Playstyle & Rotation
The Discipline Priest playstyle focuses on applying Atonement with your helpful spells and then healing the group through your damage. To make the most of your kit, you need to prepare for incoming damage events (especially in raids) by using a "Ramp" to apply Atonement to as many people as possible before the damage hits.
If you want to read more about exactly how Atonement works, check out the Atonement section of this page.
Compared to the Oracle raid build, Voidweaver has very frequent "mini-ramp" windows thanks to Entropic Rift. It also contributes a lot more to your group's damage.
Evangelism Ramp
- Refresh Shadow Word: Pain if it is about to run out
- Power Word: Shield (Or Void Shield)
- Flash Heal (Applies atonement to yourself)
- Evangelism
- 2x Power Word: Radiance
- Mind Blast
- Penance
- Void Shield
- Spam Void Blast (until your next Penance)
Ultimate Penitence Ramp
- Refresh Shadow Word: Pain if it is about to run out
- Power Word: Shield (Or Void Shield)
- Flash Heal (Applies Atonement to yourself)
- 2x Power Word: Radiance
- Mind Blast (This buffs your Ultimate Penitence via Void Infusion)
- Ultimate Penitence
- Void Shield (You can cast it while travelling into the air)
- Penance
- Void Blast
- Power Word: Shield (Or Void Shield)
- Spam Void Blast (until your next Penance)
Damage Priority
- Keep your Shadow Word: Pain applied at all times
- Mind Blast
- Penance
- Void Blast
- Shadow Word: Death in execute
- Smite
Because of Greater Smite, it is very important to stand still and chain Void Blast during Entropic Rift (and Smite outside of it to some degree) as much as possible. Too much movement or different spells will break your Greater Smite uptime.
It is also worth cancelling your Penance early with Void Blast instead of always letting it finish its full channel.
Oracle excels at strong healing outside of your major cooldowns thanks to a more powerful Penance and the overheal protection provided by Piety.
Evangelism Ramp
- Refresh Shadow Word: Pain if it is about to run out
- Power Word: Shield (Or Void Shield)
- Flash Heal (Applies Atonement to yourself)
- Evangelism
- 2x Power Word: Radiance
- Mind Blast
- Penance
- Void Shield
- Penance
- Continue with your normal priority
Ultimate Penitence Ramp
- Refresh Shadow Word: Pain if it is about to run out
- Power Word: Shield (Or Void Shield)
- Flash Heal (Applies Atonement to yourself)
- Mind Blast
- Ultimate Penitence
- Void Shield (You can cast it while travelling into the air)
- Penance
- Power Word: Shield
- Penance
- Continue with your normal priority
Damage Priority
- Keep your Shadow Word: Pain applied at all times
- Mind Blast
- Penance (Offensive or Defensive)
- Shadow Word: Death in execute
- Smite
Outside of your big ramp sequences, use Void Shield + Power Word: Radiance as a "mini-ramp".
Thanks to Weal And Woe, weave a Power Word: Shield (or Void Shield) in right after your Penance casts for a bigger shield, and so you don't waste stacks. Beware it can get expensive on mana if you weave it in too often.
Compared to raid healing, Mythic+ is much simpler since a single Power Word: Radiance cast covers your entire group with Atonement.
Voidweaver has access to Entropic Rift, which provides very frequent, high-impact group healing. Outside of your Entropic Rift windows is where you will struggle the most; make sure to use Evangelism or Ultimate Penitence if needed to bridge the gap.
Make sure to "snipe" low-health (<20%) enemies with Shadow Word: Death to spawn Shadowfiends, and use it while your pets are up to make use of Inescapable Torment.
Because of Greater Smite, it is very important to stand still and chain Void Blast during Entropic Rift (and Smite outside of it to some degree) as much as possible. Too much movement or different spells will break your Greater Smite uptime.
If the group is already covered and you need heavy single-target healing, make use of Shadow Mend.
Damage Priority
- Shadow Word: Pain (Keep active at all times*)
- Shadow Word: Death (In execute)
- Mind Blast
- Penance
- Void Blast
- Shadow Word: Death (Outside execute)
- Smite
** Shadow Word: Pain makes up a huge portion of your damage in larger pulls. Make sure you apply it manually to a few enemies at the start of a pack, and if you play Encroaching Shadows, spread it to the rest of the targets via Penance.*
Compared to raid healing, Mythic+ is much simpler since a single Power Word: Radiance cast covers your entire group with Atonement.
Your bread and butter is using Void Shield because of the large shield it applies and the reflective Atonement healing. Always try to keep a charge ready for important damage events.
Thanks to Weal And Woe, weave a Power Word: Shield (or Void Shield) in right after your Penance casts for a bigger shield.
If the group is already covered and you need heavy single-target healing, make use of Shadow Mend or a defensive Penance.
Damage Priority
- Keep your Shadow Word: Pain applied at all times
- Mind Blast
- Defensive Penance
- Shadow Word: Death in execute
- Smite
** Shadow Word: Pain makes up a huge portion of your damage in larger pulls. Make sure you apply it manually to a few enemies at the start of a pack, and if you play Encroaching Shadows, spread it to the rest of the targets via Penance.*
Cooldowns
Evangelism
Evangelism is your bread and butter for ramping in raid. Compared to The War Within, it doesn't extend your Atonements anymore, but instead applies five on its own and makes your next two Radiances instant. This is huge for getting 15 Atonements out fast. It also buffs your healing through the Archangel choice node.
Ultimate Penitence
Ultimate Penitence is a massive 4-minute cooldown that should typically be used offensively in Raid. You also gain a huge shield during the channel, so you don't have to worry about taking extra damage while you're in the air.
Power Word: Barrier
A strong 20% damage reduction cooldown which shines on fights where the raid is stacked and taking heavy damage over a short window. Because Ultimate Penitence is so strong right now, you should only swap to Power Word: Barrier if you can guarantee high value from the damage reduction.
Pain Suppression
Pain Suppression is a massive 50% damage reduction, making it one of the strongest external cooldowns in the game. Ideally, you want to use it on tanks or other players right before they take a big hit. With Protector Of The Frail, you also gain an extra charge and can lower its cooldown by using Power Word: Shield.
Defensives
Discipline Priest is historically a spec that suffers defensively, so it is important to know which tools you have available and how to use them effectively:
- Desperate Prayer: A decent defensive cooldown with a fairly short cooldown.
- Translucent Image: Turns your Fade into a 10% damage reduction cooldown you can and should use often.
- Protective Light: Together with Binding Heals you will constantly apply a 10% damage reduction to yourself whenever you use a Flash Heal.
- Pain Suppression: Usually an external for others, but don't be afraid to use it selfishly. Discipline is notorious for being squishy, and you can't heal the group if you're dead.
Utility
Priest generally has a lot of strong (but sometimes niche) Utility:
- Power Word: Fortitude: A strong group buff increasing everyone's Health by 5%.
- Mass Dispel: Dispels all magic effects from 5 friendly targets and removes one magic buff from 5 enemies. Can be incredibly powerful for specific fights or dungeons.
- Angelic Feather: Can be used to increase a friendly player's movement speed, but is usually used on yourself.
- Dispel Magic: Removes one magic buff from an enemy without a cooldown.
- Mind Soothe: Useful to skip specific packs in Mythic+. Does not affect enemies with True Sight.
- Leap Of Faith: Grips a friendly player to your location. Useful to help someone out of a bad situation.
Crowd Control:
- Psychic Scream: This is your main "stop." Can be further improved with talents like Void Tendrils.
- Mind Control & Dominate Mind: Takes control of an enemy. Niche, but sometimes you can use powerful abilities from the enemy to help your group.
- Shackle Undead: Incredibly niche "hard CC" that only works on Undead enemies.
Atonement in Detail
With Midnight, Atonement has changed dramatically. It no longer converts a static percentage of your damage but instead scales based on how many injured allies have the buff, with diminishing returns as you add more.
Because of this falloff, your first 5 Atonements account for around 70% of your total healing value. It's not really worth spreading Atonement further than what you already get passively from your rotational buttons. A high Atonement count should only be the goal when doing your Evangelism or Ultimate Penitence ramp.