Mists of Pandaria Classic Discipline Priest Rotation and Cooldowns

If you have not already, we recommend reading the Spells Summary page first. Knowing how each spell and ability works in detail will greatly increase your understanding of the topics discussed on this page. Discipline Priest healing is unique when compared to all other healers, focusing on preventing damage with multiple absorb spells rather than simply healing injured allies after they take damage.

Discipline is any extremely powerful healing choice as it can deal tremendous amounts of damage at the same time as it is healing thanks to Atonement. You should be trying to heal with Atonement as much as possible, as this will help meet all DPS checks on hard encounters. When incoming damage is too high, typically when there's raid-wide damage occurring, you will need to use a direct healing rotation instead to stabilize the raid, before returning to healing with Atonement.

1. Penance Use on cooldown;
2. Holy Fire Use on cooldown;
3. Smite Spam this on the target debuffed by Holy Fire for 20% increased damage.
4. Power Word: Shield use at least once every 12 seconds for Rapture mana-return procs. Tanks are great targets here, or anyone you know will take damage.
5. Prayer of Mending use on grouped players if there is a constant raid-wide damage.

Healing up single targets quickly is something Discipline does efficiently, especially if you can prevent a large amount of the targets damage taken with your absorption spells. The following is the recommended healing order if there is high tank damage occurring.

1. Archangel Use to consume the stacks of Evangelism, ideally you will have 5 stacks for a 25% healing increase total.
2. Penance Use on cooldown.
3. Greater Heal Whenever your target is taking high, sustained damage.
4. Power Word: Shield Use whenever the target does not have the Weakened Soul debuff; you need to use this at least every 12 seconds for Rapture procs to sustain your Mana.
5. Prayer of Mending if it will jump to other nearby players.
6. Binding Heal Use in emergencies whenever you and the target are both low health.
7. Flash Heal Use whenever your target is very low health and needs a quick heal.
8. Renew If you have free time, or are moving, put this up on targets that are taking consistent damage.
9. Heal Use whenever incoming damage is very low and you want to reserve Mana.

Once the tank damage has lightened, you will want to return to Atonement healing to preserve mana.

While Discipline does not excel at raid healing, it is something you will frequently need to do to help top up your injured allies. Help the main AoE healers to quickly top up the raid so you can get back to what you do best, healing with Atonement.

1. Archangel Use to consume the stacks of Evangelism, ideally you will have 5 stacks for a 25% healing increase total.
2. Prayer of Mending Use on cooldown if it will bounce.
3. Prayer of Healing Cast this as frequently as is needed to heal up the group. This is your main aoe-healing spell that you will be using.
4. Power Word: Shield Use this at least once every 12 seconds for Rapture procs to sustain your Mana.

New to Mists of Pandaria is the spell Spirit Shell. This converts all of your Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing spells into absorption shields that last 15 seconds. This is one of our strongest defensive spells, as we can place a ton of absorbs on the raid before predictable damage comes in. With a 1-minute cooldown, you will use Spirit Shell on cooldown and should follow this rotation while it is active:

1. Archangel Use to consume the stacks of Evangelism, ideally you will have 5 stacks for a 25% healing increase total.
2. Inner Focus
3. Power Infusion
4. Prayer of Healing spam this on groups, ideally evenly spreading the shielding around so everyone absorbs an equal amount.

Discipline Priest has long been the go-to healer when it comes to raid cooldowns, and this remains true still during Mists of Pandaria, as Discipline gains serveral additional cooldowns to use in raids.

• Spirit Shell 1-minute cooldown. Converts all of your healing from Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing into shields, causing them to absorb for the amount that they would regularly heal for. This is an amazing new ability we get in Mists of Pandaria that allows you to stack massive shields on players when you know a large, upcoming raid-wide ability is coming.
• Void Shift 5-minute cooldown. New to Mists of Pandara, this swaps your health with the target. After swapping, if either player is below 25% of their maximum health, they will be healed to that amount. This is great for saving someone who is about to die, as long as you are safe too!
• Power Word: Barrier 3-minute cooldown. Summons a barrier at the selected location; players inside the barrier take 25% reduced damage from all sources and receive 10% increased healing. While inside the barrier spell casts will not be pushed back by taking damage. Remains the best raid-wide cooldown in the game!
• Pain Suppression 3-minute cooldown. Reduces targets damage taken by 40% for 6 seconds. You will mostly use this on tanks right before a boss mechanic goes off, or on large trash pulls. Be sure to coordinate this cooldown with your tanks as to not overlap multiple defensive cooldowns at the same time.
• Power Infusion Tier 5 Talent Choice; Can only be used on yourself now; 2-minute cooldown. Grants you a self-haste and mana-reduction buff that also increases your damage dealt. If you took this talent, its perfect to use to increase your Atonement healing during phases where there is high single-target damage.
• Inner Focus 45-second cooldown. Reduces the Mana cost of your next Flash Heal, Greater Heal, or Prayer of Healing by 25% and increases its crit chance by 100%. Also makes you immune to silence and interruption effects for 5 seconds; try to save this on fights where you know a predictable silence is coming.
• Shadowfiend 3-minute cooldown. Restores 3% of your Mana with each attack. Use this early and often, you should get several off every fight.