ZOMG I'm Disc!Follow

For a Holy priest stacking Crit, Flash Heal is often an instant too. It really gave you a lot of choices on what to do when running around.




As a side note, neither Arena Junkies nor Elitist Jerks like Divine Aegis for PVP. This freaked me out at first (I mean, I can't argue with either source, but it seemed like such a nice talent except for the part where it keeps you from drinking), but then I felt strangely liberated, as it absolves a PVP Disc priest from stacking crit and leaves you with one less stat to worry about in that great juggling game.

Edited, Feb 10th 2009 12:22pm by teacake

Yeah, but since it's the only Disc talent that procs off crit, not having it makes prioritizing stats a bit easier. Crit is still nice with 3 chances for Penance to crit, PoM, etc., but it's nowhere near as important in a Disc build that doesn't include DA as it would be for, say, a deep Holy build. For those trying to choose between Mooncloth/Satin and Dominance/Salvation, it makes that choice a bit easier.

The general feeling on the no-DA side seems to be that you're not going to have enough crit on your PVP set to make it worth 3 points. Overall, there also seems to be a general bias against choosing talents that rely on RNG over more dependable ones.

If you look at the builds of top arena Disc priests, virtually none of them include DA. Comparing them to the PVP cookie cutter you've got in the sticky, most are picking up Improved Inner Fire and Absolution, which have to be accounted for elsewhere.

Now, with the incoming nerf to spirit, will it be more worthwhile to pick up the crit gear rather than the spirit gear, and will that change the relative usefulness of DA? Maybe. I'm choosing mainly Spirit gear for now, assuming Blizz won't leave this stat entirely out in the cold, and preferring a more reliable mana pool over chance crit procs that really only involve one of my talents. But 3.1 will bring a new season along with these changes, and I'll just have to grind out new gear anyway, so we'll see.

Not quite. It might be the only talent that procs off crit, but that doesn't mean much within a whole tree that's balanced around a high crit chance to begin with. It's the crits plus the extra mitigation that make Disc's healing throughput about equal to Holy and it's healing-enhancing talents.

Penance for example is awfully weak if not at least one of the 3 blasts crits. PoM needs to crit reliably since it doesn't have Divine Providence to back it up. Same with Holy Nova or PoH if you're using those.



Very much so. PvP is too fast-paced to rely on random procs. Crit becomes reliable once you're closing in on 30%, and getting there is rather unlikely in PvP gear. The pitiful amount of intellect on the DPS pieces makes it hard to rely on Rapture for mana, pushing you towards Meditation and the Mooncloth set anyway thanks to the total lack of mp5.



Of course I can only speak for myself here, and to me it's survivability. My effective healing drops to zero once I'm dead, and in 99% of cases I'm the one who is the focus of the other team's efforts.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxIbuh0xMesibotbEzh

This is my PvP build, and the idea behind it is that I won't do my job if I'm dead, silenced, or interrupted. Any extra heal I can cast easily makes up for the small percentual loss I'm taking by not picking up some of the enhancing talents, and less healing on myself means more heals for everybody else.

Look at some numbers. DA depends on the amount healed, and similar to Rapture, overheals won't count. You can have PoM jump off somebody taking some splash damage, and you see the big huge number popping up along with the bubble. Problem is that the bubble won't be worth the -lets say 1K- as a percentage of that number, but only as much as PoM actually healed - which has no end towards the bottom.

Take Penance. You might get a decent bubble off a 4k crit, but what if that crit happens on the last blast and overheals? The bubble will only be worth a fraction of what it could have been.

My build has 30% haste with Borrowed Time, resulting in a 1 second Flash Heal. I'll beat DA (and Twin Disciplines for that matter) anytime and do it reliably rather than having the RNG come into play.

DA is an awesome freebie in PvE, especially since there isn't really anything you could spend your points on instead. For PvP it just plain sucks IMO.

That’s a myth, actually. DA gives you absorption equal to 30% of the total heal, counting all overhealing.

It’s easy enough to test. Cast GH on yourself while at full health until it crits (popping IF might help) then immediately pull a mob and let it whack you (or be in a duel with an assistant before starting the experiment, and have him start hitting you when the bubble appears). The DA will absorb tons of damage.

The drinking bug with Rapture does suck, however. Considering how fast arena fights go these days, I’m going to test out a no-Rapture build if I ever find a strong Ret Pally or Surv Hunter 2x2 partner. Never giving up my RMP 3s though…