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For the Brawler's Guild NPC, see Guardian Spirit (Brawler's Guild).
Guardian Spirit
Spell holy guardianspirit
  • Guardian Spirit
  • Row 2 Holy priest talent
  • 40 yd range
  • 0.9% of base mana
  • 3 min cooldown
  • Instant
  • Calls upon a guardian spirit to watch over the friendly target for 10 sec, increasing healing received by 60%. If the target would die, the Spirit sacrifices itself and restores the target to 40% health.

    Castable while stunned. Cannot save the target from massive damage.
Properties
Class Priest
School Holy
Cooldown 3 minutes
Talents
Talent required Spell holy persuitofjustice [Holy Word: Serenity]
Improvements Ability priest pathofthedevout [Guardian Angel], Spell holy guardianspirit [Guardians of the Light]
Related buff
Spell holy guardianspirit
  • Guardian Spirit
  • Increased healing received by 60% and will prevent 1 killing blow.
  • Duration: 10 seconds

Guardian Spirit is a Holy priest talent. It causes a friendly target to receive 40% increased healing for 10 seconds. If the target dies while under the effect of the spell, the Guardian Spirit will prevent death by sacrificing itself and restore 40% of the target's maximum health - massive amounts of damage will however not trigger this effect. Guardian Spirit can be cast while stunned.

Notes[]

  • Any target can only benefit from Guardian Spirit once every 60 seconds (internal cooldown).
  • Guardian Spirit prevents death, it will not reset a target's threat.
  • Guardian Spirit is not affected by the global cooldown.
  • Guardian Spirit is able to heal critically.
  • Guardian Spirit won't prevent death from fall damage.
  • The maximum amount that can be healed by Guardian Spirit is 200% of the maximum health of the caster. Previously, it appeared to be roughly 100,000 health.

Should the target get a fatal blow while under the effect of Guardian Spirit, the Guardian Spirit will prevent the target from dying, and in addition heal the target for 40% of their maximum health. However, as Guardian Spirit's heal is increased by effects that increases healing done (and received), in practice it will always heal for more than 40%.

Healing debuffs such as those caused by Ability warrior savageblow [Mortal Strike] and Inv misc herb 16 [Wound Poison] will reduce the healing received from Guardian Spirit by 25%.

The Holy priest mastery Spell holy aspiration [Mastery: Echo of Light] is also procced by Guardian Spirit, providing at least an additional 10% of the total heal, over 6 seconds. Additional Mastery will of course increase this amount.

Improvements[]

Tips and tactics[]

  • This is the Holy priest's panic button when a party member is about to die.
  • Casting Guardian Spirit on the tank will allow the priest to heal other party members, while the tank is safe.
  • Using a macro or addon to announce your target is highly recommended.
  • Because of the unpredictability of incoming damage, care must be taken to cast Guardian Spirit at the right time in order to save the target. If cast too late, server lag or an unexpected damage spike may cause your target to die; if cast too early, the effect may expire before the target reaches 0 health.

Guardian Spirit has 2 functions: to increase healing received, and to provide an emergency heal should the target die. While saving Guardian Spirit as an emergency cooldown can be very effective in preventing wipes, the spell's 40% healing increase should not be overlooked. With only a 4-minute cooldown it can be used regularly to boost healing and conserve mana. However it is usually more advantageous to allow the target to 'die' while under the effect, in order to benefit from the spell's 'sacrifice' heal. Announcing your target before allowing your target to 'die' is usually a good idea.

The optimal amount of healing can be gained from Guardian Spirit by healing the spell's target for a few seconds before allowing them to 'die'. As the buff is consumed in order to save the target from death, the 40% healing increase will only be available before the Guardian Spirit sacrifices itself.

Patch changes[]

  • Dragonflight Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Now a row 2 Holy talent (was a level 38 Holy ability).
  • Shadowlands Hotfix (2022-05-02): Will no longer fail to heal an ally who receives multiple fatal blows at the same time.
  • Shadowlands Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now learned at level 30 (was 48).
  • Battle for Azeroth Hotfix (2018-12-19): Should no longer activate from damage that cannot kill the target (such as a Brewmaster's Monk stance drunkenox [Stagger]).
  • Battle for Azeroth Hotfix (2018-09-18): Can no longer heal for more than 200% of the Priest's maximum HP.
  • Legion Hotfix (2017-10-03): Guardian Spirit's heal should now be more responsive when the target is being attacked from multiple sources.
  • Legion Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25): Now learned at level 48 (was 54).
  • Legion Patch 7.0.3 (2016-07-19): Now increases healing taken by 40% (down from 60%) and heals for 40% of maximum health (down from 50%), but only if the target doesn't take massive amounts. Cooldown increased from 3 minutes to 4 minutes. Now learned at level 54 (was 70).
  • Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.2.0 (2013-03-05): Inv glyph majorpriest [Glyph of Desperation] has been removed. Guardian Spirit can now always be cast while stunned.
  • Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Now a level 70 Holy specialization ability (was a tier 7 Holy talent).
  • Cataclysm Patch 4.3.0 (2011-11-29): Healing received while under the buff has been increased by 60%, up from 40%.
  • Cataclysm Hotfix (2010-12-20): Guardian Spirit's capped value did not rise properly from level 80-85. This has been corrected.
  • Cataclysm Patch 4.0.6 (2011-02-08): The absorb/heal from this ability can now never exceed 200% of the maximum health of the caster.
  • Cataclysm Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Moved to tier 7 (was tier 11).
  • Wrath-Logo-Small Patch 3.0.8 (2009-01-20):
    • Now off the Global Cooldown.
    • It is no longer possible for simultaneous killing blows to trigger the heal from this ability multiple times.
  • Wrath-Logo-Small Patch 3.0.3 (2008-11-04): A target may now have only one Guardian Spirit active.
  • Wrath-Logo-Small Patch 3.0.2 (2008-10-14): Added.

External links[]

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