Yes, you read that title correctly. Blizzard recently announced via a blue post that Prayer of Healing (Disc’s bread and butter) will no longer guarantee a Divine Aegis proc on the party it is cast on.
Divine Aegis is no longer guaranteed when Prayer of Healing is cast. The effect now procs when the spell crits.
-Blizzard
This will greatly change how Discipline Priests heal (and mitigate). Currently, disc can almost just spam PoH (especially in 10m) and almost prevent any damage going to the raid, even more true when paired with Spirit Shell. If I was maining as a disc priest right now, I’d be pretty mad. I understand where Blizzard is going with this change, making Disc look at their entire toolkit, not just one or two spells. However, this just feels like a huge quality of life decrease. Your only “on demand” shielding that is not on a CD (kinda) is Power Word: Shield. Although, you still have Inner Focus+Prayer of Healing and Spirit Shell+Prayer of Healing for on demand shields, although on a CD.
Blizzard’s direction with this changes is summed up pretty well by Ghostcrawler’s tweet:
I don’t get the ‘We can’t use PWS and we can’t use PoH now so we’re doomed.’ Use some PoH and use some PWS. Use the whole toolbox.
Yes Greg, I get it. Use the whole kit. The main issue is that there is nothing else in the kit which provides on demand AoE shielding, which is essentially what Disc’s niche has become.
Regardless of if you agree with this change, this will greatly impact how Disc work in 5.2. The change is already “live” on the latest PTR build, so go test it out! Then, let me know what you guys think! Answer the poll and comment below!
Healcraft 
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