WoW Forever Penance: how it works and when to cast it
Penance, the Discipline Priest's 20-point talent in WoW Forever: three bolts in 2 seconds and about 20% more healing per mana than Greater Heal at each rank.
Penance is the Discipline Priest's new 20-point talent in WoW Forever: a 2-second channel that fires three bolts of holy light, each healing an ally or hitting an enemy, on a 12-second cooldown. Blizzard retuned it on October 8 so that it heals more per point of mana than Heal and Greater Heal, and the client's numbers bear it out: about 20% more healing per mana than the Greater Heal of the same level, at every rank.
How to get Penance
The talent. Penance sits in the fifth row of the Discipline tree and needs 20 points spent in Discipline. With every point there, a Priest can take it at level 30 at the earliest.
The ranks. The talent teaches rank 1; ranks 2, 3 and 4 come from the Priest trainer at levels 40, 50 and 60. Each rank's exact damage, healing and mana are on our Penance spell page, read from the WoW Forever client.
What does not change between ranks: 36-yard range, 2-second channel, 12-second cooldown, and three bolts, one at once and one each second after.
A full channel lands all three bolts. Added up, before healing bonuses and critical strikes, here is what each rank heals and costs next to the two heals a Priest already has at that level.
Level
Penance: healing, mana (healing per mana)
Greater Heal
Flash Heal
40
600, 220 mana (2.73)
rank 1: 844, 370 mana (2.28)
rank 4: 383, 215 mana (1.78)
50
804, 270 mana (2.98)
rank 2: 1,099, 455 mana (2.42)
rank 6: 644, 315 mana (2.04)
60
1,275, 385 mana (3.31)
rank 5: 1,960, 710 mana (2.76)
rank 7: 825, 380 mana (2.17)
Greater Heal and Flash Heal are counted at the middle of their range, and each line uses the best rank a Priest can have at that level.
Healing per mana: Penance is ahead of Greater Heal by 20 to 23% at every level, and well ahead of Flash Heal.
Speed: its three bolts land within 2 seconds, where Greater Heal takes a 3-second cast. Greater Heal is still the bigger single heal: 1,960 against 1,275 at level 60.
Damage: on an enemy, rank 4 deals 276 Holy damage over 2 seconds for 385 mana, about 138 per second. Rank 8 of Smite, the best a level-60 Priest has, deals 170 on average in its 2.5-second cast, 68 per second. Per mana, Penance does about 18% better (0.72 against 0.61). It hits twice as hard per second as Smite, but only once every 12 seconds.
The October 8 change
Blizzard's beta development notes of October 8 rework Penance in four lines:
its damage and healing were reduced, to fix a bug that treated it as a 3-second channel instead of a 2-second one;
its mana costs were adjusted "so that it has a consistent advantage in mana efficiency over the Heal/Greater Heal family of spells";
the mana cost of rank 1 rose by 50%;
the healing of ranks 2 and 4 was increased.
The client we read is build 1.60.1.70291, from October 9, after these notes. The table above shows the result: the same edge of about a fifth over Greater Heal at levels 40, 50 and 60, which is what the developers' note asks for.
Talents that change it
Power in Light (Discipline, first row, 5 ranks): Smite and Penance deal up to 10% more damage to targets afflicted with your Holy Fire. Open with Holy Fire, then Penance.
Renewed Hope (Discipline, same row as Penance, 5 ranks): your heals, Penance included, gain up to 10% critical strike chance on a target with Weakened Soul, and shorten Weakened Soul by 5 seconds. It pairs Penance with Power Word: Shield on the same target.
Improved Healing (Holy, fourth row, 3 ranks): cuts the mana cost of Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Penance and Prayer of Mending by up to 15%. It costs 15 points in Holy, which a level-60 Priest with 20 in Discipline can still afford.
How it differs from Wrath of the Lich King
Penance first came with Wrath of the Lich King in 2008, where it was very different to reach:
Wrath of the Lich King
WoW Forever
Place in Discipline
the last talent of the tree, after 50 points
20 points
Earliest level
60
30
Further ranks
3 more
3 more, at levels 40, 50 and 60
Range
30 yards
36 yards
Mana
16% of base mana
a fixed cost per rank
Cooldown
12 seconds (10 before patch 3.2.0)
12 seconds
The shape of the spell is the same: three bolts over 2 seconds that heal a friend or hurt an enemy. What Forever changes is the timing: a Discipline Priest builds around it from level 30 rather than at the end of the game.
When to cast it
Healing a group: the numbers make it the first heal to use whenever the cooldown is ready and a target needs about a thousand health at level 60. Greater Heal covers the bigger hits, and Flash Heal the emergencies.
Leveling as Discipline: Holy Fire, then Penance with Power in Light, then Smite. With twice Smite's damage per second, Penance is worth casting every time it is ready.
Stand still: like every channeled spell, Penance stops if you move before its third bolt.
Spend the points: at 20 points in Discipline, Penance shares its row with Renewed Hope; plan both in the talent calculator.
Our WoW Forever Priest guide covers everything else that changes for the class, from Divine Spirit for every Priest to the racial spells.
Penance is a Discipline talent that needs 20 points in the tree, so level 30 at the earliest. The talent teaches rank 1; ranks 2, 3 and 4 come from the Priest trainer at levels 40, 50 and 60.
02Is Penance better than Greater Heal in WoW Forever?
It heals about 20% more per point of mana than the Greater Heal of the same level, and lands within 2 seconds instead of a 3-second cast. Greater Heal is still the bigger heal (1,960 against 1,275 at level 60), and Penance has a 12-second cooldown.
03What did the October 8 beta notes change on Penance?
Blizzard reduced its damage and healing to fix a bug that treated it as a 3-second channel, adjusted its mana costs to keep it more efficient than Heal and Greater Heal, raised the mana cost of rank 1 by 50% and increased the healing of ranks 2 and 4.
04Is Penance worth using while leveling?
Yes for a Discipline Priest: at every level it deals about twice the damage per second of Smite and more damage per mana. With Power in Light, it deals up to 10% more to targets burning with your Holy Fire.
05How is WoW Forever Penance different from Wrath of the Lich King?
In Wrath it was the last Discipline talent, after 50 points, so level 60 at the earliest. In Forever it needs 20 points and ranks up at levels 40, 50 and 60, with a 36-yard range instead of 30.
Where the Ruins of Lordaeron entrance is, above the Undercity, the Alliance route by ship to Southshore and across Lordamere Lake, and the PvP flag at the gate.
