Yo all! :)

Figured I'd make a post and share my experience and advice on how to level
a priest. Since my priest (alt char) is only at 36, I'd shorten this guide to
levels between 1 and 40. Again, this is just my personal experience :)

Starters info
As a priest, you should aim for these stats, in the order I present it to you

- Intellect
- Spirit
- Stamina

OR

-Spirit
-Intellect
-Stamina

These are two useful lists. Depends on how you like to play.
Basically you want a lot of mana, which shortens your down-time (mana drinking period).
And you'd want spirit to increase the rate at which you gain mana (and spell power later).
Stamina is always nice to boost your health, no info needed here :)

Race
Since I'm playing Horde, I'll keep my advice to Horde races only.

Blood Elves have a nice talent called Arcane Torrent. It's highly useful in both
PvP and PvE. It gives you 6% of your mana back when you use it, and it silence and
interrupts spell casting of enemy players/mobs.

Undead have the infamous Will of the Forsaken. The best option if you love PvPing.
Not that much useful in PvE. The effect makes you immune to fear, charm and sleep effects.

Trolls have a nice racial ability increasing casting speed for us casters.
Very useful, and may save your sorry little troll butt in a fight.

Talent spec
Right, this is a hot topic. Some say holy and some say shadow. Here's
how I'd go. I chose holy. It has good damage from level 20 and up, you'd
do great in groups, and you'll have an easy time levelling.
The points are given in the chronological order of levels.

-3/3 points in Spirit Tap
-5/5 points in Holy Specialization
-5/5 points in Divine Fury
-1/1 points in Desperate Prayer
-2/2 points in Healing Focus
-3/3 points in Improved Renew
-2/2 points in Searing Light
-2/2 points in Holy Reach
-1/1 points in Spirit of Redemption
-5/5 points in Spiritual Guidance
-2/2 points in Surge of Light

Spirit tap is nice, gives you a lot of mana back after you kill a creature. The rest are put into
the Holy Tree. Smite and Holy Fire does a fair amount of damage.
Divine Fury reduces the cast time of smite and holy fire by 0.1 sec per point spent.
Searing Light increases your holy damage by 5% per point spent.
Surge of Light with 2 points in, grants you a 50% chance on each critical strike
made by your spells to cause your Smite or Flash Heal to be instantly cast,
with no mana usage.

Glyphs
I chose to run with Glyph of Smite. It makes your smite deal 20% more damage to targets
affected by Holy Fire. This glyph isn't useful until you get to level 20. The second glyph I
chose was Glyph of Inner Fire. It increases the armor of Inner Fire by 50%. Which
I believe is a very nice boost. I have around 35% damage reduction from Physical Attacks.
At 34 I chose the Glyph of Levitate. It makes your Levitate spell disregard regeants.

Spell Rotation
A spell rotation is how you initiate and end your spell casting toward mobs.
Some say you should cast Power Word: Shield. I don't think it's a good idea.
My rotation is as this:

Level 4-20:
Smite, Shadow Word:Pain, Smite Smite
Level 20-40:
Holy Fire, Smite, Smite, Smite

The reason I like this rotation is because you can take down any mob at your level
in roughly 10 seconds. Your mana-usage is low, and your damage is actually good.
Powerword: Shield can be cast when needed, but I try not too, since it costs way too
much mana.

Wands
A good wand is a must! It can save your life, and make you save mana! Try to
keep the wand up to date. The way I use wands is to take down fleeing mobs,
or mobs with low health. You save mana, and grants you Spirit Tap.

Professions
A profession is a "branch" in your career that gives you a small boost to your character, and
enables you to craft certain and mostly helpful items. It is also a good source of income.
As a Priest, you'd want to avoid Blacksmithing, since you have no real benefits of it.
Enchanting is nice, at higher levels you can enchant your own rings, which is the "minor boost"
I mentinoed. Alchemy isn't bad either. My best advice would be to start with a profession
you'd like, and feel you can master. If you're unsure of what to choose, take Herbalism
and Mining. You can sell the resources you find for a good and solid coin, and you can
replace either of them on later levels.

Additional information
If you have a level 80 main character, I strongly advice you to get the shoulder pads
you can buy with Stone Keeper's Shards. Gives you 10% more experience from
any mob you slay, or quest you turn in.

I'd also strongly advice you not to go for Spell Power items at lower levels.
You'll run out mana quickly. Intellect and Spirit would be my choise.
I'd also stay away from hit rating. Levelling 1-40 shouldn't need hit-rating since you'll
be fighting mobs at a equal level. Spirit, in my spec, increases your spell-power
by 5% per point spent in Spiritual Guidance. That's why i'd say spirit and intellect
above Spell Power. Remember, this is a level 1-40 levelling guide :)


Well, that was it :) I hope this helps out those of you who would like to start out as
a priest. It's a fun class, and most groups need one. Again, these tips are based on my
personal experience :)


Shandal,
Priest


UPDATE #1
- Added a new stat priority list (since some like spirit above intellect)
- Added a new point including wands
- Added additional info on spellpower and hit-rating

UPDATE #2
- Added more info on Undead's racial ability
- Corrected some spelling
- Further explained why I chose the specific Holy Talents

UPDATE #3
- Explained how a Wand can save mana for you
- Corrected some spelling
- Added Professions as a new minor topic
- Explained Spell Rotation

Nice guide, I agree with nearly all of it except your stat priority, if you get enough spirit then the mana pool you have is irrelevent since spirit tap will regen so much mana that you never need to dirnk.

Quite much agree, two minor things though.

1. Spirit over Intellect, as Mightymoff said.
2. There are not only 3 stats. You are missing Spellpower and Hit from that list, and both are very useful and important for levelling. In my book, hit comes at the same level as spirit, and spellpower a little bit below spirit. Crit rating is also nice to have for Holy, but it's also lower priority than the first 2.

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Q u o t e:
2. There are not only 3 stats. You are missing Spellpower and Hit from that list, and both are very useful and important for levelling. In my book, hit comes at the same level as spirit, and spellpower a little bit below spirit. Crit rating is also nice to have for Holy, but it's also lower priority than the first 2.

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If you *need* hit then you are probably attacking stuff 3 levels above you, if you are then you are not leveling efficiently.

Stick to green/yellow quests/mobs, they are the most efficient for leveling, the XP bonus for orange quests/mobs does not cover the extra time wasted killing them.

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Q u o t e:
Nice guide, I agree with nearly all of it except your stat priority, if you get enough spirit then the mana pool you have is irrelevent since spirit tap will regen so much mana that you never need to dirnk.

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I dont agree -if you play actively you cant have infinite mana - it would requre you to have over 1k mana regen (with spirit tap) and you simply cant have that - maybe if you would have bc raid gear - but cant say anything about that.
Ofc i would not put too much investment into int - int is somehwat as worthy as spirit - but my personal preferance was spirit.
Spirit and SP , i know that when i dinged 80 i had less then 10k hp (dunno if buffed or unbuffed) and for comparison my 70 lvs chars that i played in tbc had over 10k at 70 lv...

Thats said its well done guide ...


and my 2cents ..

Why holy ?
Shadow eats alot of mana
shadow dont have utility yet to keep you alive.
shadow uses dots, SWP to name it and this dot takes 18s to take full power while you wanna land kills in 10s or less
you dont have survival tools part PWS /healing eats alot of mana so pulling multiple mobs is not viable.

Why not discipline ?
Discipline is buffing your survival mostly, some think that if they dont rest they are actually leveling faster - however its not true. Wanding sux.

respecing at 40 ?
Aint a must - its just that at 40 lv you get shadowform - huge buff to yoru survival and dps however it doesnt make shadow yet better. 40 lv is meeting point where both holy and shadow are equaly? strong.Above 40 lv shadow starts becomign stronger then holy.
IT peaks at 50 lv when you get your second dot and huge mana regen tool as shadow. At 50 lv you want to respec shadow.

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Q u o t e:
I dont agree -if you play actively you cant have infinite mana - it would requre you to have over 1k mana regen (with spirit tap) and you simply cant have that

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Why do you need 1k regen pre lvl 40?

You can easily get enough regen while leveling to allow chain pulling.

lower lv means obviously less regen needed but if you play actively - no wanding.
You wont be able to have infinite - ofc you can rest rarely thats idd the aim but you shouldnt sacrfice SP for spirit and we dont speak here about insane twinking

Ally races:
Human - PvE - 3% extra spirit , pvp trinket racial usable here and there , best suitable for raid content. PvP - trinket-racial is nice to alwayes have ready for pvp situations , however priest is mostly about survival and there is lack of trinket that would realy replace the pvp one (WG disc but those active effects arnt that good for a priest at least not healing one.)

Night Elf - Shadowmeld - good utility can save your some repairs but when things are going right it shouldnt be needed. So it doesnt give you extra strenght like humans do. In pvp its great for word/bg pvp and not so good for arena.
Dwarf - for pve dwarfs doesnt have anything good now (am i wrong?) For PvP the disease/bleed/poison removar lacial is very good - expecially for arena for pressure healing.
PvE - Human>NE>Dwarf
PvP - Dwarf>NE>Human

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Q u o t e:
lower lv means obviously less regen needed but if you play actively - no wanding.
You wont be able to have infinite - ofc you can rest rarely thats idd the aim but you shouldnt sacrfice SP for spirit and we dont speak here about insane twinking

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Spirit IS spellpower with spiritual guidance (50% spirit to spellpower with spirit tap up).

Also having infinite mana when leveling and not wanding is more than possible since i've done it myself with every priest i've leveled.

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Q u o t e:


Spirit IS spellpower with spiritual guidance (50% spirit to spellpower with spirit tap up).

Also having infinite mana when leveling and not wanding is more than possible since i've done it myself with every priest i've leveled.

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true but it depands on playstyle.

i had over 400 sp at 40 <played before they nerfed shoulder/pants enchant> with gear SP+Spir <sum wins> and i didnt had infintie mana
But then i played like this HF Smite SMite <again smite if needed or wand 1x) next mob smite smite smite /hf on cd/

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Q u o t e:


true but it depands on playstyle.

i had over 400 sp at 40 <played before they nerfed shoulder/pants enchant> with gear SP+Spir <sum wins> and i didnt had infintie mana
But then i played like this HF Smite SMite <again smite if needed or wand 1x) next mob smite smite smite /hf on cd/

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My last holy priest I leveled had over 600 spirit with spirit tap procc at lvl 40ish. Thats 300 SP just from spiritual guidance. Add to that the SP rfom my gear ment I could kill mobs in a minimum of casts and never go out of mana.

If I would have stacked SP to get to 400 I'd have killed stuff the same speed but with more downtime.

Most important thing to a priest below lvl 25:

Buy a wand!!! (Or find a fellow enchanter and ask him to make it.)

Below lvl 25 wands can make as much dmg as your spells, so you can put PW:S up and shoot. This way you can spend your mana on dots and self healing. The most excellent thing about wands, that your mana regen continues while you shoot, so most of the time you end up the figth with full mana and health.

I don't agree with this leveling guide. Leveling Disc is infinitely better than leveling Holy or Shadow.

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Q u o t e:


My last holy priest I leveled had over 600 spirit with spirit tap procc at lvl 40ish. Thats 300 SP just from spiritual guidance. Add to that the SP rfom my gear ment I could kill mobs in a minimum of casts and never go out of mana.

If I would have stacked SP to get to 400 I'd have killed stuff the same speed but with more downtime.

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i dont know how much spirit i had i think above 200 unbuffed but im not sure ...
eitherway leveling was very easy for me and as holy i had to rest every few mins and thats no real problem

Wand better dps then spells? better double check it - it depands on your spellpower

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Q u o t e:
I don't agree with this leveling guide. Leveling Disc is infinitely better than leveling Holy or Shadow.

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This is 100% false.

Would you like to explain what made you come to this decision?

I came to this conclusion because with Disc (+ Spirit Tap) you're able to recover from fights alot easier, inner focus is a great opener.

Twin Disciplines gives you a good DPS boost, with the combined power of your PW:S you can withstand taking on more than one mob easily + Reflective Shield is just great to level with. Soul Warding on top of it all makes your PW:S even more powerful.

I found shadow lacking in survivability, baring in mind you don't get Shadowform until 40, and VE is such a weak leveling spell and lacks alot of "oompf" in keeping you alive while dealing damage.

I found the as leveling shadow I'd run out of mana alot quicker, even while keeping mostly blues with my level.

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Q u o t e:



I dont agree -if you play actively you cant have infinite mana - it would requre you to have over 1k mana regen (with spirit tap) and you simply cant have that - maybe if you would have bc raid gear - but cant say anything about that.
Ofc i would not put too much investment into int - int is somehwat as worthy as spirit - but my personal preferance was spirit.
Spirit and SP , i know that when i dinged 80 i had less then 10k hp (dunno if buffed or unbuffed) and for comparison my 70 lvs chars that i played in tbc had over 10k at 70 lv...

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Why on earth would you need 1k mana per 5 to manage an active gameplay without going out of mana? I had like 80-90 mp5 while not casting without Spirit Tap when I was Holy in level 47 (in 48 I changed to Shadow to try it out again) and that was enough to make sure I rarely ever had to drink.

Other than that, Niryu, what you said about specs was very good and accurate.

Holy, up to the point where you get Vampiric Touch, kills faster and costs less mana per mob. In addition you have more flexibility, better heals and simply better all around.

Discipline is awesome, and has been awesome for a long time, but it's more focused on healing, survival and mitigation than it used to be. That certaily wont be able to beat the sexy talents in Holy (like Divine Fury, Searing Light, Surge of Light and Spiritual Guidance).

At level 50 you should go Shadow, though, because Vampiric Touch has a higher dps than SW:P, costs less mana and gives you Replenishment. I currently do VT - Mind Blast - Mind Flay (up to as much as 3, though normally 1 or 2, Mind Flays, depending on the mob and my luck with crits and such).

Stat priority for levelling, at least up to 50:

1. Spellpower.
2. Spirit.

Stats like intellect and stamina are good, but they're not even close to as good as SP and Spi for a Holy Priest levelling up. As Shadow you might (might!) want to get more intellect due to Replenishment though.

Never forget that Spellpower = More damage per attack = Fewer attacks needed to inflict as much damage as you would do with no SP = Mobs die faster and your mana per mob goes down.

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Q u o t e:
I came to this conclusion because with Disc (+ Spirit Tap) you're able to recover from fights alot easier, inner focus is a great opener.

Twin Disciplines gives you a good DPS boost, with the combined power of your PW:S you can withstand taking on more than one mob easily + Reflective Shield is just great to level with. Soul Warding on top of it all makes your PW:S even more powerful.

I found shadow lacking in survivability, baring in mind you don't get Shadowform until 40, and VE is such a weak leveling spell and lacks alot of "oompf" in keeping you alive while dealing damage.

I found the as leveling shadow I'd run out of mana alot quicker, even while keeping mostly blues with my level.

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I kill a mob and before I've started killing the next I find that I'm on full mana. Vampiric Touch - Mind Blast - Mind Flay Spam = Mana efficient and pretty nice damage. I agree 100% that Shadow lacks in survivability since you don't want to be wasting mana on things like PW:S. However, Lifeblood (herbalism), Vampiric Embrace (with improved) and every now and then some Devouring Plague takes me up full when I need it.

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Q u o t e:
I came to this conclusion because with Disc (+ Spirit Tap) you're able to recover from fights alot easier, inner focus is a great opener.

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Long CD and great opener how? Becuase of the extra crit? Hardly noteworthy.

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Q u o t e:
Twin Disciplines gives you a good DPS boost, with the combined power of your PW:S you can withstand taking on more than one mob easily + Reflective Shield is just great to level with. Soul Warding on top of it all makes your PW:S even more powerful.

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Twin disc is not a noticable DPS boost, it only effects instant cast spells, 5% to SW:P is pitiful. The extra benifit to PW:S from twin disciplines is again, minimal.

You shouldn't even need PW:S to withstand a mob, they should be pretty much dead before reaching you.

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Q u o t e:
I found shadow lacking in survivability, baring in mind you don't get Shadowform until 40, and VE is such a weak leveling spell and lacks alot of "oompf" in keeping you alive while dealing damage.

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Shadow pre lvl 40 is a bit poo, thats why this is about holy leveling 1->40.

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Q u o t e:
I found the as leveling shadow I'd run out of mana alot quicker, even while keeping mostly blues with my level.

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You probably ran out of mana due to an inefficient cast sequence, but again this thread was about holy lvling 1->40.





Lets compare disc to holy from 1->40.

Disc talents lower in the tree have very limited effect on DPS, you arn't increasing your DPS so you are leveling slower. Disc gives you better survivability (not much mind at such a low lvl).

Holy gives you a big increase in DPS (2 second smites, 5% crit, 10% dmg to smite/HF, SoL, and 50% spirit converted to spell power with spirit tap active). You also get a slightly better renew which is all you need to keep your HP topped off at all times.

So it comes down to killing stuff fast, or killing stuff slow, and tbh the "better" leveling spec is killing stuff fast.

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Q u o t e:

Shadow pre lvl 40 is a bit poo, thats why this is about holy leveling 1->40.

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Umm.. isn't it about leveling a Priest? A guide which says "Holy is the best" when I can't see how it is. I've tried it and I didn't think it worked. My dual-spec is Shadow, but I find it lacks survivability and doesn't have the power to mitigate any damage, your PW:S breaks easily and then you're open to interrupts to your Mind Flay.

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Q u o t e:


Umm.. isn't it about leveling a Priest? A guide which says "Holy is the best" when I can't see how it is. I've tried it and I didn't think it worked. My dual-spec is Shadow, but I find it lacks survivability and doesn't have the power to mitigate any damage, your PW:S breaks easily and then you're open to interrupts to your Mind Flay.

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Its leveling a priest from 1-40, read the title, all my comments have been about the 1->40 stage of leveling not 70+ where you are atm.