| Name | The Complete Priest Guide: Into Shadow or From the Light |
| Category | Class |
(Part One: Things Every Priest Should Know!)
Hyacintha here and today I am interviewing the ever lovely Uni the Holy Priestess. She has many great things to tell us about the Priest class in World of Warcraft, and she will explain all of their fantastic skills and abilities, as well as some other handy things about gear, weapons, and additional necessary knowledge.
Hyacintha: Uni, could you describe to us what exactly a priest is?
Uni: Vell, a Priest is ze specialized healer class in the game, although a priest can also use many other handy specializations, making them great for Player-versus-player gameplay as well as being a major Damage-per-second support class. Ze primary healing class for both the Alliance and the Horde is ze Priest, as we have many top of the line healing abilities. From other viewpoints, a Priest is simply a support class that makes ze players around him or her last longer and helps them to absorb more damage. Priests either struggle to keep others alive or live to kill them.
Hyacintha: Sounds like a pretty mana-intensive class.
Uni: Yes, it really is. Ze amount of mana you have is determined by your intelligence of course, and ze speed at which it regenerates is determined by your spirit. Having mana is critical to a Priest, since it is used for all of our spells and abilities. As with all of ze other caster classes, like mages and warlocks, you really need to learn to manage your mana to constantly make certain you enough when you really need it. If you are not good at managing your mana, you will likely make for a bad Priest!
Hyacintha: So what sorts of stats do you need to make a good Priest and keep your mana pool high?
Uni: Well, this is a very good question. Intelligence of course is ze most important thing as it not only increases how much mana you have, but also your chance to critically hit with spells. This counts for both critical healing and critical damage spells. One point of intellect = fifteen points of mana! Furthermore, 100 points of Intellect = an addition 1% chance to critical hit with spells. Ze next stat a Priest really needs is stamina, which of course is one point of stamina to 10 points of health. Then, ze last stat is Spirit, which helps ze Priest regenerate his or her mana and health. Four points of spirit = one mana regenerated every two seconds. This is very important for a Priest to gain mana back while casting.
Hyacintha: Intriguing. Now, I understand that the different races have different racial abilities?
Uni: This is true. Before, only certain races had Fear Ward, but now everyone gets that ability.
Draenei, like myself, receive Symbol of Hope, which is an instant cast that gives part members 33 mana every 5 seconds for 15 seconds, with a 5 minute cooldown and Chastise.
Dwarves receive the ability Chastise, which causes holy damage and stuns the target for 2 seconds. They also, like humans, get Desperate Prayer.
Humans get Feedback which is an ability that makes it to where ze Priest's weapon has a chance to "proc" and drain 35 mana from the target each time it hits. They also get Desperate Prayer, which is essentially a simple Instant Heal.
Night Elves get a neat ability called Starshards , which is an instant cast, damage over time spell, lasting for 5 seconds, and Elune's Grace, which reduces the chance to be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 20% for 15 seconds when used.
Blood Elves get to use Consume Magic which dispels one buff from you and gives you mana based on your level from it. It scales from 120 – 154 up to 455 – 488 at level 70. It is an instant cast spell with a two minute cooldown. Blood Elves also recieve Touch of Weakness.
Trolls get Hex of Weakness which weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused for two minutes. Then they also get Shadowguard which surrounds ze caster with shadows. When a melee or ranged attacker hits ze caster using Shadowguard, the attacker will be struck with Shadow damage. Attackers can only be damaged once every few seconds and there are three charges in total.
Undead on the other hand, get a lovely ability called Devouring Plague (Damage over Time spell that also heals the caster). They also receive Touch of Weakness allowing ze caster's next damaging melee attack to cause additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target for two minutes.
Hyacintha: Well, it seems like choosing the right race can make a big difference. Alright, so tell me about your standard Priest abilities and spells.
Uni: Well, ze regular Priest abilities without going into a build are pretty straightforward things that you see all of use Priests use. I shall tell you about the most important ones.
First, you have healing spells.
Flash Heal – Heals a friendly target for an amount within a certain range, dependent on its rank and your level. This is a faster casting heal which requires more mana to use. If someone is about to die and you need a quick way to prevent that, use this to save their life in the quickest amount of time. It is not the most mana efficient, but it is quick and effective!
Greater Heal – Heals a single ally for a larger amount, however this is a slow-casting spell and costs a little more than your lower heals.
Heal – Heals your ally for a certain amount based on your level and the rank. This is a standard heal that takes a few moments to cast.
Lesser Heal – f Heals your ally for a certain amount based on your level and the rank. This is your lowest and cheapest heal in most cases.
Prayer of Healing – This is a group healing ability that heals nearby party members for a standard amount. This is a very powerful and handy spell! Be sure to use it in the most dangerous times and never waste it!
Renew – Like most Druid heals that at ‘heal over time’ or ‘HOT’, this spell heals a certain amount of damage over so many seconds. Since Renew is a HOT, it is best to use it either after a battle or when a tank comes back from pulling. It is also very useful in ‘raid’ healing, where many people take minor amounts of damage.
Next, you have ‘holy’ magic spells. Keep in mind that you get a lot of holy spells from tanking talents!
Dispel Magic – Very useful in the right situation, this spell dispels magic on your target, removing either harmful spells from a friend or beneficial spells from an enemy. This can be used to debuff your enemies or to remove spells cast by monsters on you or other party members that hinder their performance.
Smite – Smite an enemy, dealing direct holy damage. This skill is useful against monsters or mobs that are weak to holy damage, such as undead.
Then, you have ‘shadow’ magic spells.
Mana Burn – This is very nice as it kills two birds with one stone so do say. Not only does it drain mana from your enemy, but for each point of mana drained in this way, the target also takes that amount of damage. This is a useful ability against enemies that are casters. Of course, you can tell which mobs are casters due to the addition of a blue mana bar on their portrait. This ability is useless against any other non-caster class.
Mind Blast – This ability deals direct magical damage to your target for an amount of shadow damage. However, it generates a lot of threat and should be used with caution. Having said that, it makes Mind Blast a good spell to finish off a nearly dead monster, as they will likely be dead before they reach you (if you were to pull aggro). It is therefore also a good spell to use if you need to taunt monsters away from other party members, such as a main healer.
Mind Control – Priests love to control other humanoid’s minds. This spell lets them do so, targeting any enemy up to a certain level, depending on the caster level and the rank of the ability. However, Mind Controlling slows the enemy’s attack speed by a certain percent. It also lasts up to a varied amount of time. Trapped targets cannot be Mind Controlled and Mind Control duration against PvP targets is reduced to 10 seconds versus the longer PvE duration. This ability is excellent to use on humanoid targets that have buffs or long cooldowns available, where the priest is able to use such abilities.
Mind Vision – This ability allows the caster to see through the target's eyes for a short period of time. It can be used on nearly anyone or anything in the game that has a point of view. It is very useful for scouting out rare-spawns or seeing what is up ahead.
Shadow Word: Pain – This is a ‘word of darkness’ that causes a flat amount of damage to the enemy over so many seconds. It is a damage over time spell. As always, you should use DOTs such as this when you are going to be fighting a monster for a while to make it the most proficient it can be. If the monster will be killed rapidly, then this spell is wasted because it does not have time to complete before the monster will die; thus resulting in wasted mana.
Subsequently, you have your ‘disciplines’.
Levitate – This spell is simply neat. It allows you as a Priest to levitate, floating a few feet above the ground fir a few moments. While you are levitating, you will fall at a reduced speed, like Slow Fall, and travel over any surfaces you normally would sink into, such as water. If you take any damage at all, the effect will be negated.
Power Word: Shield – This is likely one of the most used and very understandably so, Priest spells. It is an instant cast shield that protects whomever it covers. While the shield is up, spellcasting done by the shielded person will not be interrupted by damage. Once shielded, that same person cannot be shielded again for a certain amount of time. Good Priests are connoisseurs when it comes Power Word: Shield usage. The shield can only be used once per 15 seconds per person.
Inner Fire – This self buff is a burst of Holy energy that fills the caster, increasing his or her armor by a certain amount. Each melee or ranged damage hit against the priest will remove one charge of Inner Fire, therefore it lasts for so many minutes or until all of it’s charges have been spent up.
Priests are also excellent sources of buffs!
Power Word: Fortitude – This buff is extremely popular and should always be used if you have a priest in your group. Famous for the diamond buff symbol, this holy power infuses the target, increasing their Stamina by so much for so many minutes. This buff increases everyone’s health by quite a bit, therefore making people more resilient to death in a sense. If you have trouble remembering when to recast the buff, just ask your party members to inform you when it has worn off, check them by running your mouse pointer over their buffs on the left side of the screen, or enable the various buff counters in the interface.
Shadow Protection – This simple buff increases your fellow ally’s resistances to shadow spells by so much for so many minutes. This is exceptionally useful in any form of raid that has shadow bosses, against warlocks and shadow priests in PvE or PvP, or for simply an extra safety precaution.
Prayer of Fortitude – Just like Power Word: Fortitude, this buff also power infuses the party, increasing their Stamina by so much for an hour. However, since it is a group buff, meaning it instantly fortifies all five members of the targeted party, it requires a special reagent to cast. Be sure to carry plenty of these at all times. It is likely that as a Priest you will be expected to use this buff in raids or parties.
Priests are also given responsibilities that can be used for threat control, crowd control, or pulling.
Fade – This ability allows the priest to act quick and fade out, reducing their threat level on all enemies by a small amount for so many seconds. This is basically the emergency button, which can be used in conjunction with Power Word: Shield for a quick threat reduction and then self protection. The objective of using this is ideally to redirect an enemy’s hate towards a tank or other less ‘squishy’ party member.
Mind Soothe – This spell calms a single humanoid target, reducing the range that it will attack you within by so many yards. This ability is useful for pulling groups because the Priest can calm one target, then pull an additional nearby humanoid or other mob without waking up the soothed enemy.
Psychic Scream – One word here: Fear. The caster lets out a psychic scream that causes so many nearby enemies to run away in terror. This is a good crowd control spell when pulls go bad, but it should never be used if there is potential for the feared targets to run into more and pull them back with them. It should be used in large open areas or small enclosed spaces where there is no threat of causing more problems. Psychic Scream has a chance to break the fear effect if the enemy takes any amount of damage.
Shackle Undead – By using this ability, a priest shackles an undead enemy for up to so many seconds. Any damage caused to the shackled target, including Area-of-effect spells will release the target instantly. Typically, the priest whom shackled the undead will be on the top of the threat list so the tank needs to be aware of when the target is about to break free. Only one target undead can be shackled at a time, per priest. Recently, Blizzard increased the chance of shackles breaking early, so, a priest must be on top of things and stay aware.
Hyacintha: Thanks for going over all of this information with us. In the next few guides, well be looking at gearing, specializations, and builds. Join us in our next segment to find out even more about what it means to be a priest!
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