General Information
On this page, we present the viable talent and glyph choices forDiscipline Priests in World of Warcraft MoP 5.4. We detail what each of the talents andglyphs do and in which situations they should be taken.
The other pages of our Discipline Priest guide can be accessedfrom the table of contents on the right.
1. Talent Choices↑top
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- Performance-enhancing
- Survival
- Crowd Control
- Movement
- Utility
- Situational
There is no longer such a thing as a default build. Most of the talents arenow viable. They can easily be changed, thanks to 
Dust of Disappearance(and 
Tomes of the Clear Mind from level 86 to 90).You will frequently find yourself changing talents and glyphs betweenencounters, in order to adapt your play style to different mechanics.Therefore, it is important to understand what each of your talents does andhow they affect your play style.
2. Tier 1 Talents↑top
Tier 1 talents offer you a choice between 3 crowd-control abilities.
Void Tendrils roots up to 5 enemies in place for up to 20 seconds.Killing the tendrils cancels the effects. The targets must be in the 8-yardproximity of the main target of the spell.
Psyfiend spawns a friendly NPC that casts fears on nearbyenemies.
Dominate Mind takes control of an enemy player or NPC.
These talents have, at best, situational uses. They may be useful insome encounters, but most likely will only be used during trash andquesting. Your choice will be largely irrelevant.
These talents do not influence your performance in any way, their usesbeing entirely situational. We advise that you choose the talent you preferthe most, or that one which applies best to the conditions of theencounter.
3. Tier 2 Talents↑top
Tier 2 talents offer you a choice between 3 means of improving yourmobility.
Body and Soul increases the movement speed of the target of your
Power Word: Shield and 
Leap of Faith by 60% for 4 seconds.
Angelic Feather allows you to place up to 3 feathers on theground. Collecting a feather (running through it) increases the player'smovement speed by 80% for 6 seconds. Placing feathers has no cooldown, butyou only gain a new feather every 10 seconds.
Phantasm causes your 
Fade to remove allmovement-impairing effects from you. It also makes you unslowable for 5seconds.
We feel that Body and Soul offers you the most control over when tooffer the movement speed increase, and to whom. However, keep in mind thatpre-existing 
Weakened Soul debuffs on players (due to you or someoneelse having shielded them recently) may prevent you from using this. Also,using this basically means you may end up wasting a Power Word: Shieldaltogether (assuming the target does not take damage) only to offer themovement speed boost.
Angelic Feather offers a longer and stronger movement speed boost, andit has fewer restrictions than Body and Soul. It also costs less mana to use.It is, however, reliant on the recipients of the buff actively running throughthe feathers left behind. Moreover, targeting specific players with thisability when the raid is stacked together is practically impossible.
Phantasm is more of a PvP talent, with situational uses atbest.
4. Tier 3 Talents↑top
Tier 3 talents offer you a choice between 3 performance-enhancingabilities.
From Darkness, Comes Light passively grants you a 15% chance, wheneveryou use 
Smite, 
Heal, 
Flash Heal,
Binding Heal, 
Penance, 
Prayer of Mending, 
Prayer of Healing,or 
Greater Heal to cause your next Flash Heal to be instant cast and haveno mana cost. You can have a maximum of 2 charges of this buff at one time.
Mindbender is an improved version of 
Shadowfiend,which it replaces. The Mindbender has a lower cooldown, and provides you withmore damage and mana regeneration.
Power Word: Solace is a spell that replaces your 
Holy Fire.The differences are that Power Word: Solace does not cost mana, and insteadregenerates 1% of maximum mana when cast. It does not trigger the Atonementeffect, but its damage is also done as healing to a nearby ally.
Each of these talents has its own situational uses, and they are allgreat. Making your choice will depend on several factors, most importantlythe mechanics of the encounter and your own playstyle.
Mindbender is easy to use and provides a stable and reliable means ofincreasing your mana regeneration.
From Darkness, Comes Light can provide excellent burst and manaconservation, but it suffers from two disadvantages. First of all, it procsrandomly, and, thus, uncontrollably. This makes it rather unreliable. Secondof all, it does not proc from Power Word: Shield,a spell that Discipline Priests may find themselves casting extensively incertain situations.
Power Word: Solace provides mana, as well as allowing you to keep upsome amount of healing, and deal some DPS in the process. It also provides adecent amount of mana regeneration. If you are making extensive use ofAtonement healing, then this talent can be very valuable.
5. Tier 4 Talents↑top
Tier 4 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that improve yoursurvivability.
Desperate Prayer is an instant-cast self-heal that heals you for30% of your maximum health, with a 2-minute cooldown.
Spectral Guise allows you to enter a pseudo-stealth state (youremain in combat), leaving behind an illusion of yourself. The effect lasts for6 seconds, or until you receive 3 attacks.
Angelic Bulwark is a passive ability that grants you a damageabsorption shield, for 20% of your maximum health, each time you drop below30% health. The effect has an internal cooldown of 90 seconds.
Here, we feel that the choice will come down to either Desperate Prayer or Angelic Bulwark. We prefer Desperate Prayer,because it can be used on-demand. Angelic Bulwark can be great when itprocs, so it is useful for fights where you often drop below 30% health(progression content, most likely).
Spectral Guise is not able to compete with the other two talents inPvE.
6. Tier 5 Talents↑top
Tier 5 talents offer you a choice between 3 performance-enhancingabilities.
Twist of Fate passively increases your damage and healing by 15% for10 seconds, each time you damage or heal a target that is below 35%health.
Power Infusion is a 2-minute cooldown that increases your spellcasting speed by 20%, reduces the mana cost of all your spells by 20%, andincreases all damage done by 5% for 20 seconds.
Divine Insight grants you a 100% chance whenever you cast Penance, that your next Power Word: Shield will ignore and notcause the Weakened Soul effect.
Twist of Fate is currently the best choice of talent in mostsituations. Divine Insight and Power Infusion are both decentoptions, although they only out-shine Twist of Fate in very restrictedcircumstances.
An unexpected benefit of Twist of Fate is worth taking intoconsideration. The talent interacts perfectly with 
Atonement. This isto say, the healing from Atonement double-dips from this buff, being greatlyincreased. In situations where the boss is below 35% health, or where arecipient of your heal is below 35% health, you will gain the Twist of Fatebuff, which will then greatly enhance your Atonement healing for the next 15seconds.
Also regarding Twist of Fate, it is worth noting that you can oftenabuse (we use the word loosely here, and it is certainly not somethingagainst the rules of the game) this mechanic by damaging low-health adds inorder to proc the effect. This works especially well on fights where there aremany adds that spawn and die regularly throughout the fight.
7. Tier 6 Talents↑top
Tier 6 talents offer you a choice between 3 abilities that deal damage toand heal multiple targets.
Cascade is a sort of "chain heal" or "chain lightning", dependingon how you wish to use the spell. The initial bolt heals or deals damage toits first target, after which it splits in two, each bolt jumping totargets that are far away, until it eventually stops.
Divine Star resembles a yo-yo, in the sense that theball of energy travels in a path away from you (in front of you), and afterreaching a certain point (24 yards away), it returns. Both on the first, aswell as on the second trip, it heals allies in its path, and damagesenemies.
Halo causes an effect around you, which expands up to a 30-yardradius. Allies who are inside it are healed, while enemies are damaged. Thehighest amounts of healing/damage are received by the targets who are aroundthe 25-yard mark.
Quite simply, you should choose the tier 6 talent based on the positioningof your raid during the encounter, and the type of damage that you will haveto heal.
Halo will work best when you can position yourself at a 25-yard rangefrom the players that need healing (since this is the range at which Halodoes the highest healing).
If your raid is stacked, then Divine Star can shine.
If your raid will be mostly spread out, in such a way thatHalo cannot be used well, then you will want Cascade.
8. Major Glyphs↑top
There are several Major Glyphs that you will find useful as a DisciplinePriest.
Glyph of Penance increases the mana cost of Penance by20%, but allows it to be cast while moving. If the encounter on which you areprogressing requires you to heal on the move, this glyph is practicallymandatory.- Glyph of Binding Heal causes your Binding Heal to heal a thirdtarget, but it increases its mana cost by 35%. This glyph is very useful,especially in 10-man raids.
- Glyph of Inner Sanctum reduces the amount of spell damage taken by 6%while
Inner Fire is active, and it increases the movement speed bonus of
Inner Will by 6%. This glyph is very useful, especially for the damagereduction component. - Glyph of Weakened Soul reduces the duration of Weakened Soul by2 seconds.
- Glyph of Fade reduces your damage taken by 10% while Fadeis active, turning the spell into a minor defensive cooldown.
- Glyph of Holy Fire increases the range of Holy Fire, Smite,and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards. It is useful for players who make use ofAtonement healing and who desire a bit more flexibility in theirpositioning.
- Glyph of Prayer of Mending increases the healing of Prayer of Mending by 60% on the first target, but causes it to have 1fewer charge.
- Glyph of Mass Dispel causes
Mass Dispel to dispel magic effectsthat are normally undispellable. This glyph is practically mandatory forany encounters you need to use Mass Dispel to get rid of certainmechanics.
9. Minor Glyphs↑top
All Minor Glyphs are of purely cosmetic value, and they do not influenceyour gameplay at all.
10. Changelog↑top
- 10 Sep. 2013: Patch 5.4 update.
- 23 May 2013: Removed a mention that none of the Major Glyphs offerstraightforward benefits, and added Glyph of Inner Sanctum.
- 20 May 2013: Patch 5.3 update: updated the Glyph of Mass Dispeldescription.
- 25 Apr. 2013: Fixed a small issue where we were mentioning Flash ofLight (the Holy Paladin spell) instead of Flash Heal.
- 18 Apr. 2013: Removed Glyph of Power Word: Shield, Glyph of Purify, and Glyph of Levitate since they are all sub-optimaland should never be used.
- 27 Mar. 2013: Expanded the explanations of Tier 2, 3, and 5Talents. Also updated the description of Glyph of Holy Fire to be in tunewith its live realm version (now increases range of Holy Fire, Smite, and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards).
- 04 Mar. 2013: Patch 5.2 update.
