Priest

The Priest is an iconic class capable of wielding spells that can heal their allies with Holy powers or assault their enemies with Shadow abilities. Healers can protect their allies with prevention abilities or assist them with health recovery. Priests are the only class in the game with two healing specializations.

Although Priests are traditionally known as a healing class, their offensive arsenal allows them to unload spells that can deal damage directly or over time to their enemies. Utility spells such as Leap of Faith, Shackle Undead, Mass Dispel, and Power Word: Fortitude help ensure that a Priest will come in handy during your adventures.

Boosting to 90

Exercise caution because as a cloth wearing class, you may not be as durable in combat as some of the other classes. Thankfully, Priests have a way of easily preventing damage or recovering health.

Not only should you heal the tank and the rest of the party, do not forget to keep your own health up!

Use the right healing spells for the right job but don’t expend too much mana in doing so. Nothing is worse than finding out that you have run out of mana and your tank ran out of health!

The Priest is one of the weakest classes in the game. Stay behind or in the middle of the rest of the party. Let your tank go first and take point when moving through dungeons.

No healing to be done? Cast some damage spells and help your party take down enemies!

If enemies are chasing after you, there are a few spells and tricks you can use to stay safe. Fade will cause you to be less threatening, resulting in your enemies pursuing someone else like the tank. Psychic Scream and Void Tendrils are other forms of crowd control which can be used to temporarily scare off or immobilize attackers, freeing you to get clear.

Class Abilities and Resources

All three Priest specs rely on mana to cast their spells and abilities. Shadow Priests have an additional resource called Shadow Orbs that let them cast powered-up versions of their spells. Some spells cannot be cast without having any Shadow Orbs.

In a damage role, Shadow Priests bring some extra utility, making them useful in key situations. Shadow Priests have Vampiric Embrace that allows them to briefly heal the rest of their group based on the amount of damage. This is especially useful when your party is in a challenging situation and your healers need help to keep the group sustained. Although Mind Control is available to all Priests, Shadow Priests are particularly in a better position to utilize the spell to briefly take control of the enemy. Healing Priests are often busy restoring health and don’t have the time to use Mind Control. Psychic Scream and Void Tendrils can be used to temporarily control or freeze enemies in place while allies finish them off.

As healers, Holy Priests have different types of spells available to them. They have healing spells like Renew and Prayer of Mending that can regenerate health over time or on impact from an enemy. There are spells that heal multiple players. There are spells like Holy Word: Sanctuary and Lightwell that can heal anyone standing within a certain area. An effective Holy Priest is able to identify the best spells to use in any given situation.

Essentially, prevention and mitigation is the name of the game. Some of your spells will increase the health buffer on your allies, which provides a nice cushion from any incoming damage. Your main spells for this are Power Word: Shield which can absorb a set amount of damage based on Priest level and Spell Power. Other abilities from certain talents can also apply additional damage absorb spells. Spirit Shell turns your Flash Heal, Heal, and Prayer of Healing spells temporarily into spells that absorb incoming damage instead of healing players. Clarity of Will, a Discipline exclusive level 100 talent, is a new spell that lets you continually shield allies without penalty.

Leap of Faith is another ability that can pull your party members directly toward you to help them escape from certain dangerous situations. A glyph has been added where you can actually pull yourself to them in the event you are caught somewhere that is dangerous. This is another fun spell to utilize in PvP to help pull friends from harm’s way.

Non-Specialization Abilities

Name	Level	Description
Smite	1	Smite an enemy for Holy damage.
Shadow Word: Pain	3	A word of darkness that causes Shadow damage instantly and additional Shadow damage over 18 seconds.
Power Word: Shield	5	Shield a friendly target, absorbing damage. Lasts 15 seconds. While the shield holds, spellcasting will not be interrupted by damage. Once shielded, the target cannot be shielded again for 15 seconds.
Flash Heal	7	Heals a friendly target.
Resurrection	18	Brings a dead ally back to life. Cannot be cast while in combat.
Power Word	22	Infuses the target with vitality, increasing Stamina by 10% for 1 hour. Affects all party and raid members.
Fade	24	Fade out, temporarily removing all your threat for 10 seconds.
Dispel Magic	26	Dispels Magic on the enemy target, removing 1 beneficial Magic effect.
Mind Sear	28	Causes an explosion of shadow magic around the target, causing Shadow damage every second for 5 seconds to all enemies within 10 yards of the target.
Vampiric Touch	28	Causes Shadow damage over 15 seconds. Each time Vampiric Touch deals damage the caster gains 2% maximum mana.
Shackle Undead	32	Shackles the target undead enemy for up to 50 seconds. The shackled unit is unable to move, attack or cast spells. Any damage caused will release the target. Only one target can be shackled at a time.
Levitate	34	Allows the friendly party or raid target to levitate, floating a few feet above the ground. While levitating, the target will fall at a reduced speed and travel over water. Any damage will cancel the effect. Lasts 10 minutes.
Mind Vision	42	Allows the caster to see through the target’s eyes for 1 minute. Will not work if the target is in another instance or another continent.
Shadowfiend	42	Creates a shadowy fiend to attack the target. Lasts 12 seconds.
Fear Ward	54	Wards the friendly target against Fear. The next Fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 3 minutes.
Prayer of Mending	68	Places a spell on the target that heals them the next time they take damage. When the heal occurs, prayer of Mending jumps to an ally within 20 yards. Jumps up to 5 times and lasts 30 seconds after each jump.
Mass Dispel	72	Dispels magic in a 15 yard radius, removing all harmful spells from each friendly target and 1 beneficial spell from each enemy target. Affects a maximum of 10 friendly targets and 10 enemy targets.
Leap of Faith	84	You pull the spirit of the friendly party or raid target, instantly moving them directly in front of you.

Talents

Talent	Description	Notes
Level 15 Tier
Desperate Prayer	Instantly heals the caster.	Excellent and instant emergency self-heal for yourself in the event you need to stay alive fast.
Spectral Guise	Your shadow blurs into the darkness, leaving your true form behind. As a shadow, you are stealthed, but remain in combat. Lasts 6 seconds or until your true form is hit by 3 direct attacks.	Perfect for PvP play as you can escape particularly dangerous situations. Ranged attacks will not be able to target you with this active.
Angelic Bulwark	When an attack brings you below 30% health, you gain an absorption shield equal to 15% of your maximum health for 20 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 90 seconds.	Passive ability that will immediately protect you in the event of a near lethal hit. Only happens once every 90 seconds.
Level 30 Tier
Angelic Feather	Place a feather at the target location, granting the first ally to walk through it increased movement speed for 6 sec. Max 3 charges. Only 3 feathers can be placed at one time.	Any player that walks through placed feathers will accelerate briefly. Only 3 charges of it are available and each charge takes 10 seconds to regenerate. Strategically placed feathers can help your allies escape quickly.
Body and Soul	Your Power Word: Shield and Leap of Faith also increase your target’s movement speed by 60% for 4 seconds.	Useful talent for a quick burst of speed combined with a spell that shields players to get them out of harm’s way during raid encounters. Also useful in PvP engagements.
Phantasm	Activating Fade removes all movement impairing effects and prevents your movement speed from being reduced for 5 seconds.	Excellent talent for PvP scenarios where you are otherwise immobile and need to escape immediately. Also renders your enemies unable to target you directly with ranged attacks.
Level 45 Tier
Surge of Darkness and Light	Your healing spells and Smite have a 10% chance to make your next Flash Heal instant and cost no mana. Can accumulate up to 2 charges. Your Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague damage has a 20% chance to cause your next Mind Spike not to consume your damage over time effects, be instant, and deal 50% additional damage. Can accumulate up to 3 charges.	Great talent for leveling up. You gain two charges of both buffs which allow you to quickly burst heal your allies or burst damage any enemies.
Mindbender	Creates a Mindbender to attack the target. Caster receives 0.75% mana when the Mindbender attacks. Lasts 15 sec. Replaces Shadowfiend.	Your Shadowfiend turns into a Mindbender allowing you slightly extra burst damage every minute along with some additional mana.
Insanity	Mind Flay deals 33% additional damage to your Devouring Plague victims per Shadow Orb spent on the Devouring Plague.	Allows extra burst damage on the same target as your Devouring Plague. Great for encounters with mostly one target.
Power Word: Solace	Strikes an enemy with heavenly power, dealing Holy damage, and additional Holy damage over 7 seconds while restoring 2% of maximum mana. This damage will heal a nearby injured ally for 100% of the damage dealt, or half as much if it heals the Priest. Replaces Holy Fire.	Preferred for healers who are attempting to regenerate their mana if no one in any immediate danger. Plus, allows you deal damage and gain a little bonus mana during periodic breaks of an encounter.
Level 60 Tier
Void Tendrils	Summons shadowy tendrils, rooting up to 5 enemy targets within 8 yards for 20 seconds or until the tendril is killed.	Useful in temporarily trapping any hostile enemies in one area. Select Void Tendrils if you need to prevent enemies from reaching their intended locations or to get some distance between them and yourself.
Psychic Scream	The caster lets out a psychic scream, causing 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee, disorienting them for 8 seconds. Damage caused may interrupt the effect.	Excellent emergency crowd control spells if you or your party is about to be overwhelmed. Consider using the glyph for dungeons to prevent disoriented enemies from attracting more.
Dominate Mind	Controls a mind up to level 103, incapacitating them for 30 seconds. Does not work versus Mechanical beings.	Allows you to assume direct control of a target (player or NPC).
Level 75 Tier
Twist of Fate	After damage or healing a target below 35% health, you deal 15% increased damaged and healing for 10 seconds.	For healers, best used in situations where there is consistent incoming damage where it would passively be activated often enough. For Shadow Priests, it allows you to take down mobs quicker and is especially useful for leveling due to the consistent uptime.
Power Infusion	Infuses the Priest with power for 20 sec, increasing haste by 25% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Temporarily increases haste by 25%.	Allows you to quickly burst heal allies or deal damage. Best combined in conjunction with other damage and healing cooldowns.
Divine Insight	Your Heal and Prayer of Healing have a chance to make your next Prayer of Mending not trigger its cooldown and jump to each target instantly.	This is a proc-based ability which is heavily dependent on the frequency in which you use Heal and Prayer of Healing.
Shadowy Insight	Your Shadow Word: Pain and damage from your Mind Spike has a 5% chance to reset the cooldown on Mind Blast and make your next Mind Blast instant.	This is another proc-based ability best used in encounters where you have multiple applications of Shadow Word: Pain active to allow for more frequent Mind Blasts. More Mind Blasts leads to additional Shadow Orbs which means more applications of spells like Devouring Plague.
Level 90 Tier
Cascade	Launch a Holy or Shadow bolt that grows in power with distance, healing an ally or damaging a foe, and then bouncing to additional allies or enemies 4 times. Each time it bounces, it splits into 2 bolts, never healing or damaging the same target twice.	This is a talent that virtually guarantees AoE healing or damage will strike your targets. The effects will be unable to bounce to the same targets twice, so ensure that there are enough within range to maximize its potential.
Divine Star	Fire a Divine Star forward, healing allies in its path or damaging enemies. After reaching its destination, the Divine Star returns to you, healing allies or damaging enemies in its path again. This spell can be cast while moving.	This talent requires more control on the part of the Priest as it requires them to aim where the spell goes by facing the intended direction. Best used when your allies or enemies are stacked together or in a straight line towards you.
Halo	Creates a ring of Holy or Shadow energy around you that quickly expands and grows in power, up to 30 yards away. Heals allies or damages enemies, with the greatest effect at 25 yards.	This is a powerful talent which becomes increasingly more potent based on how far away the targets are which means positioning has a huge impact.
Level 100 Tier (Holy)
Clarity of Purpose	Heals an ally based on how injured the target is. Also heals up to 5 injured allies within 10 yards of the target for the same amount. Replaces Prayer of Healing.	This is a talent that is strongest based on how wounded your allies are. Best used against your weakest allies.
Words of Mending (Passive)	Your healing and shielding spell casts grant you a stack of Word of Mending. When you gain 10 stacks of Word of Mending, your next targeted healing or shielding spell also casts a Prayer of Mending at them.	This is a passive talent which does not involve additional effort as your spells will naturally accumulate Word of Mending stacks before discharging a Prayer of Mending.
Saving Grace (Holy)	Instantly heals a friendly target. Reduces your absorbs and healing done by 10% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times.	Useful as an emergency heal to counteract unexpected burst damage. Exercise care when using it as it will temporarily lower the effectiveness of your healing and absorb spells.
Level 100 Tier (Discipline)
Clarity of Will	Shields the target with a protective ward, absorbing damage within 20 seconds.	Best used in anticipation of incoming damage against your tank or other players within your group. However, ensure that no other healers are wounded. You may be better off healing them first before attempting to prevent incoming damage.
Words of Mending	Your healing and shielding spell casts grant you a stack of Word of Mending. When you gain 10 stacks of Word of Mending, your next targeted healing or shielding spell also casts a Prayer of Mending.	This passive talent does not involve additional effort on your part as your spells will naturally accumulate Word of Mending stacks before discharging a Prayer of Mending.
Saving Grace	Heals a friendly target for a large amount, but reduces your absorbs and healing done by 10% for 8 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times.	Useful as a series of emergency heals to counteract unexpected burst damage. Exercise care when using it as it will temporarily lower the effectiveness of your healing and absorb spells.
Level 100 Tier (Shadow)
Clarity of Power (Passive)	Your Mind Spike, Mind Sear, and Shadow Word: Death deals 40% additional damage to targets not affected by your Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch. Also reduces the cooldown on Mind Blast by 3 sec and makes it instant case.	This is a great talent for encounters that involve multiple targets or if you want to shift to a playstyle that does not involve the usage of damage over time spells.
Void Entropy	Consumes up to 3 Shadow Orbs to deal up to 1840 Shadow damage every 2.76s for 1 minute.	Offers another outlet for Shadow Orbs. Best used in encounters where there aren’t that many targets to begin with or if the target has an extremely large health pool such as raid bosses.
Auspicious Spirits	Your Shadowy Apparitions grant you 1 Shadow Orb instead of dealing damage.	More Shadow Orb generation means increased applications of Devouring Plague for extra damage or Desperate Horror.

Discipline

Discipline’s main goal is to prevent damage coming in by protecting players with shields and other absorbing effects. Discipline Priests are strong at shielding large groups of players quickly to help mitigate incoming damage. The Discipline arsenal relies heavily on quick and mobile healing. When leveling, Discipline Priests are not as fast at neutralizing mobs, but the

durability from the shields and healing allow them to stay out longer without having to take as many breaks in between combat.

While lacking the raw output of a Holy Priest and the damage capabilities of a Shadow Priest, Discipline Priests have many tools at their disposal. Penance is a long-range spell that can go after enemies or heals. Power Word: Barrier is a powerful spell that can protect your allies within a specific area. Spirit Shell is a talent that converts all of your healing into protective shields.

Enlightenment: Increases the critical effect chance of Prayer of Healing by 10%, and causes you to gain 5% more of the Critical Strike stat from all sources.

Specialization Abilities

Name	Level	Description
Penance	10	Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing Holy damage to an enemy or healing to an ally over 2 sec.
Holy Fire	18	Consumes the enemy in Holy flames that cause Holy damage and an additional Holy damage over 7 sec.
Holy Nova	20	Causes an explosion of holy light around the caster, causing Holy damage to all nearby enemy targets within 12 yards and healing up to 5 nearby targets within 12 yards for.
Divine Aegis (Passive)	24	Critical heals and their multistrikes create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 100% of the amount healed, instead of healing for twice as much. Lasts 15 sec.
Heal	34	A slow casting spell that heals a single target for.
Atonement	38	When you deal damage with Holy Fire, Penance, Power Word: Solace, or their multistrikes you instantly heal a nearby low health friendly target for 100% of the damage dealt. If the Priest is healed through Atonement, the effect is reduced by 50%.
Evangelism	44	When you deal direct damage with Smite, or Holy Fire you gain Evangelism. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts for 20 sec. Consumed by the Archangel spell to increase healing done.
Grace (Passive)	45	Increases all healing and absorption done by 20%.
Prayer of Healing	46	A powerful prayer heals the friendly target’s party members within 30 yards for.
Archangel	50	Consumes your Evangelism, increasing your healing done by 5% for each Evangelism consumed for 18 sec.
Pain Suppression	58	Reduces all damage taken by a friendly target by 40% for 8 sec. Castable while stunned.
Borrowed Time (Passive)	62	After casting Power Word: Shield, you gain Borrowed Time, causing you to gain 40% more of the Haste stat from all sources for 6 seconds.

Draenor Perks

Draenor Perks are four special boosts to different abilities that are earned, at random, as the player levels from 91 to 100.

Perk	Description
Enhanced Power Word: Shield	Reduces the duration of Weakened Soul caused by your Power Word: Shield by 5 sec.
Enhanced Focused Will	Each application of Focused Will also increases your damage dealt by 5%.
Empowered Archangel	The next Prayer of Healing or Flash Heal you cast after activating Archangel has 100% increased critical strike chance.
Enhanced Leap of Faith	Your Leap of Faith also increases your next non-periodic heal cast on that target by 50% for 10 sec.

Rotation

When an ally needs healing and is in danger of taking lethal damage, use Penance, Power Word: Shield, Flash Heal.
When an ally needs healing but is not under immediate danger, use Penance, Flash Heal, Prayer of Mending, or Heal.
When expecting a large amount of incoming damage to many players, use Spirit Shell and Prayer of Healing.
When lots of AoE damage is coming from enemies, use Holy Nova, Prayer of Healing, and Power Word: Barrier.

Group Play

Your strategy here is to prevent and mitigate as much damage as possible, and then rely on healing spells to heal through any damage that did occur. The main spells for this are Power Word: Shield and Prayer of Healing, which has the ability to activate shields. Great Discipline Healers know when to anticipate incoming damage and which players in the group are most likely to take it so Power Word: Shield can be cast on them. The tank in the group is the one most likely to need extra healing. Cast Penance and Flash Heal if Penance is unavailable on players who need fast healing. Pain Suppression is used to help mitigate a large chunk of incoming damage on a friendly player. In situations where the group is about to take heavy damage, cast Power Word: Barrier and advise them to stand under it.

Group Buffs

Discipline Priests can cast Power Word: Fortitude providing the group with a Stamina buff.

Preparing for High-End Content

Discipline Priests will want to start out with stats that make their spells potent along with a sizable amount of mana regen. Look for gear with high Spirit and Intellect which helps raise your mana regen rate along with increasing the strength of your spells.

For secondary stats, choose Critical Strike and Mastery, as both stats play off each other. The higher your Critical Strike chance, the more Divine Aegis will activate, leading to additional incidental shields to your allies. Having a higher Mastery yields larger absorption amounts.

During combat, if you find yourself in a position where there isn’t much healing required, go ahead and start dealing damage to the boss to develop Evangelism stacks. If timed carefully in response to the boss’ abilities, you can consume them with Archangel and proceed to go on a healing spree with an increased healing bonus.

Holy

The strength of Holy comes from the ability to deal an amazing amount of healing output. The Priest Area of Effect (AoE) healing is one of the strongest in the game and can supplement other players with heal over time spells. Since Holy increases the potency of AoE healing and has additional tools between Circle of Healing and Lightwell, it is an amazing advantage during encounters with large incoming AoE damage. If necessary, Holy Priests can switch and

cover healing on tanks effectively due to efficient and strong single-target healing spells.

In the event a Holy Priest falls in battle early, their Spirit of Redemption allows the Priest to continue healing for a few seconds to help stabilize the party before it expires. Guardian Spirit allows the target to receive increased healing and saves them from absorbing a blow that otherwise might have been lethal.

Divine Providence increases the amount of Multistrike from all sources by 5% and increases the damage, absorption, and healing of Multistrikes by 25%.