounters to be honest, Yes, We do drag agro from Adds, And no, That doesnt mean that the tanks sucks. Not when we have an Wonderful Skill named fade.

As for inner fire/Will i tend to go with Inner fire, Troughtput, Fore much much less mana, You dont throw enoght Instant casts to make Will an Viable selection right now, Alltrought, For movement phases, I find my self Click on Inner Will on the run, and change back to fire when i reach my distination.

An idea for that might be this Nifty Macro. It simply changes between the two of them and Resets if the buff disapeers.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=1800 !Inner Fire, !Inner Will
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

(Edit: Added glyphs, Inner Fire/will Fixed a few Errors. Inner Fire/Will)
ToDolist: BoE epic Improvements.


(My armory Profile: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...C3%B2pe/simple)

Disclaimer, I dont do hard Calculations, I do ingame teory crafting, I´d much rather try a build in a heroic, Raid or any situration than on a Peice of paper.. Healing isnt Stationary like Dps).

[suspendedstasis]

Inner Will, unless i expect that some adds will be popping out and hitting me soon, then i switch to inner fire til the thumping on me threat is gone

[Krogh]

Inner Will, unless i expect that some adds will be popping out and hitting me soon, then i switch to inner fire til the thumping on me threat is gone

May i ask for what reason? (:

[sp101]

Inner Fire increases your armor I guess?

But with Fade you really shouldn't get hit.

[Krogh]

Inner Fire increases both armor and Spellpower, While Inner Will Increases Movement speed by 15%, and Decreases mana cost on all instant casts by 10%

[Bigslick]

If you run with a resto shaman I would take the points out of inspiration and put them in surge of light. With the new surge of light coming to us very soon it will be worth to pick it up.

Disc priests tend to focus more heals on tanks than resto shaman, and have an easier time keeping up the damage mitigation buff. I would strongly recommend against pulling points out of inspiration. Whereas SoL becomes more attractive in 4.0.6, Inspiration will be even more so as we will become substantially better tank-healers (and therefore more typically delegated to that role) than we are now, while shaman will remain more effective in raid-healing.

Also, out of curiosity what are people using: Inner Fire or Inner Will?

It's situational. Generally speaking, if you aren't having mana issues you're better off running with Inner Fire for the extra SP. On fights where movement is heavy and demands the extra speed or more instant casts on the move, Inner Will becomes quite attractive (though you may want to consider macro'ing for easy switches on the fly -- Atramedes comes to mind). Edit: also worth noting that IF provides the additional survival benefit of up to 6% spell damage mitigation (on top of the physical damage mitigation via armor) if talented for it.

[Deleted]

I strongly agree with what Bigslicks saying, Inspiration is so much more worth it from a disc healer perspective since like he's saying, disc will be a better match for tank healing than actual overall healing ( due to PoH nerf ) Even though if it's a setup with shaman, we're not guaranteed to keep Ancestral Awakening up. And having a reliable damage mitigation do make sense in the long run. ( Cho'gall at 4-6 stacks really hurts ).

Mitigation is the best for a disc priest and along with our buffs, it'll be interesting to see the changes.

Also it varies very much whether it's a 10man raid, or a 25 man raid, in what situation Inner Fire / Inner Will actually would be used the most. Because of the 25man raid I tend to swip swap ( which you should do occasionally anyway ) since the most damage is a predictable fact and that your role is adjusted to your raids comp.

Halfus Wyrmbreaker is an encounter at which your appointed " role " makes you kinda obvious of what to use. For disc, I use Inner Fire due to the extra boost and since I won't really be doing raid healing at all and I barely got instant spells that'll actually boost my role.
Holy is where I tend to go with Inner Will, due to AoE state causes me to use: CoH,PoM, Renew, HS:Sanctuary etc and just heal as a filler.

- So the conclusion is that it's very situational, and that people really should get used to switch between the two as it's both throughput and mana conservative using each one depending on what encounter you're facing.

[Deleted]

I tend to default to inner fire for the SP boost unless I need to move a lot (Atramedes immediately springs to mind). I don't find I need the mana reduction unless I'm missing my raptures a lot.

Also, I was a bit cautious about swapping until recently as inner fire was costing mana. That seems to have been hotfixed within the past week though.

[Krogh]

you seem to have forgotten that while the PoH Might look like a nerf. I strongly believe its a Buff for Disco´s and a Nerf for Holys only. Making us even stronger AoE healers than we are right now.. And i tend to out do Shamans, Druids, hell even Holy priests at this moment.

[Bigslick]

you seem to have forgotten that while the PoH Might look like a nerf. I strongly believe its a Buff for Disco´s and a Nerf for Holys only. Making us even stronger AoE healers than we are right now.. And i tend to out do Shamans, Druids, hell even Holy priests at this moment.

Looking at the changes to PoH in context of other changes, I disagree.

For disc, the 15% nerf to PoH will be offset by whatever level of add'l DA is procced on crits from PoH, but at this stage of the game it's likely still a fairly sizable nerf when considering that they're RNG against a fairly low crit rate at current gearing, and the extra DA loses any of its balance against the nerf if you're not dealing with persistent raid damage. While technically this nerf is balanced out to a degree by grace stacks on targets, you're not generally going to have grace stacked on more than a couple of people at any given time -- the main perk of the grace buff is in not losing it on your primary heal target when you send heals elsewhere.

By context of comparison, for holy the only change to PoH is the 15% nerf, but it is directly offset by the 30% buff to CoH. Also playing a factor in their ease of contributing to AoE healing are the mana cost reduction of Renew and easier time of maintaining it on raid members now that BH and HW:S also refresh it when in Heal chakra.

The performance of disc AOE healing at 4.0.6 to current levels will depend on the persistance of AOE damage in the specific fight. If there's not another bout of damage hitting the party, we'll be suffering from a relative nerf. If there is followup damage to make use of the DA, whether or not it's a relative nerf depends on the level of the add'l DA proc granted against your crit rates -- and realistically it will still be a nerf at our fairly low crit rates in current gear so that it is not extremely OP in future tiers.