So I'm Leveling with a Warrior...

[AgentMulder]

I've seen several threads already posted about optimal leveling builds, and I'm well aware of what talents are generally taken during the leveling process. However all of that discussion seems to trend toward solo leveling, and how to be the most efficient at it.

My good friend started playing WoW again and has decided to level up a Warrior. I decided to re-roll a Priest so I could level with him exclusively as a dynamic duo...meaning we will be doing every quest and dungeon together. We're pretty low level still (15) and have just completed our first dungeon (RFC). Nothing like saying "LF3 DPS" in the trade chat and getting instant tells haha.

Between his tanking and dps in melee range...I'm finding that I just throw up a SW:P and wand to oblivion...and we're killing mobs extremely fast. I have yet to even cast Mind Blast...not once. I've only had to bubble myself when we've pulled 4-5 mobs, as I've pulled threat a couple times healing through a pull like that. And since we're leveling together...the actual killing blow seems to be a fairly even 50/50 split...meaning that a talent like Spirit Tap becomes less appealing (I know...that's weird to say).

I spent my first 5 talent points in Wand Specialization, but I haven't spent my 6th talent point yet, because now I wonder...leveling with a Warrior opens up so many opportunities to really spec however I please . Since dps does not seem to be an issue, the obvious choice seems to be to stick to some kind of Holy/Disc hybrid, and perhaps for the first time ever (while leveling a toon)...talents that reduce threat seem appealing

So I ask the community...how would you spend your talent points in a situation like this? Would you stick to the standard PVE Holy/Disc build, or would you perhaps take some of the PVP talents (so you can be the most prepared for those world PvP encounters that are about to start happening...hello Southshore lol).

[rxvx]

Wand spec 5/5 and Spirit Tap 5/5 are a must while leveling, if you're not going shadow at 40 your rotation will be SWP + Wand which is very good in terms of damage and efficiency as long as you have a good wand, and about the spirit tap thing - either tell him to let you get killing blows or just finish them off yourself with a mind blast when the mob is on low hp. It's very helpful in dungeons too when you mb a mob to get the killing blow and the buff so you don't have to drink, or in longer boss fights where you time the killing blow on adds)

Depends on what you plan on doing when you hit 60, for PVP aim for a 31/20/0 build for survival and mana efficiency, and if you plan on raiding then holy, but keep in mind that you can heal anything preraid as any spec in healing gear without problems.

You'll be respeccing at 60 anyway, to drop wand spec, so you can really take whatever feels like it could be useful with you two since you really, really wont have any problems healing 5mans whichever talents you choose. If I were you I'd go with shadow anyway to speed things up till 60 (the gist is the same, swp+wand till you get shadowform at which point you mindflay instead of wanding, and you'll do a lot more damage but still easily heal any dungeon since you should be aiming for the same gear anyway - int and spirit for leveling).

I wouldn't get threat reduction talents anyway since if you're always with a warrior, he'll have enough threat by the time you SWP and start wanding, and mind blast has ridiculous threat anyway so you should save it for killing blows if you want to use it.

[AgentMulder]

Thank you for the reply! I didn't think about trying to take advantage of Spirit Tap by sniping killing blows in an instance...that's a great idea!

[rxvx]

Yeah you should tell your group to leave you a killing blow here and there, it speeds things up a lot, especially in dungeons mid to late game where they start being harder but you still don't have +healing gear - like Uldaman end boss fight that spawns waves of adds and has a lot of health, Spirit Tap makes it a breeze, just make sure to prioritize spirit gear over everything (just don't tradeoff way too much int for spirit) and get used to canceling casts and downranking.

All those healing/mana talents that seem so tempting don't scale all too well before 60 gear which is why I'm saying there's not gonna be a noticeable difference whatever you choose, you can't really go wrong.

[gotmilk0112]

Honestly while leveling, it doesn't really matter what talents you take; talents don't start being really important until 35+.

But still, 5/5 Wand Spec and 5/5 Spirit Tap are the best talent points you'll ever spend, for Priest leveling. From there, you just put the rest into Shadow, and if you want to, you can respec at 40 to get Shadowform. You can heal just fine as Shadow until 50 or so, then you'll really want to be speccing Holy for healing dungeons.