Discipline Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Dragonflight 10.0.7

The Discipline specialization revolves heavily around healing through dealing damage, thanks to the Atonement passive ability. We detail this below, but for now all you need to keep in mind is that dealing damage is an integral part of healing as Discipline.

In the sections that follow we will look at which abilities you should use to deal damage (to generate Atonement healing), as well as how to handle single target and AoE healing.

Already read this page and still struggling? Take a look at our How to Improve page to see common mistakes Discipline Priest players make as well as how to analyze your gameplay.

The content on this page will be focused on PvE content. If you are looking for PvP-focused information, please take a look at our PvP page linked below.

The core concept of Discipline Priest healing in raid is centered around spreading a large number of Atonements out, followed by using damage cooldowns to result in significant healing over many targets. This described process is what we will refer to in the rest of the guide as a "Ramp".

A ramp is primarily broken down into two distinct phases, the Atonement application phase, and the DPS phase. Both sequences will be discussed in detail below.

Due to Ramps revolving around the rapid spread of Atonement, the primary limiter in regards to how often you can do so is Power Word: Radiance. The cooldowns used in conjunction with your Power Word: Radiance casts will determine the exact type of Ramp you will execute to cover a boss mechanic.

• Renew is an instant cast, single target Atonement applicator with a small heal-over-time effect tied to it. Due to it being the lowest mana cost of our single target atonement applicators, it is our go to applicator outside of when utilizing Rapture.
• Power Word: Shield is an instant cast, single target atonement applicator with a shield tied to it. While the shield applied by this spell is stronger than the heal over time applied by Renew, the larger mana cost proportionally is not worth it. While it can be a solid cast depending on the circumstances, be careful not to overuse it and drain your mana for little gain. The primary value in all of these spells is the Atonement, not the effect of the spell itself.
• Flash Heal is a 1.5-second cast, single target atonement applicator with a decent-sized single target heal tied to it. With this costing more Mana than Renew as well as requiring you to stand still, it will not see nearly as much play as your primary applicator outside of a few situations. The primary use case of this spell is to abuse other talents like Surge of Light or Binding Heal. When talented into Binding Heal, Flash Heal applies Atonement to both your target and yourself, turning this into two atonements for a single cast.
• Power Word: Radiance is a 2-second cast, multi-target atonement applicator with a decent heal tied to it. Power Word: Radiance applies atonement to 5 people, but at a reduced duration. This is useful in raids for getting large coverage before a major damage event and is the primary enabler for our ramps. Planning out your uses of Radiance is a significant part of playing Discipline Priest in raid.

Please note that all sequences listed below assume a Harsh Discipline stacked before you begin your ramp.

The Atonement application phase stays pretty stagnant for the most part between builds and talent selections.

1. Cast Purge the Wicked on an enemy that already has Purge the Wicked on them to force the DoT to its maximum duration
2. Cast Power Word: Shield
3. Cast Renew
4. Cast Renew
5. Cast Renew
6. Cast Renew
7. Cast Renew
8. Cast Renew
9. Cast Renew
10. Cast Flash Heal
11. Cast Power Word: Radiance
12. Cast Shadowfiend (should be available on every other Evangelism cast)
13. Cast Power Word: Radiance
14. Cast Evangelism.

1. Cast Purge the Wicked on an enemy that already has Purge the Wicked on them to force the DoT to its maximum duration
2. Cast Rapture
3. Cast Power Word: Shield until Rapture duration ends
4. Cast Flash Heal
5. Cast Power Word: Radiance
6. Cast Power Word: Radiance

1. Cast Purge the Wicked on an enemy that already has Purge the Wicked on them to force the DoT to its maximum duration
2. Cast Power Word: Shield
3. Cast Renew
4. Cast Flash Heal
5. Cast one or two Power Word: Radiance

Your exact sequences for the damage-dealing phase will be dependent on whether or not you have access to a target in execute phase (below 20% health) that will live through your full damage-dealing phase. This section will detail various sequences to cover the aforementioned scenarios.

Execute Switch
Execute Target Available

Evangelism Ramp

1. Cast Halo
2. Cast Schism
3. Cast Light's Wrath
4. Cast Shadow Covenant
5. Cast Penance
6. Cast Mind Blast
7. Cast Power Word: Solace
8. Cast Mind Blast
9. Cast Purge the Wicked
10. Cast Shadow Word: Death
11. Cast Shadow Word: Death
12. Cast Shadow Word: Death
13. Cast Mind Blast
14. Cast Mind Blast
15. Cast Power Word: Solace
16. Cast Purge the Wicked

Rapture Ramp

1. Cast Halo
2. Cast Shadow Covenant
3. Cast Schism
4. Cast Penance
5. Cast Mind Blast
6. Cast Mind Blast
7. Cast Power Word: Solace
8. Cast Shadow Word: Death
9. Cast Purge the Wicked
10. Cast Shadow Word: Death
11. Cast Shadow Word: Death
12. Cast Mind Blast
13. Cast Mind Blast
14. Cast Power Word: Solace
15. Cast Purge the Wicked

Mini-Ramp with Shadow Covenant (Assumes 2 Radiance Casts)

1. Cast Shadow Covenant
2. Cast Schism
3. Cast Penance
4. Cast Mind Blast
5. Cast Mind Blast
6. Cast Power Word: Solace
7. Cast Shadow Word: Death
8. Cast Purge the Wicked
9. Cast Shadow Word: Death
10. Cast Shadow Word: Death
11. Cast Mind Blast
12. Cast Mind Blast
13. Cast Power Word: Solace
14. Cast Purge the Wicked

Mini-Ramp with no Shadow Covenant (Assumes 1 Radiance Casts)

1. Cast Mind Blast
2. Cast Penance
3. Cast Mind Blast
4. Cast Power Word: Solace
5. Cast Shadow Word: Death
6. Cast Shadow Word: Death
7. Cast Penance
8. Cast Shadow Word: Death
9. Cast Power Word: Solace
10. Cast Mind Blast
11. Cast Purge the Wicked
12. Cast Mind Blast

Downtime

When you are not currently performing one of the above-mentioned Ramps, you want to be very conservative in regards to your Mana usage, as it is very easy to start throwing around Renew casts on anyone taking any amount of damage and later on finding yourself out of Mana for your much more relevant and needed healing. Look for targets that will be taking damage over an extended period to maximize the efficiency of your Atonement casts and be mindful of how much Mana your larger Ramps will consume.

Your primary playstyle in mythic plus will revolve around rotating between casting Power Word: Radiance followed by a cast sequence of DPS spells to utilize the Atonement provided. Single target applications of atonement are generally not nearly as valuable due to how powerful Radiance is, but occasional use of Flash Heal will be utilized, especially with procs from Surge of Light. Renew is not a very strong spell in Mythic Plus content and should rarely be utilized outside of niche scenarios.

Your DPS windows following your Radiance casts will often involve a Shadow Covenant and Schism window giving you multiple, significant amplifiers to your offensive spells making your Atonement healing very significant. This is augmented even further by utilizing Harsh Discipline often to amplify your Penance damage further. When you find targets in execute range, Shadow Word: Death becomes a very powerful spell providing significant damage and healing through Atonement.

• Renew is an instant cast, single target Atonement applicator with a small heal-over-time effect tied to it. The largest benefit to Renew is that it can be cast while moving. In most cases, Renew will see very little usage in mythic plus and should not be a button you are pressing often.
• 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.
• 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 the best 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.
• Power Word: Radiance is a 2-second cast, multi-target atonement applicator with a large heal tied to it. Power Word: Radiance applies atonement to 5 people, but at 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.

• Rapture — Rapture removes the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield temporarily and increases their strength, making the shields decently strong. Due to the strength of Power Word: Shield baseline, Rapture is not a cooldown you want to be utilizing while damage is actively occurring, as just utilizing your other Atonement-based cooldowns will provide significantly more value. Where Rapture shines is as a pre-emptive tool. Utilizing Rapture to cover your group with Shields prior to a scary damage event gives you a nice health buffer going into it making it easier to heal through.
• Shadow Covenant — Your largest burst AoE healing windows will be defined by Shadow Covenant. Utilizing Shadow Covenant and then casting Penance, Mind Blast, and Shadow Word: Death inside of the duration will result in significant AoE healing, especially if you have Harsh Discipline active before casting it so your Penance is amped by both Shadow Covenant and Harsh Discipline. Playing around 30 second windows with Shadow Covenant and Schism is a major part of the core gameplay loop of Discipline in dungeon content.
• Vampiric Embrace — Vampiric Embrace is a cooldown we can utilize effectively in dungeons, specifically combining it with a Shadow Covenant window where the majority of our damage is shadow. With this spell off the GCD, simply hit this button with any Shadow Covenant you think you need additional healing and it will provide additional healing.
• Shadowfiend — With the damage dealt by Shadowfiend contributing to Atonement healing, this is a very large healing cooldown on top of regenerating mana per auto. Many players tend to hold this spell far too long despite how powerful it is, so be careful not to fall into the same trap.
• Mindbender — Mindbender acts as a weaker version of Shadowfiend but comes on a much shorter cooldown. However, the primary use of this spell in dungeons is usually talenting into Inescapable Torment with it and utilizing the Mindbender window to push AoE DPS. Keep in mind that you only get Atonement healing from a single hit of Inescapable Torment, so the healing provided is not very impressive.
• Power Word: Barrier — This is a powerful cooldown assuming your group can stand under it for the duration. A significant, group wide, damage reduction is nothing to ignore. Look for opportunities where your group can stack under the Barrier while high damage is occurring.
• Pain Suppression — 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.

Penance is not only one of our most iconic spells, but also one of our most powerful and versatile. While the majority of our penance casts will be utilized for damage against enemies, casting them on allies is completely viable and immensely powerful depending on the situation.

Penance is modified by a variety of spells/talents including Castigation, Harsh Discipline, Power of the Dark Side, Shadow Covenant, Blaze of Light, Twilight Equilibrium, and more. When all of these effects are stacked on top of each other, the result is a massive cast for either Atonement healing or a gigantic single target heal. Playing around things like Twilight Equilibrium, Harsh Discipline, and Shadow Covenant to buff our Penance casts is a major facet of Discipline Priest gameplay.

Currently Shadow Word: Pain is completely outclassed by its replacement Purge the Wicked. If you are looking for Shadow Word: Pain in your spellbook or on your action bars when utilizing one of our talent recommended talent builds, you should be looking for Purge the Wicked instead.

Our DoT is a significant part of our kit for a few reasons. The damage Purge the Wicked deals does result in Atonement healing for every target the DoT is on. Having five targets with Purge the Wicked on them will result in significantly more Atonement healing than a single DoT. As a result, at the beginning of a pull, getting as many Purge the Wickeds active (either by casting them ourselves or spreading them to other targets via Penance) is very important.

The other benefit to Purge the Wicked within Discipline's kit is that it procs the passive Power of the Dark Side, which allows us to provide a significant amplifier to our next Penance cast. Please note that you only need 1 active Purge the Wicked to maximize your potential Power of the Dark Side procs. Having more than 1 dot up does not increase your changes of proccing Power of the Dark Side.

For further tips and tricks in Mythic+ content, please check out our Mythic+ specific page.

• Desperate Prayer — This is one of our primary defensive abilities, healing us and bolstering our maximum HP allowing us to take larger hits while dying. Use this whenever you expect to take a large hit you are worried about surviving or just in general when you drop to low health.
• Fade / Translucent Image — Fade, when combined with Translucent Image, becomes a small damage reduction on a short cooldown. With how weak our defensives are in general, using this often when damage is going out is very important. Many players struggle to utilize this effectively when its one of our only defensive abilities in our kit.

Due to most builds including Twins of the Sun Priestess which will grant you Power Infusion when cast on an ally, you should never cast this spell on yourself. While there may be some niche situations where you want to utilize Power Infusion on yourself for hard healing checks in mythic plus, the vast majority of your casts should align with a DPS players cooldowns to help maximize their damage output.

Currently both our two piece tier set bonuses requires no additional effort or gameplay changes to play around. Our four piece tier set bonus raises the priority of Power Word: Shield enough that you should always look to be casting a shield to consume said bonus.

While the guidelines we have given so far will enable you to perform very decently as a Discipline Priest, there are some subtleties that you need to be aware of if you want to play your character to its full potential.

• While we generate healing through dealing damage, the way it is calculated is not as simple. For instance, things that increase our damage and healing (for example, Versatility) will not double dip. This is because only the healing portion of such buffs will modify Atonement.
• Mechanics that reduce our damage dealt do not affect the healing done with Atonement. For example, some raid bosses have phases with 99% reduced damage taken; Disc damage done will still heal for full through Atonement. That being said, immunities will stop our damage completely, which also means our Atonement healing.
• External buffs that increase our damage dealt will also not affect our Atonement healing (our own buffs do increase healing, for example, Schism). There is only one external buff that will affect Atonement healing — Chaos Brand, from Demon Hunters.
• Once Atonement is applied to a friendly target, the range at which the healing applies is extremely far. You will rarely find any encounter room where your Atonement will be out of range unless the encounter phases you and your target apart.
• Damage trinkets and Racials do not heal through Atonement (unless they increase our baseline spells damage).
• AoE damage effects, such as Halo/ Divine Star/ Holy Nova and Inescapable Torment will do healing through Atonement, but only on the first instance of damage.