I have a mage, paly, lock.
I'm only around lvl 10, but God are priests squishy.
What am I doing wrong?
I usually open with Smite, then Pain, then Shield (Mob usually arrives at this point)
Then smite, smite, smite - maybe hit with a 1H. Yeah - I need a wand, but does it get better or is this just a brutal class to level?
Mages suck at taking damage, but at least I can get the mob off of me and burn it down...
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It will get alot easier as you level. Personally, I leveled as Shadow. Easiest leveling, and almost fun to see even Rogues wonder about your singletarget dps and DoT fest. Still, a few things to remember. Shield before you do anything else. It will last for 30 seconds after all, and you get a nasty little debuff that prevents you from shielding yourself again. Start that debuff early, and it will pass that much earlier.
Trust me, on the nastier mobs, you will want that shield up as soon as possible. Not to mention when dealing with multiple mobs.
After a while, you can start skipping Smite entirely. Mind Blast and Flay will be your weapons of damage, as well as SW:P.
At my own level, I don't even use MB anymore. Just VT, SW:P, Flay twice and Wand any remaining health. This ensures that my Spirit Tap is always up without being under the five second rule limitation. You'll spend the first fifty levels mostly doing MB, SW:P and Flay + Wand.
Personally, I found Priest an easy class to level. The hardest levels are 1-20. The rest is a piece of cake, really.
Trust me, on the nastier mobs, you will want that shield up as soon as possible. Not to mention when dealing with multiple mobs.
After a while, you can start skipping Smite entirely. Mind Blast and Flay will be your weapons of damage, as well as SW:P.
At my own level, I don't even use MB anymore. Just VT, SW:P, Flay twice and Wand any remaining health. This ensures that my Spirit Tap is always up without being under the five second rule limitation. You'll spend the first fifty levels mostly doing MB, SW:P and Flay + Wand.
Personally, I found Priest an easy class to level. The hardest levels are 1-20. The rest is a piece of cake, really.
Level 10 really isn't representative... You need ~21 to form a somewhat more clear opinion.
Aside from that though, I think that up to 10-15-20 mages are a damn lot more squishier than priests?
Aside from that though, I think that up to 10-15-20 mages are a damn lot more squishier than priests?
BTW, against melee mobs, try to use Psihic Scream instead of shielding. It takes less mana to cast and they should be dead by the time they come again to you (unless it breakes or they go out of range, which is damn annoying)
Or they pull more mobs, or resist and beat on you anyway... Shield is easier and safer. The little time you spend drinking every hour due to shield compared to Psychic Scream is trivial. That one time you spend corpserunning because of a poor Fear is far more timeconsuming.
NorthAI the Hand wrote:
Or they pull more mobs, or resist and beat on you anyway... Shield is easier and safer. The little time you spend drinking every hour due to shield compared to Psychic Scream is trivial. That one time you spend corpserunning because of a poor Fear is far more timeconsuming.
It's situational. Shield is a crutch. Learn to use psychic scream. Know when you should use it and when you shouldn't. Learning to use both is incredible in some extremely difficult situations.
Of course, learning each and every skill/spell in order to be able to maximize your performance in any setting would be vital for any class. But relinquishing Shield for Fear exclusively is a horrible idea.
Shield is not so much a crutch as a lifeline. any priest in pvp will tell ya that.
Quote:
Of course, learning each and every skill/spell in order to be able to maximize your performance in any setting would be vital for any class. But relinquishing Shield for Fear exclusively is a horrible idea.
i exclusively use fear over shield on QD for those mana drain mobs. also, for mobs of 2 or more, dot + fear is great. most leveling mobs wont require multiple shields, and most single leveling mobs will die quick enough that you are better off taking the dmg than using a good chunk of mana for a shield. fear/dotting + wanding is the most efficient leveling rotation. throw in a preemptive or a reactive shield and you cut your mana efficiency.
but ya, knowing where and when(or NOT) is the skill part.
And now for the other side of the coin. i recently started a Horde priest Wickedvampir on Turyalon and call me crazy but I am leveling her Holy. I tried a shadow priest once before and didn't like it. Now yes i know it a lower level toon 29(at the time of the post) but i have had no problem leveling for 2 reasons. I have crazy heals +80 at my level with no enchants or items such as the spellthread. And i can always find a group to run a lower level instance just go into trade chat and say Healer looking for group for BFD,RFK,RFD or Sm.
And to the one poster who said mages were more squishy yes they are I have Burgendy a lvl 70 mage and I honestly think from level 10-20 i spent more time corpse running on her then i have on wicked
And to the one poster who said mages were more squishy yes they are I have Burgendy a lvl 70 mage and I honestly think from level 10-20 i spent more time corpse running on her then i have on wicked
44 posts
Just to throw in a couple of my own opinions about priest leveling.
1) This has been said before, but it's still indeed viable: Get a wand! Learn to use it, love it, and embrace it. Really makes a huge difference in my opinion.
I was late getting a wand, and when I got one at around level 20, it was all fun and games (think it was quest reward from BFD). I think I used a wand very actively until I got shadowform at 40.
2) This depends a lot on playstyle I guess, and might not be as viable at lower levels, as in higher. However I stand behind the "try to use fear, rather than shield" people. When I was leveling, up to level 66 in Outland, I always shielded up. Dots, nukes, flay etc 'till the mob's dead. It is a mana waste. I tend to only use shield in tough situations, or when fear will mess me up from adds.
I noticed this when I was farming spiders, for the silk, outside of Allerian(?) Stronghold, in Terrokar. I spent about 1,5 to 2 levels grinding them (honestly can't remember exactly, but spent A LOT of time there), making some gold - in short, being mana effective was really important to me. In the beginning using shield, dot, nukes and so on - I had to drink a lot. After a while, starting to use fear made me able to almost have zero downtime, using pet whenever it got low.
I do agree though, shield is great - and much, much, safer. For areas you *can* use fear, or feel comfortable, I strongly urge you to try it (and use it!). I then had rk 1 fear up, but that's no point anymore with 3.0.2 out though :).
In PvP, I use shield as much as I can, mana usualy as much trouble as staying alive.
Just my thoughts on this matter :)
-Vid
1) This has been said before, but it's still indeed viable: Get a wand! Learn to use it, love it, and embrace it. Really makes a huge difference in my opinion.
I was late getting a wand, and when I got one at around level 20, it was all fun and games (think it was quest reward from BFD). I think I used a wand very actively until I got shadowform at 40.
2) This depends a lot on playstyle I guess, and might not be as viable at lower levels, as in higher. However I stand behind the "try to use fear, rather than shield" people. When I was leveling, up to level 66 in Outland, I always shielded up. Dots, nukes, flay etc 'till the mob's dead. It is a mana waste. I tend to only use shield in tough situations, or when fear will mess me up from adds.
I noticed this when I was farming spiders, for the silk, outside of Allerian(?) Stronghold, in Terrokar. I spent about 1,5 to 2 levels grinding them (honestly can't remember exactly, but spent A LOT of time there), making some gold - in short, being mana effective was really important to me. In the beginning using shield, dot, nukes and so on - I had to drink a lot. After a while, starting to use fear made me able to almost have zero downtime, using pet whenever it got low.
I do agree though, shield is great - and much, much, safer. For areas you *can* use fear, or feel comfortable, I strongly urge you to try it (and use it!). I then had rk 1 fear up, but that's no point anymore with 3.0.2 out though :).
In PvP, I use shield as much as I can, mana usualy as much trouble as staying alive.
Just my thoughts on this matter :)
-Vid
Concerning shielding and fearing, it's very important you actually learn to time these, especially if you want to do PVP.
Always shield first! You want the Weakened Soul debuff to fade as quickly as possible, so let the shield take some damage off you while it does that. Use Psychic Scream when the shield is knocked-down, if the fight is still not over. By that time, Weakened Soul should be almost spent if not already. Shield again when Psychic Scream ends, or if Weakened Soul is gone and you still have some shield left.
In PVP situations, remember your class. If you cant run away and dont think you can kill someone, just keep healing yourself. They will get tired and leave, or your group will come along soon to help you. Even as Shadow, you will be able to out-heal most melee DPS in that kind of situation. Dont be afraid to use that priest-beast, too,
If you're going Shadow, Vampiric Embrace (and now Devouring Plague) will help you in between the times you can not shield yourself. Go as far into Discipline to get Improved PW: Shield, and possibly Improved Fortitude (I always get Meditation, too).
Priests are not meant to fight head-to-head, so try to do what you can to get some distance between yourself and the target in a fight, even before you are in combat. It's actually easier to fight other casters, because they depend on some of the same tactics, except we get Mana Burn.
Edited, Nov 11th 2008 11:59am by sederix
Always shield first! You want the Weakened Soul debuff to fade as quickly as possible, so let the shield take some damage off you while it does that. Use Psychic Scream when the shield is knocked-down, if the fight is still not over. By that time, Weakened Soul should be almost spent if not already. Shield again when Psychic Scream ends, or if Weakened Soul is gone and you still have some shield left.
In PVP situations, remember your class. If you cant run away and dont think you can kill someone, just keep healing yourself. They will get tired and leave, or your group will come along soon to help you. Even as Shadow, you will be able to out-heal most melee DPS in that kind of situation. Dont be afraid to use that priest-beast, too,
If you're going Shadow, Vampiric Embrace (and now Devouring Plague) will help you in between the times you can not shield yourself. Go as far into Discipline to get Improved PW: Shield, and possibly Improved Fortitude (I always get Meditation, too).
Priests are not meant to fight head-to-head, so try to do what you can to get some distance between yourself and the target in a fight, even before you are in combat. It's actually easier to fight other casters, because they depend on some of the same tactics, except we get Mana Burn.
Edited, Nov 11th 2008 11:59am by sederix
6 posts
I lvled my priest as holy, and it was easier than lvling my druid.. yes, we are squishy, but holy fire is nice :D that, plus sw: pain, and now devouring plague.. all you need after is a wand!
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