Why I like Disc

I have played each heal class at least to some extent. Though my shaman is still at 60 and my paladin is 83. I think each class has its fun parts and drudgery.

The main thing has to be that I can do damage while I heal. Granted it isn’t that great of damage but it is more than most healers, even Shaman with their chain lightning (though not as mana friendly). I like being able to Power Word: Shield and start casting holy fire/smite to do damage until someone’s health drops then it is generally penance to full and continue holy fire/smite (mainly in dungeons).  I like to be actively doing something. I’ve played classes where the only time you were hitting a button was when it lit up (looking at you level 15 pally). It was frustrating and boring. Give me something to push and I am happy.

The damage I do also allows me to stay in my heal spec to do quests. On both my Paladin and my Druid I had a rough time trying to quest and kill mobs that were yellow to me while in my heal spec. It just took too long and was frustrating. Both cases I’d switch to my tank spec and have a much easier time. Granted it is easier to do some questing in my shadow spec but I can efficiently kill things in my disc spec.

I also feel for the most part that I can be effective in any fight, other than 2 healing spine. I go out of mana too fast on that fight since the majority of the “healing” is not something you can prevent which is my strong suit as a discipline priest.  Most other fights though I have a tool that will work for it. Chimera, binding heal is superb, Madness barrier and power infusion help to get those heal intensive parts down.

I’ve not found a heal like Penance on another healer class/spec. A channeled heal that also works as damage that looks really cool while it spirals to your target. It is an awesome heal that does significant amount of healing. It is just plain fun.

The original thing that drew me to discipline healing was the bubbles. I love Power Word: Shield. I was sad and confused about what a discipline healer was when at the start of cataclysm they made it so mana impossible to bubble spam. I loved the Lich King fight spamming bubbles on everyone in the raid. That fight was awesome for my bubbles (the fight was just plain awesome too). I remember doing LK when 4.0 dropped. The week before I healed it like no ones business with mana to spare at the end, then 4.0 and I was oom a minute into the fight.  I was at a loss at the time for what to do and how to heal.

That is the main reason that I am never too worried now with the changes in Beta. I know that no matter what, I will figure out a game play that I enjoy and that will work. Blizzard wants me too. They want us to keep playing and aren’t going to completely kill one class or another, no matter how much it seems like all the whiners say different.

History lesson

I always find that the best way to start something is for an introduction.

I started playing WoW four years ago. I had no clue what the game was about but a co-worker had mentioned it and it sounded fun. I found a trial version that I could download and not have to get some console so I loaded it up and tried it out. It was from moments into it that I was hooked. I equated it to 3D Mario Brothers.

My game play started mainly solo. I ended up in a guild days after switching to the full version without a clue what a guild was and why I would want to be in it. I am still in that same guild 4 years later and am now I’m the guild leader.

My first toon was a protection warrior. I had been a protection warrior from the first time that I stepped into Deadmines and someone said, you have a sword and shield so you are the tank. I said ok and proceeded to wipe repeatedly. I think we spent about 4 hours in that dungeon. The next day I started reading up on the web about what protection warriors were and how to do it. Then I proceeded to not do another dungeon for another 35 dungeons. Yet I still was that prot warrior.

That protection warrior was the only toon and spec I played for months. It took me months to even get to 70 (level cap at the time). When I finally did and after some guildies helped me get some more defense to hit the 270 defense cap at the time, I stepped into my first raid, Karazan. I was hooked and loved it. It felt grand and epic. It was hilarious hearing all the voices on vent and playing with others.

Two years later is when I started healing on my priest, mainly as a way to fill a need. At the time we were raiding 25 man Naxxramas and needed two priests to mind control Instructor Razuvious. Of course I am a terribly slow leveler so I never got her high enough before we had moved on to Ulduar.

My priest didn’t become my main toon until half way through Ice Crown Citadel. Up until that point I had been the off-tank with my protection warrior in my 10 man raiding team. I love tanking for much the same reasons that I love healing and fitting with my personality in real life. I like making other peoples lives easier. “What some big baddie is pounding your squishy butt, here let me take that off you and let him smash his face on my shield”, or “OOh your health is dropping low, let me fill it with my blue bar.”

A guildie once told me that once I took up the healing mantle I’d never put it down and he was completely right. I enjoy most aspects of healing with the exception of the occasional idiots that will yell at me for not healing them standing in crud. Luckily that doesn’t happen often.

When I went to level my priest I knew I wanted to be heals and saw that there were two options: Holy and Discipline.  My raid leader at the time said he would never bring two heals of the same specialization and we currently had a great Holy Priests on our team so I went Discipline.

The first 55 some odd levels were a blur and I don’t really recall much healing challenges going on even in dungeons. It wasn’t until I got to Outlands with a Death Knight tank and multiple Death Knight dps fighting for aggro that I remember being challenged in dungeons (you know back in wrath when everyone and their cousin were creating death knights). It was an amazing amount of fun and I was told repeatedly that I was a good healer, which lets face it, everyone loves to be praised.

I was hooked on healing, just as my guildie said I would be. It wasn’t just the praise that hooked me in, but lets be honest, who doesn’t love being praise. I am not one that likes to be on top of the damage charts, nor do I care if I have the best gear or the most shiny epics. I like working with a group and helping it to accomplish a goal.

Well that is about it for about me. I will fill in more detail as I go here. I just wanted to get something up about how I came to play a Discipline Priest.

Intro to my little world

I spend a great deal of my free time with World of Warcraft. I enjoy raiding, farming, doing dailies with guildies, reading blogs and researching my toons. I read over on MMO Melting Pot that May was the Newbie Blog Initiative and I’ve always wanted to give back to the community. So here I am in my little world.

My intention is to be a resource for discipline priests with a bit of info about being a guild leader, raid leader and overall player in the World of Warcraft. I love reading blogs and finding out what people are doing with their toons in wow and thought that I’d like to share my experiences.