Discipline Priest Frequently Asked Questions — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

1. Gameplay

1.1. How good is Discipline Priest in BfA Patch 8.1?

Discipline Priests are in decent shape even with some recent nerfs. The spec performs well in most content still and retains its unique gameplay making it a very fun spec to main in Patch 8.1. For more information on this, you can read the Introduction Page for this guide.

1.2. What changed for Discipline Priest in Patch 8.1?

A summary of all changes can be found here.

1.3. How does the new Mastery: Grace work?

Mastery: Grace increases all healing done to targets that have Atonement active, which includes Atonement healing itself. Technically, it is like having the old Mastery plus Grace (Legion talent). It does not increase healing of a spell that initially applies Atonement, however.

1.4. Will the return of Weakened Soul impact my raid if we have two Disc Priests?

No. The debuff is Priest-specific and will not prevent your other Priests from applying Power Word: Shield on the same target.

1.5. Will Depth of Shadows be good now?

Most definitely. The added Atonement duration will help immensely and the extra upfront healing on Shadow Mend will make an impact. We will use Shadow Mend to apply Atonement to players who need healing.

1.6. The Mana cost of Power Word: Shield went up, will we not use it anymore?

We will definitely still use Power Word: Shield, but only when players do not need extra healing when applying Atonement.

1.7. I heard Mastery was bugged (snapshotting); has that been fixed in 8.1?

Yes, Mastery snapshotting has been fixed. The bug was causing issues since the only Mastery being accounted for is the Mastery you had when you applied Atonement. Any additional Mastery proc during the Atonement's duration was not benefiting your healing, which was not intended.

2. Talents

2.1. When am I going to use Contrition?

Contrition in its current state is pretty abysmal. In Patch 8.1, it receives a round-about buff because of the reduction in Atonement transfer, but so did Shadow Covenant (a better choice in comparison).

2.2. Shadow Covenant?

Shadow Covenant, provided with a cooldown and having its cost halved, still suits the same purpose it did before: a quick and bursty heal for an entire group, that should rather not be used in an environment of constant damage. Like the other talents on that row, it is only a minor healing gain and should be considered situational.

2.3. Does the nerf to Schism in Patch 8.1 make it not worth taking?

Schism is still worth taking, it just has less of an up-front punch. The benefit from Schism was always the damage buff, the initial damage was just a nice bonus.

2.4. When would I use Luminous Barrier?

Situations where Luminous Barrier would be good are rather rare. The only time where it would be recommended is in raid sizes of 20+, or in easier content (LFR/Normal/Heroic).

2.5. Should I use Halo or Divine Star over PtW now?

Both Halo and Divine Star got buffed at the launch of BfA in comparison to Purge the Wicked. Due to its areal limitation, Divine Star is still very situational. Halo should be considered your baseline talent now for raiding, while Purge the Wicked is still strong, but situational, and requires multiple targets that can take advantage of most of the duration of the cleaved DoT.

2.6. When would I use Twist of Fate?

Twist of Fate is worth taking if you are having to spam Shadow Mend / Shadow Covenant a lot in dungeons, or will have a high uptime in raids.

3. Azerite Trinkets and Stats

3.1. My Stats are X/Y/Z. Are These Any Good?

Nothing has really changed in the stats department. Item level is still king when determining what piece of loot to wear. While you still want to try to sustain a higher level of Haste, neglecting item level on anything but jewelry, Azerite gear, or trinkets is generally not a good idea. Mastery going into Patch 8.1 will be slightly devalued from Patch 8.0.1, due to Atonement nerfs, but it will be unlikely to impact your gearing choices.

3.2. Do DPS trinkets / Azerite traits help increase my Atonement healing?

In Legion, they used to, but they no longer contribute to your Atonement healing and thus are not worth considering, unless you are focused on increasing your DPS for competitive Mythic+. This also applies to DPS Azerite traits.

3.3. Do Azerite traits stack?

Azerite Traits stack if they provide +healing, +damage or +resources. Anything that changes the mechanics (duration etc.) of a spell will not.

4. Miscellaneous

4.1. How much Haste should Discipline Priest have? / Is there a Haste cap for for Discipline Priest?

There are no Haste breakpoints worth mentioning. Discipline can benefit from Haste, but all stats are relatively equal. So, you will not want to stack Haste over other secondary stats. Haste can make the spec "feel" better, as it reduces cast times and your Global Cooldown, however, compared to the other secondary stats there is a minimal gain in overall performance from adding more Haste. The goal should be to balance your secondary stat ratings, including Haste.

4.2. Which race is best for Discipline Priest?

There is no specific race that benefits Discipline Priest in terms of better performance in any meaningful way. The benefits you should focus on, regardless of faction, are movement increase related. A good example of this would be choosing Goblin if you are Horde to gain the Rocket Jump ability. Keep in mind that just because Goblin was mentioned, it does not mean that is the only race you should choose as a Discipline Priest, it is just used as an example. At the end of the day, choose what looks best to you aesthetically. The benefits you receive for your race are extremely minimal and it is best to play what you like the look of.

4.3. What potions should I use and when?

Potion of Rising Death should be used on pull if you are not needing significant healing for the first 25-30 seconds of an encounter. If you need additional healing, use an Intellect potion. Potion of Replenishment is the best Mana potion to use if you have time to sit and drink for its full duration, otherwise a regular Mana potion is fine. If you are in a very short encounter where Mana is not a concern, use another Intellect potion as needed to increase your healing output.

Keep in mind that Potion of Rising Death gains strength the longer it travels. This means in encounters where you are closer to the target, Intellect potions may actually provide more DPS.

4.4. I got a Seabreeze from a Mythic+ run, is it worth using?

Seabreeze is not ideal because it has a 0.7 RPPM (Random Procs Per Minute) proc, and while the stat does go up to a very large amount, it is not enough to account for the lack of baseline stats on the item given the uptime. RPPM in this case means it benefits from bad luck protection (BLP), the chance to proc is not increased by other Haste sources. Take a 340 item level Seabreeze as an example: the typical value of the Haste it gives you is 104 going up to 1040. This seems great, but we can pretty easily get the average value of this proc to be 183 or so. This is close to a 340 staff, but instead you're placing all of that value into a buff with 35% uptime.

In short, Seabreeze is not awful, but an equal item level staff has the same secondary stat budget, without the caveat of having to deal with a varying magnitude of Haste for 30 seconds with a low uptime buff.

5. Changelog