Discipline Priest PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Shadowlands / 9.0.2)
PvP requires you to perform various actions in the course of a duel, match, or battleground: interrupting/silencing enemies, healing your teammates and yourself, defending yourself, keeping yourself alive, etc.. It is a game mode that fully utilises your kit, especially spells that are rarely used in PvE. On this page, we go through all the spells you need to use in PvP as a Discipline Priest, how you should use them, and we explain what your playstyle should be.
This page is part of our Discipline Priest PvP Guide.
Playstyle for Discipline Priests
The main role for a Discipline Priest is to use
both your healing and damaging spells to keep your team alive. The passive
ability, Atonement, allows you to directly heal from your damaging
spells.
Before Gates Open
Before the gates open you will want to coordinate your crowd control.
Discipline Priests have Psychic Scream, a great way to fear an
entire team. The only weakness about this ability is that you need to be in
melee range to use it. It is important for your teammates to try to stun the
enemy healer before using
Psychic Scream so they cannot run away.
Make sure to use
Power Word: Fortitude on your teammates. It can be
dispelled by abilities like
Purge or
Spellsteal, so
be prepared to apply it multiple times during an Arena match.
The Opener
The other team is going to try to force your trinket in the opener so they
have an advantage later in the game. As soon as the gates open you want to use
Power Word: Shield on your teammates to apply
Atonement to
them. Then start using
Purge the Wicked on enemies. This way, if you
are put into crowd control you will still be healing with
Atonement.
It is important to note that, after using Power Word: Shield, your
target will get a debuff called
Weakened Soul. This means that you
cannot use Power Word: Shield on that target for 7.5 seconds. As a result, the
primary purpose for Power Word: Shield is to just apply
Atonement.
However, while
Rapture is active, you are able to use
Power Word: Shield on targets that are affected by Weakened Soul.
If the enemy team has someone that can Stealth, use Mind Sear on one
of your teammates to potentially knock them out.
Healing Techniques
Burst Healing
The great thing about Discipline Priests is that they have the multiple ways to keep teammates alive and high on health.
- The first method is best when the enemy team has strong single target
pressure:
- If
Power Infusion is available, use it. This will significantly increase your Haste.
- Use
Power Word: Shield to apply
Atonement.
- Make sure to maintain
Purge the Wicked on multiple targets.
- If they are very low, use
Pain Suppression.
- It is recommended to save Pain Suppression for when you are in a stun, that way you can keep rotating your cooldowns for each setup the enemy is doing.
- Use
Power Word: Solace.
- Use
Mindgames on the kill target if you are Venthyr.
- Use
Penance on an enemy player to spread
Purge the Wicked.
- Cast
Mind Blast on an enemy to heal with your Atonement.
- Cast
Shadow Mend until your teammate is fine or you get interrupted.
- Use
Power Word: Radiance if you get interrupted on
Shadow Mend or
Mind Blast.
- If
- The second method is best used when your team is taking strong spread
pressure:
- If
Power Infusion is available, use it. This will significantly increase your Haste.
- Use
Power Word: Barrier if your entire team is stacked.
- Use
Power Word: Shield to apply
Atonement.
- Make sure to maintain
Purge the Wicked on multiple targets.
- Use
Memory of Lucid Dreams.
- Use
Power Word: Radiance.
- Use
Shadowfiend.
- Cast
Mind Blast on an enemy to heal with your Atonement.
- Use
Mindgames on the kill target if you are Venthyr.
- Use
Penance on an enemy player to spread
Purge the Wicked.
- Use
Shadow Mend to heal up lower teammates.
- Use
Power Word: Radiance if you get interrupted on
Shadow Mend or
Mind Blast.
- If
- You can use
Rapture for either of these situations. It is ideal to use it after you have been crowd controlled so you do not lose value while it is active. While it is active, make sure to use and maintain
Power Word: Shield on all teammates. Use
Penance to spread
Purge the Wicked.
Sustained Damage Healing
Use this to heal sustained damage throughout the match (damage done when the other team does not have burst cooldowns available).
- Maintain
Atonement on all of your teammates. If you are using the PvP talent,
Trinity (which you should be), use
Power Word: Shield to apply it.
- Maintain
Shadow Word: Pain or
Purge the Wicked on the enemy team.
- Remember to use
Penance to spread the damage of
Purge the Wicked.
- Remember to use
- Use
Penance as soon as it is off cooldown.
- Use
Power Word: Solace as soon as it is off cooldown.
- Use
Mindgames on the kill target if you are Venthyr.
- Cast
Mind Blast on an enemy to heal with your Atonement.
- Use
Shadow Mend if you get interrupted on your Holy abilities.
- Use
Power Word: Radiance if you get interrupted on your Shadow abilities.
- When there is not much damage happening use
Smite when teammates have
Atonement.
- Use
Shadow Word: Death on enemies that are below 20% health.
Cooldowns/Defensives
Although Discipline Priests can heal with their damage, sometimes this is not enough to keep teammates alive. Below are the cooldowns that they have to deal with heavy damage.
Shadow Word: Death. Even though this ability should be used on enemies below 20% health, it has a much more important use for a Discipline Priest. You can use this ability at any time, but if the target does not die, it will deal damage to yourself. This is extremely important because if there is an enemy Mage on the other team, you can use Shadow Word: Death at the end of the cast and deal damage to yourself, breaking the crowd control on you.
Pain Suppression is a strong defensive with a long cooldown. It will primarily be used while you are stunned, but should be used whenever a teammate is taking strong single target damage.
Power Word: Barrier is also a strong defensive with a long cooldown. It is best used when your teammates are stacked and taking strong spread pressure. The bonus healing you gain when standing in it will help keep your teammates alive.
Rapture is a powerful cooldown that should not be wasted. Use this when your team is dangerously low and you need a way to recover. This can be used when your team is taking single target or spread pressure.
Shadowfiend is best used when your teammates are starting to take light spread pressure and have
Atonement active.
Desperate Prayer increases your health by 25% for 10 seconds, and instantly heals you for that amount. This is great for when you get interrupted on
Shadow Mend and need an instant heal.
Fade/
Mind Soothe do the same thing in PvP: they reduce the range at which attacks can be made to you. This is great versus teams with ranged classes on them. This will either force them to wait or make them overextend to deal damage/crowd control you.
Macros
It is advised to use Macros to use abilities on enemies or allies without having to target them. For this reason, we have a page dedicated to them.
Changelog
- 05 Dec. 2020: Updated Rotations to include Covenant Ability.
- 30 Nov. 2020: Removed outdated Traits and Essences.
- 14 Oct. 2020: Updated for Shadowlands pre-patch.
This guide has been written by Mysticall, a seasoned PvP player who has repeatedly achieved Arena Master and 2500 rating. You can watch his stream on Twitch, and you can also check out his YouTube channel.
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