The History of Modern Discipline Priest

[@AutomaticJak]

Click this link sponsr.is/AutomaticJak and use my code AUTOMATICJAK to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev.

[@cooltrainerjack]

MOP Disc is some of the most fun I've ever had playing Disc. The spec was so fun for the entire expansion

[@AutomaticJak]

Yuuuuup, made me become a priest main

[@vanguelisk]

@@AutomaticJak so you are gonna play disc priest in pandaria classic?

[@AutomaticJak]

100%

[@Lithanell]

Was it fun cuz it was so good or the playstyle?

[@BrianKoontz2]

@@Lithanell It was ideal for dps players asked to heal - you just blasted damage and it would automatically smart heal everyone - only in more intense damage phases would you have to actually cast healing spells.

[@ItsGoldwyn]

As much as I get the nostalgia for MoP Disc, its existence made every other healer present feel very small. Insanely big shields made it so prople barely took ant real damage which then was instantly healed up by the smart atonement. As holy priest doing the chakra dance was pretty much pointless, resto druid's hots didnt get a fraction of a second to heal, mistweaver monk was done healing after about 5 spells cast. I get it, but it couldnt keep on existing the way it did, it invalidated all other healers. Absorb shields are either useless or brokenly strong, there isnt really a sweet spot for them. Smart healing like passive atonement or holy's Binding Heal in Legion take all the decisionmaking out of the game. I can imagine that Disc is an insane headache for Blizzard to both keep unique and balanced compared to the other healer specs. Ive played Holy priest since vanilla, for 20 years now, and did a bit of shadow and very rarely disc on the side, but in MoP I just had to go disc because otherwise I just had nothing to do, and I just never liked playing Disc

[@buttercup6116]

I play my priest since BC and I realize how much I love this spec while watching this video, thank you Jak :) More nostalgia pls!

[@FurrerW]

Man, I really enjoyed this walk down memory lane. I have warm fuzzy memories of Legion and timing the most perfect Light’s Wrath just as your raid takes damage.

[@johnMa7869]

This video was actually very very fun to watch :D would love to hear the history of other specs :D

[@pietsnotty8283]

MoP Disc ->

[@Regis_Philbin]

This was great, I started in Dragonflight and the thing I think is most interesting about the game is class design. Really cool to see the history of a spec from someone who cares about it so much!

[@Nea482]

Even though i never really played disc, this was really enjoyable to watch! Your passion for the spec really came through and it was just fantastic

[@AutomaticJak]

Thanks a ton!

[@DelaNi-WoW]

Man, seeing the changes in one Video is crazy and brings back a lot of memories. Playing priest Heal since Wrath, it is kinda crazy how many iterations of it we had. Soon, hopefully there will be a Video reflecting on the changes holy got, would love to see it.

[@PureEvil3D]

Wrath of the Lich King Disc was crazy too. Especially with the Ulduar legendary. The disc priest in my raid team didn't even have Val'anyr and by the time he got into his ICC tier set, there wasn't much that could get through his bubbles. Even more so because there was no cooldown on Power Word: Shield and when it popped, it would return as much, if not more, mana than it cost to cast.

[@unholyXromance]

disc in Siege of Orgrimmar was broken af. I just spammed damage the whole fight and destroyed everyone (mostly) on healing meters, and never came close to going oom

[@danielgrundtvig]

This was really cool, remiscent of Preach's "Legacy of ..." series. Definitely would love to see more of these for other healers :)

[@luminous19]

Nice walk down memory lane! Thanks for reminding us of our age 🫣😂 Strictly a hpal, but velen/lightswrath in legion was peak memory! Made me main disc through most of BFA and bounced between after that. Along with your vids, defs help with confidence and knowledge!! Haven’t touched WW but interesting! Dad life does kill the interest in these things / the game unfortunately, nothing will come close to those old memories

[@bloodscar1]

I loved this content and would absolutely love a history of all the healers since MoP ending with Pres (let them cook)

[@Devonellah]

THanks for going ALLL the way back -- I actually got into Disc in Burning Crusade :) I never liked Holy as much lol :) I still have my original Priest!!! 🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠

[@Max-9871]

You should have started in wotlk with the video since that was the start when discipline became a competitive pve spec instead of just spending additional points as holy or shadow. Disc was the only healer with a strong external tank cd and power word shield was suprisingly strong back then compared to nowadays.

[@AutomaticJak]

If I had played back then I would have

[@samanthalittleton1033]

I've always heard about WotlK disc with big bubbles that meters didn't track during the time. I'm assuming Jak is calling the "modern disc priest" an Atonement centric one. Could've started in Cata, at launch I think people only really casted Holy Fire on CD for Evangelism/Archangel stacks. I was new to the game but when we were finishing FL and getting ready for DS our disc priest raid leader mentioned something about a patch that fixed Atonement. He explained before he would Smite Ragnaros and it'd only try to heal people literally under him, the patch kept it a 15y ability but let it scale off of hitboxes and it actually seemed to hit everyone in Rag's arena. I didn't know a healer could use damaging abilities to heal, I instantly rerolled and fell in love.

[@adityasihag4]

Iirc, shields applied a debuff, so two discs in a raid was clunky, if the other priest debuffed a target, you couldn't apply your shield

[@samanthalittleton1033]

@@adityasihag4 I forgot about that! One patch, don't remember which, the healing priest set had a buff for PW:S and holy priests would drive me crazy. Back when tier sets didn't change on spec and you needed a separate one if you wanted to play shadow. The healing tier did something for holy and disc, but holy priests would see PW:S and use it too.

[@johnlinks]

Cata Disc is when i started playing Priest and been playing it ever since then. Shadowlands Kyrian and Night Fae were super fun. TWW Disc priest reminds me a lot of Kyrian boon of the ascended

[@lluccil9289]

Raiding as Disc in MoP was fun af, as doing M+ in BfA with essences and corruptions on S4. But I do agree with Jak when he says WW is peak gameplay for Disc Priests in M+, I'm having so much fun nowadays compared to the days of burnout on DF.

[@AutomaticJak]

Hellll yea

[@WolfoxLive]

MoP Disc… was so OP that I switched to Holy to be fair to my guildies :) I remember it was converting 90% of damage to auto smart heal :) They nerfet it 3-4 times to 60% towards the end of expansion and it was still too powerful and easy.

[@DaveTheeMan-wj2nk]

Cool video Jak. Glad so many people enjoy the play style.

[@AutomaticJak]

Thanks!

[@LawnchairStudios]

Nothing beats Lights Wrath in Legion. Perfectly ramping and timing the projectile speed perfectly to instantly top everyone after raid dmg. Almost to look like it never happened.

[@AutomaticJak]

I miss it so much

[@unknownsoldier452]

I used to be Holy Priest main since Legion - both in M+ and Raids. But then DF S3 rolled out, people were hyped about the rework and I said - fuck it, if not now, when then?! - and I plunged in to Disc Priest for M+ and boy oh boy what a fun season it was. I ended up at 3.3k all pugged and it was such a good version of Disc. The tier set bonus made the gameplay loop so satisfying but also left enough head room for optimisation. I loved it.

[@R01202]

In my view atonement should be brought to a split passive/active, somewhat like echo for evos. Always passively heals injured targets, buffs the healing when atonement applied to specific targets via shield or radiance. Would just like to have some more passive cleave heals back to help ease the pain in globals.

[@Failedwizard1]

I'd like to see this video done for Holy too as someone who has played the spec with no break since WoD but in PvP.

[@carrot4759]

amirdrassil disc was probably the most fun ive had healing ever

[@Brotatochip-z7b]

It wasn’t fun playing with a disc priest in mop to be fair. They were stupid broken

[@AutomaticJak]

True my rdruid hated me

[@talisredstar1543]

i'M A Disc noob/casual. but I miss pre pruning disc priest. I know it was a pain in the ass to play rotationally to fit every thing in, but Now days when I play I feel like i'm doing somethign wrong when I just to through the rotation and then i'm left spamming smite all day. Personally if they left schism tied into mind blast and gave us just one more spell to hit like mind games. I'd be happy. To me disc felt like it had 1, and just 1 button to much to press. In TWW tying schism into mind blast is just great to me, but without mind games. like I said I feel like i'm doing something wrong when all i'm suppose to be doing is hitting smite.

[@Keyourasa]

this, this so much. i feel like im constantly just doing nothing but smiting half the time and it feels just wrong. esp on what i once considered to be the highest skill cap spec. evoker is alot nicer atm to me

[@daketh4572]

Loved the video. Played disc since wrath. Loved cata disc. WoD disc pws spam not fun and the spec came alive with legion. There was a multi boxer called Farmerknight in the BFA pvp area. This guy was a scourge in the pvp area and complaints of him were on the forums. I had a heated up lights wrath. I went into the area, targeted his BDK. Schism and lights wrath, dead, and nitro boost and glider the F out of there lol

[@lucynsol]

fuzzy mattress is cursed, but I will likely now call varimathras this too now

[@liamdavies2823]

will you be playing disc in mop classic when it comes? 100% it's the best version of disc that's ever been in the game. when mop was announced i gave in and just boosted a goblin priest to 80, no way im doing that levelling process again :D but i didn't really play it until recently when retail hit the mid season slump. disc is so fun even in its current cata form, it's chilling at almost 84. forgot how fun questing in uldum is and i'm having way more fun than on retail right now tbh. super hyped for mop, atonement healing finally being triggered by penance, spirit shell!!! mop disc was insane, can't wait to have it back for a brief time

[@AutomaticJak]

Oh yeah I’m dying for some mop classic

[@Ellivlok23]

Good Ole Grace Disc in Emerald Nightmare. Was fun to go against the grain of what Blizzard was envisioning with the spec at the time until they finally hard pushed us into a ramp playstyle by the time tomb of sargeras rolled around.

[@Varifyr]

Ehat an interesting video concept!

[@AutomaticJak]

Thanks! Might do more of em if people dig it

[@mucc_x]

wish that we didnt have to manually apply atonements, thats the only thing i dont like about the spec

[@PsychicOracle]

Oh friend, I’m a lifelong priest and I love dps to heal, and I can barely force myself to do priest anymore over Fistweaver or Paladin versions that feel so strong and are semi-smart. Also tagging ppl w/Atonement comes off outdated or unsupported since you really need a buff tracking addon to do it properly in challenging content

[@bklyn531]

Great video, I’d give a kidney to have spirit shell back. The gameplay was amazing.

[@AutomaticJak]

If only they could balance it properly 😂

[@fester-555]

@@AutomaticJak Yea.. in general those huge absorbs feel VERY bad for the other healers. That is the main reason why I prefer the big bursts. If you time them right they feel awesome but other healers don't feel completely obsolete

[@Laptican]

Man temple of sethraliss was probably the single dungeon i only did once as disc 🤣 it was a +25 and we all just spam healed the npc to top it

[@Velanae]

I got back into playing my priest this xpac and I'm liking disc, the last time I played disc was in cataclysm so it's definitely different from what I was used to lol

[@AutomaticJak]

Ohhh yeah, it’s a whole different spec now

[@Velanae]

@AutomaticJak yeah lol, but I've been getting used to it and I'm enjoying it. Your disc videos and cell video has gotten me back into healing!

[@AutomaticJak]

Glad to hear it!!

[@jackpad-b3d]

What is "turbo feeding"?

[@vanguelisk]

I am ksm/ksh noob and I miss instant radiance from DF S2.I have not played disc in keys since DF S4. I play holy in keys (which is in a bad state right now) and disc in raid

[@flygirlhandm]

Wrath disc was def the best. Not so easy and op... but so necessary for the debuffs on p1 of lich king

[@cod-the-creator]

"disc lost it's identity and became about casting shields" lol this WAS disc identity before your mop clip of a broken spec 1 healing. Atonement healing is the single reason why healing feels like dogshit in retail. Once they introduced that they created an unsolvable problem for healers balancing dps and heals.

[@icresp4263]

The shield identity made it pretty hard to balance with other healers iirc

[@jvictormd]

Story of Holy Priest in modern wow 🙏🏽

[@ximbabwe0228]

"It began, as it always did, with your GF finally agreeing to play Warcraft with you..."

[@danielmooreorless]

Was short lived memory but cyclotronic blast mechagon trinket interaction with schism was fun whilst it lasted

[@AutomaticJak]

So true

[@Aggrofool]

Anyone remember the peak degenerate gameplay that was Spirit Shell?

[@jvictormd]

Disc in WoD was still degenerate, most fights it was just PWS spam and at the end with the amount spirit we had it was really just non stop PWS spam.

[@paulwiewel6766]

I only was there for SL s1 spirit shell, but God it was fun

[@mountain_bandit1]

I honestly think we're kind of in a dark age for class design. It seems like pretty much every class is focused on cramming as many abilities as possible into the rotation instead of just having a smooth, coherent base rotation. All the new talent system did was open the door for insane amounts of button bloat and constant patch-to-patch reworks.

[@AutomaticJak]

Yeah, it's just a bit of a mess right now with certain specs. Paladin in particular feels very bloated w healing sources, disc feels like it has too many modifiers. Think the DF talent trees are good but just way too many nodes

[@Nhouyengah]

Idk for the classes I play, Mage feels great (except frost SS) DK Feels amazing on all 3 IMO, Rogue, kinda meh but still fun, Warlock, very fun and thematic, I guess you were talking about healing specs tho

[@ddddd74527]

Healers class design is in complete steady downfall overall, since talent trees and hero talents made it even worse there are way too many buttons primarly cooldowns so healers don't even heal normally anymore. Base abilities do like nothing and you depend on millions of modifiers and pre-set cd rotation to cover any bit of damage. Like paladins are in one of the worst states they have ever been going from best spot healer to holy shock barely moving 10% of people's health bars outside of wings and dt and beacons got nerfed to oblivion going from up to 80% in legion to 20% now. The game is in dire need of legion like prunning, everything is even more bloated than it was in mop.

[@PsychicOracle]

It has to be because super fast paced button mashing resonates better in China; no healer has ever asked for the job to be made more arcadey

[@sharkqzz1241]

I just want them to shift away from the overuse of shadow spells. Give me some powerful holy damaging spells and some shield variation

[@luxaeterna9383]

I want cascade back so bad!!

[@Whalebelly2239]

I'd advice you to check Preach's class history vids. That's how it's done. This is basically just an outdated quick guide compilation.

[@Melissaxoxox]

People might say bloat in DF but i would say it was fun and unique, now we're stuck with squid builds which is boring af and has downtime

[@ryanzz1357]

Mobility is still a big issue

[@BurntToast256]

Nothing will beat Lich King Disc Priest... just right clicking down the raid frames and blanket the raid with Power Word: Shield and then when there's a AOE generate back to full mana with Rapture.

[@nosferhatu]

People can say what they want but the best disc priest ever was the Wotlk Disc priest ! Why ? because it was the only healer that was doing 90% only absorbs and shields while every other single healer was based on casting and healing hp bars from low to top.Disc felt so unique back then , not like now where you got Disc healing by doing dmg, Hpala healing by doing dmg, Mw monk healing by doing damage - meh .

[@perfectman3077]

Legion was so bad for so many specs

[@Strafe_X1]

First

[@dkbluee]

ded game. time to poe

[@Ayenayedaye]

qq more

[@Laptican]

Define dead game? I see tons of groups doing mythic+, raid and pvp.

[@WolfoxLive]

Pillars of Eternity?