Blessing

From WoWWiki

A blessing is a powerful single-target short term buff that can be applied to friendly players and some non-player characters (NPC's). Blessings are unique to the Paladin class and along with Auras and Seals provide the main utility of the Paladin class.

Blessings can be applied to most friendly targets (some blessings may only be applied to players in the same party or raid), drastically increasing their combat abilities. Almost all blessings last for 10 minutes, though there are three short-term blessings as well that only persist for a short amount of time. There can only be one blessing per paladin per person at a time, meaning a single paladin can only cast one type of blessing on another player. The same blessing from multiple does not stack.

Available blessings

There are numerous blessings available to Paladins. The available blessings are as follows:

Blessing name	Description	To acquire	School	Ranks
Blessing of Might	Places a blessing on the friendly target, increasing attack power for 10 min.	Level 4	Retribution	10
Blessing of Wisdom	Places a blessing on the friendly target, restoring mana every 5 seconds for 10 min.	Level 14	Holy	7
Blessing of Kings	Places a blessing on the friendly target, increasing total stats for 10 min.	Level 20	Protection	1
Blessing of Sanctuary	Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 10 min. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 2% of maximum displayed mana.	Talent	Protection	4

Greater blessings

Greater blessings are longer-lasting versions of normal blessings. Greater blessings last for 30 minutes and will buff all same-class members of your raid or group as your target. Requires 1 [Symbol of Kings] per each blessing cast and requires the corresponding rank of the normal blessing in order to be trained. (Greater Blessing of Might rank 1 requires Blessing of Might rank 6 to have been learned.) For example, if you target a rogue and cast Greater Blessing of Might, all rogues within range will receive Greater Blessing of Might.

Line of sight is irrelevant when casting this other than with your specific target. If another rogue was around a corner you would not be able to target it as a receiver of your buff, but he will receive the buff if you target another of the same class that is within your line of sight.

Usage

Different classes tend to favor certain blessings. Tanks will usually prefer Blessing of Kings for the additional health while healers will request Blessing of Wisdom for the additional mana regeneration. In a raid it is common to have multiple Paladins, allowing the use of more than one Blessing on each class. It is important to coordinate with the other Paladins to determine the best Blessings for each member of the group.

Improving blessings with talents

Blessings can be improved with the following talents:

	Improved Blessing of Wisdom Holy Tier 4	Increases the effect of your Blessing of Wisdom spell by 10/20%.
	Improved Blessing of Might Retribution Tier 2	Increases the attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 4/8/12/16/20%.

Hands

Main article: Hand (spell)

In Patch 3.0.2, blessings have been significantly reworked. Blessing of Light has been removed altogether, while Blessing of Salvation has been folded into a category of short-term blessings known as Hand spells, which also includes the spells formerly known as Blessing of Freedom, Blessing of Protection and Blessing of Sacrifice. As such, paladins' buffing assignments have been significantly simplified since the number of blessings to be assigned is smaller in addition to not needing to worry about overwriting one's assigned buff when giving a target one of these temporary spells.