Disc is better than ever!

Classes Priest
21

This isn’t about using your brain. I was referring to PVP not PVE. Use your cooldowns when you getting trained and then use your brain!

22

Where is this +8 Kings you said you did I not see it in your logs.

23

I did it last night… its weird cause I did a 7 alta and it didn’t update for some reason either… but I swear we cleared it… but you wont believe me anyways ill do some more high keys tonight to prove. even in pvp I don’t think its bad I usually 2’s but just pillar and your fine. its really not as bad a nerf as people say/think it is

24

Once again you are referring to PVE…I was talking about PVP big difference. DISC is not fine. I don’t want to be God like I am only interested in fun. DISC was overtuned and I expected some nerfs. But like everything else the nerfs went to far.

2 Likes
25

idk man… I guess we just have different opinions… again I guess im gonna be the only bfa disc

26

I can agree to disagree and remain civil about it. I just don’t think DISC is going to be as competitive as you think. Love your optimism though. I hope I am wrong. I also hope it’s just about gear and Azerite choices. Things i can change. But ATM I am very unhappy.

2 Likes
27

I mean honestly ever spec of any class with gear is good in my opinion. Maybe not shadow but well save my thoughts on shadow for a different thread… but I think it can only get better with gear. I wouldn’t say im unhappy. im just glad I can still play it cause I cant play holy or shadow. I feel like I spend less time shield spamming and I can actually think about the next move which is why I say I think its better. mana hungry at times yes but I like the feel of it better this way

28

I’ve been testing stuff in M+ lately, while the spec is still fine you can definitely feel the AOE healing took a big hit, I still was able to complete some good keys so it’s doable but I don’t think it will be on-par with Druids and Monks at the very top-end, but again most of us are not there anyway.

I tested firs with the “safe” build using ToF, Shadow Covenant, and Divine Star spot healing felt strong but I really felt my atonement was doing almost nothing for AOE healing and had to rely a lot on direct heals. I didn’t enjoy this play-stile.

I just now tested a few different things, took the offensive build with Schism and Sins and I felt a lot better with it, my atonement healing felt relevant and strong again, felt a lot better to play so I guess I’m going to stick with this one for a while.

So far what’s been the most effective for me was a multi-dot centric build that I tryed because of the azerite traits I have available: 1 Depth of Shadows and 1 Death Throes (it’s actually a shadow trait but works with Disc) and for talents I took Schism, Sins, and POTW. The idea is that Death Throes empower my POTW, and keeping it up on multiple targets then also empowers my shadow mend to improve my spot healing while also keeping strong atonement healing due to Sins and Schism. My other trait was Archive which is the strongest overall.

Edit: All that said, no, the spec can’t be “better than ever” simply because it was better in 8.0 than 8.1. I agree it was overpowered in raids, and top tier in dungeons but I don’t think it was really OP there because Druids and Monks were clearly on par.

1 Like
29

LEL. Disc priests btfo.

30

It’s balanced now the only priests that are complaining are the ones that thought they was good when the disc was grossly op.

31

You my friend are so wrong and grossly not represented.

3 Likes
32

I think it’s more that Disc was indeed OP in Raiding when played at full potential, which not many people do, so for the vast majority of players it was just “ok”.

I do agree that based on Mythic Uldir the nerfs were needed, the game has never been about “harder to play means it should be stronger”, it’s your choice what to play and all specs should have similar potential.

But to put things in perspective I carried over my Priest and Monk from Legion (which were my two main healers), after playing both in M+ my experiences were very different, the Monk felt super strong right away with insane single target healing and very powerful burst.

The Priest on the other hand was a very different story, I initially felt pretty weak and was actually switching to Holy for difficult dungeons, eventually I decided that I wanted to get better and started to stick with Disc, after enough practice I was finally comfortable enough playing it that it felt powerful as well.

Now that we have some logs I honestly think that it looks like they really got the Raid balance really well. We have yet to see how things turn out in M+ and PvP though.

33

only bad dps

1 Like
34

ever notice these kinda threads are made by some expert with 2k lifetime hk’s?

35

It seems to help more in keeping other people up and topping them up after a fight, but not so much help for the priests own survival when pressured.

1 Like
36

I still kill stuff just fine to be honest. I thought 8.1 was gonna be bad, but it’s not the end of Disc Priest for sure

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37

Method’s 8.1 Healer review still ranks Disc as the top overall healer, it is just that the gap isn’t as ridiculous as it was before.

So, instead of the ‘disc is gutted’ or ‘thanks blizz for overnerfing’ or ‘back to the bottom boys!’, maybe just 'We’re still number 1! (just not by as much)" might be a better rallying cry for disc.

38

Here’s my issue with disc. There is a way of playing it at the very top end of pve raiding where it is the best healer. But it requires complete coordination with other healers, a healing priority in the damage taken phases of a boss, a long pre-emptive string of casts, and only works at the mythic level when the group is at a relatively low ilevel. Outside of that disc suffers from heal sniping, not enough damage taken in the burst phases, flexibility to change their rotation when things go wrong, and single target burst healing.

Blizzard’s answer to this is to nerf that one very tightly balanced sliver of amazingness disc can excel at, while also effecting their already glaring weaknesses. What is required is a rework, i have no idea what that would be, that removes that one sliver of amaziness that the .01% of players have the skill and raid coordination to accomplish and strengthens the obvious weaknesses of disc for the majority of players.

While I don’t have the solution I can explain the problem with PVE raiding. Disc has a sweet spot that revolves around Schism. There are 3 forms of it all of which can be further enhanced by mana abilities such as trinkets, wisdom and innervate. The 3 forms are as follow.

  1. on a 24 second timer. Dot, Atonements, Radiance, Schism, Solace, Penance, smite until Schism wears off.
  2. On a 90 second timer. Dot, Atonements, Radiance, Radiance, Evangelism, Schism, Solace, Penance, smite until Schism wears off.
  3. On a 180 second timer. Dot, Atonements, Radiance, Radiance, Evangelism, Shadow Fiend, Solace, Penance, smite until Schism wears off.

The Atonements section is where mana comes into play. The more mana buffs you have the more atonement applicators you can apply. If you don’t have the mana you are stuck casting smites during that section.

That is a lot of healing sweet spots. No other healer has that kind of potential. But it suffers from healer sniping, not enough damage taken during the sweet spots, and the inability to divert from the cycle if things go wrong.

3 Likes
39

Disc is still great at PvE. We still great in raids, and our weakness in M+ (single target flash healing) did not get nerfed at all (in fact it got buffed).

If you don’t like disc, by all means play exclusively holy. But anyone who enjoys the play style at all keep with it, don’t let the bad’s dissuade you.

I can’t speak to PvP.

40

But you main Shadow…what gives? Everyone has to learn to play and we all can improve. But once again saying Disc is still great ----> show me the money! I am seeing less and less of Disc being represented nowadays…I wonder why? Does that mean they are the badies? I think people should be able to play what they like and not have to continue class swapping for the FOTM. This game will never be balanced trying to satisfy everyone who whines about what classes they can’t kill or not. It should be relatively easy to balance for the scripted playstyle i.e “PVE”. DISC needed nerfs but some of the nerfs just do not make any sense. I just want the top DISC players to chime in and discuss how these changes impact their playstyle if at all. Those of us who are improving our playstyle are paying the price of the few who have already arrived.

2 Likes