Priest Guide for WoW Forever: How Discipline, Holy and Shadow Play

The WoW Forever priest is the healer you know with more tools, and its race matters less than in Classic: Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are learned by everyone at level 20. Each race keeps two racial spells of its own, revised, and each tree gains new talents: Discipline with Penance and shields that come from your critical heals, Holy with Binding Heal and Prayer of Mending, and Shadow with a Shadowform that spends half the mana. This guide explains how each tree plays, what you learn, what to look for in gear and how to level. It does not say which one is "the best".

Everything comes from the beta client (build 1.60.1.70170, level 30) and from Blizzard's explanation of September 30. It may change before November 4.

In short

What changes compared to Classic

• Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are learned by all priests at level 20, whatever their race. They stop being racials.
• New racial spells: each race has two, and five are new in Forever (Divine Grace for humans, Chastise for dwarves, Confounding Flash and Contingency Plan for gnomes, Dark Sacrifice for the Undead). To choose a race, what each one does and which race to pick.
• Divine Spirit is baseline at level 30, and Blizzard says Shadow Word: Death arrives at level 32 (instant damage that costs you 10% of your health if it does not kill; the beta client does not list it yet).
• Prayer of Healing heals the target's group, not yours. The Renews of several priests stack on the same target. Fade removes double the threat.
• Lightwell stops being a talent.

What you learn from 1 to 40

Ranks and costs are in the priest spellbook.

Discipline

How it plays: healing by preventing. Shields (Power Word: Shield) before the damage arrives, Penance to heal or hit by channeling, and critical heals that leave extra shields.

Talents that define it in Forever:

• Twin Disciplines (new): +5% damage and healing to your instant spells.
• Improved Power Word: Shield and Meditation (you keep regenerating mana while casting).
• Inner Focus: your next spell costs no mana.
• Soul Warding (new, 16 points): shield more often and cheaper.
• Penance (new, fifth row): heals an ally or damages an enemy by channeling for a few seconds.
• Divine Aegis (new): your critical heals create a shield.
• Power Infusion (31 points, beyond level 30).

Holy

How it plays: the direct healer. Heal, Flash Heal and Renew for a single target, Prayer of Healing for the group.

Talents that define it in Forever:

• Twilight Focus (new): fewer interruptions from damage while casting.
• Holy Specialization and Divine Fury: more crit and faster casts.
• Binding Heal (new, 16 points): heals you and your target at the same time.
• Litany of Light (new, fifth row): you recover mana when alternating different heals.
• Spiritual Guidance: your Spirit adds to your healing.
• Prayer of Mending (new, 31 points): a heal that jumps between group members.

Shadow

How it plays: ranged damage with effects over time. Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague kept up, Mind Blast when it is ready and Mind Flay as filler.

Talents that define it in Forever:

• Spirit Tap: more Spirit after a kill, to regain mana between fights. It is the first thing to take when leveling.
• Mind Flay (11 points) and Improved Mind Flay (new): more damage and 10 yards more range, in exchange for slowing the target less.
• Vampiric Embrace (16 points): your Shadow damage heals your group.
• Shadow Weaving: your Shadow spells strengthen each other.
• Devouring Contagion (new, fifth row): Devouring Plague costs half and jumps to another enemy if the target dies.
• Shadowform (31 points): it now spends half the mana on Shadow spells and doubles their critical damage, with less damage bonus than in Classic.

Which stats to look for

In all of them, a wand is your basic attack while you level. Piece by piece and level by level, in the BiS: healer priest and Shadow priest.

How to level

• From 1 to 10: Smite and Shadow Word: Pain, and the wand as soon as you have one. Shield if they hit you.
• From 10 to 30: most people level as Shadow, with a few points in Wand Specialization (first row of Discipline): Spirit Tap gives you mana back between fights and the wand hits harder. Use Pain, Mind Blast, shield, and finish with the wand.
• In a group: at any level, groups look for a healer. With Discipline or Holy you will find a dungeon quickly.
• Zones and dungeons for your level are in What should I do at my level?, and the route in the 1-20 leveling guide and the 20-30 one.

Spend your points in the priest talent calculator, with the role builds published and the most saved ones on wow4ever. And ready-to-copy macros, useful for healing whoever you point at with the mouse.

Talents: one build per tree at level 30

With 21 points at level 30, these are builds for the current beta, one per tree. They are checked against the calculator's rules (rows, requirements and points) and load in one click: the link opens the calculator with the points in place, and from there you can change anything and save it. They are not "the optimal build": they are a sensible starting point.

Discipline

More frequent shields, Penance and mana to last through long dungeons.

Load this build in the calculator

Holy

Direct healing: more crit, faster casts and Binding Heal.

Load this build in the calculator

Shadow

For levelling: Spirit Tap and the wand so you rarely stop to drink, plus Vampiric Embrace.

Load this build in the calculator

The class page also has the role builds published by people already playing the beta and the most-saved builds on wow4ever.

Useful macros

A macro packs several commands into one button. These use the official spell names and the current game's syntax, which works in the beta. To create one: type /macro, click "New", paste the text and drag the icon to your bar. All of them, with a copy button, are on the priest page; what each piece means is in the macro guide.

Shield on mouseover

Shields whoever is under your mouse (on the party frames, say) without switching targets. From level 6.

#showtooltip Power Word: Shield
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Power Word: Shield

Renew on mouseover

The healer's basic mouseover heal: heal without switching targets. From level 8.

#showtooltip Renew
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Renew

Dispel Magic on a friend or foe

On a friend it removes debuffs; on an enemy, buffs. It goes to whoever is under your mouse. From level 18.

#showtooltip Dispel Magic
/cast [@mouseover,exists,nodead][] Dispel Magic

Shackle Undead on your focus

Keeps your focus shackled while you heal the others. From level 20.

#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/cast [@focus,harm,nodead][] Shackle Undead

Resurrection on mouseover

Resurrects whoever you point at on the party frames, no hunting for the body. From level 10.

#showtooltip Resurrection
/cast [@mouseover,help,dead][] Resurrection

Items worth chasing

The pieces that matter most in level 30 gear, from the beta BiS list (Alliance; if the Horde uses another piece, it is listed alongside). The full set, slot by slot with alternatives, is in each role's BiS page.

Healer

See the full BiS

Shadow

See the full BiS

What is still unknown

• When Shadow Word: Death arrives in the client: Blizzard announced it at level 32.
• Talents beyond level 30: they are in the client, but the beta does not let you go past 30.

Frequently asked questions

Is Fear Ward still a dwarf racial in WoW Forever?

No. In Forever, Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are learned by all priests at level 20. Each race keeps two racial spells of its own.

Which priest tree is the most comfortable for leveling?

Shadow, with a wand: Spirit Tap gives you mana back when you kill, and many put a few points in Wand Specialization, from Discipline, so the wand hits harder.

What changes in Shadowform?

Casting Shadow spells in it costs half the mana and their critical damage is doubled, in exchange for less damage bonus than in Classic.

What is Penance?

A new Discipline talent: you channel a few seconds of Holy light that heal an ally or damage an enemy.