Priest Racial Spells: What Each Race Brings

◆Who can be a priest

Only five races can play a priest in Vanilla: humans, dwarves, night elves (Alliance), undead and trolls (Horde). Gnomes, orcs and tauren cannot pick this class. Passive racial traits (such as Will of the Forsaken or Stoneform) are a separate topic; see the pages on undead racials and dwarf racials. This guide covers class spells only.

How to get racial spells

At level 10 the priest trainer gives a quest for the first spell (Desperate Prayer for humans and dwarves, the Returning Home chain for night elf Starshards, and the quests Touch of Weakness and Hex of Weakness for undead and trolls). At level 20 comes the second quest: Arcane Feedback for humans, A Lack of Fear for dwarves, and Elune's Grace, Devouring Plague and Shadowguard for the others. After that new ranks are bought from the trainer.

Racial spells by race

Human and dwarf: Desperate Prayer

An instant self-heal with a 10 minute cooldown. It is the panic button for every situation: pulled aggro in a dungeon, focus fire in PvP, or an empty mana bar. One more reason to pick a human or a dwarf for healing.

Human: Feedback

For 15 seconds the priest is wrapped in anti-magic: every successful spell cast against them burns the attacker's mana and deals Shadow damage to them. Cooldown 3 minutes. Almost useless in PvE, but in PvP against mages, warlocks and other priests it is a nasty surprise.

Dwarf: Fear Ward

The key raid ability of Vanilla. Cast on an ally, it absorbs the next fear effect, lasts 10 minutes and has a 30 second cooldown. In PvP it removes the threat of Psychic Scream and warlock Fear.

Night elf: Starshards and Elune's Grace

Starshards is an Arcane damage channel over 6 seconds, useful against targets resistant to Shadow. Elune's Grace reduces ranged damage taken and raises dodge chance by 10% for 15 seconds on a 5 minute cooldown, a defensive button in PvP against hunters and rogues.

Undead: Touch of Weakness and Devouring Plague

Touch of Weakness is a 10 minute buff: the first melee attack against the priest deals Shadow damage to the attacker and weakens their damage for 2 minutes. Devouring Plague is a 24 second disease whose damage heals the priest, with a 3 minute cooldown. It is one of the strongest racials for a shadow priest; see the shadow build.

Troll: Hex of Weakness and Shadowguard

Hex of Weakness lowers the target's damage by a flat amount and the healing it receives by 20% for 2 minutes, a valuable anti-heal in PvP. Shadowguard is a 10 minute buff with 3 charges: anyone hitting the priest takes Shadow damage, and that damage generates no threat. More on the race is on the troll racials page.

Fear Ward in raids

• Onyxia: in phase three the dragon regularly uses a mass fear. A feared tank loses position and Onyxia turns towards the raid; see the Onyxia guide.
• Magmadar: a periodic raid-wide fear; Fear Ward is kept on the tank, while the rest rely on the Horde shaman Tremor Totem and good fear mechanics knowledge.
• Nefarian: in the ground phase the boss also uses fear, and losing the tank at that moment endangers the whole raid; see Nefarian.

◆Which race to pick

For an Alliance raid healer the dwarf is unmatched; for a Horde PvP shadow priest it is the undead. A detailed comparison is in the article on the best race for priest.

◆Related guides

• Priest abilities
• Best race for priest
• Priest PvP guide
• Priest levelling
• Night elf racials
• Fear mechanics

Choose your race wisely and try its racial spells in action: create an account and connect to the server WoW x5, your first priest racial quest is only 10 levels away.