Priests have historically been one of World of Warcraft’s most unusual and inconsistent classes. Though they have been wildly varied in output, they are in a good spot at the start of this expansion and should serve those who choose to play them in Cataclysm Classic very well.
The last few weeks of Wrath of the Lich King saw Priests in a very solid position across the board. Shadow Priests were often found among the top DPS classes for the final raid tier (95th percentile), while Discipline and Holy Priests are the strongest Healers in the game (alongside Restoration Druid).
In Cataclysm, both roles are receiving interesting support, with reworks to existing systems largely being positive. For Healing, in particular, it is difficult to look beyond the Priest for the game’s hardest activities.
Here’s our guide to all of the Priest changes in Cataclysm Classic.
New Priest spells and abilities
Level 81: Mind Spike
Though Shadow Priests usually have a heavy focus on dots and stacks, Mind Spike can be hugely helpful in certain scenarios.
In short PvE engagements, and perhaps even PvP against squishier targets, Mind Spike is a great way to output significant damage. However, the more it is spammed against the same target, the more damage it does, so it only plays a minimal role in standard Shadow Priest rotations.
Level 83: Inner Will
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Arguably the most situational addition of the three, Inner Will is there to serve as an alternative to Inner Fire. It reduces the mana cost of instant cast spells by 10% and increases movement speed by 12%, which can be very useful in raids and other difficult PvE content.
Level 85: Leap of Faith
Leap of Faith is one of those brilliant spells that initially seems simple but actually has a ton of application. Essentially, it pulls the target to the Priest in a similar way to Death Grip for Death Knights. In this case, it can only be used to pull friendlies into range and get them out of trouble in PvE or PvP.
Talents, Masteries and Spec changes
Discipline Priest single-target healing is somehow going to improve even further, while Holy is getting some nice buffs to its PvP toolkit. Shadow is also getting some nice buffs that should make it a competitive class, even if it won’t reach the heights of the best casters yet.
A big change to the way the class functions across the board is that DoT and HoT are now affected directly by Crit and Haste. In addition, Spirit will be the only primary mana regeneration stat, so anyone using this class should prioritize it.
For Discipline, the mastery effect greatly increases the strength of all absorption shield casts. For Holy, direct heals now add a small heal-over-time. Shadow Priests also get a chance at summoning a Shadow Orb every time they cast a spell, which in turn increases Shadow damage.
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