MoP & Disc healing

[Ranualf]

Ok as requested by TL, that all of RGT write stuff about how our various classes work, I have chopped up various web information and produced this..

New Abilities

Spirit Shell is an interesting and powerful healing cooldown. For 15 seconds, it causes your heals from  Heal,  Flash Heal,  Greater Heal, and  Prayer of Healing to place an absorption shield on the target instead of healing them. The shield's capacity is capped at 60% of the casting Priest's maximum health. Any heals that exceed the shield's cap will instead heal the target (as though Spirit Shell were not active). I assume that PW:Shield works on top of this also, making it must use ability!

changes to spells:

Dispel magic & Remove Disease have been removed and replaced by Purify, which dispels magic & disease, 2.6% of base mana and a 8 sec CD.

Inner Fire now increases your spell power by 10%, instead of by a fixed value.

Inner Focus Reduces the mana cost of your next Flash Heal, Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing by 25% and increases its critical effect chance by 100%(was 100% spell cost and a 35% + crit) meaning its now uber, as it gives a guaranteed crit, essential for them "oh dear!" moments !

Power Word: Fortitude now increases Stamina by 10%, instead of by a fixed value.

Archangel and the associated "Atonement" healing-style abilities are now granted to all Discipline Priests by default, without the need to choose them as talents. Their mechanics have remained largely the same, with one notable difference: Archangel now increases healing by 5% per stack of  Evangelism (up from 3%), but no longer grants mana to the Priest.

 Strength of Soul, previously an optional talent, is now provided by default. It causes  Weakened Soul's duration to be reduced by 2 seconds each time the target is healed by  Heal,  Flash Heal, or  Greater Heal.
 Train of Thought, previously an optional talent, is now provided by default. It causes the remaining cooldown of  Inner Focus to be reduced by 5 seconds each time you cast  Greater Heal, and the remaining cooldown of  Penance to be reduced by 0.5 seconds each time you cast  Smite.

Divine Hymn has been removed (it is now only available to Holy Priests).


Rotation and Spell Usage

Since healers do not have a rotation per`se, it is hard to briefly list the rotation of Discipline Priests.
And depending upon your assigned duty (raid, tank, support) your play style will change totally.

On tanks i usually use PoM, + Penance(3 stacks of Grace) before the tank pulls, then shield, penance (off cd) then Gheal. As Penance gains the benifit of Borrowed time, along with Gheal, making the initial opening heals very good. When Penance is off CD, i re-stack it(although you Gheals should maintain the tanks grace), and keep casting PW:Shield(to proc rapture), and Gheal (to stack grace and reduce the weakened soul de-buff by 2 sec per cast, Heal and Fheal also work this way)

Train of Thought - Reduces the timer on Inner Focus(45s Cd) by 5 secs per cast of Gheal, so a few Gheals and the timer is greatly reduced, with the new changed to IF, it allows a massive crit heal, with reduced mana cost, all round great!

Borrowed Time, after casting PW:shield I gain +15% spell haste for 6 seconds, or my next spell is cast- Note: Penance does NOT consume this effect. Thus allowing a sneaky Penance cast at +15% haste(+30% healed) and then another spell.

Rapture grants 150% of spirit as mana every 12 or when a shield is "burst", this gives a lot of mana return. You should not be afraid to cast shield on targets who do not need healing, if your inside your 12 sec CD.(to maintain constant mana returns)

On raid healing I usually use penance on the tank(3 stacks of Grace), then Prayer of Healing (as PoH auto stack Aegis), then repeated casts of PoH, stacking Aegis, and using Penance on targets who`s HP is the lowest (gaining +30 healing). With the changes to Inner focus, this means popping IF + PoH will now produce auto crit, meaning better numbers, and bigger Aegis = WIN!

Aegis grants 30% of all critical heals or PoH to shield the target, and it stacked up to 67775 hp (cata), this works in conjunction with PW:Shield, which can trigger also Aegis(if glyphed), enabling massive absorption amounts if you get a lot of crits.

Simply put if i used PoH and healed 10k, you would receive a 3k Aegis, on top of the 10k heal, if i did this 4 times, say 40k heals, you would receive 12k of Aegis. Meaning a mob would have to do 12k+ to scratch you. The numbers may initially appear small, but when you take into consideration that 5 players are getting this free shield, on every cast and I could crit heal all of them, the numbers quickly mount up !
On a 20k hps fight i will do +12k ish shielding also. A lot of players do not understand how this works, but it does, and means the party or raid will be taking less damage, the less damage there is to heal, means better mana conservation for healers or time to place extra heals on the tanks.

Grace gives +10% of my healing per stack, up to 30%, and is triggered by Penance, Heal, Gheal or FHeal, although I personal use Penance to stack it, as penance has 3 "heals", so it auto gives 3 stacks, unless I move (as its channelled, and turns you to the target).

AA spec for all of us !

Atonement healing is now fully supported. Since you have the talents and abilities for Atonement healing given to you be default, you should be making use of this playstyle as much as possible. Nothing has changed in the way that Atonement healing works.(Smite + Holy Fire spells do dps and heal a player or pet within 15` of the target). AA spec was initially very good at the start of Cata, but it quickly fell out of favour, as the "heal" would usually target a pet, blood worm or a player in close proximity of the target, and not the tank. This was way to random for raids, as they needed "healers" not dps who could heal...

The overall play style will hopefully remain virtually unchanged. I think that most of the spell mechanics and interactions function exactly as they did during Cataclysm. Many of these mechanics were granted by talents, but they are now provided automatically as passive abilities.

 Power Word: Shield's mana cost is very accessible, which means its usage is likely to increase greatly during Mists of Pandaria.
The only novelty comes from incorporating your new abilities into the playstyle. This should not be very difficult.
Here some thoughts on them:

 Spirit Shell will probably be used many times throughout the fight, but you should make sure to use it when it is most needed. It is especially useful for "preparing" a tank for taking a big hit (by stacking up a shield on him through single target heals) or preparing the raid for a high damage spike, by applying raid-heals to them.

 Void Shift should be used to save raid members (though it will probably be used on tanks mostly). It has a very high cooldown, so it will need to be time carefully.
Your choice of Tier 6 talent will be used during times of AoE raid damage.
Talents

Tier 1 talents offer a choice between 3 crowd control abilities:
 Void Tendrils
 Psyfiend
 Dominate Mind

These talents do not have any effect on your healing performance or playstyle. Your choice will be preference-based, in most cases. Occassionally, you may choose a talent that better suits the specific requirements of an encounter.

Tier 2 talents offer a choice between 3 movement-enhancing spells:
 Body and Soul
 Angelic Feather
 Phantasm
 Body and Soul grants a movement speed boost to players affected by your  Power Word: Shield and  Leap of Faith. Even though you are going to cast Power Word: Shield fairly often, this movement speed boost is not reliable as you may need to save Power Word: Shield for another moment, or you may be unable to cast it due to the  Weakened Soul debuff. (we will give feedback on this)

 Angelic Feather allows you place feathers on the ground, at targeted locations. Yourself and other raid members gain a movement speed boost when running over a feather. I think that this talent has the most viability and flexibility, and that it will prove to be the talent of choice in most raid encounters. (again once we have got to grips with it, this may change)

 Phantasm has mostly PvP applicability and we do not expect to see it being useful in raid content often, if at all.

Tier 3 talents offer a choice between 3 spells that enhance your performance:
 From Darkness, Comes Light
 Mindbender
 Power Word: Solace
 From Darkness, Comes Light works much like the old  Surge of Light talent (except this is much improved). Whenever you cast  Heal,  Flash Heal,  Greater Heal,  Binding Heal, and  Smite you have a 15% chance for your next Flash Heal to be instant cast and cost no mana. The effect has 2 charges.

 Mindbender is an improved  Shadowfiend, which has a much lower cooldown and will ultimately grant you higher mana regeneration (and damage).

 Power Word: Solace is a damaging spell that grants you 2% maximum mana each time you cast it.

Out of these 3 talents, I think that Power Word: Solace is by far the weakest. From Darkness, Comes Light is very strong and I believe it will translate not only to efficient mana conservation, but also to a solid throughput increase. Mindbender may end up being a good choice when mana regeneration is the most important issue.(again actual testing of this is required)

Tier 4 talents offer a choice between 3 survival and self-healing talents:
 Desperate Prayer
 Spectral Guise
 Angelic Bulwark

 Desperate Prayer is a very powerful self-heal with no mana cost or cast time.

 Spectral Guise is very much a PvP-oriented ability, and I do not believe it will often,be useful in PvE.

 Angelic Bulwark automatically grants you a damage absorption shield each time you are brought below 30% health (with a 90 second internal cooldown).

I think that either Desperate Prayer will be the best choice for most situations, since it gives you the most control over when and how to use your self-healing. But the fact that Angelic Bulwark is a auto cast, this allows you to get on with your job of healing, we`ll see which is the better, during the encounters.

Tier 5 talents offer a choice between 3 talents that improve your performance:
 Twist of Fate
 Power Infusion
 Divine Insight

 Twist of Fate grants you a 15% increase to your healing each time you heal a target that is below 20% health, lasting for 10 seconds. This talent will probably shine on cutting-edge progression, when you are often healing low-health raid members.

 Power Infusion (only upon yourself from its Cataclysm version) grants 20% increased casting speed and 20% reduced mana cost, for 20 seconds. This spell can be cast only be yourself, allowing you to do great burst healing, Power Infusion is a great choice because, being active, it can be used exactly when needed.

 Divine Insight grants your  Penance a 40% chance to make your next  Power Word: Shield ignore  Weakened Soul (if it exists on the target) and not cause it. This is a very interesting talent, which looks appealing at first. However,the downside to this talent are in situations of urgency (when you need to cast Power Word: Shield on someone who has recently been shielded or may need to be shielded again very soon), but its very occurrence relies on a 40% chance to proc.

Despite my concern about Divine Insight's viability, I think that all 3 talents will probably be useful in certain encounters, and it remains to be seen how they will best be used.

Tier 6 talents offer a choice between 3 multiple target healing talents:
 Cascade
 Divine Star
 Halo

 Cascade is a sort of chain heal. It will first heal the player you targeted, after which it will split in two bolts, each jumping to another player, healing them, splitting, and jumping again. Each jump will prefer players who are farther away from the target player. Therefore, this heal is beneficial in situations where the raid is spread out.

 Divine Star fires a healing ball in a straight line in front of you. It travels for 24 yards, healing all allies within 6 yards of its path. After it reaches the end of its path, it returns to you, still healing allies along the way. It is suited for situations where the raid is stacking in a particular fashion. It also deals damage to enemies it comes in contact with.

 Halo causes a ring of energy to form around you, expanding to up to a 30 yard range. It heals all allies in its area of effect, with greater potency for those located farther away from you (at 25 yards). It is best suited for situations where the raid is loosely stacked, and you are in the center. It also deals damage in its area of effect.

I believe that the choice between these 3 talents will be determined by the way in which your raid is positioned during the encounter, as in how the raid is stacked, or spread, so be prepared to carry dust, it is cheap enough now, so there`s no excuse


Initial priest build will be:
Void Tendrils
Body & soul or Angelic feather
FDCL or Mindbender, if mana is an issue
Angelic Bulwark or Desperate prayer if I feel i need it during the encounter
Divine insight looks good, but if raid progression is tough then I will take Twist of Fate
The lvl 90 skills all look appealing ! so i cant really comment, yet !


Glyphs

Minor Glyphs are purely cosmetic and have no effect on your gameplay. There are, however, several Major Glyphs worth considering:

 Glyph of Fade causes you to take 10% reduced damage for the duration of  Fade, turning the spell into a very minor survival cooldown.
 Glyph of Holy Fire makes  Holy Fire instant cast. This is useful since Holy Fire is part of your Atonement healing playstyle.
 Glyph of Smite increases the damage done by  Smite on targets affected by  Holy Fire by 20%. Thanks to  Atonement, this damage increase also means a 20% healing increase from Smite.
 Glyph of Purify causes  Purify to also heal the target for 3% of their maximum health, when it successfully dispels a magical effect or a disease.
 Glyph of Prayer of Mending increases the first heal of  Prayer of Mending by 60%, but causes it to have 1 fewer charge.
 Glyph of Power Word: Shield turns 20% of the amount that  Power Word: Shield absorbs into healing on the target.
 Glyph of Penance increases the mana cost of  Penance by 20%, but allows it to be cast while moving. This glyph will become especially powerful in later raiding tiers, when mana management is less of a problem.
 Glyph of Levitate increases your movement speed while  Levitate is active and for 10 seconds afterwards, by 15%. This could prove to be a very useful means of increasing your movement speed during PvE encounters, especially given Levitate's low mana cost

Major Glyph choice

Holy fire- instant cast, and stack for AA (also heals)
PW:Shield or Penance for later fights, maybe
PoM, as the +60% initial charge is worth it

Minor Glyph choice
Borrowed time - looks good
Heavens- think Monkey (v old TV program)
Confession (tell me your secrets, all your dirty little secrets- Argent confessor)

there`s loads more on the glyphs, but i kept it short to avoid an sky high wall of text!

[TeaLeaf]

From what I have gathered, Disc priests become much more powerful single target healers in MoP, at the expense of lesser AOE aegis spam.   Likewise, Holy gets a mana break and become better group healers.   Looks like it should be a great expansion for healing priests.

[Ranualf]

Here are some of my thoughts

After several heroic runs through the dungeons as well as doing HC DS raid, the mana issues were somewhat overplayed, excepts on spine where all 3 healers were running on mana fumes at the very end of plate 3.... hmm(I was using Inner fire +10% spell power, not Inner will -15% instant spell costs).

Deathwing end phase wasn't too painful, but be aware of your mana cd`s and current mana amount on platform 3+4 before attacking the boss, as you may need to save them for that part- we will monitor this more.

My thoughts on healing are, try not to use Gheal so much now, as Heal has been greatly improved, and it`s 1/3rd of the mana cost, and should be ok for the vast  parts of all raid fights.
Try not to use Flash Heal too much, as this REALLY burns your mana off quick (seriously!).

Spirit Shell is amazing, it really is !
And has a lot of use, as this can save the party or raid from taking masses of AoE damage, if used correctly. use SS and You(the priest) gain the SS buff, how you use it afterwards will produce different effects.

If using single target heals, your target(s) will receive a "shield" = to amount healed, this stacks with PW:Shield & Aegis, nom ! (In raid it stacks to 105k). I think shield hold up to 75k and Aegis 70kish, so if you have all 3 on a target, they are going to take a good beating to scratch them.

It also works with Binding heal, so both you and the target will gain benefit. On single target I used it on the impale mechanic during the DW fight, and this acts as a Pain Suppression, its`s that good ! But you need a few sec`s to prepare for it(preventative measures).

If used with Prayer of Healing, then all the Party you are in will gain the "shield", and stacks as above.
What if i`m in a raid ?
Oh that`s easily sorted, just cast SS, then POH, on yourself, then target another raid frame(you know with 5 players in it) and cast it on them. So you can actually blanket shield the entire raid with Spirit Shell, this works really well for the blisterings when your raid is getting fried.

Notes
When using SS+ PoH - Watch your mana, as this can be really costly ! Be smart, play smart ! (use them free casts off FCDL)

Remember that all you heals can proc Aegis, and has a 100% chance to proc with PoH, so when Spirit Shell "healing" you can ramp up the absorb numbers to silly amounts(remember it CAN crit, giving big numbers), for them them raid devastate mechanics.

Upon Healing rotation, try to get a few instant casts in or smites if you feel you can manage(tanks are taking a good amount of damage now), more so if you have a few melee, as the Dot part of Holy Fire heals all in range, as the Arch Angel mechanic also stacks with Grace (AA 25%+ Grace 30% = Healing WIN) so your Holy fire + smite will "heal" for more.