Disc Priest PvP

As of this writing I am playing version a disc priest 3.3.5. EVERYTHING will be changing when Cataclysm happens and then I will have to make another one of these guides. Instead of creating a lot of posts I am continuing to update this one. This is my first blog website and I really would love to get comments and feedback about EVERYTHING from font size to the content. Please let me know what you thing, good or bad it helps me.

Many new PvP players see a priest not in shadow form and assume they are holy or at least an easy target, they could not be more wrong! Priests in PvP are both extremely versatile and weak depending on the player’s play style. A disc priest doesn’t have the burst damage that many other classes have and dueling a Disc Priest PvP means it will probably be a torturous death not a fast one. The secret is to keep themselves alive while they pick at their enemy until they slowly die. Learning to play PvP as a Disc priest is NOT EASY, especially if you have party members to heal and take care of; you have responsibilities.

Disc Priest PvP

Priests are suppose to be the primary healing class of the game, I say “suppose to” be because many other hybrid classes can now heals as good if not better. Disc and holy priests are extremely valuable in group PvP battleground and arena. Priests have numerous buffs that helps all their fellow party members in health and mana regeneration. A Shadow priest can do some great DPS but their survivablity is greatly nerfed.

Discipline Priest PvP Defensive Strategies

1.) Your bubble is your friend. Power Word: Shield should ALWAYS be up when you don’t have Weakened Soul debuff. Power Word: Shield is the ultimate defense for a Disc Priest. Tip: If you use Power Auras or a similar add on, it can notify you or make a sound when your Weakened Soul is gone and you an re-bubble.

2.) Line of Sight (LOS) is more important for a priest than any other class. Priest abilities allow us to DoT up a target and then using line of sight to hide while they tick off damage onthe enemy. Always line of sight the enemy when possible. Exceptions: You won’t be able to LOS a rogue, warrior, or death knight very easily. They have poisons, hamstring, and diseases that will constantly be slowing you down. For these classes it is a war with healing yourself while keeping your DoTs up. No use running much. Focus on healing most of the time. Time is your friend.

3.) Psychic Scream, it is our only real defense against the melee classes that pound on us. Use Psychic scream to keep them off you as much as possible. Using LOS and pyschic Scream can buy you an extra couple seconds before the come back to you. If you need more time for your DoTs to tick on the target you can use a Mind Control on them while they are still under the fear effects. See my post on Priest PvP Mind Control for more information.

4.) Dispel DoTs and other harmful spells off of you. Look out for Unstable Afficition (warlocks) and Vampiric Touch (shadow Priests) because both of these DoTs will do a large amount of damage if you dispell them. Unstable affliction will also silence you from casting for a few seconds. A self targeting dispel magic should be a macro already in your defensive arsenal. If not, make one. Here is a simple macro you can use:

#showtooltip Dispel Magic
/cast [target=YOURNAME] Power Word: Shield
/cast Power Word: Shield

5.) Fake cast / Juking. Don’t you hate it when you can’t cast for 3 to 10 seconds. It seems like forever while your enemy is kicking your butt. Well, to avoid that it is important to fake cast, sometimes called juking. Fake casting is when you start to cast a non-instant spell and then stop the spell pre-maturely in order to bait your enemy into using one of his interupts that has a cool down; such as a  felhunter’s spell lock,  rogue’s kick, mage’s counterspell, death knight’s mindfreeze, etc. Two spells that are good for fake casting are flash heal and Penance. For flash heal simple start to cast it and then hit the forward key when you are about 1/2 way from completing the spell, with penance you can geta partial heal off, generally 1 – 2 ticks and stop the spell from ticking a 3rd time. Using an add-on to know when their interupt is on cool down is very useful here. I use “Interupt Bar” add on. It is very simplistic and easyt o see but there are many others you can use. (Short demo video to come one of these days)

6.) When you get to the intermediate / advanced levels of PvP you can learn how to successfully Power Word: Death yourself out of a mage polymoph (Video Demo). In order to do this you must cast Power Word: Death on the mage or shaman when they are about 50% to 70% into casting their poly. You must have casting bars active and be able to see them casting. It is amazing and funny to do but takes a lot of practice to be able to perform in a real fight. Duel a mage friend for practice. I’m trying to set up or find an add-on that will notify me of mage casting poly on me so i can do this better. If anyone finds one please let me know.

Discipline Priest PvP Offensive Strategies

1.) Always have your DV and SW: P on the target. They are instant cast spells and give you freedom to manuever while causing damage.

2.) Only use Holy Fire and Smite when you have time to cast. Due to their casting time it is easy for your enemy to interupt these spells. Also, you can bet your enemy will be pounding on you while you’re casting them. Using a Physchic scream, then Power Infusing and casting Holy Fire and Smite is a good idea.

3.) Use your pet for restoring mana or finishing your opponent off. It is best to use shadow fiend when your enemy cannot escape him or get away. For example, pop shadow fiend after a priest uses his Pyschic Scream, or after a rogue Vanishes. Some classes you can use your fiend whenever during the fight, such as when dealing with a rogue or warrior because the fight should end quickly either for you or against you and mana will not be an issue you just need the fiend to cause damage. On the other hand using a shadow fiend at the wrong time when facing a shaman, paladin, or another priest can cost you the match since it is more of a mana battle than a hit point war.

4.) Use SW:D often. It will do damage to you but if you have your Power Word: Shield up then you will be fine and it will hurt your enemy. It is your best and only way for some quick, instant damage, and you don’t even need to be facing the target when using it.

5.) Mana Burn any healing class before using holy fire / smite. Mana burning is a healer’s worst enemy. Use power infusion coupled with a mana burn to quickly mana burn a target down. If you have too much pressure on you, like in an arena match, then pepper a mana burn in every once and a while. Once a healer is out of mana (oom) then they are an easy kill.

Disc Priest in Arena

Ok, I’m going to put some information in this section but it will be far from complete tonight because I’m tired. Below is very very general but you get the idea.

2v2 – Roles in order of priority. Healing -Mana Burn -Dispel – DPS In this setup you need a good DPS that can also CC and/or peel the enemy off you. Your simple goal is to keep yourself and teammate alive and mana burn the enemy healer if there is one. If there is no enemy healer and you face a double DPS team then go on full defensive, use LOS, and stay HoTTed up. Also, I like to pop my shadowfiend immediately on the kill target at the start of a double dps match. When facing a double dps team the match is normally over fast, either you die or they die so mana is generally not a problem.

3v3 – If you are primary healer: Healing – Dispell – Mana Burn if you are secondary healer then Mana Burn -Dispel – Heal – DPS. A disc priest in a 3s team can be very stressful. First of all you are often the #1 target while at the same time have an important role to play either by being the primary healer or by being the secondary healer but mana burning their healer. When filling a mana burning role haste and Power Infusion as very important. Stack them to get off quick mana burns. Pepper in mana burns between healing and bubbling teammate.

5v5 – Dispel and Healing or Healing and Dispelling depending on your role. You must be aware of MANY opponent spells such as Heroism, Bloodlust, Polymorph, Divine Shield, ALL fear spells, Divine Plea, etc. It is your main job to dispel all of those as fast as possible. Add-ons can help in recognizing when these are cast. In 5s you should need to mana burn or DPS very often. You will need to Psychic Scream though. The fights typically end very quickly so focus on dispeling everything and healing your teammates.

Disc Priest Dueling

Here is the down low in dueling each of the other classes. (I may not get them all done right away I’m slowly working on them) Keep in mind that playstyle and gear have a huge effect on the outcome but these are just things I have picked up. If there are any expert disc priests out there feel free to comment. (This section is under construction as of 7/20/2010)

Rogue

There is definitely a whole science to priest PvP; I mean there is more to just knowing your priest abilities; the real secret is to LEARN ALL THE OTHER CLASSES AND RACE ABILITIES. It is in doing that that will make you an amazing PvP Priest. I started doing PvP on my own as a Disc priest but my downfall was not knowing what to do against ceratin other classes or not recognizing a certain ability or spell of a different class.  (What to do during a warrrior’s bladestorm, a warlock’s fear, or a paladin’s bubble)