Spiritual Guidance: Discipline and ICC raid buffs
by Dawn Moore 
Mar 7th 2010 at 8:00PM
Last week, Blizzard activated the first stage of the scaling raid buffs in Icecrown Citadel. When entering ICC now, you'll see either Varian Wrynn's hair (and the rest of him, attached) or the conglomeration of cliches we refer to as Garrosh Hellscream. Each NPC grants a faction specific buff to your raid party which increases your health, healing done, and damage done by 5%. Periodically, the strength of these buffs will be raised a notch by Blizzard, thus allowing guilds of various commitment levels to see all of Icecrown Citadel.
So, what does this little news item have to do with priests any more than the next other class? Well, if you're a discipline priest and your
Don't have a panic attack, disco priests. In this article I will be addressing the issue, particularly for non-priests who might have misconceptions about the validity of a disc priest. I'll also be rehashing some older arguments. That's right folks: it's that time again! When all of Azeroth asks! *Cue game show music* What good is a disc priest?
Update: Blizz has announced in the notes for patch 3.3.3 that Power Word: Shield will now benefit from the ICC zone buff. While that makes portions of this article obsolete, keep reading to learn more about the benefits of bringing a discipline priest to your raid.
The discipline spec is a bit difficult to understand for the raiding ninny. Why "prevents damage" makes no sense to some people boggles my mind. Of course, the meters thing is a common and reoccurring issue. People want to see things with their eyes - even if their vision is limited to some colored lines on an AddOn with the aesthetic of Geocities. (Yes, that was me calling you out Recount. Be prettier! Function over form is no excuse after so many years!) I've discussed before how to remedy the burden of proof, so let's not go into that. Instead, I want to dispel a myth that discipline priests don't heal:
Shields and damage mitigation are the signature trait of discipline, but the spec has very capable healing abilities. Those heals will be smaller than the heals of other healing classes, but they are
What a discipline priest lacks in HPS, she makes up for in raid utility. The talent Renewed Hope, for example, applies a 3% damage reduction aura to the raid whenever a discipline priest casts Power Word: Shield. Focused Power reduces the cast time of a priest's Mass Dispel, meaning there is a high chance you will actually see that dispel be effective. Pain Suppression, another signature ability of the discipline tree, can act as an extra tank cooldown or lifesaver to anyone in the raid who needs it. While it is not fail-safe like holy's Guardian Spirit, it has a shorter cooldown (assuming Guardian Spirit is not glyphed or fully consumed). Finally, Power Infusion is a favorite buff of every caster DPS in your raid. The fact that so many DPS fight over who gets this buff should tell you how valuable it is. When used on the priest himself, or another healer, it can sometimes stand in for a tank cooldown just by throwing more heals at the target.
Now onto the bubbles: A discipline priest's Power Word: Shield is considerably stronger than anything a holy priest could spec into. That's because the deep discipline talent, Borrowed Time, buffs the spell's spellpower coefficient by an additional 40%.
And before I forget, let's talk about Rapture. Rapture is greatly overlooked as a raid asset, and it is another talent too deep for holy priests to access. As the tooltip states, Rapture will, once every 12 seconds, return mana, rage, energy, or runic power to the shielded target when the shield is completely absorbed. (The priest who casts the shield also receives additional mana, explained further by this favorite video of mine.) Let me give you another perspective: the other class I play is feral druid. I kitty pounce about, wave my paw about when I /dance, and it's all good fun. I don't know about other classes, but as a feral druid 16 bonus energy is no small gift; especially when you're staring at your energy bar, cooldowns, and buffs in near tears, wishing you could get a sliver more of energy so you could get out a Ferocious Bite without gibbing yourself of the energy you need to not let your Savage Roar or Mangle(lol 3.3.3) fall off. Energy management is a lot harder than smacking mana cooldowns when you're OOM, and a gift from some raid bubbling saint every 15-30 seconds would help my DPS significantly. That DPS will help the raid in turn. That's just one example, now try applying it to any part of your raid.
Let's get back to bubbles, though. I've already written an article about bubble spam, but I just want to reiterate what spamming shields means. It means that damage which would otherwise one-shot a player, won't. It means giving everyone in your raid a little more room to screw up. It means taking the edge off of spiky burst damage. It means your healers have more time to react. It means less healing, which allows healers with less mobility a little more time to focus at keeping themselves alive. It does all these things, and that is why almost every top guild takes one to a raid; not to tank heal, but to take the bite off a fight. And that leads nicely into this issue with the ICC buff.
Just because everyone is going to be healing for more doesn't mean damage mitigation is going to be any less desirable. Boss damage is not changing, so a shield will be as effective as it always was. Further, just because a priest's shields are not being affected by the buff doesn't mean it's smart for that priest to be the first healer you remove from your raid comp when encounters get easier. If anything, have your second pally or druid switch. (What holy paladin doesn't secretly desire to reap a shred storm?) Healing for 5% or 10% or 30% more, or having more health in general, will not change the fact that some of the fights in ICC are legitimately hard, requiring strategy and good execution. Attacking the Lich King with brute force alone, even with buffs, is not going to lead to a victory. So, if you have a good disc priest on hand, use them and don't think because they aren't receiving the same impact of the buff they're holding you back. Lady Deathwhisper, Festergut, Professor Putricide, and the Lich King are all fights you would absolutely want to have a disc priest on, but ICC aside, good disc priests are a raid buff in themselves.
By the way, I apologize for that Lil Mama song reference earlier. Here's some Journey to make up for it.
Addendum: I try to leave the "how to do this fight" to Matticus' column, Raid Rx. However, since Matt hasn't covered all of Icecrown Citadel yet, I thought I'd throw a very simplified breakdown of where and how to use a disc priest in ICC. Here it goes:
- Lady Deathwhisper: Dispel any Frostbolt Volleys so people can get away from Vengeful Shades. For those that can't (or won't) move from the ghosts, raid wide bubbles are a nice touch.
- Gunship Battle: This fight is all about tank and single-target healing. Disc is all about tank and single-target healing. Savvy, huh?
- Festergut: Bubble spam when Gaseous Blight is ticking heavily on the raid. Disc then easily shifts to tank healing mid-fight, after Festergut has inhaled more of the blight. Pain Suppression can be used on your tank when he needs it, or to help smooth a transition between a tank swap when healers will need a moment to adjust. When Festergut exhales the blight, having shields up and ready can save unsuspecting raid members.
- Professor Putricide: This fight might as well have been designed for disc. You can bubble spam the ticking damage, focus heals and cooldowns on tanks, and spot heal ooze targets or malleable goo victims - all while on the go, due to your high mobility.
- Blood Prince Council: A disc priest is a fantastic option for healing your range tank. Disc shields and cooldowns handle the huge bursts of damage, while mobility will let her keep up with all the movement required to cowboy up the orbs.
- Sindragosa: Holy is very powerful on this fight, but a disc priest can comfortably tank heal this fight while other healers handle the raid. Binding heal will let the priest heal through more stacks of Mystic Buffet, while shields and cooldowns are great for the tank.
- Lich King: Infest alone is the biggest reason to bring disc to this fight. Shields, spot healing, and assistance to the rest of the raid are just cherries on top of an already delicious dessert.
Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered with all there is to know! Check out Holy 101 for an introduction to healing as a holy priest, or Assessing yourself for advice on how to improve yourself as a healer and raider. Filed under: Priest, Raiding, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Evandrial Mar 7th 2010 8:04PM
dream theater? am i in tenth grade again?
Dawn Moore Mar 7th 2010 8:16PM
It was that or Panic at the Disco, which has very little to do with disco, despite the cool name.
Jack Spicer Mar 7th 2010 8:15PM
If the buff gets up to 30% and still doesn't affect PW:S...
Heilig Mar 7th 2010 8:36PM
Then they will still be exactly as effective as they are now. Let's make this clear again in case you missed it in the article:
BOSS DAMAGE IS NOT INCREASING. A SHIELD THAT CUTS A BOSS' HIT BY 30% WILL CONTINUE TO DO THAT UNTIL WE'RE DONE WITH ICECROWN.
Take a look at the overhealing meters the next time this issue comes up and tell me that your healers still need their heals to be bigger. The healing buff is next to useless. It is the tank health and DPS buffs that are going to make the difference. The fights were designed to be beaten with no buff. The effectiveness of a shield isn't measured by how what percentage of a tank's health it saves. It is measured by the percentage it takes off a boss' hit. The only time not bringing a disc priest would even BEGIN to make sense is when the buff is so large that you can live through Festergut's big AoE without being shielded even if you don't have 3 stacks, or something of that sort. When health is so ridiculously high that boss damage becomes laughable, then and only then can shield be dismissed.
Percy Mar 7th 2010 11:18PM
If the buff hits 30% sure disc will be just as effective then as it is now. But.. I heard.. that priests have TWO healing specs. Bwuhhhhh!?
So yes, if that happens go holy. Hopefully they'll fix it before then of course.
What a silly article.
Maxpowr Mar 8th 2010 12:05AM
@ Heilig
You are definately right about the buff effecting DPS more so than healers. In fact, in my guild, it is healers that are suffering because fights are faster which means less damage being done and we get to sit out more now.
I question Dawn's perception that Disc priests can effectively tank heal in ICC25. Why would a guild not bring 2 pallies to heal tanks? You can argue utility all you want but disc priests are a support healer in 25 and nothing more.
Chris Anthony Mar 8th 2010 1:12AM
Maxpowr, this week alone I have seen a PUG druid melee in caster form. I have had a warlock insist on tanking bosses since "I have a tank pet, don't I?". I have watched a hunter melee with a grey weapon because he ran out of bullets and didn't want to rez his pet.
I tell you this to put into perspective my statement that "disc priests are only support healers in ICC 25" is the absolute silliest thing I have heard about WOW in months.
Dawn Moore Mar 8th 2010 1:41AM
@maxpowr
Your perception of my perception is incorrect, and you've drawn more from my words than what was actually said. I wrote that a disc priest can heal (which they can) and that a disc priest can comfortably heal a tank on Sindragosa (which they can). I also made references to places where a disc priest can heal the tank and this, and this. My unstated implication was that 'you can do all of these things in the same fight,' implying that the priest could, if he wanted to, constantly switch roles to assist healers who are assigned to one role. Disc excels at a hybrid raid role, I personally like to play to that strength. But there are many priests out there who tank heal exclusively, maybe unassisted, and I am sure they would disagree with what you said from their own, very valid experiences. If anything, the 30% buff is going to let disc get back into the exclusive tank healing role again.
To say that disc priests are just a support class is like saying it's not necessary for healers to work together, and disc priest is just there to add some crown molding to an already finished and functioning house. If the average raid just had the pally heal one or two targets, the druid just HoT the raid, the shaman just chain heal clusters of players - basically, keep all the healers to a stereotypical raid role and never have them stray from that - progression would be a big exercise in hitting your head against a wall. Healers work together, not alone, and sometimes they need to change it up to down bosses. A disc priest can be part of that teamwork, and brings just as much to the table as any other healer. You can build a wall with just bricks, but without mortar it can easily be knocked over. In a brick and mortar wall, is the mortar any less a part of that wall than the bricks?
Believe it or not, not every guild has two healadins, or two druids, or two priests, or any infinite amount of healing resources they want. Yet, despite them not having your guilds raid comp, they down bosses. They down bosses by walking into a fight and finding something that works for what they have, which may mean deviating from conventions that the players of this game, not the designers, created.
I personally feel it's really easy to watch a kill video by some top 25 guild, copy their strat and raid comp, and make it work. Of course it works, you're seeing it be done in a video before your eyes. But that doesn't mean it's the only way that works. Respect to any guild or priest that knows that and finds their own great way of doing things.
christhepriest Mar 8th 2010 3:50AM
Crown molding? this house is built on disc. download skada, set it to show absorbs and healing and run with a disc priest thats in ICC. Absorbs count as healing, its healing that didn't have to be done. The ONLY way a healer is going to out heal a solidly geared disc priest is if its a holy pally doing 50% or more overhealing. We don't run out of mana, our crit rating is through the roof, we take 3% dmg off the entire raid and have more bubbles than even Mr. Bubble has. We're more diverse than the UN on earth day.
Jamie Mar 7th 2010 8:17PM
What use is a Disc Priest? Because they know the following:
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=7353 > http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=73816
Greg Mar 7th 2010 8:26PM
If you are having problems justifying your raid slot to your guild leaders, try using a damage meter like Skada. It tracks absorbs in addition to healing. With this, disco priests finally have something to point to that shows how much more healing their shields are capable of accomplishing!
Neyssa Mar 8th 2010 4:37AM
I was in a PUG ICC10 the other day. We had a healer paladin (5.4k GS) healing 50%, a resto shammy healing 35% (5.4k GS), and a disc priest with 5600 GS doing 6% according to Recount. I didnt kick him since I do not really know what a disc should perform, we went all the way to festergut where the heal just wasnt enough so we disbanded after 4 bosses.
My question is: I know its not purely numbers. I know Gearscore isnt everything. However it makes selection much easier when you PUG. What is an average recount-number a disc priest would do? Was this 6% normal? My other 2 healers said he was crap but i take that for jealousy. Please tell me how to (quickly) evaluate a disc priest in a PUG Raid! :) Thx
rangelsquad05 Mar 8th 2010 9:48AM
As a holy pally I find myself always outperforming priests in general whether using skada or recount. I get a feeling from this article that maybe priests have too many spells they need to keep up and track of and maybe this is what is making the huge desparity in numbers. Or maybe the class is just plainly not as good a healing class as others. I personally think holy pallys sucked in BC and were always low in the meters because they just healed one tank. While druids and shammys were destroying the meters in BC. I still try and bring a disc priest to a raid but if you had to pick one for a raid with a 30% healing buff, would you still go with a disc priest over a holy pally? I think if you say yes your either biased or kidding yourself. And recount is a disc priests worse enemy, one look at those numbers and an idiot RL is likely to put you on his ignore list.
Curtis Townson Mar 8th 2010 9:45AM
@Neyssa - Grab either Skada, or RecountGuessedAbsorbs to see how much mitigation the disc priest is doing. There are different playstyles within the Discipline spec. Perhaps he was purely shield-spamming the raid. This would not show up under Healing Done, but rather under Guessed Absorbs. The only heals you're likely to see on the healing meters would be Glyph of Power Word: Shield, and hopefully Prayer of Mending.
My personal playstyle is to concentrate on tank-healing, but to shield-spam the raid when I know there's going to be heavy AOE damage. A good disc priest should still be able to compete for the top 3 spots on the healing meters (if you're also taking absorbs into account) in a 25 man setup.
Dahk Mar 8th 2010 12:03PM
@Nyessa
Did you ask him? You seem to have talked to the other two healers. 6% could have been right if he was just spamming shields. I have a hard time believing healing was the issue on Fester if you had 3 healers. Tank gear and Cool Down usage can have a major effect on pre-enrage wipes. If you were hitting the enrage timer, that's not a heal issue. In all honesty the GS on the Pally and Sham are correct and they are properly geared, they might have been able to two heal it. How many healers did you have in melee range of the boss?
ToyChristopher Mar 7th 2010 8:37PM
Honestly, while 5/30% more healing is a lot, the most important part of this buff is the buff to damage. That is what will really help healers the most, because it will make fights shorter. There is only so much damage taken, and thus only so much a healer can heal-- at the end of the day I don't think +30% more healing is going to make disc priests any less viable then they are right now.
christhepriest Mar 7th 2010 8:38PM
Actually you will feel a little more oomph in your bubbles fellow disc. priests and priestesses the added bonus healing from the zone buff will make your divine aegis absorb a little more since it absorbs a percentage of the amount healed. booyakasha!
Evilmerc100 Mar 7th 2010 8:44PM
I appreciate the dream theater reference :)
In other news, great article again Dawn!
icbleu Mar 7th 2010 9:55PM
Oh wow, talk about TIMELY! Here is hoping my RL reads this and lets the guild Disc Priest raid again. After Sindragosa's sad healing numbers, they got me sitting most of the time =(
Celeane Mar 7th 2010 10:08PM
I respectfully disagree that disc didn't deserve the buff too. Our shields don't scale on anything but spellpower, and after a whole expansion of creating this misconception of disc as tank healers, we can no longer keep up in that capacity. It has been hell trying to convince our shaman who worked hard for his lovely T10 bonuses that he'd be a better tank healer than me because I'm not suited for much besides bubble spam. Not saying bubble spam doesn't come in handy, but that's half my job that didn't get buffed.