Intro

I am writing this concise guide mainly as a result of reading the forums over the last few days. I've seen so many questions on a daily basis, and so many replies which I feel are misleading or incorrect. Please bear in mind while reading that I am relatively new to priests myself. Although I feel I have a reasonably good grasp of them (it's good to have friends in the business ;-)).

I'll try to cover;
The lingo
The core levelling talents
The spec. you should follow
Your spell rotation while levelling
Stats/Attributes you need
Glyphs.

Without doubt (in my mind), Shadow is the spec to go! So that's what this guide is going to be about, I hope you enjoy!

The Lingo - Used both in the guide and game.

DS - Divine Spirit
DoT - Damage over time (Our spells such as SW:P as commonly referred to as "DoT's")
DP - Devouring Plague
MB - Mind Blast
MF - Mind Flay
PW:F - Power Word: Fortitude
PW:S - Power Word: Shield
SF - Shadowform
SW:D - Shadow Word: Death
SW:P - Shadow Word: Pain
VE - Vampiric Embrace
VT - Vampiric Touch

Core levelling talents

Spirit Tap and Improved Spirit Tap - This talent is so precious for any priest considering levelling. The mana regenration it grants helps counter the relatively high cost of spells. Do not go anywhere without this.
Shadow Focus - Saves you mana, makes you less likely to miss, and misses hurt. Get it.
Mind Flay - An intergral part of any priests' rotation. Useful when pulling to slow the mobs as it approaches to reduce the damage you take.
Shadowform & Darkness - Combined that's 25% more damage done and 15% less melee and spell damage. Need I say more?
Shadow Power & Mind Melt - I generally found up until Outlands my crit rating was very low as it came at the cost of spell power. It's still very useful, the odd crit helps a lot with generating procs (see Glyphs) and making the fight finish a little faster. These talents both increase the crit rating, and the damage done by your critical strikes.
Misery - More hit, which means even less missing. In addition to that you'll be doing some more damage again. You'll also find if you group with other casters they'll be very pleased to see you've specced into this.
Vampiric Touch - This will become your opener when you get it. It scales excellently with spell power (this spell will increase in damage more than any other when you improve your spell power). Also, if you throw in a Mind Blast you'll get the "Replenishment" effect, this will help you not run out of mana.
Twisted Faith - Gives that Spirit you've got on your gear an additional function, it'll now boost your spell power as well. This also makes SW:P more important to keep up (also see Glyphs).
Dispersion - To be honest, it's not a core levelling skill. However, it's very useful. Can help you cope with tremendous overpull and also regerate mana should that be a problem for you.

Your talent specialisation

Up above I've listed most of the things you need. You should spend your talents in this order:
(resulting in something like this:- http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbhZZGxfcofzcfqfzVo:zd)

3/3 Spirit Tap
2/2 Improved Spirit Tap
3/3 Shadow Focus
2/5 Darkness
1/1 Mind Flay LEVEL 20
5/5 Darkness
2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
3/3 Shadow Weaving
1/2 Shadow Reach**
1/1 Vampiric Embrace LEVEL 30
3/3 Focused Mind
2/2 Shadow Reach**
2/2 Mind Melt
3/3 Improved Devouring Plague
1/1 Shadowform (Yey!) LEVEL 40
4/5 Shadow Power
3/3 Misery
5/5 Shadow Power
1/2 Improved Shadowform
1/1 Vampiric Touch LEVEL 50
2/2 Improved Shadowform
3/5 Improved Mind Blast
5/5 Twisted Faith
1/1 Dispersion LEVEL 60
5/5 Twin Disciplines
3/3 Improved Inner Fire
2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude LEVEL 70
3/3 Meditation

...and the rest you can decide, even if that isn't much (You may want to finish off Improved Mind Blast before entering the Disc. tree. although I'd see little point in doing so if you'll solely be levelling). You should have a VERY good idea of how your Priest works by now and you might want to try some things differently.

*I found very little use for Vampiric Embrace to be quite honest. It may cost no mana, but it costs a global cooldown, and as a Shadow Priest I feel as though I can't afford to spare one at the beggining of a fight. I'd much rather Renew (even if it means getting out of Shadowform).

**Perhaps you'd prefer 2/2 in Shadow reach and 2/3 in Shadow Weaving at this point. And then later finishing off Shadow Weaving instead. Remember this is a rough guide!


Spell rotation

Before Shadowform
Mind Blast
SW:P
Devouring Plague (after level 20)
Wand
Renew to patch up your health.

Once you gain Mind Flay use it after SW:P until the mob is in meelee range where you should wand.
Elfon suggests that you may want to open with Holy Fire and then continue with the rotation.


Between Shadowform and Vampiric Touch
Mind Blast
SW:P
Devouring Plague (If you see fit, it may be overkill, if so then it's worth saving your mana)
Mind Flay until death (some may opt to wand here still).

With Vampiric Touch
Vampiric Touch
SW:P
Mind Flay
Mind Blast
Mind Flay.

Now I have Shadow Word: Death I find it a fun addition which I can afford to add at the end of my rotation. It certainly isn't worth using if the mob won't die from it though. Devouring Plague is particularly useful against elites, combined with fear, PW:S, all your DoTs and Vampiric Embrace.

Stats/Attributes

I think it would be very difficult for me to say you need a set amount of this and that. I feel Shadow needs a good balance of a mix of stats.

Primarily you'll want:
Spell Power
Spell Crit
Spirit

Other stats such as intellect are much less useful to a priest in my opinion, or at least while levelling they are. Aim for a balance between the three stats I value. If you find your mana bar is behaving more like an energy one but you're casting lots of mind flays to kill the mobs then you have too much spirit. While if running low on mana, you need to get a bit more spirit. Crit is something that comes in Outlands. I wouldn't prioratise it over spell power and spirit though.

Haste - I have little idea of how this affects priests. I can only assume it's positive. I did not find haste to be hugely benificial to either my Shaman or Paladin while levelling - it's more a DPS builder when you're level capped.


Glyphs

Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain to begin with.
Glyph of Shadow after.
You won't be levelling any more when you get your 3rd ;-)

You may find Glyph of Levitate a really fun glyph to have too - I do.


The End

Thank you for reading, I hope I've been of some assistance! If you want to suggest any changes or spot any mistakes please leave me a post. Some tips and tricks would be nice too. I am aware patch 3.1 is around the corner, I hope to adjust this guide when the patch arrives.

If you have any more questions, I'll keep and eye on this post and hopefully be able to answer them for you.



Daelyn.

Northrend

Heh, I've finally got there. Just hit 70 the other day and it's great! I've had one little finding in Northrend though. Even with Inner Fire on all the time, I find I'm taking noticeably more damage than I did in Outlands.

As a result, every 5-6 mobs when my health has drops down worryingly I put up a PW:S, followed by a Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and Vampiric Embrace (then continuing to Mind Blast and Mind Flay). That way my health goes up nicely at little cost. I've found that switching out to heal isn't so viable any more due to the fact that out-of-combat mana regenration has dropped considerably (though this is to do with 3.1).

Although this damage is made harder to cope with since the "spirit nerf" I don't feel this warrants spending points in Improved Vampiric Embrace - although I'm sure it's a matter of personal flavour.


Tips

1. Run backwards (or if you ain't lazy like me, turn around quickly and run full speed) while applying your DoT's. This means you'll get as much range as possible on the mob for Mind Flay (within the 20/24yd range). Be careful though, avoid pulling more mobs my mistake, if you do:

2. Tupadre suggested using Vampiric Embrace to "drain tank" the mobs. VE will cushion the blow of 3 mobs along with Devouring Plague (which will be handy when you've got 3 of them you want to down ASAP). PW':S will be useful in a situation with 3-4 mobs as it will reduce interrupts and prevent damage.

[ Open to suggestions ]



Comments on 3.1

So the patch has a arrived and so far I'm loving it. I'm really enjoying my DoT's critting, makes killing things much more entertaining. It may hurt some of you who have solely stacked spell power for levelling but hopefully that can be changed quite easily.

I'm sad that I now find the need to drink every now and then though. Spirit Tap is still really good, although the mana regen while not casting is lower which I have noticed. Still, it isn't the end of the world, I'm still chain pulling long strings of mobs without hesitation.

Nice guide. i was looking for something just like this as I've just started a priest but wasnt really sure on how to build the talent spec.

Thanks for the help :D

You're welcome! Good luck with your priest, they're a great class - I wish I'd discovered them sooner.

Nice guide, but you may want to consider updating the talents portion of your guide for the upcoming patch 3.1. Quite a lot changes in the shadow tree.

I cannot agree with 2 things.

Firstly, in my opinion there is a better roation before shadowform which should begin from holy fire.
Like Holy Fire-Mind blast-SW:P/MF depends what you already have and what is needed.

Secondly, vampiric embrace even without improvement is just 1 point talent and a lot better thing that getting out of shadowform.

Though those are just my opinions. Can use them if you agree with me :)

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Q u o t e:
I cannot agree with 2 things.

Firstly, in my opinion there is a better roation before shadowform which should begin from holy fire.
Like Holy Fire-Mind blast-SW:P/MF depends what you already have and what is needed.

Secondly, vampiric embrace even without improvement is just 1 point talent and a lot better thing that getting out of shadowform.

Though those are just my opinions. Can use them if you agree with me :)

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Perhaps you're right about the pre-Shadowform, it's just I did it my way - I'll add it to the post.

About Vampiric Embrace. I really don't like using this. It consumes a global cooldown and as a result, the mob will have 1.5 secs of unflayed running towards you and you'll take more damage. I take very little damage as it is, and only rarely need to come out of Shadowform to Renew.

Here's the rotation I used in Nortrend:

Vampiric Touch -> Vampiric Embrace -> Devaoring plaugue -> SW:P -> SW:D -> Mind Blast -> Mind Flay -> Mind Flay -> Vampiric Touch -> SW:D -> Mind Blast, etc.

SW:D and the late use of Mind Flay is no problem since you do so much damage that it's all returned through your Vampiric Embrace. And with Dispersion and Shadow Fiend you don't have to wait in between attacks. The difference in dps between a disc and shadow priest is like the difference between cutting in stone and soft butter.

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Q u o t e:
Here's the rotation I used in Nortrend:

Vampiric Embrace -> Vampiric Touch -> Devoaoring plaugue -> SW:P -> SW:D -> Mind Blast -> Mind Flay -> Mind Flay -> Vampiric Embrace -> SW:D -> Mind Blast, etc.

SW:D and the late use of Mind Flay is no problem since you do so much damage that it's all returned through your Vampiric Touch. And with Dispersion and Shadow Fiend you don't have to wait in between attacks. The difference in dps between a disc and shadow priest is like the difference between cutting in stone and soft butter.

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#1 Never open with an instant spell
#2 Why cast VE twice?
#3 How come your SW:D CD is 9 seconds.
#4 VT mana regen is independant of "how much damage you do"
#5 Why cast so many spells? Try using your max rank of each spell
#6 Disc is not a DPS tree why the comparison? Disc/holy on the other hand is a very effective lvling build.
#7 Spirit tap is what causes you to have limited downtime.
#8 Do you even have a priest?

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Q u o t e:


#1 Never open with an instant spell
#2 Why cast VE twice?
#3 How come your SW:D CD is 9 seconds.
#4 VT mana regen is independant of "how much damage you do"
#5 Why cast so many spells? Try using your max rank of each spell
#6 Disc is not a DPS tree why the comparison? Disc/holy on the other hand is a very effective lvling build.
#7 Spirit tap is what causes you to have limited downtime.
#8 Do you even have a priest?

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EDIT: Above posted is fixed

I would very much recommend the rotation I descriped above, it's the most effective way to use your spells!

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Q u o t e:


I might be wrong between Vamprirc Embrace and touch. By Embrace I meant the DoT that returns mana, with touch the health return thing. Might be the other way around :)

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Yes VT is the DoT and VE is the healing debuff.

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Q u o t e:
I would very much recommend the rotation I descriped above, it's the most effective way to use your spells!

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He's talking about priest leveling, not fighting bosses in instances. That rotation you posted is very inefficient when grinding mobs.

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Q u o t e:
That rotation you posted is very inefficient when grinding mobs.

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I did not see anything inefficient about it while leveling. No downtime and killing mobs at maximum speed.

SW:D mid fight isn't worth it, neither is Devouring Plague. I'd say your rotation is overkill - your DoT's probably expire with more than 1/2 of their time remaining.

Edit: And VE is a waste of a GCD just after pulling. That is, unless you don't kill mobs quickly enough so that they don't hit you and Northrend mobs hit significantly more than those in Outlands.

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Q u o t e:
Northrend mobs hit significantly more than those in Outlands.

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It would be worth me noting that I dinged 80 not yet done with Grizzly Hills.

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Q u o t e:
It would be worth me noting that I dinged 80 not yet done with Grizzly Hills.

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I don't understand how that makes your rotation valid. It's very inefficient.

Like I stated in my OP (and also explained) it's not inefficient, because it leaves you with no downtime and mobs are dead very fast.

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Q u o t e:
Like I stated in my OP (and also explained) it's not inefficient, because it leaves you with no downtime and mobs are dead very fast.

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You seem to reapply VT. With the rotation I've given in the guide I open with a VT and the mob dies before that same VT expires - that doesn't require Devouring Plague or SW:D either.

Edit:- You may look at the armoury and notice that my armour isn't the best. That is because the armoury is displaying my character in its RP gear.

Pre-wrotlk I used pretty much the same rotation as you describe. My point is just that I found the rotation I described more efficient when I reached Northrend.

Ps. Don't worry. I'm not the type that would undermine your posts my dissing your gear :)

Pss. Great Guide!

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Q u o t e:
My point is just that I found the rotation I described more efficient when I reached Northrend.

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The point Daelyn is making is that your rotation doesn't make any sense at all.

You say your killing mobs REALLY FAST PEW PEW but you reapply VT which means its taken 15 seconds+ to kill a mob. Also your timigs are off with your second SW:D as it would still be on CD.

Bascially you have just written a few random spell names down in a list that has no baring at all to reality.


VT -> SW:P -> MB -> MF or VT->MB->MF if you have enough Spell power is sufficient.

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Q u o t e:
You say your killing mobs REALLY FAST PEW PEW but you reapply VT which means its taken 15 seconds+ to kill a mob.

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In case you have not noticed, most mobs would be long dead by the time you would have to reapply.

And by using the rotation suggested by the OP you will have to pop out of shadowform to cast a renew between every couple of fights and thus being more mana (and more importantly) time inefficient.

In my experience, the rotation I have suggested will make you level faster.

@Mightymuff: Feel free to disagree, but I could really do without the questioning, shouting and patrionizing. Those methods tends to be the weapons of a (and excuse the expression) forum noob and/or troll (not the WoW kind).