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WoW: Calling all Priests!

I leveled my priest up on a PvP server and I liked to take breaks from leveling and hit up WSG, etc. so I basically bulit straight shadow all the way. 0-36 points in shadow, only then did I start putting points in disc. And I've never had a problem solo'ing. I love being able to stay in shadow form and just use vamp embrace to heal.
 
Basic leveling build. If are you on a pvp server get silence, if not it's pretty good. Might also want to look at wand specialization since I found myself wanding alot of the time.
 
chocobaR, did you check the official priest forums? forums.worldofwarcraft.com

I play Druid, so am not sure about priest builds.
 
If your main goal is to get to level 60 as quick as possible with solo grinding then your build is pretty good. Would make the following changes:

1) Drop improved fade, only useful in your grouped and get aggro.
2) Use the 2 freed up points from improved fade and put into mind flay and vampiric embrace.
3) Drop mental strength, the extra 10% mana is only really useful on long drawn out group battles.
4) Put the freed 5 points from mental strength and put them into wand specialization.

Basically the tactic would be to use vampiric embrace, shadow word pain and mind blast combo. Use wand while mind blast is cycling. If you getting hurt, toss in a shield or psychic scream and mind flay combo to get mob off you and to suck some more HP.
 
They are doing a revamp of the priests soon, what is good now may not be good in less than a month. Blizzard said that they would have the new talent tree posted sometime this week.
 
Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
They are doing a revamp of the priests soon, what is good now may not be good in less than a month. Blizzard said that they would have the new talent tree posted sometime this week.
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Excellent point. I totally forgot about that. I read some discussion that the Shadow tree won't change much at all, more the other two.
 
Originally posted by: fs5
http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?bx0GVVZZEMMpcqko

that should be your leveling build. You need silence and you want to increase shadow spell reach so you can start hitting mobs farther away. Then mind flay them until they reach you. This makes it so your face-to-face with mobs less.
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Why do I need Silence if I'm only going to do PvE? Also, why only one point in Darkness? I'm losing 8% Shadow spell damage.

I plan on grouping as often as I can but I will solo a lot too.
 
There are many PvE caster mobs. Silencing them sure would be nice. I don't know much enough about the spell though, cooldown time, etc.
 
Originally posted by: Cheetah8799
There are many PvE caster mobs. Silencing them sure would be nice. I don't know much enough about the spell though, cooldown time, etc.
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You should be able to use it once per fight. 30 seconds? Can't quite recall. It is invaluable against a few troublesome enemies.

Can't look at the site linked but mind flay is a must if you haven't included it already. That is the cornerstone of shadow priest effectiveness.

 
Originally posted by: chocobaR
Why do I need Silence if I'm only going to do PvE? Also, why only one point in Darkness? I'm losing 8% Shadow spell damage.

I plan on grouping as often as I can but I will solo a lot too.
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sorry, I knew something was wrong there. Take points out of improved mind blast and put then in darkness.

Silence is invaluable. Too many mobs heal themselves right before they're going to die. Silence them when they do that and you don't have to fight them twice.
 
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This is the build I used to get my priest to 60. It's built for maximum damage output. It differs from fs5's build in a few meaningful ways.


In the discipline tree:

It forgoes mental agility for martyrdom and focused casting. This is important because it will let you use a mindflay interruption free every time you are the victim of a critical hit.

Also it gives a few points in wand specialization, which is very helpful while grinding.


In the shadow tree:

I put 5 points into shadow focus in lieu of blackout. Blackout is nice, but when you're fighting mobs 1-2 levels higher than you, shadow focus is a lifesaver. This will allow you to grind equal or higher level mobs with much higher efficiency.

I got rid of shadow reach. It will only increase your mindflay range by a fey yards anyways, so its better to have the extra damage from darkness. If you really want shadow reach, take the points out of the discipline tree, not from shadow focus or improved mind blast.


Other random points:

Silence and VE are necessary in any shadow build. Don't argue, just do it! You'll understand eventually.

With shadowform and inner fire you're damage mitigation will hover around 35-40%, so you don't have to worry too much about mobs in your face. My typical fight would consist of Mind Blast > SWPain > Mind Flay > Fear > Mind Flay > Wand till dead. I could kill mobs 2-3 levels below me very very quickly, so I was never real concerned with keeping distance with skills like blackout and shadow reach.

Finally, priests are getting a major talent overhaul in the next patch, so any advice you get here might be short lived.




 
Originally posted by: chocobaR
Pretty new to Priests so I need a few tips on my leveling build...

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?bx0GVVZZxMhxfVVo

This what I'm thinking on using until I get to 60, might respec after that for raids or PvP.
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Umm... Mind Flay. Get it ASAP, you'll use it ALL the time. It's one of the most mana efficient damage spells in the game.

You have 2 choices with mind flay:
1) use shield all the time
2) Use Focused casting

Using shield is reasonable, but eats more mana.

Levling doesn't care about max mana, so you can skip that talent for now. You will get a free respec in 1.10 anyway. Usually you'd go Imp. Inner fire, it is a significant amount of damage reduction when soloing. No sense in concerning yourself with the best endgame talent spec if you aren't going to be 60 before 1.10 comes out. Who knows what the revision will make the trees look like.

With mind flay, your pattern for damage becomes SW: Pain - MF - MF - MB (repeat ad nauseum). 2 mind flays are 6 seconds, so 4 points in improved Mind Blast is usually sufficient, and improved fade is totally unnecessary unless you're grouping with complete morons, and then fade won't really help all that much anyway.

Add silence and Vampiric embrace and you have a typical 33/18 shadow priest build.
 
Originally posted by: Concillian
Levling doesn't care about max mana, so you can skip that talent for now.
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WRONG. More mana means less drinking means more killing means faster leveling.
 
Until you get to the point where your mana exceeds the amount you can gain with 1 drink, which isn't really that difficult to do.
 
Originally posted by: fs5
Originally posted by: Concillian
Levling doesn't care about max mana, so you can skip that talent for now.
Click to expand...
WRONG. More mana means less drinking means more killing means faster leveling.
Click to expand...


The amount per tick of drinking is the same regardless of how much your maximum is, so this is not true under any circumstances. This advice becomes not only wrong but counterproductive when someone follows it by sacrificing damage done for additional mana.

 
Originally posted by: Velk
Originally posted by: fs5
Originally posted by: Concillian
Levling doesn't care about max mana, so you can skip that talent for now.
Click to expand...
WRONG. More mana means less drinking means more killing means faster leveling.
Click to expand...
The amount per tick of drinking is the same regardless of how much your maximum is, so this is not true under any circumstances. This advice becomes not only wrong but counterproductive when someone follows it by sacrificing damage done for additional mana.
Click to expand...
who said it increases your amount per tick? I just said having more mana means less time drinking. You'll have more mana at the start of a fight and then your spirit tap will bring you back. You're not sacrificing damage if you fight correctly.
 
Originally posted by: Concillian
Originally posted by: chocobaR
Pretty new to Priests so I need a few tips on my leveling build...

http://www.wowhead.com/talent/?bx0GVVZZxMhxfVVo

This what I'm thinking on using until I get to 60, might respec after that for raids or PvP.
Click to expand...


Umm... Mind Flay. Get it ASAP, you'll use it ALL the time. It's one of the most mana efficient damage spells in the game.

You have 2 choices with mind flay:
1) use shield all the time
2) Use Focused casting

Using shield is reasonable, but eats more mana.

Levling doesn't care about max mana, so you can skip that talent for now. You will get a free respec in 1.10 anyway. Usually you'd go Imp. Inner fire, it is a significant amount of damage reduction when soloing. No sense in concerning yourself with the best endgame talent spec if you aren't going to be 60 before 1.10 comes out. Who knows what the revision will make the trees look like.

With mind flay, your pattern for damage becomes SW: Pain - MF - MF - MB (repeat ad nauseum). 2 mind flays are 6 seconds, so 4 points in improved Mind Blast is usually sufficient, and improved fade is totally unnecessary unless you're grouping with complete morons, and then fade won't really help all that much anyway.

Add silence and Vampiric embrace and you have a typical 33/18 shadow priest build.
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That pattern sucks. Start with MB and then use SWP. SWP is instant cast... you should start with a spell that does a lot of damage, has casting time, and has a cooldown. MB - SWP - MF - MF - MB

I've seen people who use shield and people who don't. I tend to mix it up. With the tougher enemies I use shield, but I try to avoid it if possible and let my health and mana heal naturally. Also, if possible you should try to finish the enemy off with a wand or strike of the weapon so that you get the full 15 second bonus non-casting regeneration.

 
Originally posted by: torpid
That pattern sucks. Start with MB and then use SWP. SWP is instant cast... you should start with a spell that does a lot of damage, has casting time, and has a cooldown. MB - SWP - MF - MF - MB

I've seen people who use shield and people who don't. I tend to mix it up. With the tougher enemies I use shield, but I try to avoid it if possible and let my health and mana heal naturally. Also, if possible you should try to finish the enemy off with a wand or strike of the weapon so that you get the full 15 second bonus non-casting regeneration.
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This is the pattern I used. With shadow reach you can start MB at max range and get 2 full mind flays in before they touch you.

ggnl said use fear. bad advice. You do not want to fear mobs because they'll just arggo more mobs (non beasts at least). He also said get martyrdom which gives you focused casting after a critical strike.

With shadow reach the whole point is so you don't have to do hand-to-hand combat. With the pattern above when the mob gets to you it's already at less than 40% health. Your final mind blast will be half way to finishing right when the mob gets to you. At that point how is it going to critical strike you when half the fight it's not even hitting you.
 
Originally posted by: fs5
Originally posted by: Velk
Originally posted by: fs5
Originally posted by: Concillian
Levling doesn't care about max mana, so you can skip that talent for now.
Click to expand...
WRONG. More mana means less drinking means more killing means faster leveling.
Click to expand...
The amount per tick of drinking is the same regardless of how much your maximum is, so this is not true under any circumstances. This advice becomes not only wrong but counterproductive when someone follows it by sacrificing damage done for additional mana.
Click to expand...
who said it increases your amount per tick? I just said having more mana means less time drinking. You'll have more mana at the start of a fight and then your spirit tap will bring you back. You're not sacrificing damage if you fight correctly.
Click to expand...

Yes, but you are wrong, the time taken to drink 4000 mana is identical, regardless of whether you do it as one 4k block or two 2k blocks. In the case where you have drink overrun you can stop drinking when you are full, so the time taken is always the same.

I think you are missing the part where less mana fills up faster, and just focusing on the less mana runs out faster part.
 
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