Warriors can put some immense pressure upon us priests, and can easily get us from 75% to 0% upon popping their 1 shot macro. I have been killed by tons of warriors, but not so frequent as before in 5.0.5. This is a short guide with the strategy I use when in a 1v1 situation against warriors. I am not really familiar with how warriors play or what strategies they use when attacking discipline priests.
Tip #1:
Always save your trinket for the warrior to use Recklessness, along with his other cool downs.
This is because if you do not have a trinket, you will get hit by a Warbringer (3 second stun), an activated 1 shot macro, and then a 4 second Shockwave stun. You will most likely die here since you cannot heal yourself, and any shield, which may have been on you would be eaten instantly.
Tip#2:
Get the Talent – Divine Star.
Reason being that Divine Star does not count as a Holy school spell. So at times, I may try fake casting a Flash Heal to force a Pummel, but I have found it more reliable to actually commit to the flash heal. Chances are that the Warrior might Pummel too late, or if he does land it, use Divine Star … you get healed for at least 40k.
If you try fake casting/juking, and if the warrior is able to predict that, then you are in big trouble. Cause he may continue to attack you instead of interrupting. Your defeat may start from here because: 1. You fake casted so you have no heal on yourself 2. The warrior has been attacking you as he normally has 3. You will be forced to cast again upon which you will get pummeled, and then destroyed.
Tip#3:
Glyphs: Penance, Prayer of Mending, Pain Suppression/Fade
A running penance is so much better than a standing and casting one. You get all your 3 penance heals normally, and Warriors do not normally interrupt this. So this basically helps in running and casting, in addition to Prayer of Mending, Power Word: Shield and occasionally renew.
Prayer of Mending adds to another chunk to the healing output. A 60% gain heals for a decent 30k – 40k (or even more at times).
Pain Suppression Glyph is useful only for those situations where you cannot trinket on Recklessness, or for you to immediately pop it upon the first instance you are aware that recklessness has been used, and then possibly trinket later to heal yourself.
Glyph of Fade … well … this can be utilized to get a 10% damage reduction for 10 seconds, every 30 seconds. Make sure this is used ONLY and ALWAYS when the warrior is on you. Fade has no GCD, so this can be used in a macro with any other spell. So there are many ways by which this can be used. I normally fix fade and renew together.
Tip#4:
Discipline Priest healing sequence in PVP.
I may write another blog based solely on this. The sequence goes like this Penance, Prayer or Mending, Power Word: Shield and Flash Heal. This allows your Flash heal to get no pushback, and heal 80% more at the same time plus a 30%(Grace) + 60%(Glyph) stronger Prayer of Mending. Since the Flash Heal possibly suffers no pushback, you might even be able to sneak it in within a GCD. Another point to be made is that all these spells can be used while running, except for Flash Heal … which you can combine with Tip#2.
Tip#5:
Using Psyfiend, Spectral Guise and Psychic Scream effectively.
This is how I do it. I cast Psychic Scream, Warrior uses Berserker Rage, I use Spectral Guise. Wait for 4 seconds and cast Psyfiend. It takes 2 seconds for Psyfiend to cast fear, which should be just in time for Berserker Rage to wear off. A good warrior may try and use a shockwave on both you and the psyfiend and kill the fiend. If you notice this, you need to shield the fiend and make sure you DO NOT stand very near it. If everything goes well, which it should after you get experienced with this … you will have 4 seconds of free casting time to heal yourself.
You may try spec’ing into void tendrils, and shield the tendrils when you cast them … but I have not tried this out really.
Another manner in which you can use Psychic Scream effectively is to use it immediately off its CD. Psychic Scream’s CD is 27 seconds, while Berserker Rage’s CD is 30 seconds. Eventually you will be landing a full fear on him. I have, however, not tried this strategy either.
Tip#6:
Manage the CD of Psyfiend and Inner Focus effectively.
Both cool downs are 45 seconds. This means you must attempt alternating the two every 22.5 seconds. This is difficult, and needs some time and practice to get used to.
Tip#7:
Don’t run away… but run into…
This is quite useful … for me at least. Along with Body and Soul, running into the warrior will cause some of his attacks to miss. Avoidance is way better than mitigation. This does save you on healing, mana… and most importantly, survivability.
This article will be subject to change, as I am definitely missing a few things and have a lot more things to say. But that’s the Nitti-gritty end of it … I will try to upload a video against a 2200 Warrior to demonstrate this further. However, an Elite geared Warrior will always have a significant advantage against a Non-Elite geared priest.
If there is a warrior who would like to volunteer for this, or if anyone knows a warrior who would like to help out … I would like to hear from them.
Discipline/Holy Priest Pvp 