I’ve been kind of frustrated with Disc lately, mainly because of the Atonement / PW:S mechanics.
1] PW:S feels really weak to me, making it seem less like a defensive buff that I feel it should be and more like an atonement buff. It used to be that I could PW:S someone and it would hold up long enough that I could DPS (back in like Pandaria). Now it seems like when I put it up – it goes down instantly and in PVP that often means I need to quickly shift to shadow heal since DPS healing through atonement isn’t strong enough to keep someone up.
2] Atonement also seems really clunky in BG’s when you have to AOE heal. I do use PW: Radiance to apply it broadly. But at 60% of 15s, that’s hardly time to get enough damage off to actually mean anything. Without POM or other quick heals like renew, and a weakened PW:S, I’m struggling to figure out how I’m supposed to heal groups of people in PVP.
3] Finally our mastery doesn’t really make any sense to me. It increases PW:S with those who already have atonement on them. This basically takes our 15s window of damage to heal down to 13-14s to ensure that we apply PW:S again to capitalize on our mastery making atonement management more difficult.
I really like the concept of DPS/healing, but it seems like the current iteration is really clunky and I feel like I spend more time trying to make sure I’m managing atonement. The amount of healing that comes from our DPS also seems really lackluster in PVP scenarios, with PW:S struggling to compensate or buy enough time to actually allow for dps heals to work. That leaves our slew of bigger CD’s (Pain Supp, Rapture, PW:Barrier) to fill in the gaps.
Any thoughts on how to better manage in PVP? Or is there something I might be misunderstanding?
PW:S does no absorbing outside of Rapture. Do not be spamming shields on cooldown, it’s not worth it. Cast Shadowmend instead. Only use PW:S to refresh/apply atonement.
Atonement is strong, especially in arena with Trinity. Atonement is fine and if you have multiple SW:P/Purge the Wicked out your throughput should be fine. Try to always use penance offensively in PvP.
Mastery is fine.
This has been the mastery of the class in both PvE and PvP, it is what makes disc difficult to master. Keep playing, you will get it down.
Oh also I noticed your gear is low Ilvl. Trust me in Prepatch if you are struggling could be a gear issue right now. I feel that too.
You need need ultimate radiance as a pvp talent. Will make PWR instant and increases the healing by 250%. That will help you with the aoe healing struggle.
Basically stay back and try pre rolling out atonements on everyone once dmg starts. Then refresh with evangelism while trying to help dps down whomever. Also our PWS absorbs just got slightly nerfed which might explain…
This post makes me sad because you’re clearly someone who enjoyed old disc, like myself. The posters above are correct, and disc is incredibly strong atm, but it’s just not as fun as old disc. I know people enjoy the atonement playstyle, and it’s unique and all, but give me old disc any day.
I appreciate your response. I thought gear be an issue but for some reason was thinking the stat squish helped diminish the gear disparity. Doesn’t seem to be the case.
Basically it sounds like I should be prioritizing shadowmend first and foremost to get people stable, then PW:S → DPS. That mentality also makes twist of fate a lot more appealing.
I’ll also try Trinity, I can see that being really useful but also being more difficult. I think I just need to play around with it some.
Do you think Searing Light is all that good over something like archangel or dark archangel? It looks like they got rid of the damage reduction with smite…
EDIT: Okay I just tested archangel thinking 20% absorption buff + the mastery would make PW:S somewhat useful. But basically both together increase my PW:S absorption from like 1k to 1.6k
I’ll try this too. But I think it goes back to the question of how efficient damage to heal is vs. healing outright – especially if Trinity is taken.
It’s definitely jarring. Tbh when I first started playing again I hated it, but kept trying to figure it out because it was a challenge. Like I mentioned above, it seems like the general mentality of the spec has changed from using damage mitigation abilities like PW:S and whatever that other bubble was called that came from crits and more to damage to heal.
I definitely think it’s more fun in PVE scenarios because it’s less chaotic and easier to prepare for damage.
In Bgs i run trinity, dark Arch and Arch. So when we are all riding to somewhere i drop mount and start putting out rapture on the team while constantly moving, then hit mind bender, Arch and Dark Arch. I dont use PWR at all.
PWS, as ive said before, as an atonement applicator so change your mind set.
Alright so I’m gunna add an update on where I’m at since this post so it doesn’t end on a mopey note.
I took the advice of the posters above and have been running with Trinity, Dark Arch and I ran with Searing Light just to emphasize the DPS. Also running with Twist of Fate for my lvl 15 talent.
Biggest change though was the realization that PWS isn’t really a defensive spell like it used to be (as many have said). I think once I got over that and instead focused on DPS, I’ve been doing a lot better (I think in part because Trinity).
Overall I’m having a blast w/ PVP now, this is such a fun spec. Esp Dark Arch – I love that mechanic in team fights.
Trinity, searing light, and ultimate radiance are by far one of the tankiest PVP talents. for now, go with the altar time shield and stack depth of the shadows times three. Use the one minor essence that gives you chance to crit with shadow mend, and when you get five stacks of that by the time you get locked out on shadow you can just use ultimate radiance. makes for an ultra tanky disc priest, but 40 v 40 battle grounds are going to have a problem healing
