General Questions

Q: Should I make a shadow priest or a holy priest?
A: A shadow priest is more mage like, and a holy priest is more healer like. This is heavily dependant on your personal choice as well as the type of server you play on. (PVP or regular) Keep in mind that you can experiment with both types with talent respecialization but it can get pricy if you change too much.

Q: Which race is best for my priest?
A: This depends on what you want to do with your priest. Dwarves and humans are great choices for holy priests because of their racial spells, and undead has the best racial spell for pvping and damage.

Q: What are these racial spells you speak of?
A: Priests are the only class that gets racial spells at level 10 and 20 through quests given by priest trainers in major cities. There are multiple ranks of each spell that you can upgrade as you level. The highest rank of each spell is described below:

* Desperate Prayer (Level 10). (Dwarf/Human only.)
Rank 7 - Instantly heals the caster for 1324 to 1562.

* Starshards (Level 10). (Night Elf only.)
Rank 7 - Rains starshards down on the enemy target's head, causing 798 Arcane damage over 6 seconds.

* Touch of Weakness (Level 10). (Undead only.)
Rank 6 - The caster's next damaging melee attack will cause 64 additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target by -20 for 2 minutes.

* Hex of Weakness (Level 10). (Troll only.)
Rank 6 - Weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused by -20 for 2 minutes.

* Fear Ward (Level 20). (Dwarf only.)
One rank only - Wards the friendly target against fear. The next fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 10 minutes.

* Feedback (Level 20). (Human only.)
Rank 5 - Enchants the Priest's weapon to cause feedback on enemy targets. Each hit has a chance of draining 105 mana from the target. For each mana drained in this way, the target takes 1 damage.

* Elune's Grace (Level 20). (Night Elf only.)
Rank 5 - Reduces ranged damage taken by -29 for 3 minutes.

* Devouring Plague (Level 20). (Undead only.)
Rank 6 - Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 904 Shadow damage over 24 seconds. Damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.

* Shadowguard (Level 20). (Troll only.)
Rank 6 - The caster is surrounded by shadows. When a melee or ranged attacker hits the caster, the attacker will be struck for 116 Shadow damage. Attackers can only be damaged once every few seconds. 3 charges. Lasts 10 minutes.

Q: Where do we get the upgrades for racial trait spells?
A: You can get them at the priest trainer. Fear Ward is not upgradable.

Q: What’s the best duo with priest?
A: Very subjective – a priest will generally duo ok with almost any class. Read the forums for more information on why a priest can duo with each class.

Q: How do I kill xxx class in PVP 1 on 1?
A: Very subjective – again, a good idea to get some good strategies are to read the forums.

Q: Which professions should I take?
A: This is up to you. Obviously it wouldn’t make too much sense for a priest to do blacksmithing or leatherworking. If you want to make money, take up 2 collection skills such as skinning and herbalism.

Q: I heard priests are not suppose to shield warriors because it prevents rage generation. Is this true?
A: You can test this by shielding a warrior and let a mob beat on him while he does nothing and watch his rage. It seems the answer to this question changes with every patch, so test this for yourself and decide whether to shield your warrior or not before pulls. Some warriors don't mind, some say they can't gain enough rage to hold aggro if this is on, work it out with your warrior.

Q: Can I get some basic information about what stats do for me?

Strength-10 = Attack Power | Takes 14 str to add 1 dps
1 Intellect = 15 mana per point = 1% chance to cast a crit spell every 100 INT
1 Stamina = 10 HP
4 Spirit = 1 mana regen/2 secs
9 Spirit = 1 Hp regen/2 secs
Mana Regen/tick = Spirit/4 + 13
Mana regenerates according to how much spirit you have. Take the amount of spirit you have, and divide it by four. Then add 13 to this value. That is around how much mana you should regenerate every tick (or every 2 seconds). You do not regenerate mana faster if you are sitting down or standing up.

Q: What is aggro, and how does it work?
A: Please refer to Remedy's aggro thread here. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-priest&T=68148&P=1

Q: what are some useful macros for priests?
A: [edit] The good thread is removed. If anybody has some good macros please don't hesitate to post.
To announce heals to your group, use the following macro:
/cast Greater Heal(Rank #)
/p Casting Greater Heal on %t


Priest Spells

Q: What is brainwash?
A: This is a spell that was removed in beta. Unfortunately, a lot of websites still has it listed as a priest spell.

Q: Where do I find light feathers for levitate?
A: You have to farm them off of bird creatures. Plainstriders in the barrens and darkshore drop them frequently.

Q: How come when I cast vampiric embrace on a mob and then hit them with my shadow wand, my group isn’t healed?
A: Wand damage does not count as “shadow damage” even if it’s a shadow wand.

Q: What does it mean when a spell is channeled?
A: Channeled spells have a set duration. During this “channeling” process, the caster is unable to cast any other spell. If a mob hits you while you are channeling your spell, your channel breaks. The only exceptions are classes with talents that decreases the chance of channeling breaking such as mages and warlocks.

Q: How does spirit tap work?
A: With 5 points in spirit tap, you receive 100% chance of doubling your spirit for 15 seconds if you get the killing blow. This doubles your mana regeneration. During the 5 second rule, mana regeneration is at 50%. Spirit tap will only activate when you receive exp from the mob.

Q: What is the 5 second rule?
A: You will not regenerate mana for 5 seconds after you have casted a spell. This is the case for all casters. Priests can take the meditation talent to regenerate mana at a reduced rate under the discipline tree.

April 19th Patch changed the 5 second rule in this manner --
before patch:

[--- casting heal ---] [--- 5 seconds ------------]
[ ---- meditation working here -------------------]

after patch:

[--- casting heal ---] [--- 5 seconds ---------------]
[--- 100% regen ---] [-meditation working here]


Q: How does mind control work?
A: Mind control lets you take over a mob or a player. When you take over a mob, you have access to all their abilities and spells. When you take over a player, the only thing you can do is melee. There are 3 ranks of mind control, first rank is at level 30. To break mind control, simply hit one of your spell keys or your melee key. Most priest will target themselves and cast shield to break mind control early because the mob will beat on you if it's not taunted off.

Q: What are prayer of fortitude spells and where do they drop?
A: There are two ranks of prayer of fortitude, 1 and 2. The spell requires a reagent and buffs your entire group with fortitude. As of the 3/22/2005 patch, this spell is now targetable, enabling the priest to buff other parties as well. Prayer of Fortitude Rank 1 drops in Blackrock Depths, Temple of Atal'Hakkar, plus all the locations rank 2 can drop. Prayer of Fortitude Rank 2 drops in Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, Stratholme, Scholomance, Dire Maul. Azuregos and Onyxia are reported to drop this as well.

Q: Do I need prayer of fortitude rank 1 for me to use prayer of fortitude rank 2?
A: No you don't.

Q: Why can't I shackle undead players?
A: At release, blizzard changed the classification of undead players to humanoids. If you mouse over them and look at your tooltips, you will see "Humanoid" instead of "Undead". Shackle undead only works on "Undead" creatures.

Q: How do I use fade?
A: Fade is an aggro reducing spell. This means that if you have 100 points of aggro built on a mob, after you cast face, you will have 100-X points of aggro for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, X points of aggro is returned. However we don't have information regarding aggro numbers, so the value of X is unknown.
You will never use this spell when you are soloing. It makes no difference whether the mob has 100 or 200 points of aggro on you when you are the only person it cares about. This is a group only spell.
How to use:
When you are grouped with a warrior for example, and he pulls 2 mobs. He is only damaging mob 1, so he is building aggro on it. Mob 2 however is untouched, only proximity aggro exists. For simplicity's sake, I'll make up some numbers to illustrate this. Lets say the warrior has built 100 points of aggro on mob 1, and 1 point of aggro on mob 2.

You cast a heal on the warrior, causing 50 aggro points:
Mob 1: aggro on warrior = 100, aggro on priest = 50. Mob stays on warrior.
Mob 2: aggro on warrior = 1, aggro on priest = 50. Mob turns on priest.

You cast fade. Your aggro is reduced by 50.
Mob 1: aggro on warrior = 100, aggro on priest = 0. Mob stays on warrior.
Mob 2: aggro on warrior = 1, aggro on priest = 0. Mob goes back to warrior.

Now if the warrior continues to ignore mob 2, he will come after you after 10 seconds when fade has worn off.

You want to use fade when you are getting hit by mob(s) and you want them to stop hitting you.

This spell does not work in pvp.

Q: Does the shadow damage from Devouring Plague and Touch of Weakness count toward Vampiric Embrace's effect?
A: Yes it does.

Q: Why does Vampiric Embrace never seem to heal for the full 20%?
A: Currently, vampiric embrace only heals your party for the *BASE* amount of shadow damage that you do. Say you have +200 shadow damage, vampiric embrace does not take that into account. This is believed to be a bug.

Priest Equipment

Q: How do these +healing and +damage items work? Is +healing really bugged?
A: As of the 3/22/2005 patch, +healing is reported to be working.

Here is an example of how +healing works on Greater Heal Rank 4 and Flash Heal Rank 7:
If you have an item labelled: "increases healing done by spells and effects by up to 100"

Greater heal will receive 100% of that bonus. You will heal for base greater heal + 100.
Flash heal will receive 43% of that bonus. You will heal for base flash heal + 43.
Renew will receive 100% of that bonus.
Renew ticks 5 times, so every tick of renew will be +20.

Formula for calculating the percentage of the bonus is generally [cast time of spell]/3.5, and if the number is greater than 1, you get 100% of the bonus. Through testing, it is confirmed that instant HoTs receive 100% of the bonus. There are also small technicalities with lower level ranks of spells such as rank 1 renew does not receive 100% of the bonus. It is also reported that they have manually adjusted certain spells so the best thing to do is test it yourself.

+damage works in a similar fashion, DoTs receive 100% of the bonus listed, instant cast spells receive a lower percentage.

One thing to keep in mind, there are a few permutations of +healing and +damage. Some equipment are "increase damage done by spells and effects", some are "increase healing done by spells and effects" and some are "increase damage and healing done by spells and effects." Blizzard does not put +dmg and +healing on the same scale, +dmg is usually a little less than +healing. If you collect purely "increase healind done" items, you will end up with a bigger +healing total than if you collected "increase healing and damage done".

Q: What kind of weapons can I use, and where do I go to train them?
A: Priests can use daggers, one handed maces, and staves. Priests start off with mace, but you have to train staves and daggers. Alliance trainer is available in Stormwind. Horde trainer is available in Thunder Bluff. Ask a guard for directions.

Q: What armor can I wear?
A: Priests can only wear cloth armor.

Q: How do I use wands?
A: Equip the wand in your ranged slot. Open up your spell book and under the general tab, there is an icon for shoot. Place that on your hotbar and click to fire your wand.

Q: Do mana regen items work in combat and during the 5 second rule?
A: Yes.

Q: Where does the devout set drop?
Devout Robe - General Drakkisath, UBRS
Devout Skirt - Baron Rivendare, Stratholme
Devout Belt - random caster, LBRS
Devout Boots - Maleki the Pallid, Stratholme
Devout Gloves - Archivist Galford, Stratholme
Devout Crown - Darkmaster Gandling, Scholomance
Devout Mantle - Solakar Flamewreath, UBRS
Devout Bracers - random caster, Stratholme

Q: Where does the prophecy set drop?
This set drops exclusively in Molten Core.
Circlet of Prophecy - Garr
Robes of Prophecy - Golemagg the Incinerator
Boots of Prophecy - Shazzrah
Vambraces of Prophecy - non boss mobs in zone
Pants of Prophecy - Magmadar
Mantle of Prophecy - Sulfuron Harbinger
Gloves of Prophecy - Gehennas
Girdle of Prophecy - non boss mobs in zone

Q: Where does the transcendence set drop?
This entire set minus two pieces is dropped in Blackwing's Lair. A few other pieces used to drop in Molten Core but was removed.

Pauldrons of Transcendence - Chromaggus, BWL
Belt of Transcendence - Vaelastransz, BWL
Halo of Transcendence - Onyxia
Bindings of Transcendence - Razorgore, BWL
Handguards of Transcendence - Firemaw, Ebonroc, Flamgor, BWL
Leggings of Transcendence - Ragnaros
Boots of Transcendence - Broodlord, BWL
Robes of Transcendence - Nefarion, BWL

Q: Do '+spell crit' items increase my heal crit chance?
A: As of recent patch, blizzard stated +spell crit items are fixed to work for healing.

Q: What is the priest epic and how do I get it?
Benediction: http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=18608
Anathema: http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=18609

This is a staff that is transmutable - you can turn benediction into anathema and vice versa. The transmute is on a 30 minute timer however. You can get this staff enchanted, the enchant will stay if you transmute the staff (Patch 1.8).

The quest starter, Eye of Divinity is obtained in Majordomo's chest after he is defeated. I won't explain in too much detail about the steps leading up to defeating Majordomo - you can find the information you need in the raid and dungeons forums.

Once you obtain the eye of divinity, equip it and head to eastern plaguelands. There is a small path behind terrordale, near stratholme, take that path up into the mountains and there will be an NPC there. She will only be visible if you have the eye of divinity equipped. Accept her quest and listen to her story. You will have to save 50 peasants before 15 are slain. Once you complete this portion, you will receive Splinter of Nordrassil.

Tips on defeating the epic quest:

The quest involves wave after wave of 10 peasants walking from point A to point B. Your job is to make sure they don't die by healing them. They will be under attack by archer skeletons and melee skeletons. The archer skeletons cannot be killed, so don't worry about them. The melee skeletons only have around 100 hitpoints, but they come in groups of 4-5.

Before doing the epic priest quest, pick up around 10 bottles of oil of immolation from the auction house, or have an alchemist make it for you. These are on a 3 second timer, independant of other potions, and deals 50 damage to whatever that attacks you. The melee skeletons only have about 100 hitpoints, when they attack you, the potion will pretty much kill them. Having a few major mana potions will help too.

Also, hit v on your keyboard so you can see the peasants' hitpoints easier. You can click on the bars to select the peasant for healing. A few of them will have a disease debuff casted on them, so having abolish disease out is a good idea. You can also use this addon- TipBuddy, to show buffs/debuffs on mouseover. http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=815

Last, use a lower rank of flash heal. The peasants don't have many hitpoints and you want to conserve your mana. Personally, I used a combination of renew and flash heal. Renew will pretty much negate the damage the peasants take from the archers. Don't overheal them, the quest isn't going to care if the peasants survive with 10 hp or full hp. As long as they get to point B with 1 hitpoint left.

Your first time doing this quest, make a mental note of where the peasants "steps into the light". You want to start running back towards the tunnel where the next wave will spawn a little bit before the first wave despawns. Skeletons will also spawn from the cave entrance so you want to make sure you get the proximity aggro first.

Don't be stingy with the mana potions, drink one once you hit about 75% mana so your potion cooldown timer starts ticking just in case you need another mana pot later.

You can also use holy nova to deal with the skeletons - however if skeletons spawn before the 30 second cooldown on holy nova is up, you will still need an immolation potion.

The last component is the Eye of Shadow. This is a 100% drop off of Lord Kazzak in Blasted Lands, but killing him requires a raid group. Since he is an outdoor spawn, competion on some servers is fierce. You can also farm demons in Winterspring - Frostwhisper Gorge. The drop rate is extremely low but the demons can be killed by a priest/warrior duo. Eye of Shadow is also BoE so you can technically purchase this (if there is one for sale), and you do not need the eye of divinity to obtain the eye of shadow so you can go and farm this now, and save it for later. Once you obtain all three pieces, you right click on any one of them and you form Benediction.

Last but not least, please refer to Beleth's Guide to Priests for detailed and in depth information.
https://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-priest&T=126495&P=1

Priest PVP

Q: How does the Honor System work for Priests?

A: The Honor System works much like the experience point system. If you are solo, the amount of Contribution Points you earn are based on the value of the target and the damage that you caused to them.

As a member of a group or raid, all members will receive a portion of the CPs from a kill. This proportion is only based on the member being within range of the kill (as with experience) and based on the level and/or PvP rank differences in the group. As with PvE experience, CPs gained while grouped are given a group bonus before they are divided. Damage done by an individual player does not modify the CP reward within a group or raid. A Priest and four equal level/PvP ranked damage dealing groupmates will receive the same CPs for each kill.

Q: Does healing give you CPs? Does Ressurrecting give you CPs?

A: Healing does not directly give you CPs. If you are solo, and heal an ungrouped/unraidgrouped person, you will not gain CPs. Additionally, Ressurrection of dead players does not give you CPs.

However, being a member of a group and healing the members of that group will indirectly give you CPs. With your healing, your group is more readily able to kill other players and the entire group benefits from CPs. In addition, through your healing a group may be able to take down targets they would not have been able to solo, which indirectly translates your healing ability into CPs.

Q: If healing random PvP'ers doesn't give me Honor, why should I heal them?

A: If they survive, they may group with you and you may find yourself participating in successful and survivable PvP action from that point on. And if they die, you may find yourself the next victim when the enemy is done. And you may, of course, invite them/ask for an invite before engaging in battle so that you can share the rewards.

Or you can, of course, move along and let them die.

Q: Can a Holy priest compete with a Shadow Priest for honor points?

A: Under the Honor System, a Holy Priest may be able to match a shadow priest by grouping with a damage dealer(S). A solo PvPing Shadow Priest and a Holy Priest grouped with a Rogue may be able to gain the same or possibly greater CPs depending on the skill of the players. This may be especially true if the solo Shadow Priest is more vulnerable to groups of opposing players than a duo'd Holy Priest, who has backup.

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CREDITS:
Breaca, Erongg, Allysa, Kallistae, Donloirib, Zuel, Cide

Also a huge thanks to everybody in #priests on stratics for helping me with some of the numbers and explanations.
_______________________________________
Updated 11/04/2005 - v3.0
Updated Prophecy drop info.
Corrected attack power calculation.

Updated 10/24/2005 - v2.9
Updated Transcendence drop info.
Updated Benediction/Anathema transmute/enchant info.

Updated 7/22/2005 - v2.8
Added two questions regarding vampiric embrace.
Reworded and expanded question on +healing and +damage gear.

Updated 7/5/2005 - v2.7
Added racial trait spell descriptions.
Added Prophecy and Transcendence set drop locations.
Added Priest Epic Quest instructions

Updated 6/15/2005 - v2.6
Clarified racial trait spells, how to get them and upgrade them.
Corrected an error in the spirit formula.

Updated 6/5/2005 - v2.5
Added section on how to use fade.

Updated 5/25/2005 - v2.4
Reworked question regarding rage generation and shield.
Added instructions on how to break mind control early.

Updated 5/9/2005 - v2.3
Added a question regarding shackle undead vs undead players.
Added the Priest PVP Section - grabbed from Zuel's post in Beleth's Guide thread.

Updated 4/20/2005 - v2.2
5 second rule change explained
reworded shielding warriors re: rage regeneration

Updated 4/6/2005 - v2.1
Added suggestions
Added credits
Organized FAQ, made formatting changes
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Please add questions/answers that are appropriate to a FAQ. Also, I hate to have to link to posts because of how fast they get deleted. If any of you whose posts are linked would like to write a short answer for this FAQ, please post. And please report any broken links. Thanks.