Quick Start Guide to Leveling a Priest
For those just coming for the leveling build, here it is.
Table of Contents:
- My Background
- Intro
- Starting Out
- Leveling Stat Priority and Gear
- How to Effectively Pull and Kill at Low Levels
- Spriest Leveling Build and Advice
- Disc Leveling Build and Advice
My Background:
My first character in WoW was a Protection Paladin. It was before they were even viable. It was bad. Real bad. I only made it to my mid 30s before falling in love with a Rogue alt. It killed much, much faster and for a while, I thought I found my fit. But I was wrong, I made it to low 40s and started to fall out of love with it. I realized that healers were needed at 60, so I rerolled.
I thought I would take advantage of that constant spamming of “LF healer” and try out a Priest. I hated it. I wasn’t doing any damage and I was running out of mana all the time. It was dreadful, but I was leveling with a friend so I stuck with it. In the late 20s, I started realizing that I LOVED my class. It was a perfect blend of offense and defense. In our 30s and at 40 we did Warsong Gulch. I dominated. At that time, 40 was the max level for the bracket and I was literally unstoppable with shadowform. I went all the way to 60, had my fun and took a break for a while leveling other classes. I came back and rolled another Priest to 60 on the other faction. I took another break and came back with the expansion. I rerolled another Priest yet again to 70. Then to 80. In total I have 4 Priests: I have 2 60 Priests from vanilla WoW, 1 80 Priest, and another lowbie Priest I rolled on a different server with the intent of playing lowbie BGs.
There are two morals to this story. First, the Priest starts out rough. Real rough. I was so frustrated with the class, I wanted to delete it. But I stuck with it and it is now my favorite class to play. I liked it so much I rerolled three times just for the heck of it. Secondly, roll a class that you find fun. It took me two rerolls to find my favorite class and it just so happened to be the class I least expected. So, keep an open mind when choosing a class, that one you hate at first might be your favorite.
Intro:
So, you decided to level a priest? Congratulations, you are going to embark on a very long and rewarding leveling experience that will start out tortuously slow, but will be worth it in the end. If you aren’t up to that and are just chasing the flavor of the month/patch/expansion, I suggest stopping before you begin. The Priest is a dreadful class to deal with at lower levels, but if you are sure its the right class for you, hang in there, it gets better.
One great thing about Priests is that all three trees are viable. Shadow does some pretty good damage and has been improving in PvP recently, Disc works out great as both a single target healer/mitigator and PvP class, and Holy is an amazing all around healing class. If you like a balance of offense and defense, the Priest is probably one of the better classes that keep this balance.
Starting Out:
The priest class has two issues that exist from the start: damage output and mana issues. They kind of go hand in hand because you need to exhaust your mana to do damage, so there will be a balancing act until you get your mana regen under control. Two things help alleviate this and they both exist in the Shadow tree, so I would suggest leveling Shadow at least at first. First things first, Spirit Tap is 100% absolutely essential to level. Even if you decide to respec and level as Disc at higher levels, you NEED points in Spirit Tap. Secondly, Mind Flay is a godsend at lower levels. Get it as soon as possible. It helps alleviate both the damage and mana issue.
Also, I would stay clear of Disc until higher levels. The reason Disc is so successful end game is because it provides a lot of utility and mitigation. In conjunction with lots of Stamina and Resilience, it is a very difficult class to kill. As a leveling toon, Disc loses its charm because of the lack of resilience and the lack of the full spectrum of talents and abilities. In fact, I would even be as bold to say that Holy is probably the better PvP healer until 60 or so. Also, Disc provides little to no offensive based talents. Most Disc Priests who PvP go into Holy for that. So, more of a reason not to spec Disc unless you plan on PvPing exclusively.
Leveling Stat Priority and Gear:
Two quick words of advice: pick up a wand and skip out on +spellpower for INT/SPI at low levels. I know there is a craze about stacking +spellpower, but it doesn’t work like that for leveling Spriests. I would get as much +spellpower as possible if you are PvPing, but leveling means killing and questing with as little downtime as possible. And a Priest doesn’t have any mana regen abilities until higher - we rely on natural mana regen. Remember, an OOM Priest does 0 damage.
With that said, once you are comfortable with your mana regen, consider +spellpower. I would start balancing INT/SPI and Spellpower around low 30s and then prioritize Spellpower above all else once in Outlands. Still, I would still opt for gear that has INT/SPI/spellpower over something like INT/STAM/spellpower or even INT/CRIT/spellpower. Like I said before, its a constant balancing act and if you are like me, the less you have to drink, the better.
How to Effectively Pull and Kill at Low Levels:
Like I’ve said before, the Priest needs to be mana-conscious. So, this means killing effectively. One thing I’ve noticed with newcomers is that they love to pull with instant cast spells. Don’t do it. The second you cast an instant cast spell, you stop regening mana. You also wasted the precious time you needed to cast. At very low levels, this means pulling with a Smite and not Shadow Word: Pain. Depending on your personal situation, I would recommend pulling with Smite, casting Pain, and then wanding down the rest of the mob. I would throw in another Smite if things were going too slow. At very low levels, I would even recommend against using Power Word: Shield unless necessary. And when I say necessary, I mean if there are adds and/or you are receiving pushback on your casting. Note, I’d like to mention that if you are in a PvP situation, DoT first if they see you. If they don’t, cast first. You want damage up on them ASAP if they are attacking you, but DoTing them may ruin an element of surprise if you aren’t being targetted.
Once you get Spirit Tap, make sure to let it run its duration if you need mana. In other words, don’t cast until its done. If you don’t need mana, cast away.
Once you get Mind Flay, work that into your rotation. One issue that you might experience is that mobs are getting to you and caushing pushback causing you to miss out on a few Mindflay ticks. My advice is to pull with the longest cast time spell (Smite), walk backwards (or sideways away from the mob) during your global cooldown casting Shadow Word: Pain, and once you are able to cast Mindflay, do so. The extra few yards of maximizing your distance might help you finish the full channel.
Another method is to Power Word: Shield before pulling. WAIT. Wait until your mana starts to regen again (research the five second rule), and then cast. The ticks of mana of waiting basically pays for the Shield and now you have a buffer to cast free of pushback.
Wait, one last method. Another method is to use the above method(s) and Psychic Scream the mob when they get close and then IMMEDIATELY Mindflay them to keep close to you and away from aggroing other mobs. Use this method with discretion though as you may find yourself fearing them into a group of adds.
These are just suggestions and don’t feel obligated to do them. Use your judgment on the situation. As you get higher in level, you can forgo these little strategies and cast like crazy.
Shadow Priest (Spriest) Leveling Build and Advice:
As you delve deeper into the Shadow Tree, you can begin to ween yourself off Holy spells. Also, around this time you will start to see a more effective class start to emerge. Use your judgment but I believe I began using my Holy spells less and less around late 20s and low 30s. At a point it becomes more effective just to Mind Blast, Pain, Mind Flay until dead.
This isn’t 100% recommended, but here is how I would spec if I had to level as of 3.2:
10-12 Spirit Tap 3/3:
Like I said time and time again, necessary for all leveling builds. This talent boosts your mana after every mob you kill. You want to max this as soon as possible. Improved Spirit Tap isn’t worth it since you won’t be critting much at low levels.
13-14 Darkness 2/5:
2 points for now. It will boost your Shadow spells by 4% (In 3.2). Don’t worry, we’ll revisit and fill it out for a full 5/5 later.
15-16 Improved Shadow Word Pain 2/2:
Every mob you fight should have Pain on it so a 6% damage increase is quite nice. At low levels, this is more significant than Darkness since you still will be using Holy spells and will be killing mobs relatively slowly. In other words, Pain will be running its full duration, so you will be getting a lot of bang for the buck here.
17-19 Darkness 5/5:
While Shadow Focus seems nice, at this level you have few shadow spells to save a miniscule amount of mana on (2% mana reduction is very small at this point). It sounds hypocritical, but filling out Darkness is more worthwhile. Reason being that your Mind Blast, Pain, and soon to be Mindflay will all be impacted by this when it is fully filled out. Don’t worry, we will revisit Shadow Focus soon. If you are missing a lot, you might want to put a point in Shadow Focus and fill this out later.
20 Mindflay 1/1:
Yes, Mindflay has finally arrived. Enjoy. Your rotation should include Mindflay. Still pull with the longest cast time spell, immediately DoT, and either Mind Blast or Mindflay depending on the situation. Try to avoid using Mindflay if the mob is hitting you as you will lose out on those precious ticks and making it not worth the mana. You should be pulling in a way similar to this: Shield, regen, cast longest cast time spell, DoT, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, etc.
21-23 Shadow Focus 3/3:
While filling out Improved Mind Blast seems nice, Mind Blast is a big mana drain at this point. Using it more frequently will only be detrimental to your mana pool for now. Don’t worry, we’ll pick this up later. Instead, for now, put points in Shadow Focus. You will miss less often and the lowered mana cost will help a bit.
24 Improved Mind Blast 1/5:
This point won’t make a noticeable difference, but acts as a filler. Improved Mind Blast only is noticeable at 4/5 or 5/5 really. Besides, you need to be conservative with your mana. I would only put more points in here this early if you plan on PvPing a lot.
25-27 Shadow Weaving 3/3:
Increases your shadow damage by 2% for each stack up to 5 times. Potentially, you will be running around with a temporary buff of 10% damage increase to shadow. This is where the Priest starts to feel more powerful and you can begin weening yourself off Holy Spells. You can now Mind Blast as your casted spell, DoT, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, etc.
28-29 Shadow Reach 2/2:
This increases the range of your Shadow spells. Most importantly, Mindflay. You can Mindflay from a greater distance.
30-32 Focused Mind 3/3:
A 15% mana reduction in your most used spells is huge. This will alleviate a lot of mana issues and you can begin to cast more freely. Also, this is where you can completely forget about Holy spells and use the dirt cheap Mindflay more often.
33 Vampiric Embrace 1/1:
This will give a bit of healing back to you so you don’t have to cast a heal. This is especially significant when you go into Shadowform at 40 and can’t heal. As neat as it sounds, I wouldn’t put it into your rotation unless you need healing. Its a waste of a global cooldown otherwise. Otherwise, cast it after your DoTs as you should prioritize having those DoTs up and ticking.
34 Improved Vampiric Embrace 1/2:
Putting another point in here boosts the healing done by Vampiric Embrace as the amount healed is pretty minimal. 2/2 is a bit overkill honestly (good for PvP though), but its up to you. Also, if you think the original Vampiric Embrace is enough, you can throw a point back up to Improved Mind Blast as your mana cost will be lower now and you can afford to Mind Blast more frequently.
35-37 Improved Devouring Plague 3/3:
Boosting Devouring Plague to be even more effective. Worth the points.
38-39 Improved Mind Blast 3/5:
Mind Melt isn’t worth it at this point. Your crit chance is too low to justify an extra few crit percentage points. I rather cast a Mind Blast more often.
40 Shadowform 1/1:
Behold, the essence of being a Spriest. Enjoy. Also, once you get Shadowform, you have to abandon all your Holy spells if you haven’t already. Its Shadow from here on out. Likewise, your rotation should be something like this: Mind Blast, Pain, Vampiric Embrace (subject to change 3.3), Mind Flay until dead or throw in a Mind Blast if needed.
41-45 Shadow Power 5/5:
Here I am being a hypocrite again. While increasing your crit chance a small amount is trivial, when it does crit, it would be nice to see some BIG numbers, right? Especially when Shadow Word Pain can crit when you are in Shadowform.
46-48 Misery 3/3:
Increases hit chance and boosts the damage of commonly used spells. Worth the points. Improved Shadowform is situational and aimed towards PvP. I would skip it until later if at all.
49 Improved Mind Blast 4/5:
Another point in Improved Mind Blast. Slowly but surely we are going to fill this up with fillers haha.
50 Vampiric Touch 1/1:
This spell is another defining moment for the Spriest. It does damage and it returns mana. Perfect. It also changes your rotation yet again. Should now be something like this: Vampiric Touch, Pain, Vampiric Embrace (subject ot change 3.3), Mind Blast, Mind Flay/Mind Blast until dead. Vampiric Touch is also exciting because it is the beginning of the end of your mana issues. While Spirit Tap was nice, this addition to your mana regen abilities is a nice supplement.
51 Improved Mind Blast 5/5:
Finally.
52 Psychic Horror 1/1:
We have a bit of freedom now so I decided to take this. Its up to you if its worth it or not. Its great for running mobs and has some utility in those PvP moments where you are caught off guard. Its nice to cast this and get some distance between you and your attacker. Sometimes Psychic Scream doesn’t cut it.
53-54 Pain and Suffering 2/3:
I put 2 points in here because it was either this or Mind Melt above. Both are pretty meh. Pain and Suffering is great for raiding, but to be honest, most things will die before Shadow Word Pain ends so its kinda pointless. Regardless, a point or two is justifiable. 3 might be overkill, so 2 is probably good enough (66% to refresh Pain). I personally like having at least 2 in here so when I pull multiple mobs I can keep refreshing Pain with a Mindflay rather than recasting Pain. Feel free to throw those extra points anywhere though really.
55-59 Twisted Faith 5/5:
Even more damage. Worth every point.
60 Dispersion 1/1:
A contraversial 51 point talent, but worth it leveling. Boosts mana regen to unreal levels. Never come close to having to drink again. Also, you can now give up some mana regen priority to more spellpower!
61-65 Twin Disciplines 5/5:
Now going into the Disc tree, this will boost your DPS even more. Might want to consider Unbreakable Will if you PvP because a 5% increase to instants is pretty meh but worth it if you don’t encounter Rogues often.
66-67 Improved Power Word Fortitude 2/2:
More stamina for you and everybody your friends with. Yay!
68-70 Improved Inner Fire 3/3:
Boosts your armor AND your spellpower later. Worth it.
71-73 Meditation 3/3:
More mana. Great. You can never have enough.
74 Inner Focus 1/1:
A free cast with an increased crit chance. Worth the point. Sometimes if I’m not in combat I use it to buff myself free of mana.
Hmm 6 points left. What left to do. Consider these:
Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3: More of a barrier between you and the enemy. Might be nice. Up to you.
Improved Spirit Tap 2/2: More mana regen and a slight boost to DPS with the Spirit increase.
Improved Psychic Scream 2/2 and Silence 1/1: Useful in PvP. Silence is great against casters and the Improved Psychic Scream helps against melee.
Mind Melt 2/2: More crit chance. Might be worth it now.
Veiled Shadows 2/2: Lowered cooldown on Shadowfiend might help boost mana if you are opting for more crit and spellpower over mana regen at higher levels.
Improved Shadowform 2/2: Might be handy in PvP situations. I had it before and rarely used it though so its up to you.
I went with:
Improved Spirit Tap 2/2, Veiled Shadows 2/2, Mind Melt 2/2
In the end, your build should look something like this:
Disc Priest Leveling Build and Advice:
I know Disc is the new cool kid on the block since they are a great PvP class, but I would be hesitant from speccing Disc from the get go… or even speccing prematurely. The thing that makes Disc strong is their wide variety of defensive abilities, heals and mitigation in conjunction with lots of stamina and resilience. An INT/SPI Disc Priest with little to no Resilience is not that amazing. Also, unlike Shadow, every point in Disc helps you survive, not kill, which puts you at a disadvantage questing. But I digress, there is an interest in it – and how can I blame you for wanting to try it out. Would be fun strictly for battlegrounds, so here it is…
Believe it or not, if you want to level as Disc, you won’t put any points in Disc for quite some time. And yes, believe it or not, even if you dip into Holy before Disc, I would still consider it true to a “Disc” build since most Disc Priests still spend at least 14ish points in Holy. You will be spending 17. This is strictly to boost your damage output so you are competitive offensively both in PvP and questing. Feel free to skip that part though and go straight into Disc. Its ultimately up to you.
10-12 Spirit Tap 3/3:
First things first, you need mana regen. A priest without mana regen capabilities is a nightmare even at 80 with epic gear. This is only if you plan on questing or killing anything at all. If you are 100% in the battlegrounds, you can probably skip over this.
13-15 Improved Renew 3/3:
Yes, we are going into the Holy tree first. Crit is useless at this level, so go for some more healing power to your renew. You can reconsider Holy Specialization later. But at this point, its not noticeable and you critting doesn’t result in anything other than extra healing… which Imp Renew grants 100% of the time.
16-17 Healing Focus 2/2:
This will help in PvP. PvE, not so much.
18-22 Divine Fury 5/5:
Shave 0.5 seconds off Smite, Holy Fire, Heal and Greater Heal. Helps offensively and as a healer. This is one of the reasons why we went into the Holy tree first.
23 Desperate Prayer 1/1:
An instant cast self heal that works wonders a lot more than you think in both PvE and PvP. Its like an extra health potion.
24-26 Inspiration 3/3:
Reduces damage taken after a crit. A must have for Priest healers even though your crit will be low.
27 Holy Specialization 1/5:
I threw a point in here just as a filler. You might want to max this later, but at low levels its pointless.
28-29 Searing Light 2/2:
The reason I made you come down the Holy tree first. Increases damage of your Holy spells by 10%. Enjoy it as this will be your only damage buff (one reason why I would suggest against leveling this way). You might want to consider glyphing it too to boost smite even more. You will actually be pretty well off for the 29 battlegrounds I would imagine. In fact, with this talent and the glyph, your damage will actually be quite nice. Some people stick to this (along with Spirit Tap) to level as a healer.
30-34 Unbreakable Will 5/5:
Now going into the Disc tree, this will help you with those pesky rogues in PvP. Which I’m sure will be gunning for you all the time.
35-36 Improved Power Word Fortitude 2/2:
More stamina is a good thing. Silent Resolve is great at later levels, but early on, not many classes will be dispelling you.
37-39 Improved Inner Fire 3/3:
Boosts your armor and your spellpower at later levels. I would consider this essential. Possibly even glyph it to boost your armor to non-cloth levels.
40-42 Meditation 3/3:
Essential mana regen. You will need it.
43-45 Improved Power Word Shield 3/3:
Buffs the signature Power Word Shield. Also a prerequisite for later talents.
46 Inner Focus 1/1:
A free cast with an increased crit chance. Very fun to use with Desperate Prayer to increase the proc chance of inspiration and later Divine Aegis.
47-49 Mental Agility 3/3:
Lowers the mana cost of your instants (renew, shield, buffs, dispels, etc).
50 Soul Warding 1/1:
Makes Power Word Shield even better.
51-52 Reflective Shield 2/2:
Although contraversial in arena use, this is a great ability to have in lower level BGs and leveling.
53-57 Mental Strength 5/5:
Boost that intellect by 15%!
58-59 Focused Power 2/2:
Boosts damage and healing by 4%. Meh, not bad. Either that or the lackluster Improved Mana Burn which may come in handy, but situational.
60 Power Infusion 1/1:
Nice buff and lowers mana costs. Just don’t forget to use it! You could respec here for Penance, but you would miss out on Spirit Tap. Up to you if you are PvP only or if you do questing as well.
61-62 Focused Will:
A great defensive buff that bundles in some extra crit.
63 RESPEC! Sorry to cost you gold. At this point you can let go of those points in the Holy Tree and be a full Disc Priest.
I would go with something similar to this:
3/3 Spirit Tap: Unless you are doing 100% battleground leveling, this is required.
5/5 Unbreakable Will
3/3 Improved Inner Fire
2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude
3/3 Meditation
1/1 Inner Focus
3/3 Improved Power Word: Shield
3/3 Mental Agility
2/2 Improved Mana Burn
2/2 Reflective Shield
5/5 Mental Strength
1/1 Soul Warding
2/2 Focused Power
3/3 Focused Will
1/1 Power Infusion
1/2 Renewed Hope
3/3 Rapture
2/2 Aspiration
1/3 Divine Aegis
1/1 Pain Supression
1/2 Grace
5/5 Borrowed Time
1/1 Penance (glyph it too!)
64-65 Healing Focus 2/2:
Once again, you need that pushback reduction. It might be a rough two levels without it, but honestly the amount of survivability gained through the Disc tree outweighs the pushback chance.
66-68 Holy Specialization 3/5:
The increase in crit may now be worth the 3 filler points. Otherwise, throw them in renew.
69-73 Divine Fury 5/5:
Its kinda a shame that you have to be in your 70s to reduce the cast times of your common spells, but oh well – Penance is more important.
74 Desperate Prayer 1/1:
Again, a useful self heal.
75-77 Inspiration 3/3:
Some more awesomeness tied to your crits.
78-79 Divine Aegis 3/3:
Some more awesomeness tied to your crits.
80 Renewed Hope 2/2 or Grace 2/2:
You might also want to consider respecing to throw some points in Absolution. Or just respec completely now that you are 80
Its the best I could do, sorry. Its also heavily leaning towards PvP and not so much an instance healer. Hopefully it gave you some good ideas of what is important to take. Just take out the PvP talents and throw them elsewhere and you should be fine!
