Welcome to the party!
Yep.
My first real foray into an instance as a Discipline Priest was so bad..
How bad was it, Exxy?
It was so bad that everybody died.
(Cue laugh track and rim-shot)
It was not pretty.
Picture this: Halls of Stone, The Tribunal of Ages.
Now everyone knows, for any seasoned healer, this instance is old hat, right? Sometimes the waves and waves of baddies can catch you off guard, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. Well imagine being a newbie Disciplined Priest. I went over everything Miss Medicina said in our podcast. Even listened to it numerous times to be sure.
Okay, shield everyone. Check.
PoM the tank. Check.
Oh, no, the lock is taking damage. Penance? Arrggggh- Check.
So this guy wants to steal aggro. Pain Suppression? Well… hmm.. idk.. ohhhh, what the hell!?! Check.
Wait, the tank is a pally. Should I shield him? Damn, his mana is low. Maybe I should let his health dip a bit… oh crap. Wait, my oh crap button is what again? Hell, I don’t know. “Hey, Ghostcrawler and Miss Medicina said you need to learn how to tank!” Maybe I should learn how to heal… Pain Suppression? Maybe. Eww, he is down to like 20 health. Well, greater heal. Check. Whew- just made it. Maybe he laid his hands on himself.
Oh, great, now I am dying. Did I spec into Desperate Prayer? Oh, yep, I did. Check.
It went on like that in my head for a good bit. I think a DPS died first. Then another DPS. Then me. It was just the tank and a DPS to finish it out. Thank goodness we didn’t have to start over.
I warned them in the beginning. You know when everyone says the customary, “Hi.” I was like:
[Party][Exanna]: My main spec is Holy. This is my first time healing as Discipline so…
They could read into the dot-dot-dot what they wanted to. They were warned. I think the tank gave me an “lol.” Anyhoo.. we got through that- sort of. And then came Sjonnir The Ironshaper. Two people died there, too. I was so happy when it was over! OMG.. Major Fail!
Just because it says "disco," and I loved this album as a kid. Look at all the priest bubbles. It was meant to be. Okay, just humor me. OMG!
I am not totally discouraged. Maybe just a little discouraged. Okay, A LOT discouraged. Thinking about it makes me LOL- literally. I feel I have to learn it, though. I have to be a better healer, and I think this is one way to do it.
On the flip side, I am learning the mechanics of the disco priest. It is quite remarkable to see people’s health stay green with the shields up. Impressive. Thanks, Miss Medicina!
Helping Priests- One Pug At A Time
While Exxy fails at the disco thing, DanityKane is excelling at helping other priests. I ran Hubby’s mage through Forge of Souls last night, and we had a priest who was new to the instance. He/she/it was also taking a lot of breaks in between, really slowing down the pace of the run. He was this—–>.<—– close to getting /kicked.
If you have ever tanked, then you know how frustrating it is to watch your health tick down. If you’re a healer who has ever run with a hotheaded tank, then you know how easy it is to exact revenge on them in a run. /smirk
In this FoS, I blew every cooldown, and while everyone else’s health was up to like 90% or more, I died on the last boss who was at 62k. We all know DK’s are squishy. After I went down, so did everyone else. Instead of getting mad- well I was mad on the inside, but I kept it down- I just told the priest: “keep prayer of mending, renew and a bubble on me.” We went back in there- daring to look upon the Host of Souls, and the priest rocked it! I even saw the wings pop out, which should scare a tank, but I knew he/she/it was really working hard. I felt like DanityKane helped someone get better last night.
Happy Raiding!
Exxy
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Seriously, I found it harder going from Holy to Disc than from Resto Shaman to Holy Priest. It’s disconcerting to be on the same toon, have 90% of the same spells, but have to use them completely differently.
It sounds like you hit the cooldown valley of WTF! WS is on the target so you can’t re-shield, POM is on CD, you’ve just hit penance, and aaaaaa…. you have to heal with NO haste boost from borrowed time. Remember, though, flash heal isn’t inefficient in disc! You get nifty flash heal talents in that tree. So try throwing a few flashes around and see what happens.
Hmm…you’ve probably found all the Disc priesty resources you need, but I have a few compiled resources at Soulwarding. Check the “Discipline Welcome Basket.”
It’s great that you’re learning and taking up the challenges as they come. It only gets easier from here. It’s also very sweet of you to be understanding and helpful to other priests. That kind voice is what every player needs.
I know you’ve heard again and again that pally tanks can’t get mana back if you shield them. So what? They are leading the pace of the group. And they’ve got canteens in their pockets. If they really need mana, they will sit down and drink. Your job is to keep them alive. And that bar is green, not blue.
One of the nicest things about disc is that a DPS, even at 20% health, will likely survive with a shield on them and give you time to cast PoM, renew, flash heal, whatever you need. It takes some of the panic away.
You might sometimes throw out a holy nova too. It’s not super strong as disc, but it’s an instant cast and it does just enough to help you catch up – with the bonus of placing a few weak DA bubbles on people.
No need to panic if Penance is on CD. You have a lot of tools as discipline! If a target is below 50%, shield and flash heal. Your improved flash heal talent gives you a 10% crit increase, weakened soul gives you a 4% crit increase, and Renewed Hope reduces damage by 3%. Plus you’ll reduce more damage if you get a crit and a DA bubble. And you’ll get stacks of Grace. By the time you’re done, Penance will be ready again!
(My favorite tank healing combination is shield, penance, and then a hasted greater heal with BT. But that’s only needed when the tank is taking really heavy damage.)
Greater Heal works best if the target is right at 45-50%. It’ll heal them the rest of the way, but you don’t run the risk of them dying before the cast finishes. It’s also good if you know that a big hit is coming and that your heal will safely land right after the damage.
For DPS at 75%, a shield and a renew will heal them nicely without dropping Grace off of the tank.
And if everyone is taking damage, BT works as well for PoH as it does for GH. Bust out that AoE heal when you need to! Just don’t expect it to heal for quite as much as when you’re holy, lol.
Omg, I wish I was on your server to run Heroics as shadow with you while you learned. I had a great friend do that for me and it was a lot of fun.
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That’s exactly how I felt the one week that I tried Disc and whenever I’m asked to switch over to that spec. I feel totally clueless and at a loss as to which buttons to push. Hopefully someday I’ll try it again, but probably only in heroics for a while. I need to be at the top of my game for raids.
I feel this way when I go holy. It’s bad. I’m so good at disc and then everybody is dead when I switch! I panic.
Domni´s last blog ..An Awesome WoW Neighborhood