I’m having problems with the user interface to get it up and running. I’m trying to follow the directions, but I may be missing something here.
You certainly don’t need to have it, but a nameplate addon is extremely useful. It is not for monitoring threat on the kill target, although you can use it for that purpose. The primary benefit is so that you can easily target and switch between adds in a chaotic situation. Additionally, you can easily tell at a glance if any adds are targeting you, such as the poison bombs on Omnotron.
If you don’t like having the clutter, you can always switch off the bars with the press of a hotkey, and only display them when you actually want to.
TidyPlates also has other useful widgets, like the combo display martu mentioned, or the debuff display, which can show your own dots and debuffs on a mob even after you’ve switch to another target.
A few things that I’ve picked up while playing Disc in Cata:
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Atonement/AA are really only the replacement for spamming Heal when there’s only middling damage coming in to the tank, and should not be a primary healing tool. I usually slow stack Evangelism over time (as the fight permits) and then use Archangel when I know there will be some significant healing that will need to go out (even if I don’t have a full 5 stack).
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Penance should always be a priority and used as much as possible. With the change to Grace, where you can stack it on anyone without losing pre-existing stacks, you can use it freely on other party/raid members. Come 4.1, the 4-piece T11 set will no longer be so restrictive for Disc priests (though, still not the 100% uptime that Holy priests get for free), so using Penance will be the equivalent of getting 540 Spirit if you can get 4 piece. Greater Heal is fantastic (especially compared to how it was in WotLK), but should only be used on the tank if Penance is on CD.
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Use your CDs as much as possible. If at any point you’re going to spam PW:Shield for a bit, using Power Infusion will save you a large chunk of mana. PI is way more useful on a healer (yourself) than on DPS now, due to the mana saving. Also, pair Shadowfiend with Hymn of Hope when you need mana, as it will get you much more mana than them used separately at different times due to the way Shadowfiend works. Pain Suppression is amazing, too, and should be used often (though, of course, intelligently). The amount of tools at our disposal is what makes the spec great (though the raid healing style leaves a bit to be desired, IMO).
Hope this helps, and I hope I don’t come off condescendingly. I just don’t know exactly where you’re at with your priest and what kind of content you’re doing, so I just gave some fairly general tips, as I’ve had to learn how to play the spec at a high level over the past 2 months or so. If you provide a link to your Armory, I may be able to help further. Let me know if you have any questions.
In general, it’s only worth getting a socket bonus if it’s a primary stat for your class (Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina). Secondary stats won’t make up the difference from pure red/blue gems there.
…motherfucking, bunny-stomping (and then not even eatin’ it) cocksucker of a raptor with your little necklace on!
Oh!
blinks
Was I somehow being inappropriate with my above comments?
Mercy me!
cruel chuckle
Q
Thank you for the advice, Daed! I’m not inexperienced with general priesting, but I was pretty unsure how to optimize raiding disc style as opposed to holy style, if that makes sense.
I just did my first raid with my new disc spec tonight – we downed Halfus for the first time with… Nether/Slate/Time after several attempts. Instead of doing nether/time together, we ended up spacing them out individually, which worked well for us and we made it before enrage with the help of Bloodlust after Slate.
And good god. I don’t think I breathed the last 2/3 of the final go. We healers had general assignments but more often than not did some cross healing.
I’m told I did pretty well, but the last 1/5 I was running on fumes after popping mana hymn/fiend, and pot. (disc/resto druid/holydin) I was handing out shields to the tanks then to the less mobile dps, and occasionally to myself. Sub-50% I was smiting paralyzed Halfus in between healing and popped Archangel a couple times throughout. I got to a full 5 stack only once though.
I may have to look into setting up a Power Aura to tell me when PI is up, since that seems like something that should be used when it’s off cd, yeah? I already have one to track Evangelism. It doesn’t sound like we need to track Grace any more?
For Pain Suppression, it should go on someone who’s sinking fast and who is not a tank, correct?
Anyway, my gear is still optimized for Holy cough but here you go.
Congratulations on downing Halfus! He can be a complete pain the first time you face him, and is the one fight in this raiding tier where one of the most effective ways to heal him is to actually Smite spam, due to the debuff he receives when a drake is killed (100% extra damage per dead drake). So, I would raid heal regularly with PW:S/POH, etc. until the first drake is dead and then you can spam Smite and start getting huge Atonement heals.
There are other fights where it’s useful to do this as well, such as Magmaw when the head is Exposed, as there’s also a damage increase modifier and not much damage going out, and as soon as the head rises up there will be a Lava Spew (big raid damage) that you can use Archangel to help heal up. Figuring out the times where it’s safe to Smite and the best times to pop Archangel is (IMO) an important part of raiding as Disc.
As for your mana concerns, that was probably because you weren’t Smiting and were using PW:S throughout, which is a huge mana hog. Honestly, I would try to find a way to bribe the druid for their Innervate (they get 10% if it’s glyphed). Also, there are a few talent points in your spec that you may want to try and get Veiled Shadows with, but that will depend on the length of your fights (it’s not worth it unless your fights are averaging 7 minutes or more). I will go into this more later.
Setting up Power Auras for all your CDs is a huge thing. Don’t forget about Power Word: Barrier, either. Raid wall on a 2 minute cooldown is absolutely incredible. On Halfus, it’s a good idea to time it as your raid pushes him over to 50% so that it is up for the Furious Roars, and every fight there is a decent time/place to use the ability and it should always be used when it’s up and big damage is going out. It can be a bit odd to get used to timing/placing it, but practice in 5 mans and get comfortable with it, as it’s an incredibly powerful CD (and the #1 reason why Disc priests get a raid spot).
As for Pain Suppression, I definitely think it’s still a tank cooldown. If your DPS are stupid enough to get aggro, no CD will save them, and if they’re taking that much raid damage, 90% of which is avoidable, then it’s their fault and the best thing you can do for them is to let them die and hope they learn. 5-mans, it’s different and obviously some random PUG tanks aren’t very good and it’s not the DPS’ fault, but in raid settings it’s generally their mistake that is causing them to die, and all the CDs in the world won’t save them.
On my Grid, I have an icon set up so that I can see when a tank uses any of their available cooldowns, so that I don’t waste my Pain Suppression when they’re using Shield Wall or Barkskin. Not sure what healing addon you use, but that’s a good thing to set up if possible. Also, Grace is still useful to track, but not via Power Auras. I have a corner icon on my Grid showing me the stacks. It’s still important to try and maintain a 3 stack on tanks, but it’s nice not losing them when you direct heal a raid member.
As for your gear, if you do plan on staying Disc, then I recommend you reforge everything you can to Spirit/Mastery. The other secondary stats are helpful, but not anything to stack. PW:S spam is still too good, and Blizzard needs to take another look at it (4.1 will change some things, but not enough to change our stat weighting dramatically, IMO). Talents you have are fairly standard and fine. You can (and should) tweak them as you progress to see what you’re actually getting benefit from and what are being wasted talent points. In particular, I’d look at Train of Thought and figure out if you really need that talent. I’ve always found it lackluster, but I raid 25s and do significantly less tank healing. If you find yourself tank healing significantly, I would consider moving those points to Strength of Soul. If you’re mainly raid healing and having mana issues, Veiled Shadows is a great talent (again, only if your average fight is around 7 minutes). Desperate Prayer and Inner Sanctum are also solid talents to pick up if you prefer utility/survivability (I find the run speed via Inner Will/Inner Sanctum to be fantastic, and swapping to Inner Fire to reduce magic damage can be used on every fight).
Anyway, hope this helps. Let me know if there’s anything else you might have questions about.
… how come when I look at Wolkie in the Armory it shows these little exclamation points telling me he’s not enchanted and stuff? (8 of 'em!)
I always thought we already were “enchanted” by the lovely Ms. SFG;), and how come I have failed to notice this, heretofore, up till now and stuff?
Annnnnnnd… how does one correct for this, were one to want to, that is/was?
Thanks
Q
Thank you! I’ll start smiting earlier if I can – since Slate and Time were in that order, that made things kind of nutty. I also have to talk to the healers to try and smooth out our healing on Halfus. Side question: I realize you raid 25s and not 10s, but do you guys use a dedicated healer channel often?
Re: Innervate, I’ll keep that in mind – I suspect he used it on himself since he seems to have some mana issues of his own. I’m definitely getting that impression re: Smite. I agree that once I have the Smite/Archangel thing figured out, it should help.
On Sunday we’re hitting either Magmaw in BWD or Valiona/Theralion (there was some confusion about that) – I’ll have to clear it up, but the Magmaw info is good to know.
Set up Powa for PW: Barrier, etc, check. I was trying to edit that I’d experimented with it during the second Furious Roar a bit but I went past the edit window. Oh well. 
I ended up overlapping it with Efflorescence and the people in it only had to shuffle around a bit to avoid fireballs. So I’ll definitely use it more.
Way ahead! 
Grid’s already tricked out with that using GridSideText or whatever it’s called. And I’ll have to look for a spot to stick Grace stacks in, then. If you have a screenshot of your particular Grid setup, I’d love to see it – it’s always personally interesting to see how other people handle info input. Come to think of it, I may configure RSA to announce PW: Barrier and so on – as Holy I was using that primarily for Lightwell tracking (YOU NO CLICK FOR WHY? BBQ SAUCE FOR YOU, BREATHER!) and Guardian Spirit.
I agree that Veiled Shadows and Desperate Prayer are OP talents, but with the cookie cutter spec, I didn’t see anyplace I could take the points out of at the moment. It’s not clear to me whether you’re arguing for or against Train of Thought for tank healers. I would have thought that a reduced Penance CD would be nice (ofc, when I learn to smite more )? But thinking on it, I see your point about Strength of Soul.
Enchantments go on the gear itself, not the slot you wear it in, so when you get new gear, you need to enchant it all over again.
Find a friendly enchanter and pay them to do it for you, or buy enchanting scrolls on the AH - there’s a section labeled “Item Enhancement” in there somewhere - under the “Consumables” heading, I think. SFG can give you better advice than I can about what enchantments you need.
Thank you, Rik!
Q
Can anyone give me some advice on my DK?
She is Nipsdk on Steamwheedle Cartel if you want to look.
The issue I’m having is a question of whether, even for levelling purposes, I’m actually better off with Frost than Blood. I was having a lot of fun with frost, but the downtime (eating, potions, bandages) was getting to me. First I switched up to a 2-hander build. Then I went in for a Blood spec.
And… I think I’m doing as much damage playing Blood as in Frost, and have better defense and self-healing. So, has anyone played through Northrend? What’s the scoop? I’ve more or less got there and done about half the quests, got some good 1-handers, but I’m not sure which way to go.
I enjoyed leveling as 2H Frost for Cata, but that was when Lichborne + Death Coil heals were pretty OP. The mount speed talent alone was worth it.
Make sure to get the glyph that makes Death Strike heal for 15% minimum if you’re in Frost or Unholy presence. That will get your self-healing up.
And finally remember you can always summon and sacrifice your pet for a quick big heal.
You really can’t go wrong with Blood either, of course. The survivability is ridiculous, and the damage is perfectly fine for leveling. Downside is you’ll either have to tank 5-mans, have a secondary DPS spec, or just avoid them altogether.
finally got thru heroic blackrock depths. Thats all of em done at heroic now!
[QUOTE=smiling bandit]
Can anyone give me some advice on my DK?
She is Nipsdk on Steamwheedle Cartel if you want to look.
The issue I’m having is a question of whether, even for levelling purposes, I’m actually better off with Frost than Blood. I was having a lot of fun with frost, but the downtime (eating, potions, bandages) was getting to me. First I switched up to a 2-hander build. Then I went in for a Blood spec.
And… I think I’m doing as much damage playing Blood as in Frost, and have better defense and self-healing. So, has anyone played through Northrend? What’s the scoop? I’ve more or less got there and done about half the quests, got some good 1-handers, but I’m not sure which way to go.
[/QUOTE]
I leveled my way through Cataclysm as Blood with a few detours on my frost spec. Frost was a little annoying if I had to go through an area with a bunch of enemies, like you said bandaging etc is pretty annoying after a while.
As blood I could pretty much mow down anything in my way. Those elites where you’re supposed to dodge the big bad attacks? Not me, I just heal my way through them. It also made the kill X number of things a bit easier since I could just collect a bunch and slowly whittle them down without much worry of dying. Blood Shield, Blade Barrier, Death Strike, all of your tasty DK cooldowns can make you almost invincible while questing.
Really it comes down to preference. For me I don’t mind tanking instances when I have to, or you can just quest while you wait for the queue if you want to DPS.
I discovered I could get nice, full-screen-sized portraits of my toons by using Wowhead’s character profiles, so I thought I’d share this portrait of Dimondley, my undead warrior, dressed formally for a night on the town:
http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/dimondley_town.jpg
And, for the record, that’s Old Crafty in his off-hand 
Yeah, the different combinations of drakes would probably change when you’d shift to using Smite to heal Halfus, but as soon as you get 100% damage (and hence healing) modifiers for Atonement, it’s probably the most mana efficient way to heal the raid. PW:B will save chunks of damage to the raid, and there’s no reason you can’t slip in some PW:Shields to save someone who’s low. The other two healers can pretty much focus only on the tanks at that point. But, you’ve already successfully healed it, so just some ideas for tweaking/efficiency in the future.
As for the healer channel, in the guild I helped run I definitely used one, but my current guild does not use such a channel. Assignments are very loose (as in non-existent); it’s just understood that we do our jobs as efficiently as possible. We’ll problem solve on progression, obviously, but for farm it’s just FFA (outside of Chimaeron, which is the only boss we have dedicated assignments). It works fine in practice, but I always wonder if we could do things more efficiently. Regardless, we coordinate large raid cooldowns over Mumble and that’s the extent of our healing assignments.
Yeah, I would speak to him about Innervates, as druids can be very mana efficient, though 10-mans have different stresses. You can obviously heal quite effectively without it, but it helps to know what CDs you do have available for managing your mana. The best place to use PW:B in Valiona/Theralion is for Blackouts, as the group has to stack and there’s a heightened chance of everyone taking Falling Meteor damage and the Blackout damage when it’s dispelled. You should be able to get 1/2 of them per Valiona phase. Big Wigs (and other boss mods, I imagine) has a very clear warning for when you’re targeted for the Falling Meteor, so people should be avoiding that damage as much as possible. Good luck on whichever fight you all choose.
Cool. Power Auras is such an amazing addon. I will try to get a SS for you of my next raid so you can see how I configure my Grid/Powa. I tweak my UI quite often, and I think it’s due for an overhaul, but you’ll get to see what I’ve been running with for the past 6 months or so.
Yeah, that did come off a bit confusing when I just re-read it. I am arguing that ToT is a lackluster talent, and if you’re cross tank/raid healing, SoS is a stronger talent to pick up for those points than ToT. SoS also buffs your PW:Shield on tanks, which is going to be a larger source of healing than Penance regardless. If you’re more raid healing, than I would suggest going with the utility talents (Inner Sanctum/Desperate Prayer) or Veiled Shadows for the mana (depending on the length of fights). I hope that clears it up.
Been seeing those guys up above as me and Silka were harvesting leather, so we flew up to the top of one of those cigarettes (ziggurats? I can never remember anymore) and took a shot at one of 'em?
Trash.
Wasn’t even worth killin’. The Gun 'Drak bats give you more for killing them than the bat-riders do.
Oh yeah. I have stopped yelling at those little bunnies. It’s no fun killing them automatically and have them dead at my feet while my wife freaks out when I yell, “Oh Ogg, what have I done!!!”
Then she wants to know who “Ogg” is and all kindsa shit.
Y’all have really ruined/improved my life, ya know that???
And I wouldn’t trade you for all the gold in the world.
Half, maybe. But not all.
Q
So frustrating!! We had Chimaeron down to 58k last night before wiping! Of course that attempt had to be the last one of the night too, so no getting back there till Wed / Next Sunday for revenge.
My baby shaman turned 60 last night. sniff One day they’re running around with one spell and a backpack, wearing daddy’s heirlooms and some gray boots; and the nest thing you know they’re taking off on their discounted wind rider headed off to do Hellfire Ramparts. They grow up so fast!
Any man who quotes Elmer Fudd in a WoW context can’t be all bad…