Priest Leveling Guide

[Fisher]

From what you describe (25 seconds being a generous kill time), your wand sucks.

Yup. I did the math. Point conceded.

The reason for dropping the debate is not because you won with math, but because the numbers you used are unreliable. Also, the debate is totally irrelevant.

Btw fear is better than PWSing before pull. Cheaper.

Psychic Scream causes the mob to run away, often out of range of Mind Flay and sometimes out of the range of your wand, can fear the mob into another mob (or several), only lasts 8 seconds (assuming it doesn't break on damage (which it often does)), can be resisted, is your only form of CC as a priest, and has a base cooldown of 30 seconds.

Power Word: Shield lasts the entirety of any fight, has an effective 15 second cooldown, prevents damage from being taken completely, makes your spells immune to knock-back, doesn't cause the mob to run away, and doesn't leave you vulnerable while your Psychic Scream is on cooldown.

You cannot use Psychic Scream on every pull, nor is it advisable to do so even if you could.

[Leythia]

Spam

[Pottu]

You mean those fights where you're in a dungeon group and AoEing? Cool. Can you do that solo? Nope.

Also, I don't care. This is a PRIEST LEVELING GUIDE, not a "which class is best" discussion thread. Please stop trying to derail the thread.

[Pottu]

calm down , i did not open the discussion about paladin vs priest damage. you did it .

and no retri paladin will do twice more dps without mana drinking solo during leveling, while priest will have to drink each 3rd mob.

on topic = good guide. Good luck.

[Fisher]

and no retri paladin will do twice more dps without mana drinking solo during leveling, while priest will have to drink each 3rd mob.

on topic = good guide. Good luck.

Priests never have to drink either, as I've mentioned many times. I appreciate the positive comment about the guide, but you obviously didn't read it very well, because one of the things I talk about to great lengths is how priests never have to stop to drink.

[Ana]

Yup. I did the math. Point conceded.

The reason for dropping the debate is not because you won with math, but because the numbers you used are unreliable. Also, the debate is totally irrelevant.

Geez. I did the math (took lvl 26 spells, wand and target, checked how long it takes to kill it) and it turned out I'm wrong. Do you know what "concede" means?

Psychic Scream causes the mob to run away, often out of range of Mind Flay

Chase it during global cooldown, start flaying as soon as it's over. It won't run away too far from there. 8 seconds is enough for 3 uninterrupted flays.
Fearing mobs into other mobs is bad play, not inherent spell mechanic.
If you spec 2/2 improved fearbomb, you'll usually have it ready for every pull (Nost is pretty crowded, getting every single spawnpoint for yourself is unlikely). If not you can pull without and wand instead of flaying, but since you will be using fear often you don't need a shield anyway (health will regen on its own).

[Fisher]

Geez. I did the math (took lvl 26 spells, wand and target, checked how long it takes to kill it) and it turned out I'm wrong. Do you know what "concede" means?

My mistake. Thought you meant I was conceding because you started bringing in math.

Chase it during global cooldown, start flaying as soon as it's over. It won't run away too far from there. 8 seconds is enough for 3 uninterrupted flays.
Fearing mobs into other mobs is bad play, not inherent spell mechanic.
If you spec 2/2 improved fearbomb, you'll usually have it ready for every pull (Nost is pretty crowded, getting every single spawnpoint for yourself is unlikely). If not you can pull without and wand instead of flaying, but since you will be using fear often you don't need a shield anyway (health will regen on its own).

Yes, you can control the direction the mob runs to lessen the chance it was run into something else, but that also requires positioning, which is time spent not casting Mind Flay or using your wand. Every second counts. Also, as I mentioned, Psychic Scream has a chance to break on damage, and only lasts 8 seconds if it doesn't.

However, for the sake of keeping an open mind, I will give this method a try and see if it works. My suspicion is that it won't, due to the aforementioned reasons. Will report my findings later.

[Ana]

Fearbombing is actually pretty quick because by the time you're doing it the mob is next to you. It's just a matter of either bombing right away or running through the mob to make it flee in a different direction. Takes a split second.

[Fisher]

I did a bit of testing and have confirmed my initial thoughts: Power Word: Shield > Psychic Scream, for the following reasons:

Power Word: Shield...

• prevents spell knock-back
• can be cast before combat begins
• lasts 30 seconds
• prevents damage taken
• prevents stacks of Inner Fire from being consumed when hit
• has an effective 15 second cooldown

Psychic Scream...

• requires positioning, or risks pulling extra mobs
• must be cast in combat
• causes the mob to run out of range of Mind Flay and sometimes Shoot
• has a base 30 second cooldown, or 26 second cooldown if talented
• is a priest's only form of crowd-control
• only lasts 8 seconds
• can break on damage
• costs a global cooldown mid-combat, interrupting dps

Despite the lower cost, Psychic Scream cost me more mana than it saved due to wasted Mind Flays interrupted by the mob running out of range. Running alongside the mob during the global cooldown of Psychic Scream was not enough to keep me within range most of the time, and the time spent running could've been spent wanding or casting Mind Flay in the first place. Psychic Scream also did not prevent stacks of Inner Fire from being consumed, so I had to reapply the buff more often. Also, passive health regeneration was not enough (even with Spirit Tap) to compensate for the damage dealt by mobs, especially while pulling multiple mobs in a row, so I had to spend mana on Vampiric Embrace that I wouldn't have otherwise had to spend. Finally, if, for any reason, another mob or two were pulled while Psychic Scream was on cooldown, I was unable to fear them off me. Similarly, if any player attempted to gank me, I would not have my fear ready.

I appreciate the suggestion, and I did give it an honest try, but Psychic Scream seemed to be inferior to Power Word: Shield for leveling.

[Ana]

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).

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.

I assume you use r1 fear, there's not much point otherwise

edit
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