Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by 242013

Do I need to say it? This ability should be buffed damage-wise towards an enemy target, and even the healing can't heal yourself(the most important choice), the holy damage is only 476 at the final rank. :/

Comment by 242298

Really, I don't care that it can't target me; I got Binding Heal for that, if I ever get hit, and if they made it so that it can hit the caster, then they have to nerf the spell, since they only have a few points to assign to each talent/spell.

This spell is FANTASTIC! It heals about the same as a Greater Heal, but for less mana, and sometimes it can hit for more, since each 'blast' has a chance to crit. It is also great for someone who has low health; since a Greater Heal takes 2.5 seconds to cast, and it will only hit when it is finished hitting, Penance is fantastic as it heals after each blast, which means that if they take some damage during my Penance, there is a big chance that they will survive since they got healed 1-2 times. It also supplies a full stack of Grace, which is really nice for raiding/pvp, etc. If you are this deep in Disc, and don't pick it up, then you need your head checked.

Comment by 334845

Penance shouldn't be self-cast. That completely defeats the purpose of the spell.

This is what happens when people complain enough, they just keep making the game easier.

Comment by Yofi

and sometimes it can hit for more, since each 'blast' has a chance to crit.

Just pointing out that this kind of crit math is a common misconception…in reality, the average healing done by a spell with one tick with an X% chance to crit = that of a spell with three ticks with an X% chance to crit. The crits of the spell that ticks more often will be smaller.

Comment by ascero

Easily one of the most graphically beautiful spells in the game, right up there with Arcane Barrage. You can tell that this spell was not around in Vanilla WoW because of that.

My main is a mage, and I always feel weird when a Disc. Priest casts this on me, cause it looks at first glance that the Tank lost aggro on a hostile spell caster, and that I'm about to die. I've popped Ice Block more than once, because of this...

Comment by jasonprescott

Penance is really lovely spell. As for its crits, also if you are a strong healer it can greatly help in an emergency. :)

If a tank is even below his health, one Penance is sufficient to heal him up as well. :))

=> Very useful even on Heigan the Uncelan, when he uses his Spell DIsruption ability and you are unfortunatelly affected. :)

Comment by Cross88

Based on the preliminary Cataclysm talent tree for priests, Penance will become an instant cast spell, and when used to heal will also leave a HoT.

Keep in mind this is a very early build and is subject to change.

Comment by 200795

"Penance, the religious notion of repentance through voluntary punishment"

Is that why the target being healed flinched after every hit? :p

Comment by 626045

Since patch 4.0.1, Priests can get this spell at lvl 10. OP much?

Comment by 630519

Hurts so good.

Comment by Silbotronic

After doing some low level battlegrounds, I've noticed that this spell really hurts when cast by someone with heirlooms.

Comment by 716135

Penance really rocks the world. I have one concern about it though. (PvP wise)

You can use it at 4 times during a Arena encounter:

1. When you see that furious DPS running at you, use Penance to quickly stack Grace (+24% healing) And you should be good to go.

2. When your NOT targeted you can use it to heal your teammates, all good'

3. Fear -> Penance nuff' said

4. You can trick the DPS by only letting it "bounce" 1 or 2 times instead of the full three and hope he waste a interrupt. Risky, risky business though.

Here goes... I really hope Blizz find a way to implement this into PvP better, i mean after stacking Grace with it (you being the target, mind you) you will NEVER be able to get it off. It's completly useless, yes, you can fear and penance if sh!t goes wrong - but heck, i like to save my fear for when my shield gets up so i can supress movement imparing effects and run behind the nearest pillar to flash heal/greater heal.
Making it so it can't be interrupted would be OP, so i'm dry out of ideas, maybe it's just meant to be how it is.

Comment by 773571

On the PTR 4.1, I noticed when healing people that the target doesn't flinch when they are hit by the penance volley. They used to previously before the most recent PTR update.

Comment by Gyrwym

"Hodouken!" - male troll priest

Comment by 610373

Despite this being listed as "Holy" under school, I've been interrupted by mobs while casting smite, and unlike all other "Holy" school spells, it doesn't get set on cooldown. Intentional or accidental, you decide, but it's a great spell to have on hand in PvE.

Comment by Wrashis

Penance can't absolve your sin.

Comment by Bogdanov89

This is a very powerful spell - during leveling, it can (with decent gear) fill an average Tank from 50% to 100% health and apply the awesome Grace buff.

Keep in mind that the basic Heal is still cheaper, and Penance has a cooldown - so try not to waste it on targets that do not need it.

Comment by Farzeer

Earlier today i was in a dungeon and a level 63 disc priest was our healer. She had most damage and best DPS because of this spell.

1. Disc priest - 1million damage - 2k DPS (700k damage with penance, 300k with smite)
2. Death knight - 800k damage - 900 DPS
3. Fire mage (me) - 600k damage - 750 DPS
4. Arcane mage - 300k damage - 600 DPS
5. Feral cat druid - 250k Damage - 700 DPS (He came "late" in to the dungeon)

Comment by 1031947

Never thought I'd say this, but Penance is the most OP spell in the game as of 5.0.4.

Comment by 456721

Hotfixed as of 9/18/2012 to now only deal 50% of the full amount when targeting an enemy, just as it did before patch 5.0. The tooltip has not been altered to reflect this change. Direct heals still deal the full amount.

Comment by LafinJack

This used to be considered an instant spell and qualified for the mana cost reduction from Inner Will, but it looks like that's gone now. Ah well.

Comment by 319936

Divine Fury increase chance to hit with Penance by 15%.

Evangelism can be considered as the resources for Discipline Priest, one can have 5 stacks of Evangelism max.
it generate by (those all: heal 1 friendly target for 90% of the damage (Atonement); each stacks of Evangelism increases damage and healing by 4% and reduces mana cost by 6%):

Smite (+1)
Holy Fire / Power Word: Solace (+1)
Penance (+1; each Smite reduce its CD by 0.5 sec (Train of Thought))

when and only when Priest have at least 1 stacks of Evangelism, this spell can be cast to consume all stacks of Evangelism:

Archangel (increase healing by 5% each stacks of Evangelism consumed for 18 sec)

each tick of Penance (modified by Mastery: Shield Discipline) heal increase healing the target received from the Priest by 10%, stack up to 3 times (Grace).

From Darkness, Comes Light give each Penance a 15% chance to trigger Surge of Light, make next Flash Heal within 20 sec:

free
instant

limit 2 charges.
Divine Insight cause each Penance to trigger Divine Insight, make next Power Word: Shield within 10 sec:

ignore Weakened Soul debuff
NOT cause Weakened Soul debuff

Glyph of Penance cause Penance:

castable while moving
mana cost increased by 20%

Item - Priest T15 Healer 4P Bonus give each Penance a 40% chance to summon a Golden Apparition, which moves to a nearby ally and heals.
Item - Priest T14 Healer 4P Bonus reduce the CD of Penance by 3 sec.

Hearthstone: Penance

Comment by anubalabeloralon

If you start noticing penance seems to heal more when targeting on enemy NPCs than on friendly players.
Thats due to penance's spell power scaling scales more on the damage side than at the healing side.

It should also note that, damage modificators (either from players or mechanic buff/debuffs) increases the actual damage (and healing!) output as well.
In addition, healing modificators also affect the healing portion of atonement.

The only down side as with atonement or other "smart heals", are that they may also heal minions such as pets, army of dead gouls or ghost iron dragonlings.

However in PvP, due to resilience reduction and PvP power's way on scaling healing on us, healers.
You are better off fire your penance at friendlies than hostile players for the big heals.

Comment by Yakeshi

Taste the rainbow, %*^&#.

Comment by Reecow

Penance is a quite quick, cheap, channeled heal with a relatively small healing output. In this post, you'll be able to see and compare a few priest spells' mana efficiency and time efficiency. In order to make these post relevant to priests of all Levels, Item Levels and with different amounts of Spell Power, Haste & Base Mana, I've decided to exclude Spell Power, Base Mana & Haste of my calculations. By doing this, you can't view any correct amounts in neither Healing Ouput, Mana Cost, Cast Time, Healing Per Mana nor Healing Per Second but you can however compare the different values between different spells.

Healing Output: 100.8% of Spell Power * 3 = 1.008 * * 3 = 3.024 *
Mana Cost: 1.2% of Base Mana = 0.012 *
Cast/Channel Time: 100-% of Base Cast Time = (1-) * 2.0 sec

Mana Efficiency = Healing Output / Mana Cost = 3.024/0.012 ≈ 252 HPM (Healing per Mana)
Time Efficiency = Healing Output / Cast Time = 3.024/2.0 ≈ 1.512 HPS (Healing per Second)

Below you can find the comparable values of some priest spells. Assumptions: Penance is completely channeled and Prayer of Healing heals 5 targets.

Categories	Greater Heal	Flash Heal	Penance	Prayer of Healing
Healing Output	3.3264	3.32657	3.024	11.0832
Mana Cost	0.02	0.041	0.012	0.071
Base Cast Time	2.5	1.5	2.0 (Channeled)	2.5
HPM	166.320	81.136	252	156.101
HPS	1.331	2.217	1.512	4.433

EDIT : Updated posts for latest Beta Build and made post relevant to all Discipline Priests by excluding certain variables.

Links

Penance

Penance	Level 90

3.1% of base mana	40 yd range

Channeled	9 sec cooldown

Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing 1081 Holy damage to an enemy, or 8719 healing to an ally instantly and every 1 sec for 2 sec.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Holy

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

3.1% of base mana

Range

40 yards (Long)

Cast time

Channeled

Cooldown

9 seconds

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect

Dummy
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Flags

Cast time is hidden
Cannot be used while shapeshifted
Unaffected by invulnerability
Channeled
All spell effects are harmful
Generates no threat
Track Target in Channel
No Aura Icon
Force Display Castbar
Starts ticking at aura application
Spell Haste Affects Periodic
Haste Affects Duration

Penance

Buff

Spell Details

Related

Contribute