A blessing is a powerful buff that can be applied to friendly players and some non-player characters. Blessings are unique to the paladin class.
The paladin's blassings and auras are the buffs that combine to give the class its flexibility. Blessings can be applied to most friendly targets, drastically increasing their combat abilities.
Blesses a party or raid member, reducing their damage taken by 30%, but you suffer 100% of damage prevented. Last 12 sec, or until transferred damage would cause you to fall below 20% health.
Instantly removes all stun, silence, fear and horror effects from the friendly target and reduces the duration of future such effects by 60% for 5 sec.
Places a blessing on an ally that temporarily removes all threat from the target and causing all additional threat generated to be transfered to the paladin.
Greater Blessings last for 60 minutes and are only available Retribution. There can only be three Greater Blessings active at one time per paladin, meaning a single paladin can only cast a total three Greater Blessings on friendly targets. Casting the same Greater Blessing from multiple paladins do not stack, and applying a Greater Blessing on a fourth target removes the first one cast.
Places a blessing on an ally that grants them an absorption shield. It absorbs up to (180% of Spell power) damage, and will be refreshed to full strength every 6 sec, even if fully consumed.
Places a blessing on an ally that causes them to regenerate 1% of maximum health and mana per 3 sec.
History
Originally all blessings lasted for only 5 minutes. If you wanted to buff a whole 40-man raid, by the time you ended the buffing, first members had only 2-3 minutes left on their blessings, making paladins more like walking buff machines than efficient healers or DPSers.
The functionality of Greater Blessings has replaced the single-target Blessings, making all Blessings last for 1 hour and apply to all same-class members of your raid or group as your target.