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Leveling a priest these days
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Post by
192338
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
1015766
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Capnboomkin
Discipline is definitely the best leveling spec until Wrath content. Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance hit like a truck, you can
glyph
your Shadow Word: Death so you never run out of mana, and can even
heal dungeons
while DPSing. Plus you get the earliest access to the badass
angel wings
.
Post by
Nooska
At this point I would advise you to wait a week for 5.0.4, so you don't have to spend time finding out what you lost and gained.
Post by
Rafikiooha
Even after 5.0.4 Discipline is still the way to go.
Survivability + Decent Damage + Fast Ques for low level instances (and their nicely re-designed quests at the start of the instance) makes it a easy choice.
Post by
Nooska
Depending on what you are planning on doing, levelling as shadow is better if you are simply questing (like me, I have an intense dislike for dungeons while levelling unless I happen to go with a guild group)
Post by
Capnboomkin
Depending on what you are planning on doing, levelling as shadow is better if you are simply questing (like me, I have an intense dislike for dungeons while levelling unless I happen to go with a guild group)
The problem with Shadow is that all of its options for damage (until a high level) are DoTs, DoTs, and more DoTs. DoTs don't kill mobs as fast as direct damage. Smiting away with Discipline is overall much faster and safer until you're at least in Northrend.
Post by
Izichial
In my experience the problem with levelling as shadow is not DoTs, it's mana. Even with the SW:D glyph you'll be running out of mana very quickly just running around killing quest mobs, or at least that was how it was for me when I levelled my priest alt to 85 (as opposed to my priest main who had 5/5 Wand Specialization and other goodies when I levelled it the first time). If I recall correctly it gets better later on but for the first 50-60 levels I found it hard to justify questing as shadow.
Then again I also enjoy dungeons which I healed as disc, so often it wasn't worth the bother respeccing during the shortish dungeon queue regardless.
Post by
Nooska
Mana was the issue until I got Masochism for me.
Dots, no, not really, Mind blast and mindfaly are enough for lower level, and at some point you get mind psike as well (under current, pre MoP system, haven't checked up for MoP).
Even at that point, dots kills things just as fast as direct damage (faster even, as dots don't suffer from pushback), if you are doing the same dps. Shadow has more damage spells and does more dps than disc overall during the levelling process.
Post by
FluffyFrog
Level as Disc until Northrend. Thats what I did.
Mobs seem to die before they can reach you. A quick smite, Penance combo usually does the trick. You have a shield for elite mobs or group quests and mana was never an issue.
If you then choose to go through dungeons you can queue as healer or dps and perform either role well. Plus going AA spec means you can mostly dps your way through a dungeon as a healer, helping the run to go that much quicker!
Its a lot of fun too :)
Post by
731655
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Ahmi
My priest is 66 right now, and I'm 1-shotting BC mobs with single penance crit, or two non-crit ticks. When doing random dungeons, I'm always the top dps, while still being a very good healer. There was exactly one moment when Atonement wasn't enough, and that was at level 57, doing outland dungeons. Some of the mobs were 4-5 levels above me, so I sometimes missed, and the tanks I got were undergeared, so I needed to heal properly. After getting 58, I could go back to doing dps.
Also, I do more dps as discipline than as shadow, unless there are very many mobs to be dotted.
If you do random battlegrounds, you'll see people saying that disc is OP (and on lower levels it is). You get PW:S, which gives you an absorb as strong as your health pool (at least with heirlooms), and Penance, which combined with Holy Fire (you can glyph it to make it instant) and/or SW:D kills anyone, except for people who are being healed (since one flash heal is enough to bring someone back to full health). Also, your Shadowfiend (I highly recommend to pick Mindbender for levelling, because you won't have to use Power Word: Solace at all, and instant flash heals aren't needed thanks to Atonement) hits like a truck now.
EDIT: Also, I noticed I already had atonement at level 44 (that's what level my priest was before I stopped levelling him in 4.x), despite the tooltip saying it requires level 60.
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