Disc = Absorbation priest? (PvE)

[Cindorella]

O'hay fellas!

I know there is a Disc guide thread however i thought this question deserved its own topic since it is, according to me, a very big question.

So, i guess we all know that during the Wotlk expansion, we would spam our PW : Shield.
However, due to the Cata changes, it's not allowed due to obvious mana problems, and it is at the moment not as effective as it should be, altho, it might get buffed.

Anyhow. At this very moment i can't really find a good use for it. I do use it on the tanks, and it is also a pretty good mana regen due to the Rapture talent. I find it more or less useless using on the raid unless you know someone is going to take damage.

The thing is, our mastery gives us More absorbation by our shields. ( Each point of mastery increases potency by 2,5 % ) This is actually pretty much, however, i don't know wether i should start using my shield more (how do you play as a disc raiding priest?) or simply R-forge it to haste or something that helps me more. I really don't know. As i mentioned before, the shield might be buffed with 200% but also increase the mana by 34% (?) That beeing said, it will be very good at the target with the shield, but it might aswell drain our mana pretty quick. With the mastery it'll get extreamly more effectiv if you stack mastery.

My questions are the following:

- Is it worth stacking up mastery for the shield buff? Please motivate your answer.
- How do you play at this moment? Shield tank only, or still shield spamming?
- I presume it buffs PW : barrier aswell , which is pretty good, does this change your opinion/play style?
- Are you gonna change your stat prioritiez after the buff patch?

I guess that's basically it. You may also discuss the diffrent playstyles if you do not agree with eachother. I'm sorry for all the grammar/spelling fails, i did my best, i am however not from an english speaking country.

[Sebadoh]

- Stacking no, but mastery still affects Divine Aegis. You have a pretty high crit chance with your single-target heals, and of course PoH will proc a DA on every single target, so Mastery is still a pretty good stat despite the fact that you can't spam PW:S anymore.

Keep in mind that DA caps at 20% of your max health, and is also reliant on your crit and haste levels (more crit and more haste = more frequent DA procs), so stacking nothing but mastery is a bad idea. However, it certainly has its place - personally when I play Disc, I reforge for a mix of crit haste and mastery, as they all complement each other quite nicely.

- PW:S is basically for tanks only, although if there is a predictable damage spike on a single individual (like Magmatron's fire beam, whatever it's called) then it certainly could be used there. I would avoid overusing it on the raid as like you mentioned it will deplete your mana pool very quickly, but it is still a very potent tool and an important part of Disc Priestage.

One of the best ways to keep your mana bar full is to get a timer for Rapture procs, and make sure you cast your shield on a target who is about to take damage juuust as it comes off of cooldown. This is something I'm still mastering, but it's a big help.

- Because they reworked PW:Barrier to be a flat damage reduction (like Pain Suppression) it is not affected by Mastery.

- Probably not. I still believe that the best way to gear is a Disc Priest is moderation in all your secondary stats, perhaps with a weight on Crit if you're mainly single-target healing but even then, mastery and haste are still good.

edit: also, the word is "absorption" - still, very good English for someone who isn't a native speaker

[Cindorella]

Thanks for responding.

Your post actually makes sence. I however must admit my crit is low, haste around 9% + goblin 1% haste buff. I have alot of items which only got mastery if you see what i mean, worth reforging to haste then perhaps?

[Sebadoh]

I have a lot of spirit/mastery items as well. I don't complain; main spec is Holy, but when I go Disc I do reforge a fair chunk of mastery to crit and haste, primarily crit (because as Holy I'm reforging all of my crit into more useful stats).

I'm far from a theorycrafter, I just eyeball it. What % crit is on your character sheet?

[CoolNitro]

I have a question in relation to mastery and DA and it's not too far from the op.

Does mastery affect the total absorb value or does it increase the amount of absorb added per proc? or both.

The reason I ask is at the moment my max DA is around 22k and it takes maybe 2 or 3 greater heal crits to stack it that high, if mastery only affects the total absorb then I do not see any point in using the stat further as it is unlikely I would ever get max DA shield on any raider let alone a tank.

[Sebadoh]

I have a question in relation to mastery and DA and it's not too far from the op.

Does mastery affect the total absorb value or does it increase the amount of absorb added per proc? or both.

The reason I ask is at the moment my max DA is around 22k and it takes maybe 2 or 3 greater heal crits to stack it that high, if mastery only affects the total absorb then I do not see any point in using the stat further as it is unlikely I would ever get max DA shield on any raider let alone a tank.

It affects the amount of each proc. The total cap is governed entirely by your maximum health, to my knowledge.

[CoolNitro]

It affects the amount of each proc. The total cap is governed entirely by your maximum health, to my knowledge.

Ah ok that makes sense, I suppose it will take a while before we start seeing real numbers as to how mastery, crit and haste caps work off each other and when the best time to stop stacking mastery is.

All I know is for the OP it's never a good thing to stack only one stat.

[Cindorella]

Great discussion guys!

I was holy aswell first. However i liked the Disc playstyle more and well, that's why i'm disc, works fine in all the raids, barrier is really nice .
My mastery is 13.70, Haste - 9% + 1% goblin . Crit = 11.15%

This with some items not beeing reforged yet.

[Maèl]

Good news everyone!

Seems like DisGrace has finally been fixed. You can have more than one on your raid at any given time. No more awkward DisGrace fumbling in the dark.

Between that and Renewed Hope our crit rate when offhealing and therefore Aegis proc rate in such cases should go up by 10%. It's good to know we don't have to rely on Weakened Soul for that anymore.

The change to Grace was long overdue and therefore I shall rejoyce and make merry in the loins of our Blizzard Priest gods. Let the feast begin!

Our single target healing spells have just been made quite a bit more powerful. But I think I'll still drop Soulwarding from my spec. You simply can't spam PW:S anymore and is too weak anyway.

My point being: Aegis just got a little bit more interesting apart from PoH spam. So we are back on track.

[CoolNitro]

Good news everyone!

Seems like DisGrace has finally been fixed. You can have more than one on your raid at any given time. No more awkward DisGrace fumbling in the dark.

Between that and Renewed Hope our crit rate when offhealing and therefore Aegis proc rate in such cases should go up by 10%. It's good to know we don't have to rely on Weakened Soul for that anymore.

The change to Grace was long overdue and therefore I shall rejoyce and make merry in the loins of our Blizzard Priest gods. Let the feast begin!

Our single target healing spells have just been made quite a bit more powerful. But I think I'll still drop Soulwarding from my spec. You simply can't spam PW:S anymore and is too weak anyway.

My point being: Aegis just got a little bit more interesting apart from PoH spam. So we are back on track.

I was thinking of dropping soulwarding as well for veiled shadows 1 minute reduced cooldown on shadow fiend, even with the next patches 200% bump for the shield I still don't think it will be spam-able to the point of needing it to have no cooldown.


Is the change to grace in the new patch notes or something I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere before for possible change.
But if it is changed to being active on more then one target then it will be a good thing I suppose, I never really considered Grace to be that major because of the fact it moved when I healed someone else but now having that 24% extra healing not go away when I heal others will be awesome.