Discipline Priest Talents – Shadowlands

Talents

15		Castigation		Twist of Fate		Schism
25		Body and Soul		Masochism		Angelic Feather
30		Shield Discipline		Mindbender		Power Word: Solace
35		Psychic Voice		Dominant Mind		Shining Force
40		Sins of the Many		Contrition		Shadow Covenant
45		Purge the Wicked		Divine Star		Halo
50		Lenience		Spirit Shell		Evangelism

Talent Quick Glance Recommendations

Back to Table of Contents

Talent Discussion

There are strengths and weaknesses to all talents which can vary quite significantly based on the content you are facing. The aim below is to discuss the various talents and why they might be strong or weak.

Level 15

Level 25

Level 30

Level 35

Level 40

Level 45

Level 50

	Castigation		Twist of Fate		Schism

• Castigation - Causes Penance to fire an extra bolt over its cast time. Another bolt simply means more damage and/or healing.
  • Due to the low tuning of Penance, this talent typically falls behind numerically to the other options that can empower our entire kit rather than one spell.
• Twist of Fate - Grants a 10s buff when you heal a target below 35% health. It grants 20% increased damage and healing.
  • Choosing this talent is typically very nuanced. It needs to be a situation where you are very likely to get a proc. A good example is when doing very high keys and ally health will drop below 35% very often. Or when you are in need of stronger single target healing.
  • The damage and healing effect does not double-dip with Atonement. Only the healing bonus applies.
• Schism - An ability with a 24s cooldown. It deals damage to your target and increases your damage to this target by 25% for 9s.
  • This spell is one of our hardest hitting, is very mana inexpensive and will empower Atonement healing to any subsequent damage dealt to the target.
  • On-demand increased damage.

	Body and Soul		Masochism		Angelic Feather

• Body and Soul - Power Word: Shield and Leap of Faith increases the target's movement speed by 40% for 3 seconds
  • This speed boost is the best on very long distances on foot
  • Due to being tied to our shield, it has a mana cost and 7.5s cooldown due to Weakened Soul.
  • Allies who are not expecting a speed boost could unintentionally be put in a bad position due to that speed.
• Masochism - Replaces the DoT from Shadow Mend with an HoT and also causes you to take 10% reduced damage (self-cast only).
  • Only taken when we have no need for a movement speed increase or when our damage intake is so dangerous we require damage reduction.
• Angelic Feather - Place a feather at a target location to give a 40% movement increase for 5s to anyone who runs over it. It has 3 available charges that take 20s to recharge.
  • Overall the greatest movement speed increase to add to our kit with no mana cost.
  • Only 3 feathers can be active at a time.

	Shield Discipline		Mindbender		Power Word: Solace

• Shield Discipline - Whenever your Power Word: Shield is fully consumed you restore 0.5% of your maximum mana.
  • Provides consistent mana regeneration but does not give any extra output compared to the other options on this row. Not taken for any content currently.
• Mindbender - Replaces Shadowfiend with another pet. It will now have a 60s CD with a 12s duration and each hit will now restore 0.5% of your maximum mana (Was 180s CD with a 15s duration and 1% restore).
  • Lowest mana regeneration on this row as you typically will hold onto it for healing purposes.
  • Provides a short CD for more frequent passive damage/healing.
  • Neither pet's damage is increased by our other talents. Keep in mind Shadowfiend does hit harder for a longer duration.
• Power Word: Solace - An ability with a 15s CD. It deals damage to the target and restores 1% of your maximum mana.
  • Grants us an on-demand damage output which is also increased by our other talents.
  • Highest potential mana gains if used on CD (hard to achieve).

	Psychic Voice		Dominant Mind		Shining Force

• Psychic Voice - Reduces the CD of Psychic Scream by 30s.
  • It's not often in PVE that we need more frequent use of fear.
  • Can be used to delay spell casting of dangerous enemies.
• Dominant Mind - Changes Mind Control to allow you to make an enemy your "pet" meaning you can still control your character.
  • Very rarely provides any considerable benefit as the controlled enemy has its damage significantly reduced and we don't gain access to their abilities.
• Shining Force - An ability with a 45s CD. Causes enemies located around and ally target to be knocked back and slowed by 70% for 3s.
  • The ability to knock enemies back can be very potent as it interrupts spell casting and pushes them away from other mechanics they may interact with.
  • As it can be cast on others, you can help in various ways. For example, helping a tank kiting groups of enemies.

	Sins of the Many		Contrition		Shadow Covenant

• Sins of the Many - A passive damage boost which varies depending on Atonement Count
  • A strong passive boost to your damage which translates through to Atonement.
  • As shown by the below table, the lowest your damage increase goes to is 3%.

Atonement Count	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10+
Damage Percent	12	12	10	8	7	6	5	5	4	4	3

---

• Contrition - Defensive Penance will now heal through Atonement.
  • The spell power tuning is very low and it's very rarely worth using this talent over the other choices.
• Shadow Covenant - An ability with a 20s CD. Heals your target and 4 nearby allies. Also grants a 25% shadow damage/healing buff for 9s.
  • Prevents the casting of Holy school spells during its uptime. (includes things like our dispel and Angelic Feather)
  • Will give extra synergy for output increases when combined with Schism
  • Has a relatively high mana cost and is a non-damage global during your Atonement up times.

	Purge the Wicked		Divine Star		Halo

• Purge the Wicked - Replaces Shadow Word: Pain. Gives us a stronger DoT that deals more damage that is also spread to nearby enemies with Penance. Lasts 20s (was 16s).
  • Provides potent passive healing and damage.
  • Typically the strongest overall in 5-man content and any encounter with cleave opportunity to additional enemies.
  • Usually strongest within raids also due to being a longer DoT and not requiring additional GCDs.
• Divine Star - An ability with a 15s CD. Shoots a holy ball in the direction your character is facing. Once reaching the 24-yard mark it will return to you. It heals and deals damage to allies/enemies in its path.
  • Requires you to aim towards your target and your targets to be stacked for maximum benefit.
  • With 9.1.5's rework this now provides potent output when your raid is stacked. It still adds alot GCD bloat and mana cost which should be considered.
  • Only heals through Atonement for the first damage instance.
• Halo - An ability with a 40s CD. Shoots out a growing holy circle from our position which will reach 30 yards. It heals and deals damage to allies/enemies in its path.
  • Very strong on certain encounters as it allows you to empower your Atonement ramps whilst also providing a standard non Atonement heal source. Often the strongest raiding pick on single target encounters. (unless you are Kyrian)
  • If enemies are not within your line of sight, Halo will not hit them.
  • Only heals through Atonement for the first damage instance.

	Lenience		Spirit Shell		Evangelism

• Lenience - Passive damage reduction is given to anyone with Atonement active on them.
  • Reduces significant damage over time.
  • Strongest M+ pick.
• Spirit Shell - An empower ability that converts the healing of Penance, Power Word: Radiance and Atonement into a shield during the duration of the buff. 90s CD and 10s uptime.
  • Replaces Rapture
  • Does not provide direct healing increase due to converting healing you would already be doing. Has low value within M+. Has potential within raids given niche situations where you want to give your raid EHP buffers.
  • Its value comes in the form of widening the healing window and lowering the impact of mistimed Atonements.
  • Its current use case is typically when the content is easier or you are often overhealing fights.
• Evangelism - An ability with a 90s CD. Extends all active Atonements by 6s.
  • The synergy and power this ability brings to our kit within raids is very potent. Nowhere near as impactful for any other content.
  • It's potential healing is far greater than Spiritshell but is obviously subject to overhealing. Within raid on Mythic this talent is the go to.

Back to Table of Contents