So... You Think I'm Crazy.Follow

I am a level 46 priest. I've been in this game for over 2 years, and I play slowly, intentionally. I have a 70 mage and a 47 rogue as well. I've flown through plenty of alts. I do not PvP except once in a while when I get the idea in my head.

And I've never respec'd ever by payment, only have my toons respec'd when patches came allowing free respecs because of class changes.

Well, that was true until 2 weeks ago, when I respec'd this level 46 priest to move two crummy talent points out of Martyrdom. My priest is a female undead named Eelias, on Scarlet Crusade.

Now, warning: You may be tempted to throw stuff at me. I understand.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Scarlet+Crusade&n=Eelias















That's right, peeps. I have leveled a DISC priest. A full (almost) Discipline priest, save for Spirit Tap and Improved Renew.

25% more DPS with wands.
4% less threat generated.
30% better fort.
15% more damage taken from PW:S.
Inner Focus.
15% mana regen.
30% more armor from Inner Fire.
2-second Mana Burn.
Divine Spirit.
Divine Spirit with .1 x Spirit to spell damage.
10% more mana.
Instant casts cost 2% less.




Now, this is not the best way to make a healer.
Now, this is not the best way to make faces melt.

When PuGging, "u shadow or holy?"
Me: "I'm a healer."

This is a healer who can solo. This is a healer who can solo who is not smite-specced.
Is this healer a good healer?

Well, considering it's been actual months I have died on this character, including groups... yes, I think it is a good healer. (I rarely BG, but do go in sometimes.)

My healing pattern seems to be different from all of you guys, though. Probably since I have 207 spirit and 164 intellect, though, with the mana-conservation spec. What I do is that with Warrior or Dire Bear tanks, I pop a renew on the tank and wand the mob he's tanking. It will be a short time only, but absolutely nothing lost by doing it. I'll then start greater heal when the tank's near half-health or so. Paladins get a shield.

Group members who get adds or pulls from the tank will get shields, then renews, and only Greater Heals if their health merits it. Renew is my main heal. And I don't go OOM in instances. Inner Focus you may think may be wasted on a shield because of it having a 25% boost to crit chance, but it doesn't matter to me.

I don't go OOM in instances except for bad pulls. I get PuGs and guild runs alike. I get good and bad groups alike. But I can keep everyone alive because after Renew, Prayer of Healing is my heal. Greater Heal is behind Power Word: Shield in a dismal 4th.

My 70 spec for instance healing (not going to raids, heroics a maybe) will be this:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?055230013050512001550235020030300000000000000000000000000000000

It sounds crazy to you holy priests. But the mana management seems to be AWESOME for me. My people do not die. AND I DO NOT DIE.

And I can still solo.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Concerns? Asylum phone numbers?

Actually, there is a lot to be said for leveling in the discipline tree, I think you were pretty sensible actually. Its biggest strength is the mana conservation, especially at lower levels where you can be expected to heal instances and so on. Once you get to 70 though you kind of have to specialize a bit more, as people expect a dps priest to be shadow for the mana returns, or holy for the improved healing talents.

Most holy priests put points in the disc tree (I'm 24/37/0), so disc certainly has its advantages.

You may find it interesting that in watching the video of Blizzcon, during the class discussions, Blizz mentioned the disc tree. They said they want it to be even more of a build that can stand on its own, rather than just a support tree.

So, you may be just ahead of your time. If you are having fun and it's working for you, go for it.

I have a Disc priest that I am leveling. Just about at the OP's level. I spec'd to Shadow recently and I did NOT find leveling to be any faster. Actually I preferred Dicp to shadow, as even with spirit tap I found I was having mana issues. Yes, mobs may drop a little faster spec'd shadow, but I found myself stopping to drink a LOT more......making my XP per hour suffer. I never stopped to drink spec'd discipline. I never run out of mana healing in instances spec'd discipline (I use the same healing technique as the OP), and since I prefer to heal in battlegrounds versus dps, I find the discipline tree to be highly effective there as well (bubble and renew my team ftw).

I still agree that shadow is hands down best for PVP......but at least at the lower levels, discipline does seem to be a good way to go.

Most people ignore Disc priests. As in, in most people's eyes, Holy = Disc. You're holy (a healer) or shadow (a DPS'er).

Yes, reflective shield deals damage if it's cast on a party member. May just be flawed perceptions, but when I was farming in the area south of Sporeggar for Primal Life with a bored Disc priest by DoT'ing up 8-12 mobs at once, it seemed reflective shield kept them on my rather than having them evade and run away :P

I'd definitely like the Holy and Disc trees to get a bit mroe as well, and maybe rearrange the shadow tree a bit as well. Priests are one of the classes that get the absolute least out of putting points into all 3 trees, not to mention how Holy/Shadow is one of the worst 2-tree specs possible. Horrible synergy between the trees.

Well, that *shouldn't* be happening :P In heroics and raids, hopefully your tank is good enough to avoid it (pallies and druids can be an issue, though, if you're now dwarf/draenei); in 5-mans bosses don't hit *that* hard. Iirc some fears are dispellable as well, and as soon as their dispelled the boss should switch to the tank.
I can count plenty more times when a feared healer caused a wipe than the times a resisted fear caused a wipe.

Edited, Aug 25th 2007 1:28:30am by lsfreak

Well it isnt that "new" idea at all.

I´m leveld my way as Disc/Holy as well. The mana regen from Disc is quite nice. I think there are a lot of us.

I Prefer leveling slow also, and I leveled my first priest on disc, now shes 70, and 40 disc/21 holy.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Hakkar&n=Sanctify
My second priest haha leveling disc
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-talents.xml?r=Blackhand&n=Fauxreal
I have always found Disc to be easiest for healing wise, Mad regen.

I mostly play duo with a mage. I think my first 3 points were mis-spent in spirit tap which is only half as useful with 2 of us. Since then I've been putting all my points in the disc tree, working towards divine spirit (almost there!) as it should be useful for both of us. The improved PW:S is also great. Once I've got improved divine spirit I've no idea where to spend my talents next. I've wondered if its mad to go disc - I'm new and unsure. This post gives me more confidence, so thanks. Plus slow is fine, I'm enjoying the ride :)

Alright, so now that my priest, Eelias, is level 48, I healed for Sunken Temple.

The group was a 54 blood elf combat rogue, a 49 undead fury warrior in tanking gear, a 45 blood elf beast mastery hunter, and a 49 blood elf fire mage.

With the exception of the rogue, this means that we were all on the underside of levels for ST. Furthermore, we had a tank who was spec'd fury. I declared at the start that we would not be getting to the big bosses at the end, and for no one to be discouraged by that.

Actually, I turned 48 incredibly late into the run. So I was a 47 undead discipline priest healing.

When we started off, we were still the 'appropriate' level. We went down to the circle where there would be six named trolls to kill, and in the hallway there would be Atal'ai Warriors along with Witch Doctors and Imps. The group, we realized, had a strength.

Mad CC. In the big groups, we had a sap, a sheep, a shackle, a wolf pet to offtank, a freezing trap from a hunter who knew how to play. That means that the largest groups including a stray add were all completely CC'd except for a single target to tank, and the non-elite imps that we basically ignored until it was time to kill.

In all of these fights, I think I used Renew about 93% of the time, Prayer of Healing I'd estimate about 5% of the time, and Power Word: Shield 2%. None of these fights demanded a Greater Heal, because with my improved Renew (and healing increased by about 44) I could actually heal the tank, who I reiterate was a fury warrior, would actually be noticeably healed by each tick of the Renew. He was never actually "topped off" at absolute max health during the fights, but he was always teetering damn near it. When he would say, "Starting" for the next group, I'd put a Renew on him right before he'd charge. I would watch his spiraling HoT go out and put a new Renew on him immediately, and would be wanding in between. Other group members got hit plenty of times, especially the mage and rogue. The mage was the one who got the Power Word: Shields, and both simply got Renews as they managed to still their own aggro when this happened. I was incredibly impressed with their competency. It made healing on the under-leveled side of the instance much easier. And mana management?

Well, mana management is the reason why I'm not considering switching to Holy or Holy/Disc to heal. To get from the summoning stone to the instance, I did not sit to drink. From the instance lobby to after the first group pull of Atal'ai Warriors, Witch Doctors, and Imps, did I have to drink once. I then would drink after every 2 big pulls, and for the named trolls, never had to drink to them. By using well-timed renews and shields, as well as putting Inner Focuses in appropriate times, I made my mana efficiency supreme.

Once the Shield was down (killing the 6 named trolls, Jammal'an says that the shield is down after doing this), we went up to the dragonkin, and those fights were remarkably harder for our group. The freezing traps we continually used, but were finding that the level difference between our prized non-huntard 45 hunter and the dragonkin enemies were causing resists to her stuff all the time. It was these fights that I had to put away the Renew except for on the mage and hunter, and I would be Greater Healing the tank and shielding the rogue. I used Prayer of Healing significantly more in each fight, and I basically had to drink after every fight. This was the same for the Deathwalker Spirit groups in the room with Jammal'an. We killed Jammal'an and the other guy with him, the mage won the roll on his kilt (the mage actually died at the VERY end, she forgot to decurse the tank, though she was decursing properly before), the mage had to leave to put her kids to bed, and we decided that we would never be able to 4-man the rest of the instance, so we hearthed out of there.

With a group underleveled, and tank and healer not the optimum spec, but with merely competency and an understanding of the fights, we were able to have a run that ended with us having only one death at the very end, on a fight where the 2 bosses were red-leveled to 3 of us, orange to the tank, and yellow to the rogue. The discipline spec priest is an incredibly viable healer, because it goes OOM less than Holy, and it can get back up from OOM faster than Holy.

I've had fights where I said 'OOM' and was out of potions, but was able to still pull off a Prayer of Healing in a couple seconds and save the *** of the mage and tank.

Less and less do I think that this is a game of numbers, and more and more a game of skill.

I have not tested this, but at :
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=86706393&sid=1
it says:
Absolution - "Reduces the mana cost of your DIspel Magic, Cure Disease, Abolish Disease, and Mass Dispel spells by [5%, 10%, 15%]."

Cheaper curing which stacks -- except for Mass Dispel -- with Mental Agility's discount.

Only says mass dispel doesn't stack, but anyway, Chose if over Silent resolve, because I haven't found that I pull aggro enough for it to make or break a situation that fade can't handle, and I dispell alot, so figured I'd save myself mana even if it's not that much.
As to holy nova I don't use it hardly ever haha, only rank 1 in pvp to get the 1 up on rogues usually. There's a few other situations, but not many.

I'm pretty sure reflective shield does count, the dps goes towards the person wearing the shield.

My understanding is this: (1) PW:S draws aggro equivalent to an instant-cast heal. If cast before any mob is aggroed (i.e. pre-shielding), it generates no hate. If cast on the target of an aggroed mob, it increases the mob's hate of the caster. (2) PW:S interferes with rage produced by damage taken, but not with rage produced by damage dealt or by rage-generating abilities. Regardless of whether this qualifies as a 'significant cut' in rage-generation, the tactical point is that Renew is more mana-efficient than PW:S and has no impact on rage. PW:S's best uses are (1) as a precursor to an emergency heal and (2) as relief from interrupts. - Seofon
Taken from here :http://www.wowwiki.com/Talk:Power_Word:_Shield
Sounds about right.

I leveled a human priest to 60 and raided 40 mans disc specced, never had a problem. I leveled a draenei to 70, healed heroics/10/25 mans and (though recently i was nagged into speccing holy) and still never had a problem. Disc is fun, you get neat buffs, you can still kill stuff in a reasonable manner.

People who don't get it will always give you ****. You will never top a healing meter, you will be a wee bit more gear dependent for your healing set, but you can marathon heal. And something that people dont seem to appreciate is that every single 5 man in outlands was designed to be finished by a reasonably competent group in 45 mins. Disc spec not only makes you more effective (no water breaks is HUGE) but things like PI and reflective sheild increase overall dps. It has the potential to be an amazing spec with a few tweaks and the prejudice towards it needs to go. :( I'm a lil bitter lol.