My name is Leach and I am a Disciple.
I have already taken a Disciple through Tier 3 on another server and am starting over here. Here are my thoughts on the class.


Tier 3 is terrible. 8 minutes of frying in the lava and dying, dying while trying healing tanks that are running away from melee, dying while trying to get in a position to get a few heals off. On top of it, people bitch and moan about Disciples being weak healers (see also: most are). Tier 3 is when most Disciples give up and roll Zealots or Witch Elves. I don't want to give up on the Disciple, but it's tempting.

It's the most complicated class I've played in any game, but also a lot of fun. The Disciple has to regularly switch offensive targets as well as defensive targets. He has to hit things in melee as well as cast healing spells. He has to manage his action points and Soul Essence (SE). Since people that don't play Disciples don't understand them, I thought I'd throw out my weak knowledge.

Here's the deal with Disciples
Our heals are powered by SE, which builds slowly unless we're whacking shit in the face or using a skill to build it, which is what's happening when a Disciple has his arms spread like hes being crucified (see also: vulnerable target). Unless we're hitting things, we get about 3-5 heals before we're out of SE and need to regenerate.
Heals
"Normal" heals are small and willpower dependent:
- Single-target HOT
- Small single-target heal
- Moderate group AOE heal
Melee attack/heals scale with damage (see also: stacking strength; see also: clothies)
- Tiny group AOE melee attack/heal
- Large single-target channeled (see also: interruptable) melee attack/heal

Regular Melee Attacks
Weak ones, but good strength debuffs and snares (see also: why I love Covenant of Celerity)

In an ideal world, the disciple cruises around with the melee DPS and smacks clothies around, smacks shit and does group heals. A good Disciple is better when he's got a tank to cruise with since they can effectively keep each other alive.

When we are all in a position to RvR together, hopefully this will help us set up groups appropriately since a Disciple's AoE heals can't hit both the ranged and the melee DPS.

Thanks Leach for a colorful and detailed description of what it's like to play a Disciple.