WoW Classic Priest Guide: Weapon Skills, Abilities, Trainers, & Gear
Luxrah • Updated June 7, 2025
Priests in WoW Classic are masters of light and shadow, offering the strongest healing capabilities in the game as well as a viable damage specialization. They also bring plenty of useful utility in the form of dispels, buffs, and crowd control. Priest healers are always in demand in group content of any kind, and most raids will want to bring at least one Shadow Priest, especially if they have Warlocks in the group who can benefit from Shadow Weaving.
While Priests are considered one of the weakest classes for solo play, they bring an exceptional healing toolkit, with the most varied and powerful healing spells in the game. On the Horde side, they are the only class who can Dispel Magic, and one of only two classes on each faction who can use Resurrection. They tend to be very busy in group content healing, buffing, dispelling, and resurrecting other characters. They also have some fun niche abilities such as Mind Vision, Levitate, Mind Control, and Mind Soothe that can be extremely valuable in certain situations.
Roles and Specializations
The three talent trees for Priests are Discipline, Holy, and Shadow.
- Discipline
- Focuses on utility talents and buffs.
- Discipline is a little weaker as a healer than Holy, but offers the Divine Spirit and Power Infusion buffs, which may be more useful than added healing, depending on the content and your group.
- Holy
- Offers primarily healing talents.
- The strongest healing specialization in the game and always in demand for group content.
- Shadow
- Contains talents that improve your damage with shadow spells.
- Deals less damage than pure damage dealing classes, but still sometimes brought to raids for Shadow Weaving as well as its utility and passive healing capabilities.
View the complete Priest talent tree in our Priest Talent Calculator.
Class Feature: Unique Racial Abilities
Priests are the only class who get special racial abilities based on their race. This makes your choice of race much more significant as a Priest.
On the Alliance side, Dwarves are considered the essential race for Priests due to their extremely useful Fear Ward ability. Horde have a little more flexibility to choose, however.
Resources
Priests use Mana as their main ability resource.
Races
Priests have a couple of Race options for each faction. Priests are unique in that they also obtain special priest abilities based on their race, which are marked with an asterisk (*) below.
Racial Abilities
Alliance

Dwarf

Human
- *Desperate Prayer
- *Feedback
- Diplomacy
- Perception
- The Human Spirit
- Mace Specialization
- Sword Specialization

Night Elf
Starting Stats
Alliance
Stat | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
---|---|---|---|
Stamina | 23 | 20 | 19 |
Strength | 22 | 20 | 17 |
Agility | 16 | 20 | 25 |
Intellect | 21 | 22 | 22 |
Spirit | 22 | 24 | 23 |
Horde
Stat | ![]() ![]() | ![]() ![]() |
---|---|---|
Stamina | 21 | 21 |
Strength | 21 | 19 |
Agility | 22 | 18 |
Intellect | 18 | 20 |
Spirit | 24 | 28 |
Weapon Skills and Armor Proficiencies
Priests can only equip Cloth armor and can never learn any other armor proficiencies.
Below is a table of weapon types that Priests can use and where the initial skill can be trained. Priests have very few options for weapons compared to other classes.
Weapon Type | Where to Learn |
---|---|
Daggers | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
One-Handed Maces | ![]() ![]() |
Staves | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Wands | ![]() ![]() |
Notable Abilities
Priests have a lot of useful abilities that will make them a welcome addition to any group.
Utility
Movement
Dispels
Crowd Control
- Mind Control
- Psychic Scream
- Shackle Undead
- Silence (Shadow talent)
Threat
Buffs
- Fear Ward (Dwarf)
- Divine Spirit (Discipline talent)
- Power Infusion (Discipline talent)
- Power Word: Fortitude
- Prayer of Fortitude
- Prayer of Shadow Protection
- Prayer of Spirit
- Shadow Protection
Debuffs
- Hex of Weakness (Troll)
- Shadow Weaving (Shadow talent)
- Touch of Weakness (Undead)
- Vampiric Embrace (Shadow talent)
Priest Trainer Locations
Priest class trainers can be found in starting zones and major cities.
Trainer | Faction | Location | Coordinates |
---|---|---|---|
Jandria | ![]() | Darnassus – Temple of the Moon | 38.6, 82.0 |
Lariia | ![]() | Darnassus – Temple of the Moon | 41.0, 89.6 |
Astarii Starseeker | ![]() | Darnassus – Temple of the Moon | 38.6, 80.8 |
Priestess Alathea | ![]() | Darnassus – Temple of the Moon | 40.0, 80.0 |
Branstock Khalder* | ![]() | Dun Morogh – Coldridge Valley | 28.6, 66.4 |
Maxan Anvol | ![]() | Dun Morogh – Kharanos | 47.2, 52.2 |
Ken’jai* | ![]() | Durotar – Valley of Trials | 42.4, 68.8 |
Tai’jin | ![]() | Durotar – Razor Hill | 54.2, 42.8 |
Priestess Anetta* | ![]() | Elwynn Forest – Northshire | 49.8, 39.6 |
Priestess Josetta | ![]() | Elwynn Forest – Goldshire | 43.4, 65.6 |
Braenna Flintcrag | ![]() | Ironforge – Mystic Ward | 25.4, 8.4 |
High Priest Rohan | ![]() | Ironforge – Mystic Ward | 25.6, 9.0 |
Theodrus Frostbeard | ![]() | Ironforge – Mystic Ward | 24.0, 10.2 |
Toldren Deepiron | ![]() | Ironforge – Mystic Ward | 25.6, 10.2 |
Ur’kyo | ![]() | Orgrimmar – Valley of Spirits | 35.6, 87.6 |
X’yera | ![]() | Orgrimmar – Valley of Spirits | 35.8, 87.6 |
Brother Benjamin | ![]() | Stormwind – Cathedral of Light | 41.8, 29.6 |
Brother Joshua | ![]() | Stormwind – Cathedral of Light | 38.8, 26.8 |
High Priestess Laurena | ![]() | Stormwind – Cathedral of Light | 38.8, 26.6 |
Nara Meideros | ![]() | Stormwind – The Park | 21.2, 50.6 |
Shanda* | ![]() | Teldrassil – Shadowglen | 59.2, 40.6 |
Laurna Morninglight | ![]() | Teldrassil – Dolanaar | 55.6, 56.8 |
Father Cobb | ![]() | Thunder Bluff – Spirit Rise | 25.8, 22.0 |
Malakai Cross | ![]() | Thunder Bluff – Spirit Rise | 24.8, 22.6 |
Miles Welsh | ![]() | Thunder Bluff – Spirit Rise | 25.6, 15.6 |
Dark Cleric Duesten* | ![]() | Tirisfal Glades – Deathknell | 31.0, 66.0 |
Dark Cleric Beryl | ![]() | Tirisfal Glades – Brill | 61.6, 52.2 |
Aelthalyste | ![]() | Undercity – War Quarter | 49.6, 17.2 |
Father Lankester | ![]() | Undercity – War Quarter | 49.6, 15.6 |
Father Lazarus | ![]() | Undercity – War Quarter | 47.6, 19.2 |
Gear Sets
Here are all of the equipment sets for Priests in Classic WoW, including dungeon sets, raid tier sets, and PvP sets.
- Vestments of the Devout (Dungeon Set 1 or Tier 0)
- Vestments of the Virtuous (Dungeon Set 2 or Tier 0.5)
- Vestments of Prophecy (Tier 1 – Molten Core)
- Confessor’s Raiment (Tier 1.5 – Zul’Gurub)
- Vestments of Transcendence (Tier 2 – Blackwing Lair)
- Finery of Infinite Wisdom (Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj)
- Garments of the Oracle (Tier 2.5 – Temple of Ahn’Qiraj)
- Vestments of Faith (Tier 3 – Naxxramas)
The Highlander’s Intent/
The Defiler’s Intent (Arathi Basin)
Lieutenant Commander’s Raiment/
Champion’s Raiment (Rare PvP)
Field Marshal’s Raiment/
Warlord’s Raiment (Epic PvP)
Notable Items
- Benediction/Anathema: This two-in-one epic staff is earned through a challenging quest that begins with a drop from Molten Core. (Benediction Guide)
Skill Books
Below are all of the skill books that are available for Priests in WoW Classic. These books teach new abilities or ability ranks that cannot be learned from trainers. The books are not Soulbound and can therefore be traded or purchased from the Auction House.
Book | Teaches | Source | Patch |
---|---|---|---|
Codex: Prayer of Fortitude | Prayer of Fortitude (rank 1) | World drop | 1.2 |
Codex: Prayer of Fortitude II | Prayer of Fortitude (rank 2) | World drop | 1.2 |
Codex: Prayer of Shadow Protection | Prayer of Shadow Protection | World drop | 1.9 |
Codex of Greater Heal V | Greater Heal (rank 5) | Bosses in Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj | 1.9 |
Codex of Prayer of Healing V | Prayer of Healing (rank 5) | Bosses in Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj | 1.9 |
Codex of Renew X | Renew (rank 10) | Bosses in Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj | 1.9 |