Unlike any other class the Priest has always been seen as a healing class by other players. While this might have been a prejudice it is mirrored in the Priest's talents. The Priest is the only class with two talent trees dedicated to healing. The healing methods of those two trees are very different though, but regardless of spec the Priest is able to heal any group through a dungeon instance and both specs have its place within raidgroups. This is new for Discipline Priests, as they were seen as a PvP spec in Burning Crusade and was hardly useful in a raid. This has changed with Wrath of the Lich King and the Discipline Priest brings along some mighty shields and powerful heals which often make him a necessity for any raid.

The third Priest spec are the Shadow Priests. In the early days of World of Warcraft Shadow Priests were not a common sight in Raids and dungeons, as their damage wasn't competitive. With Burning Crusade the Shadow Priests were popular due them working as a mana battery for their raidgroup. The Shadow Priest's damage still wasn't up to date, but their unique utility made up for that. As the amount of mana returned scaled with the damage dealt the damage output had to be kept at lower levels. This idea was completely changed with Wrath of the Lich King as Shadow Priests are no longer the only class working as a mana battery but share this job with Frost Mages, Survival Hunters, Warlocks and Retribution Paladins. To compensate for this competition the Shadow Priest's damage is now up to par.