Priest guide: how to play a healer and a shadow damage dealer — talents, build, PvE and PvP

The Priest is Zarhold’s main healer: two of their three talent trees heal and protect, and the third turns them into a damage dealer who strikes with shadow and heals on the go. If you like keeping the group on its feet, putting up shields before the hit lands and saving whoever is about to fall, this is your class. In this guide we’ll look at how to play a Priest: their cards and Class Power, which talent trees to take early on and at level 60, what to wear and how to heal in dungeons, raids and the arena.

The Priest at a glance

• Group roles: healer or damage dealer.
• Armour: cloth — the lightest armour type.
• Resource: Mana. It’s the same Crystals everyone has: 1 on your first turn, one more each turn up to 10, and whatever you don’t spend is lost.
• Health at level 60 without gear: 356 — one of the lowest in the game (only the Mage has less, 331).
• Cards: 21 of their own and 3 more from talents — one in each tree.
• Difficulty: medium. Healing is simple, but a healer has to watch the whole board at once: who is being hit, who will be hit next and what is hanging on your allies.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths:

• the most varied healing: instant heals, heals over time and shields — and all of it can be aimed at an ally;
• two healing trees with different approaches — heal allies who are nearly down harder, or give them twice the armour;
• a cleanse that removes harmful effects from an ally;
• a full attacking tree: shadow strikes, damage over time and strikes that heal the Priest;
• control: a fear card makes the enemy lose a turn, and debuffs cut their damage or raise the damage they take for 3 turns.

Weaknesses:

• low Health and light armour — without shields a Priest goes down fast;
• no 1-Crystal cards: the cheapest cost 2, so your first turn is lean — only your Class Power works on it;
• the healing Class Power doesn’t hit enemies, so solo play in a healing tree is noticeably slower than in the attacking one.

The Priest’s deck: key cards

In Zarhold you don’t build your deck by hand: all 21 class cards and the cards of your learned talents go into battle, and if you have fewer than thirty cards the deck is topped up with copies of cheap ones. Every card with its description is in the Priest’s Spellbook. Here’s what the class is built on.

Healing

Four healing cards cover any situation: a quick heal for 2 Crystals, a big one for 4 and a very big one for 5 (7, 14 and 18 base), plus a heal over time — 5 at the end of each of your turns for 3 turns. Healing cards can be aimed at an ally, and anything healed above full Health becomes a shield — nothing is wasted.

Shields

Three shield cards — 12, 14 and 20 base. A shield absorbs damage before it reaches Health, so the best time for it is before the hit, not after. For a Priest it’s the main way to survive and to keep the tank safe.

Cleanse and tempo

• a 2-Crystal cleanse removes every harmful effect from you — debuffs, curses, bleeds; from an ally — the same, except effects that take away a turn (stun, fear, polymorph, freeze);
• another card draws 2 cards from your deck and returns 1 Crystal.

Shadow and holy damage

Shadow strikes for 3 and 4 Crystals (8 and 11 base), a finisher for 8, two damage-over-time cards, a strike that also heals you, a holy strike that sets the target burning and a holy strike on all enemies for 5 Crystals. There’s also a buff for 3 turns: +30% to the damage you deal.

Control and debuffs

• one card makes the enemy take 25% more damage from all sources for 3 turns;
• another cuts all the damage they deal by 25% for 3 turns;
• a fear card — the enemy loses their turn.

Base card numbers grow with Power: the more a card costs, the bigger the share of Power it gets.

The Priest’s Class Power

Your Class Power is the round button that costs 1 Crystal, once per turn. Which one you have depends on your specialisation — the tree with the most points in it:

• the two healing trees — a heal plus armour, on yourself or an ally (drag the power onto their portrait; on the keyboard, Shift+E casts it on yourself or on the ally selected with F2–F5);
• the attacking tree (and no specialisation, before level 10) — an instant shadow strike plus damage over time for 2 turns; cast it again and the damage over time stacks.

In dungeons, raids and against world bosses the healing power heals the whole party: the chosen ally gets the full effect (with no target, the most wounded one does), and everyone else gets another 0.2 × the Priest’s Power — this part goes into Health only. Each healing tree also has its own bonus for the chosen ally:

• the first tree — if the chosen ally is below 35% Health, the heal on them is twice as strong;
• the second tree — the chosen ally gets twice the armour.

Which bonus applies depends on the tree with more points in it. In PvP and one-on-one fights the healing power works as usual, without the party-wide part. The numbers for every power are in the Class Power reference, and healing in group content is covered in the knowledge base article Class Power and racial ability.

Priest talents: three trees

Talents unlock at level 10 and you get a point for every level — 51 by level 60. Each row of a tree opens for every 5 points in it, and the top talent needs 20 points in its own tree. A hero can only have one top talent per loadout. The Priest’s trees hold 29, 33 and 31 ranks — 93 in total — so you can’t learn everything: talents are about choices.

1. The first tree — the chain healer. Healing. Its talent card is a 4-Crystal heal after which your healing is 25% stronger for 2 turns. In group content its power heals allies below 35% Health harder.
2. The second tree — shields and control. Healing. Its talent card is a 4-Crystal strike that also heals you and cuts the enemy’s damage by 20% for 2 turns. In group content its power gives the chosen ally twice the armour.
3. The third tree — the shadow vampire. Attacking. Its talent card is a 5-Crystal shadow strike that heals you.

The talent cards sit in the third row of their trees: level 20 at the earliest. Every tree with its talent and rank counts is in the Talent trees reference.

What to take early on

Until level 20 you have only one specialisation. For open-world quests the attacking tree is handier: its power hits the enemy, while the Priest’s healing power doesn’t touch enemies at all. If you run dungeons as a healer from the very first levels, take one of the healing trees instead. Put your points into one tree in a row — that opens the next rows and the talent card faster.

A level 60 build

From level 20 a hero has two specialisations, and they suit the Priest especially well:

• Spec A — healing: 21 points in the first or second tree (20 to reach the top talent plus the top talent itself), the other 30 into bonuses from the neighbouring trees. The first tree shines when allies often drop low; the second when damage comes predictably and is better met with armour;
• Spec B — attacking: 21 points in the shadow tree for quests, duels and the arena.

Switching specialisations, loadouts and talent resets are free. How to count points and put a build together is covered in “Talents in a card RPG”. You can test a new build right away: the Try out button in the talents window takes you to the training dummy — it has a healing meter too.

Priest gear and weapons

• Armour: cloth only.
• Weapons: staff, mace, dagger and wand.
• Off hand: tome or orb. The Priest can’t use a shield.
• Two-handed: staff.
• Two weapons: no. Hands are equal for every class: a one-hander plus an off-hand item carry as many stats as a two-handed staff.

Power matters most for a healer — it drives your healing, your card shields and your Class Power. At level 60 the Priest’s goal is the Tier 1 set Vestments of the Silent Litany: eight pieces of item level 232 from heroic raids and world bosses. The 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-piece bonuses depend on your active tree and don’t work in PvP. Details are in “Tier sets in an MMORPG”, and every class’s armour and weapons are in the Armour and weapons reference.

Which race to choose for a Priest

Any race can be a Priest. If you want to squeeze out every bit, match the race’s permanent bonus to your goal:

• more healing and damage — Power: the Kogran, Nakar and Shaydar get +6% each, the Velion +5%, the Selenar +3% Power and −3% damage taken;
• more staying power — Health: the Gartan get +10%, the Durgar +8%, the Grumak and the Vaerin +5% each. With the Priest’s small Health pool that’s a noticeable boost;
• for the arena consider the Morven: no crowd control makes them lose a turn — while stunned they simply have 1 Crystal, so the healer can’t be “switched off”.

Race is a nice extra, not a life sentence. Every bonus is in the All races reference.

The Priest in PvE: dungeons and raids

A dungeon takes a tank, a healer and a damage dealer; a raid or a world boss takes a tank, a healer and three damage dealers. The Priest can fill the healer or the damage slot.

As a healer

• Queue as a healer only in a healing tree: in the attacking tree the Priest has no healing power, and the game will warn you about it.
• Pick your heal target: F1 is you, F2–F5 are your allies. The board shows who every enemy is targeting — heal and shield whoever is about to be hit before it happens.
• The healing power tops up the whole party every turn — press it every turn, even when only one ally is badly hurt.
• Healing above full Health turns into a shield, so healing the tank “in advance” isn’t wasted. The party-wide part of the power doesn’t become a shield, though.
• Hits on “everyone” strike the whole group: heals over time and shields are what you want before them.
• The cleanse removes bleeds, curses and debuffs from an ally, but not stun or fear.

As a damage dealer

In the shadow tree the Priest is a damage dealer who keeps healing themselves. Don’t out-damage the tank in the first turns, apply damage over time and the debuff that adds 25% damage taken, and save the expensive strikes for the middle of the fight. A long fight is risky: the boss enrages, and every stage adds 18% to its damage.

Step-by-step raid prep is in “Your first MMORPG raid”, and the roles in detail are in the knowledge base article Group roles.

The Priest in PvP: arena and duels

In the arena (1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5), on the battleground and in duels the Priest can be both the team’s healer and a damage dealer. One-on-one the shadow tree is usually handier: its power hits and applies damage over time.

• Remember that healing weakens in PvP. From your 10th turn healing and shields lose 10% a turn, and the third and later heals in a single turn are half as strong. Two strong heals a turn beat four small ones.
• Card shields last 2 turns and can’t exceed 30% of your Health — put them up right before the hit.
• The −25% damage debuff and fear buy you time, but after losing a turn the target has at least 2 turns of their own when they can’t be stunned or feared again.
• Damage cap: you can’t lose more than 60% of your Health in a round, and the deck isn’t reshuffled — once you run out of cards, fatigue damage begins.
• Defence in PvP is Resilience from PvP gear; Hardiness from regular gear doesn’t work in the arena.

All the rules are in the knowledge base article Special PvP combat rules, and modes and ratings in “PvP in a card game”.

Common beginner mistakes as a Priest

1. Queueing as a healer in the shadow tree. Without the healing power the party goes without a heal every turn. Check your specialisation before the queue.
2. Shielding after the hit. A shield absorbs damage that hasn’t landed yet. Watch who the enemy is aiming at and cover them in advance.
3. Skipping your Class Power. It costs 1 Crystal and in group content heals the whole party — the best-value heal of your turn.
4. Cleansing a stunned ally. Cleansing an ally doesn’t remove stun, fear, polymorph or freeze — spend those Crystals on a shield or a heal.
5. Healing with four cards a turn in PvP. The third and later heals in a turn are half as strong.
6. Wearing Hardiness gear in the arena. In PvP only Resilience protects you.

Priest FAQ

Can I play a Priest solo?

Yes. For quests the shadow tree is handier: its power hits the enemy, and the shadow strike cards heal you too. From level 20 keep a healing tree as your second specialisation for dungeons — switching is free.

Which healing tree is better — the first or the second?

Both work for the healer role. In group content the first tree heals the chosen ally twice as hard when they’re below 35% Health, and the second gives them twice the armour. Try both — talent resets are free.

Can a Priest use a shield?

No. In the off hand the Priest holds a tome or an orb, or they can use a two-handed staff.

Does the cleanse remove a stun from an ally?

No. On an ally the cleanse removes harmful effects except the ones that take away a turn: stun, fear, polymorph and freeze. On yourself it removes debuffs, curses and bleeds.

How much Health does a Priest have?

356 at level 60 without gear — only the Mage has less. That’s why the Priest relies on shields, while gear, talents and race add Health on top.

The bottom line

The Priest is the pick for anyone who wants to be the heart of the group: to see the hit coming before it lands and pull allies back from the edge. And when there’s no group around, the shadow tree makes them a self-sufficient damage dealer who heals with their own strikes. Start with the attacking tree for quests, add a healing specialisation at level 20 — and every dungeon group will want you. Create a Priest and find out what it’s like to keep a whole party standing. And if you’re still choosing a class, see “Which class to choose”.