Discipline Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Midnight Pre-Patch (12.0)

Your primary playstyle as Oracle will revolve around utilizing the incredibly powerful duo of Penance and Power Word: Shield. Penance, with its incredible number of potential modifiers, becomes an insanely strong button for both AoE healing via Atonement as well as single target direct healing. With Twinsight, the decision to choose one over the other is less important as you will be getting both types of healing, albeit slightly reduced (3 bolts instead of 4). Power Word: Shield, when combined with its many modifiers as well becomes a significant single target heal allowing the spec to handle most damage profiles regardless of the dungeon.

Augmenting your healing with Evangelism for immediate heal as well as the Archangel buff to increase your throughput during high damage or instead utilizing Ultimate Penitence for a massive burst of Atonement healing will help you cover moments of extremely high damage.

Penance is one of your strongest tools as Oracle for a variety of reasons:

• First, it is flexible in usage in regards to how you want to distribute healing. It can be cast on an enemy to heal via Atonement but it can also be cast on an ally directly for a large single target heal. Keep in mind with Twinsight always firing bolts of the opposite type, you still get solid output of the alternative when choosing which targeting method you want. However, Twinsight bolts will simply choose a random enemy to hit or a random injured ally to heal, therefore you do lose some control. If a single person is in danger, prioritize healing them directly instead of leaving it up to luck that twinsight chooses the correct target.
• Second, it triggers Encroaching Shadows and Revel in Darkness to spread your Shadow Word: Pain to additional targets in AoE scenarios. This is important for both the trickle Atonement healing that each DoT will provide.
• Third, it builds Weal and Woe stacks which are incredibly important for your Power Word: Shield usage which we will talk about more in the Power Word: Shield section.
• Finally, Penance applies Atonement to allies hit by either the direct bolts themselves if cast defensively or via Twinsight if cast offensively. This additional Atonement application is incredibly valuable at simply maintaining some number of Atonements on the group at all times.

Overall, you should be casting Penance fairly often and close to on-cooldown with obvious exceptions for holding it slightly for imminent incoming damage you know you will need it for or to play around Holy Ray which we'll talk about in the next section.

To understand why Holy Ray deserves its own section requires understanding how the talent is implemented. Despite the tooltip of the talent implying it simply buffs the Penance during its own cast and then resets afterwards, reality is quite different. Instead, each bolt of Penance fired applies a stack of a buff that increases the damage and healing of Penance per stack. This buff, however, lasts for a few seconds after the channel finishes instead of clearing immediately upon cast completion. As a result, when playing Oracle with two charges of Penance, you can cast an additional Penance after the first but before the buff falls off and not only refresh the existing stacks, but continue to stack it past what possible from a single Penance.

This results in being able to reach incredibly high damage increases via Holy Ray. Combine this with other Penance modifiers such as Harsh Discipline, Blaze of Light, Searing Light, Prophet's Insight, Preventive Measures, Prompt Prognosis, and Twinsight and Penance quickly becomes capable of absurd levels of output from a single spell.

Due to Penance cooldown being hasted (reduced by haste), with enough haste you can even chain together more than two Penances before the buff falls off. This will be something to consider in situations where you have access to either Power Infusion or Bloodlust and involves delaying your second Penance cast until just before the buff falls off to give your initial Penance charge enough time to come back up.

While Power Word: Shield is not very strong on its own, the sheer amount of large modifiers that can increase its power result in absolutely massive shields if played correctly. The following is a list of modifiers and how to utilize them:

• Weal and Woe is by far the largest modifier. When casting Penance, each bolt fired (Including Twinsight bolts!) will increase the next Power Word: Shield you cast by a significant amount. Penance being 3 bolts by default, one for Castigation, 3 more for Twinsight, and the occasional extra from Harsh Discipline result in Oracle to be able to cap or near cap out the benefit of Weal and Woe with a single Penance cast.
• Inner Focus increases the Critical Strike chance of your Power Word: Shields by 20%. Your Shields can crit and will be significantly larger when they do.
• Eternal Barrier provides an additional 20% modifier to the strength of your Shields.
• Mastery: Grace, Discipline's Mastery will also increase the size your Shield if it is cast on a target that has Atonement on them already. Keep in mind that the Atonement applied by the Shield itself will not cause the Shield to benefit from Mastery. The Atonement must be present prior to the Shield cast.

As a result of all these various modifiers, pressing Penance followed by casting Power Word: Shield on a target with Atonement on them will create massive Shields for incredible single target healing.

• Power Word: Radiance is a 2-second cast by default, multi-target Atonement applicator with a large heal tied to it. Power Word: Radiance applies Atonement to five people but for a reduced duration. Not only is this our best way to apply Atonement to a whole group, but it is also a significant heal on its own. As a result, the majority of your Atonement application in a key will be from Radiance.
• Power Word: Shield is an instant cast, single target Atonement applicator with a shield tied to it. While this is a very potent option for applying Atonement to a single target, it does have a cooldown. This should be your first choice if you need to apply Atonement to a single target.
• Penance applies Atonement to any ally it heals. This is through either directly casting Penance on an ally but also via Twinsight.
• Flash Heal is a 1.5-second cast, single target Atonement applicator with a decent-sized single target heal tied to it. While this is an option for single target Atonement applicator when a single target is injured and needs Atonement, the majority of your uses will come from Surge of Light procs outside of the casts done for the direct healing itself.
• Plea is an instant cast, single target Atonement applicator with a small instant heal effect tied to it. The largest benefit to Plea is that it can be cast while moving. In most cases, Plea will see very little usage in Mythic+ and should not be a button you are pressing often.

While this isn't the strongest spell in your arsenal, it provides solid output in a variety of different scenarios.

It is important to know how the targeting of this spell works. By casting Ultimate Penitence with an enemy targeted, the spell will prioritize throwing bolts at random enemies. When utilizing this version of the spell, ensure you have Atonement active on the group to get any healing out of this spell. When casting this spell with an ally targeted, the spell will prioritize throwing bolts at the most injured ally. While you will still see an increase in healing from Ultimate Penitence if Atonement is active on the party due to our Mastery, it is possible to use this defensively if you find yourself without any Power Word: Radiance charges and are desperate for healing.

Something to keep in mind when utilizing this spell is that the bolts from Ultimate Penitence will generate Weal and Woe stacks, so ensure you utilize said stacks before using your next Penance cast.

In general, both offensive and defensive Ultimate Penitence are good options to utilize in dungeons but you will default to offensive Ultimate Penitence.

Your general playstyle as Voidweaver will be looking to utilize Mind Blast to activate Entropic Rift and abuse both the raw damage of the rift itself as well as the many modifiers that come along with it to push significant AoE healing via Atonement during its duration. While this Hero Tree does very solid healing during their Entropic Rift windows, the healing outside of these windows leaves a lot to be desired. On top of that, the tree generally struggles with single target healing as well. As a result, you need to be very careful how you utilize your cooldowns lest you find yourself behind with nothing to catch up with.

• Power Word: Radiance is a 2-second cast by default, multi-target Atonement applicator with a large heal tied to it. Power Word: Radiance applies Atonement to five people but for a reduced duration. Not only is this our best way to apply Atonement to a whole group, but it is also a significant heal on its own. As a result, the majority of your Atonement application in a key will be from Radiance.
• Penance when cast on an ally will apply Atonement to them. As Voidweaver, you will be casting Penance primarily on enemies to heal via Atonement, but the occasional defensive cast on allies when spot healing is needed can also help maintain Atonement uptime on said player.
• Power Word: Shield is an instant cast, single target Atonement applicator with a shield tied to it. While this is a very potent option for applying Atonement to a single target, it does have a cooldown. This should be your first choice if you need to apply Atonement to a single target.
• Flash Heal is a 1.5-second cast, single target Atonement applicator with a decent-sized single target heal tied to it. While this is an option for single target Atonement applicator when a single target is injured and needs Atonement, the majority of your uses will come from Surge of Light procs.
• Plea is an instant cast, single target Atonement applicator with a small instant heal effect tied to it. The largest benefit to Plea is that it can be cast while moving. In most cases, Plea will see very little usage in Mythic+ and should not be a button you are pressing often.

When talented into the Voidweaver, casting Mind Blast will activate Entropic Rift. While the rift is active, your Smite is replaced with Void Blast, you gain the Voidheart buff increasing your Atonement healing, your Void Blast and Penance heal more via Atonement, and more. In addition, when the rift ends it blows up for a large amount of damage and then spawns a Voidwraith pet that will deal fairly significant damage which translates to more Atonement healing. As a result, your output during these windows can be quite high. Unfortunately, when you are not within this window, your ouput is fairly limited.

When looking to utilize Mind Blast, make sure you apply Atonement to the whole group first via a Power Word: Radiance cast. This will ensure you are not wasting time during the rift to reapply Atonement to the group. Additionally, keep in mind that due to Collapsing Void, each cast of Penance will increase the size and damage of the rift. So ensure you are pressing Penance on cooldown during the rift's duration.

It is important to know how the targeting of this spell works. By casting Ultimate Penitence with an enemy targeted, the spell will prioritize throwing bolts at enemies. When utilizing this version of the spell, ensure you have Atonement active on the group to get any healing out of this spell. When casting this spell with an ally targeted, the spell will prioritize throwing bolts at allies. While you will still see an increase in healing from Ultimate Penitence if Atonement is active on the party due to our Mastery, it is possible to use this defensively if you find yourself without any Power Word: Radiance charges and are desperate for healing.

Something to keep in mind when utilizing this spell is that the bolts from Ultimate Penitence will generate Weal and Woe stacks, so ensure you utilize said stacks before using your next Penance cast.

In general, both offensive and defensive Ultimate Penitence are good options to utilize in dungeons but you will more often than not be utilizing it offensively.

In Dungeon content, Evangelism immediately heals your whole group for a non-insignificant amount on cast. Additionally, it causes your next two casts of Power Word: Radiance to be instant cast. This buff lasts forever, so you can hold those Radiance casts for as long as you need them, making this a very strong tool to assist with mobility heavy encounters.

In Raiding content, this tool is a primary enabler for what we call a ramp. This concept will be described in the next section.

Evangelism also activates either Archangel or Mindbender depending on what one you are talented into. This either buffs all your healing and absorbs for a period of time or summons a pet for a short duration to both deal damage as well as interact with other talents such as Inescapable Torment if talented.

While this spell has an incredibly long cooldown at 4 minutes, its also incredibly powerful. When cast offensively, it will throw bolts at random enemies, dealing significant damage which translates to a large amount of Atonement healing if the group has Atonement active on them. When cast defensively, it will throw bolts at injured allies, healing them directly. In Raid, you will almost always utilize this offensively with a full ramp sequence described below to ensure proper Atonement coverage. In keys however, while your default will be to cast this offensively, there are some situations where you may need to cast this defensively for a significant amount of single target healing.

Power Word: Barrier shares a choice node with Ultimate Penitence, meaning you have to choose between one or the other. Power Word: Barrier can be incredibly powerful in any scenario where the incoming damage during its duration is significant enough. Keep in mind that it does require the group and or raid to be able to stack under the barrier for its duration to benefit, so some encounters it is very difficult to use even if the damage intake warrants it. While we are recommending Ultimate Penitence by default, keep an eye out for good situations to swap to Power Word: Barrier.

Pain Suppression is a very large Damage Reduction on a single target. Utilizing this either on the tank or on a player with a large damage over time effect on them can have a significant impact. When running the talent Protector of the Frail, you will have a lot of additional casts available of Pain Suppression, so make sure you use it often instead of just sitting on maximum charges.

1. Refresh your Shadow Word: Pain to ensure it lasts the entire duration of your Ramp.
2. Cast Penance
3. Cast Power Word: Shield
4. Cast Flash Heal
5. Cast Plea
6. Cast Evangelism
7. Cast Power Word: Radiance x2
8. Cast Penance
9. Cast Mind Blast
10. Cast Penance
11. Cast Power Word: Shield
12. Cast Smite until Penance becomes available again or your Atonement's have fallen off.

1. Refresh your Shadow Word: Pain to ensure it lasts the entire duration of your Ramp.
2. Cast Penance
3. Cast Power Word: Shield
4. Cast Flash Heal
5. Cast Plea
6. Cast Power Word: Radiance x2
7. Cast Ultimate Penitence
8. Cast Mind Blast (Clipping the previous cast early. See Advanced section below)
9. Cast Penance
10. Cast Power Word: Shield
11. Cast Penance
12. Continue casting Smite and Penance when its available until all Atonement's have fallen off.

1. Refresh your Shadow Word: Pain to ensure it lasts the entire duration of your Ramp.
2. Cast Power Word: Shield
3. Cast Plea x2
4. Cast Flash Heal
5. Cast Evangelism
6. Cast Power Word: Radiance x2
7. Cast Mind Blast
8. Cast Penance
9. Cast Void Blast until Penance becomes available again or your Atonement's have fallen off.

1. Refresh your Shadow Word: Pain to ensure it lasts the entire duration of your Ramp.
2. Cast Plea
3. Cast Power Word: Shield
4. Cast Flash Heal
5. Cast Power Word: Radiance x2
6. Cast Mind Blast
7. Cast Ultimate Penitence
8. Cast Void Blast (Clipping the previous cast early. See Advanced section below)
9. Cast Penance
10. Continue casting Void Blast and Penance when its available until all Atonement's have fallen off.