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style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">**This
guide is currently out of date. For more up to date information please
visit our style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest"
target="_blank">Priest Guide style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">.**





Doomed to wear cloth and to share gear with cloth wearing DPS classes,
Priest healers have it rough.  Extra squishy due to the cloth,
Priest healers need to have high situational awareness to be able to
keep themselves alive. A tolerance for sharing is also required, so
when that Mage takes those boots you have been waiting for over the
past few weeks you don’t go into a complete nerd rage.



It’s not all bad news for the Priest though. Unlike most
other healing classes,  you will have the option to spec into
one of two talent trees: Discipline or Holy. Each spec brings a
different type of healing style to the table, with Discipline Priests
favoring tank healing, and Holy Priests favoring group healing. Both
specs value the same basic stats on gear, but the way the stats are
ranked varies slightly. Choosing which talent tree you wish to spec
into will depend on your personal play style and how you feel most
comfortable healing. This guide will focus on the Discipline side of
the Priest.



Discipline Priests are very powerful tank healers, relying more on
mitigating the damage from the target than directly healing it. Power
Word: Shield is the Discipline Priest’s best friend and will
probably become one of your most used spells. However, with recent
changes Discipline Priests have also become viable raid healers. Using
their Shields to avoid most damage and the jumping ability of Prayer of
Mending to heal whatever small amount of damage is actually taken.
Still, Discipline Priests really do shine as tank healers and as such
should be placed in this role as often as possible.



While a Discipline Priest will never be topping any in game healing
meters (most do not pick up Shields), they are none the less an
invaluable addition to any raid. If you would like to keep your options
open, the addition of Dual Spec to the game will allow you to have a
Holy and Discipline spec, keeping you prepared for any healing
situation.


style="font-weight: bold;">Item
Stats



Discipline Priests will be on the lookout for basically the same stats
as Holy Priests. Don’t be fooled though; while they may be
looking for the same general stats, how these stats are valued is
vastly different.



Intellect is a major player for the Disc Priest, for basically the same
reason a Holy Priest would value it. The more Intellect you can
accumulate, the bigger your mana pool and the more it increases your
mana regen.  It also raises your critical strike
rating to proc Divine Aegis & Inspiration and increases the
mana regeneration you will receive from Rapture. Picking up as much
Intellect as possible is advised.



Spellpower is  next on the list and is just as important as
Intellect for the Discipline Priest. Spellpower will dictate how much
you can heal for, and in turn dictates how large your Divine Aegis
shield ends up being. Discipline Priests who choose to spec into
Borrowed Time will gain even more from Spellpower as a Priest without
it. Overall, Spellpower is one of those stats you just can’t
go wrong with. 



Critical Strike is very important for the Disc Priest and can almost be
compared to Spirit for the Holy Priest. Most of the Disc
Priest’s spells work based off of crit, most notably Divine
Aegis. As such Disc Priests should stack this stat as much as
possible.  There is very little reason to stop stacking crit,
and a good Disc Priest should be able to pull close to 40% with decent
gear.



Disc Priests rely on haste slightly less than a Holy Priest, as they
use a lot of instant casts and as such they should only have enough
haste to reach the hard cap at 11%. Stacking any more than that is
simply useless. 



Spirit and MP5 are rather low on the list of stats for the Discipline
Priest, but they are not completely worthless. In general a Discipline
Priest will probably find themselves valuing MP5 a little more highly
than Spirit, but overall these stats do basically the same thing,
increase your mana regen. Both stats can be found on most gear you pick
up and you will find yourself with plenty of both. Gemming for either
of these stats is not required.


style="font-weight: bold;">Talents



Choosing the Discipline tree requires you to go deep into the tree ,
and it also leaves you less wiggle room spec wise than any Holy Priest.
.This is because some of the best talents available to the Discipline
priest are located in the lower tiers of the tree. Currently one of the
most common Discipline specs is href="http://www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=5&tal=0503203130300512331323231251005051030000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
target="_blank">57/14/0.



Some must haves in the tree are Grace, Pain Suppression, Rapture,
Borrowed Time, Penance, Aspiration, and Divine Aegis, however, almost
all the talents in the Discipline tree are excellent. Think long and
hard before dropping any of the talents at the bottom of the tree and
if you must look at doing so from the 7th tier first. The Discipline
tree truly is filled with awesome talents, however, there are a few
that you should not take including: Martyrdom, Silent Resolve, Imp Mana
Burn, Reflective Shield, and Focused Will.



Remember to make the spec you choose work for you. Choose talents that
fit your personal play style.


style="font-weight: bold;">Regeneration



With the changes to Spirit, Priest healing styles have drastically
changed. No longer can a Priest just stand around and rely on Spirit to
do their regeneration. While mana can still be regained by just
standing around it has been nerfed and quite a bit of gear is required
before you can really count on ticks outside of the 5 second rule.



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src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/78301">As
such Priests are now relying more
heavily on Intellect for mana
regeneration purposes, especially since the size of the
Priest’s mana pool affects mana regeneration abilities such
as Shadowfiend. You will eventually find that you will attain much more
Intellect than Spirit because you can not stack Spirit without nerfing
the other stats important to you.



Discipline Priests do not have to worry about using out of the 5 second
rule regeneration as they are all about sustaining. Discipline Priests
must take advantage of any free Global Cool Downs available to put more
Shields up. The more Shields you have up, the more chances for it to be
removed with damage, allowing the Disc Priest to gain mana back through
Rapture. Another reason to constantly be casting your Shield instead of
standing around waiting on your mana to regen is the ability for Disc
Priests to proc Borrowed Time. After each Power Word: Shield is cast,
Borrowed Time provides extra spell haste for the next spell you cast,
and also increases the amount absorbed by your Power Word: Shield based
on your Spellpower.



When you really are in a mana crisis, Discipline Priests like all other
Priests can make use of your Shadowfiend. Using Shadowfiend at the same
time you use Hymn of Hope is advised. Hymn of hope increases your max
mana for a period of time, therefore increases the mana you get back
from your Shadowfiend. Do this and you will find yourself back to
almost full mana in no time.


style="font-weight: bold;">Fade
and You



style="float: right; width: 250px; height: 320px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/78299">As
a healer you will find that very rarely
will you ever have to worry about threat (unless you have a really
terrible tank). But you will still find yourself in situations where
threat is a concern for healers, especially when there are many mobs
spawning that cannot be picked up quickly. An ill timed heal can bring
these newly spawned mobs down on you, easily wiping you out. 



To avoid getting splattered all over the ground by rampaging mobs,
making use of the Priest’s Fade ability is imperative. Fade
temporarily reduces all threat for 10 seconds, and gives your tanks
time to pick up the mobs you have gained aggro on. Keep in mind that
after the 10 seconds is up all your threat will instantly come back and
any mobs that are not picked up by a tank or another player will make a
bee line for you.



To avoid gaining aggro in the first place, don’t be afraid to
throw up a shield or two before the mobs spawn. This gives you a nice
cushion before you actually have to do any more healing, giving your
tanks a decent amount of time to gain aggro on any mobs before you
start gaining aggro.


Glyphs

Some commonly used Major Discipline Priest Glyphs are:



Glyph of Penance

Glyph of Flash Heal

Glyph of Prayer of Healing

Glyph of Power Word: Shield



Like most classes Disc Priest Minor Glyphs are rather lackluster:



Glyph of Levitate

Glyph of Shadowfiend

Glyph of Shadow Protection

Glyph of Fading


style="font-weight: bold;">Raiding
as a Discipline Priest



Now that we have gone over most of the basics here is a description of
how a Discipline  Priest functions in a raid setting.
Discipline Priests (if you haven’t caught on yet) are
excellent tank healers and as such this should be their assigned job in
any raid if possible. Like any other healer, knowing what spells you
have up your sleeve is very important as what spells you use can vary
depending on the situation.



The most commonly used spell by a Disc Priest are Power Word: Shield
and Penance. These are your bread and butter, know them and love them.
Use Penance on every cool down without fail. For those Discipline
Priests with Borrowed Time, using  your Power Word: Shield
often grants an extra bonus as it keeps up Borrowed Time granting you
20% additional Haste on your next spell. Using Prayer of Mending is
also an excellent idea, not only does it bounce between raid members,
but it also can Crit, which in turn will proc your Divine Aegis.


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At times you will find that you cannot cast Power Word: Shield or
Penance due to cool downs. You should be casting something, however
what that something is will not always be clear. Some Discipline
Priests will choose to cast Flash Heal, while others swear by Greater
Heal.



Flash Heal has a smaller chance to overheal, thus maximizing
returns from Rapture. You can also manage to cast two Flash Heals in
the time it would take to cast one Greater Heal, giving you a great
chance to Crit, which would proc Divine Aegis more often. However,
Greater Heal is slightly more mana efficient than Flash Heal, but
players can find it tough to minimize their overhealing while using
it.  If you can time your Greater Heals well and minimize the
overhealing you do with it you will be able to achieve more healing in
a shorter period of time than if you were using Flash Heal. Also, since
Divine Aegis currently overrides itself a second critical strike with
Flash heal may be a waste.



My advice to you is to use the filler spell you feel most comfortable
with. Both have their pros and cons, and in the end it is the player
that makes either spell stand out.



While Disc Priests are obviously masters of tank healing they are also
viable raid healers if needed. Keep Prayer of Mending on cool down at
all times, and toss shields like there is no tomorrow. Pre-shielding
can easily mitigate quite a bit of raid damage a boss can put
out.  If you do need to use a large group heal speccing into
Borrowed Time can be extremely beneficial. Simply cast Power Word:
Shield on the tank, gain the haste and cast an uber quick Prayer of
Healing. If you need to group heal again, cast Power Word: Shield on
another person and cast another Prayer of Healing.



Regardless of whether you choose to heal as healing is all about
keeping a cool head, assessing a situation, and knowing your spells
well enough to use the correct one. This is something that is learned
with time and experience and no amount of written words can take the
place of in game experience. So keep at it, don’t get
discouraged, and eventually you will find that healing will become
almost second nature to you.




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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Amunet, also fondly known as Memtron, is an organic life form best known for its ongoing obsession with Blizzard Entertainment's numerous properties. To that end, Amu has authored hundreds (thousands?) of the most popular World of Warcraft guides, editorials, and Top 10 lists on the planet. When not gaming and writing, Amu is busy chasing after her three children in a perpetual loop of ongoing disaster.

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