Priest Talents (WoW)  

See also: Priest Talent Builds

Priest talents, along with the rest of the Priest abilities, are divided into three separate points of focus for the class: Discipline, Holy, and Shadow.

Discipline (Disc)

The Discipline tree is primarily a support tree that supports both Holy as well as Shadow priests. Heavy emphasis can be placed on it for PvP effectiveness as well.

Key Talents

• Improved Power Word: Fortitude - Increases the effectiveness of both Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude by 30%. Typical in both PvE builds, not so much in PvP builds.
• Silent Resolve - For PvE, this reduces the threat generated by Holy and Discipline spells (heals mostly) by up to 20%. For PvP, reduces the chance for spells to be dispelled by 20%. Typical in PvE healing and PvP builds.
• Meditation - Allows for 30% of Spirit-based mana regen to continue while casting. This is crucial for any PvE build. (Note: Meditation is one reason why Spirit is such a sought after stat for healing priests.)
• Inner Focus - When activated, the next spell is cast with no mana cost. Also increases the critical chance of that spell (if capable of critting) by 25%. Typical in both Holy and Shadow builds, the 0 mana cost allows the caster to stay outside of the Five Second Rule. It is especially crucial to Undead Shadow Priests to use in conjunction with the Undead Priest racial Devouring Plague.
• Divine Spirit (and Improved Divine Spirit) - Adds another buff to the priest's repertoire. The improved talents allow for 10% of the target's total spirit to be calculated as +damage and +healing. Typical to have one IDS specced priest in a raid.
• Focused Power - Increases the Hit Chance for Smite, Mind Blast, and Mass Dispel by 4%. Also decreases the cast time of Mass Dispel by 1 second. Typical in PvP builds for the Mass Dispel effects.
• Power Infusion - Increases spell casting speed by 20% as well as lowering mana cost of all spells by 20% for 15 seconds. Typical in PvP builds.
• Pain Suppression - Reduces a friendly target's threat by 5%, damage taken by 40%, and increases resistance to dispel mechanics by 65%. Typical in PvP builds.

See Discipline for more in-depth commentary on the Discipline talents.

Holy

The Holy tree is a Priest's primary healing tree.

Key Talents

• Healing Focus - 70% chance to avoid any interruption caused by damage while casting a healing spell. Crucial to healing builds.
• Improved Renew - Increases the amount healed by Renew by 15%
• Divine Fury - Reduces the casting time of Smite, Holy Fire, Heal, and Greater Heal by 0.5 seconds. Typical in PvE healing builds.
• Inspiration - Increases the target's armor by 25% for 15 seconds after being critically healed by Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal, Prayer of Healing, or Circle of Healing. Typical in PvE healing builds.
• Improved Healing - Reduces the mana cost of Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal by 15%.
• Spirit of Redemption - Increases total Spirit by 5% and upon death the player becomes a Spirit of Redemption for 15 seconds. The player cannot move, attack, be attacked, or be targeted by any spells while in this form. The player may cost any healing spell free of cost during the duration, and when the duration wears off, the player dies. Crucial to PvE healing builds. (Note: Spirit of Redemption is another of the talents that makes Spirit such a sought after stat for PvE healing Priests.)
• Spiritual Guidance - Increases spell damage and healing by 25% of total Spirit. (Note: Spiritual Guidance is the third talent that drives the value of Spirit for PvE healing Priests.)
• Holy Concentration - Gives the Priest a 6% chance of entering a Clearcasting state after casting any Flash Heal, Greater Heal, or Binding Heal. The Clearcasting state reduces the mana cost of the next Flash Heal, Greater Heal, or Binding Heal cast by 100%. Typical for PvE Healing Builds.
• Empowered Healing - Greater Heal gains an additional 20% while Flash Heal and Binding Heal gain an additional 10% of the caster's bonus healing. Typical in PvE Healing builds.
• Circle of Healing - Heals a friendly target and members of the target's party within 15 yards. See the database page for Circle of Healing (Rank 1) for full description and ranks. The core talent in the CoH build.

Typically Holy Reach and Healing Prayers are also taken in the typical CoH Build.

See Holy for more details about the Holy talent tree.

Shadow

The Shadow tree is the Priest's primary damage tree.

Key Talents

• Shadow Affinity - Reduces the threat generated by the Priest's shadow spells by 25%. Crucial for PvE Shadow specced priests.
• Shadow Focus - Reduces the target's chance to resist the Priest's shadow spells by 10%. Crucial for PvE Shadow Priests. (See the Shadow Priest Raid Guide for details on reducing the talent points spent.)
• Mind Flay - Channeled damage and snare spell, see the Mind Flay database page for more details and ranks. Crucial for Shadow Priests.
• Shadow Reach - Increases the range for all offensive shadow spells by 20%. Crucial for Shadow Priests.
• Shadow Weaving - Shadow damage spells have a chance to apply a debuff on the target that increases the amount of shadow damage taken by 2% per application. Crucial for Shadow Priests.
• Darkness - Increases shadow damage by 10%. Crucial for Shadow Priests.
• Shadowform - Increases shadow damage by 15%, reduces incoming physical damage by 15%. Core talent for Shadow Priests.
• Misery - Shadow Word: Pain, Mind Flay, and Vampiric Touch apply a debuff that increases all spell damage taken by the target by 5%. Crucial for Shadow Priests.
• Vampiric Touch - See Vampiric Touch for spell and rank details. Core talent for raiding Shadow Priests.
• Improved Psychic Scream - Reduces the cooldown on Psychic Scream by 4 seconds. Typical for PvP Shadow Priests.
• Silence - Silences the target for 5 seconds. Typical for PvP Shadow Priests.

See Shadow for more details.

Talent Builds and Selections

Choice of how a player "builds" their character is based heavily on playstyle -- both their own tastes, and the parts of the game they engage in mostly.

• Leveling: Typically, Shadow is recommended to level up as. It offers great damage output while lowering the downtime one may spend between fights. (Note that a leveling Shadow build differs from either a PvE or PvP shadow build)
• Instances: Inside an instance, a Priest can perform one of two roles, either healing or DPS. Until level 65 or so, healing as Shadow is typically acceptable.
• Raiding: Like instances above, a Priest performs two different roles in an instance, either healing or DPS. Typically, a healer will either spec as Improved Divine Spirit (IDS) or Circle of Healing (CoH).
• PvP: For PvP, most priests either spec into deep Discipline or Shadow. (Note that the PvP Shadow build differs from the PvE Shadow build.)

See Priest Talent Builds for common talent set-ups.

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