A Glimpse into Discipline Priest in Dragonflight & War Within Wishlist - Editorial

With the sun setting on Dragonflight and The War Within on the horizon, our Discipline Priest Writer, AutomaticJak, offers a retrospective highlighting Discipline's journey in Dragonflight and shares their hopes for the spec's next evolution with a War Within Wishlist.

Discipline Priest in Dragonflight

Discipline Priest has received significant attention in Dragonflight as the spec underwent multiple overhauls to merge together Shadow and Light spells for a balanced form. This balance aimed to avoid the spec becoming overly bloated. The latest changes have placed Discipline in a powerful position for Raid and Mythic+ content, but there are still areas that could use improvement as the spec moves into The War Within.

• Discipline's Overall Gameplay

The "modern" Discipline spec, since Legion, has focused on ramping up healing across the raid by applying Atonements for short bursts. This immobile spec historically had high mana costs, particularly for applying Atonements, and relied on abilities from sister specs like Shadow to convert damage into healing. In Dragonflight, the talent trees brought a mix of abilities from Shadowlands and the Shadow spec to Discipline, resulting in button bloat and stacking modifiers to increase damage and subsequent healing.

In Mythic+ dungeons, Discipline has faced challenges in balancing raid and mythic+ output. Balancing this has been particularly difficult, and each tier in BfA saw nerfs to Atonement. While this kept the spec strong in raiding, it impacted its performance in mythic+ dungeons. In Dragonflight, changes were made to Sins of the Many and Atonement, creating independent tuning options to improve the balance between raid and mythic+ healing.

• Discipline Priest Throughout Dragonflight

Throughout the Dragonflight expansion, Discipline Priest received a significant amount of attention due to the difficulties of balancing damage conversion into healing for both raiding and mythic+. Different seasons saw various changes to abilities and talents, ranging from Season 1's limited use of Shadow Covenant to Season 3's integration of Shadowfiend/Mindbender as a core part of the spec. The streamlining overhaul in Season 3 brought value to spells like Smite, enhanced the core functions of the spec, and provided more diversity in ramping strategies.

Since the 10.2 rework, button bloat has been reduced, and the spec now focuses on the essential abilities of Penance and Smite for Atonement healing. Stacking modifiers have been consolidated, and talents like Shadow Covenant and Mindbender/Shadowfiend share uptime. While Discipline had a high skill ceiling in Season 2, it struggled in Aberrus raid and required balancing to perform well in both PvE modes.

In the past, Discipline benefited from borrowed power systems in Legion and BfA, which improved the user experience. However, Shadowlands powers, such as covenant abilities, overshadowed the core abilities of the spec. Dragonflight's tier-set bonuses are a form of borrowed power that contributed to the strength and synergy of Discipline, particularly in Raid and Mythic+ healing.

Potential Discipline Priest Changes for The War Within

Looking ahead to The War Within, there are uncertainties regarding the role of Hero Talents for Discipline Priests and other classes. The shared class tree has caused issues, and there are concerns that Hero Talents may continue this trend. These talents could provide tuning modifiers between raid and mythic+ dungeons to balance the spec's performance in both. Implementing supportive talents with a specific focus on raids or 5-man content would be ideal.

The vote on Tier Sets serves as an example of how Raid and Mythic+ mains can have conflicting preferences. Splitting the difference with Hero Talents could satisfy both groups and give these talents a defined purpose. Some dead branches in the talent trees, such as Expiation and Ultimate Penitence, need attention. The talent build often requires selecting synergistic talents like Inescapable Torment, resulting in a lack of choice. The Pet-centric value provided by Shadow Covenant in Season 3 Disc is enjoyable, but it should not be perceived as an option when constructing the talent tree.

Closing Thoughts

Discipline Priest has undergone significant changes throughout the Dragonflight expansion, with button bloat, borrowed power, shared class talent balance, and damage tuning being addressed. Although there are always areas for improvement, the current focus on timing and executing ramps, along with simplified damage dealing, provides an excellent foundation for the spec going into The War Within.

While there are still some dead branches in the talent trees, the interaction with Hero Talents is an aspect to watch out for in the upcoming alpha. The buffing of existing talents may force players into specific builds, so careful consideration is needed when implementing Hero Talents. Ultimately, the goal is to create a more enjoyable experience for Discipline Priests in both Raid and Mythic+ content.

• About the Author

This guide is written and maintained by WowCarry's Discipline Priest Writer, AutomaticJak. Jak is a Healer for Incarnate on US-Tichondrius and the author of the Holy and Discipline Priest Guides. You can follow Jak on Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch for more content. If you're still unsure if you're well enough on your class, our WowCarry team gladly offers you M+ Coaching service, where you can dive into M+ strategies and main tasks of your class into M+ runs.