Dispel Magic is a popular ability in PvP combat. This spell can remove most magical buffs and debuffs. This can stop a steadily damaging effect from yourself or an ally, or it can even the playing field by returning an opponent's health, armor, or Intellect to normal.
Dispel Magic chooses a buff (for enemy targets) or debuff (for friendly targets) at random. Many enemy players will often cast unnecessary buffs, such as Water Breathing and Water Walking, to reduce the odds that Dispel Magic will remove an important buff.
The impact of a Priest who spams Dispel Magic on a battleground is very potent. You can remove Druid healing over time. You can remove powerful protective spells with cooldowns like Ice Barrier and Sacrifice. You can cancel out Slow Fall or Levitate used by Mages and Priests to escape Lumber Mill on Arathi Basin. You can remove the Power Word: Shield of another Priest. A good Priest on a battleground (hopefully Discipline) will be either shielding, healing, or dispelling at all times, with the majority of time spent dispelling.
The most powerful buffs such as Divine Shield and Ice Block can be removed by Mass Dispel, but not Dispel Magic. Dispel Magic cannot return a Druid to humanoid form because shapeshifting is natural, not magical. However, the Shaman Ghost Wolf form is magical and can be dispelled.
Patch 1.10.0 (2006-03-28): All spells/abilities that remove existing effects (e.g. Dispel Magic, Cleanse, Remove Curse etc...) will now verify that there is an effect that can be removed before casting.
Patch 1.9.0 (2006-01-03): The mana cost of this spell was changed to a percentage of base mana.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Dispel Magic can no longer be used on players participating in a duel unless the caster is in the duel.
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