Priest Races

Last updated: 03/25/08, patch 2.4.

There are four different Alliance races that can be priests (Dwarves, Humans, Night Elves, and Draenei) and three different Horde races (Trolls, Blood Elves, and Undead). While all classes of these races (and all other races) have unique racial-specific abilities, priests (and paladins) also receive 2 racial-specific spells (learned through quests or trainers at levels 10 and 20).

Dwarves:

Racial Abilities:

• Stoneform: An on-use ability that will instantly remove any poison, bleed, and/or disease effect, as well as provide immunity to those effects and increase armor by 10% for 8 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.

• Frost resistance: +10 resistance to frost spells.

• Treasure Finding: Allows you to track chests on the mini-map (only one tracking effect can be active at a time).

Spells:

• Desperate Prayer (lvl 10): This is a zero-mana cost instant self-heal. It restores a portion of your health (dependent upon your gear and talents). As a holy school spell, however, it cannot be cast in shadowform. 10 minute cooldown.

• Chastise (lvl 20): An instant cast spell that deals holy damage and root humanoid targets for 2 seconds. Cannot be cast in shadowform. 30 second cooldown.

Humans:

Racial Abilities:

• Diplomacy: Faction reputation gains are increased by 10%.

• The Human Spirit: Spirit stat is increased by 10%.

• Perception: This on-use ability will increase your stealth detection for 20 seconds. 3 minute cooldown.

Spells:

• Desperate Prayer (lvl 10): This is a zero-mana cost instant self-heal. It restores a portion of your health (dependent upon your gear and talents). As a holy school spell, however, it cannot be cast in shadowform. 10 minute cooldown.

• Feedback (lvl 20): This is a15 second buff during which any magic attack against you will deplete a very small amount of the enemy’s mana and cause shadow damage equal to the amount of mana burned. This spell has a fairly high mana cost. 3 minute cooldown.

Night Elves:

Racial Abilities:

• Shadowmeld: This ability will stealth your character when used (as long as you do not move, cast, attack, or take damage).

• Quickness: Chance to dodge attacks increased by 1%.

• Nature reistance: +10 resistance to nature spells.

• Wisp form: When dead, you appear as a “wisp” instead of a ghost and move 50% faster.

Spells:

• Starshards (lvl 10): This is a zero-mana cost arcane magic effect that deals a fair amount of damage over 15 seconds. 30 second cooldown.

• Elune’s Grace (lvl 20): A self-buff that decreases the chance you’ll be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 20%. Costs 3% of your base mana. 3 minute cooldown.

Draenei:

Racial Abilities:

• Gift of the Naaru: A mana-free heal with a 1.5 sec. cast time that restores a fair amount of health (35 + 15 more per level) over 15 seconds. Cannot be cast in shadowform. 3 minute cooldown

• Shadow resistance: +10 resistance to shadow spells.

• Inspiring Presence: Chance to hit enemies with spells in increased by 1% for you and everyone else in your party.

• Gemcutting: Gives you a +5 skill bonus to your jewcrafting skill (if you are a jewelcrafter). This also raises the level cap of the skill.

Spells:

• Symbol of Hope (lvl 10): Significantly increases the amount of mana regenerated for 15 seconds for everyone in the party (total regen. of: 15 * (level – 10) + 99 mana). 5 minute cooldown

• Chastise (lvl 20): An instant cast spell that deals holy damage and root humanoid targets for 2 seconds. Cannot be cast in shadowform. 30 second cooldown.

Trolls:

Racial Abilities:

• Berserking: An instant-cast self-buff that, for a cost of 7% of your base mana, grants a 10%-30% increase in casting speed depending on the amount of health you have on casting (i.e., more health means faster casting speed).

• Passive Health Regeneration: Increases your natural health regeneration by 10%. It also allows for 10% of your health regeneration to continue during combat. This works out to be a pretty small amount, but every little bit helps.

• Beast Slaying: Increases your damage done to beasts by 5%.

Spells:

• Hex of Weakness (lvl 10): An instant-cast spell that weakens the enemy, causing it to do slightly less damage (melee and spell) to you for 2 minutes (or until it dies). No cooldown.

• Shadowguard (lvl 20): An instant-cast self-buff. When hit by an enemy (either by spell, melee, or ranged), this will deal some shadow damage back to the enemy. This buff expires after 10 minutes or after dealing damage 3 times, and has the potential to proc the same effects that casting your other spells do. This buff appears on your character as a neat darkly glowing purple orb that floats in circles around you.

Undead:

Racial Abilities:

• Will of the Forsaken: An ability that will instantly remove and grant immunity to fear, charm, and sleep spells and abilities for 5 seconds. 2 minute cooldown.

• Cannibalize: Will let you regain 7% of your total health every 2 seconds for 10 seconds by “feeding” on a nearby corpse of a humanoid or undead. 2 minute cooldown.

• Shadow Resistance: +10 resistance to shadow spells.

• Underwater Breathing: Increases the amount of time you can stay underwater without surfacing to 3 minutes (all other races only have 1 minute).

Spells:

• Touch of Weakness (lvl 10): An instant-cast self-buff that will do shadow damage to an enemy the next time they do melee damage to you and reduces their melee damage for 2 minutes. Lasts 10 minutes or until struck in combat. 2 minute cooldown.

• Devouring Plague (lvl 20): A high mana cost disease spell that, when cast, does a moderate amount of damage to an enemy over 24 seconds and heals you for the same amount. 3 minute cooldown.

Blood Elves:

Racial Abilities:

• Mana Tap: An ability that will reduce an target enemy’s mana and give you a “charge” that can be used for Arcane Torrent (see below). You can stack up to three charges and they will last 10 minutes. Reusing the ability after three charges are stacked will simply refresh the 10 minute duration (though it will still drain the mana). 30 second cooldown.

• Arcane Torrent: Discharges all the Mana Tap charges on you, giving you an amount of mana (scaling with level) per charge. It will also silence up to four enemies within eight yards of you for two seconds. It can be used for the silence effect even if you do not have any Mana Tap charges on you, though you will not get back any mana.

• Magic Resistance: +5 resistance to all schools of magic.

• Arcane Affinity: Gives you a +10 skill bonus to your enchanting skill (if you are an enchanter). This also raises the level cap of the skill.

Spells:

• Touch of Weakness (lvl 10): An instant-cast self-buff that will do shadow damage to an enemy the next time they do melee damage to you and reduces their melee damage for 2 minutes. Lasts 10 minutes or until struck in combat. 2 minute cooldown.

• Consume Magic (lvl 20): Will dispel one randomly selected priest buff active on you in exchange for some mana back to you (the amount depending on your level). The buff that is dispelled could have come from either you or another priest, and include Fortitude, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Touch of Weakness, Renew, and Power Word: Shield. 2 minute cooldown.

Starting Stats

Each race starts with slightly different starting stats. These differences are insignificant in the bigger picture and are just listed for the sake of completeness. They should probably not be considered when choosing a race for your priest.

Race	Strength	Agility	Stamina	Intellect	Spirit	Armor	Health	Mana
Dwarf	22	16	23	21	22	37	82	145
Human	20	20	20	22	24	45	52	160
Night Elf	17	25	19	22	23	55	51	160
Draenei	21	17	19	23	25	39	51	175
Troll	21	22	21	18	24	49	62	128
Undead	19	18	21	20	28	41	62	130
Blood Elf	17	22	18	26	22	49	50	220

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