4th attempt at a priestFollow

In before Aethien comes in frothing at the mouth screeching SMITE SPEC FTW!!!

You will make it to 80 this time. I'm fully confident that at the very least, we are cool enough for you to stick with your priest, just to hang out with us.

I don't know when the last time you tried a priest is, but since the end of BC when spell damage and healing became the same thing, it became a LOT easier to level a priest in any old spec you want. This is good news, because if your stumbling block before was not enjoying shadow (which, weird, but I've already adjusted to your being weird from that bit about Draenei being cool), you may find a Disc or Holy playstyle to be different enough to capture your interest. I leveled my last priest Disc (Shadow for the first one) and it was great fun because of its versatility. You can heal battlegrounds, heal instances, and solo quest in all the same gear and spec. This is something I miss when leveling alts whose efficient questing spec is melee and I need a second set of gear for healing.

If you do choose not to level as Shadow, you will use the so-called Smite spec. People define that in different ways but really all it means is you've got 2/2 Searing Light and the Smite glyph. You can do this as Disc or as Holy, depending on which style you prefer. My preference while leveling was to do this first, then straight up the Disc tree. I liked the extra bit of mana and stronger shields Disc offered while leveling. But Holy is great fun too. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much damage you can do with this spec while still being a kickass healer.

Your first 3 points go into Spirit Tap no matter what. Mix Eagle, Owl, and Whale gear until you get to Outland (with less emphasis on Stamina if you're not doing PVP). After that Spellpower - Int - Regen (MP5 for Disc, Spirit for Holy) and Stamina. You'll need the standard amount of Hit if you're doing anything offensively, and as far as Haste and Crit go, you kind of need to pick one until you get to a high enough level of gear to have meaningful amounts of both.

Hope that helps to get you started. Give it some time, it's not like the pally where you just kick butt from day 1, but once you get rolling it's a whole different thing. I find my priest to be by far the most offensively capable healer I have, and that kind of balance is great fun to play.

Just because I can;

Nonononono. Not spellpower. Don't focus spellpower. You'll get plenty on your gear to get by with as a healer. Focus something fun, like int, crit or haste.

Don't forget instances when you are leveling. With dungeon finder as a healer there is no waiting. With the quests I think I got almost a whole level with Ragefire Chasm alone.

I set my Draenei priest up for leveling as smite spec and did pretty much exactly what Teacake suggested. Spirit Tap, Holy down to Searing Light and then started down the Disc tree.

I'm at level 32 now and things are going great. Lots of offensive capability for questing or whatever and enough healing that on the rare occasions when I party up for an instance or just running with a friend or two, I can keep myself and friend(s) alive.

The additional offense when I did the respec was noticeable in that mobs that would take a while to get down began to fall very quickly.

And yes indeed, Draenei are pretty nice looking. She's 7-feet tall, can kick *** and in her Beguiler Robes she's very....beguiling. What's not to like?

I'd leave a link but it doesn't seem to be working so you'll just have to take my word for it. It's Moanalisa on Bronzebeard for the unnaturally curious.

Not at all. Now is the perfect time to do some fun projects prior to Cataclysm. Most people have some fairly nice gear for their mains by now. Take time to do what ever interests you.

Well, last attempt at priest began 2 months before WOTLK came out, stalled at 19, became my banker. A couple of weeks ago I tried to get him to move again, stalled at 23. He's hopeless that one for whatever reason. And now he's on the wrong server.

So new attempt was either Human, Dwarf or Draenei. Thing is Draenei DO look cooler than humans, but not as cool as dwarves, have a nice racial AND have a far better starting area than dwarves (new rolled rogue just hit 20, so I do have a very recent chapter of that one).

Going to try that specc you suggested Teacake. One step at a time, but this has to be the time I bring a priest to max level. Gogo PONTIFEX (alt's name, can't believe it wasn't taken).

But, but ... TEACAKE, I just transferred my main and one alt to a new server, so I went alliance due to some friends being alliance. What was I to do??? XDXDXD

Anyhow, I'm taking it real easy, Pontifex is now lvl 8, still doubtful, but I AM going to persevere to 40 at least (I hope)

Insist they faction change, obviously. Dur.

Thanks to not having played a Draenei for ages I'm enjoying myself a bit so far. Current status, Pontifex is lvl 11. I dread the 20-25 grind, which is where I've stalled my best attempts at leveling a priest. I'll know in 2 weeks I guess ...

Very slow day at work for the past two days means that I've gone and put a lot of time on Pontifex. He's now sitting at level 20, which is three levels shy of my current best. Truth is, both the Draenei and Blood Elves hace great starting zones, with a pletora of quests without excessive running back and forth. Tried healing out in a random dungeon, and while it went ok, it was a little disturbing hovering at 15% mana most of the time, which is somehow what Blizzard intends to happen in Cata, going from "unlimited" mana to making mana a resource which will be harder to manage.

Got 4-5 questes left by Exodar, then I'll be done over there. I supposse it's off to Ashenvale for 1-2 levels then Tarren Mill. I'm just not at all familiar with Alliance leveling spots currently, but I think that sounds about right.

Aye, I know I probably should, but truth is for some reason even though questing is not necessarily fun sometimes, I prefer to waste a bit of time whilst retaining a hint of "freedom" whilst I level.

Anyhow, priest is now level 23, in Ashenvale. I'll have to move him soon-ish, but he can probably stay there for a level or two.

Incidentally, whatever happenned to the boat to Menethil? I hopped on one and ended up in Stormwind!!!!!

So, priest looking good, just taking it real easy to make sure I at least hit 40 on this one.

I agree. It took me a long time to pick it up, thinking it would end up feeling mindless (and like cheating) and not be engaging enough, but that hasn't been my experience at all. I've done a lot of quests using Jame's that I never would've found on my own. And with the frustration factor taken out of wandering around looking for stuff, and wondering if the drop rate really sucks this bad or if you're an idiot killing the wrong mobs, you get to enjoy the scenery more. It's like the difference between driving in traffic and getting to sit and look out the window. I wouldn't use it on my first character or the first character I leveled through an expansion, but for alts it is fabulous.

Edited, Apr 6th 2010 4:56pm by teacake