Resurrect

To resurrect is to bring a dead character back to life.

Any player may resurrect themselves by running back to their corpse as a ghost from a graveyard. Spirit Healers, who are always available at a graveyard, can resurrect a player with a penalty of increased durability loss and resurrection sickness.

Non-combat resurrection abilities
Classes with healer specializations also have spells that can resurrect allied players. Note that you do not need to have be specialized as a healer to use your resurrection abilities (i.e. Protection and retribution paladins can cast Redemption, etc.) These abilities can be used to save players a run back into an instance as well as used for wipe recovery (especially if coupled with a combat-dropping ability such as Shadowmeld).
 * Druid: Revive. Cost is 4% of base mana.
 * Monk: Resuscitate. Cost is 0.8% of base mana or 50 energy.
 * Paladin: Redemption. Cost is 4% of base mana.
 * Priest: Resurrection. Cost is 4% of base mana.
 * Shaman: Ancestral Spirit. Cost is 4% of base mana.

All of these abilities resurrect the target with 35% health and mana, and cannot be used during combat. They also all have a base cast time of 10 seconds (modified by haste), and have no cooldown.

Tips
Following resurrection, the character will usually require healing, to eat and/or to drink. Healing is often provided by the resurrecting player or a healer. Resurrected players will have lost all previous buffs, and so may also need to be rebuffed.

When a target is resurrected, it is restored to the location of the resurrecting player when the resurrection spell was cast - not where the player's corpse is, nor where the resurrecting player is when the resurrected player accepts the resurrection.

Resurrection abilities cannot be used while in combat, and if the casting player enters combat during the spell's casting time, the spell will be cancelled. However, it is possible to temporarily leave ongoing combat by removing oneself from the battle, in order to resurrect fallen allies. In PvP, it can be useful to retreat behind a pillar or other obstruction, in order to hide and avoid ranged attacks until the resurrection can be completed.

Like all spells, these abilities are affected by haste. Players can use haste boosts from sources such as trinkets and racials in order to drastically reduce the cast time of a resurrection ability.

There are some common misconceptions involving resurrection and releasing. Players can be resurrected whether or not they release. If the dead player has not released, the resurrecting player can select the body and cast the spell. If they have released and the body is out of range, the resurrector must click the spell and mouse over the corpse since the corpse is not selectable. There are reasons not to release however. If a player releases, they will not see loot on mobs killed while the player is dead. Players who release do not receive credit if a required quest event happens while the player is dead. Players that have released do not receive achievement credit for bosses killed while they are dead. Players dead while a kill is made receive reputation but not experience (if eligible for experience).

Casting a resurrection spell on a character who is flagged for PvP (impossible to determine visually) will cause the resurrecting player to also become flagged.

Note that there is no way to tell whether or not a corpse belongs to the player's faction except by inspecting it visually. If the corpse does belong to the player's faction, it is possible to tell whether the player is still online or not by typing "/who playername." A response of "0 players found" indicates that the player has logged off (or is of the wrong faction). A response giving the target's race, level, and class indicates that the player is still online and can be successfully resurrected. Note that landing a resurrection on an offline or cross-faction player's corpses is indistinguishable from landing one on an online player's corpse who simply declines the resurrection. In both cases, the mana is wasted, and resurrection will not take place.

Defibrillate
Engineers can use tools to attempt to "defibrillate" dead allies. These tools are not always successful, but when used on a resurrecting-capable class can save a party from a long run back.
 * . Requires Engineering (165). Has around a 1:3 success rate.
 * . Requires Engineering (265). Has around a 1:2 success rate.
 * . Requires Grand Master Engineer. Has around a 2:3 success rate.

All engineering abilities are on a shared 30 minute cooldown, have a 4 second cast time, and resurrect the target with 15% health and mana.

Combat resurrection
Also called battle resurrection or battle res. Four classes have abilities that can be used to resurrect fallen allies during combat. All combat resurrections provide 60% health and 20% mana when resurrecting, but druids and warlocks can glyph their resurrections to provide 100% health instead.

Soulstone can also be used preemptively, allowing players a self-resurrect for 15 minutes. While the quilen hunter pet is exclusive to the Beast Mastery spec, cranes and moths can be used by all hunter specs to provide a combat res.

After the cap is reached, attempting to use one of the three abilities will result in an error message, reading "You can no longer resurrect during combat."

Note that there are no limits to combat resurrections during trash or 5-man boss encounters. It is unknown whether this limit still applies to Vanilla and TBC raids. Also, self-resurrections such as Reincarnation and Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether are not counted in this limit.

Self-resurrection
Shaman are able to self-resurrect on a 30 minute cooldown with their Reincarnation ability, instantly resurrecting with 20% health and mana. Notably, this ability does not count toward the combat resurrection limit during a boss fight.

All classes may also equip a Darkmoon Card: Twisting Nether which provides a 10% chance on death to gain a reincarnation ability, also returning 20% health and mana.

Mass resurrection
Formerly, players in guilds could use Mass Resurrection (guild perk), a spell that resurrected all fallen allies within 100 yards for 35% health and mana. Mass Resurrection was a 10 second cast and while it had no direct cooldown, players that were resurrected this way received a debuff called "Recently Mass Resurrected" for 10 minutes. The debuff persisted through death and did not allow future mass resurrections via the guild perk.

In Patch 7.0.3, Mass Resurrection was removed as a guild perk and all healing specs were given a baseline mass resurrection ability. Priests retained the original Mass Resurrection spell in both healing specs.

Resurrection timer
After dying there is a time in which you can not return to your body or accept the resurrection cast by another player. This is known as the "Resurrection Cooldown" (not to be confused with the cooldowns on engineering, combat, and mass resurrection abilities). This timer increases with each death to a maximum of 2 minutes. This timer does not affect resurrection at a Spirit Healer or instance portal.

Trivia

 * Resurrection in lore is seemingly possible and can be performed with different sources of magic:
 * By invoking the grandeur of the Light, mighty paladins can bring recently slain comrades back to life – enabling them to fight on for justice, freedom and the glory of Lordaeron.
 * Blood Knight paladins were able to use remnants of the naaru M'uru's power to resurrect Sangrias Stillblade, although it was noted that once he was dead "too long", not even the Light could bring him back to them.
 * The draenei paladin Kaylaan managed to resurrect Ishanah after Socrethar slew her.
 * According to Librarian Lightmorne at the Sanctum of Light, paladins can use the Light's blessing to resurrect their allies.
 * The World-Shaman Thrall was able to apparently revive a Life Warden slain by Asira Dawnslayer when trying to reach Wyrmrest Temple during the Cataclysm,
 * The taunka shaman Roanauk Icemist brought back all his fallen warriors fighting Under-King Anub'et'kan.
 * At the Netherlight Temple, Anduin remarked that priests are able to "sometimes" bring the dead back to life with the help of the Light, which appears to be the most common method in the lore, but required the assistance of both Alonsus Faol and the naaru Saa'ra in order to successfully revive Calia as an undead infused with the Holy Light.
 * In Exile's Reach, priests of both factions can resurrect Expedition recruits who recently died following their shipwreck, but they must hurry as long as their death is recent and their soul still present in the Veil.
 * It was noted by Tyrande Whisperwind that, "No priestess of Elune could bring her back now" when she observed a slain kaldorei woman who had been "dead several days".
 * Sally Whitemane possessed immense capabilities of resurrection, preventing her from dying and allowing her to resurrect her champions.
 * Terenas Menethil II resurrected the champions fighting Arthas Menethil at the Frozen Throne.