Priest

The three trees

• Discipline: shields and absorbs, with Penance as a heal or a nuke.
  • New 16-point talent: Soul Warding (cheaper Power Word: Shield with a shorter cooldown; needs Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3).
  • 21: New Penance (2 s channel, 12 s cooldown). 31: Power Infusion (+20% spell damage and healing for 15 s, needs Penance).
  • New also: Power in Light, Twin Disciplines, Holy Precision, Renewed Hope, Divine Aegis.
• Holy: direct and group healing.
  • New 16-point talent: Binding Heal (1.5 s cast, heals you and your target).
  • 21: Spirit of Redemption. 31: New Prayer of Mending (heal that jumps up to 5 times, 10 s cooldown).
  • New also: Litany of Light (mana back when you heal with a different spell than last time). Twilight Focus replaces Healing Focus: up to 70% chance to ignore pushback on any spell.
  • Lightwell is gone.
• Shadow: DoTs and channels.
  • 16-point talent: Vampiric Embrace, moved up to row 4.
  • 31: Shadowform. Mind Flay and Silence are still talents.
  • New also: Improved Mind Flay, Dark Inspiration (you and your party +15% Spirit for 10 s), Devouring Contagion, Early Demise.
• Talents start at level 10, with one point per level, to 51 at 60. Dual Specialization unlocks at level 40. You respec at a class trainer in a capital city.

Key changes vs Classic

• New Every Priest gets Fear Ward and Devouring Plague at 20 and Divine Spirit at 30.
• New Shadow Word: Death is baseline at 32. If the target survives, you take 10% of your max health.
• Improved Power Word: Fortitude, Unbreakable Will, Force of Will, Improved Vampiric Embrace and Improved Prayer of Healing are gone.
• Wand Specialization is 2 points for the old 5-point benefit: +25% wand damage.
• Shadowform blocks only healing spells. It halves Shadow spell mana costs, doubles the Shadow crit damage bonus and cuts physical damage taken by 15%.
• Holy Precision (Discipline, up to +18% Holy hit) is there so healers don't need hit gear.
• Shadow Weaving now only buffs your own Shadow damage.
• Prayer of Healing heals the target's party and their pets. Renew from several Priests now stacks on one target. Fade's threat drop is doubled.
• Beta changes (16 Oct): Devouring Plague cooldown down to 24 s. Shadow Word: Death cooldown up to 18 s. Vampiric Embrace cooldown down to 30 s.
• New Hit is now one stat for melee, ranged and spells, and so is crit. Bonus healing on gear also gives a third as much spell damage.
• ! Icy Veins says DoTs do not snapshot in Forever: they update as your stats change. Single source.

Levelling: Shadow, and why

• Shadow is the levelling pick at Icy Veins and WoWVendor, and at Method from 40. ! Icy Veins calls Discipline and Holy slow solo.
• Get Wand Specialization 2/2 first, then Spirit Tap 5/5. Spirit Tap doubles your Spirit for 15 s after a non-trivial kill, and lets 50% of your mana regen continue while you cast.
• Vampiric Embrace makes any death on a VE target proc Spirit Tap. Shadowform then halves your Shadow mana costs.
• ! Method instead levels a non-Shadow build to 39 and respecs into Shadow at 40. Our build page follows the Icy Veins / WoWVendor route.
• You can heal dungeons as Shadow (Method, Icy Veins). Healer gear also gives spell damage now.
• With Legacy's Talented perk, your first point comes before level 10 (as early as 5), but the cap stays at 51.

Levelling loop (Icy Veins, Method)

• Keep Power Word: Fortitude and Inner Fire up.
• Shield yourself before the pull. Pull with Mind Blast (Smite before 10).
• Then Shadow Word: Pain, plus Devouring Plague on tougher mobs.
• Mind Flay if mana allows, then wand them to death.
• Chain-DoT packs, then wand them, so the 5-second rule restarts once.
• From 32, add Shadow Word: Death on cooldown (Method).
• Wand upgrades: Lesser Magic Wand (req 5), Greater Magic Wand (13), Lesser Mystic Wand (26), Greater Mystic Wand (30).
• ! Method says at launch you may need to craft the Lesser Magic Wand yourself (Enchanting 10 + Tailoring for the disenchant). Single source.

Roles at 60

• Shadow (DPS): single-target DoT caster. Vampiric Embrace heals the party off your Shadow damage. AoE is thin: Devouring Contagion jumps Devouring Plague to 2 nearby enemies when the target dies, and Holy Nova needs Holy points and leaving Shadowform.
• Discipline (heals): ! Icy Veins rates it the strongest single-target healer, weaker at group healing.
• Holy (heals): the group-healing Priest (Prayer of Healing, Prayer of Mending, Binding Heal). ! Icy Veins rates it top-tier, a bit behind Disc on single target.
• No tank build exists in any Forever source.
• ! Nothing has been tested at 60 yet (the beta stopped at 30), and every PvE tier list still says TBD.

Rotation / priority

Shadow (! Method and Icy Veins at 30-40; untested at 60)

Discipline (! Icy Veins only)

Holy (! Icy Veins only)

Every build as a tree, levelling and level 60: Priest builds.

Stat priority

• Hit and crit are each one combined stat in Forever (see above).
• Shadow, levelling: ! spell power, then crit, little hit needed against mobs your level (Icy Veins only).
• Shadow, 60: hit first, up to the cap, then spell power, then crit (Warcraft Tavern; Icy Veins says hit becomes the main stat at endgame). ! The Forever hit cap is not published yet.
• Healers: healing power first, then mana (Intellect, MP5, Spirit) (Warcraft Tavern, Icy Veins).
  • Crit is worth more to Discipline because of Renewed Hope and Divine Aegis.
  • Holy Precision covers hit for Smite healers.
• New Caster weapons now carry spell damage and healing.

Pre-raid / BiS

• ! No sourced level-60 lists yet. Gear guides stop at the beta's level-30 cap.
• We'll add lists once launch data exists. Level-60 raids open on 9 Dec.

Race choice (Horde)

Horde Priests are Undead or Troll. Each race has two race-only Priest spells on top of its normal racials. ! Blizzard changed several racials on 26 and 27 Oct, so re-check them at launch.

• Undead: Dark Sacrifice (trades 1,600 health for 1,600 mana plus your Spirit over 15 s, 10 min cooldown) and Touch of Weakness.
  • Racials: Will of the Forsaken (removes Charm, Fear and Sleep, 2 min), Cannibalize (7% health and mana every 2 s for 10 s) and Touch of the Grave.
  • Best Horde pick for every spec (Icy Veins, Warcraft Tavern). Icy Veins: more mana and sustain tools than Troll.
• Troll: Hex of Weakness (cuts melee attack power and healing taken) and Shadowguard (Shadow damage back at attackers, 3 charges).
  • Racials: Berserking (+10% cast and attack speed for 15 s, 3 min), Regeneration and Rapid Regeneration (50% health over 6 s).
• PvP realm: Warcraft Tavern calls Shadowguard largely a PvP spell. Icy Veins says Mind Vision helps find hidden players, and the Martyrdom talent is mostly for PvP.
• Skyborne cannot be Priests.

Professions

• Tailoring + Enchanting is the standard cloth pairing (Icy Veins, Method, Warcraft Tavern guides).
  • ! Icy Veins: beta crafted gear was strong and mostly BoP, with patterns from Waylaid Caches. Single source.
• Icy Veins rates Engineering higher for PvP players (trinkets like Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector).
• New Professions add 600+ new recipes.

Sources Blizzard Priest deep dive · Blizzard panel recap · Beta dev notes · Icy Veins · Icy Veins Shadow levelling · Icy Veins Disc levelling · Talents Forever · Method · Warcraft Tavern · WoWVendor

How to load a build

• Two links per build. The Icy Veins guide steps through it point by point. Talents Forever (fan calculator, client 70630) shows the final tree.
• Wowhead Forever calculator: click the points in by hand. We don't link Wowhead build strings.
• One point per level from 10, 51 at 60. A row opens every 5 points in that tree. We replayed every point below: all legal.
• Respec at a class trainer in a capital. New Dual Spec at 40: Shadow for questing, a heal spec for dungeons.
• ! Legacy's Talented perk can start your points before 10, but you still cap at 51. Shift the order below earlier by your bonus.

Levelling: Shadow 10-60 (13/0/38)

Icy Veins · Talents Forever

Levelling notes

• ! Levels 31-60 of this order were never playable in beta.
• Icy Veins takes the Discipline mana talents (Mental Strength, Meditation) after Shadowform. Its alternative: rush 13 Discipline points to Meditation earlier if you hate running out of mana.
• ! Method instead levels a non-Shadow build to 39 and respecs Shadow at 40.
• Most Shadow Focus (+hit) comes last. Icy Veins: you need little hit against mobs your level.
• The order skips Silence. Our suggestion: take it if you run lots of dungeons with casters.

Discipline healer (33/13/5)

Icy Veins · Talents Forever

Holy healer (14/32/5)

Icy Veins · Talents Forever

• Both heal builds are Icy Veins levelling builds. No Holy Precision in either: you only need it if you Smite.
• Our read: Spirit Tap only procs on kills, so it does little for a dungeon or raid healer.

Dungeons at 30 (Icy Veins beta builds)

Icy Veins' 21-point builds for the beta cap, from its Forever PvE guides (updated 25-28 Oct).

• Shadow is Deep Shadow, Discipline is Deep Discipline, Holy is the Holy Nova build. Icy Veins lists other 21-point options and 26-point Talented versions; we left those out.

Raid (level 60 theory, untested)

! Nobody has played past 30 in Forever and raids open 9 Dec. These come from wowtbc.gg's Forever PvE guides (read 31 Oct; the pages show no update date). Plans, not proven builds. We recheck them in launch week.

Shadow 14/0/37

Discipline 31/20/0

• wowtbc.gg also lists a Discipline Smite damage build on the same split.

Holy 17/34/0

• WoWVendor posted early splits on 4 Oct (Shadow 18/0/33, Discipline 31/20/0, Holy 19/32/0), before Blizzard's 16 Oct priest changes and with no talent picks. Superseded by the builds above.

PvP (level 60 theory, untested)

Discipline 33/0/18 (RankedBoost)

• One source, built on beta client 70450. Low confidence until people play 60. No Forever source has a Shadow PvP build yet.

Classic Era for comparison

Long-standing Classic Era builds on the Classic tree, from Icy Veins' Classic guides (the PvP ones read off its build images). They show where the Forever builds came from; don't copy them into Forever.

Macros

! Untested on the Forever client until launch. Same macro syntax as Classic.

Shield your mouseover, else your target:

#showtooltip Power Word: Shield
/cast [@mouseover,help][] Power Word: Shield

Drop Shadowform and heal (press twice):

#showtooltip Flash Heal
/cancelaura Shadowform
/cast Flash Heal

Wand without toggling it off:

#showtooltip Shoot
/cast !Shoot

Fear Ward your focus (set it with /focus):

#showtooltip Fear Ward
/cast [@focus,help,nodead][] Fear Ward

Cooldown Manager layout (our suggestion)

• New Off by default. Turn it on in Options > Gameplay Enhancement.
• Supports all classes, racials and trinkets. Each spell's ranks count as one entry.
• ! A beta known issue had Priest tracking every spell by default. Trim it to the lists below.
• Shadow bar: Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death, Devouring Plague, Vampiric Embrace, Silence, Psychic Scream, Fade, your racial.
  • Buff row: Spirit Tap, Dark Inspiration, Shadow Weaving.
• Discipline bar: Penance, Power Word: Shield (Weakened Soul), Inner Focus, Power Infusion, Fear Ward, your racial.
• Holy bar: Prayer of Mending, Inner Focus, Fear Ward, Psychic Scream, your racial.
• Undead: add Dark Sacrifice (10 min) and Will of the Forsaken. Troll: Berserking is your racial.

Sources Talents Forever · Wowhead calc · Blizzard Priest deep dive · Beta dev notes · Icy Veins Shadow · Icy Veins Disc · Icy Veins Holy · WoWVendor · Method

New Forever changes that matter for levelling

• Wand Specialization is 2 points for +25% wand damage. Wands no longer scale with your spell power, and you must stand still 0.5 s before one fires Beta
• Devouring Plague is baseline at 20 (24 s cooldown), Shadow Word: Death at 32 (18 s; you take 10% of your max health if the target lives) Beta
• Vampiric Embrace is the Shadow 16-point talent (row 4): deaths on a VE target proc Spirit Tap too Beta
• No rank-1 mana trick: spells far below your level get less spell power Beta
• DoTs update with your stats instead of snapshotting (Icy Veins, Warcraft Tavern) Beta
• Green mobs give less XP than mobs at your level ! player-measured; see Levelling

Which spec, when

• Solo questing: Shadow, 10-60. Icy Veins, WoWVendor and Method (from 40) all level Shadow. Order below.
• Mana-first option: Icy Veins and Method both offer a non-Shadow build to 39, then a respec at 40: all 31 points in Shadow gets Shadowform at 40. ! Method's own build is not on our builds page.
• Healing groups: Method says to heal dungeons as Shadow all the way to 60, with slightly worse mana. Icy Veins: healer specs level slower solo, so most Priests go Shadow and swap once they group.
• New Dual Specialization at 40: keep Shadow for questing and a heal spec for dungeons.
• AoE: there is none in Shadow. Icy Veins and Method both say "No AoE". Your only tools are:
  • SW: Pain on several mobs, then kill them one at a time with shields up. Icy Veins: only where you are comfortable, it costs mana and Inner Fire stacks.
  • Devouring Contagion (32-33 on our order): when a Devouring Plague target dies, the Plague jumps to 2 nearby enemies.
  • Holy Nova needs 11 Holy points. Icy Veins' Holy levelling build has it from 38.
• No published AoE levelling build exists for Priest. Our read: don't expect big SF-Speed pull counts.

Talents: Shadow 10-60 (13/0/38)

Same order as Priest builds (Icy Veins, replayed legal).

• 7 rows, 51 points, a row opens per 5 points in that tree. Row 4 needs 15 points in the tree, so 25 is the earliest 16-point talent.
• ! Legacy's Talented moves points up to 5 levels earlier (Shadowform at 37 at 5/5). Legacy usually opens at 25 on a first character and Talented needs 5 points in its tree first, so plan on the levels above.
• Icy Veins options: Blackout instead of Shadow Focus solo; Twilight Focus 3/3 if you get hit a lot (delays Shadowform 3 levels).

Rotation: Shadow solo

Mana and drinking

• Spirit Tap doubles your Spirit for 15 s after a non-trivial kill, and 50% of your regen keeps going while you cast.
• Icy Veins: cast the right number of spells, then wand, so the full Spirit Tap window lands as the mob dies. Done well, you rarely stop to drink.
• Mana is hardest before 40 (Icy Veins). Shadowform then halves Shadow spell costs; Meditation comes late (51-53).
• Carry level-appropriate water anyway, and stock up before a dungeon (Warcraft Tavern, Method).
• If mana runs dry, drop Devouring Plague or Mind Flay on easy mobs first (Icy Veins).

Talents: Discipline healer (33/13/5)

If you want to heal groups while levelling. Icy Veins' Discipline levelling order, same as Priest builds.

• Icy Veins: in a group you may take Silent Resolve instead of Twilight Focus (less threat). Solo, keep Twilight Focus.
• Icy Veins also offers a respec at 35 to reach Penance sooner.
• Icy Veins and Warcraft Tavern rate healer levelling slower than Shadow.

Talents: Holy healer (14/32/5)

• Icy Veins' Holy levelling order, same as Priest builds. Holy Nova at 38 is the Priest's only real AoE.
• Prayer of Mending (58) needs Spirit of Redemption (48). No Holy Precision: you only need it if you Smite.

Rotation: Discipline

Trainer visits

Shadow-relevant ranks from the beta client, not every spell. Costs are not published for Forever.

• Always train Mind Blast, SW: Pain, Plague, Mind Flay, SW: Death and PW: Shield. Forever cuts spell power on low ranks, so an old rank hits for less.
• Can skip what Shadow never presses solo: Holy Fire, Mana Burn, Mind Soothe, Mind Vision, Shackle Undead, Mind Control ranks. Method skips spell ranks to have gold for riding at 40.
• Heal ranks: Method's list has none. Our suggestion: keep Flash Heal current if you heal dungeons.
• ! The beta client marks Shadow Word: Death as not sold by trainers. Check your spellbook at 32.

Class quests (Horde)

• Troll, early: In Favor of Spirituality (Ken'jai, Valley of Trials) → Garments of Spirituality (Tai'jin, Razor Hill): heal (Lesser Heal rank 2) and Fortitude Grunt Kor'ja. Reward: Juju Hex Robes.
• Undead, early: In Favor of Darkness (Dark Cleric Duesten, Deathknell) → Garments of Darkness (Dark Cleric Beryl, Brill): heal and Fortitude Deathguard Kel. Needs Lesser Heal rank 2. Reward: Acolyte's Sacrificial Robes.
• Level 10, race spell: a Priest trainer sends you on.
  • Troll: Hex of Weakness, turn in to Ur'kyo, Orgrimmar.
  • Undead: Touch of Weakness, turn in to Aelthalyste, Undercity.
• Level 20, race spell: Miles Welsh, Thunder Bluff (RestedXP).
  • Troll: Shadowguard, Ur'kyo, Orgrimmar.
  • Undead: New Dark Sacrifice, Aelthalyste, Undercity. Its text still offers Devouring Plague, which is now baseline.
• ! We found no other Horde Priest class quests in Forever sources. Beta stopped at 30.
• Trainers: Ur'kyo and X'yera (Orgrimmar, Valley of Spirits), Aelthalyste, Father Lankester, Father Lazarus (Undercity, War Quarter), Father Cobb, Malakai Cross, Miles Welsh (Thunder Bluff, Spirit Rise).

Gear and stats

• Stats (Icy Veins): spell power, then crit, then a little hit. Intellect, Stamina and MP5 come on the gear; MP5 helps most early. Healers: healing power, then Intellect, MP5, Spirit (Warcraft Tavern).
• New Hit and crit are each one stat for spells and weapons. Bonus healing also gives a third as much spell damage.
• New Caster weapons now carry spell power: upgrade your staff or mace often. Staves: Hanashi (Orgrimmar) or Ansekhwa (Thunder Bluff).
• New Early wands carry a little spell power of their own (Lesser Magic Wand +1, Greater +2).
• New Tailoring's BoP Novice Ardent's Sash (level 10: healing, spell damage, Intellect, Spirit).

Wands to chase (Icy Veins DPS; ! = only Icy Veins names it)

• 5: Lesser Magic Wand (11.3), 13: Greater Magic Wand (17.5), both Enchanting
• Riptear's Spare Arm (9.4): quest Rear Guard Patrol, Tirisfal !
• Cinder Wand (11.8): quest Arugal's Folly, Silverpine !
• Flaring Baton (13.7): quest The Escape, The Barrens !
• Sizzle Stick (17.6): Wailing Caverns quest Deviate Eradication. Firebelcher (23.2): WC Faerie Dragon
• 20: Burning Wand, a vendor wand. RestedXP buys it from Katis, Orgrimmar
• Gravestone Scepter (29.0): Blackfathom Deeps quest Blackfathom Villainy
• 26: Lesser Mystic Wand (25.4), Enchanting
• City of Dalaran: Unstable Power Core (29.7, quest Source of Power !), Wand of Mana Concentration (31.2, Arcanic Enigma)
• Necrotic Wand (33.2): Azshir the Sleepless, Scarlet Monastery !

Professions and consumables

• Tailoring + Enchanting is Icy Veins' pick: BoP cloth gear, and Enchanting makes your wands and disenchants the Tailoring leftovers.
• New Novice's Practice Wand: Enchanting skill 1, vendor mats. Learn Enchanting, make it, drop the profession if you like (Icy Veins).
• Launch night: the auction house will be empty. Method and RestedXP craft the Lesser Magic Wand: collect about 60 Linen Cloth, make Brown Linen Robes, disenchant them, then make a Runed Copper Rod and the wand (Enchanting 10). RestedXP does this in Undercity at about 10.
• New Crafted food adds +5% kill XP to Well Fed Beta
• New A Leatherworker's Camp Tent tops rested XP up to 5% of a level Live
• New A Tailor's Faction Banner (Spirit) does not stack with your Divine Spirit: skip it when a Priest is buffing Live
• New Legacy's Thrill of Adventure returns 1% health and mana per rank after a non-trivial kill (not in instances) Beta
• Undead: Cannibalize now also returns 7% mana every 2 s, and Dark Sacrifice turns health into mana. Cannibalize needs a humanoid or undead corpse.

Macros ! test at launch. Four more are on Priest builds.
Shield yourself without losing your target:

#showtooltip Power Word: Shield
/cast [@player] Power Word: Shield

Common mistakes

• Casting until the mob dies. Cast your set, then wand, so Spirit Tap and the 5-second rule work for you.
• Wanding on the move: the wand needs 0.5 s standing still.
• Casting rank 1 spells to save mana. Forever cuts their spell power.
• Fearing next to other packs. Feared mobs pull more.
• Trying to heal in Shadowform. It blocks healing spells; drop it first (macro on Priest builds).
• Skipping the wand upgrades. Check the list above every few levels.

Fast route

• Follow Horde 1-22 (RestedXP Forever route) on Levelling. Undead: Tirisfal 1-12. Troll: Durotar 1-10, then Tirisfal 10-12 like every non-Hunter, non-Shaman.
• Both stop in Undercity at about 10 for the wand (and Undead for Touch of Weakness).
• Barrens 12-17, then Stonetalon, Barrens and Ashenvale to 22. Past 22, use 22-60: zones by level on Levelling. No verified route exists past 22.
• Troll: Beast Slaying (+5% damage to Beasts) helps in beast-heavy zones (our read).

Dungeons by level

See Dungeons. Blizzard does not want dungeon cleaving to be the fastest way to level. Run each once for quests, gear and the New Legacy points.

• 15-25 Legacy set: Ragefire Chasm, Ruins of Lordaeron, Wailing Caverns, The Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, Excavation Site.
  • Wailing Caverns: Sizzle Stick quest and the Firebelcher wand.
  • Deadmines is Alliance ground but needed for the Legacy point.
• 26-45 set: Blackfathom Deeps (Gravestone Scepter), City of Dalaran (two wands), Razorfen Kraul, all four Scarlet Monastery wings (Necrotic Wand !), Gnomeregan, Drowned City, Krol'dok.
  • Dalaran: one player needs the sewer key chain from Tarren Mill.
• 46-60: no Forever dungeon guides yet.
• As Shadow you can heal these (Method). With Dual Spec at 40, keep a heal spec for them.
• Dungeon kill XP is up about 20%, dungeon quest bonus XP was halved Beta

Unverified until launch

• Everything past level 30 in both talent orders.
• Which Horde Priest quests exist past 20.
• Whether Shadow Word: Death and Dark Sacrifice later ranks come from the trainer or automatically.
• Wand DPS and drop sources.

Sources Icy Veins Shadow levelling · Icy Veins Disc levelling · Icy Veins Holy levelling · Method · Warcraft Tavern · Wowhead quests · Blizzard Priest deep dive · Beta dev notes · RestedXP