I’ve always wanted to try playing a priest, and Disc is my preferred pick between the two healing specs. I don’t intend to push cutting edge content, mostly just modest M+ PUGs and casual BGs. Would I be making a mistake picking this spec over Holy?
Thanks for any input you guys might have!
If all you are looking for is modest content than any spec would be fine, the only issue you may encounter is Disc can at times get shunned from M+ due to stigma but tbh if people won’t take you for something they don’t understand are you really missing out?
Honestly, i play every healer BUT disc and if you are gonna start with a healer and have patience and open mind, Disc would be what i suggest.
The challenges you will face as Disc will make you a stronger, more adaptable healer than any other healing spec (other than prot warrior. Thats a healing spec im DF now, right?!)
That said, if you want to better understand and grow as a healer, any class/spec, simply leveling dungeons and Looking For Raid won’t really teach you. When you get to max level, or even leveling with, battlegrounds will teach you better triage than any normal content could.
Welcome to the healing team!
I hear disc priest is a bit difficult, but if you’re willing to struggle through trial and error then I say go with it But if you ever have doubt in your mind about disc then you can always go holy priest it is a very easy healing spec.
I got KSM on Disc priest pretty quickly this expansion, and I have to say: I would not recommend this spec for most healers - let alone beginners.
It’s not that I think the spec is worthless or so weak it can’t do content, which is what you’ll hear a lot of. Rather, it’s because the spec is very punishing to mistakes right now.
More than any other healer you have to be ready for the damage pattern of each encounter and prepare for it before it happens. And when you screw up you can very easily leave someone sitting at 35% health for like 6 seconds at a time because you can’t spare another global on them, and in a high enough key that is low enough that a stray cast could kill them.
On top of that you have to learn healing fundamentals and planning cooldowns much quicker than other specs. Many healers right now can get by relying on high throughput from 3 or 4 buttons and don’t have to think too much about kit interaction. Disc doesn’t have that luxury - almost all of their buttons are important and useful for common damage patterns in different ways.
This is not to say the spec requires a GIANT brain. It’s a lot easier than many people would have you believe. Rather, imagine class skill requirement as a ladder - most of them are standing up straight. A couple of them seem a bit unstable or have their rungs pretty far apart making them more difficult to climb. Disc straight up has like 6 missing rungs right at the bottom and you’re going to have to jump to get up there before learning the rest of the class is smooth sailing.
If you like a challenge, and you like the payoff of playing a fight really well feeling very good, then you’ll probably like the spec. You should just be aware of what you’re getting into.
Absolutely not.
In M+ most people think of healers as the guys that move healthbars back up but Disc does this the worst of all healers so in order to be a good Disc you need to be well versed enough and play well enough such that you minimize the health bars dropping in the first place as much as possible.
That means using personals and pots extremely well as well as playing with groups that do the same and don’t miss kicks and don’t take unnecessary damage and where tanks are almost entirely self sufficient. If you’re playing in that environment Disc can be amazing but if you’re not it’s the worst healer.
It’s also possible to overgear content and effectively smurf it with sick groups which can be very fun and make Disc look great but 99% of players, especially those picking up healing for the first time won’t have this option and instead they will be playing with pug groups that are sloppy where everyone is undergeared and disorganized which is extremely punishing for healers especially.
would not recommend, disc heals the way disc heals and the disc form of healing is built for organized groups. Its workable and can do some cool things but I would not recommend it as a starting healer by any means, especially when holy exists in the same class.
Disc isn’t hard on it’s own to play, it’s just weaker for more effort.
Disc is extremely fun and I would highly recommend it, it’s got a reputation as being a harder healer to play because you will want to be damaging enemies while you’re healing to maximize your heals but there’s a few macros that can make the disc priest experience very smooth and straightforward.
Those are *mouse over healing macros and *target of target damage macros. These two types of macros is what you will need to have an easy time playing disc in my opinion.
Mouse over macros saves you the hassle of clicking on party frames before casting your heals, now simply mouse over and press your bind.
And target of target macros allow you to attack your party members target with your damage abilities, essentially putting your damage targets on auto switch because you will always be attacking the target of your party member instead of manually switching targets which can feel extremely clunky.
Examples of those macros:
/cast [mouseover, exist] Flash Heal: Flash Heal
and
/cast [harm][targettarget] Shadow Word: Pain
What’s nice about the target of target macro is it works just like it normally would when you have an enemy targeted so you don’t have to adapt your game play or add more binds, it’s very plug and plug.
I would absolutely recommend it, with the caveat that you know the m+ dungeons to some extent. I was mainly a tank but wanted to try disc. Having been a tank so far in DF I know the dungeon mechanics well. When I made my disc priest I spent the first week of it in BGs and solo shuffle. This really made me comfortable with my rotation and using my cds.
I then did some m+, including a +8 today and that was my fifth dungeon as a ilvl 377 disc priest. Not too impressive, but I felt great keeping everyone alive while doing about 11k dps on bosses.
If you follow a pvp first route you will learn the spec very well. It is absolutely fine to play any spec in casual content, but if you go the pvp first route you will get comfortable and respect the spec much quicker. I’m having a blast with it, you will too!
I think the entry point of Disc is indeed higher than every other healer so for someone new or not very experienced at the game I think it would be difficult.
But for a more advanced player who already is familiar with using mouseovers to cast friendly spells and and is already familiar with good cooldown usage then it’s really not that difficult, just need to get used to the kit which on itself is not really difficult to understand how it comes together.
Oh and well one more thing is that Disc being a proactive spec requires you to be familiar with the encounters so that’s also another layer that no matter how good you are if you don’t know and understand the encounter you won’t really get good results… All specs benefit from this ofc but the more reactive the spec the less of a difference it makes so for Disc it makes a really big difference.
But again, and “advanced” player who is already familiar with the encounters (because let’s say wants to pick-up Disc as an alt) I wouldn’t expect him to struggle too much to find decent results.
Edit: In other words yes I think Disc has one of the highest entry barriers among the healer specs (probably the highest) but and “advanced” player might already be above that barrier so shouldn’t struggle too much I think…
But I mean even then, like everything it would obviously take some practice and can’t expect to be great immediately, probably would still need to run like 10 dungeons or so to get comfortable and incorporate all the spells properly but perhaps a less advanced player would need to do like 30+.
Everyone likes to say disc is the hardest healer but its really not if anything in PvP id say rsham is harder to manage than disc, in PvE not so much Rsham becomes easier, disc really is just maintaining atonement and knowing when to direct heal or atone heal and thats just a mechanic every healer has essentially.
If disc is what you want to play HELL YEAH BROTHER. Ive recently taken to holy as im strictly pvp these days and disc just doesnt peform as well as holy after the buffs but when the new reprimand build buffs from this upcoming patch you best believe ill be back to disc, you’re a viable dps healer with that build and your atonements actually heal for respectable amounts.
Enjoy mate both specs are really fun in pvp sorry I cant help with pve.
I did not know about target of target macros. I’m gonna try this out. That was always the clunkiest part to me.
Can’t say I would, no.
Disc has a lot of problems right now. Can it perform in Mythic+? Absolutely. Will it be much harder than Holy? Absolutely.
Not that Holy is in the best state it’s ever been on 5 man content, but it’s middle of the pack and very functional. Disc is just more complicated for less payoff.
The only way I can recommend Disc Priest to someone, new player or not, is only if it were the WoD Disc Priest.
I would like to play the Bubble Priest again.