Prot Pally + 4 Disc Priests

[Acerak]

Long time boxer/db lurker...thought I'd post some of my results so far with this team comp. No RAF with this group, so leveling is with heirlooms only. They are currently lvl 60.

Some background on me: I've been playing WoW since the beginning of BC. I started dual boxing (2) shortly thereafter, and went up to a 5 box sometime during WotLK (with the primary goal of beating all dungeon heroics in normal dungeon gear, something I eventually accomplished :cool:).

Something I really miss about that era was all of the crazy hybrid specs that existed back then (Feral druids, for instance, could tank and DPS using the same spec, though you had to switch gear due to the ol' defense stat and the requirement to be uncrittable). I don't necessarily disagree with the current direction of the game in this regard, but still enjoy the endless pursuit of interesting synergies.

Disc priests are one of the few remaining classes that (kinda sorta theoretically :confused:) can heal while DPSing these days.

Sadly, Atonement (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=81751/atonement)was nerfed at the beginning of WoD (if you didn't get the chance to try it before the nerf, the smart + passive healing was utterly amazing for boxers). I was curious just how badly the nerf would hurt this comp, and needed a break from my war/3x hunter/priest team anyway (which is a solid team, but wanted to try something different).

Themewise, I am really enjoying the 'Crusaders of the Light' feel of the team - so many yellow glowy spell effects, shields and such :)

Anyway, while the nerf did hurt, I'm finding 4 disc priests still have a ton to offer. Some takeaways from my setup:

1) 4x Penance (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=47750/penance)is just silly + awesome, and you barely feel the atonement nerf - it's great whether used for healing or damage. It's pretty much instant, massive overhealing when spammed 4x on the tank, and when used 4x for damage the atonement healing pretty much always heals the tank to full / nearly full. With a short 9 second cooldown, it's pretty overpowered so far.
2) While most classic dungeons are admittedly faceroll, there are a few dungeons that are actually a bit overtuned - Dire Maul is a great example. Illyanna Ravenoak and Prince Tortheldrin can both do huge burst damage, and with most teams I wipe at least once on each of them. There have been times with melee teams where I've wiped on the Prince repeatedly due to his crazy burst and partywide damage.
With my Prot Pally/4x disc team, I rolled through both of these encounters at 41 (making the bosses 3 levels higher) and between shields and group healing there was virtually no risk of wiping.
3) Pain Suppression (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=122844/pain-suppression) -> tank on round robin ... lol 40% reduced damage for up to 32 seconds ...
4) Likewise, Fear Ward (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=6346/fear-ward) on round robin virtually guarantees no fearbombs work on the tank.
5) 4x Prayer of Healing (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=78966/prayer-of-healing) can essentially can heal the entire party from almost dead to around 3/4 in 2.5 seconds.
6) Hotkeyed Sacred Shield (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=20925/sacred-shield) (pally) + Power Word: Shield (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=17/power-word-shield) (priest round robin) really eases any fear of potential spiky 'alpha strikes' - I've accidentally pulled an extra group numerous times when I'm being sloppy/not paying attention, and so far haven't wiped from doing so. I'll be curious to see if Clarity of Will (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=152118/clarity-of-will) actually stacks as Wowhead/Google indicates...if so, WOW that'll be fun!
7) ...you get the idea...

Obviously DPS is the area of greatest concern, but it hasn't been a problem yet. I'll be keeping an eye on it as I progress through the expansions. Though, I was surprised at how strong Power Word: Solace (http://www.wowhead.com/spell=129250/power-word-solace) turned out to be. Currently the group is so stupidly defensive that DPS hasn't yet been a concern - time's on my side, so to speak. I'll update this post periodically, but please feel free to add your own thoughts/experiences!

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I've made it through a lot of stuff with 5x disc priests; They're 1x 80 and 4x 85 (full heirlooms) and have been able to clear a few heroic WotLK instances (AN, DTK, Gundrak, Old Kingdom and one other I can't recall) at 1x75+4x82ish. Having 4 or more is definitely nifty as the shared healing adds up to enough to be useful. ;)

[Wubsie]

Well, for Legion, Atonement will be the primary healing method for Disc Priests, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out, and how well the balancing is done on it. It is quite different from the old system in it's chore though.

Currently, from what I've read it's going to work so that you first have to choose your atonement target(s) by casting specific spells on them (Power Word: Shield, Shadow Mend, Power Word: Radiance), and then any damage done heals ALL* atonement targets for 40% (before factoring mastery) of the damage done. The main difference obviously is that the automatic smart healing is gone. Now, I doubt it'll be too hard to come up with a rotation that gives your toons atonement from atleast a few of the priests at all times, but it still poses new challenges.

* based on current tooltips.

The balancing side of the spec is going to be interesting to say the least. Due to the slow 2-step mechanism and the conversion rate of DPS to Healing, I would say that it's likely that Discs are now a more or less AOE raid healers (old resto Durds anyone?). It would appear that their healing scales rather well as the number of atonement targets increases. Additionally it's worth noting that if the damage they can do while keeping up with other healers is at all significant (maybe even 20% of a normal DPS) I don't see how they are not an auto-include to most progression raid groups. All in all, fascinating to see how it turns out.

[luxlunae]

All in all, fascinating to see how it turns out.


Fascinating to a man who doesn't have to balance a raid team next expansion, perhaps.

It's a clusterfuck of an idea.

(From what I've read, this could be out of date) they are going to be providing 80% of the dps of a regular dps. Even if they only bring 50% of the healing of a normal healer (and it will be more than that), what raid won't stack them over other healers? I'd rather have 160% dps, 100% heals (2 discs) than 100% dps, 100% heals (1 disc, 1 dps), and so would any other RL who can do math. So then how do you counter? Do you make healing so spiky that non-reactive healing is at a disadvantage? In that case the druid and monk are also not going to do weell. This expansion they tried to force the number of healers by phases that had to be countered with big cooldowns, which they are supposedly moving away from.

I'm very stressed. Also finding out that they are bringing back "tank healing" (because it was so much fun? because too many tanks still didn't get after 2 years that they were supposed to be using their active mitigation?) makes me want to barf.

[Wubsie]

I was thinking that stacking discos might be a thing, if the performance is as you described. I did think even Blizz would not be silly enough to make such a mess of it. Then again... It is Blizz...



I'm very stressed. Also finding out that they are bringing back "tank healing" (because it was so much fun? because too many tanks still didn't get after 2 years that they were supposed to be using their active mitigation?) makes me want to barf.
I thought it was completely the opposite, meaning the reason tank healing is returning is that some tanks, played by good players, were too self-reliant, making tank healing a non-issue.

[konraddo]

Priest had always been a great healer option. Holy priest got several AE heal. And then disc priest got shield and atonement which mitigates a great deal of maintenance in a 5-man team. The sad thing is they got nerfed and the DPS was just too bad yet the healing wasn't too good neither.

But as mentioned, atonement receives a drastic change in legion as atonement becomes somewhat flexible and it can heal more than one target. The pre-buff requirement shouldn't be too bad thanks to isboxer.

But then the most important problem(?) is legion requires a LOT of tank healing it seems. So it may not be much viable to bring one single healer. Comeback for support healer, perhaps? I'm already thinking bring a disc priest to fill the support role. The constant, managed healing should help ease some attention from us looking at the health bars all the time while not sacrificing DPS too much.

[Andreauk]

I'd love to try a Druid tank with x4 Disc in the next expac.. I think the mastery is very promising:

Mastery: Nature's Guardian
Requires Druid (Guardian)
Requires level 78
Increases your maximum health and healing received by 16%.
Also increases your attack power by 8%.

Also you can see a bit of Disc in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYTCSv4FzY8