About Priest Leveling

[Pottu]

You should get a run of BFD in and get the quest that gives you a blue wand, believe it is 29 dps! Gravestone Scepter.

http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=7001

[Pottu]

I do have this wand now! . The other blue I was using carried me from 16 to 24. Now I've got the Scepter :<. Averages out to around 70 normal and 125 crits

[Suarnic]

So, 5/5 points in Wand Specialization and the rest into Shadow is still a decent leveling form as a priest?

[drmccollum]

So, 5/5 points in Wand Specialization and the rest into Shadow is still a decent leveling form as a priest?

I'm wondering the same. Shadow doesn't seem that great pre-40 compared to Holy just looking at the talent tree, but maybe the actual results are a lot better than they look on paper.

[25toten]

I'm wondering the same. Shadow doesn't seem that great pre-40 compared to Holy just looking at the talent tree, but maybe the actual results are a lot better than they look on paper.

I'm level 43 currently and have to say Shadow is absolutely miserable until level 40+. Even now its still really terrible in pvp (melee have 100% crit chance vs cloth) but does alright leveling now. Mana is always an issue though, spirit tap just isn't enough. I used starshards (god forbid I'm NE) until level 40 and it always did more dps than mind flay, by a mile. Even now its still on par even with shadowform and much more mana efficient too. I couldn't imagine having to level as any non NE priest. Starshards carries you until the 40's.

I don't find the 25% wand damage being very useful past like level 30. Mob's HP begins to vastly outscale the DPS of wands. Spriests are just slow to level but as a result, they also never die or need food, which is a upside.

[Lakweeta]

I'm wondering the same. Shadow doesn't seem that great pre-40 compared to Holy just looking at the talent tree, but maybe the actual results are a lot better than they look on paper.

I'm level 43 currently and have to say Shadow is absolutely miserable until level 40+. Even now its still really terrible in pvp (melee have 100% crit chance vs cloth) but does alright leveling now. Mana is always an issue though, spirit tap just isn't enough. I used starshards (god forbid I'm NE) until level 40 and it always did more dps than mind flay, by a mile. Even now its still on par even with shadowform and much more mana efficient too. I couldn't imagine having to level as any non NE priest. Starshards carries you until the 40's.

I don't find the 25% wand damage being very useful past like level 30. Mob's HP begins to vastly outscale the DPS of wands. Spriests are just slow to level but as a result, they also never die or need food, which is a upside.

I had absolutely no problems at all, and I still don't o-o.
At 10, I put 1 point into Spirit Tap, then I 5/5'd Wand Spec, then shadow tree the rest of the way.
At the moment, I'm level 39. My wand on average hits for 65-80 damage every 1.5 seconds (Mind Flay does about 190 or so over 3 seconds for 100 mana)
As long as you keep an up do date wand, you WILL kill fast and have very little downtime. I can kill about 7 mobs before I actually have to drink.
PS: I'm Dwarf :3

[varth]

Don't listen to the NE priest posting, there's a reason EVERY SINGLE GUIDE ON THE PLANET FOR VANILLA PRIESTS has improved wands. The only thing you need to invest gold into when leveling is a better wand every 5-6 levels and stack spirit whenever you can and you level pretty darn fast. Starshard usage isn't ever mana efficient because it requires you to shield yourself to prevent spell push because the majority of the damage is backloaded, with the ticks starting at 15% of the dmg and ending at 30%, so even 1 attack on you without a shield reduces the dmg by 30%.

The fact of the matter is you talent into as much dmg as possible, and the shadow tree gives a nice mix of straight + dmg, longer sw:p for the same mana, and less chance of resists so less wasted mana. Holy has a few nice talents, but due to the fact most of the tree is built around boosting heals which are useless while leveling due to food and spirit tap shadow wins out.

Slow leveling? I made it to 60 in 7d 8h played, which is faster than most, especially if you consider the vast population of Nost.

[sp00ned]

Here's how to level as a priest:

Spec into 3/5 spirit tab or 5/5. After that go for 5/5 wands.

Stack spirit and stamina gear. Spirit tab letting you regen twice as much out of combat and 50% of normal regen in combat while active. All of your spells scale with "increased magic damage" items. Int doesn't give you spell power like in WOD. Only thing int does is to increase your mana pool and your chance to crit. But the int to crit ratio is so terrible that it's not worth it.

Here's the leveling rotation: PW:S, MB, SW:P and wand them to death. Smite can do more damage than wands, so if you feel like using Smite instead of the wand, then do so, but balance it between each kill, so you always got mana for the next rotation on the next mob.

Priests will never be "easy" or "fast" to level. It's simply much easier to just buy a godlike melee weapon on the melee classes and wreck havoc, because their spells and abilities scale with weapon damage, swing timer and what not. But, as a priest or spell caster, there's literally no items early game that gives "increased magic damage".


tl;dr

Intellect is good _IF_ you got enough spirit to regen a decent amount of mana, however, spirit is a absolute must if you're going to level. Only invest money in new wands every 5-8 levels, that's literally the only thing you need.

[25toten]

I had absolutely no problems at all, and I still don't o-o.
At 10, I put 1 point into Spirit Tap, then I 5/5'd Wand Spec, then shadow tree the rest of the way.
At the moment, I'm level 39. My wand on average hits for 65-80 damage every 1.5 seconds (Mind Flay does about 190 or so over 3 seconds for 100 mana)
As long as you keep an up do date wand, you WILL kill fast and have very little downtime. I can kill about 7 mobs before I actually have to drink.
PS: I'm Dwarf :3

It's not necessarily that it's a "problem", more or less, kill speed is slow. Wand + SW = 60-70dps at best, if you have wand spec. Mobs with 2k hp, @ 40, that takes almost 40 seconds per kill. While using Mind Flay + SW, it works out around 120dps atm but you have to drink every 3 mobs.

Almost as annoying as leveling a warlock.

[ketchup]

Best way to level priest is pay chinaman