Yes, Holy will be the way to go…for anyone who hates Disc in dungeons after 9.0.5 with Night fae covenant.
Anyway, Disc is fine…Disc block damage…not really respond…at most It’s called pre-respond, like you predict damage will be in 1.5 secs then you cast Radiance and finish just after the damage lands.
Not unless you’re comited to the spec for some reason.
Shadow Mend spam and use your Radiances/Mindgames/CDs wisely. Mana issues I’d guess is more a gear thing than a rotation thing.
Some groups/encounters just make it difficult to apply atonement properly so you can’t rely on it very much. Keep practicing and getting better gear and it does get easier.
The hardest part of Disc is using all your cooldowns consistently and effectively; Especially when you normally solo alot and dont really need desperate prayer, pain suppression, fade, radiance, barrier, or rapture. Make sure you use shadowfiend in your ramp rotations.
Your group needs to be pro at avoiding all the avoidable damage it can. That leaves you able to take care of everything that is timed and unavoidable (aka you know when the damage will happen and can ramp before it) with spirit shell and radiance etc.
Probably you might want to go Lenience instead of SS for Dungeons.
Rapture is way better in small parties.
I made a thread to help out newer Disc priest players with M+ a while back and some found it useful: Shadowlands Disc Priest M+ Tips
Realistically, the ‘secret’ is popping your cooldowns often, and knowing when you don’t actually need to shadowmend someone because there’s not actually about to be a lot of incoming damage.
Your unable to respond to burst of damage because Disc is not a reactive healer. You need to know (for the most part, people will take damage from avoidable mechanics, That is not a Disc healer specific issue) when the Damage is coming and prepare with Having Attonment up on the group, Pre Rapturing High group damage and shadow mending when you need bigger heals. I’m not a expert, but after playing all the healer classes over the past Few xpacs, I would have to say Disc is the healer that requires you to know the dungeons the most. Keep practicing, it’ll click eventually! glhf
Yep, and i remember when legion key season 1 started and many threads were made about discs inability to come back after big mistakes AND more effort needed to do the same thing as other healers.
Don’t feel that it’s too difficult. Just weaker than R shaman in terms of healing output.
Prideful feels easier than r shaman though.
I’m pushing my way to KSM so hitting 13s and 14s rn. I’m probably slightly overgeared for them but pugging is risky and I regularly raid. Personally, I love discipline. I was a holy/shadow dualspec for most of my WoW life before taking a break after MoP. I got into keys during BFA and enjoy them a lot. Then 8.3 I made the jump to discipline and learned…a lot. In Mythic +I mostly pug but run sometimes with guildies.
Disc just feels rewarding. My biggest issue is with tanks that don’t know how/when is the appropriate time to kite. Esp on necrotic weeks I can feel like my shadowmend just doesn’t make enough of a difference if I’m spamming. This is where having Leap of Faith on keybind is SUPER important. Leap of Faith, check to see if the mobs are snared and hit psychic scream and you’ve given your tank a reprieve. Disc rewards smart playstyle.
I miss when atonement healed more. I think it makes the spec less shadowmend spammy. I will legit Leap of Faith a DPS into my barrier as well if they aren’t good about getting into it. Mana is the biggest issue. Try and heal through atonement through shadowmend application. Using shields too much will deplete your mana but sometimes they’re helpful if you’re on the move.
Rapture is your friend! Preshield with rapture before scary pulls. I try and make sure I either have rapture or barrier up before prideful. You need one, just radiance-ing it can be kinda scary.
I had a disc priest (now is shadow, but I made a 2nd Disc) and I was able to maintain the party of a dungeon alive. Staying ahead of the curve is ideal, working 3 steps ahead is the way. But i can be over whelming, specially when you have a monk tank and just runs everywhere and does not give you the time of day to set up shop.
Disc Priest needs a lot of haste and crit and knowledge of the situation is also key to be a good disc
For pugging hard keys its pretty bad imo. Its a fun and rewarding playstyle but we just don’t compare to the tools other healers have in M+. I don’t think it becomes too apparent till after KSM levels though.
I wonder if its bc there is a disparity hps wise between our last row talents. It seems almost like our throughput without SS isnt as high bc of the atonement nerf compared to da gawdz hpally and rshammy.
Priests: Blizz, please give us a dungeon oriented talent in our last row. Lenience is so boring!
Blizz: You want a new raid talent? Gotcha, here you go.
I haven’t really enjoyed it. I’ve pushed keys on my characters since legion but disc… eh… it’s a lot of shadow mend spamming at higher levels and pretty bad in pugs.
So far Disc has been: S class in RBGs, A in Arenas and raiding (SS is good but boring), C class in mythics.
no. damage reduction and absorbs scales better than pure healing. compare hymn to barrier, and GS to pain sup. which one is better? obviously barrier and pain sup. in an emergency, rapture+fiend will be potent enough to survive. anything else is either
get a better group.
The only real potent absorbs we have are rapture. DR is really only better at super high keys, until them it doesn’t really matter. If you’ve played a holy pally or resto sham you realize what low HPS we actually have. Pain supp isn’t cheat death. If you try to use it like GS the tank will die, it doesn’t make sense to directly compare them. The point is that yes those mistakes cause issues but other healers have the tools to heal through them pretty easy, we don’t.
i agree with this as well. pain sup isn’t a cheat death mechanic, but a potent dr cooldown, if used correctly, it can be better than GS (also means it would be way worse if you used it too late). I would much honestly prefer another absorb cd like rapture to replace dome in m+, but hey, we gotta work with what we have.
To be fair, starting this patch, Holy has access to Fae Guardians, which is a super nice DR with a very long duration and on a fairly short CD too.
Disc has access too, but NF is a much more awkward pick for Disc in most content.
Preventative
Overall, disc has a higher skillcap but is generally more rewarding. I wanna play holy for M+ and raiding, but I’m going to play disc until the issues with holy are addressed (especially with regards to mana)