Does leveling get easier?Follow

Yes, leveling does get quite a bit easier, but not till you have 20ish points in the tree. It gets especially easy with Shadowform at level 40.

Also, blackout is a no no for leveling. It has very minimal usage for leveling, interrupting the damage of mobs for 3 seconds, and maybe letting you get off another mind flay. Also, it seems to stun mobs when they are out of range of your mind flay, making you waste the 3 seconds by running closer to them.

So here's IMO the BEST leveling spec pre-40.

10-14: 5/5 Wand Specialization - get a good wand, search the AH for the lesser and then greater magic wands, and try to upgrade it every 4-5 levels.

15-19 5/5 Spirit Tap - get it, stack spirit gear as much as possible, but make sure to maintain enough stamina and intellect so you don't run out of mana or die too quickly

20-21 2/2 Imp. Shadow Word: Pain - get this, pre-mind flay and even pre-Shadowform, the way that I leveled was cast, Mind Blast, then SW: Pain, then wand the mob to death. This gives you two free ticks of SD: Pain for no extra mana

22-24 3/5 Shadow Focus - slightly a "filler" talent until later on in the game, but does up your DPS and allow you to take on mobs 3-4 levels higher than you with relative ease

25 1/1 Mind Flay - at this point, MF does not deal that much damage, but still get it. I found myself still using the MB/SW:P, wand rotation most of the time, but I'd use MF a lot on runner mobs or times when I was in a group

26-29 4/5 Imp. MB - this ups your DPS incredibly if you're using MB every time it's off CD, but is slightly a filler talent until later on

30-32 3/5 Shadow Weaving - I find that a 60% chance of upping your damage was plenty while leveling, and didn't bother getting 5/5 till around level 55 I think. Some people say get Shadow Reach first, and either talent is a good choice

33-34 2/2 Shadow Reach - makes MF a lot more useful by allowing you to get ~ 2 full MF's in before the mob gets to you, as long as you are moving backwards during the Global CD of SD: P

35 Vampiric Embrace - get it, not only is it a stepping stone to Shadowform, but makes it so you basically never have to bandage/eat/heal. Just cast it on a mob every 3-4 fights and you'll be back at around full health.

36-37 Imp. VE - get this as well, just makes one of the best Shadow tree spells even better, especially in groups. (Later, when raiding, not as useful)

38-39 5/5 Shadow Weaving or 2/3 Focused Mind - your choice really, by this point it won't really make a difference

Level 40 (YAY!!!!) respec to http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bZZxMhpMxR0t

I cannot stress enough how important it is to have the best wand possible pre-40. A good wand and with wand spec. can and WILL give you more DPS than the majority of your shadow spells. Also, if you wand once you've cast MB and SW:D, you'll be regenerating mana before the fight is even over, as well as getting spirit tap once the mobs is dead. If you stack tons of spirit, you will rarely have to drink, and once you get VE you barely ever have to stop killing things.

I know leveling as a SP is a bit difficult until you get shadowform, but just stick it out and you become one of the best classes to level with. Also, it's kind of a general rule that any class is difficult to level with until you have 15-20 points in a talent tree. Enjoy, and welcome to the wonderful world of Shadow Priests!




Edited, Dec 15th 2007 2:01pm by Schmere

Thanks a million Schmere. I'm going to bookmark that post as a quick handy dandy guide =].

Rate up for both of you.




Edited, Dec 15th 2007 7:45pm by UnkemptSuperman

I've only gone deep enough into shadow to get mindflay as it really does help out dps when leveling. My basic attack strategy is stand at max distanct, PW:s, mindblast, SW:P, mindflay, mindflay....at this point the mob should finaly be hitting you but sitting at 50% health. Wand until dead. This works great on yellow or green mobs. Oranges or elites will need a fear mixed in there but keep at the mindflays and your shield up and it will eventually go down.

Talents went:
5/5 spirit tap
2/2 Imp SW:P
3/5 Blackout
1/1 Mindflay

From there it was 5/5 Imp wand or whatever it's called.

Do you have shadow reach? I can get 2 full mindflays off before the mob reaches me.

Holy fire is a fine opener too. I've gotten into the habit of using MB but if I happen to notice that HF does more damage or close and uses less mana, I'll use it instead. Without shadowreach, I don't get 2 full mindflays before the mob reachs me but if I start backing up as soon as MB is cast, the mob starts hitting me about 1/2 thru the 2nd one. Unless blackout procs then I can usually get in 3 before they reach me.

I'm a newbie priest and I noticed there's no Smite in anyone's rotation of offensive spells. I've been using it as an opener. Is it not mana-efficient or something?

at lvl 37 my rotation is,

mind blast, SW:P,VE(while scooting back, waiting for GCD) MF, wand

they usually die before they get to me, and if they do, i gain all the health back anyway, no biggie

I'm experiencing exactly this with my shadow priest on Demon Soul.



Very very true. My leveling picked WAY up when I bought the Greater Arcane Wand (I think that's what it's called) from the AH. It's the second wand that enchanters can craft. I think its DPS is overbudgeted.

I'm going to have to disagree with taking Imp SW:P over Blackout. I've been leveling a troll priest with shadow, and you never get to those extra 2 ticks of SW:P, whereas you frequently get a free 3sec of stun with Blackout where the mob is no longer beating on your shield.

It's extra *duration*, not damage unless you run it all the way out to the last tick.

Granted, this is for soloing, so in groups vs. dungeon mobs where fights might last longer, you may get some mileage out of the extra ticks of SW:P.

No.

Imp MB will do exactly the opposite of helping him level. If you're spamming MB while grinding, you're doing it wrong.

Unless you're soloing an elite or you have to kill something very, very fast there's no reason at all to cast more than one mind blast per fight. It's not mana efficient at all and you will have far too much downtime. Even if you have a pocket mage making you water, it's still time you're losing to sit and drink.

Spirit tap and your wand are your friends.

Hence the "if you have to kill something very, very fast" part. That's not something that happens often enough to warrant putting talents in imp mind blast for leveling.