The Priest, while designed to be the best healer in the game, can surprisingly fulfill many different roles.  From healing, to being a mana battery, or going full out DPS, the Priest is very versatile, and is highly sought after in every group.
 

Flavor

Do you enjoy crushing your enemies, while keeping yourself and your team mates standing?  Then the Priest might be the class for you.  The Priest is a very powerful caster but does take a lot of attention and forethought to be played correctly.  You are a cloth wearing caster, and as such you are very squishy.  Sure you can buff up, and heal yourself, but you are still soft, and if not very careful, you will wind up running back to your corpse more than you are killing.  It is a very demanding class in that you have to watch your companion's health, and the amount of hate you are generating, at all times.  Do too much damage, or over heal, and you will be taken down.  As such, the Priest is not for everyone, but if you enjoy casters that can DPS pretty well, heal, buff, debuff, and are always sought after, then the Priest might be right for you.

The Priest, while very powerful, doesn't start out this way.  Many people quit the class before seeing the true potential of the class. You can hit pretty hard, and heal yourself in a fight, but early on you will be out of mana all the time, and you will die quite often. You wear only cloth, and until you get a few of your harder hitting spells, your fights will be an uphill battle.  However if you are willing to stick it out and have a bit of patience, you can start to see the real potential of the Priest by level 20 or so.  Once you hit 40, you are really coming into your own and should be handling most fights easy enough.

You have three talent schools you can take starting at level 10.  These will greatly effect what kind of Priest you are going to be.  The Shadow school affects your DPS, and putting points into this area will greatly increase the damage you can do.  The Holy school affects your healing potential and how well you can keep your team mates standing, or the Discipline school which strengthens the Priest's buffs.  Feel free to try different schools, you will always be able to respec for a few coin if you aren't happy with how your Priest is playing out.

Priests are generally thought of as a tough class to play in PvP.  They excel in groups, but one on one, the Priest will usually lose in a PvP fight.  You are just too soft, and can't take enough damage to stand up to most other classes out there.  So if you want to PvP as a Priest, make sure you have some friends with you.  In instances and Raids, the Priest truly shines.  From direct damage and damage over time spells, to heals and buffs, with a team backing him up, he can fill many different roles depending on what's needed and how he is specced.  From DPS to healing, the Priest can get it done in Raids and are always highly sought after.

Priest Strengths

• Great healing, of course.
• Highly desired in groups and raids.

Priest Weaknesses

• Difficult to play (and stay alive) particularly at the early levels.
• Mana dependent.

Defining Abilities

By end game (level 70+), you need to know what kind of Priest you want to play.  A Shadow spec Priest at end game is an invaluable asset in both instances and Raids. A Shadow Priest is capable of pushing out a lot of DPS, as well as buffing and debuffing during a Raid.  It is easy to see why Healing Priests are so valuable to any group or Raid.

The ability to throw out some of the strongest heals, and a buff or two, makes a Healing Priest the joy of many groups.

The Priest is a versatile and highly sought after class in WoW.  A player that knows what they are doing can take a priest, and fill in almost any position needed.  Learn the class inside and out, and you will never be left wanting for a group.  In fact, you will have to find nice ways of telling people when you are too busy to group with them.  A good Priest is always needed, but it takes a lot of time and effort to become a good Priest. If you want a challenge and want to try a unique class that always has something new to do depending on the Raid or instance, give the Priest a try.