I have largely noticed that within these forums and the AJ forums there doesn’t seem to be a comprehensive guide for priests that goes over the basics. I see a lot of bad advice given by mediocre priests (and by no means am I saying I am amazing) that don’t know what they are talking about.
For that reason I want to make a guide just going over the basics of a discipline priest, sort of like the raiding guides that are at the top of these forums.
So that being said lets begin.
Two Disclaimers: First, I might have made mistakes, I am writing this waiting for a lab that’s 4 hours away and since I am in the middle of the JHMS Library, I am not putting that much research into it, so just correct me and it will be fixed. Second, I am not going into complex strats for 2346 vs Euro (haha) etc… it’s just the basics of what you need to know to begin PvPing.
First let’s go over our STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES
Strengths:
Disc Priests are the only class that has offensive AND defensive dispels, as well as the only healer class with a MD that can remove Bubble and Ice Block.
Disc Priests have many abilities to reduce damage instead of constantly healing.
Disc Priests have Mana Burn which can force players to play defensively (ex: using it on mages) or allow you to flat out OOM the other healer allowing for a fairly easy win.
Disc Priests have very good defensive spells such as Pain Suppresion.
Disc Priests have strong offensive abilities that combined with trinkets, power infusion, lightweave procs etc.. can allow for quick switches that combined with a DPS can do a lot of damage.
Disc Priests have AOE heals, Single Target heals, HoTs and Divine Hymn which heals for a lot and out of LoS.
Disc Priests can fit in every bracket very easily.
Weaknesses:
We die very quickly once our shields are down. If you don’t get a peel (your partner doesn’t get the DPS off you via whatever means of CC etc) you will probably die soon.
We are not very mobile, meaning we don’t get much opportunity to drink.
We have terrible mana regen compared to other healers.
PvE gear does next to nothing for us, unless you are human and can use the Solace of the Fallen.
All we have is fear. Once that is gone, its up to your partner to help you.
Now if you look at that list you might think, yay, dpriests are super strong. But remember, the two weaknesses I outlined are huge weaknesses that you have to overcome to do well. We are very partner dependent because of our lack of survivability, a terrible form of CC and mana regen is one of the most important stats in arenas. That being said, we are a very viable class, with a decent learning curver and one that is very fun once you get a hang of it.
SPECS
Specs:
60/11/0
Strong Defensive spec
http://www.wowhe
53/18/0
Smite Spec
http://www.wowhe
57/14/0
Ref Shield + Armor Spec
http://www.wowhe
60/11/0
Ref Shield - Defensive
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Ref Shield - Defensive
GEMS
On gems, always gem for things that you find will benefit you the most. There are no set "sockets" unless you are in full PvP s7 gear and have no PvE gear.
Blue: If you are a tailor and have the back enchant (keep it), then you probably have to pick up spell penetration from somewhere. You can gem 25 spell pen, or 12 sp 10 spen to fill this socket and gain offensive power. If you are new to PvP and lack stamina (PvE gear) you can gem 30 stamina, or 12 sp 10 stamina. If you need res and stamina, you can gem 12 stamina 10 resilience.
Yellow: You can gem 20 resilience. You can gem 12 stam 10 resilience. If you feel you are doing well on the defensive end you can gem 12 sp 10 resilience.
Red: You can gem 12 sp 10 resilience for a good balance. You can gem 23 SP to gain offensive and some defensive stats (spellpower largely helps for offensive abilities though).
Top end priests that have 900 or more resilience, and around 24 to 25k hp will generally start gemming spellpower. Remember, priests are a strong healing class because we can contribute in quick switches to get kills!
Meta
Grab one of two gems. Either the spell power stun reduction (I recommend this one) or if you went for hit 12 hit 12 crit on your boots grab the spellpower minor speed meta. Once you get to the point where games are decided by how much you get drinks off/how much mana you retain/efficacy of heals/damage you should grab the 21int/mana back gem.
A lot of these are obvious but its still things that are good to know.
TIPS
First, Shadow Word: Death can be used to get out of any CC mechanism that breaks on damage. This includes Sheep, Blind, Frost Shatter etc. Basically, if (for example) a mage is sheeping you, stopcast your spell and SWD him. The spell will hit him, and then rebound and do damage to you. If you time it so the damage hits after he sheeps you, you will break out! Find a mage friend and practice this. Its very necessary on mage teams.
Second, Divine Hymn takes you out of combat. It also works out of LoS. So you can go behind a pillar, DH to keep your partner up, and then immediately drink.
Power Infusion lowers your mana cost and increases your casting speed. This has two big effects. First, you can res your partner in 5 seconds by power infusing yourself, bubbling yourself for the 45% haste increase and then res’ing. Second, you can get fast, mana efficient mana burns by popping PI. Finally, you can get relatively mana-cheap dispels by using it. That’s why you will see top priests using PI at points where they are not even casting heals or burns.
Bubble stealth partners to make sure they don’t get popped out with things like Desecration. As long as they don’t take damage they should remain stealthed.
Make sure you chain Gargoyles and other undead creatures when fighting DKs. This includes Lichborne. By chaining the gargoyle and then going LoS, you will not be getting hit for 2k every cast.
GLYPHS
Major glyphs:
Pain Suppression – This is a must for it allows you to use it when stunned. A lot of times kills on you will happen when a rogue stuns you, or a ret repentances you etc.. If you can pop PS, that lets you not become a quick kill.
Penance – Reduces CD by 2 seconds. This is fairly self-explanatory. The more penances you can cast, the more likely you are to survive (or keep your partner up).
Now this is where you have a choice.
If you play an offensive comp (where you do a lot of damage when you switch to someone) then you want to get the Glyph of Smite. A lot of times when I play Priest Rogue, we end up fearing the opposing healer when he doesn’t have a trinket up and then we both DPS the kill target. With MB/SWD => Holy Fire, Smite I can do a lot of damage.
If you play a defensive comp (where you mainly heal) or your partners are bad at peeling and you have a lot of trouble keeping yourself up, go for the Shield Glyph which heals yourself when you use shield, or the Glyph of Inner Fire which increases your armor gained.
Your minor glyphs:
Glyph of Shadowfiend- when it dies you get 5% mana, this helps for people who kill your sfiend (some do.. why who knows?) or for when a druid cyclones it, it glitches or it gets stuck in desecration. At least this way you get some mana.
Glyph of Levitation- I use this for dispel protection. Did you throw out that fear ward, and that priest is rushing at you to fear and dispelling you? Hit this to make sure he doesn’t get it off. This is used for when you know the priest is about to come fear you, don't spam it to protect everything lest you go OOM.
Glyph of Fortitude- Often purges/dispels will take off PW:F. This is a lot of health... you should always keep it up. This makes it efficient.
Glyph of Shackle Undead- Good for DK's .. but thats about it.
GOOD MACROS
Chaining Gargoyles!
#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/target Ebon Gargoyle
/cast Shackle Undead
/targetlasttarge
Mouseover Dispels
#showtooltip Dispel Magic
/cast [target=mouseover,ex
Stopcast and SWD Sheeps etc!
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Death
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Word: Death
Shadowfiend (if you target an opponent it targets them!, if its your partner, targets their target)
#showtooltip Shadowfiend
/cast [nopet,harm][nopet,t
/petattack [harm][target=target
Anything can be extended to mouseovers, flash heal, penance etc.. just replace dispel with that spells name =)
Some people don’t know what they can dispel, and that’s a huge thing to not know considering its our strength. I will outline what you should dispel on every class when you face them.
Paladins:
Blessings: Dispel these once. If they keep reapplying, don’t worry about it. If they don’t ( a lot don’t) you just took off a huge buff.
Sacred Shield: Looks like your bubble but cooler and more golden. Always, always take this off. It not only helps their healing, it absorbs a lot of damage. Take this off themselves or their partners.
Bubble(Divine Shield): Mass Dispel this. It makes them immune to all damage.
Repentance: If it is on your partner, dispel this. Its basically like a hammer that stuns you/partner for a few seconds.
Hand of Sacrifice ( will be on their partner): Dispel this as it shares damage and if you are CCing the pally, then their sharing damage can break a CD like blind or sheep.
Divine Plea: If the holy pally is not protection specced then dispel this. However DP reduced the pally's healing in half, so if you have the pally OOM and you are about to put out a lot of damage on their partner, let them have it.
Shaman:
Ghost Wolf: Dispel this, it’s a magic buff and they will use this to get away from your partner or to help peel if they are DPS.
Earth Shield(or any shield): Dispel this, it heals them every time you hit them and if you they put it on their partner they might survive your fear -> DPS chain.
Flame Shock: Dispel this quickly, its going to lead to a hard hitting, insta lava burst. Be warned when you dispel this they will get a haste increase so be warned that you need to move out of the way when you do this.
Druids:
Innervate: Single handedly the MOST important spell to dispel. Make sure you are dispelling the druid when he starts to go OOM, because he will cover his innervate with other spells that you can dispel to protect that innervate. You must take this off as soon as it is up.
HoTs: Dispel most of these, esp on your kill target.
Thorns: Dispel this, it can do a lot of damage on whoever attacks the kill target.
Mark of the Wild: Dispel this, its resistance to magic can allow them to resist fear, mind control etc.
Entangling Roots: If its on your partner dispel it. If its on you because they are running to innervate, get it off quick.
Mage:
Ice Block- MD this depending on the situation. If you are killing the mage and he uses it to survive, go for the dispel. If its just defensive to get rid of a blind or something, don’t worry about it, you could do better things with that time.
Focus Magic – Extra crit for the mage and the person it is on. Its got to go.
Sheep: Get it off your partner
Int- Extra intellect, also must go =)
Ice Barrier: Protects against a lot of damage, you need to take this off quickly
Anything that freezes you (Nova, Frostbite Procs, Ranged Nova) – This opens you up for a Deep Freeze so dispel it fast.
Chill Effects- If the mage is the kill target you need to dispel these fast or else he will kite you forever.
Priests:
Bubble- Dispel that immediately, its our most important spell for keeping ourselves up.
Renew- Falls under HoTs, which much immediately go.
Grace- Increases healing, and covers more important spells, so dispel this.
Fort- Like a said, it’s a lot of stam so dispel that.
Fear Ward- Most important thing to get off in priest v priest matches. That fear is where you get a kill on their partner. For this reason, it’s a bad idea to buff FW on yourself at the beginning of a match. Its going to disappear fast.
Shadow Protection- Resisting fear = you lose, so make sure this goes off.
Divine Spirit- Taking this off makes our dismal mana regen even worse.
Fear- Dispel this off your partner
Warlocks:
Fear- Dispel off your partner
DoTs - Dispel those you can, leaving the curse (which you cant dispel) to allow you to bounce Prayer of Mending around.
UA Locks- If the lock is UA (Unstable Affliction) you want to make sure you dont dispel his DoTs, as it will silence you. Bouncing PoM should keep you up just fine, you may want to take it off if you start getting mana drained.
Hunter:
Black Arrow- Increase damage, and deals shadow damage so you have to get it off. (Special thanks to Healzalot for correcting me)
Freezing Trap- Get it off on your partner or whoever they are trying to CC
Death Knight:
Chains of Ice: Ugh, such an OP @#_$#@, make sure you get it off your partner or yourself.
Diseases: Dispel these off quickly. Cure Disease is your friend.. spam it.
SUMMARIZE OF DISPELS
Dispel anything that slows your partner. Dispel anything that slows you. Dispel anything that can lead to a burst chain (shatters, lava burst etc). In arena if you don’t know what happened to you, look at your combat log, find out what happened and ask someone you know that is good at that class what they think happened. If you see that priest do a 5 sec res ( which you should know all about by now) ask a priest how it might have happened.
Good Mods:
Gladius: One of the most important mods you can have as an arena player. It puts a ton of information about your opponents on a small informative series of bars. Its good to click on the "show target" icon that allows you to see who your opponents are targetting! This can tell you who they might be focusing, when a burn, charge, or sheep might be coming at you
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1 comments:
Nice review. Will be trying these points out. I was a shadow priest but want to try arena and healers are rare. Have tried disc priest pvp and liking it so far. Not killing much but definitely hard to kill. And that makes throwing healing around so much easier.
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