Discipline Priest PvP Rotation and Playstyle (Shadowlands / 9.1.5)

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 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 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.

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:
  1. If you are playing Inner Light and Shadow make sure you have Inner Light active.
  2. If Power Infusion is available, use it. This will significantly increase your Haste.
  3. Use Power Word: Shield to apply Atonement.
  4. Make sure to maintain Purge the Wicked on multiple targets.
  5. 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.
  6. Use Power Word: Solace.
  7. Use Mindgames on the kill target if you are Venthyr.
  8. Use Penance on an enemy player to spread Purge the Wicked.
  9. Cast Mind Blast on an enemy to heal with your Atonement.
  10. Cast Shadow Mend until your teammate is fine or you get interrupted.
  11. Use Power Word: Radiance if you get interrupted on Shadow Mend or Mind Blast.
• The second method is best used when your team is taking strong spread pressure:
  1. If you are playing Inner Light and Shadow make sure you have Inner Light active.
  2. If Power Infusion is available, use it. This will significantly increase your Haste.
  3. Use Power Word: Barrier if your entire team is stacked.
  4. Use Power Word: Shield to apply Atonement.
  5. Make sure to maintain Purge the Wicked on multiple targets.
  6. Use Power Word: Radiance.
  7. Use Shadowfiend.
  8. Cast Mind Blast on an enemy to heal with your Atonement.
  9. Use Mindgames on the kill target if you are Venthyr.
  10. Use Penance on an enemy player to spread Purge the Wicked.
  11. Use Shadow Mend to heal up lower teammates.
  12. Use Power Word: Radiance if you get interrupted on Shadow Mend or Mind Blast.
• 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.

Use this to heal sustained damage throughout the match (damage done when the other team does not have burst cooldowns available).

1. If you are playing Inner Light and Shadow make sure you have Inner Shadow active.
2. 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.
3. Maintain Shadow Word: Pain or Purge the Wicked on the enemy team.
   • Remember to use Penance to spread the damage of Purge the Wicked.
4. Use Penance as soon as it is off cooldown.
5. Use Power Word: Solace as soon as it is off cooldown.
6. Use Mindgames on the kill target if you are Venthyr.
7. Cast Mind Blast on an enemy to heal with your Atonement.
8. Use Shadow Mend if you get interrupted on your Holy abilities.
9. Use Power Word: Radiance if you get interrupted on your Shadow abilities.
10. When there is not much damage happening use Smite when teammates have Atonement.
11. Use Shadow Word: Death on enemies that are below 20% health.

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.

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.