Priest levelling build?

[gotmilk0112]

Mind Blast and Holy fire does about the same damage but Holy fire/smite are a lot more mana efficient - and you'll mostly be wanding anyway.

Mana isn't a problem when it comes to MB->SWP->Wand, which is what you should be doing. You shouldn't be casting Smite at all unless you need to kill something fast.

you have more survivability and can heal instances easier as holy/disc

How do you have more survivability? The non-Renew healing increase talents are far down in the Holy tree. The only early bonuses you get are pushback resistance and 5% crit, and a bit of mana cost reduction. Or for Disc, +15% on your shield, which isn't a whole lot at lower levels.

You can heal instances perfectly fine as Shadow, all the way up to BRD. If you're trying to get to 60 quickly though, instances should be avoided unless you've got at least 2-3 quests, or a lot of rested exp.

It's not IMPOSSIBLE to level as Holy or Disc, but you're going to have a much slower and tougher time. 5/5 Imp Wands + Shadow is infinitely better and faster.

I've had my say with both shadow and disc/holy for leveling, I rest my case.

Take it or leave it, I don't mind if you choose to listen to my expertise or not.

So basically your only response is "lol I'm an expert, ur wrong". What a convincing counterargument

To above poster, yes it's minimal wanding because you're nuking the mob.. And you're pretty much OOM

If you're "nuking" as Shadow, you're doing it wrong. Just like with Holy or Disc, you just hit one nuke spell, then dot, then wand the mob to death.

If you "nuke" as Holy or Disc, you'll OOM as well. Not sure what you're trying to prove.

[Ana]

I recently made the switch over from 5-20-5 to 0-0-31 when I hit lvl 40, which I feel was a mistake.

What's your rotation? You should be able to support MB -> SWP -> flay -> fear -> flay -> flay -> finish on yellow mobs easily. Don't shield, fear is much cheaper.

@everyone else: ok np go on leveling to 40 putting points into shadow tree and then not using shadow spells in your rotation. Or whatever the hell it is you're trying to advocate here. Fuck logic

[Proctologist]

Why am I even replying, right, I'm an expert!

I don't have to because I've already mentioned it, as it has been mentioned by others and as it has been mentioned on several private servers since I started in 2008-09 on pre-warsong.

No I will not stand and wither barking with you, you're entitled to your opinion.

You can go back to my earlier posts and you can read some of my saying and answers with your questions, e.g nuking etc.
You don't nuke as priest leveling, unless you can easily get water, being shadow.
Yes, everything up to BRD.

You did presumably you're not lying, 60 in 5-6days, but that's you, we're talking general terms.
You cannot just assume ''This is vanilla, everyone is a pro cuz the game is old''
Most people level slow, and leveling as I and others have advised will reassure minimal downtime and a more steadfast leveling.

Now I'm really out of here dead issue

[gotmilk0112]

@everyone else: ok np go on leveling to 40 putting points into shadow tree and then not using shadow spells in your rotation.

Literally nobody in this thread has said "ignore imp wands and go 40 points in shadow".

No I will not stand and wither barking with you

Then why do you keep replying? This is the 2nd or 3rd time you've been like "lol i'm out" and then you reply again.

you're entitled to your opinion.

And you're entitled to yours. But when you start telling new players that a healing spec is better for soloing than a damage spec, that's where I've got to correct you.

You can go back to my earlier posts and you can read some of my saying and answers with your questions, e.g nuking etc.

Yes, you repeatedly assume this weird situation of "nuking things nonstop" even when I repeatedly say "no, you just hit MB once then dot and wand".

You cannot just assume ''This is vanilla, everyone is a pro cuz the game is old''

I'm not saying "everyone is pro", I'm saying the game is 10 years old and the theorycrafting has been done for years. Shadow has always been the best for leveling, but here you come making claims of expertise in saying that a healing spec has better damage than a damage spec.

Most people level slow, and leveling as I and others have advised will reassure minimal downtime and a more steadfast leveling.

Shadow as just as minimal downtime as holy or disc. If not more, due to faster killing.

[Zaft]

Please stop using "downtime" and "shadow" in the same sentence. I had close to no downtime as shadow. I have no idea what you guys are doing as shadow, but you are clearly doing something very wrong as the mana regen from Spirit Tap is INSANE whilst leveling (should cover your mana needs unless you spam spells).

I don't care what's faster, disc or shadow, but please don't spread misinformation.

And if he did level to 60 in less than 6 days then I think that speaks volumes about the efficiency of shadow. If anything it sort of proves that it's just as fast as disc/holy or faster.

[Jindo]

TL'DR. Obviously all these replies before me are useless cuz I am the best.

First: 5x wand spec
Second: 5x spirit tab + 2x imp SWP
Third: get PVP talents for world pvp. This means shadow is probably a no go cuz priests got no dmg till shadowform so you want to survive. Get at least 2x healing focus and then into disc for survival.

Procto guy came closest, tho 2 points in imp SWP is a must ^_-. Also, don't open with PWS, that's so mana inefficient. Rather do a mind blast/holy fire and then swp -> wanding till its dead.

[AgentMulder]

Question for those Shadow levelers...does it go without saying that Vampiric Embrace is up on every mob? Or is it only being used on higher level mobs or elites? Not at all? Seems like it isn't really needed and only taken because it's required to unlock Shadowform. If you're healing a dungeon...do you throw that up along with a SWP and use that extra healing to your benefit (however little it may be)?

Just curious.

Also, just sharing my experiences...

I'm currently level 36 and I only have 3 points in Shadow. I went 3/5 Spirit Tap and I've been pleasantly surprised with the proc rate at 60%, which procs enough for me to save those two talent points for elsewhere (*cough* Improved Mana Burn *cough*).

I think the overall lesson here is that there is no wrong way to go about it...I mean there's no really wrong way. I'm a casual player...gaining about 2 levels per week, and at that pace...discussing specs is kind of a moot point. I've enjoyed leveling as (mostly) Disc and I'm just now going down into the Holy Tree as the dungeons start to become harder and harder (which I enjoy running and healing them).

The only thing I can say is that the way I've chosen to spec has saved me alot in world PvP encounters. As the poster above me said...I kind of followed that strategy and spec'd more into PvP-based talents because well...the server and the gankers kind of forced my hand haha. Am I slower killing mobs...most likely yes. But being dead is the most/worst downtime you can have, and I got tired of being dead

Min/maxing is an end-game thing. I'll respec at 60 and worry about uber heals or uber damage then.

[Viorus]

+1 Proctologist has it right.

[gotmilk0112]

Question for those Shadow levelers...does it go without saying that Vampiric Embrace is up on every mob?

No, you never use VE against normal mobs. Not only do you not need it, but it really doesn't heal for very much unless you get the improved talent for it.

If you're healing a dungeon...do you throw that up along with a SWP and use that extra healing to your benefit (however little it may be)?

Again, it doesn't really heal for anything unless you talent it, and in a dungeon, it's probably going to either get pushed off the mob by other debuffs, or the mob will die before the SWP ticks its full duration.

With just SWP, it doesn't heal enough to be worth it for healing. At all. Especially considering its mana cost. For how much mana it uses, it heals for barely anything compared to actual heals.

[AgentMulder]

That's kind of what I figured, thanks for the info!