Dousing the Flames of Protection

Classes
Class races	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Ev	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Quests	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Abilities	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Trainers	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Armor sets	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	Evuid	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Useful macros	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior
Class Halls	Death Knight	Demon Hunter	Druid	-	Hunter	Mage	Monk	Paladin	Priest	Rogue	Shaman	Warlock	Warrior

While all Priests learn the basic skills, many specialize in a particular area. All of these spiritually gifted casters start from the same basic mold: the disciplined priest accustomed to combat survival, the devout healer, and the dark-minded shadow priest.

The result is a unique and finely-honed professional. They are capable of everything expected of a Priest, but outstanding in their chosen area; they may bring utility and survivability to others, powerful healing to raids/groups, or respectable amounts of high shadow damage for dps.

Talent points become available at level 10, and one point is granted per level from then onward, to a maximum of 71. These can be used immediately, without a visit to the Trainer, or kept indefinitely until a good talent strategy has been worked out. This allows the Priest to pick areas of their trade that they do often, or enjoy, and become even more proficient at them.

Talents should be thought of as bonuses and upgrades to abilites and stats, rather than being required for any given Priest role, and good equipment and skillful use of the standard abilities is usually more important.

Also refer to Priest talent analysis for a very in-depth analysis of each talent.

Early Talent Suggestions

Certain talents are incredibly valuable at lower levels. They include:

• [Spirit Tap]: An incredible mana regen talent. As a soloing priest, your strength lies in being able to take down enemy after enemy, drinking rarely or (with enough Spirit) not at all. Spirit Tap is a necessity for priest grinding at any level.
• [Twin Disciplines]: Improving the already powerful instant cast [Shadow Word: Pain] and other instant cast abilities will help early on.
• [Improved Shadow Word: Pain]: Increases the damage dealt by Shadow Word: Pain by 10%
• [Mind Flay]: The staple Shadow damage spell.

It is generally accepted that Shadow is the most effective talent build for the grind to 80, simply because it has the highest damage output and efficiency. Many players will spec to full Shadow at Level 40 for [Shadowform], though some prefer simply staying full Shadow all the way to be able to access Shadowform without paying the cost to respec. Similarly, most players will move directly into the Discipline tree upon reaching either Shadowform or [Vampiric Touch], depending on what that player wishes to do with their Shadow abilities.

A rather new strategy players are taking is getting to level 45, then respeccing to acquire a full 5 ranks of [Reflective Shield], a very useful skill in all portions of the game, and can increase overall DPS by up to 30%.

Discipline

The Discipline Priest was by far the less respected healing class by most players. Discipline does not focus on raw healing but on the new concept launched in WotLK the Absorption. Absorption is the bread and soul of a Discipline Priest making the [Improved Power Word: Shield] your strongest talent. Many say Discipline Priests are single target healers and that is not entirely true. For a reason all first Heroic Lich King kills

Talent	Requirements	Ranks	Description
[Improved Power Word: Shield]	None	2	Increase the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10%.
[Twin Disciplines]	None	3	Increases your Shadow and Holy spell damage and healing by 2/4/6%.
[Mental Agility]	None	3	Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 4/7/10%.
[Improved Inner Fire]	Discipline 5	3	Increases the effect of your Inner Fire spell by 15/30/45%, and increases the total number of charges by 4/8/12.
[Martyrdom]	Discipline 5	2	Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6 sec after being the victim of a melee or ranged critical strike. The Focused Casting effect reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Priest spells and decreases the duration of Interrupt effects by 10/20%prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage and increases resistance to Interrupt effects by 10/20%.
[Improved Power Word: Shield]	Discipline 10	3	Increase the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10.
[Inner Focus]	Discipline 10	1	When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
[Meditation]	Discipline 10	3	Allows 10/20/30% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
[Absolution]	Discipline 15	3	Reduces the mana cost of your Dispel Magic, Cure Disease, Abolish Disease and Mass Dispel spells by 5/10/15%.
[Mental Agility]	Discipline 15	3	Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 4/7/10%.
[Improved Mana Burn]	Discipline 15	2	Reduces the casting time of your Mana Burn spell by 0.5/1 sec.
[Mental Strength]	Discipline 20	5	Increases your total Intellect by 3/6/9/12/15%.
[Reflective Shield]	Discipline 20	2	Causes 22/45% of the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield to reflect back at the attacker. This damage causes no threat.
[Soul Warding]	Discipline 20 [Improved Power Word: Shield] 3	1	Reduces cooldown of you Power Word: Shield by 4 sec, and reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Shield by 15%.
[Focused Power]	Discipline 25	2	Increases damage and healing done by your spells by 2/4%. In addition, you Mass Dispel cast time is reduced by 0.5/1 sec.
[Enlightenment]	Discipline 25	3	Increases your total Spirit by 2/4/6% and increases your spell haste by 2/4/6%.
[Focused Will]	Discipline 30	3	After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 2/3/4% and increasing healing effects on you by 3/4/5% for 8 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.
[Power Infusion]	Discipline 30 [Mental Strength] 5	1	Infuses the target with power, increasing casting speed by 20% and reducing the mana cost of all spells by 20%. Lasts 15 seconds.
[Improved Flash Heal]	Discipline 30	3	Reduces the mana cost of your Flash Heal by 5/10/15%, and increases the critical effect chance of your Flash Heal by 4/7/10% on friendly targets at or bellow 50% health.
[Renewed Hope]	Discipline 35	2	Increases the critical strike chance of your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance spells by 2/4% on targets afflicted by the Weakened Soul effect.
[Rapture]	Discipline 35	3	When your Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed or dispelled you are instantly energized with 1.5/2.0/2.5% of your total mana, and you have a 33/66/100% chance to energize your shielded target with 2% total mana, 8 rage, 16 energy or 32 runic power. This effect can only occur once every 12 sec. Through Patch 3.0.8 this is bugged, so be careful when taking this talent.
[Aspiration]	Discipline 35	2	Reduces the cooldown of your Inner Focus, Power Infusion, Pain Suppression, and Penance Spells by 10/20%.
[Divine Aegis]	Discipline 40	3	Critical heals create a protective shield on the target, absorbing 10/20/30% of the amount healed. Lasts 12 sec.
[Pain Suppression]	Discipline 40	1	Instantly reduces a friendly target's threat by 5%, damage taken by 40%, and grants 65% resistance to dispel mechanics for 8 seconds.
[Grace]	Discipline 40	2	Your Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Penance spells have a 50/100% chance to bless the target with Grace, reducing damage done to the target by 1% and increasing all healing received from the Priest by 2/%. This effect stacks up to 3 times. Effect lasts 8 seconds.
[Borrowed Time]	Discipline 45	5	Grants 5/10/15/20/25% spell haste for your next spell after casting Power Word: Shield, and increases the amount absorbed by your Power Word: Shield equal to 8/16/24/32/40% of your spell power.
[Penance]	Discipline 50	1	Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing 184 Holy damage to an enemy, or 670 to 756 healing to an ally every 1 sec for 2 sec.

Holy

The Holy Priest stands proud among the best healing classes in the game. Holy priests are flexible healers due to multiple group healing spells such as [Holy Nova], [Circle of Healing], and [Prayer of Healing]. Priests also get a heal over time (HoT) spell in [Renew], and a powerful spike heal spell: [Greater Heal]. The Holy talent tree focuses on improving the potency and mana efficiency of those spells. A priest with heavy talent investment in the Holy Tree is a must in most raids.

Talent	Requirements	Ranks	Description
Healing Focus	None	2	Reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting any healing spell by 35/70%.
[Improved Renew]	None	3	Increases the amount healed by your renew spell by 5/10/15%.
[Holy Specialization]	None	5	Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Spell Warding	Holy 5	5	Reduces all spell damage taken by 2/4/6/8/10%.
[Divine Fury]	Holy 5	5	Reduces the casting time of your Smite, Holy Fire, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by .1/.2/.3/.4/0.5.
[Desperate Prayer]	Holy 10	1	Instantly heals the caster for 3716 to 4384.
[Blessed Recovery]	Holy 10	3	After being struck by a melee or ranged critical hit, heal 5/10/15% of the damage taken over 6 sec. Additional critical hits taken during the effect increases the healing received.
Inspiration	Holy 10	3	Increases your target's armor value from items for 15 seconds after getting a critical effect from your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal, Penance, Prayer of Healing, or Circle of Healing spell.
[Holy Reach]	Holy 15	2	Increases the range of your Smite and Holy Fire spells and the radius of your Prayer of Healing and Holy Nova, Divine Hymm and Circle of Healing spells by 10/20%.
[Improved Healing]	Holy 15	3	Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal, Divine Hymm and Penance spells by 5/10/15%.
[Searing Light]	Holy 15 [Divine Fury] 5	2	Increases the damage of your Smite, Holy Fire, Holy Nova and Penance spells by 5/10%.
[Healing Prayers]	Holy 20	2	Reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending spells by 10/20%.
[Spirit of Redemption]	Holy 20	1	Increases total Spirit by 5% and upon death, the priest becomes the Spirit of Redemption for 15 sec. The Spirit of Redemption cannot move, attack, be attacked or targeted by any spells or effects. While in this form the priest can cast any healing spell free of cost. When the effect ends, the priest dies.
[Spiritual Guidance]	Holy 20	5	Increases spell damage and healing by up to 5/10/15/20/25% of you total Spirit.
[Surge of Light]	Holy 25	2	Your spell criticals have a 25/50% chance to cause your next Smite or Flash Heal spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 sec.
[Spiritual Healing]	Holy 25	5	Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 2/4/6/8/10%.
[Holy Concentration]	Holy 30	3	Gives you a 10/20/30% chance to enter a Clearcasting state after casting any Flash Heal, Binding Heal, or Greater Heal spell. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of your next Flash Heal, Binding Heal, or Greater Heal spell by 100%.
[Lightwell]	Holy 30 [Spirit of Redemption] 1	1	Creates a holy Lightwell. Members of your raid and party targets can click the Lightwell to restore 656 Mana and 4620 Health over 6 sec. Attacks done to you equal to 30% of your total health will cancel the effet. Lightwell lasts for 3 min or 10 charges.
[Blessed Resilience]	Holy 30	3	Critical hits made against you have a 20/40/60% chance to prevent you from being critically hit again for 6 sec.
[Empowered Healing]	Holy 35	5	Your Greater Heal spell gains an additional 8/16/24/32/40% and your Flash Heal and Binding Heal gain an additional 4/8/12/16/20% of your bonus healing effects.
[Serendipity]	Holy 35	5	If your Greater Heal or Flash Heal spells heal your target over maximum health, you are instantly refunded 25% of your spell's mana cost.
[Improved Holy Concentration]	Holy 40 [Holy Concentration] 3	3	Increases the chance that you'll enter Holy Concentration by 5/10/15%, and also increases your spell haste by 10/20/30% for the next 2 Greater Heal, Flash Heal or Binding Heal spells after you gain Holy Concentration. Lasts 20 sec.
[Circle of Healing]	Holy 40	1	Heals up to 5 friendly party or raid members within 15 yards of the target for 684 to 756.
[Test of Faith]	Holy 40	3	Increases healing by 2/4/6% and spell critical effect chance by 2/4/6% on friendly targets at or below 50% health.
[Divine Providence]	Holy 45	3	Increases the amount healed by Circle of Healing, Binding Heal, Holy Nova, Prayer of Healing, Divine Hymn, and Prayer of Mending by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the cooldown of your Prayer of Mending by 8/16/24/32/40%.
[Guardian Spirit]	Holy 50	1	Calls upon a guardian spirit to watch over the friendly target. The spirit increases the healing received by the target by 40% and also prevents the target from dying by sacrificing itself. This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of 50% of their maximum health. Lasts 10 sec.

Shadow

The Shadow Priest brings the highest damage to the table of all the Priest talent builds. [Mind Flay] becomes the staple damage-dealing spell, with [Improved Shadow Word: Pain] and [Improved Mind Blast] significantly augmenting damage between [Mind Flay] cycles. [Vampiric Embrace] and [Vampiric Touch] bring immense utility to a group, as they heal and regenerate mana whilst the Priest deals damage. Shadow Priests also bring the utility of being able to [Silence] or fear (using [Psychic Scream]) their enemies. Furthermore, the use of Shadow talents improve the power of [Mind Sear] allowing the Priest to deal immense damage in AoE situations.

Talent	Requirements	Ranks	Description
[Spirit Tap]	None	3	Gives you a 33/66/100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience or honor. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 sec.
[Improved Spirit Tap]	Spirit Tap 3	2	Your Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death Criical Strikes have a 100% chance and your Mind Flay Critical Strikes have a 50% chance to increase your total spirit by 5/10%. For the duration your mana will regenerate at a 17/33%. Lasts 8 sec.
[Darkness]	None	5	Increases your Shadow Spell damage by 2/4/6/8/10%.
[Shadow Affinity]	Shadow 5	3	Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 8/16/25%. And you recieve 5% of your base mana when Shadow Word: Pain or Vampiric Touch are dispeled.
[Improved Shadow Word: Pain]	Shadow 5	2	Increases the damage of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3/6%.
[Shadow Focus]	Shadow 5	3	Increases your chance to hit with your Shadow spells by 1/2/3%, and reduces the mana cost of your Shadow spells by 2/4/6%.
[Improved Psychic Scream]	Shadow 10	2	Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 2/4 sec.
[Improved Mind Blast]	Shadow 10	5	Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by .5/1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5 sec.
[Mind Flay]	Shadow 10	1	Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 528 Shadow damage over 3 sec and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
[Veiled Shadows]	Shadow 15	2	Decreases the cooldown of your Fade ability by 3/6 sec, and reduces the cooldown of your Shadowfiend ability by 1/2 minute(s).
[Shadow Reach]	Shadow 15	2	Increases the range of your offensive Shadow spells by 10/20%.
[Shadow Weaving]	Shadow 15	3	Your Shadow damage spells have a 33/66/100% chance to increase the Shadow damage you deal by 2% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
[Silence]	Shadow 20 [Improved Psychic Scream] 1	1	Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 sec.
[Vampiric Embrace]	Shadow 20	1	A buff that causes the priest to be healed for 15% of any single-target Shadow spell damage dealt by the priest, while the priest's party is healed for 3%.
[Improved Vampiric Embrace]	Shadow 20 [Vampiric Embrace] 1	2	Increases the healing received from Vampiric Embrace by 33/67%.
Focused Mind	Shadow 20	3	Reduces the mana cost of your Mind Blast, Mind Control, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 5/10/15%.
[Mind Melt]	Shadow 25	2	Increases the critical strike chance of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by 2/4%. and increases the critical strike chance of your Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain by 3/6%.
[Improved Devouring Plague]	Shadow 25	5	Increases the periodic damage done by your Devouring Plague by 5/10/15% and when you cast Devouring Plague you instantly deal damage equal to 5/10/15% of Devouring Plagues total effect.
[Shadowform]	Shadow 30 [Vampiric Embrace] 1	1	Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing Physical damage done to you by 15% and threat generated by 30%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form. Your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch abilities deal increased percentage damage equal to your spell critical strike chance.
[Shadow Power]	Shadow 30	5	Increases the critical strike damage of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Shadow Word: Death spells by 20/40/60/80/100%.
[Improved Shadowform]	Shadow 35 [Shadowform] 1	3	Your fade ability has now a 100% chance to remove all movement impairing effects when used while in Shadowform, and reduces casting or channeling time lost when damaged by 70% when casting any Shadow spell while in Shadowform.
Misery	Shadow 35	3	Your Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also increase the chance for harmful spells to hit by 1/2/3% lasting 24 sec, and increases the damage of your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear spells by an amount equal to 5/10/15% of your spell power.
[Psychic Horror]	Shadow 40	1	You terrify the target causing them to tremble in horror for 3 seconds. Disarms target's main and ranged weapons for 10 secconds.
[Vampiric Touch]	Shadow 40 [Shadowform] 1	1	Causes 935 Shadow damage over 15 sec to your target and causes up to 10 party or raid members to gain 1% of their maximum mana per 5 seconds when you deal damage from Mind Blast.
[Pain and Suffering]	Shadow 40	3	Your Mind Flay has a 33/66/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target, and reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 10/20/30%.
[Twisted Faith]	Shadow 45	5	Increases your spell power by 4/8/12/16/20 of your total Spirit, and your damage done by your Mind Flay and Mind Blast is increased by 2/4/6/8/10% if your target is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain.
[Dispersion]	Shadow 50 [Vampiric Touch] 1	1	You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced and clears all snare and movement reducing effects and makes you immune to them for it's duration.

External links

• Priest Leveling Builds at WoW Leveling Builds

World of Warcraft official site Priest talent calculator