Welcome to my guide for the best Priest leveling guide for World of Warcraft. The easiest and fastest way to level a priest is Shadow, unless you plan on leveling exclusively through the dungeon finder, then you can choose Holy or Discipline.
If you’re looking for help on the fastest way to get your character to Level 80 with an in-game addon, I’d highly suggest taking a look at Zygor’s Leveling Guide, which can help you level in as little as 7 days.
Introduction to the Priest Class
As a Priest, you’re damage is going to be ranged (done from a distance). You have weak armor (cloth), so do your best to keep your distance from the mobs that you’re fighting.
Some of the advantages that come with playing a Priest include:
Being able to heal yourself, both directly and indirectly through spells
Some of the best self buffs in the game (Remember to ALWAYS keep all of your buffs up all of the time!)
You can heal Random dungeons through the dungeon finder up until you reach outlands reasonably well (even with a Shadow Spec)
Spending Your Talent Points
This is not the exact spec or advice you’ll be given by people who follow the cookie-cutter way to level their Priest through Shadow. I can say that I’ve leveled several Priests and this is how I’ve done it (with some changes as the talent trees and class are changed on a regular basis during patches)
Let’s get started!
Levels 10-12: 3/3 Spirit Tap
A pretty lackluster start, but this helps in the long run by increasing your mana regeneration after defeating a mob.
Levels 13-17: 5/5 Darkness
This increases your shadow damage by 10%!
Levels 18-19: 2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
Increases the damage of your SW: P (once upon a time, this actually increased the duration… a long time ago)
Level 20: 1/1 Mind Flay
You now have a new damage spell which slows your enemy down. This is helpful when they’re coming toward you, but even more so when they’re trying to flee (Gnolls come to mind here). Honestly, the damage on this is pretty lousy until Rank 2 or 3, so you can wait and get it a little further down the road if you choose, but I like to get it right away.
Levels 21-23: 3/3 Shadow Focus
Increases your chance to hit and reduces the mana cost of your spells. Definitely a Win-Win.
Level 24: 1/2 Improved Spirit Tap
This will start coming in handy now that you have Mind Flay. We’ll finish it up later, but we’re really heading for the next tier…
Levels 25-27: 3/3 Shadow Weaving
Another buff to your shadow damage. Once you have all 3 points spent, you have a 100% chance to increase your shadow damage by 2% for 15 seconds. It stacks 5 times, so you basically have another 10% increase to damage.
Levels 28-29: 2/2 Shadow Reach
Increasing the distance that you can cast your spells means more damage before the mob gets to you. I open with Mind Blast, Mind Flay until the get to me, throw up a shield, cast SW: Pain and wand them to death at this point. If they try to run away, I cast Mind Flay until they’re dead (so they don’t aggro anything else).
Level 30: 1/1 Vampiric Embrace
Another buff to keep up at all times. This one heals you for 15% of the shadow damage you inflict on a single target. Pretty nice. It saves you from having to heal yourself so often.
Levels 31-33: Focused Mind
Another mana saver for you. It reduces the cost of your Mind Blast and Mind Flay spells by 15%. It reduces Mind Control (which you won’t really be using very often) and Mind Sear (which you don’t have yet) as well.
Level 34: 2/2 Improved Spirit Tap
Yep, we’re gonna finish it. It will become more useful now thanks to…
Levels 35-36: 2/2 Mind Melt
Increases your crit chance with Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear by 4%. It also improves your crit chance with Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and SW: Pain by 6%. More crits are great for reducing your fighting time and the chance to gain Spirit Tap is nice too.
Levels 37-38: 2/2 Improved Vampiric Embrace
Increases the amount you heal yourself for through VE by a good amount. A lot of people would tell you to max out Improved Devouring Plague, but you really should be using it very often while leveling. It eats way to much mana with your current mana pool and will rarely get through its entire run, so I go with this instead.
Level 39: 1/3 Improved Devouring Plague
Honestly, it’s filler. You could put this 1 point into anything else you’d like if you’d prefer. Some suggestions would be Improved Psychic Scream, Mind Blast or even Veiled Shadows. Whatever floats your boat.
Level 40: 1/1 Shadowform
This is a great moment in your career as a Shadow Priest… Shadowform! Now you have a cool black glow that says, “Hey Rogues! Please come kill me!” But seriously, it improves your shadow damage by 15%, reduced the damage you take by 15% and lets your DoTs to crit for 100% damage.
Levels 41-44: 4/5 Misery
Increases the critical strike damage of Mind Blast, Mind Flay and SW: D by 80%. We’ll be back to finish it off later.
Levels 45-46: 2/2 Improved Shadowform
Fade will now remove all movement impairing effect while you’re in Shadowform. It also reduces casting and channeling time lost while taking damage by 70% while in Shadowform.
Levels 47-49: 3/3 Misery
SW: Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch increases your hit chance by 3% for 24 seconds. You also gain increased benefit from your spellpower of 15% for your Mind Blast, Mind Flay and Mind Sear.
Level 50: 1/1 Vampiric Touch
You now have your new opening spell. Another DoT which cases damage if it’s dispelled. It also causes mana regeneration when followed up by Mind Blast. Your new rotation will be (from maximum range): Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, SW: Pain, Shield (optional), Mind Flay until dead.
Levels 51-53: 3/3 Pain and Suffering
Mind Flay now refreshes your SW: Pain on your target, which is great. It also reduces the damage you take from casting SW: Death by 30% (when your target doesn’t die from SW: Death). Also a perk, but I don’t really use SW: Death much while leveling.
Level 54: 5/5 Shadow Power
Finish it up
Levels 55-59: 5/5 Twisted Faith
Increases your spellpower by 20% of your Spirit, which is a nice little damage bonus. It also increases your damage of Mind Blast and Mind Flay by 10% if your target is afflicted by SW: Pain
Level 60: 1/1 Dispersion
A great defensive spell, but unless you’re PvPing a lot, you’ll just use this for mana regeneration.
That wraps up the Shadow Tree (sort of). Now we’ll be moving on to the Discipline Tree
Levels 61-65: 5/5 Twin Disciplines
Increases the damage of your instant cast spells by 5%
Levels 66-67: 2/2 Veiled Shadows
This becomes helpful now that you have your Shadowfiend. Use your Shadowfiend for an extra damage boost or just to regenerate mana.
Levels 68-70: 3/3 Improved Inner Fire
Increases the number of charges on your Inner Fire and increases its effect by 45%
Levels 71-72: 2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude
Increases your Fortitude Spells by 30% and increases your Stamina by 4%. More health is always a good thing.
Levels 73-75: 3/3 Meditation
Allows 50% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting, which leads to less downtime (if you even have any downtime at this point)
Levels 76-78: 3/3 Improved Power Word: Shield
At this point, it’s all really filler until you hit 80. This is helpful when you use your shield though!
Levels 79-80: 2/3 Mental Agility
More filler, but it helps your mana consumption a little bit.
Congratulatoins! You’re a level 80 and can respect for whatever you’re interested in doing, whether it be Raid or PvP healing or DPS. It’s up to you! Have fun!
Stats You’ll Want on Your Weapons and Gear
You’ll come across a lot of decent gear while leveling. Your most important stats are Spell Power, Spirit, Intellect. In that order. You don’t want to neglect Stamina, but don’t focus on it too much if you’re not constantly engaging in PvP.
What You Need to Know About Buffs
Remember to keep all of your available buffs up at all times. These include: Fortitude, Inner Fire (Level 12), Divine Spirit (Level 30), Vampiric Embrace (Level 30) and Fear Ward (Fear Ward is sort of optional, so don’t stress over casting it every 3 minutes). Remember to keep an eye on your Inner Fire since it will run out pretty frequently.
Rotations
At lower levels, there really aren’t a lot of choices. No matter what level you are, try to pull from the maximum possible distance.
Early Levels: Pull with Mind Blast, cast SW: Pain (while strafing), then wand the mob to death. You can cast Power Word: Shield before you cast Mind Blast.
At Level 20, when you get Mind Flay, cast Power Word: Shield (optional) cast Mind Blast from maximum distance, SW: Pain (while strafing away), Mind Flay twice, then use your wand, Mind Flay or Blast to kill them off. Use Mind Flay if they try to run away from you. It will pretty much stay this way until you get Vampiric Touch at level 50.
At Level 50, your rotation will switch to Vampiric Touch (at max distance), Mind Blast (to get your mana regen going), SW: Pain (while strafing away), then Mind Flay or Mind Blast until dead. You can throw SW: Death in there when you learn that spell (Level 62).
It doesn’t really change after that. Remember to apply Power Word: Shield as you feel necessary. I usually start out casting it before I pull the mob at lower levels. That way, if you have a bad pull, you will have the option of renewing your shield earlier in the fight. Later on, your shield becomes necessary only when the fight is a bit tough.
Remember, there’s not really a set rotation, so just do whatever works best for you. The above are examples of how I usually do it while leveling.
Best Priest Leveling Spec Glyphs
You’ll probably want to switch your glyphs as you level. I’ll try to cover it a little bit.
Major
Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
Pick this up as your first Major glyph when you hit level 15. The small amount of mana regeneration will help out since you don’t really have enough Spirit to make Spirit Tap all that useful.
At level 30 you can get whatever you want, you’re just going to change it out with Glyph of Shadow at 40 anyway. I’d suggest Glyph of Power Word: Shield.
Glyph of Shadow
Pick this up at Level 40 (as soon as you get Shadowform) and ditch Glyph of Power Word Shield (if you picked it up). If you get a critical strike with a non-periodic spell, your spell power goes up by 30% of your Spirit. This is a glyph that you will keep when you start raiding.
Minor
Pick up Glyph of Levitate as soon as you hit level 34. Saving the bag space and having to worry about Light Feathers is great. Remember, if you have to swim anywhere, just cast levitate and run across the water to your destination. It’s much faster than swimming there.
At level 50, you might want to pick up Glyph of Fortitude, but it’s not totally necessary. It’s just nice to save some mana when you have to re-buff.
That’s really the only must-have glyph that there is. I’d go ahead and pick up Glyph of Shadow Fiendonce you acquire that spell though (or at level 70)… not like your Shadowfiend is going to get killed often enough to make it of any use to you.
Conclusion to the Best Priest Leveling Spec
I hope you found my guide to the best priest leveling spec helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a comment below. If you really want to level your priest as quickly as possible and get to some end-game content, check out Zygor’s Guide. You’ll be glad you did.
