Discipline Priest Healing Rotation, Cooldowns, and Abilities — Shadowlands 9.0.2
On this page, you will learn how to optimize the rotation of your Discipline Priest, depending on the type of damage your group is receiving. We also have advanced sections about cooldowns, procs, etc. in order to minmax your healing output and your mana efficiency. All our content is updated for World of Warcraft — Shadowlands 9.0.2.
If you were looking for WoW Classic content, please refer to our Classic Healer Priest rotation.
Rotation for Discipline Priests
The Discipline specialisation 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 (in order to generate Atonement healing), as well as how to handle single target and AoE healing.If you are just beginning to learn Discipline Priest, take a look at our easy guide that sticks to the basics first.
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.
DPS Rotation / Atonement
The ideal rotation for dealing damage in order to generate
Atonement healing is as follows.
- Maintain
Shadow Word: Pain (or
Purge the Wicked, if you have taken this talent) on the target.
- Use
Schism as needed to provide a damage increase, and thus healing increase for your
Atonements (if you have taken this talent).
- Use
Power Word: Solace on cooldown (if you have taken this talent).
- Use
Penance on cooldown.
- Use
Mind Blast on cooldown.
- Use
Smite as a filler.
From now on in this guide, whenever we mention dealing damage for
Atonement purposes, we mean that you should use this above
rotation.
Raid Healing
For healing damage on multiple raid members at once, your primary tool is
Atonement. The general idea is very simple: proactively
place Atonement on the required players through the use of such spells as
Power Word: Radiance,
Power Word: Shield, or
Shadow Mend, so that when the damage starts coming in, you can
already begin healing them through dealing damage. You want to avoid being
caught without having Atonement up on players when damage starts coming in,
since this will leave you unprepared.
If you must heal a rather low number of players or if the damage taken is
low, then you should use Shadow Mend
to apply and maintain Atonement on them. Throughout this time, you should
continue to DPS. If your Atonement targets
need healing (are all approximately less than 90% health), you should use
Penance or
Smite offensively to help top them off. Since you
will be able to cast
Power Word: Radiance in between
Evangelism
casts (assuming you are using this talent), you should use it as needed when the
group takes damage. Be careful to not use Power Word: Radiance if you will be
left without 1-2 charges for when Evangelism is off cooldown, or when the next
major raid damage event is going to occur. A common mistake made is applying
Atonement to targets that have only taken a small amount of damage and will not
continue taking damage over the remaining duration of Atonement. The ideal
targets for Atonement are players inflicted by things like damage over time
effects, bleeds, or long lasting area of effect damage.
If the number of players you have to heal or the damage received are high, then you should use the following rotations based on the cooldown you have available.
Evangelism Ramp
- Apply around 5-7
Atonement buffs using
Shadow Mend.
- Use
Power Word: Radiance twice about 4-5 seconds before the damage occurs (depends on the damage pattern of the encounter in question, in some cases it is best to hold a charge when there is more consistent damage).
- Use
Evangelism.
- Use
Shadowfiend(not always required but is advised if there is high sustained damage).
- Use
Schism (if talented) so that it hits after damage is supposed to occur.
- Damage Occurs
- Use
Power Word: Solace (if talented).
- Use
Halo (if talented).
- Use
Penance to deal damage.
- Use
Mind Blast.
- Keep using
Smite until
Penance/
Power Word: Solace/
Mind Blast comes back off cooldown or your
Atonements fall off.
Spirit Shell Ramp
- Apply around 5-7
Atonement buffs using
Shadow Mend.
- Use
Power Word: Radiance twice.
- Use
Mindbender.
- Use
Spirit Shell.
- Use
Schism (if talented).
- Use
Power Word: Solace (if talented).
- Use
Halo (if talented).
- Use
Penance to deal damage.
- Use
Mind Blast.
- Keep using
Smite until
Penance/
Power Word: Solace/
Mind Blast comes back off cooldown or your
Atonements fall off.
When utilizing Spirit Shell, you want to ensure that you have stacked
the absorb shield on your allies prior to the damage occurring as opposed
to just getting your
Atonement up and then utilizing your DPS spells
after the damage happens, like during the
Evangelism ramp. This means
that when running Spirit Shell, you are likely to be ramping earlier than with
Evangelism.
Rapture Ramp
If you have a charge of Power Word: Radiance available, but no
Evangelism, and there is a mechanic that warrants healing, you can also
ramp utilizing
Rapture. In this situation you should use the following
rotation:
- Cast
Rapture.
- Cast
Power Word: Shield until the Rapture buff has fallen off.
- Cast
Power Word: Radiance once.
- Damage Occurs
- Use
Schism (if talented) so that it hits after damage is supposed to occur.
- Use
Power Word: Solace (if talented).
- Use
Penance to deal damage.
- Keep using
Smite until
Penance or
Power Word: Solace comes back off cooldown.
If you are using the legendary Clarity of Mind, you can utilize two
casts of
Power Word: Radiance within your
Rapture ramps instead
of limiting it to one, as well as using
Mindgames if you are Venthyr.
Depending on your talent choice, you will also supplement your AoE healing
with Halo in any of the above ramps, but keep in mind that only the
first target that these abilities damage generates Atonement healing (so you
should view them as direct healing spells rather than means of doing
damage).
A Special Note for Venthyr Players
When using the Nadjia the Mistblade Soulbind, her first Soulbind ability,
Thrill Seeker, has an interesting optimization that can be utilized. It
is currently unknown as to whether this is intended or not, but you can
/cancelaura Thrill Seeker, effectively resetting its current stack count. What
this allows you to do is force Thrill Seeker to proc at a specific time
(during a ramp/burst sequence), due to its stack gains being a set 1 per 2
seconds, assuming no add deaths.
Dungeon Healing
Dungeon healing relies on Atonement when the damage amounts are
low to medium. For higher amounts of damage, you will need to make use of
additional spells.
When the damage is low to medium, you should maintain Atonement on
the target through using Shadow Mend and simply perform your DPS rotation. This should provide enough
healing to keep the target alive. Using Shadow Mend this way should
ensure that
Atonement is always up on the target.
When the damage is high, Atonement healing will no longer suffice on
its own. In case of group-wide damage, you should use
Power Word: Radiance to quickly apply 5 Atonements at 60% duration and
use
Schism (if talented),
Power Word: Solace and
Penance
offensively to heal up your group.
Shadowfiend or
Mindbender can supplement your healing quite well in a
pinch, so it is recommended to save the cooldown as best you can for packs or
bosses that require the extra healing. When this is not enough, you need to
utilize other cooldowns like
Rapture,
Power Word: Barrier or
your covenant ability, depending on what you chose.
For further tips and tricks in Mythic+ content, please check out our Mythic+ specific page.
Covenant Ability Usage
Mindgames is one of the simpler Covenant abilities to utilize. With
its low cooldown, you can just cast Mindgames after Schism in any of your ramps
for a large burst of healing.
Boon of the Ascended, with its longer cooldown, will not get used in
every ramp, but should be used opposite of your other major cooldown
Shadowfiend. To use Boon in one of your ramps, utilize the following
cast sequence:
Boon of the Ascended
Ascended Blast
Schism
Ascended Nova
Ascended Nova
Ascended Blast
- Repeat Nova/Nova/Blast until the spell ends
With Ascended Blast and Ascended Nova usable while moving, you should have no problems moving into melee range for the final AoE portion of Boon.
Unholy Nova should be cast right before your
Schism cast in
any of your ramps. Due to Unholy Nova damage utilizing a square root calculation,
for maximum
Atonement healing from this spell, try to only hit 1 enemy
with it.
Fae Guardians should be utilized outside of your ramps during a
period where you can avoid utilizing
Shadow Mend for as long a possible
to keep the
Benevolent Faerie on the desired target. While this spell is
active, utilize
Power Word: Shield as your primary single-target
Atonement activator.
Atonement Applicators
Power Word: Shield is best used in situations when you are on the
move or the target is not currently damaged. On the other hand,
Shadow Mend can be a great way to spot heal and apply
Atonement in situations where you have the time to stop moving in
order to cast it and when the direct heal of the spell will contribute.
Shadow Mend is usually the better spell to use in most situations and should not
be considered only an emergency heal.
Power Word: Radiance provides a quick method of getting Atonement out
in your group and remains the most global cooldown and Mana-efficient spell per
seconds of Atonement applied.
Cooldown Usage for Discipline Priests
Pain Suppression should be used on a tank, before a damage spike. Alternatively, it can be used on a raid member who is targeted by a very damaging ability.
Power Word: Barrier should be used to mitigate intense AoE damage; it requires the raid to be stacked in one place.
Shadowfiend should be treated as a healing cooldown that provides healing throughput during high periods of consistent damage.
Rapture should be used when you anticipate a large amount of AoE damage. This allows you to pre-shield approximately 9-10 players with a sizable absorb, which also serves to set up
Atonement on them for subsequent healing. Be aware that after Rapture expires any new Power Word: Shield casts will replace the previous buff on the target.
Desperate Prayer provides you with a cooldown that increases your health as well as providing you with a heal equal to the amount of health increased. This is used in a situation where you need a quick self-heal or need the additional health to survive an ability.
Optional Read: Mastering Your Discipline Priest
While the guidelines we have given so far will enable you to perform very decently as a Discipline Priest, there are some subtleties which you need to be aware of if you want to play your character to its full potential.
Atonement
- 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 have no effect on
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
Mind Sear will do healing through Atonement, but only on the first instance of damage.
Absorption Effects
Discipline Priests have two absorption effects by default, and a third one that can be gained from talents.
Power Word: Shield is quite simple. You place a shield on a target,
which absorbs a certain amount of damage, depending on Shields benefit from
your critical strike chance, absorbing twice as much damage when this effect
procs.
Damaging an enemy with Mind Blast causes a part of of the next damage
that they deal to be absorbed. This works on castable abilities as well as boss
auto-attacks.
Penance
Penance is best used offensively unless a target requires healing and you are
unable to stop and cast Shadow Mend. Penance also will begin healing the target
faster than alternatives, so if a quicker heal is needed, Penance can be used
defensively. Keep in mind that without a Power of the Dark Side proc,
Shadow Mend does more healing than a defensively used Penance.
Changelog
- 08 Dec. 2020: Slight adjustments to the wording in the ramp sequence examples. Added mention of Thrill Seeker potential bug.
- 23 Nov. 2020: Removed reference to essences. Added Spirit Shell section. Added Covenant Ability section.
- 12 Oct. 2020: Page updated for the Shadowlands pre-patch.
More Priest Guides
Guides from Other Classes
This guide is written and maintained by Clandon, Healer in Incarnate as well as staff and theorycrafter at Warcraft Priests (join them on Discord or on their website) and is reviewed by the other staff at Warcraft Priests and notable members of the healing community.
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