SPriests and WandsFollow

As Shadow your first five points go into Spirit Tap, which is the chocolate cupcake with sprinkles on top of talents. To maximize its wholesome efficiency goodness, it's nice to stop casting 5 seconds before the fight ends. Use your spells til the mob is at maybe 30%, then wand it to death. You will be at full mana (and once you get Vampiric Embrace, health as well) by the time you get to the next mob. You will never have to eat or drink, rarely even have to bandage. You can grind endlessly, until your thumb falls off and your eyeballs start to bleed, pausing only to get more of the caffeinated beverage of your choice. It's great stuff.

My mage barely uses her wand either, but you'll find that the playstyle of a priest is very different.

Agree with teacake. While you're leveling, the ONLY piece of gear you must be sure to upgrade consistently is your wand. If you can get some or all of your Spirit Tap to go off at full strength, you're golden.

In terms of overall gear desires (not to divert the conversation or anything), your stat priorities should be: 1) spell damage/shadow damage, 2) spirit, 3) stamina and intellect. The more +damage you have, the faster mobs die, and they require fewer casts to kill, thus saving mana and additional time spent not drinking. Spirit is HUGE regardless of your spec, both for shadowpriests with Spirit Tap and other specs through Meditation. Stamina and intellect are distant third; I lump them together because neither are really something to focus on. Obviously you need some of each, but neither of them should be stacked (unless you PvP a lot, necessitating much stamina).

An excellent wand can be gotten from this quest (and it *is* available to both factions):

http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=6561

http://www.wowhead.com/?search=Blackfathom+Villainy

That wand lasted me from level 20 something all the way to level 40. There are also some other nice pieces in Blackfathom Deeps for priests (as well as other casters) but you will have to take your chances with rolls. The wand is guaranteed as it is a quest reward.

As teacake mentioned, the playstyle is very different from mage to priest. With spirit tap, being out of the five second rule makes a huge difference and wanding is what does that for you.

For leveling, I got myself some pieces "of the Owl" and "Of the Whale". Nice for priests and usually pretty cheap. Mid-level you can find some decent plus damage tailored pieces.





Edited, Jun 12th 2008 11:05pm by Miskreant

As soon as you step into Outlands, make sure one of the 1st quests you do is:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?wquest=10482
It's a reasonably simple 'kill X bad guys' quest. (Alliance BTW, there may be a Horde equivalent quest)
I had little trouble picking off loose singles and putting them down as a 59 SPriest

And one of the rewards is this:
http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=29915

It is likely to be better than anything you got in Azeroth.



Edited, Jun 16th 2008 4:21am by Fraeky

Edited, Jun 16th 2008 4:23am by Fraeky

No, VE and VT do not work with shadow wands. I believe Shadow Weaving does, but that's not worth using an outdated wand for. Just look for the best DPS wand you can find.

I too just started a priest...at lvl 10 now. I decided to go shadow/disc to level, and I have a quick question about the way I should spend the talent points. I've read plenty of different guides, and read through a lot of the threads already, though unless I'm just blind (which is very possible) I didn't see anything that answered this question.

Some of the builds I read through said to spec through shadow all the way until you get to VT, then start spreading into disc at lvl 51 with imp wand. Since it seems like to level using wands are so useful after getting spirit tap, would it be wiser to spend the 5 points in imp wand at 15-19, or wait until lvl 51 to start branching out into disc? Also, if I do end up throwing the 5 points in imp wand at lvl 15-19, should i go another 3 lvls and spend it in imp shield before going back to shadow?

I do plan on going shadow most likely until lvl 70, then respeccing to holy/disc, so thanks for this piece of info. Also, great idea with the imp. sw: pain...I didn't even think about that. I'm sure it gets easier to lvl when you start getting specced out, but man leveling from 6-10 was such a pain! Not used to being a clothie yet I guess.

Before level 10 can be a bit harsh, as you have to rely on smite a bit to get going, but at level 5 you can start using a wand. I used the one that enchanters make, as the dps was really good for that level. Good news, it only gets better from here on in, I really enjoyed level 30 plus. Not that I didn't have fun before that, but things just seemed to really pick up in the thirties and forties.



Hee hee, I was planning to do that myself but found I loved being shadow too much to switch... *grin*



Yep, never be afraid to respec if you aren't happy with something or just need to tinker around. When I first started playing WoW, I was really worried about making mistakes with my talents and respeccing, but it really isn't a big deal. I've never even come close to forking over 50g for a respec, but I know lots of folks who do that two or three times a week.

When I was first getting into priests...( oh dear, does that sound naughty? I don't care!) I had my Blood elf priest at a little higher than my Draenei priest for a bit and I just noticed for me at level 20-ish that my mindflay was just sort of weak.

I decided to respec and go over to wands at that level and it was something that had worked for me. When I leveled my Draenei I decided to just follow what I had already tested on my other character. After I got shadowform at 40 I went and filled out all the other good shadow talents, went back and worked my way down to meditation. It really comes down to what fits in with one's personal playstyle.



Edited, Jun 19th 2008 2:36pm by Miskreant

Mind flay sucks till about Rank 3(lv 36), after that its actually worth spending mana on.

Guys is it worth looking for wands that deal in shadow damage over another wand that has higher dps? Right now my wand is shadow with a dps around 20 but there is an arcane wand with a dps of 25 available to get... which would be the better choice. There are no stats so just base dps is involved.