Priest Builds: The Discipline Priest

Why and How to Use The Discipline Priest Spec:

Discipline Build With Shadow

The discipline Priest is one of the least understood of all Priest builds. Is it good for PvP? Should I forget about discipline if I’m raiding or the primary healer? And what about solo – shadow is the clear choice right?

Those are the major questions being asked about discipline priests, and I’ll briefly answer them for you here…

Let me start with PvP.

PvP Discipline priest are an awesome sight to behold. One on one, discipline priests can be a really tough opponent to kill.

With reflective shield sending almost half the damage your receive back to your opponent (look out rogues), and then your basic healing skills backing you up, you can pretty much survive anything.

Your damage dealing isn’t quite as impressive, but if you play with a good team you can hold points until the cavalry arrives and punishes whoever thought it was a good idea to attack you.

So a big tick to discipline priests if you’re considering that route.

Grouping and Raiding.

Discipline priests can be a great build for raiding and grouping, but obviously won’t ever match a pure holy healer. What IS great about discipline priests is that in raids as a secondary healer they’ll be a bit like an anchor to the group. While your primary might die quickly when it takes aggro, you’ll be there till the finishing line unless you really mess things up, and you’ve got a real healing punch to back it up. And lets not forget that if you get attacked you’re reflecting some damage and adding to group DPS…

Solo.

Meh… while I love the discipline build for almost anything (its a great jack of all trades and has amusing abilities), solo simply won’t be as fast as a good shadow build. On the other hand, if you like to keep yourself flexible, able to solo, heal, or pvp, and you DON’T want to waste a ton of gold respeccing all the time, you won’t go wrong with discipline.

The following build is a good all-round discipline spec.

Here’s my Priest Discipline Talent Build:

Row 1 (Unbreakable Will, Twin Disciplines)

This interesting build starts with placing 3pts in the UW, and 2pts in Twin Disciplines. We only need 5 total, so mix it up and utilize a little bit of both. Neither one of them are going to be a massive help, which is why I don’t fill either one of them.

Row 2 (Silent Resolve, Improved Inner Fire, Improved Power Word: Fortitude, and Martyrdom)

Silent Resolve will be vital since it reduces Holy and Discipline threats by 20%. Plus there’s a 30% chance they won’t be dispelled. Just skip the Inner Fire for now, but if you use it more than I do, come back to it later. Fill the IPWF with 2pts so you get a 4% Stamina increase. Lastly, fill Martyrdom so you can continue casting through strings of PvP blows from those pesky melee classes, or when you need to get that last heal off before you die in a raid .

Row 3 (Meditation, Inner Focus, Improved Power Word: Shield)

I love the Meditation ability simply because it has a ridiculous 50% mana regen while you cast. So add 3pts there and placing a point in the Inner Focus gives you a mana reduction of 100% on your next cast. In fact, you should fill up the entire row. Your IPWS when full, will give you a 15% increase in damage absorbed.

Row 4 (Absolution, Mental Agility, Improved Mana Burn)

The first 2 reduce mana so it’s important to fill them both up. I skipped over the Improved Mana Burn simply because I never use it. If you do, come back to it later and cut your casting time down by 1 second.

Row 5 (Reflective Shield, Mental Strength, and Soul Warding)

I love the Reflective Shield because I don’t have to do anything and can still reflect 45% of the damage someone throws towards you, back to them. I skip over the Mental Strength because I can gain more intellect on armor and enchantments. However, adding a point to SW is important since it reduces your cooldown on PWS by 4 seconds.

Row 6 (Focused Power, Enlightenment)

I would usually just skip over these, but you will have to add 1 point to both areas, just to get your points up enough to open up the next level.

Row 7 (Focused Will, Improved Flash Heal)

You will notice that Power Infusion isn’t listed. This is because I didn’t place 5pts in Mental Strength. I do place 3 pts in the IFH, but only 2 in Focused Will.

Row 8 (Renewed Hope, Rapture, Aspiration)

Players will absolutely love you if they get a taste of the Rapture ability. Check it out on your tree and make sure you add all 3 pts. Aspiration needs to be filled so you cut down on the cooldown of Inner Focus, Power Infusion, Pain Suppression and Pennance abilities by 20%. Handy.

Row 9 (Devine Aegis, Pain Suppression, and Grace)

Okay, once you reach this level you need to make a decision. Either add a total of 5pts in the row, or move along and look at row 10. I’m not so keen on any of this row unless you want to lean towards being a healing discipline priest, and I went back to MS because I didn’t plan on building the Discipline talents to help others. Plus I could now get Power Infusion.

If you do choose to go and max out these talents, be sure to dump your remaining points (after you reach Penance) into Holy. Otherwise, its a total waste.

Row 10 (Borrowed Time)

Borrowed time is pure gold, and you’ll definitely want to max it out to gain the 25% spell haste and power word shield buff. Get it.

Row 11 (Penance)

You’ve reached the pinnacle of the discipline talent tree. Penance shoots a volley that will either cause damage or heal depending on the targets. You can’t go wrong with this one and it adds even more flexibility to your priest.

You probably noticed that I love this tree mostly for the reduction in mana usage and flexibility. In the end its one of those builds that you can be flexible with and still do well, but if you use it like I did, you’ll have more spells to cast, good mana replenishment, and the ability to be useful in many different parts of World of Warcraft.

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Related posts:

1. Priest Talent Builds: The Holy Priest Spec
2. Priest Talent Builds: The Shadow Priest
3. Priest Leveling Guide: Get Holy With A Shadow Spec