牧师终极指南(转)

[Riven]

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WoW Priest Guide v. 1.01

w/ focus on leveling and healing

Written by Whispre and Amentet

Members of the Unholy Legion guild

Tichondrius server

1. Introduction. 2

2. General Class Description. 2

3 Shadow Priest vs. Holy Priest 3

3.a Shadow Priest 3

3.b Holy Priest 3

4. Stats, Equipment, and Weapons. 4

5. Talent Tree Lists. 5

5.a Shadow Talents. 5

5.b Holy Talent 9

5.c Discipline Talents. 11

6. Talent Spec Templates. 15

6.a leveling ? ordered. 15

6.b Shadow ? post 60. 16

6.c Holy ? post 60. 17

7. Spells. 18

8. Healing efficiency breakdown. 18

9. Leveling. 23

10. Grouping discussion. 24

10.a pre 60. 25

10.b post 60. 25

11. Healing Aggro. 26

Fade: 26

12. UI Thoughts. 27

13. Grouping with Priests for the non Priest 28

14. F.A.Q. 30



Changes from version 1.0 - 1.01

Fixed data in description for Improved Prayer of Healing



1. Introduction

This guide was conceived to provide a comprehensive source of information regarding the nuances associated with playing the Priest class in World of Warcraft (WoW). This guide serves as a contribution to the WoW gaming community to foster an appreciation for the Priest class, to provide new Priests with a better understanding of their class and to facilitate the interaction of Priests with other classes. The information provided within this guide has been verified by multiple Priests at various levels. However, most of these volunteers were undead so it was difficult to verify the racial talents/spells.



This current version of this guide is written with precise objectives, the best ways to get to 60 as fast as possible, and how to be the best healer you can be once you get there. Since there are many ways to build and play a Priest, it is important to emphasize that the recommendations provided within this guide are specifically targeted to meet these objectives. . If you have additional suggestions, comments, contributions or discover calculation/information errors, please feel free submit these to whispre@whispre.com



Whispre has played Priest/Healer classes in MMORPGs since 1997 and is currently a level 60 Priest as a member of the Tichondrius guild, Unholy Legion. In the real world, he works in IT as a Systems Support LAN/WAN Analyst and is responsible for over 100 critical systems. He enjoys water sports, fishing, skiing, poker, reading of all sorts, and of course online gaming.



Amentet has played various classes in MMORPGs since 1995 and is currently a level 43 Priest as a member of the Tichondrius guild, Unholy Legion. In the real world, she works at a NASA sponsored research facility that is dedicated to the processing and interpretation of satellite imagery for mitigating natural disasters. She is working on a PhD in Geology and is currently immersed in the proposal writing phase of that endeavor. Her more playful side includes a love for adventure, SCUBA diving, skydiving, mountain climbing, spelunking, martial arts and exotic travel. She also has a passion for science fiction and fantasy including movies, TV shows, novels, comic books and video games.



2. General Class Description

From Blizzard:

The Priest class is the master of healing and hate control. Other classes such as the Shaman, Druid, and Paladin can heal, but not as well as the Priest. The Priest can also resurrect dead players along with the Shaman and Paladin. The Warlock also has the ability to resurrect, through the use of soul stones. The Priest has some buffs that can help party members. The Priest can even take control of humanoid monsters at higher character levels.

Much has been said about this description, yet the current manifestation of the Priest is somewhat different than Blizzard’s original description. The Priest class is a very functional, well-balanced class that has the capability to be powerful in both PvP and PvE, doing damage or healing. However, you cannot do both and expect to be the best so it is important to choose your path wisely and specialize in that path through a judicious selection of your talents.

3 Shadow Priest vs. Holy Priest

When we discuss Priest roles, we typically use the terms “Shadow Priest” and “Holy Priest” to describe the two Priest class paths. This is somewhat misleading however, since each path optimally includes talents within the Discipline tree. Therefore, “Shadow Priest” actually refers to those with Shadow/Discipline builds and Holy Priest refers to those with Holy/Discipline builds. Both are valid builds, and both have a role to play, yet however similar they are in some ways, they are also very different.

3.a Shadow Priest

The Shadow Priest puts the majority of their points into Shadow, usually at least 31 points so they can get Shadowform. This is the preferred build for leveling to 60 as your damage output is vastly increased, rivaling most other classes for pure dps. In Shadowform, you cannot heal, so you are focused on damage, with some added utility spells like Silence. In instances, the Shadow Priest can still heal, and be the primary healer most of the time, all the way up through Upper Black Rock Spire (UBRS), assuming you have a backup healer. However, you will have less mana, heal for less hp per heal, and spend more mana casting heals than the Holy Priest. Shadow spec is what you want if you want to spend the majority of your time in PvP.

3.b Holy Priest

The Holy Priest is the best healer in the game. He will be able to heal more hit points on a single load of mana than any other class. Your typical Holy Priest will have at least 30 points in Holy, focusing on the talents that improve his healing type spells. As a Holy Priest, your damage is lackluster compared to Shadow, so you will not spend your time out soloing mobs all day, and if you do, it will not be as productive. However, in high-end, raid-style instances, you will be well suited to be in group one as the primary healer. You can spec Holy while leveling, but I advise against it, because as a Shadow Priest, you can reach level 60 much faster, then for a small fee respec to Holy. After reaching 60, if you intend to spend the majority of your time as a primary healer in instances and on raids in places like UBRS and Molten Core (MC), then you want to permanently spec as Holy/Discipline.



4. Stats, Equipment, and Weapons

There are three Primary stats that one should be concerned with; Intellect, Stamina, and Spirit, in that order. Intellect dictates that quantity of your mana pool, Stamina dictates the quantity of your health pool and Spirit dictates your mana and health regeneration rate. Intellect also dictates how quickly you skill up in things like weapon skills.



Intellect à Mana

One point of Intellect yields 15 points of mana to the mana pool



Stamina à Health

One point of Stamina yields 10 points of health to the health pool.



Spirit à Mana and Health Regeneration

Mana regeneration = 13 + (Spirit / 4) per tick (one tick = 2 seconds).

So, if ones Spirit is 200 then regen = 13 + (200 / 4) = 63 mana per tick, or 31.5 mana per second.



For a Priest it is important to acquire equipment to improve Intellect first, Stamina second, and Spirit third. Intellect is the most critical since the quantity of your mana pool will dictate the threshold of your ability to continue to cast spells. Stamina is the next most critical because Priests have a relatively low health pool, and very little armor. Priests will get hit from healing aggro and they need to be able to take a couple of hits so your group members have time to pull the mobs off. Spirit is third, because it is relatively ineffective. It is the only stat of the three that has diminishing returns as you boost it up, since the mana and health pool increase significantly as one levels and the regeneration rate is negligible in comparison. More importantly, it is subject to the 5 second rule, which means that your mana will not start regenerating for 5 seconds after casting. Because of this, it is generally better to have a larger mana pool at the start of a fight, than it is to rely on mana regeneration during a fight. Often you will simply not have the luxury of waiting out the 5 second rule to even begin regenerating mana during the fight.

As far as racial stats, as you can see below, the differences are very small and insignificant once you reach 60. Having 50 more mana at level 60 when your total mana pool will be around 6000-8000, is inconsequential. Pick your race based on other criteria.





Starting Stats
Strength
Agility
Stamina
Intellect
Spirit
Health
Mana

Dwarf
22
16
23
21
22
82
145

Human
20
20
20
22
24
52
160

Night Elf
17
25
19
22
23
51
160

Troll
21
22
21
18
24
62
128

Undead
19
18
21
20
28
62
130




When it comes to equipment, Priests are fairly limited using only cloth armor and the weapon types listed below. I will not go through all of them though. Instead I will simply suggest you train and use a staff as soon as possible. Staves seem to have the best combination of stats on them, as well as good dps for melee. In your off hand, a wand is useful; some have stats such as Intelligence or Stamina. You can also use a wand for ranged attacks within an instance that will add some damage without using mana that is better used on healing party members. Daggers and Staves need to be trained, the Alliance trainer is available in Stormwind and the Horde trainer is available in Thunder Bluff. Ask a guard for directions.



Weapon Skills
Dwarf
Human
Night Elf
Troll
Undead

Maces
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free

Unarmed
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free

Wands
Free
Free
Free
Free
Free

Daggers
10s
10s
10s
10s
10s

Staves
10s
10s
10s
10s
10s






5. Talent Tree Lists

Link to Talent build calculator at WoW Vault

5.a Shadow Talents

§ Spirit Tap - x/5 points
Gives you a 20% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience. For the duration, your Mana may regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points provides a 100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience.

・ Essential for leveling, it will greatly increase the speed you can solo mobs 1-60

・ New Priests should assign their first 5 points in this talent.

§ Blackout - x/5 points
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 2% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

・ Satisfactory

・ Maxed: 5 points provides a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

・ At 60, consider reassigning 5 points from Spirit tap into this talent if you are staying Shadow

・ Blackout activates more than you would think, and can make quite a difference in a fight.

§ Shadow Affinity - x/5 point
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 5%.

・ Worthless

・ If you are in Shadowform, you will usually be either solo or PvP and in neither case does aggro matter. If you are Shadow specced but healing in an instance, you will not be doing damage, and certainly should not be doing enough to draw aggro anyway, making this talent worthless.

§ Improved Shadow Word: Pain - x/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 2 points increases the duration of your spell by 6 seconds.

・ Max this if you are Shadow.

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

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points reduces your target’s chance to resist your Shadow spells by 10%.

・ Good for soloing or PvP.

§ Improved Psychic Scream - x/2 points
Reduces the cool down of your Psychic Scream ability by 2 seconds.

・ Satisfactory

・ Maxed: 2 points reduces cool down from 30 seconds to 26 seconds.

・ Insignificant, especially with increased resists and the reduced duration of the spell in PvP.

§ Improved Mind Blast - x/5 points
Reduces the cool down of your Mind Blast spell by 0.5 second.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points reduces the cool down of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds

・ Max this one, Mind Blast is your number one biggest nuke, and you will want to be able to recast it as quickly as possible.

§ Mind Flay - x/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.

・ Excellent

・ Along with Mind blast and Shadow Word: Pain, this will complete your offensive Shadow arsenal, your most mana efficient damage spell, and great for use in slowing down runners in instances, or slowing down opponents in PvP, either keeping them from running away, or reaching you as quickly.

§ Improved Fade - x/2 points
Increases the duration of your Fade ability by 5 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 2 points increases the duration of your Fade ability by 10 seconds.

・ This is vital as a Shadow Priest when healing in instances. You will not have subtlety, so this is your only means of healing aggro reduction, put 2 points in.

§ Shadow Reach - x/3 points
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 6%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 3 points increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 18%

・ Very good talent, max this if you are a Shadow Priest, more range is always good.

§ Silence - x/1 point
Silence the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ Good PvP, and in some situations in PvE. You can use this to stop that Mage from sheeping your Warrior before he kills it, and use it to silence a caster in an instance, making it run to the group instead of standing back and casting.

§ Shadow Weaving - x/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 20% 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.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points yields 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow Damage, unless it is resisted. Each cast adds 3% damage to the next cast, so only on your 6th cast will you get the full 15%, however you usually will average 9% or so increased damage soloing

・ Prerequisite for Darkness.

§ Vampiric Embrace - x/1 point
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.

・ Satisfactory

・ While soloing, it is unlikely that you will require Vampiric Embrace since mobs generally expire prior to the penetration of Power Word: Shield. However, since the talent only costs 40 mana it is an option for Priests that prefer a Renew effect while they are in Shadowform.

・ In instances, your primary role will be as a healer and therefore it is unlikely that you will be doing a significant amount of Shadow damage, therefore this talent will provide a very low return in healing benefits. It may be useful at lower levels however it provides less benefits as one advances in levels.

§ Darkness - x/5 points
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 2%.

・ Excellent

・ 5 points increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%

・ Prerequisite for Shadowform.

§ Shadowform - x/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.

・ Excellent

・ The single best bottom of tree talent for the Priest class.

・ Cannot cast Holy spells (heal) in Shadowform. At level 60, it costs 400 mana, so it is not efficient to drop, heal, and recast mid-fight

・ Cannot ride mount while in Shadowform

・ Cannot use many trinkets while in Shadowform, including most that cast a spell effect.



5.b Holy Talent

§ Improved Renew - x/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 3%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%

・ Makes your Renew spell your second most mana efficient heal spell.

§ Holy Specialization - x/5 point
Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1%.

・ Worthless

・ Sounds good, but costs too many points, one is better off spending talents elsewhere

§ Spiritual Healing - x/5 point
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 2%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.

§ Improved Smite - x/5 points
Increases the damage of your Smite spell by 2%.

・ Worthless

・ Waste of points, even with Improved Smite, smite is your least efficient nuke. If you are Shadow specced you will rarely use Smite, and if you are Holy specced that means your focus is healing, so you should not waste points on damage improvement.

§ Subtlety - x/5 point
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 4%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%

・ Healing aggro is dangerous for the Priest as an individual and the Party as a whole

§ Inspiration - x/5 points
Increases your target's armor by 5% for 15 seconds after getting a critical effect from your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, or Prayer of Healing spell.

・ Worthless

・ A Holy Priest should not be getting hit often

・ Only works after getting a critical heal.

§ Holy Fire - x/1 point
Consumes the enemy in flames that cause 96 to 122 Fire damage and an additional 28 Fire damage over 8 seconds.

・ Worthless

・ Again, if you’re Shadow specced you will not be doing Holy damage, and if your Holy specced your focus is healing not damage.

§ Improved Healing - x/5 points
Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, and Greater Heal spells by 3%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal and Greater Heal spells by 15%.

§ Improved Flash Heal - x/2 points
Gives you a 35% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Flash Heal.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 2 points gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Flash Heal

・ Useful for both PvP and PvE.

§ Divine Fury ? x/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Smite and Holy Fire spells by 0.1 seconds.

・ Worthless

・ Again you will not be focusing on damage if you are Holy specced.

§ Improved Prayer of Healing - x/2 point
Reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing spell by 10%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 2 points reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing by 20%

・ If used correctly, prayer of healing is already your most mana efficient spell, this just makes it better.

§ Spirit of Redemption - x/1 point
Upon death, summons a Spirit of Redemption that heals nearby friendly targets for 318 to 360 and another 343 over 21 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ This heals for around 1000 hp to each party member at lvl60, and often crits for 1500.

・ Can make the difference between a wipe and not.

・ High return on investment for only one point,

§ Master Healer - x/5 points
Reduces the casting time of your Heal and Greater Heal spells by 0.1 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points reduces the casting time of your Heal and Greater Heal spells by 0.5 seconds

・ At high levels, this can make the difference between using Greater Heal and not using Greater Heal.

§ Holy Nova - x/1 point
Causes an explosion of Holy light around the caster, causing 100 to 110 Holy damage to all targets within 10 yards. The effect also temporarily reduces your threat level against nearby targets for 5 seconds.

・ Worthless

・ The worst bottom of tree talent for the Priest class.

・ The damage is pitiful and threat reduction is minimal.



5.c Discipline Talents



§ Unbreakable Will - x/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 3%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear and Silence effects by 15%

§ Silent Resolve - x/5 point
Reduces the threat generated by your damage spells by 4%.

・ Worthless

・ As with the Shadow damage aggro reduction talent, this one is largely a waste. You will typically be solo or PvP when doing damage as a Priest

§ Wand Specialization - x/5 point
Increases your damage with Wands by 5%.

・ Worthless

・ Priests seldom use their wand as their main attack, most of your damage will be Shadow, or staff. If you do use a wand for something to do in instances, you still will not be doing enough damage with it, even with this talent to really make a difference.

§ Martyrdom - x/2 points
Gives you a 50% 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.

・ Satisfactory

・ This talent has promise in a PvP setting; however most people will find better talents to spend their points on. As a Priest, you do not want to get hit, and this only works if you not only get hit, but get hit with a crit.

§ Improved Power Word: Shield - x/3 point
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 5 seconds.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 3 points reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shields Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds

・ Essential for any build

§ Improved Power Word: Fortitude - x/2 point
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 15%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 2 points increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spells by 30%

・ At level 60 this converts your 54 point Stamina buff into a 70 point Stamina buff.

・ Note that currently there is a display bug with your buffs, and the additional effects of this will not show up on players buff icons, nevertheless it is active.

§ Focused Casting - x/1 point
While active, you no longer lose casting time from taking damage. Lasts 8 seconds.

・ Satisfactory

・ Mostly useful for PvP

・ In PvE, you want to avoid being hit, and will do so with Fade/fear/shield.

§ Mental Agility - x/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 2%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%

・ Applies to Renew, buffs, psychic scream, SW, PW:S among others

§ Improved Inner Fire - x/3 point
Increases the effects of your Inner Fire spell by 15%.

・ Satisfactory

・ This is a nice talent, however it is hard to find 3 points to spare for it, especially when you consider that as a Priest you are focused on avoiding being hit. At level 60 it will add about 500 armor, which will not make a significant difference to mobs that hit you for 500 a hit at times.

§ Mental Strength - x/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 2%.

・ Excellent

・ Maxed: 5 points increases your maximum Mana by 10%

・ Shadow Priests usually do not have the points to acquire this talent

・ Essential for Holy Priests

・ At Level 60 with top end gear this talent provides approximately 700 extra mana.

§ Improved Mana Burn - x/2 point
Reduces the casting time of your Mana Burn spell by 0.3 seconds.

・ Satisfactory

・ Maxed: 2 points reduces the casting time of Mana Burn casting time from 3 seconds to 2.4 seconds. This might be useful in PvP but typically, I find that except for some hybrids, most casters have too much mana for this to be truly effective. If you PvP a lot, and can find 2 points to spare then it is a good choice,

§ Meditation - x/5 points
Allows 3% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.

・ Worthless

・ This talent sounds good at first look, but with diminishing returns on Spirit, it is not really worth 5 points in my book. Unless you are using a pure Spirit build, which is a bad idea anyway, you will typically regen about 70 mana per tic, or 35 mana per second under normal circumstances. Maxed, this talent allows you to regen 15% of that during casting which equates to roughly 5 mana per second. At level 60, Flash Heal is 380 mana, so it would take you roughly 76 seconds to regain enough mana to cast one 1000 point heal. These 5 points are better used elsewhere.

§ Inner Focus - x/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.

・ Excellent

・ If used correctly it is like adding 800+ mana to your mana pool.

・ Essential for Holy Priests.

§ Force of Will - x/5 point
Increases your spell damage by 1% and the critical strike chance of your offensive spells by 1%.

・ Worthless

・ This talent would be good for a Shadow build, if it were not so far down in the tree.

§ Divine Spirit - x/1 point
Holy power infuses the target, increasing their Spirit by 23 for 30 minutes.

・ Worthless

・ With the diminishing returns of Spirit, and the 5 second rule, it just is not effective enough to justify 5 points, let alone all the points you have to put into the Discipline tree to get to it.





6. Talent Spec Templates

6.a leveling ? ordered

This is a template, an ordered list of talents, focused on assigning your talent points effectively for leveling to 60 as fast as possible. It is basically a Shadow/Discipline template, but with some specific choices for leveling. Starting with your first point, place them in the following order:

1. Spirit Tap ? 5/5 Put your first 5 points here, this is vital for speedy soloing

2. Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2/2 put your next two points here. It will increase your leveling by doing more damage for the same mana cost.

3. Shadow Focus 3/5 These three points will help with resists some, but mostly it is to fulfill the prerequisite for Mind Flay

4. Mind flay 1/1 this is your 11th point and a vital one. Mind flay will be your most mana efficient damage spell.

5. Unbreakable Will 5/5 The affects of this talent are ok, but you are using this as a prerequisite mostly.

6. Improved Power Word: Shield 3/3 This is important, until lvl40 when you can re-spec to full Shadow, you will want to be able to refresh your shield mid fight for some tougher mobs.

7. Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2 Extra hit points never hearts, you should always have this buff active.

8. Mental Agility 5/5 This is your final Discipline talent, you will be casting many instant spells and this will help reduce downtime greatly.

9. Improved Mind Blast 4/5 Mind blast is going to be your primary nuke, you want to be able to recast it as fast as possible



At this point you will be level 39. When you reach level 40 it is time to re-spec your character. This should only cost you 1 gold, and it is well worth it because at level 40 you will truly be a Shadow Priest. Here is how you will re-spec at 40:

・ Spirit Tap ? 5/5

・ Improved Shadow Word: Pain ? 2/2

・ Shadow focus - 3/5

・ Mind Flay ? 1/1

・ Improved Mind Blast ? 5/5

・ Improved Fade - 2/2

・ Shadow Reach - 2/3

・ Shadow Weaving 5/5

・ Darkness - 5/5

・ Shadowform 1/1



As you level up from level 40 you should want reinvest in Discipline as follows:



1. Unbreakable Will ? 5/5

2. Improved Power Word: Shield ? 3/3

3. Improved Power Word: Fortitude ? 2/2

4. Mental Agility - 5/5



At this point you have developed a build that will see you through to 60, you can add extra points where ever you choose, and they will not significantly affect your leveling speed. Feel free to experiment with the last 6 points as you level to 60. Once you hit 60, it will be time to re-spec again, either to Shadow for PvP, or Holy for healing in instances/endgame raiding, or some hybrid. However, as the following section on Healing Efficiency makes a strong case for selecting a Holy/Discipline spec if your primary activities include high-end instances.

6.b Shadow ? post 60

If you primarily want to PvP, you will probably want to be Shadow specced. Here is a sample template for such, though your options are varied, and mostly should be adjusted to fit your play style. Further discussions regarding PvP are beyond the current scope of this guide.



Discipline Talents (18 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
・ Improved Inner Fire - 3/3 points

Holy Talents (0 points)

・ None

Shadow Talents (33 points)

・ Blackout - 5/5 points
・ Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
・ Shadow Focus - 3/5 points
・ Improved Mind Blast - 5/5 points
・ Mind Flay - 1/1 point
・ Improved Psychic Scream - 2/2 points
・ Shadow Reach - 3/3 points
・ Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
・ Silence - 1/1 point
・ Darkness - 5/5 points
・ Shadowform - 1/1 point





6.c Holy ? post 60

The following section on Healing Efficiency makes a strong case for selecting a Holy/Discipline spec if your primary activities include high-end instances. The following build is designed to optimize your healing efficiency to enable you to be the best healer you can be. This will also facilitate your ability to acquire high-level equipment and to be an effective team member in upper level instances and raid zones.



Discipline Talents (21 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
・ Inner Focus - 1/1 point

Holy Talents (30 points)

・ Improved Renew - 5/5 points
・ Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
・ Subtlety - 5/5 points
・ Improved Healing - 5/5 points
・ Improved Flash Heal - 2/2 points
・ Improved Prayer of Healing - 2/2 points
・ Spirit of Redemption - 1/1 point
・ Master Healer - 5/5 points

Shadow Talents (0 points)

・ None





7. Spells

A complete table of spell data is too large to include in this document. The following link provides an excel spreadsheet which has a listing of spell information for your convenience.



Link to spell xls



8. Healing efficiency breakdown

Numerous posts in forums discuss healing efficiency; which healing spells to cast, when to cast them, etcetera. There are many false assumptions, inaccurate statements, and unsupported suggestions related to these topics. This section attempts to provide recommendations based on a logical analysis of accumulated results.



There are two main considerations to take into account while healing: health points healed per mana point spent (hp/m) and health points healed per second (hp/s). Both of these are valid concerns, if at different times. The first dictates how many health points you can heal given a certain amount of mana, and the second is how fast you can heal during the heat of battle, in both cases a higher number is better.



Let us start by comparing the healing spells you will have at level 60, including PW:S, Renew, Flash Heal, and Greater Heal with no talents at all, just base spell information. PW:S is included because it in effect give you as many health points as it blocks, thereby working as an instant heal of sorts, although you cannot associate a hp/s value to its effect given its 15 second timer. Also note, crits are not taken into account when calculating average damage, because as a healer, you cannot and should not count on crits to heal.



Spell
Mana
Time
Min heal
Max heal
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S

PW:S
500
Instant
942
942
942
1.88
n/a

Renew
365
15 sec
810
810
810
2.22
54

Flash Heal
380
1.5 sec
812
958
885
2.33
590

Greater Heal
960
4.0 sec
2396
2674
2535
2.64
634

Prayer w/3 targets
1030
3.0 sec
939 per target
991 per target
965 per x3=2895
2.81
965

Prayer w/4 targets
1030
3.0 sec
939 per target
991 per target
965 per x4=3860
3.75
1287

Prayer w/5 targets
1030
3.0 sec
939 per target
991 per target
965 per x5=4825
4.68
1608




Table 1. A comparison of the hp/m and hp/s values among various Priest class spells without talents applied



As you can see, Prayer of Healing is clearly your most efficient spell when used on 3 or more party members, at least without talents. You should also see that PW:S is the least efficient in the list. Hence, you should be using PW:S sparingly. It is best used as an emergency spell; liberal use of this spell during a fight is simply wasting mana.

Now let us take a look at these same spells with talents applied to them. Each spell is listed with effects from each talent that affects it, not taking any consideration of your actual talent build; this is the theoretical max for each spell.



Spell
Mana
Time
Min heal
Max heal
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S
Talents applied

PW:S
450
Instant
942
942
942
2.09
n/a
MA

Renew
329
15 sec
1013
1013
1013
3.08
68
IR, MA, SH

Flash Heal
380
1.5 sec
893
1054
974
2.56
649
SH

Greater Heal
816
3.5 sec
2637
2941
2789
3.42
797
SH, IH, MH

Prayer w/3 targets
824
3.0 sec
1033 per target
1090 per target
1062 per x3=3186
3.87
1062
SH, IPH

Prayer w/4 targets
824
3.0 sec
1033 per target
1090 per target
1062 per x4=4248
5.16
1416
SH, IPH

Prayer w/5 targets
824
3.0 sec
1033 per target
1090 per target
1062 per x5=5310
6.44
1770
SH, IPH




Table 2. A comparison of the hp/m and hp/s values among various Priest class spells with talents applied at a theoretical maximum



MA = Mental Agility 5/5 IH = Improved Healing 5/5

IR = Improved Renew 5/5 MH = Master Healer 5/5

SH = Spiritual Healing 5/5 IPH = Improved Prayer of Healing 2/2



As you can see, applying the 6 talents listed above greatly increases the Priests healing abilities. So, how do we apply this in the real world? Well in the real world, you mostly will compare the Shadow Priest vs. the Holy Priest. So, let us take a look at the healing spell data of the above spells, when used with the Shadow and Holy templates recommended in this guide.



PW:S is not included in the following comparison because Mental Agility, which is the only talent to affect PW:S, is recommended and attainable for both paths so both Shadow and Holy will have the same effective PW:S.



Renew:


Mana
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S

Shadow Spec
329
810
2.46
54

Holy Spec
329
1013
3.08
68




Flash Heal:


Mana
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S

Shadow Spec
380
885
2.33
590

Holy Spec
380
974
2.56
649




Greater Heal:


Mana
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S

Shadow Spec
960
2535
2.64
634

Holy Spec
816
2789
3.42
797




Prayer of Healing 4 targets healed:


Mana
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S

Shadow Spec
1030
3860
3.75
1287

Holy Spec
824
4248
5.16
1416




Table 3. A comparison of hp/m and hp/s values between Shadow spec and Holy spec builds for various Priest class spells with talents applied



It is evident from this analysis that the Holy Priest has a clear advantage over the Shadow Priest with respect to healing given a straight spell to spell comparison. Notice also, that the Shadow Priests Greater Heal spell is only slightly more mana efficient (-0.08 HP/M) and is actually slower (-15 HP/S) than the Holy Priests smaller Flash Heal. These differences are small in number, however what it emphasizes is that the Holy Priest is effectively just as efficient using Flash Heal as the Shadow Priest is using his biggest heal.



The Holy Priest will draw 20% less aggro through the use of Subtlety, and will have 10% more mana than the Shadow Priest with the talent Mental Strength and a free cast every 5 minutes with Inner Focus. Let us look at some scenarios comparing actual total hp healed with a full load of mana for a single encounter. It is difficult to compare an actual fight, as the mix of healing spells used will vary greatly, so let us just compare the total healing capacity for two spells, Flash and Greater Heals, as if they had been chain cast back to back till the Priest is out of mana.



This chart assumes the Priest has a base mana from equipment and buffs of 6800, which is increased through talents for the Holy Priest. We will also add the use of Inner Focus for the Holy Priest, because we are looking at maximum drain in shortest time, which happens rarely enough that you will be able to use Inner Focus almost every time.



Flash Heal


Mana with talents
Mana cost per cast
Time per cast
Average HP healed per cast
# casts possible
Total HP healed
Total casting time

Shadow
6800
380
1.5 seconds
885
17
15045
25.5 seconds

Holy
7480
380
1.5 seconds
974
20
19480
30 seconds




Greater Heal


Mana with talents
Mana cost per cast
Time per cast
Average HP healed per cast
# casts possible
Total HP healed
Total casting time

Shadow
6800
960
4.0 seconds
2535
7
17745
28 seconds

Holy
7480
816
3.5 seconds
2789
10
27890
35 seconds




Table 4. A comparison of total hp healed and total casting time for a typical mana pool of a Shadow spec and Holy spec Priest



It is evident that the Holy Priest has a clear advantage healing with 29% more hp healed with Flash Heal and 57% more hp healed with Greater Heal. This is appropriate since a Holy Priest gives up some versatility, as well as damage output in exchange for this advantage. Also notice, that the Shadow Priest only increases total hp healed by 2700 by using Greater Heal over Flash Heal when in comparison the Holy Priest gains 8410 total hp healed using Greater Heal over Flash Heal.



Another common belief that requires logical analysis is the idea that it is better to use lower ranks of Heal/Greater Heal instead of top ranks if full healing is not necessary. Some people have even developed or use add-ons that decide what heal spell to use for you, and use these lower ranks when they deem appropriate. The most common theme, is the use of a smaller version of Greater Heal (Heal and Greater Heal are the same spell line, just different names) instead of using the top rank of Flash Heal because somehow it is more efficient. Therefore, we will compare the hp/m and hp/s for the top rank of Flash Heal with no talents and the closest equivalent ranks of the Heal/Greater Heal line.



Spell
Mana
time
Min heal
Max heal
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S

Heal rank 2
375
4 sec
754
856
805
2.15
201

Heal rank 3
450
4 sec
948
1072
1010
2.24
253

Flash Heal
380
1.5 sec
812
958
885
2.33
590




Table 5. A comparison of hp/m and hp/s among various ranks of Heal and Flash Heal without talents applied



Now let’s look at them with Holy talents added in:



Spell
Mana
time
Min heal
Max heal
Average heal
HP/M
HP/S
Talents

Heal rank 2
338
3.5 sec
829
942
885
2.61
253
SH, IH, MH

Heal rank 3
405
3.5 sec
1043
1179
1111
2.74
317
SH, IH, MH

Flash Heal
380
1.5 sec
893
1054
974
2.56
649
SH




Table 6. A comparison of hp/m and hp/s among various ranks of Heal and Flash Heal with talents applied



In conclusion, if you are not Holy specced, then it is clearly illogical to use the lower ranks, as they do not surpass the top rank of Flash Heal in any category. If you are Holy specced, then lower ranks heals are slightly more mana efficient; however their time efficiency is still abysmal when compared to a Flash Heal. Therefore, it is recommended that you reject this idea and focus on using your highest rank healing spells. The only time you would even consider using Heal rank 2 or 3 to heal instead of the top rank of Flash Heal, is when time is not an issue, and if time is not an issue, you should use Renew instead (3.08 HP/M) as it is much more efficient than any of these spells. Also, do not forget, if you use the longer casting, lower rank Heal, you will not pass the 5 second rule for 2 full seconds after you would with Flash Heal, and therefore would not start regaining mana as soon. I think if you take mana regen into consideration; than the Flash Heal actually would generally be more mana efficient even for Holy Priest. Therefore it is recommended that Priests focus on just 4 healing spells, the top ranks of Renew, Flash Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Healing. It is simpler, easier, and over all much more efficient.





9. Leveling

It is unnecessary to delve into a lengthy discussion regarding which zones to level in, however it is recommended that a Priest focus on doing quests up till around level 40. At 40, when you get to Shadowform, the fastest will be to find kill quests in a place you can grind, followed closely by simply grinding. Many quests will not be fast experience so try to balance quests and grinding.



Since while leveling to 60, a Priest is Shadow based, the following spell combination is recommended for soloing:



Buffs ? keep PW:F and Inner Fire up at all times, Fortitude will of course give you more hit points, Inner Focus will help you do more melee damage, and will make your shield last longer, because damage is modified by AC before its applied to the shield.



1. Pull with Mind Blast (MB) from maximum range ? this gets you 1.5 seconds casting for free, and starts the cool down on the spell immediately, allowing you to use it again sooner in combat.

2. SW ? when the cast bar just barely fills up while casting MB, right at the end if you time it right you can cast SW and it will cast immediately, using the same cast animation as MB, this shaves a full second off casting time for the second spell.

3. Throw up PW:S ? this allows you to cast uninterrupted, and reduces damage taken, thereby reducing downtime

4. Mind Flay ? channeling, this is your best damage to mana ratio spell

5. By now you can probably do MB again if you have to

6. Depending on the mobs health, you can either melee till its dead, or Mind Flay again



10. Grouping discussion

Let’s face it, when you are in a group, in an instance… you will be expected to play the role of the healer. This means you have to heal. If you are Shadow specced, you might be lucky enough to play second fiddle to another healer, and be allowed to pretend you are a dps class, but this is rare. As the healer, your primary responsibility is to keep your tank alive, since once the tank is down the whole House of Cards collapses. Second, you need to be aware of the health of a Mage or Warlock in your group if he is casting AoE to clear trash. You will need to shield him and Flash Heal like crazy at times to keep this guy alive. No other healing class can keep a Mage alive as well as a Priest. Third, is keeping your backup healer (if you have one) and other general dps classes alive.

I highly recommend you learn to time Greater Heal on the Warrior, as this will save you a lot of mana in the long run. You most likely however will never be able to use it on any other class, so you will be using Flash Heal on your Mages/Warlocks/Rogues etc., so let us look at some spells and see when they are good to use.



Power Word: Shield ? This spell is very mana inefficient as we saw in the section above so you should be using it sparingly. If appropriate, it can be cast on the puller before a long pull. Be careful though not to over do this, when the Warrior is shielded he will not take damage and build rage from the hits which are absorbed by the shield. The Warrior needs this rage so he can use his abilities to accumulate aggro early in the fight, aggro which will keep the mob off you when you heal. It is critical when a tank or other class takes a huge spike in damage and is near death. The instant cast shield stops the damage for a moment; long enough to cast Flash Heal and get his health back up. The third use for PW:S is as stated above, on a caster who is using AoE. Without shielding this person, it is very difficult to keep him alive.



Renew ? This is your second most mana-efficient, single-target heal, however it is a Heal over Time (HoT). With its instant cast, and good efficiency, I like to use this on non-tanks when they are down some health points but not actively being hit. I just pop it on them and let it top them off. I also like to keep this on my tank when he is taking fast damage. Use of this on the tank can slow down the damage rate enough to allow the use of your best single target heal, Greater Heal. This will draw the same amount of aggro as Flash Heal, but spread over 15 seconds, so it can be used to top off your own health after getting hit once or twice as well.



Flash Heal ? Your bread and butter heal, the one you will cast more often than any other healing spell. It is not the most efficient, but the 1.5 second cast is what makes it your heal of choice for softer non-tank classes. If Renew is too slow, and Greater Heal is too slow or too big, use Flash Heal.



Greater Heal ? As the primary healer, if you are Holy specced, you should use this whenever you can on the tank in your group. As we saw in the section above, this is a significantly more efficient healing spell than any of your other single-target heals. The drawback is the casting time, so, it is likely that you will not want to use this on anyone other class than Warrior. Knowing when to cast this takes practice. You have to learn to predict damage rates fairly accurately. You cannot wait to cast it until your tank is down to half health; you have to cast it before then. Sometimes this means you will over heal, to combat this, get used to moving at the last second to cancel your cast if the tank does not take the predicted damage.



Prayer of Healing ? As you get into higher level instances, the number of multi-mob pulls, and AoE damage mobs increases drastically. This spell is essential anytime three or more of your party is down 1000 or more hit points. It is a life saver at times, and an encounter maker.



10.a pre 60

Pre level 60 you will be Shadow specced, and even as such, you will be able to heal just fine in instances until the level 60 / raid instances. However, even as a Shadow Priest you need to focus on healing while grouped, with the occasional silence to draw a caster mob closer to the group. Note that you will draw more aggro than a Holy Priest, so you need to get good at using Fade at the right moment.

10.b post 60

Post 60 you should be Holy specced if you are focusing on instances, however some of you may decide to stay Shadow and focus on PvP. If you remain Shadow, you will do ok at healing but you should have a backup healer. In some instances, starting with UBRS you will require a backup healer, and in Molten Core, Onyxia and the large raid dungeons you should really be the backup healer yourself, or the primary healer in a second group. You will just not have the mana to last through the fight as a primary / solo healer at this level.

Use the RaidBar add-on and make everyone in your raid use it as well. This add-on is extremely useful even in 10 man runs through Scholomance and other similar instances. It will give you a mini health/mana bar for each member you add, and you can easily help out a struggling healer in group 2, or if group 2’s healers are dead you can help keep their tanks alive if you have time. If you are the healer in group two, this allows you to watch group ones tanks and healers and assist them in turn. If you cannot use or make others use RaidBar, then you should create macros that target the healers/tanks in the other groups to aid in targeting them. Just make a macro that says “/assist {player_name}” then put a button for it on your hotbar so you can click and target the secondary tank quickly if the primary goes down. This is also a great way for the healer in group two, which usually has less work to do, to keep tabs on the Priest in group one, and keep him alive if he draws aggro.



11. Healing Aggro



This discussion on healing aggro is based on numerous controlled tests (as controlled as possible). In brief, it can be concluded that healing aggro is based on hp healed and generates approximately 65% of the aggro per hp that is generated from damage. Subtlety will reduce this to 50-55%. Over-healing has no effect on aggro, since aggro is based on actual hp healed. Aggro is applied to all mobs that your healing target has aggro on, ones that know of your target, not necessarily every mob in the area. In addition, aggro does not dissipate over time, at least not a short period (a few minutes).

Contrary to popular belief, all your healing spells (Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Flash Heal, and Prayer of Healing) generate the same amount of aggro per hp healed. This means that one Greater Heal is like using 3 Flash Heals to heal the same amount, or one Prayer of Healing on 4 targets would be the same as Flash Healing each of them. PW:S generates about half the aggro of an equivalent heal (i.e. your 950 point shield is about the same aggro as a 475 point heal). Renew will work the same as a regular Heal, except the aggro is generated over time, so it works like casting a very small heal, each tick.

Also, increased distance from the mobs reduces the amount of aggro drawn from healing/damage spells by a small amount. So, when you can, try to stand back from the fight, while still remaining within range of your healing spells.



Fade:

Fade seems to reduce aggro by about the equivalent of 2-3 Flash Heals. The aggro returns when Fade ends, however it appears to only return after you act in a way that increases aggro again, so, let us say you have 3000 points of aggro, you Fade and it reduces it to 1000, the mob goes back to the tank. Fade then ends and you will stay at 1000 as long as you do nothing. Once you cast a heal that generates aggro (say 500) you will get that additional aggro, PLUS the amount Fade had reduced, so you’d jump up to 3500. This may be a bug, I don’t know. Also note, if you have too much aggro, and Fade is insufficient to remove enough aggro to make the mob turn from you, then it removes nothing. Fade appears to be all or nothing; if it fails you have reduced nothing and have not made it any easier for the tank to pull the mob off of you than if you had never activated Fade in the first place.

The timing of using Fade is very important. If you use it too early, it will be wasted, and you will not have it available when you need it. If you use it too late, you will not be alive to use it. Therefore try to use Fade only when a mob running at you or shooting at you. Activating Fade before you have aggro will not do much, if anything at all. The best situation is to activate Fade when a mob is attacking you, and then stand there as he turns away. Do not heal yourself right away, or shield, or anything, give your backup healer a chance to heal you, and your tanks a chance to build more aggro on the mob before Fade ends.



Other than having Subtlety, the best ways to avoid drawing healing aggro is obviously to not heal too soon in a fight, or too often. The problem is, you often have no choice, you can either chain heal, or let the person die. In raid zones, alternating healing with a backup or secondary healer may be necessary.



12. UI Thoughts



With WoW offering such easy UI modification, there are literally hundreds of UI mods available for download. It is advisable to focus on mods that facilitate efficient healing, show buff timers, provide extra hot keys, simplify targeting and streamline debuff removal. The following is a list of recommended UI mods:



Gypsy Mod - Easy to configure and simple to use.

Kaitlins MiniGroup ? Enables you to black out the background around group health bars, making it easier to see them in bright background areas.

CQManaConserve ? Allows you to cast Greater Heal, and if the player stops getting hit, and is above the threshold (default is 80%) of hp, it interrupts your cast, saving your mana

RaidBar ? A great utility when raiding, gives you mini health/mana bars for raid members in other groups, great for keeping track of secondary tanks etc

Quickloot ? Places the loot window right under your curser

Gatherer ? Facilliates gathering trades, it keeps track of the location and type of items you have collected (herbalism/mining)



13. Grouping with Priests for the non Priest
So, some of you may not be Priests, you may just be reading up on Priests to better understand the class, good for you! For you, it is important to discuss what other classes need to understand to group well with a Priest. For Priests reading this, feel free to send this part to errant party members. These are suggested contributions for each class, they are not intended to be the sole thing you do, nor hard and fast rules. However, if at a minimum, you follow these suggestions, your Priest will love you, and your groups will do much better.



Rogues:

Rogues are one of the two most troublesome classes for Priests. Most Rogues are pretty good at their class, and they can do a ton of damage which is often the problem. Many Rogues have issues when it comes to avoiding aggro and they end up taking much more damage than they should, which means a Priest must use far more mana than they should keeping them alive. This in turn creates far more healing aggro than it should. As a Rogue, you should not be taking very many hits at all in a group/raid. If you start taking damage, you need to back off and let the tank take aggro back. At the start of a fight, consider holding off on using cheap shot until the Warrior has secured aggro. This will reduce the likelihood of you taking damage, enable the Warrior to improve their chances of retaining aggro and enable the Warrior to gain more rage to power the abilities that will facilitate their keeping aggro off of the Priest. Remember, if it comes to a choice between healing the Warrior, and the Rogue, the Warrior will always win.



Warlock:

Not much to say here, except you should always keep Soul Stone on the Priest, never expect the Priest to have your pet as a primary healing target, unless its been specified before hand, and if you are going to convert tons of health, learn to bandage, do not waste too much of your Priests mana healing you unawares.



Warrior:

You are, as you know, the tank. You need to make sure to get some kind of aggro on each and every mob in a pull, so the Priests first heal does not pull mobs to him. You also should get in the habit of watching the Priest’s health, and if something goes for him, pull it off immediately. If you are the secondary tank this is a great opportunity for you to shine, by keeping mobs off the Priest so he can heal.



Druid:

Keep an eye on the Priest’s health. You are a great healer in your own right, and have other things to add to a group. If there is a Priest in your group, watch for his health dropping and heal him immediately, and help out with the healing by healing non-tanks. Try to manage your heals so you are not healing the same target as the Priest, unless it is an emergency.



Mage:

You can help the Priest by freezing things that have aggro’d him, just be ready with your own shield after they break because the Priest might not be in a position to shield/heal you right away. You also need to be careful to not over nuke, or nuke too early in a fight. As with the Rogue, if a Priest has to heal you, its mana wasted. Be sure your Priest is aware that you need to aoe, so he can drop a shield on you, and watch for shackled mobs, nothing annoys me more than a Mage using AoE and breaking my shackles. Also, try to keep you Priest buffed with Arcane Intellect and well supplied with Conjured Water.



Shaman:

A bad Shaman is the bane of my existence. Shaman are usually elected as backup healer, but many are not inclined to take this role. From a Priest’s perspective, a Shaman’s number one responsibility when partied with a Priest is to watch the Priest’s health, and if he is getting hit, to heal him immediately. Not 10 seconds later, not 5 seconds later, but immediately. A Priest should never have to heal himself, this just draws more aggro. You can also pull mobs off the Priest if his Fade does not work, just be sure to do it right away. You also will put totems down, and can add dps to the fight. A Shaman who can do all three things simultaneously is phenomenal; however they are a rare breed. If you cannot handle melee and watching the Priest’s health at the same time, then do not engage in melee activities. Shaman also can backup the Priest on healing duty, similar to a druid. It is preferable for the Shaman to watch soft classes in particular, and save his mana for healing the Priest as the primary healer and for healing the Warrior in bad situations as the primary tank.



Hunters:

Some hunters will try to pull aggro off the Priest from behind. While well-intentioned, this is a bad idea, since the Hunter is also a soft class, and since the end result is that other party members end up racing back and forth, running even farther to grab that mob, now to save the Hunter. Also, sometimes the Hunter will try to feign death, once pulled off the Priest, but then the mob just goes back to the Priest so this tactic is ineffective. It has been suggested, that a Hunter can use his pet to draw aggro off the Priest, and this will be tested more thoroughly for updates to this guide this as it sounds like a great use for a pet, however that Hunter would need to have great control of his pet. Also, Hunters should be considered similar to a Mage, in that they need to watch the over nuking (overshooting?) and try to do as much damage as possible while avoiding drawing aggro off the tanks.



What it boils down to, is it is the entire party’s job to keep the Priest from drawing aggro, and it is the entire party’s job to help pull aggro off the Priest when he does. It’s a group effort, the Priest is a force multiplier and will help you take on fights that you are sure you’d never win, but you must keep him alive for him to do this.



14. F.A.Q.
Here are some commonly asked questions out on the Priest forums with some answers:



Q: Should I make a Shadow Priest or a Holy Priest? How should I spec?

A: This depends on what you want to do. If you want to level fast, then you should spec heavily into Shadow, as this guide suggests. If you want to be the best healer you can after level 60, then Holy/Discipline is the best for you. If you want to PvP, or want to be a mix of the two, then you can go Shadow, or some mix of abilities. You can always respec, so feel free to experiment.



Q: I heard about the spell “Brainwash” but I don’t have it, why and what is it?

A: This was a crowd control spell which was removed in Beta, although many websites still list it. They are out of date.



Q: Which race is best?

A: No one race is best, they all have different abilities. For alliance, Humans and Dwarves have decent abilities for Holy spec Priests, for Horde, Undead is the most popular due to Devouring Plague, and the Undead ability Will of the Forsaken, which gives them an immunity to fear/charm spells for 30 seconds.



Q: Where do I find light feathers for levitate?

A: You have to farm them off of bird type creatures. Plainstriders in the Barrens and Darkshore drop them among others.



Q: How do items that add to healing or damage work?

A: Here is the official Blizzard explanation:



There is some confusion about how these effects work and how effective they are, so I wanted to explain what they do.

When an item has the effect "Increases damage and healing done by magical spells and effects by up to 20", the damage dealt or hit points healed by one of your spells will be increased by a fixed amount up to 20. The actual amount that the spell is increased by is not determined randomly, but by which spell you are casting. You are not receiving a random bonus value between 1 and 20 whenever you cast a spell. Some random items, such as those with the property "of Shadow Wrath", indicate that they provide "+X Shadow Spell Damage". The actual amount of the bonus is again determined by the spell being cast. There are a few items that do provide a random bonus, such as Dreamweave Gloves, but their effect notes the randomness by stating that item's bonus as "up to 1 to 19." Once again, the bonus received could be reduced depending on the spell being cast.

Spells with longer casting times such as Fireball and Greater Heal will receive the full bonus listed every time they cast the spell. Spells with instant or short cast times receive a fraction of the bonus listed. As an example of such a spell, Flash Heal (Rank 7) only receives approximately 43% of the item bonus. Talents or other effects that might change the casting time of the spell will not change the bonus; the amount received is a property of the spell being cast.

Most long duration Damage and Heal over time spells have the bonus divided amongst every tick. So Renew, which lasts 15 seconds and heals an amount every 3 seconds, has 20% of the bonus applied each tick. In a similar fashion, channeled spells also have the item bonus divided amongst every tick of the spell's duration.

Lower level spells receive a greatly reduced benefit from these effects.

These effects all stack. So if a Mage is wearing 3 items that provide up to +20 Fire damage, you will have a combined +60 to Fire damage. This means every high level Fireball cast will inflict an extra 60 damage to the target.

These bonuses are also added to the effect of the spell before the 50% bonus from a critical spell hit is applied.

Note that there is currently a bug in the game that affects heals over time such as Renew and Rejuvenation. The +healing items worn by the caster are only providing the appropriate healing bonus if the caster is also the target of the spell. Direct heals such as Greater Heal work fine, and the +Healing bonuses are being appropriately applied. Damage over time spells are also working properly. We're working to fix this bug, but currently I can not provide any kind of ETA on the fix.

Daelo
Game Designer



Q: How do I use wands?

A: Equip the wand in your ranged slot. Open up your spell book and under the general tab, there is an icon for shoot. Place that on your hotbar and click to fire your wand.



Q: How come when I cast Vampiric Embrace on a mob and then hit them with my Shadow wand, my group isn’t healed?

A: Vampiric embrace will heal all members of your party for 20% of all Shadow damage your spells deal. Wands do not count as a spell.



Q: What does it mean when a spell is channeled?

A: Channeled spells have a set duration. During this “channeling” process, the caster is unable to cast any other spell. If a mob hits you while you are channeling your spell, your channel breaks. The only exceptions are classes with talents that decreases the chance of channeling breaking such as mages and warlocks. For Priests, the channeled spells include starshards (night elves only), mind flay (Shadow talent), mind control, and mind vision.



Q: What is the 5 second rule?

A: You will not regenerate mana for 5 seconds after you have cast a spell. Priests can take the meditation talent to regenerate mana at a reduced rate under the discipline tree.



Q: Which professions should I take?

A: This is up to you. Many Priests choose Herbalism/Alchemy so they can create their own mana/health potions.



Q: The talent "Improved SWain" says it increases the time the spell does damage by 6 seconds. If my version does 180 damage in 18 seconds, is this not reducing the amount of damage per tick done by the spell?

A: No. Each tick will do the same amount of damage as before. You will have 3 more ticks of damage though, equating to 33% more total damage.



Q: What does Shadowform look like?

A: Similar to Fade, with a slight blue/purple mist around you.



Q: Can a Priest use Shackle Undead on an undead player?

A: No, it worked during early beta, but developers felt it was too powerful, and changed the classification of Undead players to be “humanoid”.



Q: Where do I find the books for Prayer of Fortitude?

A: Rank one can be found in BRD off many mobs, Rank II can be found in BRS/Stratholme/Scholomance off just about any elite, they are both very rare and are Bind on Equip

 

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