At first glance, Dragonflight has changed every class and specialization beyond recognition. However, this is not quite true. Many of the covenant talents and set bonuses we are used to in Shadowlands have now been moved into talents, and the new abilities are actually borrowed from Legion or other expansions. Let’s take a closer look at the new “old” priest of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.
Dragonflight Priest Overview
From time immemorial, a Priest could devote himself to the powers of Light – Holy Priest, Darkness – Shadow Priest, or use both of these powers without swearing to any of them – Discipline. It was rare to see a Shadow Priest cast Holy spells or a Holy Priest cast Shadow spells (with rare exceptions). In the new addition, this will no longer be an exception.
In the Dragonflight expansion, each class has two parallel development trees: the general tree for the class (which includes spells from all schools inherent in the Priest) and the chosen specialization.
Dragonflight Priest Spec Choice
The strengths and weaknesses of each class are purely subjective things, however, there are axioms with which most agree.
| Holy | Shadow | Discipline | |
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| Weaknesses |
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Dragonflight Priest Changes
Each of the specializations has quite a few changes, which we will discuss in more detail below. However, there are a few things that stand out the most.
- Mindgames — all priest specializations have only the Venthyr ability left. Not the best ability for PvE, but PvP players will be happy;
- Power Word: Shield — Now a 7.5-second cooldown spell without Weakened Soul debuff. Absorption increased by 80%;
- Tithe Evasion — now a common spell for all specializations instead of the Shadow tree.
Dragonflight Priest Talents
Holy Priest
There will be no major rotation changes for the Holy Priest, as the encore legendary power, Flash Concentration, moved to the talent tree — now it’s Lightweaver. And the Harmonious Apparatus talent became an alternative to the set bonus. However, due to the wide variety in the choice of strong talents, you can decide which path to take: more AoE healing, more Single-Target healing, or more damage. And now these are not empty words: serious upgrades to your Prayer of Mending and Divine Hymn significantly increase your AoE heal, and Empyreal Blaze and Twins of the Sun Priestess increase your damage.
Experiment, play around, and later we will update this article with the best talent builds for each content type.
Shadow Priest
Shadow always wants to maintain his DoT effects on as many opponents as possible. With the new Shadow Crash, this is much easier and faster to do, however, now you should plan your timings better.
Also, your Void Eruption is no longer a required spell, but an alternate one. As a replacement in the talent tree, you can choose Dark Ascension. It is unknown how the new ability will perform in dungeons, but low CD utilities have always been valued in dungeons, and the old Void Eruption could become a raid talent.
But the most important change for the Shadow Priest is the addition of a new filler – Mind Spike – and a set of talents that improve it. I can’t say it will change your gameplay, but it will refresh it a little.
Discipline Priest
Dragonflight Discipline Priest is very similar to Disco from Legion. Light’s Wrath is back and with it the ability to reactively compensate for high group damage. The core mechanics remain the same: you must maintain Atonements with Renew and Power Word: Shield and deal damage that converts into healing. Especially important in this equation is that the Power Word: Shield has become much stronger and along with the talent Throes of Pain, you will not lack mana.
Discipline Priest’s success has always depended on the predictability of dungeon damage and party experience, so we’ll be updating this guide with useful tips as Dragonflight releases.
Dragonflight Priest Leveling
Due to low mobility, low save abilities, and the inability to avoid a fight if it has already started, it is quite difficult for a Priest to level in an open world. For effective leveling use Shadow specialization. This is the only DPS specialization a Priest has. If you do not want to waste time on this routine, you can always use our leveling services. And if you want to do it by yourself, you can check our Dragonflight leveling guide.
Dragonflight Priest Stats
Let’s start from the list of all important Priest stats which can help you to make your performances much shinier:
- Intellect — increases Spell Power;
- Haste — reduces your Global Cooldown, increases the number of spells you can cast at the unit of time;
- Critical Strike — increases the chance to deal additional damage;
- Versatility — decreases damage taken, increases damage dealt;
- Mastery — increases the effectiveness of healing and absorption spells.
| Holy | Shadow | Discipline |
For Raids:
For Dungeons:
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Dragonflight Priest Best Race
In Dragonflight every race can be a Priest, however, each faction has several races that are most advantageous.
Horde
| Troll |
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| Goblin |
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Alliance
| Void Elves |
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| Dark Iron Dwarves |
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| Mechagnome |
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Dragonflight Priest Best Professions
Professions in Dragonflight have been heavily reworked and are now an important aspect of your character’s power. We talked more about professions in our Dragonflight Professions guide.
Tailoring, Engineering, and Jewelcrafting are most suitable for a Priest:
- Tailoring — you will be able to craft cloth armor up to Mythic raid item levels or bags for selling on AH;
- Engineering — grants access to battle res, invisibility, and jet packs which will improve your mobility;
- Jewelcrafting — will allow you to earn gold, as well as make the best unique gems in the game.
Dragonflight Priest Macros
/cast [@mouseover,help,nodead][] Leap of Faith
Allow you to cast Leap of Faith on the target you are currently mousing over. Looks very impressive if you can save someone.
/cast [@player] Angelic Feather
/stopspelltarget
Must have a macro that allows you to cast Angelic Feather under your feet.
#showtooltip [help] Purify Disease; Dispel Magic
/cast [@mouseover, help] Purify Disease
/cast [@mouseover,harm][] Dispel Magic
Combines two cleansing spells into one. One for allies, one for enemies.
Dragonflight Priest Addons
Clique
A great addon that will save you from many macros. It gives you the ability to heal by clicking raid frames. Works great with any other addons.
Healbot
Great helper for any healer. Changes the style of raid frames, monitors party debuffs better, and has many other useful features.
VuhDo
An interesting analog of a Healbot, but less convenient. Moreover, several healing spells or other actions can be asserted with mouse clicks on those bars.
5.0We hope, our guide will be helpful to you. Like it beforehand and add it to bookmarks, because soon we will add the best builds, BiS items, alchemy, enchantments, and rotation. Check out our leveling offers!
