Hey everyone, Craze again and this time around I’ll be talking you through the different discipline specs available and I’ll also be talking about different glyph setups.

The great thing about the discipline talents is you have a wide range of talents available to you which match up to your play-style; whether that be offensive, defensive or anything in between. Step by step I’m going to cover the general talents which are essential to consider when playing any kind of discipline spec.

Essential talents for any Disc spec

Tier one:

[Twin Disciplines] – I talent this 3/3 on every discipline spec I use. The extra +6% healing and damage is in most cases unmissable. It’s a very solid and standard talent for not only Disc, but Holy and Shadow specs too.

[Mental Agility] – Like Twin Discs, this is a very solid and standard talent to spec into as disc, shadow and holy. Reducing the mana cost of your instant-cast spells by 10% is vital for spells such as [Power Word: Shield] and [Dispel Magic].

[Improved Power Word: Shield] – Since shields are so strong now, boosting it by an extra 10% is not a bad idea! In order to take this I’m taking two points out of [Inner Sanctum].

Tier two:

[Inner Sanctum] – Not the most impressive talent, but you literally have to put a point in here to advance, spec into this 1/3.

[Soul Warding] I’ll typically spec into this 2/2 – this talent removes the cool-down of your [Power Word: Shield]. Needless to say, this is invaluable and helps a great deal particularly when under pressure during swaps or when multiple members of your team are taking damage.

Tier three:

[Power Infusion] – It’s very important you spec into this, no matter what style of Discipline spec you’re going for. This is one of the most core and signature talents the spec has to offer, it’s very fun to use and helps a great deal in pressure situations or when assisting with nuke. You can also use this spell on your team-mates, it stacks with self-only casted haste buffs such as [Icy Veins] but however does not stack with non self-only casted haste buff such as [Heroism]. Also note the great mana efficiency it has to offer, so you don’t oom yourself instantly when spam healing or even dispelling.

[Inner Focus] – Only costing one talent point and being a core mana efficiency talent, it’s definitely worth speccing into no matter what. Serving as a free heal with increased critical healing chance; this is an amazing talent which also can also be complimented via other talents in the Disc tree to make it even stronger.

[Renewed Hope] – In order to make it to the tier 4 of the Discipline tree, you must spend additional points. Since [Atonement] is a trash talent which is definitely not worth speccing into for competitive arena/battlegrounds (since smite is hugely inferior to mind-spike) – it’s definitely a wise choice to spec into [Renewed Hope] 2/2. Generally increases your critical healing chance by 10% in most cases, great to indirectly compliment [Inner Focus]

Tier four:

[Rapture] – This is the only reliable mana regeneration a Discipline priest can use to restore mana. Every 12 seconds, you’ll reliably gain 2.5% of your total mana. I’d definitely spec into this with every spec I create as Disc since this talent alone is what gives it the mana efficiency edge over Holy. I generally spec into this 3/3.

[Borrowed Time] – The great thing about this spell is it’ll always be game-breaking during pressured moments; however you can also use this offensively (e.g, shielding to do a faster mana burn). This haste buff also stacks with [Power Infusion]. I spec into this 2/2; since priests don’t really have haste at this time, this talent has become more valuable than ever.

Tier five:

[Pain Suppression] – Very signature talent for any Disc to take, it’s an incredibly strong spell which can be cast on your team-mates as well as yourself. To be used in situations where you or a team-mate are taking heavy damage, when used correctly it saves you from falling behind on healing. This is a 1 point talent which should definitely be specced into.

[Divine Aegis] – An extra absorption effect to prevent more damage taken target. The main problem I have with this spell is that it’s RNG based; however with [Inner Focus] (which is often used in desperate situations, for the critical healing chance) [Divine Aegis] compliments it well. Absorbing 10% of the amount healed; you must also take this to get [Power Word: Barrier].

[Strength of Soul] – This talent is now extremely useful with 4.0.6, with shields being so powerful now – with this talent you can apply this shield up to three times more than you usually would in an arena environment, that’s potentially an extreme amount of healing done with very good efficiency. Also the mini aura mastery added to Inner-Focus, this talent is now easily one of the most powerful talents to pick up in the Disc tree. Spec into this 2/2.

Tier six:

[Grace] – Very standard Disc talent to take, overall increasing your healing done on the target by 24%, best applied via Penance. Specced into 2/2.

[Focused Will] – With 4.0.6 this pretty much has 100% up-time when you’re being focused, unmissable talent that makes up for the resilience lost switching to our 4 set bonus easily. Very good talent, wouldn’t miss it! Spec 2/2 here.

[Power Word: Barrier] – Serves almost like an AoE [Pain Suppression], I find this most useful when cast on yourself when unable to move in arena, since if it’s used on your teammates they’re bound into staying in one particular area which is really counter-effective when avoiding damage. Specced into 1/1.

Ten points left over

Okay so now we’re pretty much done speccing into Disc, this spec I’m specifically going over is a 31/7/3 build. So now we’ve put 31 points into Discipline, let’s make our way to [Desperate Prayer] in the Holy tree; along with some unmissable talents.

Tier one of Holy:

[Empowered Healing] – Mandatory talent to take, an extra 15% healing upon your most used and powerful healing spells is priceless. Spec into this 3/3.

[Improved Renew] – this talent adds an excellent addition to your overall healing output, I find that renew is amongst my most commonly used spells and would definitely recommend making the most out of renew by using it often and backing it up with solid talents and glyphs suck as this; 2/2.

Tier two of Holy:

[Desperate Prayer] is the biggest heal discipline priests possess and is completely unmissable. Restoring 30% of your HP can be up to 35-45k which is massive, not only is it a huge heal but it’s extremely mana efficient.

Aspiration Not every priest takes this, but I like to put 1/1 in here since 5% less damage taken is great, but as importantly; it’s also an additional trash buff to add towards your dispel protection. This stacked with [Grace] for example can compliment your buffs greatly in regards to being purged.

Okay now for the 31/7/3 spec I stated above, we’ll now move into shadow to spend our remaining 3 points.

Tier one of Shadow:

[Darkness] – The thing I miss most in Cataclysm compared to WotLK is the lack of haste, so what I’m currently speccing into is [Darkness] for an extra 3% passive haste, since priest’s aren’t really in the position to up their haste stats at this time. Spec into this 3/3.

Optional Talents Which Could enhance your specific playstyle:

Disc

[Reflective Shield] – Since shields aren’t absorbing much right now, this renders the talent pretty much useless. However, after 4.0.6 – your [Power Word: Shield] will absorb at least twice as much as it currently does. So you could potentially have a high passive damage out-put via speccing into this post-patch.

Sadly the amazing [Smite] talents aren’t currently worth using and currently there have been no changes to smite on the PTR.

Holy

[Inspiration] – This talent you can spec into 2/2, it’s not uncommon for competitive priests to spec into this and is a great defensive talent. However those two points can arguably be placed better elsewhere.

Shadow

[Veiled Shadows] – This is an optional talent in the first tier of the shadow tree. You can choose to spec into this 2/2, but this sacrifices the option of going 3/3 into [Darkness] for example. 3% passive haste is what I’m choosing to go for right now, however losing [Veiled Shadows] can be noticeable.

Glyphs For Disc

Core Glyphs

[Glyph of Penance] – Very much needed, especially since they increased the casting time on Penance once again. Although penance doesn’t do much healing anymore, it’s a great [Grace] stacker and an efficient heal.

[Glyph of Pain Suppression] – Important glyph to pick up when playing any Disc spec, I find myself using PS the majority of the time when stunned. This glyph saves you from anticipating incoming stuns and allows you to use it at the right time consistently.

[Glyph of Mass Dispel] – Since they removed the talent to decrease your mass dispel cast-time in the Disc tree, they made it a Glyph instead so any specced priest can pick it up. It’s still an essential talent to have in PvP and very game-breaking. I by no means would play without it.

[Glyph of Power Word: Barrier] – Taking into consideration what the other prime glyph options are, I’d consider this glyph to be a ‘must-have’. Adding 10% extra healing on the targets within the barrier eases up the pressure via being able to cast larger heals on targets already taking 10% less damage.

[Glyph of Renew] – Since the holy part of this spec I have covered is based on maximizing the effect of [Renew] it’s very well complimented with this glyph. I highly recommend you take this if you’re using the spec I have laid out here (as opposed to say taking power word: barrier or shadow word: death prime glyphs).

Optional Glyphs

Prime

[Glyph of Power Word: Shield] – Is an optional glyph to be used in your major tier, healing for around 2-3k everytime you use [Power Word: Shield] on a target this isn’t an awful idea to use in PvP.

[Glyph of Shadow Word: Death] – Allows a secondary [Shadow Word: Death] to be cast on targets at (or below) 25% HP. This is a pretty good damage assister and is definitely a glyph worth considering.

Major

[Glyph of Fear Ward] – This glyph is pretty amazing, reducing your cool-down on [Fear Ward] by a whole minute is great for arena and allows you to make the most out of the spell.

[Glyph of Scourge Imprisonment] – This glyph I’ve only actually seen myself using it so far, but all I can say is it’s incredibly good. It’s great for shackling Death Knight pets and gargoyles speedily without push-back on your cast. More importantly however, it’s great for shackling Death Knights upon [Lichborne] before they cancelaura it after breaking your fears.

[Glyph of Inner Fire] – With 4.0.6, I wouldn’t class this as something to seriously consider when playing the majority of comps/brackets. However it does have its uses in very specific situations (e.g if you’re spam meeting tsg).

[Glyph of Spirit of Redemption] – So far so good, this glyph is something I’m likely to take in the majority of my builds. PoM is the only instant heal we have, a boost of 60% is definitely welcome, especially since it has such a short CD while being so mana efficient.

[Glyph of Dispel Magic] – Healing your target for 3% of their HP everytime you dispel is a great bonus to your healing output. Particularly useful vs heavy CC caster comps, this is definitely a glyph to consider.

Minor

The general Minor glyph set-up you’ll be looking to pick up are: [Glyph of Shackle Undead], [Glyph of Fortitude], [Glyph of Levitate]. (You can go for shadow protection/fiend glyphs if you’d prefer).

What now?

Okay so you’ve just finished reading the updated article for 4.0.6 regarding talents and glyphing for Discipline. If you have any problems or questions; don’t hesitate to ask me. This is not the only spec you can go with as Disc, but as I’ve explained each talent individually – you should have enough knowledge to tweak the build and make it your own if you don’t agree with mine!

See you soon,

Craze