Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing X to Y Holy damage to an enemy, or X to Y healing to an ally instantly and every 1 sec for 2 sec.
Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing X to Y Holy damage to an enemy, or X to Y healing to an ally instantly and every 1 sec for 2 sec.
Contrary to what the tooltip seems to imply, it actually heals or damages three times, the first tick occurring instantly upon cast.
Each heal from Penance receives 53.62% of the priest's spell power. In total, this gives penance of spell power coefficient similar to that of a three second cast rather than a two second cast.
Due to its mana efficiency and healing speed, it is generally the primary direct heal used by Discipline priests.
Like [Holy Shock], this spell has two ranges depending on its use. When used to attack, it has a 30 yard range; when used to heal, it has a 40 yard range.
Even if a pushback prevents the final tick from landing, this is still a more mana efficient heal than [Greater Heal], and will still heal more than [Flash Heal]. Pushback can only prevent one tick, as it can only cancel 50% of a channeled spell.
The instant first tick of this spell can save party members who would otherwise die while waiting for [Flash Heal] to cast.
Combining this with [Inner Focus] makes it a great panic button, as [Inner Focus]] will apply to all three ticks. Also, using a Macro to tie the two together with API SpellStopCasting will make it one less button press.
Edit
Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds. 
