WoW Classic Priest Leveling Guide
  • Author: Furious
  • Date: April 23, 2019
  • Expansion: WoW Classic

A priest leveling guide for World of Warcraft Classic. Weigh the pros and cons of which race to choose, find tips on the best talents to use while leveling, and review the best spell rotation.

Full credits for this guide go to /u/PriestLightsHope.

Race Benefits

Alliance Classes

Dwarf
  • Stoneform: While active, grants immunity to Bleed, Poison, and Disease effects. In addition, Armor increased by 10%. Lasts 8 sec. 3 min cooldown.
  • Gun Specialization: Guns skill increased by 5.
  • Frost Resistance: Frost Resistance increased by 10.
  • Find Treasure: Allows the dwarf to sense nearby treasure, making it appear on the minimap.
Race specific class spells:

Desperate Prayer up to Rank 6

Pretty good OH SHIT button for every part of the game (e.g. leveling, PVE, PVP).

  • Instant Self Heal (can crit)
  • Mana-Cost: 0
  • Heals for: 1324 – 1562
  • 10 min. Cooldown

Fear Ward

WoW Classic Fear Ward Spell

Hands down the best PvE race specific spell, since it completely negates fear during encounters making a lot of early game bosses a joke. 2 dwarf priests per raid are enough to keep up fear ward indefinitely.

  • Instantly wards target against any fear effects.
  • Mana-Cost: 100
  • Lasts for 10 min.
  • 30 sec. Cooldown
Human
Race specific class spells:

Desperate Prayer up to Rank 6

Pretty good OH SHIT button for every part of the game (e.g. leveling, PVE, PVP).

  • Instant Self Heal (can crit)
  • Mana-Cost: 0
  • Heals for: 1324 – 1562
  • 10 min. Cooldown

Feedback

WoW Classic Feedback Spell

Burn 54 mana per spell cast against you causing 1 shadow damage for each point of mana burned

  • Mostly a PVP trait
  • Mana-Cost: 355
  • Lasts for 15 sec.
  • 3 min. Cooldown
Night Elf
  • Shadowmeld: Activate to slip into the shadows, reducing the chance for enemies to detect your presence. Lasts until cancelled or upon moving. Night Elf Rogues and Druids with Shadowmeld are more difficult to detect while stealthed or prowling.
  • Quickness: Dodge chance increased by 1%.
  • Wisp Spirit: Transform into a wisp upon death, increasing speed by 50%.
  • Nature Resistance: Nature Resistance increased by 10.
Race specific class spells:

Elunes Grace

WoW Classic Elune's Grace Spell

Reduces ranged damage taken by 95 and increases dodge chance by 10 % for 15 sec. Good for leveling purposes & 5 man dungeons while leveling, that’s about it i think.

  • Mana-Cost: 240
  • Lasts for 15 sec.
  • 3 min Cooldown.

Starshards

WoW Classic Starshards Spell

Rains starshards on targets head, causing 756 damage over 6 sec. Pretty mana intensive & a channeled cast making it not all that great during leveling

  • Mana-Cost: 300
  • Channeled

Horde Classes

Troll
  • Berserking: Increases your casting and attack speed by 10% to 25%. At full health the speed increase is 10% with a greater effect up to 25% if you are badly hurt when you activate Berserking. Lasts 10 sec. 3 min cooldown.
  • Regeneration: Health regeneration rate increased by 10%. 10% of total Health regeneration may continue during combat.
  • Beast Slaying: Damage dealt versus Beasts increased by 5%.
  • Throwing Specialization/Bow Specialization: Skill with Throwing/Bow Weapons increased by 5.
Race specific class spells:

Hex of Weakness

WoW Classic Hex of Weakness Spell

Weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused by 20 & the effectiveness of healing by 20%.

  • Mostly a PVP trait
  • Mana-Cost: 240
  • Instant cast
  • Lasts for 2 min.

Shadowguard

WoW Classic Shadowguard Spell

When the caster is the target of a melee, ranged or spell attack the enemy gets struck for 116 shadow damage. Pretty good OH SHIT button while leveling/farming.

  • Mana-Cost: 250
  • 3 Charges
  • Lasts 10 min.
Undead
  • Will of the Forsaken: Provides immunity to Charm, Fear and Sleep while active. May also be used while already afflicted by Charm, Fear or Sleep. Lasts 5 sec. 2 min cooldown.
  • Cannibalize: When activated, regenerates 7% of total health every 2 sec for 10 sec. Only works on Humanoid or Undead corpses within 5 yds. Any movement, action, or damage taken while Cannibalizing will cancel the effect.
  • Underwater Breathing: Underwater breath lasts 300% longer than normal.
  • Shadow Resistance: Shadow Resistance increased by 10.
Race specific class spells:

Touch of Weakness

WoW Classic Touch of Weakness Spell

The next melee attack on the caster hits the enemy for 64 shadow damage and reduces damage caused by 20. Leveling trait.

  • Mana-Cost: 195
  • Lasts 2 min.
  • Instant cast

Devouring Plague

WoW Classic Devouring Plague Spell

Afflicts the target with a disease causing 904 shadow damage over 24 sec. Leveling trait.

  • Mana-Cost: 985
  • Instant cast
  • 3 min. Cooldown

Conclusion

Best Alliance Race for Priests
  1. Dwarf
  2. Human
  3. Night Elf

It’s pretty much agreed upon in the community that dwarf is the best priest race if you are looking at PVE encounter performance, which is simply because fear ward is too good to pass upon.

However: I personally definitely prefer the Human racials over dwarf, since only 2x Priests in the raid have to be dwarf in order to negate fear effects on the MT & 10% Reputation gain on a purely selfish level is almost too good to pass up on because of the various rep grinds that happen during a raid cycle. The 5 % bonus spirit is nice to have as well.

Best Horde Race for Priests
  1. Troll
  2. Undead

Purely speaking PvE encounters i feel like the Berserking trait from Trolls is – albeit situational – too good to not go for it(especially in 5 mans). It is a lot less cut and dry compared to the alliance situation though. Please note that most fears get out-ranged by healers and ranged classes in general.

Last but not least, you have to play whatever you actually like playing. There is no point stressing about min maxing your character to its fullest potential if you don’t enjoy playing that way. There are always plenty of guilds who will take a non dwarf Priest for alliance for example & i don’t think your race matters much on Horde side.

Leveling Talents

Below level 40

These are the talents you should use up to level 40.

Notes: Get 5/5 Wand Specialization directly after Spirit Tap and focus on shadow afterwards.

WoW Classic Priest Leveling Talents - Level 40 and less

(5/0/25)

Above level 40

These are the talents you should use at level 40 and higher.

Notes:

  • Respec into Shadowform at 40 and then relevel wand specialization
  • Finish Darkness trait and spend the last few points in discipline
  • Respec into holy at level 60(if you intent to heal obv.)

WoW Classic Priest Leveling Talents - Level 40 and higher

(0/0/31)

Spell Rotation

To make a long story short, you want to be able to keep fighting with the least amount of downtime possible in order to maximize your leveling speed(since you’ll never be a pew pew mage). In order to achieve that I found it to be the most efficient to go with the following basic rotation:

Mind Blast  > Shadow Word: Pain > Wand > Mind Blast > Wand

A few caveats:

  • It’s best to not re apply shadow word pain since most targets won’t survive the full duration twice
  • Do not Mind Blast a second time if your target is already below < 30% health, unless you have mana to spare or smth like that.
  • Use Power Word Shield & Renew to sustain yourself every other mob. Try to not PW:S too often otherwise you’ll go oom pretty fast
  • If you accidentally pull 2 mobs your level, dot both of em up, use Power Word Shield on yourself and go to town on the first mob.
  • Use fear carefully as to not pull even more mobs

General Leveling Tips & Notable Wands

Tips

  • Heal in dungeons while leveling for easy access to them(everyone needs a healer ;-P)
  • Setup mouseover macros etc. early on so you don’t get nervous for your first dungeon run
  • You can heal every leveling dungeon as shadow, so don’t gimp yourself leveling as holy(unless you want to of course).
  • Skinning is pretty nice to pick up for additional vendor trash.
  • Mining is usually more gold during leveling and less gold at max level.

Wands

 

About the Author

Furious

If I'm not working or spending time with the family I'm probably gaming. Some of my favorite recent games I've played are Far Cry 5, World of Warcraft Classic, and 7 Days to Die.
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