Priestly Ways – A Healing Priest's Blog

Discipline Tree (Ulduar)

August 2, 2009 at 12:31 pm (Disc Priests) (disc, disc priest, Discipline Tree, healing, priest, raid healing, Ulduar)

Analysis of Discipline Tiers based on 25-man Ulduar content

Talents will be ranked based on their current usage/need in current content -
5 = HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
4 = RECOMMENDED
3 = DEPENDS ON NEED
2 = SOMETIMES USED
1 = RARELY USED
0 = WHY EVEN BOTHER

These numbers are based on personal research and practice, not specific charts/graphs/statistical data.

Tier 1

0 Unbreakable Will (5/5) – Reduces the duration of Stun, Fear, and Silence effects done to you by an additional 6/12/18/24/30%.

• In vanilla wow, this was the talent to get over the “wand” talent.  Now, with Twin Disciplines you shouldn’t even waste your time considering this talent.
• There may be occasions where you could argue having this talent in Ulduar is useful, but not nearly as useful as other talents to come, so don’t waste the points!
• This is purely a pvp talent now.
  

5 Twin Disciplines (5/5) – Increases the damage and healing done by your instant spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.

• Being in the first tier, you have to get this talent!  Max it out.  5% more spell power to your instants may not seem like a lot, but it all adds up.

Tier 2

0 Silent Resolve (3/3) – Reduces the threat generated by your Holy and Discipline spells by 7/14/20% and reduces the chance your helpful spells and damage over time effects will be dispelled by 10/20/30%.

• Again, another vanilla wow spell that no longer has any usefulness for a raiding priest.  WoW designers fixed threat issues from tanks, thus healers rarely (if ever) pull threat off a tank.  If threat is pulled, we have other threat reduction capabilities to remedy that.

5 Improved Inner Fire (3/3) – Increases the effect of your Inner Fire spell by 15/30/45%, and increases the total number of charges by 4/8/12.

• This is just a gimme!  Inner fire used to only affect armor – woopty dooo.  Now that it also affects spell power, any raiding priest has to have this talent.  Easy 3 points to use.

5 Improved Power Word: Fortitude (2/2) – Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 15/30%, and increases your total Stamina by 2/4%.

• This is the other talent you should get along with Improved Inner Fire.  This talent is one that ALL priests (Disc, Holy or Shadow) should have due to the power of the stam increase.

0 Martyrdom (2/2) – Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6 sec after being the victim of a melee or ranged critical strike.  The Focused Casting effect reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Priest spells and decreases the duration of Interrupt effects by 10/20%.

• This is purely pvp.  One could say that as a priest, you do get crit by ranged attacks often enough to warrent having at least a talent point in this, but NO.  The Focused Casting buff is nice, but not worth the 2 points you would need to put in to it for the buff to be worthwhile.

Tier 3

5 Meditation (3/3) – Allows 17/33/50% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.

• Duh, duh & more duh.  Of course you need this spell, you’re an idiot if you don’t have it.

4 Inner Focus (1/1) – When activated, reduces the mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.

• This is a very powerful talent.  But I’ve seen some priests who don’t have it.  I know for my holy spec, I don’t have it mainly cuz I don’t want to give up another point in holy to get it, but it is still VERY worth the single point.
• Bosses like General V. (where mana regen doesn’t exist) utilize talents like these for the very survivability of the raid.  Pop Inner Focus, pop Divine Hymn = win! esp. on General Hard Mode.

Discipline Priest focus from this point forward (most holy priests do not make it past meditation/inner focus).

5 Improved Power Word: Shield (3/3) – Increases the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10/15%.

• This is a HUGE spell for disc. priests.  As a disc priest, you should be bubble, then heal… bubble again, heal.  There may be a situation where you’re bubbling & that’s all you do.  This talent, along with it’s linked talent in Tier 5 are enormous for the power of your bubble.  GET IT.

Tier 4

2 Absolution (3/3) – Reduces the mana cost of your Dispel Magic, Cure Disease, Abolish Disease and Mass Dispel spells by 5/10/15%.

• There are very rare circumstances where this talent could benefit the priest.  Thorim HM (Sif’s Frost Novas), Hodir (ish) (Frost Novas), & Yogg (Magic & Disease dispels) are about it.  If you have the extra points (which you honestly shouldn’t) spend it on this, otherwise don’t waste the 3 pts.

5 Mental Agility (3/3) – Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 4/7/10%.

• Umm, duh… BUBBLE!!  As a disc priest, you will rarely use renew; however, for the bubble aspect alone, this spell is VERY powerful.

0 Improved Mana Burn (2/2) – Reduces the casting time of your Mana Burn spell by 0.5 /1 sec.

• Ahhh, remember the days of AQ20 when this was a talent you wanted… ok, well, you wouldn’t spend the points on it, but you still wanted it.
• PVP only, don’t waste your time on this talent for raiding.

Tier 5

0 Reflective Shield (2/2) – Causes 45% of the damage you absorb with Power Word: Shield to reflect back at the attacker.  This damage causes no threat.

• Ok, lets do some math here… ya I know, I promised no math, but here’s the info on this.  This is one of those talents where you hope your bubble pops.  My bubbles absorb roughly 8k with my SP/talents.  So this spell will do 3.6K to the target.  Not bad.  But, if each bubble costs you roughly 600 mana & you could only cast it on a target that’s guaranteed to pop the bubble every 15 sec, this talent becomes almost obsolete (I can smite spam / cast penance more than 3.6k in 15 sec – with NO hit gear).
  
• Don’t get it as PVE raiding priest.

5 Mental Strength (5/5) – Increases your total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.

• Intellect = mana.  Plain & simple, you NEED this talent to increase your crit & mana pool.

5 Soul Warding (1/1) – Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 4 sec, and reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Shield by 15%.

• This is the POWER of the bubble for disc priests right here!
• Bubble’s CD is 4 sec.  So now you have insta bubble – just wait on GCD.  You’re also reducing mana cost by 15%, plus your previous Mental Agility pick up, so more mana saved!
• BTW, weren’t all you disc priests utterly disappointed when they took the % from 30 down to 15?  I know I was… ~350 mana bubble was insanely juicy!

Tier 6

5 Focused Power (2/2) – Increases damage and healing done by your spells by 2/4%. In addition, your Mass Dispel cast time is reduced by 0.5 /1 sec.

• Just the first part of this talent is very useful.  Disc. Priests need to be very big on THROUGHPUT (the amt healed to a target).  Spellpower directly affects throughput.  Thus, any talent that increases your spellpower should be a given!
• The secondary part of this – reducing MD cast time -  is cute & can be useful on certain boss fights, but really not that wonderful.  It makes it a more useful PVP talent though.

5 Enlightenment (3/3) – Increases your total Spirit by 2/4/6% and increases your spell haste by 2/4/6%.

• Ok, so spirit isn’t your main focus as a disc priest, however spirit = mana regen, so it’s handy.
  
• The spell haste is very nice.  This allows a disc. priest to focus more on crit gear instead of balancing haste/crit gear – later talents benefit crit and benefit from crit, so this is a very useful talent to pick up.

Tier 7

4 Focused Will (3/3) – Increases your spell critical effect chance by 1/2/3%, and after taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 2/3/4% and increasing healing effects on you by 3/4/5%.  Stacks up to 3 times.  Lasts 8 sec.

• This is mainly a PVP talent; however, the first part of this is huge for PVE priests.  If you have the points left over & wonder where to spend them, here’s the perfect spot!
• Personally, my disc. spec is specifically for General V. HM & Algalon atm, so I had to drop this talent to pick up Improved Healing in the holy tree, but I’m already debating getting it back!  I miss it!

3 Power Infusion (1/1) – Infuses the target with power, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%.  Lasts 15 sec.

• Personally, I do highly recomend this talent.  However, I know many disc. priests do not have it anymore to opt for other talents.  The bottom of the disc tree is very nice so I know this is a spell that is optional.
• If you like it & use it, get it.  If you don’t think you’ll remember to use it, then don’t get it (it’s a waste of a point).  I use it regularly, typically after a heroism/bloodlust has been blown on a caster, like a mage or warlock.  This help casters keep their dmg going after a big haste boost from the shaman. (ps, if you time it right you can cast this multiple times in a fight – your casters will love you for it *cough* Hodir HM *cough*)

3 Improved Flash Heal (3/3) – Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 5/10/15%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal by 4/7/10% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.

• Ok, this is one of those talents (again) either you love it or you never use it.  Depending on your playstyle, if you rarely flash heal a target – don’t waste your talents.
• My disc set-up is quite odd, but I actually do a lot of raid healing, so this spell is very beneficial for me.  So if you raid heal, try it out.  You’ll prolly come to find it’s very useful on both ends of the talent.

From here on out, every disc talent is extremely beneficial & should be maxed out.  There’s really no debate on the majority of these talents, they’re required if you are a raider.   The only exception is the “Grace” debate…

Tier 9

4 Grace (2/2) – Your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance spells have a 50/100% chance to bless the target with Grace, increasing all healing received from the Priest by 3%. This effect will stack up to 3 times. Effect lasts 15 sec. Grace can only be active on one target at a time.

• The debate: Grace can only be active on one target at a time. Thus, if you are a disc. raid healer, this spell is practically useless.  Why talent it at all?  Good question, but honestly, if you are a disc. priest, you will tank heal from time-to-time (otherwise, just go holy – much more powerful raid healing).  So, if you do tank heal from time-to-time, at least 1 point in this talent would be useful.
• The debate:  Should I go 1 point or 2 points if I’m a tank healer? Justifiably, 1 point is enough to keep your stacks up on a main tank.  However, if you do lose your stacks, then having 2 points is more beneficial b/c you can top off your stacks with just 1 penance.  I read some numbers somewhere at sometime, that basically put it like this:  1 stack is enough, but 2 stacks gains you a slight bit more throughput on the tank.  Bleh to numbers.
• If you need an extra point, this is the first place you should take it from.  1 point is required, but 2 is not necessary.  If you have an extra point, this is one of the places you should think about putting it.  This is the “give & take” talent much like Empowered Renew of the holy tree.

This analysis is an opinion of 1 observant priest who likes to read and theorycraft with the best of them, but who hates throwing fancy numbers and formulas out as if this game was all 1 big formula.  Every priest is different and may prefer different talents than those recommended.  I’m merely justifying why certain talents are NO NOs and others are REQUIRED as a healer.

Any input/critism is welcome.  I only ask that you don’t just bash me with, “Wow, are you really f’ing stupid?” quotes.  I’d much prefer “I think you might be a bit wrong at this point A & here’s why B”.

Thanks!