Priest Leveling Guide

[smilkovpetko]

fisher , just to add this don't use pwshield on warr/druid tanks , but paladin tank is much better to have pws always since it's aggro is not building rage and damage return is working even with pws.

[Ana]

damage return is working even with pws.

That's weird, should it be like this?

Anyway PWS still sucks from healer's POV because it's terribly mana inefficient.

[SuperomegaOP]

Im finding it quite difficult to find decent wands for my level(37 atm)

After gravestone sceptor, finding a better wand is very hard. This my first character so having to pay anywhere from 7-15g+ every few levels for the BiS wand is unreasonable. Also once i got mind flay rank 3 my wand started doing less damage even with 5/5 improved wands so why not take those points out of imp wands and put it into darkness? Now every ability will deal more damage instead of wands.

Sure ull have to drink a bit more but i feel like youll kill mobs much quicker.

[Swim]

This guide inspired me to start leveling a troll priest. Thanks for the guide/tips.

[Satanasa]

Im finding it quite difficult to find decent wands for my level(37 atm)

After gravestone sceptor, finding a better wand is very hard. This my first character so having to pay anywhere from 7-15g+ every few levels for the BiS wand is unreasonable. Also once i got mind flay rank 3 my wand started doing less damage even with 5/5 improved wands so why not take those points out of imp wands and put it into darkness? Now every ability will deal more damage instead of wands.

Sure ull have to drink a bit more but i feel like youll kill mobs much quicker.

I agree with this.

Having a list of BiS wands only works if your Priest has a sugar daddy/momma to supply all those expensive items. We should work on an almost-bis-but-easily-obtainable wand list for people leveling their first char. For example there is one wand that you get as a quest reward in Southshore that works well-enough for the level (30-40).

And yes, when you are 40+ even the best wands feel slower than just using a couple more mindflays. If you have lots of spirit you won't need to drink after several mobs and drinking once in a while is way less downtime than wanding mobs. Again, this is forty-something or more. And because most questing areas are packed with other players killing fast helps a lot (PvP server).

[Garfunkel]

FOR ALLIANCE:

Elven Wand
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=5604
from Bashal'Aran in Darkshore

Spark of the People's Militia
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=12296
from The People's Militia (Part 3) in Westfall

Dwarven Flamestick
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=5241
from Gathering Idols in Loch Modan

These are the earliest quest reward wands you can get. A significant improvement over them is to form a group for Wailing Caverns and go for Firebelcher but that's not a simple feat for a level 15-20 priest. There are two more wands available as quest rewards from Darkshore and Westfall, so compare the quest rewards and see if they are an improvement. But really, as soon as you're able to heal Deadmines, go for Cookie's Stirring Rod.

A quest reward improvement over that would be the following:

Gravestone Scepter
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=7001
from Blackfathom Villainy in Blackfathom Deeps

So you start with the wand you can get as a quest reward from your 10-20 stone, get Cookie's Wand from DM and then Scepter from BFD quest and that gets you close to 30.

The next easy upgrades are:

Fizzle's Zippy Lighter
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=6729
from News for Fizzle in Thousand Needles

Rod of Sorrow
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=5247
from Wanted! Otto and Falconcrest in Arathi Highlands

Burning Sliver
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=5249
from Crushridge Warmongers in Southshore/Alterac Mountains

Gnomish Zapper
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=4547
from Sunken Treasure (Part 2) in Arathi Highlands

Goblin Igniter
http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=5253
from Venture Company Mining in Stranglethorn Vale

which get you to your early 40's at which point you should farm Zul'Farrak for Flaming Incinerator or Maraudon for Noxious Shooter.

Again, those two will last you until your 50, at which point you can heal Blackrock Depths to get Pyric Caduceus or Sunken Temple to get Rod of Corrison. You're now at ~55 DPS and end game stretch.

From that point on, your wand is a stat stick more than a dps tool, so figure out an upgrade in that manner. I would recommend Mana Channeling Wand from Dire Maul until you start raiding. Someone else can do Horde, I've never leveled a Horde priest.

[Uzephi]

I had to stop reading once I caught this. Shadow meld is a 10 second CD in Vanilla and TBC, you might want to adjust that. I use this in a drinking macro so I can drink in peace or drink when in a dungeon and tank decides to pull when oom to res the impending wipe.

[Fisher]

Im finding it quite difficult to find decent wands for my level(37 atm)

After gravestone sceptor, finding a better wand is very hard. This my first character so having to pay anywhere from 7-15g+ every few levels for the BiS wand is unreasonable. Also once i got mind flay rank 3 my wand started doing less damage even with 5/5 improved wands so why not take those points out of imp wands and put it into darkness? Now every ability will deal more damage instead of wands.

Sure ull have to drink a bit more but i feel like youll kill mobs much quicker.

I would never suggest that you buy every BiS wand available. However, those are the best in slot wands for each level. Just because they are expensive, rare, or difficult to acquire does not change that fact. I think it's pretty obvious no one is going to have all of these wands, even if they were incredibly rich. The point is to show what your best options are, and you can strive for the best for your level.

If you want alternatives, just look up all the wands in the game and sort them by DPS like I did. Find ones that are obtainable for your level and are within your gold limits/capability of acquiring, and use them instead. However, if you can, you should pick up the wands in that list.

As for getting rank 3 Mind Flay, yes, your spells start to do more damage and are worth using, but if you continually burn your mana only casting spells, you're missing the whole point of speccing Improved Wands and getting a good wand. Also, a decent wand makes a tremendous difference. If you're unable to get a better wand than Gravestone Scepter, which you described as being the case, then it's not surprising to me that your wand's DPS is falling behind Mind Flay. Get a better wand, and the value of Shoot and Improved Wands goes up.

And I'm getting pretty tired of explaining to people that killing faster does not always mean leveling more efficiently. If you spend more time drinking, you are spending less time gaining experience. You have to balance your mana spending with your mana regeneration to be able to kill non-stop. If you stop killing for even 10 seconds, you've slowed down your XP/hr. I often don't even mount on the way to quests or turn-ins, and instead grind along the way to maximize my experience. Being able to do this without EVER drinking (I literally never bought or used water as a priest while leveling) is an incredible boost to leveling speed, far moreso than killing a mob a few seconds faster is.

And yes, when you are 40+ even the best wands feel slower than just using a couple more mindflays. If you have lots of spirit you won't need to drink after several mobs and drinking once in a while is way less downtime than wanding mobs. Again, this is forty-something or more. And because most questing areas are packed with other players killing fast helps a lot (PvP server).

How is drinking in any way less downtime than never drinking? If your wand feels slow, get a better wand. If you continually have sub-par wands throughout your leveling experience, of course your wand is going to feel inferior. But when your wand is doing 60 dps by itself on top of the damage granted by Shadow Word: Pain and a couple Mind Flays, you're not really going that slow.

I completely understand that sitting there doing nothing (other than wanding) feels boring and slow to some. However, it's the most efficient way to level, because it saves you so much time never having to rest. I played on the PvP server while leveling my priest, and fighting for mobs was only an issue in the Barrens. After that, I rarely encountered more than a few players in an entire zone, and the respawn rates were high enough to accommodate all of us, even if we were competing for mob tags. Obviously my play time might have affected this, but killing a mob faster is not going to change the fact that other players are running around tagging mobs as well. Sure, you might reach the 2nd mob before the other player, but a few mobs later and you're drinking, then that player gets a mob or two of their own.

I had to stop reading once I caught this. Shadow meld is a 10 second CD in Vanilla and TBC, you might want to adjust that. I use this in a drinking macro so I can drink in peace or drink when in a dungeon and tank decides to pull when oom to res the impending wipe.

Good catch. Finding reliable information about abilities and what-not is difficult, and I didn't bother to make a priest of each race to confirm.

P.S., find better tanks.

[Lingon]

If you're using a staff while leveling, consider also throwing in auto attack between wand shoots - For example, at lvl 21 I can HF-SWP-wandwand-auto-wandwand-auto for good damage. The auto attack cools down while you are shooting your wand, you only loose the wind-up for wand every 2 or 3 wand attacks.

[Fisher]

If you're using a staff while leveling, consider also throwing in auto attack between wand shoots - For example, at lvl 21 I can HF-SWP-wandwand-auto-wandwand-auto for good damage. The auto attack cools down while you are shooting your wand, you only loose the wind-up for wand every 2 or 3 wand attacks.

If this actually comes out to be a net DPS gain, it could be worth doing, but staves are usually very weak, damage wise, and you'd have to level two weapon skills instead of one to do this effectively.

Also, if your weapon is anything but a staff, this probably isn't worth doing. Still, worth experimenting with, I guess.