Discipline Priest Healing Spec, Builds, and Talents — The War Within (11.0.5)

Recommended Build Import Codes:

1.

The War Within Talent Builds for Discipline Priest

Voidweaver Mindbender Raid Voidweaver Shadowfiend Raid Oracle Raid Voidweaver Mythic+/Delve

2.

Voidweaver Mindbender Raid Build for Discipline Priest

This build is the alternative build for raiding content. Utilizing the smaller but more frequent windows of the Mindbender version of Voidwraith that will allow you to cover timings that you would not normally be able to handle due to Shadowfiend's longer cooldown. This build goes hand in hand with the Shadowfiend variant, and which one you use will heavily depend on what the encounter's damage pattern looks like.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

3.

Voidweaver Shadowfiend Raid Build for Discipline Priest

Please note that while normally this build would be a strong alternative to the Mindbender build where you pick the pet that best fits the fights timers, Mindbender with Voidwraith is currently bugged and is gaining the Shadowfiend values of Shadow Covenant, Inescapable Torment, Essence Devourer, and more. As a result, the normal dynamic of Shadowfiend being stronger but a longer cooldown versus Mindbender being weaker but up more often is broken and Mindbender is almost always better. We will update this section if this bug is fixed, but for now just always use the Mindbender variant of the raid build.

This build is an alternative recommended build for raiding content. Utilizing the large burst windows of the Shadowfiend version of Voidwraith to provide the largest gain, provided you can force the cooldown to be available at the right times with Void Summoner. This build goes hand in hand with the Mindbender variant, and which one you use will heavily depend on what the encounter's damage pattern looks like.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

4.

Oracle Raid Build for Discipline Priest

This build is a niche option for raid where you can make use of the ability to ramp in quick succession with a Premonition Evangelism ramp followed closely by an Ultimate Penitence ramp. Preventive Measures provides a significant power increase for Ultimate Penitence, making investing in its supporting talents heavily worth it.

Fatebender versus Perfect Vision comes down to fight timers, with Perfect Vision being the default, but Fatebender being a strong option in situations where Evangelism needs to be delayed to 2 minutes.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the best build directly into your game!

5.

Voidweaver Mythic+/Delve Build for Discipline Priest

This build is the main build for Mythic+ content. Utilizing the smaller but more frequent windows of the Mindbender version of Voidwraith to allow you to cover timings that you would not normally be able to handle due to Shadowfiend's longer cooldown.

Be sure to make use of the 'Export Talents' button to import the build directly into your game!

In the following section, we will break down the more situational options or choices to be made within the talent tree. Talent nodes that have value but may not be good or generic enough to be played in all situations. If a talent node is not mentioned, it is due to it either being an instant pick already or too bad to ever take. Please refer to the above-linked talent builds if you are unsure of which category a talent falls into. If you are looking for a description of all talents/spells, please take a look at our spells page linked below:

While we do not have the most flexible tree possible compared to some other classes/specializations, we do still have some points that are considered low value that can be moved around when needed. The following are some points in both the class and spec tree that are not high value that can be flexed around to fit the specific situation:

• Words of the Pious provides solid value for a 1 pointer in the class tree, but can easily be dropped for needed utility. Its overall impact on your output will be fairly minimal.
• Mental Agility is mostly taken as a pathing point and not because the point itself is super relevant. You're welcome to path through either Inspiration or Body and Soul instead, but both of those are also low value and come with their own issues. Inspiration requiring a crit from a defensive Penance cast or Flash Heal to provide a tiny physical defense reduction when such a large percentage of damage is magic damage anyway results in the node being insanely low value. Body and Soul will struggle to provide value due to Power Word: Shield being an actual strong spell for discipline's healing kit. In addition, random movement speed increases are rarely useful. Since one of these is needed to path to Unwavering Will, pick whatever one you wish as they're all incredibly low value.
• Crystalline Reflection provides a solid DPS increase and a tiny direct heal onto Power Word: Shield. This is far from a mandatory talent, but can provide some solid damage benefit specifically in keys if the points do not need to be spent on CC, dispels, or defensives.
• Light's Inspiration provides a solid increase in HP percentage gained when using Desperate Prayer. This talent can be a solid defensive choice in situations where you feel you need Desperate Prayer to be even stronger than normal.
• Phantom Reach is a single point to gain some added range. The value of this point heavily depends on the key/encounter you're in and the group you are playing with. In scenarios where the encounters allow the group to stay close together and your group is likely to do that, this talent loses a lot of value. There are also some niche mechanics that can be outranged as a result of this talent, for example Iron Hook in Siege of Boralus has a 40 yard range on the pull in.
• Contrition provides some small value in situations where you expect to be needing to rely heavily on single target healing via Penance or Ultimate Penitence. It's overall value is not going to be high, but it will provide some value.
• Painful Punishment's primary value will come from bosses where you're fighting a single target for extended periods of time. On trash packs, Revel in Purity plus Purge the Wicked's innate spreading capability will cover the majority of your DoT needs. Feel free to run this in situations where you expect to need less single target healing and are more worried about saving globals during dangerous heal check bosses.

With Void Summoner reducing the cooldown of your pets via multiple spells, its important to be aware of what cooldowns are realistic to achieve for each variant of the pet. The following are some expected cooldowns to achieve when utilizing the various available pets in normal play:

• Shadowfiend without Voidwraith — One minute and thirty seconds
• Shadowfiend with Voidwraith — One minute
• Mindbender with or without Voidwraith — 40-45 seconds

While Benevolence looks like it should be the obvious choice, the answer is not always so simple. When you include overhealing into the calculation for Benevolence, which Power Word: Life will rarely have to deal with, the difference in total contribution between the two talents is quite small. While some people may want to go for Benevolence as a default option, we recommend sticking to Power Word: Life, as the impact this spell can have as a life-saving tool, can be far greater than a small hps gain overall.

As always, consider the situation you find yourself in for situations where Power Word: Life may provide little value. If you are struggling with the number of keybinds required to play Discipline Priest, you also have the option of running Benevolence as an easier option.

The design intent behind Luminous Barrier is great. It provides an alternative cooldown to Power Word: Barrier on fights that force the raid/group to spread during damage events. The problem is that Luminous Barrier is currently fairly undertuned. As a result, we do not recommend using it in most cases. Feel free to give it a try, but often, in situations where Power Word: Barrier is low value, simply talenting out of Barrier and into a completely different talent node will provide more value.

With the adjustment to Power Word: Radiance's base cooldown and the cooldown reduction provided by Bright Pupil being reduced, both choices are now solid options in both types of content. While we're recommending Bright Pupil by default in raid and Enduring Luminescence by default in mythic plus, both can see play in each form of content. As always, which you want comes down to the encounter timers for incoming damage. If you can make use of the additional Power Word: Radiance casts, Bright Pupil still provides very good value. If you will not make good use out of those Radiance casts, Enduring Luminescence will provide a small boost to your existing Radiance casts.

Unfortunately, with how little damage our Purge the Wicked does per tick, investing multiple talent points into a multiplier is not efficient and very low value.

While Train of Thought is recommended in some raid builds, we do not recommend it in mythic+ content this expansion for a variety or reasons. Train of Thought on average will provide about 1 additional penance per minute. It is often overvalued due to the "feeling" of seeing your Penance cooldown reduced with each Smite cast. This talent point also lost some value when leaving Dragonflight due to the loss of the Season 3/4 Tier set bonus which caused the double smite hits to activate Train of Thought and additional time.

While Dark Energy is our default for both forms of content as having a high uptime movement speed buff is generically valuable, keep an eye out for opportunities where the movement speed slow attached to your Entropic Rift via No Escape can provide significant value.

In Raid content, Void Empowerment is the default choice primarily because of the impact Darkening Horizon has on the timing of the Collapsing Void and your Atonement uptime at the trail end of your ramp window. By running Darkening Horizon, you will often push the Collapsing Void out of a significant number of Atonements without introducing a large number of non-ideal rotational changes. In Mythic Plus this is less of an issue, causing the higher uptime of the rift from Darkening Horizon more enticing.

In The War Within, there remains the option to go into "War Mode." Enabling War Mode provides the following benefits:

• PvP talents enabled in the outdoor world.
• 10% increase in World Quest rewards at maximum level.
• 10% more experience gained while leveling.
• Earn Conquest Points, which can reward gear every week.

With the benefits of enabling War Mode for PvE content minimal in this expansion, it is not recommended to enable the feature. War Mode remains an attractive option for leveling purposes due to the increased experience gain.

In this section, we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of Discipline Priest-specific PvP talents. For more information on what is valuable in a competitive PvP setting instead of an open-world focus, please take a look at our PvP guide.

1. Inner Light and Shadow is a toggleable ability that grants you either 10% increased spell damage and Atonement healing or 15% less Mana cost on healing spells. Leaving this on the damage increase portion while leveling will result in a solid DPS and survivability gain.
2. Catharsis provides a solid amount of damage when doing solo content as disc. If you're doing group content where you are not the one taking heavy damage, swap this for Trinity
3. Dark Archangel increases your damage and the damage of all allies with your Atonement by 15% for 8 seconds. This is great for small group world content where giving your group a DPS buff will be more impactful than taking a small boost to your own damage via any of the above three talents.