PvE Discipline Priest Talents, Builds, & Glyphs

The Mists of Pandaria expansion overhauled the talent options for every class and removed Prime Glyphs, leaving a more streamlined system for building out your character. For Discipline Priests, your choices will have a subtle, but still meaningful impact on your gameplay and performance.

Talents

Talents can now be changed out of combat as long as you have some Tome of the Clear Mind on hand. That means you can easily swap out talents on a fight-by-fight basis. This gives you greater flexibility to take advantage of niche talents when the situation calls for it instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all talent build.

The talent build pictured below should work for the majority of content, but often you will want to cater your build to the specific encounter at hand. Read on to find out about individual talents and what situations might call for different selections.

Level 15 Talents (Tier 1)

• Void Tendrils
  This is the most likely to be useful in endgame PvE content out of the three crowd control options in this tier. Its AoE root effect is on a short cooldown and can keep up to 5 mobs locked down for up to 20 seconds.
• Psyfiend
  This fear effect is a little less reliable than the root option. Best used with Glyph of Psychic Scream, but that requires taking up a Major Glyph slot with a glyph that doesn’t improve your healing.
• Dominate Mind
  Mind control is not useful in endgame group content since you will not be able to continue healing while using it.

Level 30 Talents (Tier 2)

• Body and Soul
  Previously only available to Holy Priests, this speed boost piggybacks off of Power Word: Shield. This can be an advantage since it means you can be throwing out speed buffs left and right while also putting out absorbs. It can also be a disadvantage since it requires casting an expensive spell to get this secondary benefit, and you may not be able to give it to someone if they already have Weakened Soul.
• Angelic Feather
  This option offers a more powerful movement speed buff than Body and Soul at no mana cost, and it does not run the risk of failing due to the Weakened Soul debuff. You can even chain 3 in a row to sprint for 18 seconds straight! On the other hand, you can only use 3 feathers before they must recharge, so you won’t be able to blanket the group in speed buffs. Moreover, the feathers must be placed on the ground by default, which can be awkward – but luckily there are targeting macros to help with that. Feathers remain on the ground for 10 minutes or until 3 more have been placed, so you can also set them up well in advance for your teammates to use at their discretion.
• Phantasm
  This talent isn’t worth taking in most PvE content, but if there are movement impairing mechanics you might spec into it for a specific fight.

Level 45 Talents (Tier 3)

• From Darkness Comes Light
  This talent may seem tailor-made for Discipline Priests on the surface, but it’s unpredictable and can’t proc off of your absorbs. You’ll get a lot more use out of the other two options.
• Mindbender
  Replaces your Shadowfiend with a buffed version that can be summoned every minute instead of every 3 minutes, which can amount to a lot of mana regeneration if used on cooldown. A great option if you won’t be able to find the GCDs to use Solace and Insanity with any frequency.
• Solace and Insanity
  Replaces your Holy Fire with Power Word: Solace, which works exactly the same but restores mana instead of spending it. This talent loses value on fights where you have to constantly heal and can’t spare a GCD for this ability. But for most content, it’s the strongest of your three mana conservation options in this tier.

Level 60 Talents (Tier 4)

• Desperate Prayer
  This is a simple and straightforward personal cooldown. It’s instant, costs no mana, and can heal a good chunk of your health every 2 minutes. It can also crit and proc Divine Aegis. It will be the best option in most situations, but you have to actually remember to use it (and use it often) for it to have any actual value. This ability is off the global cooldown and is therefore good to use in defensive macros.
• Spectral Guise
  This stealth effect doesn’t let you avoid damage and you can’t cast any spells without breaking it. But it can still be extremely useful in certain situations even in PvE since it will force enemies to un-target you. That means it can be used to break abilities like Fixate when they are cast on you. Beyond that, there’s also a way to “cheese” this spell to drop combat, assuming Blizzard doesn’t fix it for MoP Classic. You just have to cancel the effect before it expires (by clicking it off or using a macro).
• Angelic Bulwark
  A bit weaker than Desperate Prayer, but a good alternative if you prefer a passive effect that triggers automatically instead of having to use a cooldown. If the absorption effect benefited from your Mastery this would be a much better talent, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

Level 75 Talents (Tier 5)

• Twist of Fate
  With this you’ll get 15% increased damage and healing for 10 seconds after you heal or deal damage to a target who has fallen below 35% health. This talent is powerful but also very situational. It does not interact with your absorption effects, only damage and healing. It also requires either your teammates or enemies to drop below 35% health, or you won’t be able to trigger it at all. On the other hand, you can keep very high uptime on the buff in the right circumstances, maybe even 100%. You can also double-dip this buff with Atonement.
• Power Infusion
  A powerful personal cooldown that can massively buff your spell casts for 20 seconds every 2 minutes. The buff increases your casting speed and the damage you deal as well as reducing the mana cost of your spells. Although the bonus damage may make it seem like this is meant for Atonement healing, it’s often best used with expensive cast-time spells like Prayer of Healing that can benefit the most from its mana reduction. Note that unlike previous versions of this spell, this one can only be cast on yourself, so you won’t have to give it away to help your teammates parse anymore.
• Divine Insight
  This has some niche potential for fights in which you will be doing heavy healing on a single target, but its effect is not reliable and you won’t typically be using Power Word: Shield enough to need it.

Level 90 Talents (Tier 6)

• Cascade
  Of the three AoEs in this tier, this one will be used when the group is the most spread out, since it does more healing when targets are further apart. It’s also the only option that will heal or deal damage, but not both, so you don’t run the risk of pulling extra mobs or breaking crowd control when you use this to heal. It’s important to note that this spell has 15 total bounces and can’t bounce to the same target twice, so some of its potential healing will be wasted if it’s used outside of a 25-player raid.
• Divine Star
  The most broadly useful of these three AoE options and your default choice when you don’t have a reason to take one of the other two. It has the shortest cooldown and the lowest mana cost. It’s less useful if your group is not stacking or you can’t position yourself behind your teammates to line up the ability.
• Halo
  The most powerful of the three, but also the most expensive and on the longest cooldown. Be aware that it hits everything within 30 yards of your character, which can result in pulling extra mobs in dungeons or other tight areas. It will also be very hard on your mana if you try to use it every time it’s off cooldown. With that said, it offers the biggest bang for your buck if you need heavy burst healing. It’s also useful when the group is separated, but not spread out, such as if there’s a pile of players in melee and one at range.

Glyphs

Prime Glyphs are gone in Mists of Pandaria. You will still choose 3 Major Glyphs and 3 Minor Glyphs.

Major Glyphs

If you’re just looking to grab the 3 most straightforward glyphs for a Discipline Priest, here are your picks. Continue to the next section for alternatives that can be even more useful in the right circumstances.

• Glyph of Penance
  Excellent for any fight that requires heavy movement since it lets you cast Penance on the go, as long as you have the mana to support its increased cost.
• Glyph of Holy Fire
  Extends the range of your most significant damaging spells for Atonement. Very useful for reducing the amount of moving around you need to do, but on fights where you or your target are going to be more stationary, you can save this glyph slot for something else.
• Glyph of Inner Sanctum
  Provides additional movement speed when your Inner Will is active and additional defense when your Inner Fire is active, a very flexible and useful combination.

Situational Options

These can offer strong alternatives to the glyphs above depending on the content and your approach.

• Glyph of Binding Heal
  The main problem with this glyph is that the third target will be whoever happens to be closest to the target you cast Binding Heal on. So you could be spending another 35% mana to heal a full-health pet. But if you have mana to burn, it’s still extra healing for each Binding Heal you cast.
• Glyph of Fade
  Turns your otherwise not-very-useful Fade spell into a short-cooldown defensive ability.
• Glyph of Levitate
  Although your Levitate is likely to be quickly broken in a dungeon or raid environment, you will still get at least 10 seconds of speed out of it. It will also feel great when you have to run a long distance out of combat.
• Glyph of Prayer of Mending
  Reduces your Prayer of Mending from 5 charges to 4, with the tradeoff being that its initial target gets a much bigger heal. You’ll probably want to forgo this in most raids since it will cause your PoM to heal for less overall, but it can be useful in dungeons or on encounters where the bulk of the damage will be on the tank and you won’t benefit much from additional PoM bounces.
• Glyph of Purify
  Causes your Purify spell to also heal the target for a small amount when it dispels an effect. This is a nice little bonus when you are going to be dispelling a lot anyway.
• Glyph of Smite
  Does not affect the Atonement healing of your Smite, but it does buff your damage. Dealing extra damage is great if you’re already going to be Smiting a lot and don’t have a need for any of the more healing-oriented glyphs in this list.
• Glyph of Weakened Soul
  Reduces the duration of Weakened Soul and therefore lets you use Power Word: Shield on the same target(s) more often. This glyph is great if you’re going to be using PW:S a lot or if your group has more than one Discipline Priest. Typically you won’t be using the spell that frequently in endgame PvE, leaving this glyph as a niche option at best.

Options to Avoid

These may seem like strong options for Discipline Priests at first glance, but they’re generally not as good as the glyphs listed above and should be skipped.

• Glyph of Holy Nova
  The only way to get the Holy Nova spell now. It’s very weak and not worth the glyph slot. It doesn’t work with Atonement, Evangelism, or Divine Fury. If you just want a tool for AoEing down large groups of adds, you already have have Mind Sear.
• Glyph of Mass Dispel
  Allows you to dispel Magic effects with your Mass Dispel even if they are normally not dispellable, which can be extremely valuable if such an effect is present. There are very few examples of this in PvE content, however.
• Glyph of Power Word: Shield
  Converts some of the absorption of your Power Word: Shield into healing. The point of using PW:S instead of a direct heal is to get the absorb, so this glyph feels a little pointless.

Minor Glyphs

All of your Minor Glyphs are cosmetic and do not affect your healing or damage in any way, but there are a couple that add visual effects that can actually be useful for endgame content.

• Glyph of Borrowed Time
  Can give you a visual countdown to remind you to use your Borrowed Time buff.
• Glyph of Holy Resurrection
  Will highlight your Resurrection targets so that your group can see you are rezzing someone.
• Glyph of Inspired Hymns
  Adds a big glowy visual to your Hymn of Hope so that your group knows you’re channeling it.