I’ve never had a guest post before, because no one has ever asked, but Chris the Shadow Troll did, and I would like to introduce him to you in this here guest post!
Guest Post – Leveling a Shadow Priest
Hello there! Unfortunately for you guys I am not the Pugnacious Priest, I’m Chris from The Shadow Troll blog and Zahraah has been nice enough to let me steal her blog for today.
Ok so I’m currently in the process of leveling my own shadow priest for the Under-geared project run by Gevlon (the Greedy Goblin). I just managed to hit level 64 whilst stealing boxes of mushrooms from a clan of ogres in Zangarmarsh and decided to take a break from my heroic activities and write some of my thoughts on shadow priest leveling so far. I have noticed a massive difference in my leveling experience since I passed the level 60 mark so I’m going to split this post into two parts:
Pre Level 60
Before you reach level 60 with your Shadow Priest your mana regen really sucks. I mean REALLY sucks. You often need to consider drinking after every couple of mobs and you will have to rely on wand damage to conserve your mana during lengthy fights. The leveling does get easier as you start to gain new spells and some decent gear but unless you are careful you can find yourself with too many enemies and not enough mana to fight them. I picked up a few tips whilst leveling that can make life considerably easier:
Get a wand as soon as possible and keep it upgraded whilst leveling. The early levels can be tricky without a wand to use when low on mana. Check the Auction House or ask an enchanter if you are struggling to find one.
Make sure you get the talent Spirit Tap as this will allow some much needed mana regen between fights. Remember that you have to get the killing blow on a mob to receive the regen buff so this talent is going to be most useful in solo play.
Pick the talent Vampiric Touch when possible and try to start fights with this spell. Follow up with a Mind Blast to receive the Replenishment buff and further add to your mana regen.
Whilst leveling do not be afraid to pick gear with plenty of Spirit as this will increase your mana regen out of combat and importantly increase the effect of Spirit Tap.
I realize I am sounding rather negative about shadow priest leveling but please don’t misunderstand me. Once you get past your mana issues you will see that the shadow talent tree can be really great. With a full mana bar and a full set of buffs you can deal some awesome damage whilst also maintaining great survivability. You will have access to three powerful DoTs, self healing and a whole variety of utility spells that can make leveling a whole lot of fun (even for a priest!)
Level 60 and beyond
Now this is where things start to get really interesting. Once you hit level 60 as a shadow priest you will have access to the 51 point talent Dispersion. This talent does two things that will make leveling a completely different experience. It will increase your survivability dramatically and it basically solves our mana issues. However to take full advantage of the spell whilst leveling you have to grab the Glyph of Dispersion, which will decrease the cooldown by 45 seconds. This will mean that every 1 minute and 15 seconds you can reduce damage by 90% for 6 seconds and regain 36% of your total mana!
This one spell has completely changed my leveling experience and although it is no longer a swirly cloud of awesome it still makes me a very happy priest. Dispersion can be used when surrounded by enemies as you watch your DoTs tick away at them. Dispersion can be used whilst mounted. Dispersion cannot be dispelled. Dispersion wins.
Can anyone guess my favourite spell?
Well, that pretty much sums up my leveling experience as a shadow priest so far and I am totally loving it. I hope you enjoyed this post even if it focuses mainly on a spell I recently picked up.
Thanks to Zahraah for allowing me to post this and I appreciate any comments you guys wish to write. I’m extremely new to the world of blogging but I’m having a blast!
Chris
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
Wow……..I may get back to my priest.
I started a nelf priest and she is currently at 23 but am really struggling with the class. When I say struggling, bah maybe that isn’t the right word. Levelling, whilst I find it the slowest class I’ve levelled so far isn’t so much of a problem, its when I run instances. Yes…I am always oom after 2 fights, I spend half my time drinking water and then I get comments of your dps sucks, keep up starrissa (my char) and I’m just really struggling to get motivated.
but…
This post has made me think that I should knuckle down and give her another go.
As for shadow, I believe its the way to level but some would say disc…but I will stick with shadow I think
Any priest leveling should start off with 3/3 Spirit Tap and 13 points in Disc to get Meditation. Gear for spirit, stam, and int, but pick up DPS stats when you can (they’re unfortunately rare). I think it’s ok to respec out of DIsc at 60 when you can get Dispersion, but there’s no reason to try to slug through the old world without buffing your mana regen by an extra 50%.