Leveling as HolyFollow

First off, I leveled as holy. It's a bit slower than shadow, but can certainly be done. In order to solo more effectively, make your first 3 points in spirit tap, no matter which spec you level as. Once you hit 80, you can drop it. Also, carry plenty of water (several stacks). Priests should never run out of their own water. That's like a hunter running out of arrows.

Disc is no longer just a pvp spec. Both disc and holy are our healing specs.

Disc tends to be proactive, with improved shields and a great single target heal called Penance. It's a very fun spec that leans toward good single target healing, but with Prayer of Healing, you can also heal the entire group. If you don't want to level shadow, I recommend you give disc a try.

Holy has another aoe heal with Circle of Healing, and is more reactive than disc, but with slightly stronger heals. It's a matter of style. At some point if you are a healing priest, you should try both disc and holy.

Keep in mind that while even though what Dadanox said was very true, it works a bit differently when soloing - that great single target heal (Penance) cannot be used on yourself (yet? I think this was going to change as of the next patch).

The 'most effective' spec to level with is without a doubt shadow, followed by discipline, followed by holy. What shadow will do for you is ensure that you kill and kill fast, which is why it's good at soloing (where you're generally required to do a lot of killing and you take minimum damage). Disc when soloing is more of an 'improved priest' spec; you won't really notice a difference in group/single target healing until level 50 or 60, but before that disc mainly improves your mana regeneration, mana pool and the cost of spells. Holy improves pretty much solely your healing talents, which makes is worse than disc or shadow for leveling.

Regardless, like Dada pointed out, there is nothing wrong with leveling holy - the differences in speed are noticeable but quite small thanks to (mainly) the +healing/+damage = spellpower change that went into the game a few patches ago. Just be sure to pick up Divine Fury and Searing light asap (after Shadow Tap though).

oh ya, I learned the wand trick already. I ran my way up to Ironforge to train my proffs and weapon skills and grabbed a wand from the AH (along with 4 16 slot bags funded by my bank alt). OMFG did that reduce my drinking time.

Thanks to everyone who responded and any future responses. Keep in mind that my priest is going to be pretty pimped out on gear his whole leveling life....the benefits of the daily rep quests of my hunter.

Weeeeellll...if you are planning on healing in endgame, and that's that:

I took shadow to level 60 or so before I respeced as holy, and I had *so much fun* with it. Why deprive yourself of the joys of shadowform and mind flay? :D

I can't recommend shadow highly enough as a leveling spec. I was healing instances from level 20 on, though - I didn't want to powerlevel a healing class, I wanted to really get a feel for my abilities - and after level 50 healing in shadow spec became noticeably more difficult. My initial plan was to take shadow to 80 and respec for healing then, once I'd gotten my soloing out of the way, but I enjoyed healing parties too much, and my performance was suffering.

I limped my way to Outland and tried healing some dungeons there, but I finally gave in and respeced to holy...and love it too, but for completely different reasons.

In parties, holy is amazing. You get to focus full time on the often intricate dance of keeping five-to-twenty-five people up and fighting, and it's an adrenaline rush that's palpably different from the dps rush I've gotten when playing melee characters in other games. As shadow, you can get away with healing until you hit the BC dungeons, but after that you really need the grab-bag of heals you only get by burrowing into the holy (or disc) tree.

But DAMN I really loved soloing as shadow. You can absolutely get the job done on holy - I do my dailies and farm, and I never die outsde of Wintergrasp (holy and PvP are...iffy at best) - but it takes more time, more effort, and just...more. You bubble, you smack mob around with a few bolts of light (which don't have anything *near* the pure dps poetry of SHADOWY TENDRILS OF DARKNESS SHOOTING OUT OF YOUR HEADSPACE AND SUCKING THE MOB'S LIFE AWAY OMG!!!1!!!), you usually have to rebubble...and eventually the mob dies. There's just no there there. The killins never feel, I don't know, joyous? to me.

With shadow, solo killing was effortless and fun. You get a grab bag of heals with holy, but you get a grab bag of innovative ways to tear up mobs when you play shadow. (I think I read that in the next patch your DoTs can CRIT, which if true oh my god.)

Unless you plan on PLing your holy to 80 by running instances and raids, you're going to spend a significant chunk of the game playing solo with quests, and you may want to farm occasionally too (though with an 80 hunter on your account that probably made you lol a little). The actual dps a shadow priest metes out might even make you lol a little, as you're used to the kickass damage output of a hunter...but I think if you level and play a dedicated shadow priest for a while you'll be amazed at the nuances of the damage a shadow can do.

It's elegant damage! :D And so much fun to suck life out of mobs, I swear. It's a class unique to any I've played in any other game.

Try it. You might like it so much you'll decide to dual spec shadow/holy. I still get a pang of pure envy when I get a shadow in my parties and I watch her tearing through mobs and healing/mana-regening the party in the process with vampiric touch and vampiric embrace.

I was so set on dual specing disc, too. Now you've sent me down a shadowy memory lane, and I am missing shadow even more. :D

(I'll probably try disc and fall in crazylove with that spec too. Priest is phun bznz, yo)

True, after getting spirit tap under your belt, filling out meditation should be your next goal, whether disc or holy.

I am up to 65, don't have meditation and almost never stop to drink, maybe once every two levels like after killing Rajah Haghazed and a aggroed mob.

MB -> SW: P -> VE -> VT -> MB -> MF and/or SW: D. The VT keeps my mana up and the VE keeps my health up.

If I get down to 55% of mana I might use my wand a bit more at the end of the fight, if my health is running a little low I use my shield (have the glyph for PW: S).

While leveling, Spirit Taps a requirement for any spec. Most folks would argue that Meditation is only good as you level with Holy/Disc. I found out while doing the 70 - 80 level burst on my priest that Meditation makes a big difference with leveling Shadow. I went from having to drink every 6th or 7th fight (or total mob count, if fighting multiples) to not drinking at all. While running heroics (and leveling), I very seldom have to drink to maintain > 75% mana. Between Dispersion, Replenishment, Spirit Tap (and Imp Spirit Tap) and Meditation, it's rare that I end boss fights at < 50% mana. Drinking's usually saved for wipe recovery sessions. :P

I am leveling a baby disc priest as well. I have both Tap and Meditation.

I rarely have to drink with the combo. I found with just Mediation I was having to drink too much for my liking.

What sort of spec you running? Rotation and all the good stuff would be nice as well.

I usually open with Holy Fire, SW:P, Shield, Smite spam till around 30% then wand. Devouring Plague I save for when I need the HP return.

Changes when have multiple mobs as I still dot them all up and try and keep HF on CD.

I tend to get into chain pulling a bit often which can be a mana drain but Tap procs help me survive through these. Is my drinking mainly due to me being reckless and chain pulling or some stupidity on my part.

Armory is in sig.

I leveled 0 - 70 as Shadow and loved it, all the way up until the Heroics started being unlocked by everyone and Arena awards ruined world PvP as I play on a PvP server. Due to this I actually retired my Priest, leveled a Rogue to 70 and a Paladin, retired, came back and I am playing my priest again.

What does this have to do with the OP? I think that Dadarox and Mozared nailed it perfectly. You can do either or, and everyone will tell you why it is easier one way or the other. What I will state is that Shadow Priest lends itself to fast leveling up to the Outlands. It allows you to DPS well enough, heal well enough, and mana regen, again... well enough.

If you want to be a true healer because you are used to DPS, then I say go Holy on a standard server as everyone will love you, and if you PvP at all, go Disc. Your main heal as mentioned for Disc is a 50 point talent so you will not get it for a while. I would recommend going up through the Holy tree for increesed crit %, increased damage / heals, lower casting time, all the way to the aforementioned Surge of Light for the free cast that procs fairly often. Then begin down the Disc Tree. The mediation talent is good enough that once you get it, Spirit Tap is optional. Even with both, if you are outright Nuking and have any sort of chain pull., you will be low on mana. With Meditation, you are constantly regening which helps alot.

Now that I am in the mid 70's, Disc is the way for me. I am currently running lots of 5 mans and the primary heal for them is designed for tanks. When Rapture procs, I gain back 2% of my total mana, combined with 35% mana regen plus other MP gear for a total of 142+ mana gear while casting. That is a full spell of my choosing every 5 seconds. As for PvP, I can now crush Shadow Priests, have won out against locks, warriors, and mages (need the first cast or so though) and while there are no guarantee wins as a Priest, I feel better about surviving to help others now. (Note - Read the Guide to Healing for lots of input... that guide actually made me swallow my pride and go Disc over staying Shadow.)

Doing Naxx as we speak, will post a thread about that later tonight.