WoW Forever Hydra's Disc PvP Guide

Historically Priest has been the strongest and most versatile PvP healer in vanilla wow. Going into forever with the addition of penance, disc priest is in a strong position to retain that title and allow players to excel at all forms of PvP whether it be solo or with a group.

When to downrank

Generally, you will mostly downrank buffs to serve as dispel protection for your primary spells (Power Word: Shield, Renew, or Inner Fire) against enemy Priests, Shamans, and Warlocks. Outside of buff protection, downranking other Rank 1 spells is mainly done for raw mana efficiency, but recently blizzard has allowed us to fish for procs like Blackout with rank 1 spells again like Shadow Word: Pain. Keep in mind that low-rank heals receive a drastically reduced spell damage/healing coefficient, this could make them less efficient than some higher rank spells. The addon Spellcoda is invaluable in allowing you to check the Coefficient, healing per second and mana efficiency of individual spells and ranks.

What to downrank

Trash Buffs - to protect Renew/ Power Word: Shield (assuming max rank versions have been purged)

• Rank 1 Power Word: Fortitude
• Rank 1 Renew
• Rank 1 Inner Fire (when no melee on you)
• Rank 1 Divine Spirit (if you've already buffed above)
• Rank 1 Shadow Protection (if you've already buffed above)
• Rank 1 Fade (rare)

Other

• Rank 1 Holy Nova - to get stealthers out for cheaper than using max rank
• Rank 1 Psychic Scream - to save mana when fearing 1-2 targets
• Rank 1 Shadow Word: Pain - to break grounding totem, stop restealths, proc blackout etc
• Rank 1 Mind Flay - to slow somebody down at range for cheap

Heals

• Heal - efficient slow heal, you don't always need to use max rank Greater Heal as it heals for a ton and will usually overheal a bunch. You can judge for yourself which keybind and use depending on your gear, usually you'll start at rank 4 and work down to rank 2 over time.
• Rank 1 Flash Heal - if you're super oom and want to get some extra healing out it can be useful but it's relatively rare to use.

Dispel Magic removes 2 MAGIC buffs or debuffs, some classes have more important things to remove than others, these are the most important things to look out for from each class.

Priest

Generally worth purging a lot as they have some strong base buffs and you want to have them relatively clean so that you can remove stuff on demand as they use it.

• Renew - be careful, they can bait dispels with rank 1 renew which isn't worth the mana to dispel.
• Power Word: Shield - huge value to purge this
• Power Infusion
• Shadow Word: Pain - be careful of rank 1
• Devouring Plague - need to use abolish disease for this but it's big value to remove.
  
  Mage
  
  Can be tricky to get into a good position where you can purge them enough without falling too far behind.
  
• Polymorph (Off others)
• Ice Barrier
• Frost Nova - Prio removing this to deny ice lance/shatter value.
• Missile Barrage
• Presence of Mind (arcane mages are rare, if you're fast and manage to snipe it - even rarer
• Arcane Power
  
  Warlock
  
  Removing their dots and fears quickly can reduce a ton of the warlock pressure which quickly escalates if you allow them to get going due to the high value nature of dot global presses.
  
• Corruption
• Demonic Brand
• Wrack
• Fear (Off others)
• Seduction (Off others)
  
  Shaman
  
• Ghost Wolf (if kiting them)
• Frost Shock (if kiting them)
• Nature's Swiftness - rare to dispel but big value if you snipe it
• Riptide
  
  Druid
  
  You can deny a swiftmend if you remove the rejuvenation/regrowth hot before their global is up
  
• Nature's Swiftness - rare to dispel but big value if you snipe it
• Rejuvenation -
• Regrowth
• Entangling Roots
  
  Paladin
  
  Their CC and blessings are core parts of their kit and very detrimental to them if removed.
  
• Hammer of Justice (off others)
• Repentance (off others)
• Blessing of Freedom
• Blessing of Protection
• Blessing of Sacrifice
  
  Hunter
  
  Hunter generally gains distance with freezing trap, if you can dispel it and keep a melee on target they are relatively squishy.
  
• Freezing Trap (off others)

Gnome

Solid all round pick, every racial gives good value and provides absolute value, often reactively so a good choice for new players

• Confounding Flash - 0.5 sec cast holy school, poly DR, can combo it with mind control for a strong cc chain.
• Contingency Plan - The ward and both the procs are magic so can be dispelled.
• Escape Artist - can be combo'd with confounding flash and a speed increase to gain distance and kite.
• Eureka! - decent value when you have to do a lot of healing in a short space of time. (flash or greater)
• Expansive Mind - 5% mana, nuff said.
• Engineering Specialization - 20% less chance MULTIPLICATIVE, not additive.

Night Elf

Good pick, most of the racials are strong and provide good value but some require the player to make pro-active choices to outplay opponents and gain value which requires a degree of experience and understanding.

• Shadowmeld - Can be used to hide out of combat. can drink->meld with it. can be used in combat to avoid casts (have to use it before the cast goes off, it's not like wotlk meld) but incurs 2min cd then.
• Starshards - Insanely overtuned, 1800damage/6 100% sp coefficient arcane school. Expect it to get nerfed but have fun while it lasts.
• Elune's Grace - Requires good understanding of opposing class and pro-active play to avoid key abilities like kidney shot or viper sting.
• Elune's Light -
• Quickness - 2% movespeed stacks with other movespeed buffs so has niche kiting value, until you meet a tauren at least.
• Wisp Spirit - if you don't die you won't need it.

Dwarf

Decent pick however chastises long cooldown and low duration makes it relatively unreliable. Has fewer points of value than gnome and night elf.

• Chastise - 2 second root, 2 minute cooldown, 20 yard range, can be combo'd with a grenade for a guaranteed hit.
• Desperate Prayer - Strong defensive self heal, affected by MS. 10 min cd
• Stoneform - Strong defensive option vs rogues, can be used to remove wound poison or blind, diseases like devouring plague and warrior/rogue/feral bleeds.
• Artisan's Precision - now you only need 3% more spell hit :)
• Big Game Hunter - relatively inconsequential but extra damage vs hunter pets and shapeshifted druids.

Human

The buffed human spirit and will to survive sadly doesn't give enough value to be considered for pvp compared to the other race choices.

• Feedback - incredibly weak for the mana cost, can proc Blackout
• Divine Grace - can't be used on yourself but removes weakened soul so can be a good tool in group combat
• Will to Survive - very strong and does not share cooldown with PvP trinket but human's lack of other valuable pvp racials sadly make it a weaker choice
• Perception - only useful against rogues and druids and tricky to actually get value out of due to the nature of stealth
• The Human Spirit - 10% spirit, synergises well with buffed 50% meditation, good for pve
• Ruthless - 1% crit

Undead

After dark sacrifice was nerfed to not break cc anymore, undead fell down in value a lot, the reduction to touch of the grave internal cooldown has helped it offensively however. Due to the mana value of dark sacrifice and cannibalize, undead is a solid pick as disc but you may want to consider going troll regardless if you're considering playing shadow too as both races are relatively similar for disc.

• Touch of Weakness - considerable AP reduction for melee who hit you, can proc blackout.
• Dark Sacrifice - Nerfed to not break CC sadly so just a mana gain tool now.
• Will of the Forsaken - Undead's strongest racial, can be to remove magic dust.
• Touch of the Grave - Passive extra damage proc, 15 seconds internal cd.
• Cannibalize - Strong situational tool to recover mana quickly but requires a corpse.

Troll

A solid group combat and solo combat pick due to the strength of hex of weakness, loses some value if playing with a warrior or hunter who can also apply mortal strike. Has amazing offensive value but lacks some defence so will be reliant on team mates to peel melee at times.

• Shadowguard - Procs blackout on melee,ranged and spells, very efficient damage.
• Hex of Weakness - 20% ranged Mortal strike without a cooldown is likely the strongest priest racial in the game, can use rank 1 to save mana if you dont need the melee AP reduction (which is also considerable at max rank)
• Rapid Regeneration - works the same way as a bandage but heals for slightly more.
• Berserking - haste is solid but does not affect channels or dots. reduces gcd.
• Regeneration - minor increase to passive health regen, not enough to make a race decision over.
• Beast Slaying - relatively inconsequential but extra damage vs hunter pets and shapeshifted druids.

Professions are currently relatively unknown until we reach max level and find out what's available, engineering is a pretty good bet but the other profession slot is currently undetermined.

• Engineering - lots of grenades, trinkets and useful gadgets that contribute massively to influencing the outcome of a battle.
• Alch/Tailoring/Enchanting/(?) - Some value in each of these, relatively unknown currently which is best.

Stats

• Spirit - Provides mana regen but only works outside of the 'Five second rule' aka your spirit regen is paused for 5 seconds after spending mana (50% effective with meditation talented)
• MP5 - Provides mana regen all the time
• Intellect - 1 Int gives 15 mana
• Stamina - 1 Stam gives 10 health
• Crit - Our crits are only worth 150% so not something we tend to aim for over other stats
• Armour - Reduces the Physical damage you take, massively increased by inner fire.
• Healing - Increases heals by varying amounts (see coefficients)
• Spell power - Increases damage by varying amounts (see coefficients)

Spell Hit - Likely most of our hit will come from talents but if gear has a good amount of it then it might be preferable in the future.

Stat Priority

Initially look for gear with solid amounts of Stamina and Intellect on, Healing and Spirit/Mp5 are often a 'secondary' stat on these items but can be prioritized more later on to increase throughput in longer fights.

BiS Gearset

(currently unknown)

Pot CD

• Major Healing Potion
• Major Discolored Healing Potion - heals for more than a major health pot but need to combine it with a powerful anti-venom or abolish disease depending which it procs.
• Major Mana Potion
• Swiftness Potion - great in world pvp for escaping sticky situations
• Restorative Potion - can be used pre-emptively to remove CC.
• Free Action Potion
• Living Action Potion - can be used to get out of stuns if trinket is on CD.
• Limited Invulnerability Potion - super useful for tanking melee if you can't escape or get a peel.
• Invisibility Potion - must be out of combat to use.
• Greater Stoneshield Potion - good to prepop vs a melee in a duel if consumes are permitted.
• Magic Resistance Potion - good to prepop vs a caster in a duel if consumes are permitted.

Grenade CD

• Iron Grenade - can be used while moving, hard to hit.
• Thorium Grenade - Iron grenade but more damage
• The Big One - good for using on top of yourself to peel melee hitting you
• Big Iron Bomb - cheaper the big one
• Portable Bronze Mortar - Instant, low range grenade but a guaranteed hit as long as you click the circle on the enemy.
• Goblin Sapper Charge- big dam on demand at the cost of grenade control
• Flash Bomb - not that frequently used as priest, mostly good for dealing with flag carriers in wsg
• Magic Dust - 30 sec sleep, 1 minute cooldown. great for an instant self peel when out numbered but expensive.
• Really Sticky Glue (horde, limited supply)

Healthstone CD

• Greater Healthstone
• Whipper Root Tuber - ghetto healthstone if you don't have one
• Night Dragon's Breath
• Dark Rune/ Demonic Rune

First Aid

• Heavy Runecloth Bandage
• Powerful Anti-Venom - for removing viper sting and rogue poisons
• Surgical Tourniquet - for removing bleeds so you can bandage/troll racial

Trinkets

Keep in mind most items with an on use effect incur a short cooldown when equipped so think ahead.

• Goblin Mortar - If it backfires you can cancel the self-stun buff by putting /cancelaura goblin mortar in your stopcasting macro
• Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector
• Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector - strong vs frost mage
• Ultra-Flash Shadow Reflector - strong vs Warlock/Shadow Priest
• Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector
• Gnomish Cloaking Device - useful escape tool in a pinch
• Tidal Charm - the goat

Item Gadgets

• Goblin Rocket Boots - great for escaping melee or gap closing for psychic scream.
• Gnomish Mind Control Cap - great for filtering out some enemies in an uneven fight but they need to be out of combat so it's tricky to pull off as a priest
• Goblin Rocket Helmet - great for filtering out some enemies in an uneven fight
• Skull of Impending Doom - you can prepop this when you're about to be cc'd to break the CC and then cancel the effect with a macro to limit mana/hp loss.

Pets

Super useful as disc as you generally lack some damage which these provide for zero mana cost

• Gnomish Battle Chicken (trinket)
• Arcanite Dragonling (trinket)
• Mithril Mechanical Dragonling(trinket)
• Dog Whistle - grenade cd (trinket)
• Compact Harvest Reaper Kit - grenade cd (not equipped)
• Spiked Collar (not equipped)
• Spider Swarm (not equipped)

Elixirs/Buffs - (unknown what stacks)

• Elixir of the Owl
• Elixir of Greater Intellect
• Elixir of the Whale
• Elixir of Greater Spirit
• Greater Mageblood Elixir
• Greater Cleric's Elixir
• Greater Arcane Elixir
• Elixir of Shadow Power
• Sage's Tea
• Brilliant Mana Oil
• Kreeg's Stout Beatdown
• Major Troll's Blood Elixir
• Elixir of the Phalanx
• Elixir of Sages
• Elixir of Greater Fortitude
• Elixir of Wicked Regeneration
• Elixir of Greater Defense
• Savory Turtle Stew

Other

• Flame Deflector
• Ice Deflector

Cancelaura macro with some other useful stuff in to cancel skull of impending doom / goblin mortar backfire

/stopcasting

/cancelaura flee

/cancelaura goblin mortar

Dispel macro with self on mod on shift and cure poison via powerful anti-venom on ctrl

#showtooltip

/cast [mod:shift,@player]Dispel magic; [mod:ctrl]Powerful Anti-Venom; Dispel Magic

Holy Nova / R1 Holy Nova on shift mod

#showtooltip

/cast [mod:shift]holy nova(rank 1); Holy nova

Inner fire / R1 inner fire on ctrl mod

#showtooltip

/cast [mod:ctrl] inner fire(rank 1); inner fire;

Fear ward / Fear ward self macro on shift mod

#showtooltip

/cast [mod: shift, @player] fear ward; fear ward

PI macro with self mod on shift

#showtooltip power infusion

/cast [mod:shift, target=player] power infusion; power infusion;

Group buff macro to get in combat from far away in group wpvp/bgs and avoid sap

#showtooltip

/cancelaura prayer of shadow protection

/cancelaura shadow protection

/cast [@player]prayer of shadow protection(rank 1)

/use crystal water

Help/Harm macro example - uses pain if target is an enemy, uses pain rank 1 if target is an enemy and pressing ctrl. uses shield if target is an ally, uses abolish disease if target is an ally and pressing ctrl

#showtooltip

/cast [harm,mod:ctrl]Shadow Word: Pain(rank 1);[harm]Shadow Word: Pain;[mod:ctrl]Abolish disease; power word: shield;

• Can use free spells or Inner Focus to stay out of five second rule and maximise regen value.
• Jump to extend Psychic Scream range.
• Queue wand in last 3rd of Penance channel to get an instant shot right after.
• You can combo Confounding Flash with Mind Control right away to get some breathing room.
• A Warrior auto attacking into Power Word: Shield will not gain rage from absorbed attacks.
• Blackout procs from the application of Shadow Word: Pain, not the ticks, so you can spam rank 1 to fish for procs when you have nothing else to do or are chasing somebody down.