Forever gives each priest tree a real identity. Discipline becomes an absorb healer with Penance and Divine Aegis, Holy gets Prayer of Mending and Binding Heal, and Shadow's Shadowform now halves the cost of every Shadow spell and doubles its critical damage. Gnomes can be priests for the first time.
At a glance
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Roles | Healer (Discipline, Holy), ranged damage (Shadow) |
| Resource | Mana |
| Armor | Cloth |
| Races | Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome (new), Undead and Troll |
| New on the trainer |  Shadow Word: Death at 32 |
| Moved to the trainer |  Divine Spirit at 30 and  Lightwell at 40 |
What changed from Classic
- Penance is the new Discipline talent: a holy volley that heals an ally or damages an enemy instantly and then every second for two more seconds.
- Divine Aegis turns every critical heal into an absorb shield worth 15% of the heal.
- Soul Warding and Renewed Hope build Discipline around Power Word: Shield. Soul Warding takes 4 seconds off its cooldown and 15% off its cost. Renewed Hope gives your heals 10% more crit on a target with Weakened Soul and shortens Weakened Soul by 5 seconds.
- Prayer of Mending caps Holy. It heals the next time its target takes damage, then jumps to another party or raid member, up to five times.
- Binding Heal heals you and a friendly target at once.
- Shadowform was rebuilt. It now adds 10% Shadow damage, halves the mana cost of every Shadow spell, doubles the critical damage bonus of Shadow spells and reduces Physical damage taken by 15%.
- Shadow Weaving is a personal buff. It now raises your own Shadow damage by 2% per stack, up to five stacks, instead of making the target take more Shadow damage. Warlocks no longer benefit from it.
- Shadow Word: Death is a new trainer spell at 32: a big Shadow hit that backlashes 10% of your maximum health if the target survives.
- Divine Spirit and Lightwell left the talent trees and are trained at 30 and 40.
- Removed: Force of Will, Improved Power Word: Fortitude, Unbreakable Will, Healing Focus, Improved Prayer of Healing and Improved Vampiric Embrace.
Discipline
Shields and Penance with Divine Aegis absorbs on every crit heal. Soul Warding takes 4 seconds off Power Word: Shield.
Discipline heals by preventing damage. 
Penance arrives at 33 and 
Power Infusion at 42.
How it plays:
- Shield whoever is about to take damage.
Soul Warding and 
Improved Power Word: Shield make Power Word: Shield cheaper, stronger and available more often. - Heal into Weakened Soul:
Renewed Hope adds crit to Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Binding Heal and Penance on shielded targets, and each heal shortens Weakened Soul so you can shield again sooner. - Every crit leaves a
Divine Aegis absorb behind. - Penance for quick burst healing on a single target.
Inner Focus makes your next spell free with 25% more crit. Pair it with Greater Heal: a free cast with good odds of a crit and a large Divine Aegis shield.
Twin Disciplines adds 5% to instants such as Power Word: Shield and Renew. Power Infusion adds 20% spell damage and healing to an ally for 15 seconds; give it to your best caster or to another healer during a burn. The Holy points add 
Holy Specialization for crit, 
Improved Renew, 
Inspiration and 
Improved Healing.
Holy
Prayer of Mending caps the tree; Litany of Light refunds mana when you alternate heals, and Binding Heal covers you and the tank at once.
Holy is the raid healer. It brings the biggest heals, the best group healing and the most mana efficiency.
How it plays:
- Keep
Prayer of Mending bouncing. Recast it on the tank as soon as it is available. - Renew on the tank and anyone taking steady damage.
- Greater Heal and Heal on the tank, Flash Heal for emergencies.
- Prayer of Healing for group-wide damage, Holy Nova when you are stacked in melee.
Binding Heal when you and someone else both need healing.
Litany of Light refunds 10% of a heal's base cost whenever it differs from the heal before it, so alternating Heal and Renew, or Flash Heal and Prayer of Mending, saves real mana. 
Spiritual Guidance turns 25% of your Spirit into healing power, and 
Divine Fury takes half a second off Heal and Greater Heal. Meditation from Discipline keeps 50% of your regeneration while casting.
Shadow
Shadowform halves the mana cost of every Shadow spell; Shadow Word: Death is a new trainer spell, and Early Demise sharpens it for executes.
Shadow is a damage-over-time caster with a strong single-target nuke and a party heal built in. 
Shadowform arrives at 42 and changes everything: half-price Shadow spells and double the critical damage bonus.
Single target:
- Shadowform, then Vampiric Embrace on the target to heal your party for 20% of your Shadow damage.
- Shadow Word: Pain, 6 seconds longer with
Improved Shadow Word: Pain. - Mind Blast on cooldown.
Improved Mind Blast takes 2.5 seconds off it. - Devouring Plague if you have it.
Devouring Contagion halves its cost and spreads it when the target dies. - Mind Flay as the filler, 20% stronger with
Improved Mind Flay. - Shadow Word: Death below 20% health, where Early Demise adds 30% crit. Watch your health: if the target survives, you take 10% of your maximum health as backlash.
Shadow Weaving stacks quickly to five and stays up while you keep casting, and 
Darkness adds 10% Shadow damage. 
Silence interrupts casters for 3 seconds and silences them for 5.
Stat priorities
Forever converts 10 Hit Rating to 1% hit and 14 Critical Strike Rating to 1% crit. Blizzard has not published the spell hit cap against Forever's raid bosses; in Classic it was 16%, of which Shadow Focus covers 5%.
| Spec | Priority |
|---|---|
| Discipline | Intellect, healing power, Critical Strike, Spirit, Haste |
| Holy | Healing power, Spirit, Intellect, Critical Strike, Haste |
| Shadow | Hit, spell power, Critical Strike, Haste, Intellect, Spirit |
Critical Strike is worth far more to Shadow than it was in Classic, because Shadowform doubles the critical damage bonus. Discipline rates it highly for Divine Aegis and Renewed Hope. Build a set in the gear planner.
Leveling
Level as Shadow. Mind Flay arrives at 25, Vampiric Embrace at 28 and Shadowform at 42.
- Open with Mind Blast, then Shadow Word: Pain, and finish with Mind Flay or your wand.
- Shield yourself before the pull. You will take almost no damage for the first few seconds.
- Shadow Word: Death from 32 finishes a mob outright, but only cast it when it will kill.
Spirit Tap is not in the raid build, but doubling your Spirit after each kill saves a lot of drinking. Consider it while leveling and respec at 60.- The Talented Legacy perk brings Shadowform to 37.
Race-specific spells
Priests have always had a few spells tied to their race, such as Starshards, Hex of Weakness, Touch of Weakness, Feedback, Shadowguard and Elune's Grace. The priest trainer also lists several new spells: 
Divine Grace, 
Contingency Plan, 
Chastise, 
Confounding Flash and 
Dark Sacrifice. Check the abilities page for what each does, and your trainer for which your race learns.
Races
- Dwarf: Stoneform, and
Mace Specialization adds 1% crit to spells while you hold a mace. - Human:
The Human Spirit adds 5% Spirit, which feeds Spiritual Guidance. - Night Elf:
Elune's Light adds 10% crit to spells for 15 seconds. - Undead: Will of the Forsaken breaks fear, and
Cannibalize restores health and mana from a corpse. - Troll:
Berserking adds 10% casting speed for 10 seconds. - Gnome: new to the class, with Escape Artist to break roots and snares.