Version: 11.x

Patch 9.0 Holy Priest Changes

Incomplete List

This is not a comprehensive list and may be missing some changes, for example undocumented hotfixes or uninteresting bug fixes.

Patch 9.0.1, the Shadowlands pre-patch, was released on October 13, 2020. It introduced a number of changes to Holy Priest.

Spell Changes

Added Circle of Healing as a baseline ability (Was a talent).
Added Prayer of Mending Rank 2, making Prayer of Mending instant-cast.
Added Power Infusion to all priest specs at level 58.
Added Power Word: Shield at level 4.
Added Shadow Word: Pain at level 2.
- Added Shadow Word: Pain Rank 2 at level 27.
Added Shadow Word: Death at level 14.
- Added Shadow Word: Death at level 46.
Added Holy Nova Rank 2 at level 56, triggering Holy Nova a second time at 50% effectiveness if it damages 3 or more targets.
Modified Holy Nova to have a 1.5-second GCD rather than 1-second.
Modified Holy Fire to now have a cast time and hit significantly harder.
Modified Prayer of Fortitude to increase health by 5%, from 10%.
Modified Smite to now have a mana cost for some reason.
Modified Renew to remove the instant portion (and mastery interaction) and instead integrate it to tick immediately.

The following changes were around for a short period on alpha & beta but were removed before Patch 9.0 launch:

Enduring Renewal (Direct healing spells refresh the duration of Renew) replaced with Renewed Faith.
Perseverance (Reduced damage taken on the casting priest when Renew is present) replaced with Body and Soul for some weird reason.
Circle of Healing (now baseline) replaced with Prayer Circle.
Afterlife now provides increased range during Spirit of Redemption.

The main expansion feature are Covenants.
- Each covenant grants you a Signature ability, shared with all classes who join that covenant.
- Each covenant grants you a Class ability, specific to your class.
Craftable and upgradeable legendaries were added
- 4 shared game-wide legendary powers
- 4 shared Priest legendary powers
- 4 Holy Priest specific legendary powers

Dec. 01, 2020: Fixed an issue where Flash Concentration (Legendary Effect) was not reducing Heal's cast time by 0.2 seconds per stack as indicated by the tooltip.
Dec. 07, 2020: Mindgames (Venthyr ability) will now display on nameplates to the casting Priest.
Dec. 15, 2020: Divine Image (Legendary Effect) will no longer cause other pets and guardians such as your Steward to attempt to cast spells.
Dec. 18, 2020: Holy Priests will now have their deaths count against the dungeon timer.
Jan. 13, 2021: Holy Priests wearing X’anshi, Return of Archbishop Benedictus (Legendary Effect) and using Forgeborne Reveries (Bonesmith Heirmir Soulbind) will no longer benefit from Spirit of Redemption during Archbishop Benedictus' Restitution.
Jan. 14, 2021: Measured Contemplation (Legendary Effect) will now consistently grant stacks of its buff.
Jan. 21, 2021: Benevolent Faerie (Night Fae Ability) will no longer reduce the cooldown of Shadowfiend while one of its cosmetic glyphs are active.
Feb. 04, 2021: Fixed an issue where Mental Recovery’s (Conduit) slow effect was not being removed with slow immunities (e.g. Hand of Freedom).
Feb. 08, 2021: Fixed an issue where the beneficial effect of the Prideful affix would not be applied to Priests in Spirit of Redemption form.