Holy/discipline build for levelling

[Garfunkel]

Bonjour! That's the extent of my French, so don't feel too bad about your English.

Your talent tree link is unfortunately broken! So I can't tell whether you've made good or bad choices.

But the basics are the same: you want Spirit Tap from the Shadow tree and you want Wand Specialization from the Discipline tree. Then the 3 important (damage wise) talents in Holy tree are Holy Specialization, Divine Fury and Searing Light.

Obviously Meditation and Inner Focus from Discipline tree are very useful, so you should get those as well.

[Funkazaur]

This thread and builds got my eye, so I wanted to ask: Like in general is it worth starting leveling this way with holy spells rather than focusing on shadow spells? and is there any difference in leveling time comparing holy spells vs shadow spells?
Right now I'm lvl23 with only 5 points in Wand Specialization and Spirit Tap, since I'm unsure now which way to go, my current rotation is MB-SWP-Shield-Wand and I assume it should change to Smite/Holy Smite while using these builds linked here, right?
I'm unsure here with all of this, because I'd like to be able to heal dungeons while leveling too and even if others say you can heal 5mans in shadow, I still lean towards holy when it comes to healing dungeons, so it's kind of struggle to decide.

[Garfunkel]

Shadow isn't any more lethal than Holy/Disc until you get to level 40 and get Shadowform. That's when the difference in damage output becomes significant.

Personally, my rotation was (and is) Shield-Holy Fire-SWP-Starshards (it's really mana efficient damage spell)-Smite-Wand. If mob has a lot of HP or is orange, then add MB as well as extra casts of Smite or perhaps another Shield. The more talents you get that increase Holy damage/crit chance, the less you should use Shadow spells, obviously.

I'm 58 now and didn't have much trouble but this approach certainly requires patience. Especially when you see mages 2-shot mobs Very little chance of soloing elite quests, though you should be able to get a group together easily - the magical "Healer LFG ---" works pretty well. Healing instances has been a piece of cake, though I haven't been in LBRS/Strat/Scholo yet, but this would suggest that healing 5-mans in Shadow specc is quite viable.

PvP-wise, we'll you're a free HK most of the time, though if the other guy is fairly inept or of lower level, the ability to heal/shield and dot occasionally manifests in hilarious reversals - had a 60 troll mage chase me halfway across Barrens and deep into Ashenvale few days ago, he just couldn't slow me down thanks to Dispel Magic and with Renew and Shield up I stayed at 100% HP almost all the time. Similarly, the healing prowess is fantastic in those situations where you get into a PvP tussle with a group - unless the other side quickly spots and nukes you (which is annoyingly common), you can easily keep 3-4 guys up while they slaughter the opposition.

Hope that helps.

[AgentMulder]

From what I've gathered...your first 5 talent points should go into Spirit Tap, unless you have acquired a Wand at level 10 in which case you may decide to put your first 5 talent points into Wand Specialization, correct? Or is the general consensus just to always go for Spirit Tap first?

So at level 19 you would look like this: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#bVZZx

Improved Power Word: Shield seems like an all-around no brainer for your next 3 talent points, so at level 22 you would like this: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#bV0hZZx

At this point...assuming that questing/soloing will be your primary form of leveling (an instance here and there), is it better to stay within Discipline or switch over to Holy? Since you already have Spirit Tap...is the general consensus to switch into Holy at this point and work all the way down to get 5/5 Spiritual Guidance?

So at level 47 you would look like this: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#bV0hZfxt0bbVZx

That way...you have 13 levels to take advantage of the +25% dmg (and healing) on top of Spirit Tap.

And then finally just flesh out Discipline to get Divine Spirit, so at level 60 you would look like this: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#bVzGsV0oZfxt0bbVZx

At that point...you would likely re-spec anyway to drop Spirit Tap. I wanted to re-link some working talent trees since wowprovider went offline.

[varth]

I'll bet 400g that shadow levels faster than holy or disc by a decent margin. The fact that you guys seriously use shield for leveling outside of 2+ mob pulls is appalling outside of NE so star shards isn't pushed back. In shadow with beyond shit gear (im talking multiple lvl 20 items at lvl 40) you kill any mob with mind blast swp mind flay wand before swp finishes ticking. The only thing you need to do is upgrade your wand every 5 levels and you level fairly quick.

Shield is an inefficient use of mana from a leveling perspective outside of the pushback protection. If you do the opening shadow combo correctly ( which is mind blast, swp while running back during gcd, then mind flay) the mind flay will finish before the mob reaches you, and then the wand does the rest. Due to spirit tap you are at full mana at the end and can rinse repeat endlessly on single pulls.

Can you level with holy/disc? Sure you can level with them, but its a good 20% slower which adds up to a full extra day played before you hit 60, and you can heal any instance as shadow just fine. I healed rfc, sfk, wc, rfk, mara (multiple times), and st as full shadow 5 disc.

[gotmilk0112]

The fact that you guys seriously use shield for leveling outside of 2+ mob pulls is appalling

Using shield helps you not be at 50% life when the mob dies. Less time spent healing yourself, and you shouldn't have mana issues because of wands + spirit tap.

[varth]

Power word shield from a downtime perspective is inefficient. Healing the same amount that the shield blocked costs 20% less, even when using the most inefficient healing spell flash heal. Using the longer cast times costs even less mana per heal, and if you want something with an instant cast renew is more efficient as well.

Leveling in wow is all about cutting every possible corner, because if you do anything that causes you to take 5 seconds longer to kill a mob, that is multiplied in the thousands by the time you are 60.

[Botmaster5]

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=16652

[Garfunkel]

Power word shield from a downtime perspective is inefficient. Healing the same amount that the shield blocked costs 20% less, even when using the most inefficient healing spell flash heal. Using the longer cast times costs even less mana per heal, and if you want something with an instant cast renew is more efficient as well.

Leveling in wow is all about cutting every possible corner, because if you do anything that causes you to take 5 seconds longer to kill a mob, that is multiplied in the thousands by the time you are 60.

That might be so but this thread isn't "FASTEST WAY TO 60" but the viability of holy/disc build for leveling in general. Which it is.

Your point about PWS possibly being pointless is an interesting one - but I didn't really run out of mana even with using it and considering how often a player might get an accidental addon while killing mobs, it can be a life saver. Plus, you know, PVP server and all that. Corpse run lasts longer than drinking once in five minutes.