Dedicated Spirit PriestFollow

Ok I'm new to the game, and curious. The priest trees have alot of overlap with regards to the value of Spirit. As such I'm wondering if a build to optimize this overlap would be viable, or if it would simply be too much of a hybrid to ever be justifiable. Could someone with a high level priest and an inexpensive respec try this out and let me know how it stacks up damage wise.

Discipline:
Wand Specialization 5/5
Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2
Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3
Martyrdom 1/2
Inner Focus 1/1
Meditation 3/3
Mental Agility 5/5
Divine Spirit 1/1
Improved Divine Spirit 2/2

Holy:
Holy Specializtion 5/5
Spell Warding 5/5
Divine Fury 5/5
Holy Nova 1/1
Holy Reach 2/2
Searing Light 2/2
Spiritual Guidance 5/5
Surge of Light 2/2

Shadow:
Spirit Tap 5/5
Shadow Affinity 3/3
Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2/2
Mind Flay 1/1

Edited, Apr 21st 2008 10:23pm by Tokemio

Mind Flay without at least 41 points in shadow is USELESS. You've lost 46% of your damage output.

Go 33/28 smiter (with Spirit Tap only while leveling), OR go 41+ into shadow. There is no middle ground.

Is that a leveling spec? If that is intended to be a lvl 70 spec then its absolutely garbage.

Wand specialization is completely useless imo, and I'm currently on the Illidari council in BT when it comes to raiding. The discipline tree, outside of threat reduction and imp fort is badmode for pve, if you are going to be raiding or doing 10 man content, imp spirit should be there, but we have an alt priest buff us prefight, then log out onto his warrior main (since spirit does nothing for them).

In 25's, we use 2 priests, both circle of healing.

If you want to raid, I'd recommend-
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?tal=5042000130500000000000233050032300150530051000000000000000000000

I would take one point from mental agility and put it into Silent Resolve to max out it, I have 2% threat reduction on my cloak so its not so big of a deal.


For Shadow Raiding-
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?tal=5012020130000000000000000000000000000000000503240510240103051551

Take 1 point out of shadow weaving and put it into shadow focus, shadow priests need a decent amount of +hit (the more the merrier), and PVP gear is absolutely TRASH for raiding.

Any Boss has an unknown level, which means you have a 16% chance to have your spells resisted, which is bad, because thats DPS you aren't doing, to make up for this, blizzard has something known as +hit in this game, the best way to explain, is get gear with +hit, and spec appropriately.

0 / 5 shadow focus = 201.6 hit rating needed for cap
1 / 5 shadow focus = 176.4hit rating needed for cap
2 / 5 shadow focus = 151.2 hit rating needed for cap
3 / 5 shadow focus = 126 hit rating needed for cap
4 / 5 shadow focus = 100.8 hit rating needed for cap
5 / 5 shadow focus = 75.6 hit rating needed for cap


I wouldn't go under 3/5 shadow focus ever, I can put some other gear on (and lower my dps) and get 126 hit, but theres nothing I can do to improve DPS with the spec I linked. Thats pretty much the spec I use when raiding as shadow (zul aman and karazhan only, we have awesome shadow priests for 25 man content). If I was gonna be permanent shadow duty in raids, I'd put 5/5 into blackout instead of spirit tap, really really helps with adds. And trash mobs are almost the hardest things in alot of instances (when you learn Tempest Keep for the first time, the trash around Void Reaver, the trash waves in hyjal, etc).

If you have serious priest questions, feel free to send me a message.

Priests are end game healers, and mana batterys. You will never be a top DPS'er in a high end raid, thats not your purpose. You will have decent, continous flow of damage, but its main priority is to be mana efficient and keep everyone elses mana pool up.

Edited, Apr 25th 2008 8:35pm by Frijoles