Primary abilities

Primary abilities (introduced with patch 4.0.1) were class and specialization-specific abilities, with a single primary ability awarded to your character upon selecting a specialization. Primary abilities were exclusive not only to your class but also to your specialization, and tended to be powerful abilities key to that specialization, offering offensive, defensive or healing capabilities, or in some cases the chance to summon a permanent companion. Primary abilities were the only class abilities limited to a specific spec, aside from talent abilities found on the higher tiers of the pre-5.0.4 talent trees.

With patch 5.0.4 the nature of specializations and abilities was changed, with numerous class abilities being restricted to only certain specializations. Although almost all of the previous primary abilities are still available, they are no longer designated as such in-game, and are now among many abilities exclusive to a given spec. Additionally, some of the below primary abilities have been made available to all characters of that class regardless of specialization, such as Shadowstep. Consequently, the term "primary ability" is no longer in use.

For a full list of class and specialization abilities, see the abilities page for the desired class, eg Warrior abilities.