Priest

October 13th, 2006 by Alice

Priests lead the many faiths spread throughout the disparate lands of the world of Azeroth. In Kalimdor, Night Elf Priestesses revere the moon goddess Elune, while Dwarven priests in Khaz Modan deliver the message of the Light to their people. In the ruins of Lordaeron, the undead priests of the Forsaken, their faith twisted and tainted by their tortured existences, spread a dark interpretation of the Holy Light. Regardless of their faith, however, all Priests share in their ability to manipulate the minds of those who turn to them for spiritual guidance. - Blizzard Entertainment.

The priest class is less like a conventional cleric class and more like a spell caster with influence over an opponent’s mind. They have been described by many as the best healer and buffer in the game which is just as well as they can only wear cloth armour. However, they can apply buffs to themselves to focus their attacks when engaged in melee combat to stop their spell casting being interrupted when hit by a melee weapon. They can wield one-handed maces, daggers, staves and wands.

The Priests are adept at controlling the mind of his enemy, although only one mind at a time. Never-the-less he can dominate and mesmerize them to his will. He can also see through an enemy’s eyes with a ‘remote vision’ skill. Interestingly, priests can walk the world of Holy Magic or Shadow Magic ‘curse-type’ spells that damage over time as well as direct damage.

Available in which Races & their Racial Bonuses

Alliance

Human

Perception: Increased detection bonus - lasts 20 sec. 3 min cooldown
The Human Spirit: +5% to Spirit
Diplomacy: 10% bonus to faction point gain
Sword Specialisation: +5 to Sword Skill
Mace Specialisation: +5 to Mace Skill

Dwarf

Stoneform: While active, grans immunity to Blood, Poison and Disease effects. In addition, Armor increased by 10%. Lasts 8 secs. 3 minute cooldown.
Gun Specialization: +5 to gun skill
Frost Resistance: +10 Cold Resistance
Treasure Finding: Activate to see treasure chests on mini map - lasts until canceled - no cool-down.

Night Elf

Shadowmeld: Activate while immobile and out of combat to enter stealth mode.Lasts until canceled. 10 sec cooldown.
Quickness: +1% to Dodge
Wisp Spirit: Become a wisp when dead with movement speed increase of 50% (25% faster than other races)
Nature Resistance: +10 to Nature Resistance

Horde

Undead

Will of the Forsaken: Activate to become immune to fear, sleep, and charm effects and can be activated whilst under the effects of fear or sleep. Lasts 5 sec. 2 min cool-down
Cannibalize: Increase health regeneration by 7% of total health every 2 sec while consuming human/undead corpses. Lasts 10 sec. 2 min cool-down
Underwater Breathing: Underwater breath +300% longer than normal
Shadow Resistance: +10 to Shadow Resistance

Troll

Berserking (active): Increases your melee, ranged, and casting speed by 10% to 30%. The value scales upwards towards 30% depending how low your health is when you activate the ability. Requires a small amount of mana, rage, or energy (depending on your class) to activate. Does not require being struck by a critical to activate. Lasts 10 seconds with 3 minute cooldownd but no global cooldown.
Regeneration (passive): Increase health regen bonus by 10%. 10% active in combat.
Beast Slaying (passive): Increase damage bonus to Beasts by 5%
Throwing & Bow Weapon Specialization (passive): Increase Throwing Weapon skill by +5 and +5 to Bows

Resources Used

Health & Mana

Starting Statistics

Below are the starting stats and attributes of the Priests. Priests can learn to use other weapons at a weapon trainer and locations of those can be found in the Trainers page.

Attributes	Dwarf	Human	Night Elf	Troll	Undead
Strength	22	20	17	21	19
Agility	16	20	25	22	18
Stamina	23	20	19	21	21
Intellect	21	22	22	18	20
Spirit	22	24	23	24	28
Armor	37	45	55	49	41
Melee Attack	1	6	1	1	1
Power	12	10	7	11	9
Damage	2-5	2-5	1-4	2-5	2-5
Ranged Attack	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Power	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Damage	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Class Skills	Dwarf	Human	Night Elf	Troll	Undead
Discipline	X	X	X	X	X
Holy	X	X	X	X	X
Shadow Magic	X	X	X	X	X
Weapon Skills
Defence	X	X	X	X	X
1-hand Maces	X	X	X	X	X
Unarmed	X	X	X	X	X
Wands	X	X	X	X	X
Staves	X	X	X	X	X
Armour
Cloth	X	X	X	X	X

Priest Trainers

To learn new priest skills and proficiencies you will need to seek out a Priest Trainer. New skills will become available for learning as your character increases in level. You can find a full list of all Priest Trainers around the world here.

Further Priest Reading & Resources

		Priests’ Sanctuary for the complete Priest resource
		Forum to talk with other Priests
		Quests for Priests
		Priest Items
		Priest Items Sets
		Priest Skills & Spells
		Priest Talents & Talent Tool
		Priest PvE Guides
		Priest PvP Guides
		Priest UIs/Mods
		List of Priest Trainers

Priest Patch History

The history of the changes made to the Priest class during the beta and beyond are detailed below with the most recent at the top.

Patch 1.9.1 (10 February 2006)

Mind Control - Now functions properly. Previously, the person who was charmed did not appear to be moving on their screen or any other local clients.

Patch 1.9.0 (3 January 2006)

Martyrdom - This talent will now trigger on melee special abilities as well as on melee swings. The tooltip has been clarified to indicate this ability only works on melee strikes.
Dispel Magic - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.
Cure Disease - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.
Abolish Disease - Mana cost now based on a percentage of base mana.
Mind Blast - Threat raised on ranks 7, 8, and 9. Incorrect data had been entered in those spells, resulting in less threat generated than designed.
Blackout - The stun effect’s duration no longer diminishes or is diminished by controlled stun abilities and spells (e.g. Cheap Shot, Hammer of Justice, Charge, etc).

Patch 1.8.0 (11 October 2005)

Psychic Scream - Updated tooltip to reflect that damage caused to the feared target may break the effect. Included radius in tooltip.
Devouring Plague (Undead) - Will now properly consume the Inner Focus effect when cast.
Shadowguard (Troll) - Tooltip updated to reflect actual functionality.
Elune’s Grace (Night Elf) - New icon.

Patch 1.7.0 (13 September 2005)

Focused Casting - Mana cost removed. Now no longer triggers the global cooldown on all other spells.
Vampiric Embrace - Now heals 20% of the damage actually caused (including critical hits, buffs etc…) but now only heals when shadow spells cause the damage.
Switching to Shadow Form no longer cancels Holy buffs on a priest.
You can cancel melee combat while mind controlling by clearing the target, like you can normally.
Blackout - Fixed a bug where rank 2 of the talent wasn’t giving a chance to stun.
A level 50 class quest has been added for the Priest (Greta Mosshoof in Felwood).

Patch 1.6.0 (12 July 2005)

Mind Flay - Will now cause damage to targets immune to movement slowing effects.
Shadowform - Changed so all spells except Holy can be cast rather than only Shadow and Discipline spells. Tooltip updated. This fixes several bugs that prevented various actions (creating tradeskill items, mining, summoning a mount, using a hearthstone and many more).
Spirit of Redemption - Tooltip updated to be more clear.
Touch of Weakness - Stronger versions of this effect on enemy targets will no longer be replaced by weaker versions.

Patch 1.5.0 (7 June 2005)

Inner Fire - Now stacks with other effects that increase attack power and armor.
Holy Nova - Cooldown decreased.
Feedback - Casting a higher rank of the spell will now replace an existing, lower level effect.
Unbreakable Will - Fixed a bug that caused many abilities to ignore the additional resistance.

Patch 1.3.0 (22 March 2005)

Priests can no longer kill players with Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Control in duels.
Priests can now use scrolls and the Heart of Noxxion while in Shadowform.

Patch 1.4.0 (20 April 2005)

A new Priest epic quest series is now in the game and waiting to be found.
Levitate - Duration and mana cost increased.
Touch of Weakness - Should now be affected by the Blackout, Darkness, Force of Will, Shadow Focus, Shadow Weaving and Silent Resolve talents.
Starshards - Should now be affected by the Focused Casting, Force of Will, and Silent Resolve talents.
Holy Fire - Should now be affected by the Focused Casting talent.
Mind Flay - Should now be affected by the Focused Casting talent.
Desperate Prayer - Should now be affected by the Holy Specialization talents.
Vampiric Embrace - Active icon tooltip rewritten to be more clear.
Holy Nova - Now causes an explosion of holy light around the caster, causing Holy damage to all enemy targets within 10 yards and healing all party members within 10 yards. These effects now cause no threat as opposed to reducing threat temporarily.
Holy Fire - Several changes were made to Holy Fire in an effort to make this a more usable and efficient damage spell. The cast time was reduced from five seconds to four seconds, which reduces the damage caused. Therefore, the damage was increased and more of the spell’s potency was shifted into the damage-over-time portion. The duration was also increased and mana cost and cooldown were both decreased. While the direct damage portion was reduced slightly from the previous version, each tick of damage should be unchanged, and the spell now delivers one additional tick of damage. In total, the relative damage and efficiency of the spell has been increased.
Wand Specialization - Fixed a bug where the damage increase with this talent was too high.

Patch 1.3.0 (22 March 2005)

Training costs adjusted. Total training cost was decreased.
Holy Fire - Fixed a bug with the bonus damage gained from +fire damage items. Such items now have a greater effect on this spell.
Prayer of Fortitude - This spell is now cast on the target’s party.
Power Word: Shield - Now castable on all raid targets.

Patch 1.2.0 (21 December 2004)

Power Word: Shield: Now usable on party members only.
New Spell: Prayer of Fortitude (Level 48).
Longer lasting Power Word: Fortitude spell that buffs the entire group. Requires a reagent to cast. (Spell is available via loot drop only.)
Mind Control: Can no longer be cast on tapped targets.

Patch 1.1.1 (17 November 2004)

Reagent requirements have been removed from Power Word: Fortitude
Talent Changes
The effect of Improved Moonfire has been reduced per rank.
The Improved Renew talent has been reduced in effectiveness per rank.

Patch 1.1.0 (7 November 2004)

Resurrect spells now use the same timer as when reclaiming your corpse.
When a player is resurrected, they will have to wait for a set amount before they can click the accept button.
Resurrect now teleports you to the location at which the spell was cast, not to the caster’s present location.
Removed facing requirement from Mind Control, Mind Soothe, Shackle Undead and Shadow Word: Pain.
Resurrection: No longer useable in combat.
Levitate will now be cancelled if any damage is taken, now requires a reagent.
Power Word: Fortitude: Ranks 4, 5, and 6 now require reagents.
Mind Control: Increased the chance of breaking early.
Shackle Undead: Increased the chance of breaking early.
New Spell: Desperate Prayer (Level 10). (Dwarf/Human only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Starshards (Level 10). (Night Elf only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Touch of Weakness (Level 10). (Undead only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Hex of Weakness (Level 10). (Troll only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Fear Ward (Level 20). (Dwarf only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Feedback (Level 20). (Human only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Elune’s Grace (Level 20). (Night Elf only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Devouring Plague (Level 20). (Undead only.) (Quest)
New Spell: Shadowguard (Level 20). (Troll only.) (Quest)

Beta Patch 0.12.0 (10 October 2004)

Holy Smite renamed to Smite.
Holy Word: Fortitude renamed Power Word: Fortitude.
Holy Word: Shield renamed Power Word: Shield.
Resurrection and Combat Resurrection range reduced.

Beta Patch 0.10.0 (16 September 2004)

Holy Word: Fortitude stamina boost has been increased slightly; no longer scales with level.
Divine Spirit spirit boost has been increased. (This is a talent.)