Discipline Guide

I've been very hesitant to write something like this up, especially since there are some who take these sort of guides as religion and stop thinking for themselves, but in the end an overview guide is nice to have, so yeah..here we go.

Talents & Specs

54/14/0 - The Cookie Cutter

These are the talents that you need. The points you can change are the 5 points in Divine Fury, and stick them in Improved Renew and Healing Focus instead. It depends on if you're more comfortable using Greater Heal or Renew.

It leaves you with 3 floater points. I normally stick them in Focused Will, 3% extra crit is pretty nummy, but you could also get to 2 points in Improved Healing for cheaper penance, or stick 2 points in Reflective Shield for easier soloing. If you find yourself dispelling a lot Absolution is also a very good choice. 

Enchants

Head: [Arcanum of Burning Mysteries]; available from Kirin Tor (revered) (my personal preferred one) or [Arcanum of Blissful Mending]: available from Wyrmrest Accord (revered)

Shoulders: Master's Inscription of the Crag - Spell - World of Warcraft and Master's Inscription of the Storm - Spell - World of Warcraft are available for Scribes; they are the BiS options available.

For non-Scribes, there are [Greater Inscription of the Crag] and [Greater Inscription of the Storm ] available from the Sons of Hodir at Exalted reputation. At honored, there are [Lesser Inscription of the Crag] and [Lesser Inscription of the Storm ].

Cloak: [Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Wisdom] or [Scroll of Enchant Cloak - Haste] or Darkglow Embroidery (tailor only) I find that these two are both crappy, but hey something is better than nothing, and a tiny bit of threat reduction may save your life.

Chest: [Formula: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats]

Bracers: [Formula: Enchant Bracer - Superior Spellpower] (normally you use this one) or [Scroll of Enchant Bracers - Exceptional Intellect] (only when you're having regen problems)

Gloves: [Scroll of Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower]

Pants: [Brilliant Spellthread] (Argent Crusade exalted)(my preferred one)or [Sapphire Spellthread] (Kirin Tor exalted) - Tailors make these.

Boots: [Scroll of Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality]. Some people also feel that [Scroll of Enchant Boots - Greater Spirit] is a valid option, but the increased movement speed saves you more mana by being able to move out of stuff faster than that little spirit will ever regen for you.

Rings: Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower (enchanter-only)

Weapon: [Scroll of Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower] or, if you use a stave, use [Scroll of Enchant Staff - Greater Spellpower]. There are other enchants for weapons, but for discipline you want the spellpower for bigger Power Word: Shield.

Spirit vs Int

I can find you a whole lot of math behind all this, but other people have done that, and I read it once and then went uhuh. This is what it comes down to when you're in a raid with replenishment constantly up:

• 1 Intelligence = 0.74 mp5
• 1 Spirit - 0.33 mp5

Gems

First off, I hardly ever ignore socket bonuses. Almost all stats are useful in one way or the other to you in discipline spec so if you get stats for free, all the better.
red: spellpower
orange: spellpower/crit or spellpower/int
yellow: int or crit
green: int/mp5
blue: mp5
purple: spellpower/mp5
meta:
[Insightful Earthsiege Diamond] - The highest regen meta available until extreme levels of Int. A 45-second ICD proc that restores 600 mana and 21 intellect. This comes to aboutish 82mp5, assuming replenishment to be available. 

[Ember Skyflare Diamond] - A good choice for mixed throughput and longevity. Regenwise this gem will only catch up once you have 5550 intellect, which I haven't seen many people do just yet...

Glyphs

Major
- Glyph of Power Word: Shield
- Glyph of Penance
- Glyph of Flash Heal

Of course there are more glyphs, but unless you believe that you should be casting prayer of healing for some odd reason (better cast 5 PWS imo) these are the ones to go with.

Minor:
-Glyph of Shadowfiend
-Glyph of Fading

The third one is optional, but I can advice Glyph of Levitate since it can come in very handy to levitate down without taking damage, and it would be rather crappy to discover that you just ran out of reagents and go splat.

Rotation

Contrary to what Blizzard is trying, healers don't have rotations. You heal what is needed. There are however guidelines that can be very helpful when you're learning your role.

1) Make sure that PW:S is up on peope who are taking damage or will likely be taking damage

This way if you have to throw heals you always have weakened soul on your targets so you can benefit from Renewed Hope. Also casting PW:S frequently will keep the 3% damage reduction on the raid, which is especially beneficial if you don't have an overflow of paladins.

2) Dispel

Yeah, you read it right. You're a preventer as a discipline priest, not a healer. So if you can stop damage from ticking on someone, or prevent people from taking more damage then needed you should always opt for that first. Dispel is instant and often does more 'healing' than all the heals in your repertoire.

3) Keep PoM on cooldown

PoM leads a life of its own. If you're raiding you want to see if you can start it off on the MT, but with all the incoming raid damage nowadays it will likely have bounced a fair number of times by the time that you recast it.

4) Penance for big booboo, Flash Heal for the little ones

Use Penance when you find that someone needs a lot of healing, and Flash Heal when there is less damage.

5) Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope

Don't sit on these spells. Hymn of Hope should be used earlyish in the fight when you have a free moment, but it should always be on cooldown at the end of the fight. And don't be afraid to use Divine Hymn, even if it's just to give the healers a breather. The same goes for this one, it should normally be on cooldown at the end of the fight.

5) What about all my other spells?

They are all situational. If you find a party where 3 or more people are taking damage, use PoH. If you find that the tank needs more healing you can use Greater Heal since it's cheaper than Flash Heal (but only if you're not overhealing most of it).

Trinket

I have a spreadsheet set up, but it's at work, and I have holiday (yay!) so I'll get back to this when I can get my hands on the spreadsheet again.