Priest Buffs: Fortitude, Divine Spirit and Shadow Protection

◆Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude

Power Word: Fortitude is the signature buff of the class. Rank 6 at level 60 increases the target's Stamina by 54 for 30 minutes. It is a mandatory buff on the tank and the whole group before any fight.

Prayer of Fortitude applies the same effect to the target's entire party at once and lasts 1 hour. In 1.12.1 it has two ranks:

• Rank 1 — level 48, +43 Stamina, reagent Holy Candle;
• Rank 2 — level 60, +54 Stamina, reagent Sacred Candle.

In a 40-player raid, priests split the groups between themselves: each one covers one or two groups and refreshes Prayer of Fortitude once an hour. Candles are bought from reagent vendors, so keep enough in your bags for the whole evening. More on the role of the class in our priest guide.

◆Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit

Divine Spirit is not a baseline spell but a Discipline talent. Rank 4 increases the target's Spirit by 40 for 30 minutes. For healers and casters who rely on mana regeneration it is one of the most valuable buffs in the game, which is why many priest talent builds pick it up even for Holy healers.

Prayer of Spirit was added in patch 1.9 and exists in 1.12.1. It requires Divine Spirit and level 60, gives +40 Spirit to the whole party for 1 hour and consumes a Sacred Candle. It is learned from a book rather than a trainer, so not every Discipline priest has it.

◆Shadow Protection

Shadow Protection Rank 3 (level 56) increases Shadow resistance by 60 for 10 minutes. Its group version, Prayer of Shadow Protection, is also level 56 and gives +60 Shadow resistance to the whole party for 20 minutes, using a Sacred Candle. Like Prayer of Spirit, it is learned from a book.

This buff is a must on bosses with heavy Shadow damage: resistance noticeably reduces damage from Shadow spells and lowers the chance of taking a full hit.

Self Buffs: Inner Fire and the Shield

Inner Fire is a self-only buff: it increases the priest's armor for 10 minutes or until 20 weapon hits land on the priest. Refresh it before every pull, especially while leveling and in PvP.

Power Word: Shield absorbs damage for 30 seconds, and while the shield holds, damage does not interrupt spellcasting. After a shield the target receives the Weakened Soul debuff and cannot be shielded again for 15 seconds. At level 60 the shield absorbs 942 damage and has a 4 second cooldown. The full spell list is on the priest abilities page.

Priest Buff Table (1.12.1)

Racial Buffs and Priest Spells

In Vanilla every priest race has its own spells. Here is a short overview of the ones that act as buffs or defensive effects:

• Fear Ward — dwarves only. Cast on any ally, it absorbs the next Fear effect, lasts 10 minutes, 30 second cooldown. A key tank buff in raids with mass fears.
• Feedback — humans: for 15 seconds every spell cast at the priest burns the attacker's mana.
• Elune's Grace — night elves: reduces ranged damage taken and increases dodge chance for 15 seconds.
• Shadowguard — trolls: 3 charges that deal Shadow damage to attackers, lasts 10 minutes.
• Touch of Weakness — undead: the next melee hit on the priest deals damage and weakens the attacker.
• Hex of Weakness — trolls: reduces the target's damage and the effectiveness of healing on it by 20%.

A detailed breakdown with ranks and race choice is in a separate guide to priest racial spells.

◆Related Materials

• Priest guide
• Priest abilities
• Priest talent builds
• Priest racial spells
• Priest rotation
• Warlock curses

Want to buff the whole raid with Fortitude? Create an account and connect to the WoW x5 server: accelerated leveling will quickly take your priest to Prayer of Fortitude.