Disc Priest - sl/sl Lock combo advice

[tclkage]

I just started running 2v2's with a holy/disc priest last night, and we were having quite a bit more trouble than I thought we would. Here's our armory links:

Warlock (me):

The World of Warcraft Armory

Note that most of my S3 gear is the crit gear, as I was trying Destro for 5v5's. I'm working on picking up the Affliction side gear as replacements, and the S2 dagger and S4 offhand will be purchased tonight.

Priest:

The World of Warcraft Armory

He is replacing his Shadow gear with Holy gear.

Neither of us are terribly geared, certainly we should be able to get at least a mid level rated team as we gear up. That means unfortunately that it's most likely our game play that's causing the most trouble. I feel fairly comfortable with sl/sl in the arena - although I absolutely can improve. However, I don't really know the ins and outs of Priests for 2's, and I'd love some advice. Here's how our average game goes:

We engage our opponents with me DOTing everyone up (CoT on the casters) and then alternating between Fears and either Immolate/Searing Pain on the DPS target or Drain Mana on the healer. I have Devour Magic macroed out to eat debuffs off of my partner and I, and also HoTs off of the DPS target. The Priest is usually healing himself like crazy and running around all over the place to play the LOS game. Where we come into trouble is that I'm not kicking out enough damage to bring a target down by the time the Priest is OOM. I've been blaming myself mostly, but last night I realised that the Priest was often times LOSing the DPS target from me while he was running all over the place trying to stay alive. I know I need to really improve my LOS game, but what I'm wondering is this:

What are the good Disc Priests partnered with sl/sl Warlocks doing when in a match? Are you mostly healing and LOS? Are you more offensive and mana burning/DPS'ing with just occasional heals? I'd love any advice on the Priest side of things. Thanks!!

[Gritz]

I ran with a Disc priest in S2 and the first half of S3. Most matchups are trivial, but some are nearly impossible - mainly druid/rogue and priest/rogue. Unfortunately, that seems to be a majority of the teams we faced. I highly recommend reading through the strats at AJ: Priest/Warlock Strategy - Arena Junkies

[doogless]

Your Priest's spec is terrible, he really needs to fix that.

He should go all the way in Disc for Pain Infusion and Pain Suppression, the talents he gets in Holy are significantly less useful than those would be.

[tclkage]

I think I also need to put more emphasis on burning one target instead of just CC and DOTs primarily. If I can get the opponent DPS to focus on me, that'll take pressure off of the Priest. I think I won't have to worry about LOS as much on the DPS on the Priest if I force their DPS to come to me to counter my attack on their healer.

[Shak]

Originally Posted by doogless

Your Priest's spec is terrible, he really needs to fix that.

Thanks for the detailed critique. The truth is there was a method to the madness, so to speak. Mainly the issue is that as I am light on healing power, I'm still in the process of acquiring my healing disc set after spending most of my time and resources on my shadow set, which is how I normally raid and like to play BGs. The spec is designed to compensate for this and increase my healing capacity. The particulars of the spec are also being worked out, I'm experimenting in this regard, I don't see it as a make-or-break issue where it's at.

[doogless]

Originally Posted by Shak

Thanks for the detailed critique. The truth is there was a method to the madness, so to speak. Mainly the issue is that as I am light on healing power, I'm still in the process of acquiring my healing disc set after spending most of my time and resources on my shadow set, which is how I normally raid and like to play BGs. The spec is designed to compensate for this and increase my healing capacity. The particulars of the spec are also being worked out, I'm experimenting in this regard, I don't see it as a make-or-break issue where it's at.

OK.

A common Priest spec for healing in PvP looks like this: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
You can make some adjustments, obviously. Some people prefer Silent Resolve to Reflective Shield, but the damage output from Reflective Shield really is pretty significant. The one point in Blessed Recovery is for a trash debuff so you have a higher chance to not have your other buffs dispelled when you're being focused. It's more powerful if you have Silent Resolve, but it's still good regardless.

The talents you picked aren't bad (except the improved range on Smite), but the other talents are simply better for playing a Priest in Arenas. The fact that you purposefully skip PI, PS, and 3/3 Focused Will is just very confusing - those are some of the best talents available to a Priest in PvP.

You aren't light on healing power. A Priest in full S3 has maybe 200 healing more than you. The main thing you lack is survivability - which Focused Will and Pain Suppression would help to counter.

[Shak]

Originally Posted by doogless

OK.

A common Priest spec for healing in PvP looks like this: Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft
You can make some adjustments, obviously. Some people prefer Silent Resolve to Reflective Shield, but the damage output from Reflective Shield really is pretty significant. The one point in Blessed Recovery is for a trash debuff so you have a higher chance to not have your other buffs dispelled when you're being focused. It's more powerful if you have Silent Resolve, but it's still good regardless.

The talents you picked aren't bad (except the improved range on Smite), but the other talents are simply better for playing a Priest in Arenas. The fact that you purposefully skip PI, PS, and 3/3 Focused Will is just very confusing - those are some of the best talents available to a Priest in PvP.

You aren't light on healing power. A Priest in full S3 has maybe 200 healing more than you. The main thing you lack is survivability - which Focused Will and Pain Suppression would help to counter.

Yeah, I hear you, I think I might just chalk it up to a failed experiment. The improved healing was quite noticeable. All told I only ran about 15-20 matches with a variation of that spec (only 5 with that exact spec, previous spec like that had 3/3 Focussed Will and then 6% increased healing from holy). I will be back to proper full disc spec the next time we run.

[Gritz]

You could also try a tri-spec (well, mainly Disc and Shadow). It gives you mind flay, shorter AoE fear cooldown, and blackout. A more balanced version is 35/2/24, though you have to give up PS.