The priest was built to heal. He’s packed to the rim with healing spells, protective spells, and buffs. The Priest is also one of the cloth bearing characters, he can’t wear heavier types of armor. Nevertheless, our healer is no pacifist! To underestimate this class could be deadly. In PvE as well as in PvP, the priest, despite obvious armor deficiencies, is one tough cookie.
When some serious damage is needed, you have lots of shadow magic up your sleeve to make use of. Additionally, you’ll get mighty spells like “Psychic Scream” (A type of “fear”), forcing the opponent to head for the hills (but not without getting a good dose of damage beforehand). The priest is a rather balanced class that doesn’t need to hide from other classes at all.
Specialize your priest
Discipline: So what exactly does one expect from a “discipline priest”? You won’t get an ascetic battle monk from the Far East with this spec unfortunately. A pure discipline priest should be a pretty exotic class in WoW – even if he makes a perfect PvP-Team mate. His specialty: Damage reduction via “Pain Suppression”, a buff, which can reduce damage by 40% for 8 seconds either on yourself or an ally. Or Power Infusion where you increase your spell haste by 20% on yourself or an ally and reduce mana costs by the same amount. You’ll also have a great supply of mana through this spec. Penance is the ultimate spell here – a healing spell that many holy priests will envy you for.
Holy: With this tree, you qualify to apply for a job as an employee in medical service! When you pull out your doctor’s bag, very many highly effective healing spells come into play: “Flash Heal”, “Greater Heal“, “Binding Heal”, “Prayer of Mending”, “Prayer of Healing”, not to mention “Well of Light” as well as “Guardian Spirit” as the crowning achievement: A friendly target is protected by a guardian spirit that protects the target from death and increases any healing received by that target by 40%. No doubt – the holy priest spec takes priests to the summit, which he was made and thought up for.
Shadow: A yin for every yang, the shadow priest is the exact opposite of the holy priest. He has access (not unlike the warlock) to a myriad of mighty shadow spells that are very effective not only in PvE, but also in PvP. With “Shadow Form” you’ll deal 15% more damage and take 15% less damage. In addition, you’ll raise the spell haste rating of all your group and raid members by 5%. With Vampire Touch, you’ll be able to damage several targets at once all the while granting up to 10 group or raid members mana regeneration as soon as you land a hit with “Mind Blast”. The mightiest spell in his repertoire “Dispersion”: You disperse into pure shadow energy, receive 90% less damage, remove all movement impairing effects, and regenerate your mana quicker as well. You can certainly use the latter: The literal dark side of the shadow priest is his mana usage – that’ll take gaming with intellect.
Available Races: Blood Elf, Draenei, Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Troll, Undead, Tauren, Gnome, Worgen, Goblin
Standard Bars: Health/Mana
Available Weapons: Daggers, One-Handed Maces, Staves, Wands
