WotLK: Priest’s New Spells
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This is going to be the first part in a multiple part series taking a look at the new talents and abilities available to Priests in Wrath of the Lich King. In this part, i’m going to take a look at the new learned abilities available to all priests, whether you prefer to be good (Holy), evil (Shadow) or a little of both (Disc).
Divine Hymn is a new ability available to priests at Level 80. It causes an attacker to fall asleep for 20 seconds if he harms a friend in which this buff is applied to. Its a party level buff, thus only players that are within your party will get the benefit of this spell. Lets look at this ability from the 3 different perspectives you might use it in.
PvE: Due to its high Mana cost, I’m not sure how useful this is for grinding mobs. It does have some use if you get caught in a jam, and pull too many mobs. You can pop this buff on you and pick which mob you wish to target while the other target(s) just sleep waiting for you to get to them. So it functions as almost an oh $%^& button, if you happen to pull too many mobs. But in 1 on 1 situations, it serves very little use.
Raiding: In raiding situations, I don’t see much use for this as most of the elite level mobs you’ll see in dungeons will more than likely be immune to this. It could serve some use in certain trash mob pulls in which other crowd control isn’t available or isn’t of use. So overall, I’d bet that we’ll never use this in most raids.
PvP: In PVP, I see this spell as a lot more useful. It gives us a buff that we can apply to party members in the advent of an emergency (outnumbered), or gives us a buff we can apply prior to going into a fight to give us an initial advantage. Its unknown whether or not if this will be able to be dispelled (Still looking for my beta key), but in all likely hood that will be the case. Either way it’ll give your party members a couple seconds to pop off a fear or sap, to get the upper hand in a fight.
Mark of Divinity is an enormously expensive buff avaiable at Level 70 that we can apply to any friendly target, that will allow us to heal them without spending any time actually casting healing spells on them. Currently this buff lasts for 30 mins and costs 65% of your mana pool, which makes this spell only useable in very specific situations.
PvE: As you can imagine, you’ll never use this spell while out grinding mobs. If you’re alone, then there’s no need for this spell. In dungeons this spell becomes a little more useful, but only in the case where an off tank or other party member is taking consistent damage. More than likely, you’ll never use this spell in any PvE situation.
Raiding: The cost of this buff is really hard to swallow, but if applied prior to a boss encounter, this spell will provide lots of use, and I could see it becoming a staple in buffs applied prior to combat. This will give main healers in 25 man’s, a lot of breathing room in the case the main tank is taking an absurd amount of damage. If it wasn’t already needed, this will make the use of at least 2 holy priests in a 25 man raid a must if not a requirement, thats how good this spell is.
PvP: This spell doesn’t provide much use in PvP battlegrounds, but provides good use in arenas. In battlegrounds this will probably only be applied prior to the start, and then never again. Its cost is just too high to be used on the fly. In arenas, this buff could be applied before cueing up, and thus allowing all types of priests (even Shadow) higher viability in arena groups.
Mind sear is an AoE spell available at Level 75 which functions much like the Warlock’s hellfire spell, but without the associated damage the caster will take. Its the first true Shadow AoE spell available to priests, although its quite expensive. Unlike Holy Nova though, this one does cause threat, so combining this spell with Fade or Dispersion (if your Shadow) will be a must in AoE type pulls.
PvE: In PvE this spell provides some utility in the event you’re trying to take down several mobs at once. It also provides some utility in 5 man dungeon AoE pulls. But chaining Fade or Dispersion will be almost a requirement in this case if the mobs aren’t dead.
Raiding: Like in 5 man dungeon’s, this spell only has utility in trash mob AoE pulls and very specific boss encounters that have multiple adds. Shadow priests will like finally having the ability to do real shadow AoE damage. On the other hand if your healing a raid, then you’ll probably never use this spell.
PvP: Like PvE, this spell has some utility for Shadow Priests in battlegrounds and arenas. More so in battlegrounds than arenas, as you probably won’t use this much in arenas. In battlegrounds this provides a use if outnumbered and you need to do damage to multiple players, or in any case where you need to deal damage to multiple people at once. Finally giving Shadow Priests a Shadow AoE spell has been long overdue. I’m glad its finally being implemented.
That’s it for additional spells that we’re getting in the upcoming expansion. If you’re like me you’re very excited at the new abilities that priests are getting. Next time we’ll take a look at the updates to one of the three trees.
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Yeah for Shadow Priest AOE!!
Mark of Divinity looks awesome. In raids, cast it on a tank while healing the offtank - or the other way around - and you’re getting some amazing free healing. I don’t see any duration in spell tooltip, but if it’s really 30 minutes then it’s sick.
Mind Sear looks extremely expensive, almost 3,000 mana for a five second channeled spell… hmm. Damage isn’t that impressive either.
I think I’ve also read something about Fade removing snares, did Blizz reconsider about that?
I don’t see what’s so horrific about the cost of Mark of Divinity. First of all, you’re confusing base mana with max mana. At lvl 70, 65% of a priest’s base mana is 1703. You’ll hardly break the bank applying this out of combat. For comparison, Resurrection is 60% of base mana. It’s expensive, yes, but it’s worth it.
In a party, toss it on the tank and you’ll have more room to throw a heal on the blasted dps who pulled aggro, again.
Mind sear is too bloody expensive, when you consider that the lvl 69 rain of fire does 30% more damage for 50% less mana.
Good points… I missed that.
Who cares how much an out-of-combat spell costs? Just cast it, then drink up. Now it’s good for 30 minutes. Cast Mark of Divinity on yourself. Now you heal yourself 30% of all the heals you cast. Perfect for BGs.
In PvE, this would be used on every 5-man, 10-man, raids, etc.
Good point, but I still don’t see the use in BG’s. Sure it can heal more than one person at a time, but who does it get cast on? Yourself? - Maybe, its useful, but not necessary by any means.
so that 65% is of your *base* mana for your level, which usually gets doubled or tripled by the time you apply any +int on your gear. so that’d be about the same as prayer of fortitude/prayer of spirit before they cheapened them.