I’m normally holy, but I’m trying to learn disc. Cooldown management and usage is something that I’m having a hard time with.
What should I be doing during rapture? Is it shield spam? If I cast heals, am I wasting rapture?
Any other tips on how to quickly get back on top as disc? I thought about trying to focus on healing at first (applying purge the wicked ofc) until I get the hang of it, then work damage in.
Thanks!
Maybe I’m an outlier here but rapture is my prep cool down. If we’re about to go into a heavy damage pull, big aoe damage or the tank is gonna take a massive hit I’ll use Rapture to soften the blow and give myself time to ramp up. Rapture usually holds long enough that I I can apply dots on all mobs and I’ll have a good amount of atonements out. After that I just assess the situation. It’s such a short CD that I have it available almost ever pull so I use it pretty liberally. Something I consider even more often if the tank is a death knight and needs time to builds runic power or bone shield stacks.
Switched to my priest. So, if I am behind, should I pop rapture and heal as normal (with a few extra shields)?
My main issue is using cooldowns when I’m behind.
I use rapture reactively when something goes wrong myself.
You just pop it and heal? Or do you pretty much shield spam?
when you hit rapture you’ll want to spam shields till its over.
Use it when you have to, but it’s best to plan its implementation by pairing it with another big cooldown or proc. You’ll come to decipher when some of the larger pulls in the dungeons or damage phases in raids are going to happen, especially the ones that force the group to spread out (making Barrier a less attractive choice), which is precisely where Rapture is most useful.
When talking about a “big cooldown” or “proc,” I’m talking about things like Shadowfiend/Mindbender or a Power of the Dark Side (especially with Penitent One) buffed Penance. I personally prefer Mindbender, at least in dungeons. It’s always available with Rapture (and Spirit Shell), and it dishes out a good amount of damage (and subsequent healing). I recommend just macroing them together.
tl;dr, you just spam shields while your Mindbender/Shadowfiend heals the group/raid during Rapture windows.
If you’re Venthyr, it also helps to try and save your Rapture/Spirit Shell for when Euphoria is active. Sometimes it just doesn’t line up – and sometimes you just have to use it when you have to – but when it does, it just feels so good.