Launches a volley of holy light at the target, causing (120% of Spell Power) Holy damage to an enemy or (375% of Spell Power) healing to an ally over 2 sec. Castable while moving.
Penance bolts normally occur three times per cast, the first tick occurring instantly upon cast.
[Harsh Discipline] significantly improves the potency of that cast of Penance by adding extra bolts. Similarly, [Castigation] will add an extra bolt. Additional bolts come with increased tick rate, firing faster so that the overall channeling time remains constant.
Penance is normally a Holy spell, but can become a shadow spell with use of [Shadow Covenant].
It was re-implemented in the Saviors of Uldum expansion as a common Priest spell. Its flavor text reads: "This is what happens when you don’t give a sincere apology."
Patch changes[]
Hotfix (2023-09-18):Healing is increased by 35% in PvP combat (was 15%).
Hotfix (2023-07-24):Damage and healing increased by 15% in PvP combat.
Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now learned at level 11 (was 10). Healing is now 375% of Spell Power.
Patch 8.3.0 (2020-01-14): Healing increased by 15%.
Hotfix (2016-08-26):Penance damage is now 190% of Spell Power (was 175%).
Hotfix (2016-08-22):Penance mana cost has been reduced to 2.8% base mana (was 3%).
Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): No longer does direct healing but can be cast while moving. Damage increased by 369%.
Patch 5.3.0 (2013-05-21): Now deals 10% less damage, but healing done is increased by 10%.
Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Damage and healing has been increased by 20%, now a cooldown of 9 seconds (was 10 seconds), and has a range of 40 yards for both friendly and hostile targets (was 40 yards for friendly and 30 yards for hostile targets).
Hotfix (2012-09-18):Penance's base damage has been reduced so that it now deals significantly less damage at lower player levels, and slightly less damage at level-85.
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Damage increased by approximately 300%. Cooldown reduced from 12 sec to 10 sec.
Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Penance ticks no longer cause friendly targets to flinch.
Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): Mana cost has been increased by 7%, but healing has been increased by 20%.
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Mana cost reduced. Now a level 10 specialization ability for Discipline (was a tier 11 Discipline talent).
Patch 3.2.0 (2009-08-04): Cooldown increased to 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds.
Patch 3.1.0 (2009-04-14): Penance can now be cast on the priest himself and the damage has been increased.