Playing a priest for the first time...Follow

I started a priest recently so my guild would have another healer at their disposal eventually. I plan on playing shadow, but I'm going to practice healing as I go, so that by the time I hit Northrend, I have a pretty good grasp on things.

I've done a little reading, but I always like to hear exactly what some of the more experienced players of various classes have to say. Do any of you have advice for a brand new priest (Currently level 12?). Common screwups to try and avoid, something like that?

Thanks for reading!

There's really not a lot of common *****-ups I can think of for the priest class. Wand, don't melee is the only thing that comes to mind right now.

I've been told by a few friends to go with Darkness first, and that's what I've done (only level 12 though, and respec is cheap), so I'm wondering about Spirit Tap...could someone go into detail why they choose that first rather than Darkness? I'd appreciate it!

Edit: Nevermind. I looked at it, talked to a friend, and he pointed out that Spirit Tap is probably best for leveling, Darkness is more PvP oriented.

Edited, May 20th 2009 10:08am by crazyrick

Pending on who you are leveling with and how you are leveling, I may make an early suggestion. After you get Spirit Tap maxed out, you may want to put 2 points over in the holy tree so that you avoid losing casting time when casting holy spells for when you are learning how to heal. At level 40, you will / may want to respec to get shadowform or wait 2 lvls to get it pending on your playstyle, but I found having 70% chance to AVOID lost casting time when healing as a base shadow spec to be very helpful with new groups and players that may still be learning to play.

If you are on an older server and/or play with a core group, then do not waste the points unless you se the need for it. Also, one of your first glyphs to help you be more efficient in overall ability, I would recommend the Glyph of PW Shield. This gives you a heal everytime you do need to cast shield. This will help heal in instances, and when you are at 40 and in shadowform, it gives you a heal without kicking you out of shadowform.

One last comment on Shadow Priests... when you hit 60, you will have absolutely no downtime. While AOE grinding is not really there for you, you will be able to burn through mobs like nobody's business. Kill 5 - 8 mobs, pull, shadowfiend the next mob, get back 40 - 60% of your mana, kill 4 - 6 mobs, pop dispersion, and the process begins anew... with your healing from VE you will never need to worry... YOu will read all these posts about which class is the fastest to level, and I can honestly say tha SP's are near the top if played properly and pending play style.

shadow is cool and all, destroying peoples heads with purply beams and low to no downtime once you start getting talents.

I started my priest as disc with only a few stints as shadow at 40, and after 70 just to get a feel for it once I dual spec. I would say that disc is just as powerful as a lvling spec and you get to enjoy the ability to heal every instance along the way.

Disc is fun. You barely run into a situation where you can die. If you pick up the all powerful spirit tap (which loses its panache in the 50-60s)you never run out of mana. Killing things is boring and the only change you get in a rotation (which should be left up to you while lvling) is penance which helps greatly. The way pw:shield skills up almost always means that you kill almost everything before your shield drops. When the s**t hits the fan you can just pi, nova spam up to 5-10 mobs to death which makes you feel like a god. A good wand helps but is almost never used once you hit outlands.

As long as you straight up stack intellect above all else you will enjoy disc endlessly while lvling. Obviously the higher you get the more general you should pick your white stats, but int rules all.

Stay away from the obvious pvp talents, picking what is clearly useful for lvling is essential.

I am currently 76 and have loved every moment of lvling disc. I went shadow for a second in the 40s and immediately switched back. I went holy at 68 to heal my way to 70ish in UK and Nexus just b/c its easier to heal those instances as a rising northrender being holy. Shadow again just to have some fun at 71.

For all intents and purposes, go disc, if you have any pipe dreams of healing later on, may it be holy or disc, disc will rock your socks

Edited, May 23rd 2009 2:45am by Slywether

If you choose to level as disc, at 22 I'd put 3 points in Spirit Tap, then spend my points getting down to Improved PW:Shield. Disc uses shields to mitigate damage. It's one of our main spells. At 22, you don't have many points available, but I would spend them on:

3 pts Spirit tap (for mana while leveling. Drop at 80)
5 pts Twin Disciplines (Increases damage and healing of instant spells)
3 pts Improved Inner Fire (Since it now increases spellpower)
2 pts Improved Power Word: Fortitude
Next 3 levels:
3 pts Improved Power Word: Shield

Fill out your disc tree to get Penance before spending points in holy. Penance will be your main, powerful, fast healing spell.

Check out http://www.talentchic.com/Discipline/Priest to see the most popular cookie cutter builds. I still use renew a lot, so have varied my build a bit and have been very happy with it. You can check it by clicking the link in my signature.

Note that while leveling, it's ok to move points around a bit. Expect a complete respec at 80. For instance, keep Spirit Tap until 80, and Reflective Shield is fun for leveling.

If you get dual spec, I would try disc / shadow.

Instead of starting a new thread, i'm just going to jump in this one for my noob questions:




I'm starting up a priest for raiding...intent is to heal. I was wanting to dual-spec into discipline and holy. My questions are:

1. Approximately what level does Priest start to get fun (for leveling)?
2. Do you need two gear sets for dual speccing disc/holy?
3. Which spec is best for healing 5-mans?

Thank you,

don't be afraid to come to the dark side and dabble in Shadow, it's great fun and still a wanted DPS (we may not top the DPS charts, but we're rarely in need of healing and casters like us for refreshment). I stared my priest with the intent to have high level healer, but liked DPS'ing as it better (my other main was a rogue)

And Personally, until you start needing more specialized gear (i.e. raiding or harder heroics), I personally think Shadow/Disc have more crossover than disc/Holy. (Shadow priests need very little hit until they hit raids)

Shadow is great fun and while you won't top DPS charts compared to other equally geared DPS, You'll still be wanted in raids.

I'd say disc, but also, it depends. If you are struggling for gear and just getting into the swing of things, Pennance is your best friend. If you have a decent amount of gear (pre-Nax still, but decent for heroics), holy starts becoming a little easier.

I base this mainly from the perspective of dealing with "oh s#!t" moments, which your early heroic career will be full of. Initially, when mana is still a concern even on short fights, Pennance is an excellent tool. All the shields that disc provides give you a break as well, and the mana regen is godly.

However, with holy and decent gear, you can pop a CoH, which will generally proc an instant flash heal. I pretty much get them every time (it's alarming when I don't), and rely on this tactic for almost instantly healing spike damage. If timed right, holy has a lot more instant heals than disc, and I tend to prefer it.

Try them both though, they are really quite different, and you will probably prefer one over the other.

Switching back and forth from a damage spec (shadow) to a healing spec is great. I would put dual spec high on my list at 40, assuming I had the cash.

Lots of excellent advice in this thread, thanks to everyone who has posted! I'm still new at the whole priest game, and I know others are too, so if you think of anything else, please post it! I think this will be the first character I actually use in end-game scenarios, and I'm really excited about it.

You talkin' bout Rapture or RAPTURE? How YOU doin'? Shouldn't be much longer 'till I get my hands on that baby.

Yeah, levels 1-4 were brutal...good thing they only lasted about an hour.