Introduction

Discipline Priests are extremely versatile healers, making them very enjoyable to play.  A properly geared and spec’d Disc Priest is capable of putting out single target heals on par with a Holy Paladin, while also having the ability to perform an exotic form of raid healing, with throughput comparable to any other raid healing class.  Exotic of course, due to the nature of Power Word: Shield, compared to all other heals in the game.

I like being unique.  That was the major draw between myself and Disc in the first place, and on my very first real test of Discipline I was not dissapointed as my shields ate up nuke after nuke from the air by Razorscale.  I could see the possibilities.

I think Disc is relatively undervalued due to the inability of the game to display how much is really being absorbed by shields.  Not even sites like World of Logs can accurately display shields - although they at least try - and if you take shields out of the equation it certainly seems like a Disc Priest isn’t holding their weight on the healing meter.  Hopefully Blizzard will fix this one day, but until then I’ll have to settle for last place on every fight in healing done.

Before you read the rest of this post, it’s important you read and understand a simple disclaimer.

**Some of the information in this post differs from some ‘common’ discipline theory-crafting.  There are reasons for this, and I will attempt to explain any I encounter.  That said, in this case I consider myself to be right, and anyone that disagrees with me to be wrong.**

What a Discipline Priest Brings to the Raid

Inspiration - Reduces physical damage taken by 10%.  The only other class that brings this buff for your tank is a Resto Shaman.

Renewed Hope - 3% Percent damage reduction, raid wide.  Blessing of Sanctuary is the only other buff that provides this damage reduction, however even with a Prot Paladin in the raid you might not see Sanc used, as it’s a lower priority than some other very powerful Paladin buffs.

Gear Selection and Glyphs

I use the following stat values when picking gear:

SP = 1.5
Haste = 0.8
Crit = 0.7
MP/5 = 1.0
Int = 0.75
Spirit = 0.4

And here no doubt, we come to our first differences among viewpoints.  I change my stat values from time to time, but not by much (basically throughput stats sometimes go up, while mana regen goes down).  While nobody doubts spirits value to Discipline, I have never seen any other rankings similar to my own in regards to MP/5 + Int and SP + Haste + Crit.

I’ll explain my reasoning:

Spell Power - Spell power rules.  It is the only throughput stat that increases all of your abilities effectiveness.  Stack it hard.

Haste - Haste rules too!  As a healer, I measure my ability to heal when I have to, not how much I can do over a 6 minute fight.  What matters is responding to quick burst damage, and haste is the only stat that in a set time frame can allow you to heal 2 targets instead of 1, etc.  Yes, borrowed time will cap your haste if you are shield spamming, however if you are shield spamming your crit doesn’t really matter either.  So unless you are stacking insane mana regeneration you might as well prioritize haste - after all, you won’t always have the borrowed time effect.  Furthermore, only your 1.5s spells will be haste capped, PoH, Penance, and Gheal will all still gain its value.

Crit - I consider crit to be ‘okay’.  First, shields can’t crit.  Second, crits are often overheal.  However crits do proc Inspiration and Divine Aegis.  This is the primary reason they have any place at all, but it’s still below haste.

Mp/5 - You need mana regeneration in some form or another.

Int - Intellect is a very good mana regeneration stat for its stat value, however I do not consider it to be an effective throughput stat since I have very little value for Crit.

Spirit - At around 2000 intellect spirit is worth about ~.37 Mp/5 - That’s under the item budge of Mp/5.  Avoid spirit.

Glyph of Power Word: Shield, Penance, and Flash Heal are your primary glyphs.  I often sub flash heal out for Holy Nova and Prayer of Healing on fights where I find myself using those abilities. 

Learn 2 Play

As a Disc Priest you will have the ability to raid heal or tank heal, or even do both at once.  When I reached Algalon I very quickly realized that flash heal simply didn’t keep up.  With that in mind I started focusing towards Gheal, and that decision effects my gear and my stat attributes as well as reinforcing my focus on haste.

Pure Raid Healing - When you are only raid healing, spam PW:S on as many people as you can, before and as they take damage.  Penance anyone that dips, or cast a hasted Gheal/Flash.  Keep PoM on CD at all times.  Remember you can Shield -> Penance -> PoM -> Gheal and maintain your borrowed time haste from your shield for all of the chain since neither instants, nor Penance consumes the buff.  You can use PoH’s in extreme situations, but never cast an unhasted PoH.  Also, Glyphed Holy Nova + Borrowed Time can be a powerful combination if you can get your group members to stay close.

Hybrid Healing - Heal the tanks with Penance / Gheals, while shielding raid members for borrowed time procs.  You should never be casting a non-hasted Penance or Gheal in this situation.  PoM on CD.

Pure Tank Healing - Depending on the incoming damage, you can rely on flash heals or greater heals, but whenever you shield someone, be it a tank or someone else, never waste your borrowed time proc on a flash heal, and always use your PoM after a shield in combination with Penance and Gheal.

Talents

There is really no reason not to use this spec since it covers everything you could want to do.  Removing points in Improved Flash heal for Improved Healing for cheaper Gheals is an option, but I like to stay versatile.