Friendly Neighborhood priest here (with questions),
note: I’m healing PvE in full rival gear right now. Im 278 pvp ilvl with 266 and change for PvE Background
I absolutely LOVE healing as disc. I think it’s a blast and the challenge is fun. That being said how on earth do people heal and not oom constantly?? I honestly don’t know if its even worth trying to move forward with disc and not just go holy =/
*My Raid Strategy*
Raids: I find myself chucking out 5-10 shields with swp on targets (I run penance leggo), see the aoe come out radiance for procs drop my penance, divine star if needed. Rinse repeat and try to conserve mana like crazy. If things go south, I will handle any immediate situations but try to set up for ramp. I get 10 shields pop evangelism, schism, mind blast, pi, boon and spam to my hearts content topping the end of that off with divine star. With this I still find that there is NO WAY I would have the mana to sustain long fights like Anduin.
*Mythic Plus*
Mythic +: Honestly, haven’t even tried given my mana issues in raids. I’m not so scared of the damage. I’m more scared of ooming every 28 seconds.
Any discipline priests out there fighting the current and somehow making it work? Any advice on mana? Should I just holy swap and let disc go despite it being tons of fun? >_<
No idea. I found disc a bit mana hungry in lfr at lfr ilvl too. I had the most basic of legendaries. I felt like I had a lot of room for personal improvement.
Disc probably fairs better in herioc raids where people are avoiding unesscesary damage and you can bring some unique abilities. I definitely can see stacking issues though.
My gut says they are underperforming from my normal mode bfa experiences.
I would love to hear from other people aswell.
Well, in raid, Disc priest is relegated to covering big damage events. You should be positioning all your CDs around large raid-wide damage. You want to start ramping your shields, then just before the damage happens double radiance → burst.
Generally you shouldn’t be taking D.Star in raid unless you have a very stacked fight. Even then it’s higher mana than taking halo and using it in your burst, or taking PTW and keeping that passive healing going. You’re not wrong that ramping like this is very expensive on your mana each time you have to do it, which is why generally the Disc priest will take at least one innervate (especially good to do early on, if another healer needs it later). Since most your mana is used in a short window, preventing any mana use for an entire ramp is huge gains for later in the fight. Also you might just want to calm down on mana consumption between those ramps. If you don’t get rid of the talent, absolutely cast less D.star unless you really need the healing.
Mythic Plus
Take Solace or Mindbender and use them off CD. (You might not be able to get solace off CD every time, but you should be trying to use it whenever you possibly can) If you take Solace, You can use Shadowfiend for decently sized pulls for a good bit of healing and mana back during.
Otherwise, it’s a matter of staying a bit ahead of the group - keybinding your drink and hitting it as soon as the last thing in the pack dies. Even if you only get 3-4 seconds before your tank is on the next group, you’re getting plenty back. And with Urh being the most popular add to kill even for DPS - your mana bar really only needs to last till Urh is dead.
Hey mate, regarding m+ you’ll be happy to know mana is rarely an issue,
The seasonal encrypted affix (urh buff) pretty much takes care of mana losses for us,
So you can spam your abilities as much as you want (unless it’s shadowmend, don’t spam that too much all the time)
What this person said. Once you get to +10 rarely an issue. Take mind bender conduit as well. For me; better option than solace - Disc has too many buttons as it is.
As far as mana goes the trick is to learn to minimize healing and try to get the most out of atonement. That said, in a lot of M+ with all but skilled groups, you can go OOM a lot, notably in weeks like grievous.
I mained disc up until this patch and now play holy. Holy healing is exceptionally strong with Flash Concentration, which is great in “trash” groups (forgive me but it’s especially how I feel when tanks are carries, etc because I didnt bother doing gear checks before starting and/or whatever), I have healed a fair number as holy and virtually have NEVER gone OOM–even in low skill groups on grievous, which was the opposite with Disc, especially when starting out and when gearing in M+.
Maybe you should add in to those 700+ m+ runs you boast having as disc and play the spec this season. As stated many times, mana is not an issue this season…
Unless you’re only doing under 10 keys mana shouldn’t be an issue at all.
You may be spamming shields/smend a bit too much, a notable thing about disc is using atonement to heal when dmg is coming in, but, you’d be surprised how many packs there are where not much dmg is going out, sometimes 1x radiance and some dps rotation will do more than enough for a pack.
Weave some solace and you’ll have more mana than you started.
Until boss fights on tyranical on big keys are over 4 minutes long, you may see some mana issues.
That is not my experience. I would qualify that by saying nobody wants disc as their healer this patch–so I can only infer mana issues are part of the problem (alongside weak damage). This patch–looking at the numbers of keys done by disc priests at raider io points to some major issue/issues. Also, yeah, maybe “the community” is all wrong about not inviting disc priests–even when people have told me flat out that other healer classes do not have mana issues. Hence, maybe “the community” and the people telling me disc has mana issues and my own experience are all dead wrong and you are right. And maybe you are a healer guru par excellence about mana, but that is not my experience pugging. Albeit I ought to have run my own keys and been careful about who to invite, but found that in previous patches skilled players wanted either holy paladins or resto shamans as their healer and would generally not join groups with priest healers.
To you it is boasting–or call it whatever you flipping like–I care not one iota. To me it is a sign of someone bored who has nothing better to do in real life–and hardly something to be proud of. It is also a sign of someone who is a serious glutton for punishment–which is what I am finding this patch healing holy–making for some serious comparisons between the two specs. My point is that I am not talking out my butt, and quite frankly which brings me to the sad conclusion that disc is garbage and has been this whole expansion–despite it being great in theory and the most fun healer of the lot.
Disc being garbage is your opinion, that’s a fact, this means that the sad conclusions is just “sad” for you.
it can handle 20+ keys fine if you’re remotely skilled. That’s a pretty good conclusion for me.
But,
If you’re looking to push much much higher keys, if and then it may be more closely represented as “garbage” as you say, but until then, get to that point first with any healer before throwing it out being garbage.
Personally, in my experience I have been pugging alot, I have yet to be kicked out of a group so far.
Secondly we have absolutely amazing ST burst with urh buff (ruby as it goes down), schism, and ascended blast on gcd.
Every spec has ups and downs but because it isn’t on par with the best of the best to say disc is garbage is just wrong imo.
For all the people who want to try disc out, when you learn do it right, it will be more satisfying than most other specs. That’s my opinion.
Don’t forget some fights - like painsmith - where you may run into mana problems in LFR with low gear - you can really feel like a hero because you can keep spamming heals on newbies even with a lot of movement and keep attonment rolling throughout the fight for constant healing
different bosses different classes shine
The Radiance of Azshara was another fantastic boss to be disc on
I mained disc the first two patches and did fine–but found there were issues with disc vs other healers. I never got kicked or even raged on, and most runs ended with everyone saying “gg.” That said, on a comparative basis, I earnestly feel that disc is total and complete trash right now because I find holy so good in so many ways–mainly on the numbers and the ease of getting invites and finding good dps and tanks if you list your own keys. In my case, I long ago decided I was a healer main because I love healing, and then found that priest was best because it has two healing specs. Disc is incredibly fun because it is relatively novel in that you ought to heal via damage. Otherwise, I think in its current state it royally bites because its damage is not that great and because it can have mana issues (vs holy)–and also because you can literally get removed from groups because you play disc, and not holy.
I’m sorry that you feel like that.
Its also probably best to stray from the players that will remove disc healers because they aren’t holy, if those groups rely on S tier specs they most likely need all the help they can get.
Unless,
it’s a massive 25+ key where you do need all the help you can get depending on the dungeon/affix/group comp.
Also I’m trying to keep the conversation about current disc priests and not previous seasons to not unknowingly share misinformation.
Mana issues in +10 keys and above won’t happen thanks to urh buff, really doesn’t matter if other specs lose less mana compared to disc, we don’t go oom unless you’re playing very wrong which then would be the reality for all healers aswel
My bad, I may not have been clear for most people. I was refering to the person who answers after you because they mentioned that in a few other threads.
Well yeah, saying you have hundreds of runs, while clearly you post on an alt, is boasting. I am simply saying that mana is fine this season and that maybe you should try disc ‘this season’ to assess the state of the spec.
True. The issue is our other spec is doing better on all fronts. You can simply press a button and be the meta. If you want to do very high keys why bother with the inferior spec? Same goes for all classes, we just happen to have 2 healing specs. Our damage is not trash, it is inferior to holy, sure, just like most other healers right now.
‘The community’ doesn’t care that you play disc until you push very high keys. I’m sure most people don’t even notice that there is a disc priest healing before you hit 20+ tbh. ‘We all use boon and people don’t die’ is enough for people to not notice.
Boasting to you. Like I said, it is nothing to be proud of and more of a reflection of:
a. Having no life.
b. Stupidity in real life because you feel you have to prove yourself to yourself playing a game. If you are trying to prove yourself to others and impress them that is silly. Nobody cares and people will even resent you for such things.
c. Having a lot of free time and wasting it on a silly game. Games ought to be played in moderation unless you earn a living from gaming–which I think the rare person does via streaming and tournament play. But even then… I dunno.
d. Having fallen victim to being stuck on a “hedonic treadmill” despite trying to avoid being on one.
Point taken. If you are playing with good groups, all the more power to you. If you are playing with low skilled/learning groups, good luck healing them on anything but an OP disc priest.
No healer damage is trash, really. I do exaggerate at times. Anyone who does not pick up on it–well, not my problem.
I happen to like the name of this alt. People actually recognize the name on rare occasion in game as well and say hi on the rarest of occasion. But I used to post when drunk at times as well and get myself into trouble. Do I want people to recognize my name in game on my main and maybe think badly of me because I put my foot in my mouth? Nope.
Not sure what this is about. Maybe I misschose my word as english isnt my first language, but to me saying you have done things with no way to validate them for others is ‘boasting’. I just chose that word to reflect on the fact that your experience is deprecated and you should play the spec as it is currently to add to your experience and give relevant feedback.
I am casual btw. And sure, I may spend too much time on these forums but that doesn’t mean you should be insulting because I am saying that your experience with the spec is deprecated. Just play it and come follow up in here. Maybe your take won’t change, and that’s ok. At least it will be coming from experience during current season, which is more relevant to now than any past experience with the spec.
There have been no changes made to disc from the last patch to this one.
The only thing different really is the set pieces, that you can equip two legendaries (and I have played all of the pertinent ones as disc) and the new affix. People say you can get mana back with the new affix if you choose the right relic. But that is the same can of worms as with anima powers in that it exacts an “opportunity cost.” Maybe you dont need the choice that gets mana back because you are able to heal via atonement via mind sear a lot of times–which would maximize your damage and minimize your mana cost, but I dont see that as being the rule unless you are significantly OP or the key is easy for you and the group.
Don’t get me wrong. I love disc. I just prefer a healer that does great healing and damage without a lot of mana burn. There is nothing wrong with liking disc and even playing it.
In my case what bothered me the most was getting to the 20 range and then finding invites came very slowly, few and far between, and having people tell me openly they wanted a holy paladin or shaman for whatever reason, including the reasoning (to quote one keyholder who told me I was a great healer, but declined me regardless, saying): “These other classes dont have mana issues.”
In the end though (and maybe you dont like my blunt honesty), I personally wouldn’t advise anyone play discipline over most other healers for a few reasons. It is a fairly difficult healer to play with both a high floor and high ceiling–meaning it is tough to learn and tough to master (which to me ought to mean that once you get it down it is superior to other easier healers–BUT, that is not the case at all). And the fact that other healers are not only easier, but more sought after, more potent AND without mana issues makes most other healers superior. That by no means implies you ought to not play disc if you want. All the more power to you if you can pull it off.
Please note these are simply my opinions, and if you have different ones, great.
I can’t tell if you’ve been playing this season honestly.
Over 70% of relics taken in a dungeon are urh?
No matter what group comp.
That’s already overloading your mana more than needed, why do you need so much more?
How do you still become oom?
I also don’t understand how you think disc aren’t the best at any one thing?
I think they have the best burst healing in the game on a generously short CD.
Your reasons of disc being a worse healer are extremely askewed to your apparent playstyle, which seems like its not very skilled for you to have this much issues in m+ especially mana issues is baffling IMHO.
I’m not experiencing ANY of the problems you seem to be having with disc, and whoever said you’re a great healer but “disc have too many issues” is probably saying YOU have too many mana issues,
And if that’s your reality then it’s best you do play another spec for your sake, you’re obviously having too much trouble with it unfortunately.
I think youre much too inexperienced to be giving out accurate advice to other disc players personally
This very thread is about mana, so I am hardly alone in thinking Disc has mana issues. I have seen loads of comments on this very forum to that effect this whole expansion. If you watched Moadmoad stream at all you would know he complained endlessly about mana. Jak also dropped disc for holy for just that reason.
I play holy now. I agree.
I have maybe a dozen Priest healers on my main US account, and my main account (I have four accounts, one on EU) is pretty much maxed out on healers–80% of my toons healers. Look up my previous horde main one, Jinxyminx (137 timed keys 15 and over in the last patch alone as disc) on Tich and check the history at raider io of how many keys I healed and timed in Shadowlands alone–look up BFA as well if you like. Look up Robodork (114 timed keys 15 and over in the last patch as disc), an alt, and keep in mind I have at least a dozen priests (on my main US account alone) and have healed both holy and disc on them all. I am far from inexperienced. The one thing I do know is that Holy Priest and Holy Paladin in comparison to Disc Priest, in terms of mana are like night and day. No, not in solid groups, but a lot of groups are not solid. And I am not at all picky and do not rage quit when tanks are low skilled (or misjudge pull sizes or the skills of the dps getting things like kicks)–generally.