Discipline Priest

Overview

Talents and builds

Level 60 and raid build

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Key talents

• Divine Aegis3/3Your non-periodic critical heals create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 15% of the amount healed. Shields up to (20 * 60) damage and lasts 12 sec
• Renewed Hope5/5Your heals from Flash Heal, Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance gain 10% increased critical strike chance when cast on targets with Weakened Soul, and reduce the remaining duration of Weakened Soul on their target by 5 sec
• Penance1/1Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing 45 Holy damage to an enemy, or 134 healing to an ally, instantly and every 1 sec for 2 sec
• Soul Warding1/1Reduces the cooldown on your Power Word: Shield spell by 4 sec and reduces its mana cost by 15%
• Mental Agility3/3Reduces the mana cost of your Smite, Holy Fire, and instant cast spells by 10%
• Improved Power Word: Shield3/3Increases the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 20%

The build spends its deep points in Discipline and fills Holy with the points that make the heals cast faster and cheaper. Chosen by simming candidate builds on the same gear against the same fight. Every figure behind this ranking comes from one stated incoming-damage profile (the scaled Phase 1 tank hits and raid pulses described on the BiS page): it ranks gear and builds for this spec, and says nothing about which healer class is stronger.

• Twin Disciplines, Improved Power Word: Shield and Mental Agility are the early rows: instant spells heal more, the shield absorbs more, and instants cost less.
• Meditation keeps part of your regeneration running while you cast and Mental Strength lifts Intellect; Inner Focus is a free, extra-critical heal on demand.
• Penance, Renewed Hope and Divine Aegis are the deep payoff: a channelled heal, a bigger critical chance on a target that carries Weakened Soul, and a shield from your critical heals. Divine Aegis takes all three ranks: the client removed Binding Heal, and its point measured about +1.7% healing as Divine Aegis’s third rank in our run.
• In Holy, Holy Specialization, Divine Fury and Improved Healing give critical chance, faster Heal and Greater Heal, and cheaper direct heals; Inspiration fills the row below, and Improved Renew makes the Renew you keep on the tank heal more (about +1% healing over spending those points elsewhere in our run).

Open the planner at /planner?class=priest to adjust it.

Rotation and priority

The curated rotation leads with Penance whenever it is ready, and keeps Power Word: Shield on a tank who is taking damage and is not under Weakened Soul. Renew stays on the tank at a cheap rank (keeping it up measured about +2% healing and a tenth more of the ranker’s score in our run); Flash Heal is the emergency button for a nearly dead tank or member; Prayer of Healing answers several party members being hurt together; Heal is the efficient filler.

The shield, the filler and Prayer of Healing are paced against your mana the way Holy’s are: they fire at their normal thresholds only while your mana is keeping up with the share of the fight that is left. Discipline lasts longer on its mana than Holy does under the same fight, which is why the shield is worth pacing rather than dropping.

Stat priority

1. 1MP5
2. 2Spirit
3. 3Healing power
4. 4Intellect
5. 5Critical strike

In simulator-derived order, per point of stat: MP5 first, then Spirit, healing power and Intellect close together, with critical strike last and measured with less certainty. The fight is mana-bound, so regeneration and the pool matter more than a point of throughput. Items trade several points of one for few of another, so read the list as “which stat is cheap to give up”.

Spell power adds nothing to a heal; it is the damage side of a healing item. Every figure behind this ranking comes from one stated incoming-damage profile (the scaled Phase 1 tank hits and raid pulses described on the BiS page): it ranks gear and builds for this spec, and says nothing about which healer class is stronger.

Best in slot

Because Meditation now lets a much larger share of mana regeneration continue while casting, spirit is somewhat less punishing to undervalue than in 1.12, but it’s still the tree’s main sustain stat.

Enchants and consumables

Races

• Human (Recommended)
• Dwarf
• Night Elf
• Undead (Recommended)
• Gnome
• Troll

Human is the Alliance pick: Perception and The Human Spirit. Undead is the Horde pick: Will of the Forsaken.

Professions

Community convention for healing Priests favors Tailoring for caster cloth stats alongside Enchanting for weapon and gear enchants, since neither profession competes with anything Discipline-specific.

Leveling

Outlined: points added in this level range.

Shadow is the generally recommended leveling spec for Priest, not Discipline — Discipline’s shield-and-mitigation kit is built around keeping other people alive, which doesn’t translate to fast solo leveling the way Shadow’s self-sufficient damage and healing does.