Discipline Priest PVE Guide – Cataclysm

Welcome to the PVE Discipline Priest Guide for World of Warcraft Cataclysm!

This guide will teach you how to play an Discipline Priest in a raid. It covers talents, glyphs, gems, enchantments, rotation, and gameplay tips.

This is the basic tank healing build. Also works in Heroic dungeons.

Prime Glyphs

• Glyph of Penance
• Glyph of Power Word: Barrier
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Fade
• Glyph of Mass Dispel
• Glyph of Prayer of Mending

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Fading
• Glyph of Fortitude
• Glyph of Shadowfiend

Gems are situational and depend on the build and equipment. They are used to reach the required stat caps.

• Meta – Ember Shadowspirit Diamond
• Red/Prismatic – Brilliant Queen’s Garnet, Brilliant Inferno Ruby or Brilliant Chimera’s Eye (Jewelcrafting)
• Yellow
  • Haste – Reckless Lava Coral or Reckless Ember Topaz
  • Mastery – Artful Lava Coral or Artful Ember Topaz
• Blue – Purified Shadow Spinel or Purified Demonseye

• Head – Arcanum of Hyjal
• Shoulder – Greater Inscription of Charged Lodestone or Felfire Inscription (Inscription)
• Cloak – Enchant Cloak – Greater Intellect or Lightweave Embroidery (Tailoring)
• Chest – Enchant Chest – Peerless Stats
• Bracers – Enchant Bracer – Mighty Intellect or Draconic Embossment – Intellect (Leatherworking) with Socket Bracer (Blacksmithing)
• Gloves – Enchant Gloves – Haste or Enchant Gloves – Greater Mastery with Synapse Springs (Engineering) or Socket Gloves (Blacksmithing)
• Waist – Grounded Plasma Shield (Engineering) or Ebonsteel Belt Buckle
• Legs – Powerful Ghostly Spellthread or Sanctified Spellthread (Tailoring)
• Boots – Enchant Boots – Lavawalker or Enchant Boots – Haste (cheaper)
• Rings – Enchant Ring – Intellect (Enchanting)
• Weapon – Enchant Weapon – Power Torrent or Enchant Weapon – Heartsong
• Off-hand – Enchant Off-Hand – Superior Intellect

The following stat priority will grant you accurate healing, with high AoE healing output.

• Intellect
• Spirit
• Haste
• Mastery
• Critical Strike

You will generally want to have Inner Fire as your self-buff, but if you need to use many instant-cast spells, swap to Inner Will.

Tank or Single Target Healing

• Use Penance/Power Word: Shield on cooldown, unless tank needs a larger heal, in which case use Greater Heal
• Use Heal for low-moderate damage
• Use Prayer of Mending if it will bounce to other players
• Use Renew if you are moving, target has Weakened Soul, and Prayer of Mending is on cooldown
• Use Flash Heal in emergencies, or Binding Heal if you also need heals

Raid Healing

• Use Prayer of Mending on Cooldown
• Low and moderate damage
  • Use Prayer of Healing
• High Damage
  • Use Prayer of Healing repeatedly to stack Divine Aegis on your healing assignments
  • Use Power Word Shield when necessary
• High Sustained Damage
  • Use Prayer of Healing

Cooldowns

• Use Inner Focus on cooldown
• Use Pain Suppression on a tank just before a damage spike
• Use Power Word: Barrier to mitigate AoE damage, so long as the raid is stacked
• Use Power Word Infusion if AoE damage is high, allowing you to spam Prayer of Healing