Reminder: Priest racials

[Al Gorefiend]

Priests had unique racial abilities in Vanilla. If you're planning on playing a Priest, your desirability at endgame begins at level 1.

Paid race changes weren't a thing in Vanilla and debuted in Wrath. Don't make the mistake I did when I first began playing WoW and made my Priest a Human, as they were much worse than Dwarf at endgame since they lacked an important tank buff: Fear Ward.

Anyway, take these into account when making your priest.

Human:
- Feedback: The priest becomes surrounded with anti-magic energy. Any successful spell cast against the priest will burn 18 of the attacker's Mana, causing 1 Shadow damage for each point of Mana burned. Lasts 15 sec.
This is a useless ability and had very niche use. Remember, Arenas weren't a thing in Vanilla.

- Desperate Prayer: Instantly heals the caster for 134 to 170. 10 minute cooldown

Dwarf:
- Fear Ward: Wards the friendly target against Fear. The next Fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 3 min.

Here it is, the one extremely aggravating racial ability only available to the Dwarf. In fact, Dwarf Priests were so sought out for BWL that max-level Dwarf Priests would be PAID to hop guilds. It wasn't uncommon for level 60 Dwarf Priest players to get multiple whispers a week with offers of an immediate raid spot for progression. Back in Vanilla, fear was a big deal. When a tank was feared, all aggro would be dropped and the boss would immediately begin attacking the next in line with threat - usually the healer or rogue if my memory serves me right.

- Chastise:: Chastise the target, causing 47 to 53 Holy damage and Incapacitates them for up to 2 sec. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Only works against Humanoids. This spell causes very low threat.

This was another niche interrupt ability. It had a few good uses, though if you had your priest assigned to kicks you weren't doing it right... (Shadow Priest you say? HA! Don't make us laugh)

- Desperate Prayer: Instantly heals the caster for 134 to 170. 10 minute cooldown

Night Elf:

Considered the absolute worst Priest race in the game.

- Elune's Grace: Reduces the chance you'll be hit by melee and ranged attacks by 20% for 15 sec. 3 minute cooldown

- Starshards: Rains starshards down on the enemy target's head, causing 60 Arcane damage over 15 sec. 30 seconds cooldown.

Nothing much to add here. Both abilities were nonsensical for raiding and Elune's Grace was only used for flag running in Warsong Gulch. I'd appreciate testimonials from any Vanilla NE Priests though! You guys had it pretty rough..

Undead:

Considered the second worst Priest race, and by far the worst of the two Horde Priests.

- Touch of Weakness: The next melee attack against the caster will cause 8 Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by the attacker by 2 for 2 min.

It was a niche PvP ability only useful against Rogues.

- Devouring Plague: Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 152 Shadow damage over 24 seconds. Damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.

Another niche PvP ability.

Troll:

- Hex of Weakness: Weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused by 2 and reduces effectiveness of healing spells by 20% for 2 minutes.

Yep. The only other Mortal Strike effect in Vanilla came from Troll Priests. Needless to say, huge PvP boon

- Shadowguard: The caster is surrounded by shadows. When a spell, melee or ranged attack hits the caster, the attacker will be struck for 20 Shadow damage. Attackers can only be damaged once every few seconds. This damage causes no threat. 3 charges. Lasts 10 min.

Another niche in PvP, but wasn't hugely powerful.

[Deleted]

Very nice reminder. Fear ward forever!

[DrIvoRobotnik]

Didn't there used to be a pretty popular theory that Undead priests were necromancers?

[Deleted]

Pretty acurate in terms of Dwarfen Priests, but the rest ... well there was only Dwarf or the rest.
However since priests were pretty much the best healer, you still had no iddue to find a raiding spot.

In terms of Starshards: This spell was exrtemely great for a shadow priest in PvP as it was yet another Dot wich did actually pretty high damage. The downside was it had a very high mana cost, but for 1on1 PvP this spell was very strong.

Same goes for Devouring Plaque.

Fun Fact:

The racial priest spells were introduced because priests got pretty much pruned in beta and lost alot of abilities. In order to compensate for that they introduced these racial spells. Unfortuantely the concept of racial spells was never extended. I persoanlly liked the idea, it would have just needed some serious balancing.

[solarfallz]

Undead: Considered the second worst Priest race

Literally my reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrF5x1OSJuQ
PVE server players are truly something else.

EDIT: DEVOURING PLAGUE IS A "NICHE PVP ABILITY" BUT HEX OF WEAKNESS IS A "HUGE PVP BOON" WHAT LOL

[Deleted]

Never got a priest to high level but i liked the night elf one when i was questing.

[Deleted]

startshards worked fine if they locked your during mindblast :P and it was not a dot ! that came later during bc... Startshards was channeled.

[Heathy]

I play human priest it was nice when they gave us all fear ward in tbc i think it was, in the end humans = better rep gain = less rep grind = exalted faster.

if the tank didn't suck they'd stance dance to berserker and pop berserker rage and be immune. when i finally got fear ward i mostly used it on myself.

[arohlonem02]

Literally my reaction:
PVE server players are truly something else.

EDIT: DEVOURING PLAGUE IS A "NICHE PVP ABILITY" BUT HEX OF WEAKNESS IS A "HUGE PVP BOON" WHAT LOL

Lol yea, dwarf priests were so good cuz o f fear ward, but undead were bad.... cuz WILL OF THE FORSAKEN... where is the mention i know its not a "priest" racial, but it was a racial for UNDEAD priests....

[A dot Ham]

Devouring plague = melt faces faster in pvp.

Draenor... Pantichrist/Pantychrist... where are you! That guy's name was always flagged and he would just switch between the 2 names.

[jackofwind]

- Devouring Plague: Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 152 Shadow damage over 24 seconds. Damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.

Another niche PvP ability.

What an absolute load of shit. UD Priests are by far the best choice for Horde. Let's not forget that WotF is worth its weight in gold too.

You pretty much had two choices: Roll Ally and play Dwarf. Roll Horde and play Undead.

[Al Gorefiend]

Literally my reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrF5x1OSJuQ
PVE server players are truly something else.

EDIT: DEVOURING PLAGUE IS A "NICHE PVP ABILITY" BUT HEX OF WEAKNESS IS A "HUGE PVP BOON" WHAT LOL

What an absolute load of shit. UD Priests are by far the best choice for Horde. Let's not forget that WotF is worth its weight in gold too.

You pretty much had two choices: Roll Ally and play Dwarf. Roll Horde and play Undead.

Hi guys. I'm referring to PvE in my thread. I didn't PvP until Wrath. I'd update the OP if you two would like to offer better synopsis.

[Samski]

Dwarf:
- Fear Ward: Wards the friendly target against Fear. The next Fear effect used against the target will fail, using up the ward. Lasts 3 min.

Here it is, the one extremely aggravating racial ability only available to the Dwarf. In fact, Dwarf Priests were so sought out for BWL that max-level Dwarf Priests would be PAID to hop guilds. It wasn't uncommon for level 60 Dwarf Priest players to get multiple whispers a week with offers of an immediate raid spot for progression. Back in Vanilla, fear was a big deal. When a tank was feared, all aggro would be dropped and the boss would immediately begin attacking the next in line with threat - usually the healer or rogue if my memory serves me right.

- Chastise:: Chastise the target, causing 47 to 53 Holy damage and Incapacitates them for up to 2 sec. Any damage caused will awaken the target. Only works against Humanoids. This spell causes very low threat.

Chastise wasnt added until BC and it was added to replace Fear Ward, to my knowledge, Priests never had access to both at the same time. I can't post links yet but search "Chastise" on wowwiki and it will confirm it.

- Touch of Weakness: The next melee attack against the caster will cause 8 Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by the attacker by 2 for 2 min.

It was a niche PvP ability only useful against Rogues.

- Devouring Plague: Afflicts the target with a disease that causes 152 Shadow damage over 24 seconds. Damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.

Another niche PvP ability.

Touch of Weakness was useful against any melee as it could proc blackout for the stun, if I remember correctly some people would recast rank 1 touch of weakness in PvP to try to get blackout procs against melee. It was decent against BM hunters too as it knocked their pet damage down. Devouring Plague was decent for Grinding too in combination with Inner Focus if you over pulled. IMO Undead were better than Troll.

The racial priest spells were introduced because priests got pretty much pruned in beta and lost alot of abilities. In order to compensate for that they introduced these racial spells. Unfortuantely the concept of racial spells was never extended. I persoanlly liked the idea, it would have just needed some serious balancing.

To my knowledge, they were added due to feedback from the vanilla beta community about how Undead shouldent have priests because the light wouldent work for them. To counter this Priest racials were added.

[Ivanstone]

if the tank didn't suck they'd stance dance to berserker and pop berserker rage and be immune. when i finally got fear ward i mostly used it on myself.

Having a healer who can't be feared is a detriment how? Fear Ward wasn't just about making it easy for the tank.

[Heathy]

Having a healer who can't be feared is a detriment how? Fear Ward wasn't just about making it easy for the tank.

well if your going to be feared (aoe fear), and the tank is immune anyway, you can eat a fear and keep healing was my point. a lot of tanks even back then were pretty on the ball with onyxia for example, stance dancing to berserker and using rage was like the only thing you had to remember to do as a tank besides build aggro.

[Dergiab]

Chastise came in TBC after they made Fear ward available to all Priests.

[epLe]

UD Spriest was actually considered to the viable Spriest choice also in PvE thanks to DP.

It actually was so strong it got to be one of the stable support classses in TBC.

[shaunika123]

maybe it's the 13 years of being a horde player, but i dont think dwarf will be that op in vanilla, or rather, not that necessary

tanks had 13 years to learn how to switch to serker for the fear immune, and every single horde guild was already doing that back in vanilla anyway.

sure it'll help out bad players tremendously, but most decent warrior tanks will be able to put up serker rage before a boss fear hits, since there's also much better addons now to warn you about it.

[Rebark90]

- Desperate Prayer: Instantly heals the caster for 134 to 170. 10 minute cooldown

You can't use this on a friendly target, right? Only self heal?

[TriHard]

You can't use this on a friendly target, right? Only self heal?

Yep, only self heal.