World of Warcraft: Forever Discipline Priest Guide

So far, all the updates and changes to the Discipline Priest spec are overwhelmingly positive. Leveling on your own was rough, but accelerated by finding a group to quest and run dungeons with. Penance feels amazing to use every time, doing a good amount of damage and a large amount of healing.

The changes from Classic to Forever within the the talent tree gave Discipline Priests a stronger identity. While Discipline Priests suffered lower overall healing throughput in Classic, in Forever the tradeoff of raw healing power towards more mitigation and utility feels good. It is expected for Discipline Priests to be in high demand for their single-target healing, mitigation, and their capstone ability, Power Infusion.

An interesting theorycraft for Discipline Priest is a potential DPS build centered around dealing holy damage. We don't yet know how viable this will be on release, but it is an exciting possibility. Any information about this potential new build is definitely something to be on the lookout for.

While Discipline Priests have access to many of the same healing spells that Holy has, this spec's healing looks a little different. The main way of healing as a Discipline Priest is through applying shields and mitigations. The core components of this spec include Power Word: Shield, Penance, Divine Aegis, and Renewed Hope.

While we might not have as much raw healing throughput, the additional Effective Health Points (EHP) we grant to our allies more than makes up for it. EHP is comprised of total health, shields, and damage mitigation such as your armor and resistance values. As a healer, higher EHP give you more room to breathe since it will take more time/damage before you hit 0 HP.

Since most of our tools are shields and mitigations, this means that the playstyle of Discipline Priest is proactive. We look to apply our shields and mitigations before our target takes damage. This spec can be hard to pick up, but has incredible potential once you master the nuances of the spec. Some of what is required to thrive as Discipline Priest is having general knowledge of enemies and their attack patterns, and some of it is through mastering mana management.

There are many other ways to improve your mana efficiency. A big component of managing mana well is avoiding overhealing. Overhealing is an example of inefficient mana usage and can catch up to you fast. There are a few methods to avoid overhealing, such as using wands as filler rather than DPS spells, downranking, and awareness of the 5-second Rule.

The 5-second Rule is when your Mana regeneration is halted for 5 seconds after casting a spell that costs Mana. There are some talents you can choose that bypass this, such as the Meditation talent from the Discipline tree. This rule only applies when the cast completes, so if the cast is interrupted for any reason, it will not trigger the halt on Mana regeneration.

When you don't need to heal or take other actions, it is a good idea to weave in wand attacks. Wand attacks do not cost Mana, but while the damage dealt with wands may not seem significant, it adds up over time. Ultimately, the faster an enemy dies, the less you will need to heal.

Downranking is the use of lower-rank versions of a spell to conserve mana. This can be a harder skill to master, but it's a good idea to practice it when you can. Without utilizing downranking, your Mana reservoir will dwindle fast. Be patient with yourself if this is new to you, as this is a skill that develops over time and with experience.

Mind Control and Mind Vision are two spells with effects that are unique to priests. While Mind Vision is solely used for scouting purposes, Mind Control is a tool that can be used to take an enemy out of a fight. The only downside is that it is a channeled ability, meaning that we are unable to heal unless we cancel the channel.

This means that Mind Control is an ability that may not be used every fight, but can be a great way to conserve mana by mitigating the damage that would have been dealt. The key to knowing when to use this is mainly through gaining more knowledge on the enemies you encounter in the world. A good rule of thumb to know when to use Mind Control is asking yourself whether removing that enemy from the fight would mitigate more damage than you could heal during its channel.

If you are playing Hardcore and face a challenge that requires you to mitigate damage that would otherwise kill you, keep in mind that the ability can be resisted. They can resist the initial cast or possibly resist the channel during the Heartbeat Resist. Heartbeat Resist checks every 2s whether the target breaks free from the effect.

Some targets will be more risky to attempt Mind Control on. Factors that affect the resist chance include the level difference & the distance between you and the target, as well as the target's resistances. The higher the level difference, the further away from the target you are, and the higher the target's resistance is determine whether they succeed their Heartbeat Resist check.

Consumables are incredibly important to have and can make adventuring much smoother than attempting to go without supplies. Ideally, we should be bringing some food, a drink, and some health potions.

Water is incredibly important for Priests to have on hand while adventuring. It reduces the delay between pulls caused by a lack of mana. Food is another important consumable to have for regenerating health between pulls. Water and food cannot be consumed during combat and will be canceled upon attacking or being attacked.

Healing Potions and Mana Potions are useful for restoring a portion of your health or mana resource in a pinch. Keep in mind that these potions share a cooldown with each other, so be careful when choosing which to drink. Bandages are another consumable that can be used to restore health. While you can use them in combat, its effect are canceled on any tick of damage taken, including any damage taken while shielded. Bandages have a cooldown of 60s regardless of if it completed the full heal or not. They are mainly for recovering health in-between fights without using mana.