Discipline Priest issues due to the rework

PVP Arenas
1

I want to express my deep appreciation for the Discipline Priest specialization, which I find incredibly enjoyable to play. My dedication extends to both PvE, where I partake in heroic raids and tackle Mythic+ dungeons up to level 18, and PvP, where I have currently achieved the 9th position in the SS ladder. Through these experiences, I have gained valuable insights into the Discipline Priest’s strengths and challenges, particularly in light of the upcoming rework.

Here are my thoughts and observations on the potential issues and scenarios that players may encounter following the rework.

General Issues (PvE and PvP):

1) Mindblast Cooldown:

  • Reduction of one extra charge and increased cooldown negatively impacts talents like Twilight Equilibrium and Expiation.
  • Suggestion: Nerf the magic damage increase and duration from the baked-in Schism to half, allowing for 2 charges and a lower cooldown, similar to its previous state.

2) Pet (Mindbender Build):

  • The new rework pushes players towards the Mindbender build, limiting build creativity.
  • Issues: The pet can be clumsy in PvE, often not benefiting players due to boss phase transitions or immunity to damage. In PvP, the pet is susceptible to AoE slows, roots, and crowd control.
  • Suggestion: Transform the Shadowfiend/Mindbender into a ranged pet similar to the new resto druid treants, incorporating Schism and adding a useful ability like Shadow Mend. Allow it to regenerate mana over its duration rather than through attacking.

3) Smite (Set Bonus Reliance):

  • The new set bonus heavily depends on Smite, limiting talent choices for those not using the Mindbender build.
  • Issues: Smite deals low damage, making it a low-priority filler spell that competes with other essential spells like Radiance, Shield, Renew, and Mindblast.
  • Suggestion: Rework the set bonus to enhance core abilities like Shield, Radiance, Purge the Wicked, and Penance (both heal and damage) to provide more meaningful options for different talent builds.

4) Power Word: Life (Discipline vs. Holy Discrepancy):

  • Power Word: Life should receive a 35% buff for Discipline priests to align with its effectiveness in Holy specialization.
  • Note: This might be a bug, but the spell currently lacks modifiers between Discipline and Holy.

PvP-Specific Issues:

  • Healing power in PvP remains problematic.
  • The rework places too much emphasis on Penance, considering it’s a spell you can’t fake cast without losing its benefit/triggering the cooldown in PvP.
  • Suggestion: Make Penance part of the Radiant school, and when kicked to lock only Fire allowing Discipline priests to use Flash Heal and Shield if Penance is interrupted. This change would maintain the importance of Penance while providing backup options when it’s interrupted.
  • Suggestion: Increase the effectiveness of Renew by 30%, Prayer of Mending(Discipline) by 50% and Radiance by 25% in PvP to bolster the Discipline priest’s survivability.
  • Suggestion: Buff Smite damage by 400% in PvP to make it a more viable risk-reward spell considering kicking it stops you from using Shield/Renew/Flash Heal/Dispel etc and right now it does around 8k dmg in PvP, especially when facing opponents with 700k+ hp pools. For example pre-voker’s Living Flame hits for 60k+.
  • Ultimate Penitence has a cast time and a channel time, I feel its too easy to be interrupted for a 4 mins CD spells, changing it to be similar to holy paladin Tyr’s would make it way better.

These adjustments aim to enhance the overall gameplay experience for Discipline priests in both PvE and PvP scenarios while maintaining a balance between talent choices and addressing specific PvP concerns.

  • Writing something on this topic helps bumping it up :slight_smile:
8 Likes
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Radiant is holy + fire, which means if they got kicked on it they couldn’t use any holy spells either.

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yeah true, my bad… should be Fire school then… sounds good Holy Fire :slight_smile:

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4

It’s too early to tell unless you’re on the PTR and have had experience playing it. For all we know disc could be super OP on the PTR and you’re asking for buffs

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I think I’d also rather they just bring back shadow mend at this point. I miss it :cry:

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They wouldn’t take suggestions simply out of bias.

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I am playing on the PTR and the feedback is based on my personal testing on the PTR :slight_smile:

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Thank you for your testing. Really hope disc gets better

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9

wow yeah this seems like a really reasonable number

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the way I see it is like this:

  • Smite does 8k dmg (and 6k atonement heal) in PvP on the PTR while people have around 700k HP and if you get kicked on it your healing rotation will shut down, on top of that it also has a cast time.
  • a 400% buff on Smite will make the spell hit for 32.000 dmg, thus making the new talent they added that makes Smite negate damage useful for PvP
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and won’t that make smite then heal 3 targets for 24,000 each?

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it will do so, but honestly you really dont care about AOE healing, most of that 24.000 on each will be overheal. Extremely rare you will encounter a situation where you heal 3 targets in 3v3. And for RBGs you need to consider you first of all need to have atonement up and after if you compare the cast time/heal power of Prayer of Healing you will realize its not even that much, PoH heals for 65-70k :), with this buff you will aoe heal for 24k on 700k hp people… kinda meh :smiley:

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k so a ranged crane monk pretty much is what ur asking for

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wont really be that because crane is instant :slight_smile:

what I am asking for is a spell that wont do 8k dmg and 6k heal :octopus:

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and melee

i can see it now, a disc priest sitting 40 yards away behind two wizards casting smite 30 times a minute

“but it’s overhealing!”

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Atonement healing has always been stronger in comps that require less healing. Im not sure disc could heal a wizard cleave very well because they lack throughput to compete with other wizard healers plus their CC requires close range which can be tricky in a wizard comp

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I believe you are just trolling, there is no world this scenario will happen with the current disc design/game balance/dmg pressure.

Idk dude what is your goal, but you never healed as disc in current patch if you are saying this.

so I am kindly asking you do you see the set bonus? do you know that on PTR discipline priest Smite hits for 8k dmg ? do you think its worth this set bonus and casting smites for 8k dmg and risking getting kicks so 90% of your healing power goes to 0? does the GCD to cast Smite even worth when this spec already struggle to keep up healing?

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18

Nty kicking already weak enough

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have you tested disc priest on PTR? do you understand that this rework moved a lot of the healing power that was already weak into Penance? dont you see that penance is the only CD healing ability that you cannot fake cast without making it useless? isnt that a design concept thats kinda awkward ? i mean im all in for making penance like flash heal but useable while moving, so i can fake cast it myself… but the current rework and penance design simply wont work

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It’s unfortunate I get it. Too many nerfs to kicks though. Would rather a different work around