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Table of Contents
I. Introduction and Acronyms
II. Discpline Only Spells and Benefits
III. WoD Talent Tree
IV. Glyphs
A) Major
B) Minor
V. Secondary and Tertiary Stats
A) New Stats in WoD
B) The Tried and True Secondaries
C) Stat Priority
VI. Enchants
VII. Gemming
A) Basic Gems
B) Meta Gems
VIII. Consumables
A) Food
B) Flasks
C) Potions
IX. Divine Aegis and Spirit Shell
X. Atonement-- The DPS to Heal Mechanic
XI. Rotation
A) Single Target Healing
B) AOE or Raid Healing
XII. Racial Bonuses
XIII. Additional Reading
XIV. Changelog
I. Introduction
As of 6.02, this guide is only covering the transition from MoP into WoD. It will be updated to reflect level 100 gameplay more thoroughly at the time of the WoD launch.
It is my hope that this guide will assist you in making intelligent decisions with respect to your talent selections, gearing and spell choices. It is not intended to be the one guide to rule them all, but instead a broad overview of Discipline Priest mechanics. Ideally you will come from this a more informed priest, confident on the why's and how's of priesthood. It is not going to be quick and painless, and it certainly won't instruct you in the perfect way to maximize yourself in every situation.
I would like to give a special shoutout to H2P Admin Derevka. Without his near perfect outline, this guide wouldn't be nearly as thorough.
Below, feel free to ask any questions regarding this guide. Discussion is extremely beneficial.
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Acronym Cheat Sheet:
AA - Archangel
AOE - Area of Effect
BT - Borrowed Time
CD - Cooldown
CoH - Circle of Healing
CoW - Clarity of Will
DA - Divine Aegis (absorbs granted from critical heals)
DPS - Damage per second (used in evaluating throughput)
EAA - Empowered Archangel
FDCL - From Darkness; Comes Light
HF - Holy Fire
HN[/color - Holy Nova
[color=#BFFFFF]HoT - Heal over time
HP - Hit or Health Points
HPM - Healing per mana (used in evaluating efficiency)
HPS - Healing per second (used in evaluating throughput)
MS - Multistrike
PI - Power Infusion
PoM - Prayer of Mending
PPM - Proc per minute (used in evaluating buff uptime)
PW - Power Word
SoL - Surge of Light
SS - Spirit Shell
ToF - Twist of Fate
WoMPoM - Words of Mending Prayer of Mending
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II. Discipline Only Spells and Benefits
Archangel- consumes your Evangelism stacks for an on demand throughput increase.
Atonement- "Smite to Heal" ability, allows for the priest, when stacking Evangelism, to smartly heal nearby low health players
Borrowed Time - Changed in 6.02. After casting Power Word: Shield, you gain Borrowed Time, causing you to gain 40% more of the Haste stat from all sources for 6 sec.
Divine Aegis - Critical heals and their multistrikes create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 100% of the amount healed, instead of healing for twice as much. Lasts 15 sec.
Empowered Archangel - The next Prayer of Healing or Flash Heal that you cast after activating Archangel has 100% increased critical strike chance. Replaces some of the functionality of Inner Focus (which has been removed.)
Enlightenment - Increases the critical effect chance of Prayer of Healing by 10%, and causes you to gain 5% more of the Critical Strike stat from all sources. This is our Critical Strike attenuation passive.
Evangelism - Each offensive Smite, HF and Penance grants a stack of Evangelism. As of 6.02 no longer decreases the mana cost of Smite, HF, and Penance.
Holy Nova - Holy Nova is now unique to discpline and does not need to be glpyhed to be accessed. It's currently our primary filler spell due to it's high efficiency.
Grace - Increases all healing and absorption done by 30%. Grace is now a flat thoroughput boost rather than a targeted healing buff.
Shield Discipline - Disc's Mastery. Increases the absorbs that all of your absorb mechanics can provide, as well as increases your base healing amount.
Pain Suppression- Single Target damage mitigation cooldown that reduces damage taken by 40%. As of 6.02, no longer reduces the target's threat by 5%.
Power Word: Barrier - Raid cooldown that mitigates damage to all those under the barrier. Requires targeting reticle to be used.
Penance - Efficient single target channeled heal, and can also be used for Atonement. Can be cast while moving with the Glyph of Penance.
III. WoD Talent Tree
WoD did not do much to alter our current talent system. Some choices were reworked, or removed. We have a new tier for our level 100 choices. It is still beneficial to carry Tomes of the Clear Mind that enable you to switch talents on the fly. WoD encounters will rely on you to be flexible in your talent choices. Like we saw in MoP, certain talents will feel baseline, while others will depend on strat, fight, and healing comp.
You will need to evaluate the situation at hand before deciding what is the "best" talent. There won't be a build that is ideal in all situations, for all comps, for all fights. It is up to you to get to know what options you have and select the talents most suited for the situation.
Level 15: Tier 1 - Survival
Desperate Prayer- Our old tried and true friend. An on use 30% HP heal. It is not on the GCD.
Spectral Guise - On use pseudo-stealth capable of being broken if our guise is hit three times, or if we are taken out of stealth via an AOE. You cannot use this ability to negate boss damage. In previous tiers, it could negate targeted boss mechanics.
Angelic Bulwark- Automatic 20% HP shield if you are brought below 30% HP; no need to push a button. The exchange for the automatic trigger is a 10% loss when compared to Desperate Prayer. (Note: if a single blow takes you from 31% HP to 0, Bulwark is not triggered).
Level 30: Tier 2 - Movement
Body and Soul - Via the application of PW:S or a lifegrip. A targeted 60% speed increase that lasts for 4 seconds. Can be problematic if you wish to give a speed boost to a target who already has the weakened soul debuff.
Angelic Feather - Requires the use of a targeting reticle and can be used by the unintended target if another player gets too close. It provides a 60% speed increase for 6 seconds, and because there is no weakened soul debuff to worry about, can be chained together for a consistent speed buff until you are out of charges.
Phantasm - Instead of a movement increase, it removes current movement debuffs and grants immunity to movement impairing effects thereafter for 5 seconds.
Level 45: Tier 3 -Mana Restoration/Efficiency
From Darkness, Comes Light - FDCL is arguably the hardest talent to quantify the amount of mana we ‘regen’, since it mostly is a mana savings ability that relies on some amount of RNG In 5.4 FDCL has been buffed to include nearly all of our healing spells that can proc the free FH. Going into WoD, the PPM has been reduced. This talent is less desirable for Disc.
Mindbender - The first thing to keep in mind is that this replaces Shadowfiend. If you do not spec into this, you will still have access to baseline Shadowfiend. The latest incarnation has it have a 60 second cooldown, and restore 0.75% (down from 1.75% in 5.4) mana per swing. It also provides more damage than Solace.
Power Word: Solace - This replaces Holy Fire (dealing the same amount of damage) and removes the mana cost completely. It restores 2% of your total mana, applies/refreshes your evangelism stacks and heals for 100% of the damage it deals (it's under a separate spell ID than Atonement for Discipline.) As a Disc Priest, you should be regularly casting this spell. Disc has excellent synergy with this spell given it's interaction with Evangelism. Simply put, it's a mana positive smart heal.
Level 60: Tier 4 -Crowd Control
Void Tendrils - This ability can be handy when you need to root a group of mobs that you raid is kiting. Rooted mobs will still melee player targets in melee range.
Psychic Scream - Previously a standalone spell, it is now in the place of Psyfiend.
Dominate Mind - The tried and true MC but effective on non-humanoids. Channel must be maintained to keep control of the target.
Level 75: Tier 5 - Throughput
Twist of Fate - Increases your output after you heal players below 35%. Likely not helpful unless you are in an encounter where people are consistently below 35%. As of 6.02 does not trigger from your damaging abilities, so it is more difficult to achieve high uptimes.
Power Infusion - Now available to all priests, not just Discipline. On demand 2 minute cooldown that is self-cast only. Strong option for both added output and mana savings.
Spirit Shell -DI is now replaced by Spirit Shell for Discipline priests. Spirit Shell benefits from your mastery in that the heals being cast to apply Spirit Shell are scaling with Mastery (it does not double dip.)
Level 90: Tier 6 - AOE Healing
Cascade - Heals 31 targets favoring targets further away. (1-2-4-8-16) No diminishing returns since the target number is finite. Likely our go-to and default choice unless a fight commands the other talent’s increased frequency or increased output. Important to note that a bounce cannot hit the same player twice, and that there is a delay in the healing due to travel time (biggest effect is typically 2-3 seconds after cast). Solid option provided your raid is slightly spread out, and periodic/moderate burst is needed. You should be pre-casting this before a large raid-wide damage spike. Has the highest potential for DA generation.
Divine Star - Least expensive, lowest cooldown of the 3 choices. Currently the only Level 90 talent without a cast time. More mana efficient than a Prayer of Healing. Star heals for the least per cast of the three talents in this tier. Strong option provided your raid is grouped up, and constant healing is needed. Requires good positioning to maximize the spell's output. You can move to change the return pathing if needed. Currently the only talent without a castime within this tier.
Halo - Most expensive, but potentially highest amount healed per cast and has the greatest burst capability. Potentially restrictive due to its high cooldown and mana cost. Requires 25 yard distance for the best output. Good selection if your raid is spread out and if large burst healing is needed or if raid damage times well with the 45 second cooldown. This spell does not suffer from diminishing returns based on the number of targets hit.
Level 100: Tier 7 – Toolkit Enhancements
Clarity of Will - Another absorb that behaves similarly to PW:Shield but without triggering a debuff. Solid choice for spread AoE damage as you can apply it to a handful of targets before large spikes of damage. You can increase the absorb amount by recasting it at the same target (similar to how SS functions.)
Words of Mending- Causes any healing casts to grant you a stack of Word of Mending. When you reach 10 stacks your next targeted healing cast will also cast a PoM at that target. This can be situationally useful where there is a lot ticking damage such that PoM will be bouncing often and not be mostly overheal.
Saving Grace- Perhaps the least interesting of the three, as well as being the most situational. Saving Grace heals a friendly target instantly but reduces your absorbs and healing done by 10% for 8 sec, then stacking up to 10 times. If you need a big instant heal every 8 seconds (as to let the penalty drop off) it's a pretty solid choice. I imagine we'll see it being useful in PvP or in encounters where the tank damage or single target spike damage is intense.
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IV. Glyphs
There are Major and Minor Glyphs. Major glyphs are ones that actively change/affect spells or their output, while Minor glyphs are quality of life/cosmetic changes. In WoD, Major Glyphs have a new system that includes exclusive glyph pairings, prohibiting your from using multiple glyphs of the same "family" active at the same time. For example, you cannot use Glyph of Reflective Shield and Glyph of Power Word: Shield simultaneously.
A) Major Glyphs
Dispel Magic: Your dispel magic spell also damages your target for 487 to 732 Holy damage when you successfully dispel a magical effect. Situationally useful. Potentially very strong in PvP.
Fade: Your Fade ability now also reduces all damage taken by 10%. Very useful during progression whenever you want to decrease the amount of damage you're taking.
Fear Ward: Reduces the cooldown of Fear Ward by 60 seconds. Again, straightforward and situationally useful. Has the potential to be very useful in PvP.
Focused Mending: Causes your Prayer of Mending to only bounce between the target and the caster. Generally a PvP glyph.
Holy Fire: Increases the Range of your Holy Fire, Smite and Power Word: Solace spells by 10 yards. Could be useful when questing or when a raid strat requires you to be greater than 30 yards away.
Inquisitor: Your Holy Fire and Power Word: Solace deal 25% additional initial damage, but 20% of that damage is also dealt back to you. This is what took the place of our ability to SW: Death in PvP.
Leap of Faith: Your Leap of Faith spell now also clears all movement impairing effects from your target. Useful in PvP or situationally in PvE.
Levitate: Increase your movement speed while Levitating and for 10 seconds afterward by 15%.
Mass Dispel: Causes your Mass Dispel to be potent enough to remove Magic effects that are normally undispellable. Useful in PvP.
Penance: Increases the mana cost of Penance by 20% but allows Penance to be cast while moving.
Power Word: Shield: 20% of the absorb from your Power Word: Shield is converted into healing. Functions as follows :100% absorb converts to 80% shield, 20% healing.
Prayer of Mending: The first charge of your Prayer of Mending heals for an additional 60% but your Prayer of Mending has 1 fewer charge. Exclusive with Glyph of Focused Mending. Useful in PvP or during heavy tank and/or single target damage.
Psychic Scream: Targets of your Psychic Scream now tremble in place instead of fleeing in fear. Helpful when a feared target needs to be melee'd soon; useful in PvP and PvE situationally.
Purify: Your Purify spell also heals your target for 5% of maximum health when you successfully dispel a magic effect or disease. Only worth a spot if you are consistently dispelling on CD.
Purification: Purify now has a maximum of 2 charges but its cooldown is increased by 4 sec. This glyph is a must have in encounters where a dispellable debuff falling off could cause raid damage, or the timing of a dispel is critical.
Reflective Shield: Causes 70% of the damage you absorb with Power Word: Shield to reflect back at the attacker. This damage causes no threat. This only applies to the shield you applied to yourself, not other players.
Restored Faith: Leap of Faith pulls you to your target instead of pulling your target to you.
Scourge Imprisonment: Reduces the cast time of your Shackle Undead by 1.0 sec.
Shadow Magic: For 5 seconds after activating Fade, you are immune to Silence and Interrupt effects, but the cooldown of Fade is increased by 60 sec. Exclusive with Glyph of Fade.
Smite: Your Smite spells inflicts an additional 20% damage against targets afflicted by Holy Fire, but that additional damage does not get transferred by atonement.
Weakened Soul: Reduces the duration of the Weakened Soul effect caused by Power Word: Shield by 2 sec. Exclusive with Glyph of Power Word: Shield, Glyph of Reflective Shield.
B) Minor Glyphs
Minor glyphs are purely for fun, though there are some that improve your quality of life. The only minor glyph that is worth noting specifically is that Glyph of The Sha prevents your shadowfiend and/or Mindbender from triggering the GCD.
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V. Secondary and Tertiary Stats
WoD brings a complete overhaul of the current stat system. First of all, reforging is gone. Secondly, hit, expertise, dodge and parry have been removed (while that's largely irrelevant for healing priests.) Spirit is now available only on certain items (Fingers, neck, back and trinkets.) Additionally Blizzard introduced quite a few new secondary and tertiary "minor" stats.
A) The Newcomers
Secondary-
Multistrike: Grants your spells, abilities and auto-attacks the chance to activate up to two extra times at 30% of normal effectiveness.
Bonus Armor: Because dodge and parry were removed, bonus armor became the tank specific stat. It is similar to spirit in that it only appears on Fingers, neck, back and trinket slots. Non-beneficial to non-tank classes.
Versatility: A linear gain in healing, damage, and absorbs that also reduces the damage you take by 0.5% for every 1% of Versatility.
Tertiary-
Movement Speed: Increases your movement speed.
Indestructible Causes an item to be immune to durability damage
Leech: Causes you to be healed for a portion of all damage and healing done
Avoidance: Reduces the damage taken from AoE attacks.
B) The Tried and True
i) Spirit – Increases the mana regen rate. Only available on specific items now, unlike in MoP. Those items are rings, neck, back and trinkets.
ii) Haste- Haste reduces our cast time, and increases the speed at which Heal over Time spells tick. With the removal of haste breakpoints, you get a linear benefit from haste. You get partial tickets whenever you are in between a breakpoint.
iii) Mastery - As Disc, our critical heals convert to absorbs, which benefit from mastery. Mastery goes hand-in-hand with critical strike. Without it, our crits are much smaller.
iv) Critical Strike - Heals when they crit, heal for an additional 100%. However, crits can be RNG and consistency can be important to a healer. Because of our Divine Aegis as well as Enlightenment, Crit is still the most valuable stat for Discipline.
C) Stat Priority
Spirit > Crit >/ Mastery > Multiestike > Haste
Spirit being only until comfortable, and when using any program like AMR, you will need to set a specific cap to reflect this. I urge you to regularly evaluate yourself using logs to see what your spell selection is and evaluate your stat weights accordingly. A great tool to use is Adinne's HealCalc.
Because of our Enlightenment passive, Crit is a bit easier to get noticeable results from. Multistike is less valuable only because we do not have the attenuation, because MS heals can still proc divine aegis. With the removal of reforging, you must turn to gemming to fit your specific secondary stat needs. Arguably, gem slots are more important than they ever have been. Unfortunately they will be rarer in WoD.
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VI. Enchants
We do have some choice in our enchants, generally speaking we should be using our gems as our primary source of regen (since they benefit from the 2:1 Secondary to Primary stat itemization) not our enchants. [*] denote the BIS option. (Profession only enchants are listed here provided they are mutually exclusive to the basic enchant). These denote level 90 choices as of 6.02. Profession perks are being toned down across the board.
Shoulder
Greater Crane Wing Inscription [*]
Crane Wing Inscription
Secret Crane Wing Inscription (Scribe Only) [*]
Cloak
Superior Intellect [*]
Superior Critical Strike
Darkglow Embroidery (Tailor Only) [*] - Mana Regen
Lightweave Embroidery (Tailor Only) [*] - Throughput
Chest
Glorious Stats [*]
Mighty Spirit
Wrist
Super Intellect [*]
Mastery
Fur Lining - Intellect (Leatherworking Only) [*]
Rings
Greater Intellect (Enchanter Only) [*]
Gloves
Superior Mastery [*]
Greater Haste
Waist
Living Steel Belt Buckle [*]
Legs
Greater Pearlescent Spellthread [*] If spirit is needed
Greater Cerulean Spellthread [*]
Boots
Pandaren's Step [*]
Greater Haste
Weapon
Windsong (main hand)
Jade Spirit (main hand) [*]
Major Intellect (offhand)
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VII. Gemming
A) Basic Gems
Because we are still in the level 90 content, there are no new secondary gem options (For Multistrike, Versatility or Bonus Armor), but what existing gems we had that included hit, expertise, dodge and parry have altered. There are also many Red, Yellow and Blue gems that have pure secondaries, facilitating stat stacking even with the removal of reforging. Also, the amount of stat gain has stayed in the same 2:1 ratio, but the amounts have been greatly reduced because of the stack squish. A [*] indicates new pure secondary gems.
Red
Brilliant Primordial Ruby
Precise Primordial Ruby[*]
Purple
Purified Imperial Amethist
Accurate Imperial Amethyst[*]
Veiled Imperial Amethyst[*]
Orange
Potent Vermilion Onyx
Reckless Vermilion Onyx
Artful Vermilion Onyx
Crafty Vermilion Onyx[*]
Keen Vermilion Onyx[*]
Yellow
Smooth Sun's Radiance
Quick Sun's Radiance
Fractured Sun's Radiance
Blue
Sparkling River’s Heart
Rigid River's Heart[*]
Green
Energized Wild Jade
Misty Wild Jade
Zen Wild Jade
Piercing Wild Jade[*]
Which gems you will want to use will vary based on your personal stat priority and spell selection however you will likely want to prioritize spirit until you reach a comfortable level of regen, then follow the rules outlined in the Stats section of this guide. Currently in 6.02, your base regen is usually high, so it's unlikely you'll need any spirit from gems even with the removal of spirit from most slots.
B) Meta Gems:
If you have it, you should still be using your Courageous Primal Diamond from the legendary questline. Thge LMG allows you to be very aggressive with your PW:S usage.
If you do not have your Legendary Meta Gem:
Revitalizing Primal Diamond
Ember Primal Diamond
Burning Primal Diamond
If you need mana regen, you'll want the Revitalizing Primal Diamond. outside of that, the Ember and Burning Primal diamonds are both solid choices.
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VIII. Consumables
A) Food
In 5.4 saw the introduction of 300 stat food "feasts" the Grand Pandaren Noodle Cart. You will still gain the most benefit from these, until WoD launches.
In WoD, food will provide only a secondary stat benefit. What you choose will be dependent on your current stat allocations and preferences. Below are the +75 Secondary Stat options most relevant to Holy Priests:
Blackrock Barbecue - Critical Strike
Calamari Crepes - Multistrike
Frosty Stew - Haste
Gorgrond Chowder - Versitility
Sleeper Surprise - Mastery
There does not appear to be a spirit food at this time.
B) Flasks
Until WoD launches you can choose between Flask of Falling Leaves for 114 spirit or Flask of the Warm Sun for 114 intellect. I advise against the spirit flask this late into the expansion, where you should be able to meet your spirit needs via gemming without an overall loss of stats in your budget (because flasks do not benefit from the 2:1 secondary:primary ratio.)
In WoD, the flasks you have to choose from will be Draenic Intellect Flask and it's improved version, Greater Draenic Intellect.
C) Potions
In the interim between now and WoD Launch, the previous MoP potions are still beneficial.
Master Mana Potion: Restores finite amount of mana.
Potion of Focus: provides the most mana back possible, however requires you to stop actively casting when using the potion.
Potion of the Jade Serpent: instant surge in your Intellect. Helpful if mana is not a concern, but if increased output will be.
In WoD, potions remain largely unchanged other than Healthstones and profession perks share the CD. The Draenic versions are as follows:
Draenic Mana Potion: Restores between two values of mana, dependent on level used. At level 100 restores 32300 to 35700 mana.
Draenic Channeled Mana Potion: Provides the most benefit but you must channel it's full duration for max benefit.
Draenic Intellect Potion: Provides throughput boost.
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IX. Divine Aegis and Spirit Shell
Divine Aegis
Divine Aegis is unique to discipline. All of your healing, included the heals generated from Atonement can trigger DA. You will need Mastery to increase the absorb amount. They have a linear relation. The more crit you have, the most mastery you will want. Ideally you will select your gems appropriately to match whatever baseline secondary stats you have on your gear. With WoD, it'll be more difficult to keep these two stats in harmony.
Part of maximizing Disc gameplay is stacking DA on the raid before large periods of damage. In 6.02 this is primarily done via Holy Nova and PoH casts. With the level 90 talents, namely Divine Star, no longer uncapped, it's difficult and inefficient to use them for DA application.
Spirit Shell
Spirit Shell is a new tool available to Discipline in MOP. Essentially it allows us, on a short 1 minute cooldown, to convert all of our spells into absorbs that last for 10 seconds (as of 5.4) Note: Spirit Shell caps at 60% of the Casting Priest's HP.
As of 5.2, Spirit Shell no longer scales directly from Mastery and now scales correctly from Divine Aegis. This was changed to keep Spirit Shell in line with our base healing. Blizzard did not want Spirit Shell to always provide greater numbers than the base heal. As of 5.2 Spirit Shell's absorbs created should be equal to the same output of the non-SS version of the spell. (Both of which scale from crit identically). Spirit Shell scales with Archangel. Remember to use, and time these abilities appropriately before or after a Spirit Shell period. Archangel's CD is half of that of Spirit Shell, so you are able to get twice as many Archangels as Spirit Shells in a given fight.
Using Spirit Shell effectively is the sign of a good Discipline Priest. Instead of using Spirit Shell blindly on CD, you can use it to dampen the impact of raidwide damage. Being aware of the damage patterns of the encounter as well as knowing when other healing CD's are being used will allow you to use this spell most effectively. Learning how to time the application with respect to incoming damage is a learned skill.
While not initially intuitive, haste does not benefit SS directly. While you do get additional PoH casts (and thus more SS applications) via haste, the amount of haste to get an additional PoH cast does not outweigh the raw healing gain from Crit/Mastery. You need to reach an entire additional PoH cast which is a lot of stats to allocate, whereas Crit/Mastery constantly impact every spellcast.
I suggest you watch boss guides and read the dungeon journal to preemptively plan Spirit Shell usage. To be a good disc priest, you're going to need thorough knowledge of the fight.
It's important to note that absorb mechanics are never sub-par to raw healing. They increase the effective HP allies, thus preventing damage from happening in the first place. Generally, it's easy to prevent damage than to heal it up.
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X. Atonement and Archangel
Atonement has been through quite a few incarnations, and you bet WoD didn't mark a period without change. Let's address both what's remained the same and what has changed:
Casting Smite, Holy Fire/PW:Solace, or Penance (offensively) will provide one stack of Evangelism. If you consume these stacks with Archangel, you gain 5% added throughput for each stack. Additionally, these stacks increase the output subsequent casts of these spells. Penance with a full stack of Evangelism is one of our best damaging abilities). Note: in times of low raid/single target damage, smite adds valuable damage which can assist in tight enrage timers.
The trick is to leverage Archangel to your advantage and not just use it haphazardly. Fully stacked, Archangel provides you with an additional 25% throughput for 18 seconds with a mere 30 second cooldown. Despite it having a short cooldown, making it readily available throughout most of the fight, the best way for a Disc Priest to use Archangel is to know when the raid/tank damage is going to increase and demand for more throughput. You can safely have AA ready if you cast Penance and HF on CD. Empowered Archangel also provides you a mechanic similar to Inner Focus (now removed.)
There are times when healing a target with Penance defensively may be advantageous. Grace has changed, so penance no longer has the benefit of granted a full 3 stacks of grace on a target. It used to be that you could weave defensive and offensive penance, leveraging the grace stacks on a target to be healed more potently via atonement.
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XI. Rotation
We got a bit of a shake-up as disc priest during the transition to WoD. Smite as filler is less efficient than before, and Holy Nova has stepped up to fill that niche. Our Level 90 talents have been recapped, so building DA is more difficult, and we rely more on HN and PoH to do this.
There isn't a sequence of button presses that will output the best effective healing for your raid. There is however a general set of guidelines you can follow that can help you maximize your performance. The most important thing is that you need to be dynamic. Adapt to the situation at hand, and be well versed with regards to your spellbook. However, with Spirit Shell is still a decent part of our healing composition even though it has been reduced to a talent.
I am going to assume that you're properly using Spirit Shell for the sake of these spell priorities.
A) Single Target Healing
Discipline Priests can be amazing tank healers given their cooldowns, absorbs, and single target throughput.
Low Single Target Damage
► Build and maintain Evangelism via Holy Fire/Solace smart Atonement triage.
► Holy Nova is preferred over smite if it will hit more than 3 targets
► PW: Shield as needed on the target
Moderate Single Target Damage
►Heal or Penance for triage, using defensive Penance only when it will be low overheal
► Build and maintain Evangelism and smart Atonement triage
► Holy Nova is preferred over smite if it will hit more than 3 targets
► PW: Shield, ensuring to re-apply PW: Shield as soon as Weakened Soul falls off
► PoM on targets who will be taking continual damage and will proc the first charge of PoM
High Single Target Damage
► Archangel provided cooldown is ready
► Heal or Defensive Penance
► Build and maintain Evangelism via Holy Fire/Offensive Penance as needed (only if AA is not currently active, and the HF target is within range of your desired healing target as to benefit from Atonement- otherwise focus on your desired target with a directed Heal, Penance or Flash Heal)
► PW: Shield, ensuring to re-apply PW: Shield as soon as Weakened Soul falls off
► Prayer of Mending on CD, particularly if movement is needed.
► Flash Heal as needed
► Pain Suppression
Overwhelming Single Target Damage
► Archangel provided cooldown is ready
► Penance on CD
► Heal on target provided minimal overhealing
► PW: Shield on your target as soon as Weakened Soul drops
► Prayer of Mending on CD
► Flash Heal liberally
► Pain Suppression or PW:Barrier (if it is not otherwise assigned as a raid CD)
B) AOE or Raid Healing
Raid Healing traditionally has been tough for the Disc Priest and WoD doesn't appear to be an exception. With stacked groups, it is noticeably easier because we can lean on Holy Nova. However during spread phases we must rely heavily on CoW, PoH, Spirit Shell and PW:S usage.
Low Raid Wide Damage
► Build and maintain Evangelism via Holy Fire/Smite/Penance and to smartly triage the raid
► Holy Nova liberally as filler
► Prayer of Mending on CD, provided it will be able to bounce to multiple targets
► Prayer of Healing on groups, if necessary, and provided Prayer of Healing will heal 3+ targets with minimal overheal, otherwise continue to triage with Single Target Heals or Atonement.
► PW:S as needed
► Level 90 talent as needed/list]
Moderate Raid Wide Damage
► Build and maintain Evangelism via Atonement (Penance/HF/Smite) and to smartly triage the raid
► Holy Nova liberally as filler
► CoW (if spec'd) as needed
► Prayer of Mending on CD, provided it will be able to bounce to multiple targets
► Prayer of Healing on groups provided Prayer of Healing will heal 3+ targets with minimal overheal, otherwise continue to triage with Single Target Heals or Atonement.
► PW: Shield as needed on targets in immediate danger
► Divine Star/Halo/Cascade on CD.
High Raid Wide Damage
► Archangel provided cooldown is ready
► Build and maintain Evangelism via Atonement (Penance/HF/Smite) (only if AA is not currently active)
► Holy Nova liberally as filler, especially if stacked
► PW:S blanketing
► CoW blanketing
► Prayer of Mending on CD, provided it will be able to bounce to multiple targets
► Prayer of Healing on groups, if necessary, and provided Prayer of Healing will heal 3+ targets with minimal overheal
► Divine Star/Halo/Cascade on CD.
► PW: Barrier if needed
Overwhelming Raid Wide Damage
► Archangel provided cooldown is ready
► Holy Nova liberally if no one is in immediate danger of death
► Prayer of Mending on CD
► Prayer of Healing on groups, alternating groups to ensure full absorption of Divine Aegis
► Divine Star/Halo/Cascade on CD.
► PW: Barrier on your raid
As mentioned previously, raidwide damage, as a Disc Priest, should be preemptively prepared for via Spirit Shell or selective PWS blanketing. Watch your boss mod timers, and prepare your raid 8-12 seconds before the damage is due.
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XII. Racial Bonuses
In WoD, Racial bonuses have been scaled back to inhibit the occurrence of "BiS" races. The changes are as follows:
There aren’t any current plans to change Pandaren or Worgen racials.
Blood Elves
Arcane Acuity is a new racial passive ability that increases Critical Strike chance by 1%.
Arcane Torrent restores 3% of Mana for Mage, Priest, Warlocks (up from 2% of Mana). Other aspects of the ability remain unchanged.
Draenei
Heroic Presence has been redesigned. It no longer increases Hit by 1%, and instead increases Strength, Agility, and Intellect, scaling with character level.
Gift of the Naaru now heals for the same amount over 5 seconds (down from 15 seconds).
Dwarfs
Mace Specialization (was 1% Expertise with maces) has been replaced with Might of the Mountain.
Might of the Mountain is a new racial passive ability that increases Critical Strike bonus damage and healing dealt by 2%.
Stoneform now also removes magic and curse effects in addition to poison, disease, and bleed effects, along with reducing damage taken by 10% for 8 seconds. It remains unusable while CC'd.
Gnomes
Expansive Mind now increases maximum Mana, Energy, Rage, and Runic Power by 5% instead of only increasing maximum Mana.
Escape Artist’s cooldown has been reduced to 1 minute (down from 1.5 minutes).
Shortblade Specialization (was 1% Expertise with one-handed swords and daggers) has been replaced with Nimble Fingers.
Nimble Fingers is a new racial passive ability that increases Haste by 1%.
Goblin
Time is Money now grants a 1% increase to Haste (up from only attack speed and spell haste).
Human
The Human Spirit has been redesigned. It now increases Versatility, scaling with character level.
Night Elves
Quickness now also increases movement speed by 2% in addition to increasing Dodge chance by 2%.
Touch of Elune is a new passive ability which increases Haste by 1% at night, and Critical Strike Chance by 1% during the day.
Tauren
Brawn is a new racial passive ability that increases Critical Strike bonus damage and healing done by 2%.
Endurance now increases Stamina by an amount scaling with character level, instead of increasing Base Health by 5%.
Trolls
Berserking now increases Haste by 15% (down from 20%).
Beast Slaying now increases XP earned from killing Beasts by 20% instead of increasing damage dealt versus Beasts by 5%.
Dead Eye has been removed (was 1% Expertise with ranged weapons).
Undead
Will of the Forsaken’s cooldown has been increased to 3 minutes (up from 2 minutes).
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XII. Additional Reading and WeakAuras
Under Construction.
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XIII. Changelog
10/18/14
Human racial now simply increases Versatility