Dispel Magic is a priest class talent that removes one magical buff from an enemy target.
Tips and tactics[]
Dispel Magic is a very useful ability in PvP. It can dispel most magical buffs, removing powerful effects or returning an opponent's stats to normal. With good timing it can be used to strip powerful cooldowns such as [Avenging Wrath] from opponents, wasting their effects.
Dispel Magic chooses a buff at random. Many enemy players will often cast unnecessary buffs, such as [Water Walking], to reduce the odds that dispels will remove an important buff.
Dispellable buffs on enemy targets will be illuminated to indicate that the priest is capable of dispelling them.
The impact of a priest who spams Dispel Magic on a battleground is very potent. You can remove druid healing over time. You can remove powerful protective spells with cooldowns like [Ice Barrier], Sacrifice and [Hand of Protection]. You can cancel out [Slow Fall] or [Levitate] used by mages and priests to escape the Lumber Mill in Arathi Basin. You can remove the [Power Word: Shield] of another priest. A good healing priest on a battleground will be either shielding, healing, attacking or dispelling at all times, and dispelling is often a good use of time when healing is not required.
The most powerful buffs such as [Divine Shield] and [Ice Block] can be removed by [Mass Dispel], but not Dispel Magic. Dispel Magic cannot return a druid to humanoid form because shapeshifting is natural, not magical. However, the shaman [Ghost Wolf] form is magical and can be dispelled.
Priests must decide when to use Dispel Magic, and when to use [Mass Dispel]. Dispel Magic is instant, can be cast while running, cannot be interrupted and removes one debuff from enemy targets; Mass Dispel dispels one buff or debuff from each enemy or ally within the spell's area of effect, removing up to 20 effects in total, and can also remove immunities, but with a 1.5-second cast time is harder to cast and can be interrupted.
Players should be aware that certain buffs (such as [Lifebloom]) will cause additional effects upon being dispelled. A full list can be found here.
Patch changes[]
Patch 10.1.5 (2023-07-11): Now costs 14% of base mana (was 2%).
Patch 10.0.7 (2023-03-21): Now costs 2% of base Mana (was 1.6%).
Patch 10.0.0 (2022-10-25): Now a row 1 class talent (was a level 24 ability).
Patch 9.0.1 (2020-10-13): Now learned at level 24 (was 56).
Patch 8.1.5 (2019-03-12): Mana cost reduced by 60%.
Patch 7.1.0 (2016-10-25): Now available at level 56 (up from level 26).
Hotfix (2016-08-02):When an adversary prevents a Priest from using Holy spells, Dispel Magic and Shackle Undead are properly locked out for the length of the interrupt effect.
Patch 5.0.4 (2012-08-28): Dispel Magic has been split into two abilities, and may now only dispel magical effects from enemy targets. Icon changed.
The defensive magic dispel portion is now part of the new ability [Purify].
Patch 4.1.0 (2011-04-26): Can only be used on the casting priest (or enemy targets) as a baseline effect, but may be improved with [Absolution]. Additionally, Dispel Magic will now only remove 1 buff from enemy targets (down from 2).
Patch 4.0.1 (2010-10-12): Now removes 2 Magic effects (was 1). and is learned at level 26 (was 18).
Patch 1.10.0 (2006-03-28): All spells/abilities that remove existing effects (e.g. Dispel Magic, [Cleanse], [Remove Curse] etc...) will now verify that there is an effect that can be removed before casting.
Patch 1.9.0 (2006-01-03): The mana cost of this spell was changed to a percentage of base mana.
Patch 1.6.0 (2005-07-12): Dispel Magic can no longer be used on players participating in a duel unless the caster is in the duel.
Patch 0.11 (2004-09-29): Casting Dispel Magic on a friend under the influence of charm will dispel the charm.