Priest Leveling Guide

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Fisher » Sat Jan 16, 2016 4:07 am

Ana wrote:Fear shouldn't make them run that far. They always go straight away from you as soon as you cast for like 2 seconds, then stop and start wandering around (while you already flay them, keeping them at bay). Or they should, anyway. Maybe Nost messed up fear mechanics again while I wasn't looking. Been a few months since I leveled my priest.
It did take me a while to get the hang of setting up the flays after fears, admittedly. But once there I had the channel interrupted maybe once every 15-20 mobs.


Psychic scream will make them run at a higher speed than normal (almost like they popped Sprint) directly away from the priest's original position . They will run for ~2.5 seconds, then stop for a brief moment, repeat until Psychic Scream ends. As you start to channel Mind Flay, they will continue to run out of range. If you're lucky, you can get one Mind Flay off before the mob is out of range of it. If you're unlucky, you'll start to channel a second and the mob will run out of range and interrupt it, wasting your mana half way through the channel.

I am playing from the U.S., so perhaps my latency could be affecting this technique's performance, but maybe 4 out of 5 mobs will do this, and 1 out of 5 will also run out of range of the wand, even when chasing them during the GCD of Psychic Scream.

Ana wrote:Why are you even getting hit by mobs when in shadowform? Like, at all? All the advantages of PWS you listed are irrelevant if the target never touches you (and it shouldn't).

Just to be clear, my rotation:
MB -> SWP (with strafe-kite if didn't start at max range) -> 2x flay -> fear, chase on GCD -> 2x flay -> another flay or wand, doesn't matter, dot will finish the target anyway


I am getting hit because 480 mana spent on casting Power Word: Shield after a mob dies is better than spending 350 (Mind Blast) + 820-1025 (4-5x Mind Flay) + 96 (Rank 1 Psychic Scream) = 1266-1471 mana to kill a mob before it can touch me, especially when you're rocking as much Spirit as my guide suggests you should. You won't have the mana pool nor the regeneration to do that many casts on every mob without drinking. The DPS you gain for killing mobs that much faster is not worth the XP/hour lost by having to drink that much more often.

I don't cast Mind Blast unless there are other players nearby who are stealing mob tags or when I'm in PvP combat where DPS matters more than DPM. It doesn't deal nearly as much damage per mana as Mind Flay or Shadow Word: Pain does, and using it every mob will burn through mana too quickly. Yes, it does the most damage per second of any priest spell, but it does not do the most damage per mana. The only spell that does less damage per mana is Smite (and if you're Undead, Devouring Plague), and getting the most damage out of your mana is what is important while leveling, not the most damage per second.

I don't cast Psychic Scream because it leaves me vulnerable to ganks, and it leaves me vulnerable to the possibility of multiple mobs swarming me with no way to get them off.

The only reason I cast Mind Flay at all is because my Spirit Tap can compensate for casting 2-3 per mob without ever having to stop.
User avatar
Fisher
Grunt
Grunt
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Ana » Sat Jan 16, 2016 5:09 pm

The fear thing worries me, although the fact that you play from the US certainly does have some negative impact there.

You're using lvl 60 mana costs here. How much spirit do you have (or rather, what are your spirit tapped ticks)?

Iirc when I leveled the 3rd mindflay after fear was never really necessary (dot still has 2 ticks and you can wand, besides it synergises nicely with dropping 5 seconds lockout just as you kill the mob for optimised spirit tap). You could stick to 3rd mindflay while dropping MB at start, resulting in static 1,1k-ish mana cost per mob at level 60. Assuming you need 5 seconds to loot and find the next mob, that's 6,5 seconds of out-of-combat regen, 4,5 of which will be clean (you get 2 big mana ticks, say, 160 mana each) and then spirit tap keeps ticking for 70-80 while you open on the next mob. If it so happens that you need to spend 8-10 seconds to find the next mob rather than 5, you basically break even.

But then it was a while ago and frankly my current priest is unsuitable for testing this stuff. I can just MB -> flay twice and the mob is dead. Heh

Anyway I suppose your method is still better if you like, NEVER stop. If there is a bit of forced downtime between the mobs however, I have the benefit of not going completely insane from wanding from lvl 5 to lvl 60 :P
Ana
Stone Guard
Stone Guard
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Fisher » Sat Jan 16, 2016 5:55 pm

I was using level 60 mana costs for the purpose of calculating the costs for each spell at max rank (except Psychic Scream, of course).

The point of the guide was to suggest a way of leveling that allows priests to go go go, non-stop. That's how I play, and how I do it seems to keep my mana from dropping. I also very much enjoy the relaxing playstyle of DoT + Wand. It allows me to do other things like talk to the guild, or respond to these posts on the forums.

Also, playing on the PvP server, having full mana is really helpful when getting ganked.
User avatar
Fisher
Grunt
Grunt
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by likemi » Wed Jan 20, 2016 1:14 pm

Nice guide and should be sticked, imo.

Don't get all the hate about priests' leveling speed. OP just pointed out that the priest leveling is not that bad as everybody think it is.

Great job, thanks
User avatar
likemi
Private
Private
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Fisher » Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:18 am

likemi wrote:Nice guide and should be sticked, imo.

Don't get all the hate about priests' leveling speed. OP just pointed out that the priest leveling is not that bad as everybody think it is.

Great job, thanks


Thanks for positive feedback. Glad it was of some use to you and the couple others that have dropped their thanks.
User avatar
Fisher
Grunt
Grunt
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Phyle » Tue Jan 26, 2016 11:30 am

I am happy I found this guide. With this rotation I am able to fight mobs 2 level higher, beause I have enough mana for selfheal. The wand damage is really high. When I fight my level or lower i need to drink all 4 mobs in average.

When i reach 20 and beyond I can report more. It may be right that priest is not the fastest class but it is really efficient for the mana and survival with the saved mana for selfheal. :)
User avatar
Phyle
Sergeant
Sergeant
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Phyle » Fri Jan 29, 2016 2:09 pm

At level 24 the spell priority from your guide is the best for leveling.

With the talents i have a change to discuss: I spend my first 2 skillpoints in Holy for Healing Focus, which prevents casting interruption for 70%. This helped my many times in critical situations, where healing without interruption saved my life.

Would you consider to add that to your guide or have you reasons against that?
User avatar
Phyle
Sergeant
Sergeant
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Fisher » Mon Feb 01, 2016 5:29 pm

Phyle wrote:At level 24 the spell priority from your guide is the best for leveling.

With the talents i have a change to discuss: I spend my first 2 skillpoints in Holy for Healing Focus, which prevents casting interruption for 70%. This helped my many times in critical situations, where healing without interruption saved my life.

Would you consider to add that to your guide or have you reasons against that?


Generally you don't want to bother casting heals at all as Shadow. Power Word: Shield and Psychic Scream should prevent any damage being dealt in the first place, and Vampiric Embrace can heal any damage you potentially take.

Obviously until you get Shadow Form, you're still able to cast heals, but if you need to, Power Word: Shield prevents spells from being knocked back anyway, so knockback reduction is worthless.
User avatar
Fisher
Grunt
Grunt
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by gambinho » Mon Feb 01, 2016 7:51 pm

Hey thanks for your Guide i got 60 yesterday.
I think that priest isnt maybe superfast in killing But it was a very chill experience. I could easily kill 3mobs of my Level
gambinho
Grunt
Grunt
 

Re: Priest Leveling Guide

by Phyle » Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:22 pm

Fisher wrote:Generally you don't want to bother casting heals at all as Shadow. Power Word: Shield and Psychic Scream should prevent any damage being dealt in the first place, and Vampiric Embrace can heal any damage you potentially take.

Obviously until you get Shadow Form, you're still able to cast heals, but if you need to, Power Word: Shield prevents spells from being knocked back anyway, so knockback reduction is worthless.


Ok you are right i think, but until i get the Shadow Form it is a nice addition. When you heal in dungeons while leveling it is nice to have surely.
User avatar
Phyle
Sergeant
Sergeant
 

PreviousNext

Return to Priest