So you finally hit level 85 and you want to start pwning everyone. As priests we basically have 2 choices in PvP gear; Satin or Mooncloth. I have been reading the forums and other user guides and have not found a definative answer to which set is the “truely” better set to have. The ONLY difference between the two is that the Satin set stacks Crit and the Mooncloth set stacks Spirit. Both stacks the same amount of point in a category. Blizzard really nerfed the Disc Priest pvp from how we use to play. In Cataclysm Disc Priest PvP the most important specs to stack, in my opinion, is Resiliance and Inteligence. To this end you should can maximize Resiliance by getting at least 2 Satin items and 2 Mooncloth items. Doing so will prove a +400 Resiliance bonus.

Every piece of gear you have should have resiliance on it, all trinkets, all rings, all weapons, necklace, etc. Besides our bubble and psychic scream we do not have a lot of great defenses, staying ALIVE is our #1 priority.

In arena the Disc Priest will often be the #1 target for the enemy team. If your DPS can kill their healer or one of them before they kill you, it’s an almost guarantee win.

To be most efficient in earning the gear for PvP here is the strategy I employ:

#1.) Join ANY arena team to get conquest points. Use those Conquest Points to purchase the cheaper items first. For example: Cloaks, Necklace, Rings, Trinkets etc. All of the items that cost the least Conquest Points that you know you will need anyway.
#2.) Play Random or Call to Arms battles over and over to earn the points to get the satin and mooncloth sets.
#3.) Always take advantage of the Tol Barad fights. You can earn a lot of honor points in those fights.
#4.) After maxing out the high cost honor items seek to purchase the enchants.

I’m still in the process of gearing up, it will take many weeks but hopefully by the time I’m done I’ll be the same cloth wearing healing tank I was prior to Cataclysm.

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)

Well, last night filled me with mixed emotions about my PvP skills. I have good Relentless and Wraithful gear and even a level 1700 Wraithful Wand and yet I still finding it hard to hit the 1800 bracket. We started late last night (of, so it was more like 4:00am central time) and my partner and I got pwned match after match bringing our rating from 1716 to 1669. I was so tired and dissappoint I didn’t know what to do. On the positive note though my 5s team went up to 1709 and we have been doing much better.

I still think my using Healbot to heal may be the root cause of my performance. I just can’t figure out how to heal myself and my target without it. I find myself too fixated on the healbot health bar and buffs and I “miss” other opportunities. Now, if I don’t pay as much attention to the health bars and focus on dps, mana burning, and dispelling targets then I find myself not keeping up with healing and we lose the match. Maybe I just need more practice, I’m not sure what it is but I’m going to figure it out.

Here are some little things I learned that are worth mentioning:

1.) Turn on Enemy Titlebars and cast bars in the interface options. As you see from the screenshot below you can see where an enemy is even behind LOS items such as the tome in the center.

2.) Dispel Ret Pallies down and they don’t hurt nearly as much. Also, ALWAYS have your Power Word: Shield on when fighting but especially a ret pally because they gain mana as they damage you.

3.) If you’re partner is a Rogue or Feral Druid be sure to use Power Word: Shield on them jsut before they go in for the strike. Any AoE damage taken by Power Word: Shield will not un-stealth the rogue or Feral Druid so they won’t lose the element of surprise.

Mind Control (MC): Use mind control to make enemies jump from high places or take a healer out of the fight while your DPS teammates make a kill. Mind control is powerful and tricky to master. 

Priest Mind Control is in the shadow tree and therefore the shadow resistance of your target has a bearing on its effectiveness. Spell penetration reduces the chance that your target will resist or break your MC. Also distance plays a big factor in MC effectiveness.  Here is a list of battleground cliffs to use for MC.

Arathi Basin: MC off Lumber Mill cliff, or off click leading to Gold Mine. Also it’s possible to MC a target into the water off at Black Smith in order to take someone out of the fight so your team has the advantage.

Alterac Valley: Mind control people off of a tower to buy you and your team more time. Or off the bridge leading to Dun Baldar

Eye of the Storm: Make them jump from east side of the flag spawn or from the other two bridges that cross over.

Warsong Gulch: To protect flag carrier MC them off second floor down below.

Fun World of Warcraft PvP Mind Control Video (This was my first video ever, I am making an improved version)

Tips / Tricks for Success in Mind Control

If you are a healer, keep in mind that mind control has to hit your target. Since holy and disc priests do not stack hit very often it means that you may need to re-gem of find a few items with +hit bonus to help you land you MC. You should have at least 4% – 6 % in hit rating in order make sure your MC lands on the target.

In addition to hitting your target, MC can be resisted if the target has shadow resistance. In order to combat this you need to have an equivalent amount of spell penetration. Spell penetration offsets resistance on a 1:1 ratio. For example: I have 50 spell penetration on my priest, if my target has 80 shadow resistance that means he still has 30 points in shadow resistance from my MC spell. This could cause the the MC to break prematurely or possibly be resisted from the start. Having more spell penetration than your target has resistance will not provide you with any additional benefit. Optimally you want to have a spell penetration equal to your target’s resistance. Generally 75 to 130.

Try to cast MC while your target is close to you. The biggest problem with MC is the short range of only 20 yards. Standing close to the ledge yourself helps as the spell will hold more effectively as you bring you target past you to jump off the cliff.

The #1 role of a priest is to either heal or dps so make sure you have the time to perform a MC before you cast it.

Due to the short range and long cast time it is critical that you have the health and the opportunity before casting MC on your target. Remember your target can be attacking you and dealing significant damage while you are casting. Put up Power Word: Shield, Renew, and Prayer of Mending to help buy you extra time. You can also chain  Psychic Scream and MC. Often the target will trinket out of your fear which means they can’t trinket from the MC. If you are Shadow Spec then cast Psychic Horror followed by MC since the horror CC will keep your target in place and from attacking you for 3 seconds which gives you just enough time to cast MC on him. Of course the best time to cast MC is while your target is fighting someone else.

DoTs still tick during mind control so it is possible to DoT up a target and them MC them so they can’t heal.

Mind Control has diminishing returns against a PvP target. The first cast has full duration of 10 seconds. The second cast reduces duration by 50% to 5 seconds and the 3rd cast reduces the duration by 75% to only 2.5 seconds. After that the target is immune from MC for the next 18 seconds of the *end* of the duration  In other words, if a target hasn’t had a MC spell active on them for more than 18 seconds, the next mind control spell will have full effect.

Mind control shares the same diminishing returns as a Death Knight’s “Death Coil” spell.

 After writing this article I found a PvE version of Mind control here at Misery’s blog.