Overview

Priests have been a hit and miss class for the majority of Wrath of the Lich King; they have been overpowered, underpowered, and everywhere in between. The changes to the Priest class that are coming in Cataclysm have them poised to be one of the, if not the most powerful and versatile class in the game. They are receiving enhanced damage, mana regeneration, as well as offensive and defensive utility in all three trees. Furthermore, Priests will be getting the coolest new ability of them all: Leap of Faith. Leap of Faith, more commonly referred to as "Lifegrip," is like a reverse Death Grip that pulls an ally to your location in the same way that Death Grip pulls an enemy. All in all, if you're on the fence Priests are looking really, really good right now.

New 4.0 Talents

Discipline:

Train of Thought: You have a 50% chance per point when you heal with Greater Heal to reduce the cooldown of your inner Focus by 5 sec. You have a 50% chance per point when you Smite to reduce the cooldown of your Penance by 0.5 sec. (2 points)

Holy:

Tome of Light: Reduces the cooldown of your Holy Word spells by 15% per talent point. (2 points)

Shadow:

Veiled Shadows: Decreases the cooldown of your Fade ability by 3 sec per point, and reduces the cooldown of your Shadowfiend ability by 30 sec per point.

Shadowy Apparition: When you deal periodic damage with your Shadow Word: Pain, you have a 4% chance per point to summon a shadow version of yourself which will slowly move towards a target which is afflicted by your shadow Word: Pain. Once reaching the target, it will instantly deal 578 shadow damage.

While moving, the chance to summon the shadowy apparition is increased by 20% per point. You can have up to 4 Shadowy Apparitions active at a time.

Harnessed Shadows: Increases the chance for you to gain a Shadow Orb when dealing damage with your Mind Flay and Shadow Word: Pain by 4% per point, and you have a 50% per point ot gain a Shadow Orb when critically hit by any attack.

New Active Talents

The new active talents in the Discipline and Holy trees are both unusual in that they produce different effects based on how you use them.

Discipline:

Archangel: Consumes your Evangelism effects, causingan effect depending on what type of Evangelism is consumed:

Archangel (Evangelism) - Instantly restores 1% of your total mana and increases your healing done by 3% for each stack. Lasts for 18 sec. 30 sec cooldown.

Dark Archangel (Dark Evangelism) - Instantly restores 5% of your total mana and increases the damage done by your Mind Flay, Mind Spike, Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death 4% for each stack. Lasts 18 sec. 90 sec cooldown.

Power Word: Barrier: Summons a holy barrier on the target spot that absorbs X amount of damage done to friendly targets within it each time they take damage. While within the barrier, spellcasting will not be interrupted by damage. The barrier lasts for 25 sec or until it absorbs Y damage. Instant cast, 2 min cooldown.

Holy:

Chakra: When activated, your next Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell will put you into a corresponding Chakra state. Lasts for 30 sec.

Serenity (Heal) - Increases the critical effect chance of your Heal spell by 10%, and your Heal refreshes the duration of your Renew on the target.

Sanctuary (PoH, PoM) - Increases the healing done by your area of effect spells by 15% and reduces the cooldown of your Circle of Healing by 2 sec.

Chastise (Smite) - Increases your total damage done by Shadow and Holy spells by 15%.

New Passive Talents

Discipline:

Evangelism: You have a 100% chance when you Smite and a 100% chance when you Mind Flay to gain Evangelism. Stacks up to 5 times. Lasts for 20 sec. (2 points)

Evangelism (Smite) - Increases the damage done by your Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance spells by 2% per point and reduces the mana cost of those spells by 3% per point.

Dark Evangelism (Mind Flay) - Increases the damage done by your Periodic Shadow spells by 1% per point.

Atonement: When you deal damage with Smite, you instantly heal a nearby low health friendly party or raid target within 14 yards from the enemy target equal to 50% of the damage dealt per point. If the Priest is healed through Atonement, the effect is reduced by half. (2 points)

Strength of Soul: When you heal a target with your Heal spell, the duration of the weakened soul debuff on the target is reduced by 2 sec per point. (2 points)

Focused Will: Whenever you are the victim of an attack equal to damage greater than 10% of your total health, you gain Focused Will reducing all damage taken by 4%/6% lasting 8 sec. Stacks up to 2 times. (2 points)

Holy:

Divine Touch: Your Renew will instantly heal the target for 5% per point of the total periodic effect. (2 points)

Revelations: While in a Chakra state, your Holy Word: Chastise ability will transform into a different ability depending on which state you are in. (1 point)

Holy Word: Serenity (Heal) - Instantly heals the target for 6725, and increases the critical effect chance of your healing spells on the target by 25% for 6 sec. 15 sec cooldown.

Holy Word: Sanctuary (Prayer of Healing) - Blesses the ground with Divine light, healing all within it for 389 every 2 sec for 18 sec. Only one Sanctuary can be active at any one time. 40 sec cooldown.

State of Mind: Your successful Heal, Renew, Prayer of Healing or Smite spell casts increase the duration of your corresponding Chakra state by 2 sec per point. (2 points)

Shadow:

Darkness: Spell haste increased by 1% per point. (3 points)

Phantasm: Your Fade ability now has a 50% chance per point to remove all movement impairing effects. (2 points)

Masochism: When you take a damaging attack equal to or greater than 10% of your total health or damage yourself with Shadow Word: Death, you instantly gain 5% per point of your total mana. (2 points)

Paralysis: When you critically hit with your Mind blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 2 seconds per point. (2 points)

Sin and Punishment: When your Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller and all nearby enemy targets within 13 yards have a 50% chance per point to be instantly feared in horror for 3 sec.

When your Mind Flay critically hits, the cooldown of your Shadowfiend is reduced by 5 sec per point. (2 points)

Analysis

Not much needs to be said other than wow. We'll start with Shadow Priests. These poor guys have often had mana issues throughout WoTLK in non-raid situations. With the Masochism talent they're now able to regenerate 8% of their maximum mana every 12 seconds. With that they'll basically have infinite mana without a penalty as harsh as what Warlocks pay to use Life Tap. Paralysis, and Sin and Punishment on top of Psychic Horror, Psychic Scream, and Silence will give Shadow Priests a crowd control package second to none, and possibly superior to all. If the numbers being thrown around on the Public Test Realm are of any indication of the future of the class their damage will be absolutely out of control. This is definitely a spec to be feared, and one that may in fact need to be toned down to be brought in line with everything else.

Holy Priests got one of the most unusual abilities introduced in Cataclysm: Chakra. Chakra will allow the priest to transform their moves into enhanced and different abilities similar to the base ability they are mimicking. It's a neat idea on paper, and will certainly be cool if the priest can maintain it for a significant amount of time. If it turns out to be a dud however it'll be a shame for the spec, because the Chakra changes are pretty much the entirety of the additions to the holy spec line. Don't expect to see many Holy Priests in the battlegrounds either, their survivability wasn't addressed at all and neither was their mobility. The majority of the PvP oriented talents were put in the Discipline tree (again)!

Discipline priests got everything they wanted and then some. Their ultimate talent Power Word: Barrier is the area of effect Power Word: Shield that Priests have been envisioning pretty much since Vanilla WoW. The Archangel and Evangelism talents will also give priests of all types an interesting mechanic to juggle along with their normal rotation. Discipline was for the most part untouched and is still full of familiar talents, that's arguably for the best. The Discipline tree was one of the most fully developed and interesting talent trees in WoTLK and was already packed full of powerful abilities. The new, more durable Discipline Priest armed with Power Word: Barrier and "Lifegrip" will be an amazingly versatile healer that can pack a punch with damage too.

All in all the Priest got one of the most favorable talent reviews of any class. All three trees got some substantial upgrades and are poised to go into Cataclysm in very good standing. If you're playing a Priest already or considering rerolling one then there is a lot to be excited about.

Patch 4.0.1 Analysis

Priests have been changed relatively little since the early Beta builds compared to other classes. Currently Shadow Priests are arguably the most powerful PvP spec in the game, dominating at all levels versus all opponents. Their PvE damage is also within the upper few classes. They don't have anything to complain about.

On the other hand, the two healing specs are suffering in the Beta compared to the other available healing classes. Buffs to Discipline to help out with their chronic mana shortages are expected before the next arena season begins. Their Beta performance is in stark opposition to the current play on live servers. Due to the raw power of the Discipline mastery which increases the potency of absorb effects, Discipline is absolutely rocking PvE encounters as the outright most powerful and efficient healer through spamming Power Word: Shield. Holy healers are also competitive with the traditionally powerful Restoration Druids even on AoE healing intensive fights.

All in all, Priests are in good shape on live but have mana issues on Beta which will hopefully be fixed before the release of Cataclysm. Priests have every reason to be hopeful that their class will be well worth leveling to 85.