Discipline Priest Frequently Asked Questions — Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1.5

1. Gameplay

1.1. How good is Discipline Priest in BfA Patch 8.1.5?

Discipline Priests are in solid shape in both raids and Mythic+. The spec performs well in most content still and retains its unique gameplay making it a very fun spec to main. For more information on this, you can read the Introduction Page for this guide.

1.2. How does Mastery: Grace work?

Mastery: Grace increases all healing done to targets that have Atonement active, which includes Atonement healing itself. It does not increase the healing of a spell that initially applies Atonement, however.

1.3. Does 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.

1.4. I heard Mastery was bugged (snapshotting); has that been fixed?

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). Currently, you should never be taking Contrition in PvE content.

2.2. Sins of the Many vs. Shadow Covenant?

Sins of the Many and Shadow Covenant are both very close in overall value, but they are picked for slightly different reasons. Sins of the Many is generally the default choice in most situations, as it strengthens your overall Atonement healing via more damage. Shadow Covenant gets picked in situations where you have a high healing requirement that does not quite fit the mould for Atonement healing; for example, damage that happens in quick bursts to a low amount of people, fights that have near constant damage which is far more often than you can be ramping for, or situations where you need on-demand healing while moving. Keep in mind that Shadow Covenant is generally overvalued in logs due to the absorb not being removed from the healing done. This causes the talent to look far better than it actually is. Just because the "top" logs used it, does not mean it is the best choice on a specific encounter.

2.3. When should I use Luminous Barrier?

Situations where Luminous Barrier would be good are rather rare. Luminous Barrier requires an encounter where both Evangelism and Power Word: Barrier get very little value. In general, avoid this talent, as it is a trap for newer players who do not understand the strength of or how to use Evangelism.

2.4. Halo vs. Divine Star vs. Purge the Wicked?

Halo, Divine Star, and Purge the Wicked are all very close in overall value. The talent you pick is going to depend on, and will change heavily based on, the encounters/content you are doing.

2.5. When would I use Twist of Fate?

Twist of Fate is worth taking if you have a high single-target healing requirement in dungeons or will have an extremely high uptime in raids. Currently, with the power of Schism, you will rarely be using Twist of Fate in raids and only for specific mechanics or at lower gear levels for Mythic+.

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 Azerite gear or trinkets is generally not a good idea.

3.2. Do DPS trinkets / Azerite traits / Racials 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?

Most Azerite Traits stack. The exception to this is traits that provide duration increases. The notable ones to pay attention to for Discipline are Depth of the Shadows and Enduring Luminescence. For both of those traits, the Atonement duration increase does not stack, which makes them very poor traits to use multiple of.

3.4. Does Death Throes work for Discipline?

Yes, Death Throes, despite being a Shadow trait, works for both Discipline's Shadow Word: Pain and Purge the Wicked spells in the form of more damage. This increase in damage translates to more Atonement healing, which can be very powerful in fights where you can maintain multiple DoTs. Keep in mind that in order to select the Death Throes trait, you must respec to Shadow, select the trait, and then respec back to Discipline.

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 wear the highest item level gear you can find first, and prioritize Haste only on equal item level gear.

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?

Battle Potion of Intellect should be used on pull. 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 an encounter where Mana is not a concern, use another Intellect potion as needed to increase your healing output.

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