Healer Rotation & Cooldowns

A general priority guide for Discipline Priest abilities and cooldowns. Helpful for understanding the spec's fundamentals and getting comfortable with core synergies. Updated for the latest patch in World of Warcraft: Midnight (12.0.1).

Single Target

Ensure Atonement is applied to allies before engaging.

• Shadow Word PainView detailsRefresh if duration < 20 seconds.
• Flash HealView detailsApply Atonement to an injured ally.
• PenanceView detailsUse defensively to heal.
• Power Word ShieldView detailsApply to allies.
• PleaView detailsUse to apply Atonement.
• Power Word RadianceView detailsCast back-to-back for group coverage.
• Shadow Word DeathView detailsUse on cooldown, even out of execute range.
• Mind BlastView detailsEmpowers next Penance.
• SmiteView detailsSpam during downtime.

Maintain Shadow Word Pain and apply Atonement using Flash Heal, Power Word Shield, and Plea. Use Power Word Radiance for group coverage, and prioritize Penance and Shadow Word Death for healing and damage.

AoE

Apply Atonement to as many allies as possible before AoE damage.

• Shadow Word PainView detailsMaintain and spread with Penance.
• Power Word RadianceView detailsApply Atonement to multiple allies.
• Shadow Word DeathView detailsUse on cooldown for high damage.
• PenanceView detailsUse offensively or defensively as needed.
• Mind BlastView detailsCast to empower Penance.
• SmiteView detailsSpam during downtime.
• Power Word ShieldView detailsUse on Void Shield procs.

For AoE, maintain Shadow Word Pain and spread it with Penance. Use Power Word Radiance to apply Atonement broadly, and prioritize Shadow Word Death and Mind Blast for damage.

Cooldowns

• EvangelismView detailsUse to extend Atonement duration and apply instant Power Word Radiance.
• Ultimate PenitenceView detailsUse separately from Evangelism for efficient healing.
• Pain SuppressionView detailsMitigate damage on an ally during high damage phases.

Use Evangelism to extend Atonement and apply Power Word Radiance. Activate Ultimate Penitence for burst healing, and Pain Suppression to reduce damage on key targets.

New to Class? Try Assisted Rotation

Patch 11.1.7 introduced new features that make it eaiser to pick and play new characters. These new settings can be enabled from settings » gameplay enhancements:

• Single-Button Assistant
• Assisted Highlight
• Cooldown Manager

If you are new to World of Warcraft or a certain class, enabling Assisted Highlight and Cooldown Manager can help you learn which abilities to prioritize and use.

While the Single-Button Assistant can be a much easier and more accessible way to play the game, it does come with a slight performance hit due to a small GCD penalty, as you will have to wait 25% longer in between spells and abilities.

To see which specs are best with the Single-Button Assistant feature, you can check out our DPS Rankings which uses SimC to sim every class using this feature.