at start of raiding at 180 ish.
no real leggo but then penitent one ( easy to get)
was doing well 1st to 2nd usually on heals.
we started into Heroics. Castle Narnia
so we all around ilvl 200.
now I’m struggling hard. - went spirit shield. maybe bad at it.so went back to pentient one. now placing after holy priest and shammy healer.
but then also noticed mythic + we suffering at anything key 8+.
im crying as i try to shadowmend every up - cause atonemnet and my shield just collpase. ( granted its a pug)
went holy - now top heals - hitting ez 4-5k. boring though. 
mythics still a bit difficult but doable.
then i watch the mythics championships and lo and behold…its DISC players - now i have NOT looked at their gear but im going to assume at their keystone level in the comp its gna be higher than 215. ( and yes many of the classes heal themselves as well dps/tanks)
- so my question to you is my fellow priesty priests
do we suffer a “gap” where we just stink from 200-215.
The key is in you to learn how to use Spirit Shell.
Once you just learn to use it you’ll just top meters by just doing the same rotation over and over again.
Clarity of Mind should be your legendary for raids if going Spirit Shell build, it will let you get 20 atonements on people for you to build up your shields.
It’s really that. Of course you if you have low Haste you’ll do worse but, really disc only shines if it goes Spirit Shell build. If you plan to go evangelism you mostly will be outhealed by any other healer like Sham, Hpriest or Hpala.
SS build requires you to know your rotation, be Venthyr for Mindgames, and know the mechanics of the fight when they are going to hit so you prepare your shields before.
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We don’t suffer a gap. You can top meter with SS even on heroic, even if it has less value than in mythic. Simply learn from logs when to ramp up and you’re good to go. On shriekwing for example you want to cover every 3rd wave blood starting with the first. Just by doing that you’ll have twice the HPS of every other healer, but in reality it’s pretty meaningless hps since healing is a nonissue even on mythic. Don’t focus too much on meters for these early fights with little incoming dmg as they can be misleading. For example, other healers often pad their hps a ton by throwing unnecessary heals on tanks. For the important disc priest fights (sludgefist, hungering denathrius), you should effortlessly top meter just by ramping up every 1min.
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Disc is the hardest raid healer by far. You have to really rely on boss timers and get a 15-20 person SS out at the right time, do a mini burst atonement heal in between. It’s a lot of fun when you get the hang of it. On H Devourer for example I can parse over 7k hps at the end if I time everything right. My raid set is currently 212, but getting the CoM lego is going to be the biggest bump.
I pull logs of top hps disc priests and see when they use SS relevant to the boss abilities. You’ll learn boss fights really well that way too. It’s not for everyone, but I encourage people to stick with it and learn the spec.
Also M+… man it’s a rush. We’re def capable of the highest keys, I’ve pulled my way to 11/12s across the board. It helps a ton if you know boss mechanics and can get ahead of them with rapture, shadow fiend, etc. You bring a ton of utility and the PI lego is a great group damage boost.
Yep. Just joined a new guild that is well into mythic and while our comp changes around depending on the night/who might need what loot, I noticed the diff in my hps on m shriekwing vs m hungering for example. The steady rot dmg is SS’s shining glory.
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Depends on content. My 226 priest does almost double the hps during heavy damage phases in an rbg teamfight vs my 216 priest. It’s like an additional 200-300 intellect even at that small gap.
Every like 15-30 INT is about a 1-2% healing/damage increase. The gear gap on primary stats is pretty big.
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You probably gain around 100-150 int from 200 to 226. So not that much. But SS scales with stamina as well, and stamina scales way better with ilvl than int. This might be why disc scales really well in rbg, cuz its ez to cap your shields with the radiance talent.
Look at my other priests armory. It’s 219 and missing 150… lol. Fadinglol-Stormrage. I’m pvp geared. It’s a large gap with pvp gear. Pvp gear doesn’t come with the insane secondaries your gear does. This is why I said it depends on content, it’s massive in rbgs.
It’s because u dont have int trinket on Fadinglol and you do on Fadingtwo…
Disc priests in raid have one hammer (spirit shell) and once you learn how to use it, you just hit it again… and again… and again. (Bar maybe sun king where Holy is probably worth running if you feel like it).
There are many good guides out there but my advice is learn the rotation. It’s roughly:
- Atonement Spreading Phase:
- Shadow Mend first, then either more shadow mends or Shields until you’ve got roughly 5-8 people with atonement on them.
- Use a power word radiance.
- Apply a Purge the Wicked to the Boss
- Cast another power word radiance.
- You’re now ready to start activate Spirit Shell:
- Pop Spirit Shell and Mindbender (can be macroed) and Power Infusion (if up) + any trinket that might help.
- Schism
- Mindgames
- Penance
- Mind Blast
- Spam Smite.
This looks like a LOT but its pretty much all you do. What really helps is to look at a guide like automaticjax who’s wowhead explanation of Spirit Shell for each boss includes timers. E.g. when he used Spirit Shell during the boss fight. When you’re learning the fight, take advantage of those - before a boss pull do a /timer which will load a stopwatch you can use to track when to aim for (before you get a feel for which abilities do what). If the fight has Spirit shell being used at, say, 30 seconds, 1:30, and 2:40 - aim to start your ramp phase (atonements etc) roughly 20 seconds before it hits. So at 0:10, 1:10 and 1:20.
When not ramping you’re basically applying heals to the tank(s) and smiting. You can do a mini ramp in the 20-30 seconds after your Spirit Shell fades with a radiance and penance.
That’s it.
Disc in raids is a hammer. A steady, repetitive, mana hungry hammer. Once you get the ramp down work on the timers and you’ll be fine.
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This is what I read once I swapped to disc for raid last week. I’ve been disc on and off, and using this guide I’m on par with our resto druid for most of the fights (4 healer comp).
1st comment GREATLY helped me figure out spirit shell rotation, and you should always be running SS/CoM combo in raid, no exception. Otherwise, you will be falling behind.
SS/CoM is what makes disc shine and be one of the best healers if u can get rotation and timing down.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveWoW/comments/lr5dj5/holy_priest_that_swapped_to_disc_for_m_sludge/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf