Priests

Healers and guides of the spirit, who can soothe a mind or break it. Every people has priests, but each worships differently, and the class's race-only spells show it.

A night elf priestess rendered from the WoW Forever client — A night elf priestess, rendered from the Forever client's own model.

Who can be one, and where they learn

Alliance: Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome (new in Forever). Horde: Undead, Troll.

Trainers (Classic's data) in Darnassus, Ironforge, Stormwind City, Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Undercity.

Class quests: Desperate Prayer (level 10, teaches Desperate Prayer, Classic's quest); Hex of Weakness (level 10, teaches Hex of Weakness, Classic's quest); Returning Home (level 10, teaches Starshards, Classic's quest); Touch of Weakness (level 10, teaches Touch of Weakness, Classic's quest); A Lack of Fear (level 20, teaches Chastise, Classic's quest); Arcane Feedback (level 20, teaches Feedback, Classic's quest); Devouring Plague (level 20, teaches Dark Sacrifice, Classic's quest); Elune's Grace (level 20, teaches Elune's Grace, Classic's quest); Shadowguard (level 20, teaches Shadowguard, Classic's quest).

The client's character-creation text: Priests guide the spiritual destiny of their people. Through their unique insight into the mind, they are able to shape an individual's beliefs, whether to inspire or terrify, soothe or dominate, heal or harm. Just as the heart can hold both darkness and light, priests wield powers of creation and devastation by channeling the potent forces underlying faith.

Who they are

Priests work with faith and the mind. The same power that heals can terrify, and the client describes the class as holding both.

Just as the heart can hold both darkness and light, priests wield powers of creation and devastation by channeling the potent forces underlying faith.
From the game client: Priest, the class description in the WoW Forever client

Their place in Azeroth now

Faith differs by people. Humans, dwarves and now gnomes follow the Holy Light, centred on Stormwind's cathedral. Night elf priestesses serve the moon goddess Elune. The Forsaken's priests have turned to shadow and a bitter faith of their own. Troll priests speak with the loa. In a world recovering from three wars, priests are needed everywhere: in field hospitals, graveyards and the Plaguelands.

Priests are the only class whose spells change by race. The client has priest spells that only one race can learn, and in Classic several came from class quests of their own (listed below; not yet confirmed in Forever). In the Forever client each priest race has two: Divine Grace and Feedback for humans, Desperate Prayer and Chastise for dwarves, Starshards and Elune's Grace for night elves, Touch of Weakness and Dark Sacrifice for the Forsaken, Hex of Weakness and Shadowguard for trolls, and, new with the gnome priest, Confounding Flash and Contingency Plan for gnomes. Each pair says something about how that people prays. Our Priest leveling guide lists them all.

Warcraft background: The Church of the Holy Light grew out of Lordaeron and Stormwind, and its clerics blessed the first paladins. Night elves have worshipped Elune since before the Sundering, and her priestesses lead them. The Forsaken's clergy broke with the Light after the plague, and troll priests are witch doctors and speakers for the loa spirits.

In WoW Forever

In WoW Forever: Gnomes can now be priests, one of the six new race and class combinations: a people who lost their home, with priests to tend to them. Neither Skyborne order can be a priest.

RP hooks and character ideas

One of Forever's first gnome priests, ministering to Tinker Town's refugees.
A priestess of Elune who sees the High Order's arcane hunger as a danger to her people.
A Forsaken priest who preaches that the Light abandoned them, and is shaken by Forsaken paladins.
A field medic of the Third War who has seen too many die to believe in anything simple.
A troll priest who talks with the loa and is sure they have opinions about the Horde's new allies.
A shadow priest who tells themselves they only use the darkness for good.