Discipline Priest Quickstart – Shadowlands Prepatch

Introduction

Hello fellow priests, I'm Hellpriesto, here to give you a little helping hand to getting started with Discipline Priest.

Have you just returned to WoW, re-rolled to a new alt? This quick guide should give you everything you need to get started quickly. For a full summary of what the Shadowlands Prepatch has brought for Disc, please check out this link.

If you want fast responses to questions you may have, pop into the WarcraftPriests Discord where we are always around to help out. If asking for gameplay help, giving us something to work with will allow for greater in-depth replies, so if possible always run logs of yourself.

As many of you may already know, the core gameplay aspect of Discipline is Atonement. to put it simply, we apply Atonement then deal damage which causes a portion of healing from that damage. It's important to be aware of our Mastery: Grace, which increases all of our healing to targets with Atonement. For all other intricacies surrounding this mechanic, check out the link below.

For the full Discipline Guide head here

Choose Your Content

Dungeons

Stats

Item Level (Intellect) > Haste > Everything Else

All stats are very close together in terms of value. With the total amount of secondaries available being very low, haste pulls ever so slightly ahead.

It is recommended to take intellect gems where possible. Otherwise, all other gems/enchants/food, if your current haste is quite low, can be haste.

Trinkets/Azerite Gear may deviate from the rule as effects carry their own power.

Talents

These talents are not the go to for every single situation within dungeons. That being said, these are very strong default options which you can change up when needed.

Abilities and how to use them

Its very important to note that while we primarily heal through Atonement, you cannot rely on Atonement to heal everything. There will be times you need to fall back on stronger single target healing.

  • PW:S - Used Sparingly
    • Maintain Atonement on Tanks.
    • Quick Atonement application on those who need healing.
  • Smend - Used a lot
    • Strong single target healing that also applies Atonement.
  • PW:R - Used often
    • Quick group wide Atonement application.
  • Penance - Used often
    • Can be used offensively or defensively, which is used depends on what you need more, AoE healing or single .target healing respectively. If you know movement/healing is required soon, it can be worth holding onto Penance for a few seconds longer.
  • Mind Blast - Used Sparingly
    • Strong healing whilst Atonements are active with a heavy mana cost.
  • SW:P - Constantly maintained
    • Have at least one DoT ticking at all times for PotDS procs and constant healing over time.
  • Smite - Used as a filler
    • Very mana efficient for the damage it deals.
  • Mind Sear - Used Often
    • Get used to using this spell during your downtime for efficient AoE damage.
    • Only interacts with atonement on the first instance of damage, so not very good healing.
  • Schism/Solace/Halo - Talented CD's used when needed
    • Schism gives us a large damage boost and subsequently, a healing boost that should be used as often as possible.
    • Solace is a mana free damage burst that returns mana which should be used on CD.
    • Halo used for healing/damage/atonement healing burst. Be wary of positioning when using.

Cooldowns

  • ShadowFiend - Used as a healing CD for strong healing through Atonement.
  • PW:B - Should be preemptively used to counter massive group wide damage.
  • Rapture - Is used to either, preemptively counter incoming damage or to buffer the group's health pools to give you time to heal them up.
  • PS - Is used to either, preemptively prevent damage incoming to a single target or as a last resort to try to keep someone alive.
  • Mass Dispel, Purify and Dispel Magic - All of these spells should be utilised within dungeons
  • Desperate Prayer - Is used to keep yourself alive in a tough situation.

Raids

Stats

Item Level (Intellect) > Haste > Everything Else

All stats are very close together in terms of value. With the total amount of secondaries available being very low, haste pulls ever so slightly ahead.

It is recommended to take intellect gems where possible. Otherwise, all other gems/enchants/food, if your current haste is quite low, can be haste.

Trinkets/Azerite Gear may deviate from the rule as effects carry their own power.

Talents

These talents are not the go to for every single situation within raids. That being said, these are very strong default options which you can change up when needed.

Abilities and how to use them

Its very important to note that while we primarily heal through Atonement, you cannot apply Atonement to everyone within a raid at all times as you will run yourself out of mana.

  • PW:S - Used often
    • Quick Atonement application on the move or when targets are at full health.
    • Empowered when Rapture is used Rapture.
    • Don't go overboard or you will have mana issues. Every Atonement application must be used efficiently.
  • Smend - Used often
    • Atonement application to injured raid members
    • Don't go overboard or you will have mana issues. Every Atonement application must be used efficiently.
  • PW:R - Used often
    • Quick group wide Atonement application.
  • Penance - Used often
    • Usually used offensively as the AoE healing outweighs the single target healing capabilities. If you know movement/healing is required soon, it can be worth holding onto Penance for a few seconds longer.
  • Mind Blast - Used Sparingly
    • Strong healing whilst Atonements are active with a heavy mana cost.
  • SW:P - Constantly maintained
    • Have at least one DoT ticking at all times for PotDS procs and constant healing over time.
  • Smite - Used as a filler
    • Very mana efficient for the damage it deals.
  • Schism/Solace/Halo - Talented CD's used when needed
    • Schism gives us a large damage boost and subsequently, a healing boost that should be used as often as possible.
    • Solace is a mana free damage burst that returns mana which should be used on CD.
    • Halo used for healing/damage/atonement healing burst. Be wary of positioning when using.
  • Evangelism - Used to set up burst healing, as often as the encounter permits

Cooldowns

  • ShadowFiend - Used as a healing CD for strong healing through Atonement.
  • PW:B - Should be preemptively used to counter massive raid wide damage.
  • Rapture - Is used to either, preemptively counter incoming damage or to buffer the raid's health pools to give you time to heal them up.
  • PS - Is used to either, preemptively prevent damage incoming to a single target or as a last resort to try to keep someone alive.
  • Purify and Dispel Magic - These spells should be utilised within raids.
  • Mass Dispel - Shouldn't be used as extremely mana heavy.
  • Desperate Prayer - Is used to keep yourself alive in a tough situation.

Levelling

Stats

Item level > All, avoiding mastery where possible. (does not add to damage, for healing purposes Mastery is perfectly fine)

Make sure to have Legion enchants/gems/consumables ready to go (haste/crit preferred).

Talents

Abilities and how to use them

Throughout the majority of levelling, Atonement will be sufficient to keep you alive whilst taking down your enemies.

  1. Apply PW:S to yourself, maintain as Atonement is about to fall off.
  2. PTW as many targets as comfortable with (can be quite a lot).
  3. AoE Trinket if applicable.
  4. At two or more targets cast Mind Sear.
  5. Use Schism/Solace/Penance/ShadowFiend on cooldown.
  6. Spam Smite.
  7. Shadow Mend yourself for strong single target healing when necessary.