Inner Fire: Cataclysm Talents - Part 3: Discipline
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Hello, loyal readers, and welcome to the 8th edition of Inner Fire! Firstly, I am very aware this article is rather late, and for that I apologize, but it’s been a hefty weekend, turning 18 and all, preparing for the giant party days in advance, meaning little time to publish (or even write) this week’s edition of Inner Fire! But hey, I’m all back now (Albeit a little hungover), so hopefully the Shields and Penance of Discipline can cleanse my mind a bit. Let’s go!
As the summary explanation states, Discipline ‘uses magic to shield allies from taking damage as well as heal their wounds.’ And with a range of multiple passives, Discipline already at first glances looks very unchanged from buffing up the shields we know and love. So let’s dive into the passives, and check out the new, re-vamped Discipline!
Penance – [14% of base mana, 12 sec cooldown] - Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing X to Y Holy damage to an enemy, or X to Y healing to an ally instantly and every 1 sec for 2 sec. – Having access to Penance will surely see an increase in low level fledgling Priests. Penance at low levels will inevitably provide the burst healing a Discipline Priest needed, but also the damage needed to kills any mobs if necessary. A great spell, and the earlier you can get it the better.
Enlightenment - Intellect increased by 15%. – A passive increase to your Intellect will never go unnoticed, and the more mana you have as a Healer, the better.
Meditation - Allows 50% of your mana regeneration from Spirit to continue while in combat. – Synergizing perfectly with the aforementioned passive, increased mana regen. will help keep your mana supplies fresh and ready for use.
Mastery: Shield Discipline - Increases the Potency of all your damage absorption spells by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases the potency of absorbs by an additional 2.5%. – A flat increase to your absorption effects, and an additional increase depending on your Mastery seems like a great passive bonus for Disco Priest to possess. The more powerful our Shields, the more awesome we are. Fact.
From what I can see, the Passives you receive from choosing the Discipline seem very powerful indeed, and I’m sure the rest of the talent tree will be no less of a disappointment!
(The numbers in brackets after the talents name represent the amount of points that can be spent in that talent.)
Tier 1
Improved Power Word: Shield (2) - Increases the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10%. – A filter talent for all Discipline priests, further increasing the effectiveness of your main spell.
Twin Disciplines (3) - Increases your Shadow and Holy spell damage and healing by 2/4/6%. – Another wonderful talent, although it looks primarily aimed at Holy and Shadow based Priests to Hybrid into as it sits on the first tier. Although, an extra 6% increase to your healing can never go unnoticed.
Mental Agility (3) - Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 4/7/10%. – Another excellent talent, giving that your main spell (Shield) is an instant cast, think of this as every 10 casts of any Instant spell you get one free of cost! Woo!
Tier 2
Evangelism (2) - You have a 100% chance when you Smite and a 40% chance when you Mind Flay to gain Evangelism. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts for 15 sec.
Evangelism (Smite) - Increasing the damage done by your Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance spells by 2/4% and reduces the mana cost of those spells by 3/6%.
Dark Evangelism (Mind Flay) - Increases the damage done by your Periodic Shadow spells by 1/2%.
An interesting talent, again, mainly seeming to be provided for Shadow/levelling Disc priests. Since the buff from Evangelism can also be counted for Shadow damage, it will almost always be in every Shadow raiding spec. I can’t imagine a healer would be using Smite a lot to grab the effect from this, al I can see is a total of 30% reduced mana cost on Penance is quite sizeable.
Archangel (1) – [Requires Evangelism] - Consumes your Evangelism effects, causing an effect depending what type of Evangelism effect is consumed:
Archangel (Evangelism) - Instantly restores 3% of your total mana and increases your healing done by 3% for each stack. Lasts for 18 sec. 30 sec cooldown.
Dark Archangel (Dark Evangelism) - Instantly restores 5% of your total mana and increases the damage done by your Mind Flay, Mind Spike, Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death 4% for each stack. Lasts for 18 sec. 90 sec cooldown.
Now I can defiantly see the potential of Evangelism. The buff you receive from this is diabolical in terms of carnage. For Shadow Priests, this will provide a huge boost to your DPS and a much needed change to your rotation. For Healing, if you can find the time to stack your Evangelism buff 5 times and hit Archangel, the 15% mana and healing increase will be incredible to your healing utility.
Inner Sanctum (3) - Your Inner Fire also reduces all spell damage taken by 2/4/6% while it is active, and the movement speed bonus of your Inner Will is increased by 2/4/6%. – Seemingly a PvP-based talent, a reduction in damage and an increased movement speed are 2 very useful attributes to possess in PvP.
Soul Warding (2) - Reduces the cooldown of your Power Word: Shield ability by 1/2 sec. – Giving Discipline priests the ability to spam their filter spell, this talent should be taken in all aspects: Levelling, PvP and Raiding. Great way to spend just 2 points.
Tier 3
Renewed Hope (2) - Increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Heal and Penance (Heal) spells by 5/10% on targets afflicted by the Weakened Soul effect, or blessed with your Grace effect. – Increased window of opportunity to critically strike with your healing spells, as if your shield is up, they will be de-buffed, and if they don’t have the debuff, shield is then open to be cast. Grace will be discussed later.
Power Infusion (1) – [16% of base mana, 2 min cooldown] - Infuses the target with power, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts 15 sec. – Whether you cast this on yourself, or a friendly target, this buff is invaluable to whoever receives it. The reduced mana cost and increased haste to your spells can be the difference between life and death, killing the boss, killing the pesky Gnome, or just showing off to your friends with your 0.8sec channelled Penance.
Atonement (2) - When you deal damage with Smite, you instantly heal a nearby low health friendly party or raid target within 15 yards from the enemy target equal to 40/80% of the damage dealt. If the Priest is healed through Atonement, the effect is reduced in half. – Adding a massive amount of utility to the Discipline priests, while levelling and within a PvP element, this talent will be invaluable. It could also be argued this talent will synergize well with Evangelism and Archangel, and could be implemented into a raiding spec, but that is yet to be experimented. Although the heal is reduced by 50% if the Priest is healed, having another Discipline priest performing similar spells to you could cancel out this effect.
Inner Focus (1) – [45 sec cooldown] - Reduces the mana cost of your next Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25%. – This spell was originally very debateable since, although the effect was very useful, the cooldown was far too long for this spell to be used effectively. With a cooldown of 45-seconds, this spell now has the increased utility needed to become a key part in most Disco priests healing specs.
Tier 4
Rapture (3) - When your Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed or dispelled you are instantly energized with 1.5/2/2.5% of your total mana. This effect can only occur once every 6 sec. – This talent looks incredible. With an instant mana regen from the dispersion of your main spell, will be incredible and even more helpful for the Disco priest to spam Shield EVEN MORE! Woo, can’t wait for this one.
Borrowed Time (2) - Grants 7/14% spell haste for your next spell after casting Power Word: Shield. – Another redesigned talent, basing around your Shield ability (as almost everything is in Disco), giving you a huge increase to your haste after you cast your main spell. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this haste buff would have a 90%+ uptime, which is excellent. If only it stacked…
Reflective Shield (2) - Causes 22/45% of the damage you absorb with Power Word: Shield to reflect back at the attacker. This damage causes no threat. – Definitely a PvP talent, most people wouldn’t give this a second glance, but if you analyse it and take into account your overall Spell Power and absorption, this talent could end up doing about 10k + damage to those foolish enough to destroy your shield.
Tier 5
Strength of Soul (2) – [Requires Renewed Hope] - When you heal a target with your Heal spell, the duration of the weakened soul debuff on the target is reduced by 2/4 sec. – A very nice, new talent. I think by now we’ve established the more you can cast your shield, the better, and this talent works towards it. And with the added bonus that one of your main spells helps towards this, no complaints about this talent.
Divine Aegis (3) - Critical heals create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 10/20/30% of the amount healed. Lasts 12 sec. – Synergizing well with multiple talents aforementioned in the Discipline tree, Divine Aegis is a talent used and loved by Disco priests everywhere. An additional absorption effect, in addition with your Shield will require a LOT of damage to power through and start dealing true damage to your allies.
Pain Suppression (1) – [8% of base mana, 3 min cooldown] - Instantly reduces a friendly target's threat by 5%, reduces all damage taken by 40% and increases resistance to Dispel mechanics by 65% for 8 sec. – Seemingly unchanged, this wonderful talent allows threat reduction for the trigger happy DPS, the damage reduction or the tank, as well as the dispel mechanics. The dispel mechanics will also be invaluable in PvP.
Train of Thought (2) - You have a 50/100% chance when you heal with Greater Heal to reduce the cooldown of your Inner Focus by 5 sec.
You have a 50/100% chance when you Smite to reduce the cooldown of your Penance by 0.5 sec. – It seems that Smite has a massive impact within the Disco priest tree, and it will be very interesting to see as how a Disco priest will spend their downtime. HoT’ing up, Smiting, pooling mana, who knows. But I do know that this talent has 2 very useful effects, and if you’re able to find the time to fit in either a heal or Smite, it will be well worth your time.
Tier 6
Focused Will (2) - Whenever you are victim of an attack equal to damage greater than 10% of your total health, you gain Focused Will reducing all damage taken by 4/6% lasting for 8 sec. Stacks up to 2 times. – Avid PvP’ers will love this talent, as if Discipline priests don’t take damage anyway, the reduction of damage will be very useful within PvP. And this works behind your shields. Meaning they’ll last longer. Ooooh, yeah!
Grace (2) - Your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, Heal and Penance spells bless the target with Grace, increasing all healing received from the Priest by 2/4%. This effect will stack up to 3 times. Effect lasts 15 sec. Grace can only be active on one target at a time. – Apart from an almost constant 12% increase to your healing on the target affected, this spell synergizes well with the previously mentioned talent: Renewed Hope. With increased healing, and increased Crit, Discipline Priests could find themselves not only being one of the most potent classes for absorption effects, but also one of the best straight-out healing classes, in the game.
Tier 7
As we approach the end of our newly, improved Disco priest talent tree, I can’t see that there is much missing. Perhaps Discipline has always been criticized for its lack of spell rotation, so maybe this will solve that problem…
Power Word: Barrier (1) – [Requires Divine Aegis, 30% of base mana, 3 min cooldown] - Summons a holy barrier on the target location that absorbs X damage done to friendly targets within it each time they take damage. While within the barrier, spellcasting will not be interrupted by damage. The barrier lasts for 25 sec or until it absorbs X damage. – Basically, the Discipline Priests Get-pout-of-jail card. Just like Holy has Guardian Spirit, Shadow has Dispersion, Discipline now has Power Word: Barrier! Seemingly a giant, ridiculous absorption effect to place on the ally of your choice, with a 3 minute cooldown, you may be able tog et away using this twice in one boss fight. This could be a life-saver in PvP, but this talent is not to be passed up by any Disco Priest. And to be honest, I can’t say I’ve never seen a Discipline Priest in dire straits, everyone’s just bloody shielded. All. The. Time.
So, that does it for the Disco tree, and this weeks Inner Fire! I will do my downright best to publish the next edition of Inner Fire, this week, ON TIME! THURSDAY! That is the day. As the usual Inner Fire would tell you, it’s nearly the end of the week, today Inner Fire will break your heart by informing you it’s Monday. Feel free to leave your views and comments, or contact me via the Kuurg contact page, but whatever you do, have a good week, stay out of mischief, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! Thaesha (Now, an official adult), out.
Last Updated on Monday, 04 October 2010 15:03 Written by Thaesha Monday, 04 October 2010 15:01