Discipline Priest Mythic+ Guide

By AutomaticJak Updated: 2019/08/01

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Discipline Strengths and WeaknessesHoly NovaPower Word: FortitudePower Word: ShieldRapturePower Word: BarrierPain SuppressionRaptureShadowfiendTwist of FateMind BlastBest Races for Mythic+

Void Elf - Has a decent mobility/escape tool in Spatial Rift and a solid passive effect in Entropic Embrace for damage and healing.

Night Elf - Touch of Elune always Crit inside instances. Shadowmeld has a wealth of uses in high level keystones, kiting away mobs from the party so they can cross a part of the instance (like Volkaal in Atal’dazar), and using later Shadowmeld and drop combat.

Human - The Human Spirit boosts all secondaries and Will to Survive is a useful stun removal, making Humans a solid choice.

Blood Elf - One of the most common races for high Disc Mythic+. Blood elves receive additional Critical Strike rating,Arcane Acuity, as well as the immensely useful Arcane Torrent ability. Offering mana regen and a Dispel Magic effect (Purge) to all enemies hit by the ability. While Priest already has Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel, utilizing Arcane Torrent can save mana and time, allowing the Priest to spend more time healing or dealing damage as needed.

Goblin - Less common in Mythic+, but offers strong value through passive bonus haste (Time is Money) and extra mobility with their Rocket Jump.

Troll - Berserking is a substantial Haste increase, which can be saved for healing or dealing damage.

Discipline Utility

Pain Suppression - Key external that can be used frequently to reduce incoming damage.

Power Word: Barrier - Often viewed as a party or raid-wide cooldown can also be used solely as a tank external when needed. Both Pain Suppression and Power Word: Barrier have 3 minute cooldowns making it easier to use them both aggressively.

Rapture - Offers extremely powerful shielding boost on a short cooldown, often requiring preemptive use due to the GCD attached to the ability. Can often act as a strong recovery tool when heavy damage is anticipated whether it is solely on the tank or on the entirety of the group. During the Heartsbane Traid encounter for example, it can be very useful to Rapture during Sister Maladay due to the movement requirements which stack a DoT effect. Similarly on Cragmaw, you can use Rapturein preparation for the Tantrum ability before the boss hits 100 energy and deals heavy party wide damage. This gives you enough breathing room to continue healing through Atonement and spot heal as necessary.

Mass Dispel - Allows you to easily dispel harmful effects on allies and beneficial effects on enemies. Extremely helpful in instances like King's Rest or Underrot that have many helpful buffs for enemy mobs.

Dispel Magic - Offensive dispel that can purge off a single buff from an enemy

Purify - Removes Diseases and Magic effects from a friendly target

Psychic Scream - Fears 5 enemies within 8 yards, can be extremely useful for interrupting spell casts and channeled abilities like Ice Spritzer’s from Refreshment Vendors in The MOTHERLODE!! Root effects like Grasp from the Depths from Aqu'sirr in Shrine and A Knot of Snakes from Merektha in Temple of Sethralliss can both be destroyed by using Fear instead of having to kill them, saving a great deal of time and damage.

Shackle Horror - Situational crowd control effect that can immobilize undead enemies. Useful for Deathspeaker's in Underrot, Honorguard or Shield of Zul enemies in Atal'dazar, or crowd controlling specific enemies like the Hex Priest or Beastmasters leading up to the Council of Tribes encounter in King's Rest.

Fade - Helps drop threat, often used as you start applying Purge the Wicked to mobs as they are pulled. Can also be helpful if the tank is killed, enemies swarm to the next highest on threat and you want to lower your level on the threat table.

Leap of Faith - Friendly player displacement, can be very useful for separating players from enemy mobs or disadvantageous positions. Useful for bringing a tank out of a dangerous spot, say if they need to start kiting in Freehold and they are gripped back into melee by a Harpooner mob, you can grip them back out of the group so they stand a fighting chance.

TalentsMind BlastTwist of FateShadow MendTwist of FateAngelic FeatherMindbenderPsychic VoiceDominant MindShining ForcePsychic VoiceDominant MindMind ControlShining ForceSins of the ManyPurge the WickedShadow Word: PainPenanceDivine StarPurge the WickedLenienceLuminous BarrierPower Word: BarrierLenienceAzerite TraitsAtonementOuter RingsTier 1:

Treacherous Covenant - Offers strong intellect gain for increasing damage or healing. Good mix of safety and damage increase.

Sudden Revelation - Strong trait that significantly increases the damage of Holy Nova. Can hold 2 charges for 30 seconds, allowing you to bank charges to burst high damage on trash packs or reaping.

Rezan's Fury - Strong overall damage increase, many similar generic traits offer similar damage. This damage does not trigger Atonement.

Death Throes - Offers a solid damage increase to Purge or Pain but is often outpaced by Rezan's Fury and other pure damage traits. The difference is that this trait can be found on the new 5th ring on Azerite pieces allowing you to take multiple damage based traits for a more aggressive playstyle.

Depth of the Shadows - Recently buffed, this trait is a solid “safe” pick to increase the healing of your Shadow Mend and to save resources through longer Atonement durations. While it will not increase your damage, this can be a good trait to have if you find yourself needing to heal your tank more frequently with Shadow Mend.

Inner Ring

Heed My Call - Excellent raw damage increase.

Overwhelming Power - Strong secondary stat increase, especially powerful for upfront damage burst, allowing more casts during your Mind Blast window

Unstable Flames - Solid trait that offers strong secondary stat uptime.

Middle Ring

Resounding Protection

Impassive Visage

Gemhide

Recommended Azerite PiecesDepth of the ShadowsTidal Surgedo notAtonement

Name

Location

Outer Tier 1 Trait

Inner Tier 1 Trait

Tier 2 Trait

Tier 3 Trait

Blazewing Hood

Battle for Dazar'alor

Headdress of the First Empire

King's Rest

Death Throes

Rezan's Fury

Earthlink

Resounding Protection

Freehold

Name

Location

Outer Tier 1 Trait

Inner Tier 1 Trait

Tier 2 Trait

Tier 3 Trait

Giga-Charged Shoulderpads

Battle for Dazar'alor

Amice of the Returned

Waycrest Manor

Enduring Luminescence

Death Throes

Unstable Flames

Impassive Visage

Pauldrons of Vile Corruption

Underrot

Depth of the Shadows

Blood Rite

Unstable Flames

Resounding Protection

Name

Location

Outer Tier 1 Trait

Inner Tier 1 Trait

Tier 2 Trait

Tier 3 Trait

Divine Fury Raiment

Battle for Dazar'alor

Enduring Luminescence

Treacherous Covenant

On My Way

Sanctum

Loa Betrayer's Vestments

Atal'dazar

Inmate's Straight Robe

Tol'Dagor

Azerite Essences and When To Use ThemMajor

Vision of Perfection - Offers a strong balance between damage and healing with bonus procs of Shadowfiend. While random, the uptime is high and the damage it deals will tranfer to Atonement.

The Crucible of Flame - Offers a strong single target damage increase that can be excellent to use on low level keys where you are working to add damage to improve the speed of the run.

The Ever-Rising Tide - Is an easy to use essence with a short cooldown offering strong bursts of healing when you need it. It is more easily used early in a trash pull to generate high stacks then utilize those stacks to continue dealing damage via Atonement and sustaining the tank or the group.

Memory of Lucid Dreams - Will be a more rare selection in the major slot but can be effectively used when dealing with high level tyrannical keys that require significant mana to sustain the party.

Life-Binder's Invocation - Is also a more situational Major essence that can work well against Bursting or Grievous due to the heavy amount of seeds that can be applied to players to deal with consistent, incoming damage.

Minor

The Well of Existence - As a minor trait this is an excellent tool to assist with sustaining the tank. Discipline is easily able to generate additional overheal onto the party and this essence allows you to sustain the tank or any other party members that drop low.

Vision of Perfection - Strong all around minor trait. Cooldown reduction allowing for higher uptime, damage dealt and greater flexibility for Shadowfiend.

Conflict and Strife - Balance between damage and healing. Consistent use of abilities maintains a high amount of versatility

Life-Binder's Invocation - Also offers a good sustainability tool but the healing is often much more widespread to the group. So on weeks where groupwide damage is low (non grievous/bursting), there is a significant chance of high waste to occur.

Memory of Lucid Dreams - Can be used as minor whenever players need to stretch their mana a bit further, but not so much that they must take the major essence. High tyrannical weeks look favorable for this minor essence.

The Crucible of Flame - Aggressive damage increase with slight healing upside.

Favored combinations

Groupwide Damage - Life-Binder's Invocation Major, The Well of Existence Minor

Standard/Balanced - The Ever-Rising Tide Major, The Well of Existence Minor

Aggressive - The Crucible of Flame] Major, Vision of Perfection Minor

Mana Hungry/High Single-Target - Memory of Lucid Dreams Major, The Well of Existence Minor

Mastering Discipline in DungeonsThe FundamentalsAtonementShadow MendAtonementPurge the WickedPower Word: BarrierRapturePain SuppressionMore Damage vs HealingHoly NovaHoly NovaAtonementShadow MendPurge the WickedAtonementAtonementShadow MendSmiteAtonement"Hero" PlaysMind ControlShackle HorrorPsychic ScreamShining Force

What if your Psychic Scream or Shining Force bring that mob into another enemy pack?

What if you Mind Control a mob but don't have the Dominant Mind talent so you are risk of standing in another mob's void zone because you cannot control your character?

What if you do talent into it but Mind Control is on cooldown from a previous save?

How do you respond if you Mind Control the enemy, then break it to move from said void zone, but then the mob is aggro'd to you (this is called Mind Control taunt, whereby a MC'd enemy often will ignore threat tables and continue chasing the enemy that MC'd them).

Weakauras

Targeted Abilities - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Excellent for being able to see which players are being targeted by specific abilities allows you to pre-cast a heal on the target so that it hits just after the damage.

Quaking Tracker - Helpful for viewing when Quaking will hit so you can prepare in advance

Interrupt Tracker - While you will not have an interrupt as a healer, it can be helpful to know which kicks are available to better prepare for incoming damage. If you know that all of the interrupts are on cooldown, you can better prepare the group for incoming damage depending on the source.

Useful Items to Consider

Flask of Endless Fathoms

Boralus Blood Sausage or Swamp Fish 'n Chips

Battle-Scarred Augment Rune - While these can be expensive to maintain through dungeons, they can be vital for getting a bit of extra damage and healing for a difficult pull.

War-Scroll of Battle Shout - While this scroll and the others listed below may not be your particular responsibility to bring, someone in the group should have them available as they offer substantial benefits to the team.

War-Scroll of Intellect - A weaker form of the Mage buff.

Drums of the Maelstrom - The latest Bloodlust fill in if your group is lacking in a Hunter, Mage, or Shaman.

Coastal Mana Potion - Always helpful to have in case you are locked into a prolonged pull and running low on mana.

Potion of Replenishment - Rarely used in keys but always important to have available in case they are needed. Siege of Boralus can have some prolonged periods of combat while using the Spotter mob to clear trash more easily, with those periods of downtime it can be very helpful to use a Replenishment Potion if you are low on mana.

Coastal Healing Potion and Healthstone are absolutely vital for high level keys, the latter can be acquired through the Proving Grounds if you do not have a lock in your group.

Lightfoot Potion - More rarely used but can be excellent to have available in case heavy movement is required and you are unable to mount up.

Demitri's Draught of Deception - Recent Mythic+ changes have added more Truesight mobs but invisibility potions will continue to have a use and strong value when running keys.

Battle Potion of Intellect - Expensive to constant use regularly, but worth the cost when pushing a higher level dungeon.

Unstable Temporal Time Shifter - New Engineering item that will consume a Combat Resurrection charge. Excellent if your group is limited in Combat Rezzes and has a fairly high success rate.

Dungeon Affixes and How to Deal With Them

Fortified - Buffs all the trash in the dungeon, increasing their damage by 30% and health by 20%. While this affix does not have a direct impact on your performance, it is important to be prepared for massive tank damage on some trash pulls.

Tyrannical - Buffs all the bosses in the dungeon, increasing their damage by 15% and health by 40%. This affix can be brutal for certain encounters, such as Galvazzt in Temple of Sethraliss and Captain Eudora in the Council o’ Captains of Freehold.

Bursting - Bursting is often a group based challenge, as it is extremely important to properly evaluate how many stacks your group can survive while also pushing to either let at least one mob stay alive for the Disc to damage, or to quickly pull into the next trash pack so that the Priest still has enemies to hit to heal everyone in the party through Atonement. Mind Blast is an excellent tool to be able to deal with Bursting but requires a mob to live through the duration of the bursting effect. If you know that you will not have an enemy to damage when all enemies die, utilizing an early Rapture will go a long way towards smoothing out the damage onto targets

Sanguine - Shining Force is an excellent tool to assist with the Sanguine affix, but often it is not optimal to cast off of yourself but instead to coordinate with your tank and have them call for when to cast it off of them. Due to the tank's inherent nature of sitting in melee at all times, this allows them to more easily position themselves and the mobs around them in a suitable way to take advantage of Shining Force's powerful knockback. When the tank can reasonably call and predict where the mobs will be moving towards it makes it easier to reduce the healing that Sanguine will provide to enemy trash packs.

Explosive - Dealing with Explosive often requires looking at the group composition to see who is most well suited to deal with them on a consistent basis. Large pulls will require other players to assist if the orb-killer gets overwhelmed. Discipline is decent at killing orbs but far from the best for dealing with them. is the only instant cast that will consistently one-shot most Explosive orbs, as can Smite but has the cast time attributed to it. If you have a more powerful orb killer, you can applying Purge the Wicked or weave in Smite if many orbs spawn at once and they need assistance.

Grievous - Dealing with Grievous often is a fight for quickly counteracting and preparing for the damage before it goes out. In large trash pulls which will definitely have party wide damage, the trash pack before Priestess Alun'za or the pack down the stairs after Vol'kaal in Atal'dazar for example, will have many casters and aoe damage which hits the party. Consistently having Atonement out and onto the rest of the group before the damage hits so it can be rapidly topped off and negate the Grievous debuff will be key. It is often better to potentially lower your overall damage by applying Atonement's early to quickly reverse any Grievous stacks, rather than playing more greedily with Atonements and having to deal with 4 stacks Grievous' later on. Specing into Twist of Fate, while lower damage than Mind Blast, can often save you more time and allow you to deal more damage than by taking the latter. If you are quickly able to remove Grievous stacks from party members after receiving a Twist of Fate proc, you’ll then have more time at your disposal to deal damage. With the latest changes to Grievous, it is now more important than ever to quickly top off stacks before they get out of control.

Necrotic - Necrotic can be a difficult affix for the healer alone manage, as often the tank will have the greatest control over their stacks. You can, however, assist the tank and group through well-coordinated Shining Force and Leap of Faith usage. Working with the tank to call for Shining Force to be cast off of them so they can safely begin kiting will often save the tank resources that they can use later on. When playing an aggressive pull, Shining Force will give them instant breathing room and a short slow effect. Even if you have a tank like a Prot Paladin or Monk who already are excellent kiters, this will save them resources like Charger or Chi Torpedos that can be spent later when or if they choose to go back into melee after their stacks fall off, then disengage again with said abilities. Leap of Faith can provide immediate and often emergency removal from

The Beguiling affix in Season 3 requires strong coordination in your group to be able to more easily deal with. Azshara scatters three types of Emissaries throughout each dungeon that rotate each week. Two must be focused down and killed while the first one that we will be discussing must simply be drained of its energy.

The Enchanted Emissary has a spell reflect bubble around it dealing damage taken by any enemies in the bubble back at the attackers. Any attacks against the emissary itself will knock it back. Pet attacks, like that of Shadowfiend will continuously knock back the emissary for each strike. Each individual hit from Penance will knock the emissary back as well, provided you are far enough from the target that the mob is able to land after taking the first hit from the bolt. Very fast, successive strikes of Penance will not allow the enchanted mob time to reset and be ready to be knocked back again. It can also be slowed, making it easier to deal with.

The Emissary of the Tides causes nearby enemies to be immune to crowd control, making this mob benign or dangerous depending on the surrounding mobs. In general, this is a mob that must be focused down as often as possible. Even if your group has reliable damage, depending on the mobs surrounding it, there may still be a high amount of healing required sustain players as you try to deal with this. Be aggressive with using Rapture to shield players and smooth out incoming damage to avoid falling behind.

The final emissary is the Void-Touched Emissary that constantly casts an aoe nuke in Queen's Decree: Hide. Getting hit by this attack deals significant damage and increases the damage you will take from the next hit for a short period. Using line of sight is very important to reducing damage taken. If your group has the damage, or you lack a good position to line of sight the target, it may just be better to focus this mob down as rapidly as possible. This will elongate some pulls as players focus on single target at the expense of their aoe but may be necessary depending on your group's routing. Contribute whatever extra damage that you can to help burn this enemy down faster.

The Reaping affix will resurrect dead trash mobs with half of their health pool. There are three mob types that spawn depending on the enemy. The adds that spawn as described by the Reaping Strategy Guide - BFA Season 2 Mythic+ Affix written by Squishei. "Risen Soul have the passive Risen Soul and do nothing but melee. This passive makes every successful melee swing apply the debuff Reap Soul. This deals 2% of a player's maximum health every 3 seconds and stacks and can be removed by a Magic Dispel.Tormented Soul spam cast Grave Bolt. This is a 5 second long cast that can be interrupted.If successfully cast, it deals 25% of the player's max health.Lost Soul periodically casts Shadow Smash which is a frontal cone that can be dodged. Any player hit has their maximum health reduced by 20% for 1 minute. When the Lost Soul dies it casts Expel Soul, summoning lots of swirlies. Any player who is hit takes damage, is knocked back and has their damage and healing reduced by 10% for 30 seconds. The damage and healing reduction stacks per projectile hit."

Primary concerns for healers are positioning yourself to keep the tank between you and all incoming reaping mobs as you will often aggro mobs with your healing. Fade is especially helpful when mobs are coming from many directions all at once. Any damage should be focused on the Lost Soul as they often are the most tedious and have the highest hp. When dealing with the stacking debuff from Reap Soul its important to continue dispelling as rapidly as possible, often using Mass Dispel early on to clear any stacks on dpsers then use singular dispels on cooldown on the tank.

Infested (Season 1) - Specific utility like Mind Control, Shackle Horror, and Shining Force can all be extremely useful tools for removing an Infested enemy from a large group or preventing that mob from healing others around it. King's Rest, Atal'dazar and Underrot all have significant undead enemies that allow you to make frequent use of Shackle Horror to lock down the affected enemy so that the rest of the mob pack can be pulled without it and taken down. Mind Control usage can be rarer but offers a solid tool to move an enemy out of a trash pack and often into another crowd control effect like Hunter's trap or Polymorph to make sure it stays away from the rest of the group. If you team frequently loses control of Infested mobs, it may be worthwhile utilize

Dungeon Strategy and WalkthroughsPressure PointsregionsnotAtal'dazar

Shackle Horror is an excellent tool in this Dungeon. It can be used to interrupt the Shieldbearer of Zul's Bulwark of Juju ability if stuns are not available.

Shackle Horror can also be used to CC Reanimated Honor Guard allowing the group to prioritize other targets before taking on the honor guard which deals substantial tank and party wide damage.

The Gilded Claws from the Priestess Alun'za boss fight should be quickly purged using Dispel Magic.

Watch out for the Dazar'ai Augur leading up to the Priestess. They spam cast Wildfire onto the party. This can be countered by using Mass Dispel to clear all the debuffs on the party then making sure the Augur is focused down and interrupted before it can cast more.

The Undead wing, especially on Fortified can be quite difficult to deal with. Space out Pain Suppression, Rapture and Power Word: Barrier during the pull following Volkaal as it will often last a long time and there is little room for the tank to kite.

Honor Guards deal substantial damage when their totem is destroyed and tanks will need to kite if pulls take too long. Work to focus damage onto the Witch Doctors so that other mobs can be more easily kited and damage is more focused onto the tank alone, making it easier to heal.

Priestess Alunza is guarded by a small army, this is often a Bloodlust point in most fortified weeks. Work to Purify Wildfire's immediately and use Mass Dispel liberally to reduce damage intake on the party.

Pet classes can leave their minion out at range while the entire party stacks into melee. This will cause the Juggernauts to charge the pet, dealing no damage to it, while not effecting the party.

If there is no pet class to bait the charges, the healer can do the job and work to stay mobile as the Juggernauts lock in the target position and can be dodged if you give yourself enough distance. Psychic Scream can also interrupt their charge.

Freehold

From the start of this instance, beware of the Irontide Corsair as they apply a Poisoning Strike that Priests cannot Purify. Look to Monks/Paladins/Druids to assist with dispelling when the tank is at high stacks.

Skycap'n Kragg casts a Azerite Powder Shot when he dismounts. This can be outranged by the healers/ranged dps by standing near max range, substantially reducing damage taken in the phase. Instruct the melee not to stand between the ranged and the boss as the boss will still fire at the ranged or healers, but will deal no damage if you are far enough out.

Bilge Rat Padfoot after the first boss will cast Plague Step on the tank which should be Purify'd immediately as it applies a healing taken reduction to its target. It is a Disease so Paladins/Monks/Priests can all help dispel it if multiple go out.

During the Trothak in the Ring of Booty Leap of Faith is extremely useful for helping create space between the sharks and a slow ranged player that is targeted by the Shark Toss.

While approaching the final boss, Sweete, the Irontide Officer will cast Oiled Blade on the tank which must be Purify'd immediately as it applies a 75% healing taken reduction to the target. This pull is frequently during high damage so preemptively using an external cooldown will also be extremely helpful.

Once past the first boss and across the first bride you are quickly jammed into a tight corner in a mob dense instance. Moving around the first groups, into the Council of Cap'ns room is extremely helpful. If your group chooses not to, prepare to quickly kite back on the bridge, using Leap of Faith when necessary to help your tank create space.

Captain Eudora makes the Council of Cap'ns fight incredibly difficult on Tyrannical. Her Powder Shot can deal upwards of 80% of a players HP on high keys. Work to watch her target of target, or use the targeting weakaura linked above, to see who she is targeting with Powder Shot and precast Shadow Mend on them to more easily top them off.

Captain Eudora's Grape Shot will be fired in a series of rotating cones after she leaps into a corner of the room. NOTE: She will ALWAYS fire to her Left, position yourself in a more central location so that you can easily run towards her and away from the direction she is firing to dodge her cones.

Harpoon mobs can be very difficult to deal with and make life very difficult to heal. Quickly DoTing them with Purge the Wicked is essential to having consistent healing flowing through Atonement sources. If the tank needs to kite, especially during a fortified week, work to stay at range (you will be gripped repeatedly) so that you can provide a secondary escape if the tank is gripped back in when they begin to try to kite.

Ravager mobs are easily killed through Painful Motivation. If you have a large mob pull you can remove the Painful Motivation debuff from the Ravager by casting Mind Control on it and quickly canceling it.

You may want to do this if you have a larger pull and want to ensure that the Ravager casts a second time in case some enemies were not hit by it the first time.

Kings' Rest

At the start of the instance, and near the end when fighting Shadow of Zul, you will encounter multiple Minion of Zul These can be quickly killed with Mass Dispel or Dispel Magic.

During the The Golden Serpent, the boss will spawn Animated Gold from the gold pools placed down. Priests can knockback these adds away from the boss with Shining Force.

After the first boss you will fight four seperate members of Zandalari royalty and their minions in a mini-gauntlet.

Queen Wasi casts on a player which can be immediately removed by casting Dispel Magic on them.

King Rahu'ai will cast a Channel Lightning which can be interrupted via displacement tools like Shining Force. NOTE: Shining Force must be cast AFTER the channel starts, if it is used before, he will simply restart the cast.

This pack will also have Guard Captain Atu who will attempt to cast a Axe Barrage onto the entire party. You can use stuns or Shackle Horror to interrupt the cast from getting off.

King A'akul will cast Hidden Blade on a random player that a Priest is unable to dispel. This poison can only be dispelled by Monks/Paladins/Druids, so if there are any in the group, be sure to call for their dispel to help the party out.

During the Mchimba the Embalmer boss fight, he will cast Drain Fluids on a player and can occasionally follow it up with a Burn Corruption cast on that same player. If the player is not topped off at the end of the Drain Fluids, they will receive the Desiccation debuff. This is where Leap of Faith can assist in moving that player out of danger if you are not able to top them quickly enough.

The hallway leading to the Council of Tribes encounter is filled with undead mobs that can be Shackle Horror, take your time through this wing and CC dangerous mobs like Spectral Berserker to make the run through more smooth.

During the Zanazal the Wise fight in the Council of Tribes encounter, you can Dispel Magic the buff he receives from his Earthwall Totem as the buff will persist after the totem is killed, until the shield is depleted or purged.

The initial golems are often skipped and groups frequently pull these two packs together in the first room to use their cooldowns early. Space is limited early on so being aggressive with external cooldowns is imperative.

Dispelling the minions of Zul can become complicated if you are in a Bolstering or Bursting week. Those mobs will interact with both and can very easily cause a wipe if not dealt with properly. Coordinate with your group when dispelling these.

Witch Doctors, Beserkers, and Beastmasters can be very difficult to deal with and King's Rest's tight timer can force your group to make more aggressive pulls.

Externals will be required whenever the tank receives a second stack from the Beserker and kiting will certainly be a necessity. Shackle Horror is amazing for this bridge region for shutting down Casters or Beserkers alike.

During the Council of Tribes encounter, work to save externals whenever possible to prepare for Kula the Butcher's phase. Her Severing Axe lasts an extremely long period of time and requires constant attention. Twist of Fate is excellent in this instance to assist with healing on this boss. Work to space out Power Word: Barrier, Rapture and Pain Suppression to maximize their effects and coordinate with your group to decide when the affected player should use their own personal cooldowns.

Instruct all players in your party NOT to use personals when entering Kula's phase until you, the healer, call for them. Learn the defensives each class has and what you can expect their effects to be. Tracking their cooldowns and durations will allow you to better prepare and even call for help if need be.

Shrine of the Storm

This instance is filled with enemies that require interrupts or purges if their self buff casts go off.

Shrine Templar's Tidal Surge, Tidesage Spiritualist's Mending Rapids, Dredged Sailor's Reanimated Bones, Abyssal Cultist's Consuming Void and Detect Thoughts, and the Drowned Depthbringer's Touch of the Drowned cast all make Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel invaluable tools for the instance.

On the Aqu'sirr encounter you can use Psychic Scream to release the player trapped in the Grasp from the Depths. Fear can also be very useful for helping interrupt the Ironhull Apprentice's Sundering Blow casts that greatly reduce the uptime that melee would otherwise be able to have on them.

On the Vol'zith the Whisperer encounter at the end, the Whispers of Power can be an extremely beneficial debuff to maintain to kill the boss more rapidly. As a result, it often will be ideal to use externals like Pain Suppression or additional shielding with Rapture to ensure that you can survive an add cast going off.

Early pulls are unavoidably caster-heavy and require frequent interrupts and targeted focus. Psychic Scream and Shining Force make for excellent tools for "back up" interrupts if critical casts are going through.

Moving towards the Tidesage Council, the first pulls when across the bridge are very constricting. With little room to kite, externals must be used early and liberally as the tank will be limited in movement for fear of pulling more enemies.

During the boss, having an interrupt tracker is incredibly useful for preparing for incoming damage. If you know your group has missed some kicks utilize Rapture early to smooth out the incoming damage before it gets out of control. Externals are best used early in the encounter while Galecaller is alive as Ironhull is easily kited and his defensive field can be easily used by the tank once Galecaller is dead.

Siege of Boralus

During the Sergeant Bainbridge, Leap of Faith can be extremely useful for helping players position better to kite the boss into azerite bombs or to help a player out of the Steel Tempest that comes after the Hangman's Noose cast drags the player into melee range.

Ashvane Commander that you face throughout this instance will cast Bolstering Shout onto nearby enemies that should be Mass Dispeled immediately.

On the Dread Captain Lockwood encounter, the boss will cast Evasive on herself which can be removed through slows or snares. Priest can assist with this by using Shining Force on the boss if no other slows are available. The slow effect of the knockback should remove the debuff and allow for greater melee uptime on the boss.

While moving to the third boss, the Bilge Rat Cutthroat will cast Rotting Wounds Disease that a Priest can Purify to quickly take off the reduced healing effect that is applied to the tank.

Ahead of that are also Ashvane Invader that quickly stack Stinging Venom Coating onto their tank. Again, another poison that a Priest cannot dispel and will look to Paladins/Monks/Druids to assist with dispelling when at high stacks.

Before you get to the third boss room, you move past the roadblock established by the enemies. If a member of your party is running back after a death you can Leap of Faith them over the roadblock to catch up with the group more rapidly.

The final boss Viq'Goth has many line of sight issues on the encounter and casts a nasty Putrid Waters that deals a substantial amount of damage over the duration. Look to dispel early and often on this fight, weave in Mass Dispel if the need arises to quickly catch up on debuffs.

Managing the latter half of Boralus often falls under staying near melee range to take advantage of the Spotter's Sighted Artillery while playing safely enough to avoid the many AoE effects or stuns that the enemies will cast.

Frequent use of Psychic Scream to interrupt the hard-casts (uninterruptible through normal kicks) of many enemies in this latter wing will help avoid a great deal of damage and allow melee to stay in longer. Necrotic week adds an additional difficulty but proper positioning will allow you to more easily take advantage of Leap of Faith to remove the tank from the pile and give them a running start.

Viq'goth is a true pain of a final boss, often lasting +5 minutes on high tyrannical dungeons. All damage is immensely helpful, as is rapidly Purifying his debuff (as mentioned above). Your target focus should shift depending on the group's dps quality. Often the higher you go, the more Destructor Tentacles must be killed, so simply DoTing the Gripping Tentacles will sufficient while you assist the dps in focusing down the Destructors before the next one spawns.

Positioning yourself near or behind the cannons on the initial two islands is ideal for keeping Line of Sight on all allies and easy access to switching targets. When on the final platform, the ship, running up the stairs will keep you out of range of the slams from the tentacles as well as any swirlies the boss might fire at the group. Levitate is excellent if you end up in the water and need to get out more easily.

Temple of Sethraliss

The first boss combo can be especially deadly due to the burst damage they both can deal. Aspix in particular will cast Conduction on an ally which is rapidly followed up by a Static Shock onto the entire party, threatening one-shot potential on high keys. Defensives, externals and raid cooldowns should be utilized for this to ensure survival.

Sandswept Marksman apply a particular annoying poison that you should call for assistance from Pally/Druid/Monk in dispelling as the Neurotoxin will sleep the target if they move after it is applied.

Faithless Tender start out with a Embryonic Vigor buff when you engage them that should be Mass Dispeled off immediately to reduce the damage the tank takes.

During the Merektha boss fight, the Priest can use Psychic Scream to remove the player stunned by A Knot of Snakes.

Before the third boss you will encounter multiple Agitated Nimbus that have Accumulate Charge buffs that need to be removed via Dispel Magic

Upon entering the room for the final boss you will have to fight four Hoodoo Hexer that will apply plenty of Flame Shock debuffs. Use Mass Dispel if you start to fall behind on dispels.

During the Avatar of Sethraliss encounter you should always seek to assist in damaging the Hexers to push to the healing phase more rapidly. The spot where most groups run into trouble is the Rain of Toads. Here multiple Plague Toads drop down from the sky and rush multiple players applying the Plague disease that stacks. As a Priest, you can Purify these diseases so the easiest way to reduce the damage on your group is to get your most mobile member of your group to run around the room stepping on these toads and you quickly Purifying multiple stacks off of them at once. If you have multiple ranged dps players you can also kite, slow, stun and kill the toads before the hit a player, but generally as a priest you will be immobile so it is very helpful if that mobile player, preferably the tank, can soak all the toads can get Purify'd. If many party members are being afflicted by the toads it causes you to take focus away from healing Avatar of Sethraliss and making the fight that much more difficult.

Common pressure points in Sethraliss are Merektha's trash room and the Galvazzt boss fight. Entering Merektha's room there is a ton of enemies patrolling or positioned around and all must be killed in order to spawn the boss. Primary wipes in this room in Season 1 were often from Infested mobs getting loose, players dying to avoidable Pyrrhic Blasts and frontal cleaves, or allowing mobs to heal, prolonging the pull until the group is overwhelmed. Proper positioning is imperative to not only avoid the mob's mechanics, but also to disrupt them when possible. Fear primarily is an excellent tool to provide an aoe interrupt effect to stop casts and allow the group to more easily clear through.

Galvazzt is one of the most nasty bosses in the game on Tyrannical and it is incredibly unforgiving to an uncoordinated group. Assuming the group coordination is strong, the fight becomes a dps race with a short clock before the healer is overwhelmed and runs out of mana. As Discipline, taking Twist of Fate is often incredibly helpful to helping players bounce back from the increasing stacks from the boss' spires.

Spacing cooldowns is essential to staying alive. Shadowfiend, Power Word: Barrier, Pain Suppression and Rapture all must be stretched to their limits to provide enough healing to sustain the group. The first, Shadowfiend, will basically only get one use on the encounter, and is an incredible HPS boost. Utilizing it just before a situation gets too dire will offer a significant amount of breathing room as you stabilize the team. Rapture can be used early in the first and near the end while Pain Suppression and Power Word: Barrier are weaved in proactively before things get out of hand.

Knowing your limits is key towards keeping the party with enough HP to survive, forget about topping players off (if you're fighting him on Tyrannical/Grievous, Light Help You). When you are a couple seconds away from multiple players dropping low and being unable to sustain them, that is where you start going into your reserves and using your cooldowns. Preemptive use is essential.

The MOTHERLODE!!

The MOTHERLODE is filled with mobs that apply nasty debuffs to players and helpful buffs to allies, making Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel exceedingly important

Psychic Scream also serves as an excellent aoe interrupt if needed AND as long as the mobs are all able to quickly be broken out of their fears so as to not pull into other mobs on accident.

Mobs that will need purges in this instance include; Venture Co. Earthshaper's Earth Shield, Stonefury's Tectonic Barrier, and Venture Co. Mastermind's Azerite Injection. Many times these mobs will coincide with harmful debuffs on the party so Mass Dispel can handle both jobs extremely easily.

Psychic Scream is especially helpful early on in the instance for many enemies. These include; Mech Jockey's Activate Mech, Hired Assassin's Fan of Knives, Refreshment Vendor's Iced Spritzer and Kaja'Cola Refresher, Earthrager's Resonant Aftershock. Of this short list, only the Refreshment Vendor can be interrupted through a conventional kick. The rest's casts are immune to kicks but can be "interrupted" by using Psychic Scream just AFTER their channels begin.

This instance is particularly trash heavy so positioning, planning and frequent external usage is encouraged. Plan your routes!

One of the most common pulls in MOTHERLODE is the initial box at the bottom of the image above. Lusting and dragging a mess of mobs behind a wall to group them is dangerous but very effective. Early Pain Suppression and Rapture usage will stabilize the team long enough for you to multi-DoT the largest mobs and begin full Atonement healing.

From that point forward, clearing through future mobs will often revolve around that initial "prep work" of pre-Power Word: Shield via Rapture, using Psychic Scream as frequently as possible, and being aggressive with Pain Suppression, even if it is not on the tank.

One common trend in many dungeons is when it can be better to spam the tank so that they may stay in melee rather than having them kite while you heal them more passively through Atonement healing. With the dungeon being so interrupt heavy, coordinate with your tank on how they can kite out mobs (especially during Necrotic or Raging) while maximizing their uptime to use their interrupts or stuns to full effect.

Boss encounters are rich in avoidable damage and pose less of a threat in this dungeon as the massive pulls that are required to chest this keystone in time.

The Underrot

Devout Blood Priest are a priority for using Dispel Magic on the target of their Gift of G'huun.

After the first boss, Feral Bloodswarmer are the most disruptive enemies that you will face and should be focused down immediately as their Thirst For Blood deals heavy damage to their target and is difficult to shut down.

As a Priest in this instance, Diseased Lasher are among the lower priorities as you can easily Purify the Decaying Mind debuff that goes out onto allies. The more Paladins/Priests/Monks that you have in your group, the more aggressive you can be with pulling these lashers as you will have a wealth of dispels at the ready to break out friendlies.

Reanimated Guardian after Cragmaw cast a Bone Shield onto themselves which should be Mass Dispel off immediately to allow the DPS to continue killing them.

They are frequently accompanied by a Fallen Deathspeaker which can be shut down through Shackle Horror use. Any time there is a Raise Dead or Wicked Frenzy cast, you can use Shackle Horror to stop the cast, though often the enemy will try to cast again when the Shackle Horror breaks so this is an excellent stall tactic, but often is not a long term solution to this enemy unless you isolate it on the pull and do not damage it until it is the only focus for the dps.

Sporecaller Zancha is an easy fight for the healer Priest as you are consistently able to clear out extra Decaying Spores before Festering Harvest and Purify yourself before the stacks get too high if the dps do a poor job of clearing pods. Keep in mind that Mass Dispel will not dispel Diseases, so if multiple debuffs go out onto the group at a time your only recourse is to use your Purify or just heal them through it.

The Unbound Abomination frequently stacks a Putrid Blood debuff onto the party which is often removed via the Cleansing Light from Titan Keeper Hezrel. If the Titan is killing Blood Visages then he will not assist in clearing the debuffs, so utilizing a Mass Dispel periodically is very helpful.

With the most recent changes to Underrot, groups are currently figuring out whether it is more worth to death skip the first section of the dungeon, since Rogue stealth or invisibility potions no longer work, or to fight these mobs outright. If you choose to fight them, priority targeting is key and utilizing your tools to mitigate and smooth out damage is a must. If you can create space for the tank to move away from Warmothers or Headhunters rapidly if need be, you stand a much greater chance of dealing with these enemy packs.

Cragmaw's room is an unholy amalgam of annoying or disruptive mobs. Beyond focus targetting, Bloodswarmers can be "close kited" to avoid taking melee hits. Maintaining a ~10 yard distance between the player and Bloodswarmer will be close enough to prevent the mob from charging you, but also far enough to where they cannot melee you. If you are unable to stabilize your group while a Bloodswarmer is fixated on you, close-kiting in a circle around the group to keep the mob in melee for cleave damage will greatly increase your team's odds for survival.

In no uncertain terms, make sure your team understands that if a Screech cast from the Bloodswarmer gets off, then the group will die. Being interrupted and school-locked is a massive pressure point, frequently resulting in spot-deaths if not outright wipes.

Tol Dagor

Like in MOTHERLODE!!, Tol Dagor has many mobs that are extremely susceptible to Psychic Scream's effective "interrupt" capabilities. These include: Silt Crab's Squeeze, Ashvane Jailer's Riot Shield, Ashvane Officer's Handcuff, and the Ashvane Warden's Lockdown. All of these mobs are unable to be kicked, but their abilities will be canceled and not repeated after the fear falls off if cast during their channels.

Other mobs in the instance are also very easily countered by using Mass Dispel or Dispel Magic to remove their helpful buffs or dispel your allies easily. In Tol Dagor specifically, these would be; Irontide Thug's Debilitating Shout, Blacktooth Arsonist's Torch Strike, Bilge Rat Looter's Darkstep, Bilge Rat Seaspeaker's Watery Dome, Jes Howlis's Motivating Cry, Ashvane Marine's Suppression Fire

Constant dispels are a large theme in this dungeon and will be key towards a smooth run. Coordinating with the group for kicks, interrupts or rotating purges will be key to completing in time.

Overseer Korgus is still a very challenging encounter that is only made more difficult by poor positioning. Moving the group into the small dugouts at the four points of the rectangular room greatly assists in players positioning themselves against walls to mitigate the knockback effects.

Successful early pulls in Tol'Dagor as a healer are all about balancing between damage and healing. When attacking a large pull you must be aggressive in using cooldowns like Pain Suppression or Power Word: Barrier on the tank to allow them to generate sufficient threat for when they need to kite. During this period, you can deal substantial damage from Holy Nova spam while keeping in mind that incoming damage will ramp very quickly. Knowing when you can disengage from the melee pile and switch to spot-healing melee from a distance or multi-doting is imperative to maximizing speed in your run.

The Sand Queen can be a grind of a fight and her sand traps can make things much more difficult to keep players topped off, especially before an Upheaval. A simple way of playing safe is to utilize Rapture on the first Upheaval and instruct all party members to NOT use an large defensives. Early Rapture use will guarantee more uses in the future while saving the defensives of your group members for more dire circumstances on the boss fight.

Having your Mage use Ice Block on the first Upheaval when they are at near-full HP and can have a large Rapture'd Power Word: Shield is a waste when they could use that resource when they are at 60% and you are struggling to top off players in time. In an emergency, and if you are very quick, you can Leap of Faith the targeted player away from the Upheaval location to dodge the attack. Lightstep Potions can also be utilized for the same effect. These can be dangerous and should be practiced in lower level keystones before attempted on a high level one.

Overseer Korgus still stands as one of the most frustrating bosses for a dungeon, due to his semi-lack of predictability. Knowing when he will fire Explosive Bursts at players is simple, but when he will cast two in a row is often guess work and a bit of gambling.

As the most lethal part of the fight, you must partition your cooldowns to maximize their usage and control your party's personal defensives as well to max effect. Just like on the Sand Queen, it is useless for the Mage to Block a double Explosive Burst that you have already used Shadowfiend preemptively to full top players before the 2nd blast hits.

The ideal scenario often goes as follows, prioritize Rapture usage, then Shadowfiend, then Power Word: Barrier a first blast if you suspect a 2nd might follow it, and Pain Suppression and ignore a target while healing another injured ally if you are in a dire situation. Rotating through player's immunities as last resorts is also key to mastering the fight. If you are concerned that you and the mage are both at risk, being able to Pain Suppression yourself, while the Mage blocks, allows you to greatly reduce the damage taken and for you to stabilize before the next hits.

Waycrest Manor

Waycrest Manor possesses not only the common farmfolk, but also a high amount of enemies that buff themselves or apply rapid debuffs onto players that require frequent Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel. The priority enemies to watch out for include; Bewitched Captain's Spirited Defense, and Marked Sister's Soul Fetish for self buffs. While Heartsbane Vinetwister's Grasping Thorns and Coven Thornshaper's Infected Thorn are two priority mobs that require individual dispels.

On the Soulbound Goliath encounter healers will frequently generate threat from healing and that can draw the aggro of the Burning Souls that spawn from the boss' Burning Brush mechanic. If you need to plant your feet and heal an ally, it can be very beneficial to Fade off the aggro, alert your party members that the ghosts will switch targets (encouraging them to help kite) and using that window to top off the injured ally. Failing to notify the group can cause an unsuspecting player to take heavy damage from Burning Fists, so be cautious with its use.

Raal the Gluttonous is one of the easier encounters in the instance but Priests can be helpful in long tyrannical boss fights in helping avoid the Consume Servant mechanic by knocking any Wasting Servant away with Shining Force before he can eat them for the damage buff.

On the final boss Gorak Tul, Priests can again use Shining Force to displace the Deathtouched Slaver who stun other players with their Death Lens casts. This cast can be interrupted by displacing the enemy WHILE they are channeling Lens, ideally at the start of the cast so the affected dps does not lose uptime.

The Heartsbane Triad is another difficult encounter that requires full usage of your toolkit to safely down. Sister Solena's Aura of Apathy makes it very difficult to top players, so contributing heavy damage, especially on the pull is essential for getting out of there immediately. When you come back around to Solena's phase, it might last longer, so stacking and using Power Word: Barrier to mitigate incoming damage is a massive boon.

Sister Malady requires more consistent movement to reduce damage taken. As a result Shadowfiend and Rapture are your ideal resources to keep players healthy while you are moving periodically to keep your stacks low.

Which brings us to Sister Briar who's Jagged Nettles attack threatens one-shot at high level keystones. The other cooldown we have not used yet in Pain Suppression is well suited for this attack and requires quick reflexes. Watch her target of target to see who you must cooldown and work towards topping them rapidly. If the party is at or near 100% HP, you can also choose to call for that party member's defensive cooldown instead of using your own. Since damage will ramp up over her phase AND you will be entering Solena's phase immediately after Briar's it may be more worthwhile to spend additional time topping the first Nettles target, while rapidly topping the second.

The Triad's wing of the Manor often has lower trash density with higher singular target damage, focused into your tank. While Raal's wing is much more high density and split-cleave damage onto the group. This requires two different approaches from the group and the healer.

When in Traid's wing, kiting is easy to do and highly encouraged. Creating distance from the Marked Sister's is difficult because they are immune to slows/stuns, but convenient grips are very effective for assisting the tank.

On Raal's side, kiting mobs is often more difficult and does not take all the pressure off. The constant spits and infests from Maggots make it imperative to have the party stacked frequently for Power Word: Barrier usage and for proactive Shielding through Rapture. Doing so correctly will allow you to Atonement heal through the majority of the damage when engaged in combat because the Power Word: Shield will soak up the initial heavy hits, then Atonement can handle the rest.

How this often goes is when the tank will round up a heavy pile of mobs in Raal's room, and bring them all into the courtyard or into a corner of Raal's hallway. While they are doing that, using Rapturein advance and blanketing the party, then using any extra duration on spamming the tank with Power Word: Shields will allow the buffer zone required to set up to deal more damage.

Tags: Mythic Dungeons