WoW Priests

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » February 1, 2005, 11:43 am

I am currently lvl 57 as a priest. I have taken, what I consider to be, the optimal leveling specialization thus far, which looks like the following:

Discipline Talents (0 points)

None

Holy Talents (20 points)

Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%.
Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.
Subtlety - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%.
Improved Healing - 5/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by 15%.

Shadow Talents (31 points)

Spirit Tap - 5/5 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target. For the duration, your Mana may regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds.
Shadow Focus - 5/5 points
Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 10%.
Improved Mind Blast - 5/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds.
Mind Flay - 1/1 point
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.
Shadow Reach - 2/3 points
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 13%.
Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Darkness - 5/5 points
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%.
Shadowform - 1/1 point
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may only cast Shadow and Discipline spells while in this form.

I am happy that this talent selection is great for leveling quickly. By level 41, I had Shadowform and was able to kill so quickly and efficiently that it surprised me. By dumping the talent points from 41 to 60 into healing, I was still able to fill my role as a group healer when doing instance runs.

However, once leveling is complete it is likely that I will respecialize to a Holy/Disc set. However, there are a number of variations to the Holy/Disc that could have merits. There are a number of different talents at the bottom of the Discipline and Holy trees that have specific value.

Variation #1 - Holy Preference: The first variation focuses on the Holy tree to its logical conclusion. Without investing points in the Shadow tree, there is only one way to gain any additional fade ability: the AE Holy damage spell at the end of the Holy tree has a respectable damage output while reducing aggro for 5 seconds. This gives some flavor and fun to the class while still providing a useful primary healer tool. On the down side, the final talent has limited value and will not create a viable mage substitute out of a priest.

Discipline Talents (20 points)

Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%.
Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.
Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%.
Mental Strength - 5/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 10%.

Holy Talents (31 points)

Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%.
Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.
Subtlety - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%.
Improved Healing - 5/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by 15%.
Improved Flash Heal - 2/2 points
Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Flash Heal.
Improved Prayer of Healing - 2/2 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing spell by 20%.
Spirit of Redemption - 1/1 point
Upon death, summons a Spirit of Redemption that heals nearby friendly targets for 318 to 360 and another 343 over 21 seconds.
Master Healer - 5/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Heal and Greater Heal spells by 0.5 seconds.
Holy Nova - 1/1 point
Causes an explosion of holy light around the caster, causing 80 to 88 Holy damage to all targets within 10 yards. The effect also temporarily reduces your threat level against nearby targets for 5 seconds.

Shadow Talents (0 points)

None

Variation #2 - Discipline Preference: The second variation focuses on the Discipline tree to its logical conclusion. While many would argue that spirit is next to useless in its current format, there are compelling arguments for improving mana regeneration. As a healer, one will often wish for just a little more mana to squeeze out another renew, flash heal, or even Greater Heal. Any talents that could possible generate enough additional mana for that "one more heal" scenario would be beneficial. Traversing the Discipline tree to the end will grant access to the Spirit buff that will help not just the priest but other casters in the group/raid. While the 15% combat regen may not be massive, it will have an effect and this effect should scale as better gear (with higher spi) is obtained. On the down side, this final talent will grow less important as equipment improves.

Discipline Talents (31 points)

Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%.
Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.
Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%.
Mental Strength - 5/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 10%.
Martyrdom - 2/2 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6 seconds after being the victim of a critical strike. The Focused Casting effect prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage.
Improved Inner Fire - 2/3 points
Increases the effects of your Inner Fire spell by 30%.
Meditation - 5/5 points
Allows 15% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
Inner Focus - 1/1 point
When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
Divine Spirit - 1/1 point
Holy power infuses the target, increasing their Spirit by 23 for 30 minutes.

Holy Talents (20 points)

Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%.
Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.
Subtlety - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%.
Improved Healing - 5/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by 15%.

Shadow Talents (0 points)

None

Variation #3 - Balanced Holy and Discipline: The third variation is an attempt to get the best talents out of both Discipline and Holy without investing in talents of marginal value or talents that are likely to age poorly. I have removed the AE Holy spell, the 0.5 casting time reduction from Greater Heal, the chance to gain a 6s focused casting buff, and the enhancement to Inner Fire. This set should leave the most efficient talents selected.

Discipline Talents (26 points)

Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%.
Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.
Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%.
Mental Strength - 5/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 10%.
Meditation - 5/5 points
Allows 15% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
Inner Focus - 1/1 point
When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.

Holy Talents (25 points)

Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%.
Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.
Subtlety - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%.
Improved Healing - 5/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by 15%.
Improved Flash Heal - 2/2 points
Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Flash Heal.
Improved Prayer of Healing - 2/2 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing spell by 20%.
Spirit of Redemption - 1/1 point
Upon death, summons a Spirit of Redemption that heals nearby friendly targets for 318 to 360 and another 343 over 21 seconds.

Shadow Talents (0 points)

None

Obviously, there are ways to integrate Shadow specialization into the mix, even if in a limited capacity. In my opinion Shadow is a great tree for leveling and gives the priest a massive capacity to do damage, but it is a distraction from the whole point of the priest class. I am leaning strongly towards variation three at the moment, but I thought I would get some more minds involved in the throught process.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » February 1, 2005, 12:43 pm

Abandon the priest, start a hunter, mage, or roag alt. It's much more funner.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » February 1, 2005, 12:53 pm

Woah Woah Woah.

Junior Grammar Deputy Cadalano here

'more funner?'

CITATION.

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » February 1, 2005, 1:42 pm

cadalano wrote:Woah Woah Woah.

Junior Grammar Deputy Cadalano here

'more funner?'

CITATION.

parody

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » February 1, 2005, 1:51 pm

Priests are too rare as is, and really they're a very powerful class from both a PvE and PvP stand point.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » February 1, 2005, 2:11 pm

masteen wrote:Abandon the priest, start a hunter, mage, or roag alt. It's much more funner.

I started a (mangina!) priest gimp, lots of fun so far.

Hunter gimp has gotten sort of boring.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » February 1, 2005, 2:22 pm

I just started a troll priest in Lothar and I think I'll use Shadow spec for leveling up purposes then respec holy when I get to a Zul Farrak/Sunken Temple level.

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » February 1, 2005, 2:23 pm

Dregor Thule wrote:Priests are too rare as is, and really they're a very powerful class from both a PvE and PvP stand point.

Last night I was getting an inordinate number of tells (read 1 every few minutes rather than one every fifteen). I did a /who priest 50-59 and there were three of us online.

Zeep · Post by **Zeep** » February 1, 2005, 2:25 pm

Well.. My priest is 59 now. I didn't play in beta so I don't know all the leet infoz, but this is the build I'm using (missing 1 point in subtlety still for level 60...)

Discipline Talents (25 points)
Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Mental Strength - 5/5 points
Meditation - 5/5 points

Holy Talents (15 points)
Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Subtlety - 5/5 points

Shadow Talents (11 points)
Spirit Tap - 5/5 points
Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Shadow Focus - 3/5 points
Mind Flay - 1/1 point

It hits the good stuff in all 3 really, which I see as meditation, subtlety and mind flay. I used be really int heavy, with more points into shadow and holy, but I respeced more to of a balanced spirit build and I find meditation plus a few +concentration items have made a big difference. I solo faster, and drink less. I have more mana in instances and we are usually waiting on the mage or somebody elses mana instead of mine(keep in mind the highest I've done is BRS) I've never gone full shadow, I don't have much interest in it but I imagine if you solo exclusively that would be the way to go.

Anyway, at 60 I may give up the shadow stuff and go down the holy tree to master healer, but I really really REALLY don't want to give up mindflay.

There is still a lot wrong with priests I think, but then theres a lot wrong with wow in general still. Technical problems, content, class balance etc etc... It's a fun game though, so I'll give bizzard some time to fix stuff.

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » February 1, 2005, 2:31 pm

Hunter = teh win. Great in mass PvP, not so much in 1vs1 duel type scenes though. I have a blast in the huge fights that break out just outside Tarren Mill...tab around, the blast Horde with my sawed-off. Getting that killing shot with the aimed crit is always a hoot!

Zeep · Post by **Zeep** » February 1, 2005, 2:44 pm

Hunters are insane. A friend of mine uses a wolf, and I swear it tanks better and holds better agro than a warrior. We joke that his dog is MT for instances (not too far off though...)

Skogen · Post by **Skogen** » February 1, 2005, 2:50 pm

Zeep wrote:Hunters are insane. A friend of mine uses a wolf, and I swear it tanks better and holds better agro than a warrior. We joke that his dog is MT for instances (not too far off though...)

Growl can get aggro pretty well...I use a Bear. Nice High HPs, but DPS isnt that great though. It suits me fine...I'll dish the DPS, as long as my bear is taking the hits, which he does very well! I've tried the high DPS/low Hp' Raptor route, which works fine until I get an add...then the Raptor is toast.

archeiron · Post by **archeiron** » February 1, 2005, 3:20 pm

Zeep wrote:Hunters are insane. A friend of mine uses a wolf, and I swear it tanks better and holds better agro than a warrior. We joke that his dog is MT for instances (not too far off though...)

I have had a hunter pet as MT in several instance runs including BFD, SM, and Uldaman.

My pet peeve is healers who can't manage to hit the 'v' key when they have VWs or hunter pets in group and heal the pet. I try to look after the pets because it is great having that sixth or seventh presense in instance.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » February 1, 2005, 5:10 pm

The v key turns name plates on and off. What good does that do?

Xyun · Post by **Xyun** » February 1, 2005, 5:27 pm

wait till you get to strat where the pulls are 10-12 or the spiders in LBRS and the v key becomes essencial.

Marbus · Post by **Marbus** » February 1, 2005, 5:38 pm

Zeep what server are you on?

Zeep · Post by **Zeep** » February 1, 2005, 7:07 pm

Hyjal

Damiarch · Post by **Damiarch** » February 2, 2005, 7:46 pm

48 Priest here and loving my class a lot! They are infinitely better than clerics. Actually being able to solo and holding my own in PvP is great

Right now I'm shadow specced and plan on staying that way since I'm on a pvp server. Shadowform is deadly versus any class. I'm afraid of no one including other priests

Just the other day some 55 alliance priest decides to jump me as I'm running past him/her. (guessing it was a mangina, all female NE's are manginas right?) Being 7 levels below, I guess she thought I'd be an easy kill. HAH.. I can only assume she was holy specced.. I ended up dusting the floor with her as I was in shadowform. And poor warriors.. when I was 46, some 57 war jumped me. Again I was in shadowform, and got him down to a sliver of life after he jumped me. But some alliance rogue joined in and they killed me before I could finish the warrior. =/

Hopefully my guild will pick up a couple more priests (Ideally that are holy specced) so I don't have to change for raids and such. But they're so damn rare!

Post by **Sylvus** » February 3, 2005, 12:22 pm

masteen wrote:The v key turns name plates on and off. What good does that do?

Turns on the nameplates for pets, so that you can see the pet's health without having to click on it or mouse over it. Makes it way easy to heal pets, both from an awareness and a targetting perspective.

masteen · Post by **masteen** » February 3, 2005, 12:30 pm

I have the pet bar shown in my party window. Those floating health bars piss me off.

Post by **Sylvus** » February 3, 2005, 1:10 pm

Well, la-dee-da, lady cheaterly.

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » February 3, 2005, 3:44 pm

Sylvus wrote:Well, la-dee-da, lady cheaterly.

rofl

Lotsa · Post by **Lotsa** » February 4, 2005, 1:46 pm

I play a 56 priest on Blackhand. I was shadow specced with some discipline for the shield talents until recently. Decided to change it up since I figured most of my solo grind time was over, probably means my trip to 60 will be tougher than necessary, but oh well.

Currently specced to 20 points in Holy for Improved Healing, 11 points in Shadow for Mind Flay, and 16 building to 20 at 60 in Discipline for Mental Strength.

I like having the shadow spec for the spirit tap in long events such as the Egg of Hakkar in ST to get extra mana when it's running low and I can't use a potion. Throwing a quick mind flay at a non-elite target with low hp = yay mana for another heal.

Like I said, just switched to this combination. If I feel it is necessary to get Improved Flash Heal or Inner Focus for tight spots, then I guess the Shadow will have to go.

PS: Hurray to my buddy for picking Blackhand randomly the first day. We have to be the most or nearly the most populated server in the game. And that only manages to bring us more and more idiots on a daily basis, yay for us.

Avestan · Post by **Avestan** » February 12, 2005, 2:19 pm

Here is my tentative build. . .I was going to use this even at 60. I believe the shadow tree has a lot to offer even for raids and I do not believe holy really offers great advantages even for raids.

Character type: Level 60 Priest

Discipline Talents (19 points)

Silent Resolve - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your damage spells by 20%.

Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.

Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.

Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%.

Mental Strength - 4/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 8%.

Holy Talents (0 points)

None

Shadow Talents (32 points)

Spirit Tap - 5/5 points
Gives you a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit for 15 seconds after killing a target.

Shadow Affinity - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 25%.

Mind Flay - 1/1 points
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.

Improved Mind Blast - 5/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds.

Shadow Reach - 3/3 points
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 20%.

Shadow Focus - 1/5 points
Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 2%.

Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

Vampiric Embrace - 1/1 points
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you deal for 1 minute.

Darkness - 5/5 points
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 6%.

Shadowform - 1/1 points
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may only cast Shadow and Discipline spells while in this form.