39 Priest Guide

Jadyn

Jadyn

39 Evangelist
Last updated for 3.0.9. No further update incoming. If you're playing WotLK on a private server, this guide may still be useful for you. Otherwise, from what I've read, even the gameplay tips are a bit out of date now.



A guide, no matter how exhaustive, is only a good starting point for building a twink. In this guide, I try to mention every possible way to build a 39 twink priest, and give my recommendations for what worked for me and the other priests I know. However, take everything with a grain of salt. Everyone has a different style of play, and there is no way for a guide to take that into account. So use this as a way to get started, then come to your own conclusions on what works for you, and go with that.



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Table of Contents:

I. Builds - Overview of basic talent builds, and thoughts about them.

a. Shadow

b. Healing

c. Miscellaneous

d. Glyphs

II. Gear - List of every piece of gear you might want.

a. Items

b. Consumables

c. Professions

III. Basics - General tips on how to play more effectively, and how to handle certain situations.

a. Tips

b. Healing

c. Arena



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Builds:

When it comes to talent specs, my personal philosophy for deciding on which talents to take is "functionality before statistics". By functionality, I mean things like range increases, duration increases, or extra functions (like stun procs or silence). By statistics, I mean things like damage, stat, or crit increases. A stereotypical example is getting Improved Gouge as a rogue instead of Malice (+crit%). The reason for this that theoretically, damage and stats and crit can be supplimented by gear and skill. But there is no item at 39 that increases the range of your Mind Flay by 4 yards, or decreases the cast time of your Mana Burn by a second.



This is simply a philosophy though. Many people will disagree, and that's fine. The important point I'm trying to make is that you should be conscious of not only what you are doing, but why when you decide on one talent versus another. No build is truly bad if you can justify it to yourself.



Shadow:

There are a lot of tradeoffs to make in the shadow tree, whether you go 30, 28, or 23 points in. The specifics of your build are ultimately up to you. If you find your short range frustrating, get Shadow Reach. If you're trying to maximize your damage, get Darkness and Shadowweaving. If you find yourself topping the kb list and need more mana, get Spirit Tap.



0/0/30 - The basic full shadow build. There are some different possible variations on it based on personal preference. The key talents are Mind Flay, Silence, and Vampiric Embrace. The version that I built here for 3.0 is based on efficiency. With this build, Mindflay is cheaper than a paladin's Flash of Light, making it one of the cheapest and efficient dps spells available to anyone at 39. This build is incredible if you can avoid being hit and continually spam Mind Flay. The efficiency drops once you start getting hit, unfortunately.



7/0/23 - Shadow + Martyrdom. Same basic idea as full shadow, but you drop 7 points in disc for 15% stun reduction and Martyrdom. Very nice for chaining mindflay even while under fire. With the pushback changes, you can still use Mind Flay with pushback, but it's efficiency is only good if you are not hit, or have Focused Casting up. The stun reduction is also nice in general. An alternative build is to drop Vampiric Embrace and maybe even Silence to increase your efficiency to something more comparable to full shadow.



Healing:

0/30/0 - Full Holy. There are of course variations on this, but the general idea is to get as many talents as possible that help you heal and help you survive. Another variation on this build is to drop some of the healing and survival talents for a few dps talents, particularly Surge of Light, allowing you to do good dps when your healing is not needed.



19/11/0 - Inner Focus + Desperate Prayer. This can be a good build in arenas if you're the only healer. Inner Focus gives you a last strong heal, and Desperate Prayer gives an emergency button. Meditation gives a nice efficiency boost, and Mana Burn plus Divine Fury gives you nice offensive options. An obvious variation is to drop Divine Fury for Spell Warding, since you won't be casting slower heals or dpsing very often while getting hit.



28/2/0 - Full Disc healing. This build has a number of possible variations, the linked one is just an example. Either way, this build offers decent survivability, and greater efficiency and functionality in dispels and mana burns. Since 3.0, Holy-Disc may have slightly better survivability, but Disc is still the king of caster efficiency, and will still destroy other healers when left free to utilize mana burn.



Miscellaneous:

0/27/3 - Holy DPS. Holy dps priests actually have very competitive burst dmg, on par with mages (gear being equal). The difference lies in the sacrifice of escape abilities for healing and dispel, and in mana efficiency. Spirit Tap is generally preferred since you need all the help you can get on regen.



19/0/11 - "Double Threat" build. The idea behind this build is to balance moderate shadow dps ability with additional healing ability. Your role here would be to alternate between dps and healing depending on what is needed in a given battle. Mind Flay is the staple dps spell here, along with Imp Mana Burn for dealing with other casters. This build is a jack of all trades, but master of none. Don't expect to be able to main heal a premade, and don't expect to top the dps charts against other dps twinks. The final bonus on this build is the combination of Meditation and Spirit Tap for exceptionally high mana regeneration. Just be sure to get kbs whenever you can.





Glyphs:

Glyphs are provided by the new Inscription profession. I'll leave the irrelevent details to other sources of information. The important things to know are that at 39 you can get 2 major and 1 minor glyphs. And that they can be easily bought on the Auction House and equipped yourself, without the help of a high level character.



Below is a list of all the available and relevent glyphs for a level 39 Priest. The glyph gets a rating on a 5 star scale, then a short recommendation.



Major Glyphs:

[Glyph of Dispel Magic]

***** Highly recommended for disc priests, due to the large number of warlocks out there, and the lack of any other classes with defensive dispels.

[item]Glyph of Fear Ward[/item]

*** Useful, but an extra 30 seconds will rarely make a difference at 39 worthy of a major glyph slot.

[item]Glyph of Flash Heal[/item]

***** Very useful for a priest doing the main healing in a group without backup from other healing classes. Highly recommended due to Flash Heal's expense.

[item]Glyph of Holy Nova[/item]

** Useful, but Holy Nova is too expensive for it to be very useful. Not recommended.

[item]Glyph of Inner Fire[/item]

** Useful, but very limited in it's effect. Better to use the slot on something else.

[item]Glyph of Mind Control[/item]

* Not useful due to diminishing returns already limiting the duration.

[item]Glyph of Mind Flay[/item]

*** Useful, and one of only two glyphs that directly and usefully help shadow specs. However, one of the useful functions of Mind Flay is it's snare, so I don't recommend this glyph.

[item]Glyph of Power Word: Shield[/item]

**** Very useful, but the extra healing can often be lost if you don't train yourself to not cast it early. Recommended, but not as highly as some glyphs.

[item]Glyph of Prayer of Healing[/item]

** Useful, but situational. One doesn't often see Prayer of Healing being used in pvp.

[item]Glyph of Psychic Scream[/item]

** Sort of useful, though fear often breaks early anyway, so you won't feel the benefit of it as often as other glpyhs.

[item]Glyph of Renew[/item]

***** Very useful, allows for higher hps on one of your instant spells, improving your mobile healing. However, suffers from the same limitations as the spell itself: of limited use when target is getting heavily purged.

[item]Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain[/item]

***** Very good shadow glyph, improves Mind Flay damage when SWP is on your target, which it should almost always be. Highly recommended, however even for shadow may not be as useful in a team situation as a more healing-oriented glyph.

[item]Glyph of Smite[/item]

**** Good for a holy dps build. Otherwise, not recommended.

[item]Glyph of Spirit of Redemption[/item]

** Could be possibly useful, since when the priest dies, there's often a problem, and being able to heal for longer could make a big difference there. Especially in arena. However, the big downside is that you have to be 21 points into Holy to benefit.



Minor Glyphs:

[Glyph of Fortitude]

[Glyph of Levitate]

[Glyph of Shadow Protection]
 
Gear:

Patch 3.0 has led to major changes in priest gearing, and to a lesser degree for all other casters. Shadow Priests are arguably the best prepared for this gear change.



The biggest change for priests in 3.0 is that damage and healing are now closely intertwined, both as a class, and in gear. As such, there is only one gear list now, with details for certain items. A glass cannon dps priest will wear roughly the same gear as a glass healing priest. And vise versa for a stats heavy priest, whether they decide dps or healing. Don't forget that there are many spells that don't scale with spell power, and that there will always be situations where you wish you had more spell power.



Gearing is a continuum between heavy stats and heavy power. Whether it's healing or dmg is irrelevent. If you go too far stats, you may survive for quite a while, but you will have a reduced effect, and trouble killing or healing. Priests' damage and longevity (both survivability and efficiency) are very dependant on gear. Survivability, and how much you need varies from player to player, and game to game. It is often a good idea to have some different pieces for certain slots that one can switch out as needed.



Notes: Items with a star in front of them are my personal recommendations on what items to get. And Shadow Wrath items are still school specific with their damage, so they will be marked as such.



Head:

*(shdw)[ITEM]Green Lens[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath - [ITEM]Arcanum of Focus[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Lesser Arcanum of Rumination[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Lesser Arcanum of Constitution[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Green Lens[/ITEM] of Healing

*(pwr)[ITEM]Miner's Hat of the Deep[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Green Lens[/ITEM] of the Eagle

(pwr)[ITEM]Papal Fez[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Whitemane's Chapeau[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Darkmist Wizard Hat[/ITEM] of the Eagle



Neck:

*(pwr)[ITEM]Pulsating Crystalline Shard[/ITEM]

*(stats)[ITEM]Necklace of Calisea[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Jade Pendant of Blasting[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Triune Amulet[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Glowing Eye of Mordresh[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Citrine Pendant of Golden Healing[/ITEM]



Shoulders:

*(stats)[ITEM]Tattered Dreadmist Mantle[/ITEM] - Glyph of the Gladiator (30stam, 15resil)

(stats)[ITEM]Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Lunar Mantle[/ITEM] of the Eagle - [ITEM]Power of the Scourge[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Resilience of the Scourge[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Fortitude of the Scourge[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Inquisitor's Shawl[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Bloodmage Mantle[/ITEM]

(shdw)[ITEM]Lunar Mantle[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath

(stats)[ITEM]Berylline Pads[/ITEM]



Back:

*(stats)[ITEM]Battle Healer's Cloak[/ITEM] - [ITEM]Formula: Enchant Cloak - Spell Penetration[/ITEM]/120 Armor/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Cloak - Major Resistance[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Caretaker's Cape[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Gossamer Cape[/ITEM] of the Eagle

(pwr)[ITEM]Gossamer Cape[/ITEM] of Healing

(shdw)[ITEM]Gossamer Cape[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath

(stats)[ITEM]Silky Spider Cape[/ITEM]



Chest:

*(stats)[ITEM]Robes of the Lich[/ITEM] - 6 Stats/150hp/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Chest - Major Resilience[/ITEM]/15 Spirit/6 mp5

(pwr)[ITEM]Robe of the Magi[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Death's Head Vestment[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Sorcerer Robe[/ITEM] of the Eagle



Wrists:

(shdw)[ITEM]Bloodwoven Bracers[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath - [ITEM]Formula: Enchant Bracer - Spellpower[/ITEM]/12 Int/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Bracer - Fortitude[/ITEM]/4 Stats/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Bracer - Spellpower[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Bracer - Restore Mana Prime[/ITEM]

*(stats)[ITEM]Bloodband Bracers[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Bloodwoven Bracers[/ITEM] of the Eagle

(pwr)[ITEM]Bloodwoven Bracers[/ITEM] of Healing



Hands:

*(stats)[ITEM]Revelosh's Gloves[/ITEM] of the Eagle - [ITEM]Formula: Enchant Gloves - Major Spellpower[/ITEM]/10 Crit/15 Hit Rating

*(pwr)[ITEM]Revelosh's Gloves[/ITEM] of Healing

(pwr)[ITEM]Black Mageweave Gloves[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Royal Gloves[/ITEM] of the Eagle

(pwr)[ITEM]Royal Gloves[/ITEM] of Healing



Waist:

*(stats)[ITEM]Deathmage Sash[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Defiler's Cloth Girdle[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Highlander's Cloth Girdle[/ITEM]



Legs:

*(stats)[ITEM]Necromancer Leggings[/ITEM] - [ITEM]Runic Spellthread[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Golden Spellthread[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Red Mageweave Pants[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Shadoweave Pants[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Regal Leggings[/ITEM] of the Eagle



Feet:

[ITEM]Defiler's Cloth Boots[/ITEM] - [ITEM]Formula: Enchant Boots - Fortitude[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Highlander's Cloth Boots[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Furen's Boots[/ITEM]



Finger:

*(pwr)[ITEM]Underworld Band[/ITEM]

*(stats)[ITEM]Deadman's Hand[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Advisor's Ring[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Lorekeeper's Ring[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Golden Ring of Power[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Blazing Citrine Ring[/ITEM]



Trinket:

*[ITEM]Inherited Insignia of the Horde[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Inherited Insignia of the Alliance[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Insignia of the Horde[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Insignia of the Alliance[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Figurine - Jade Owl[/ITEM]

(dmg)[ITEM]Gnomish Death Ray[/ITEM]

(dmg)[ITEM]Goblin Bomb Dispenser[/ITEM]

(dmg)[ITEM]Goblin Mortar[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Rune of Perfection[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Philosopher's Stone[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Mark of the Chosen[/ITEM]

*[ITEM]Tidal Charm[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Gnomish Shrink Ray[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Nifty Stopwatch[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Arena Grand Master[/ITEM]



[ITEM]Discerning Eye of the Beast[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Swift Hand of Justice[/ITEM]



Main Hand:

*(pwr)[ITEM]Staff of Jordan[/ITEM] - [ITEM]Formula: Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Weapon - Soulfrost[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Weapon - Major Intellect[/ITEM]/20 Spirit/[ITEM]Formula: Enchant Weapon - Spellsurge[/ITEM]

*(stats)[ITEM]Advisor's Gnarled Staff[/ITEM]

*(stats)[ITEM]Lorekeeper's Staff[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Hand of Righteousness[/ITEM]

(shdw)[ITEM]Sacrificial Kris[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath

(budget)[ITEM]Spiritchaser Staff[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath

(regen)[ITEM]Spiritchaser Staff[/ITEM] of Spirit

(pwr)[ITEM]Spiritchaser Staff[/ITEM] of Healing

(stats)[ITEM]Spiritchaser Staff[/ITEM] of the Eagle



[ITEM]Grand Staff of Jordan[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Dignified Headmaster's Charge[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Devout Aurastone Hammer[/ITEM]

[ITEM]The Blessed Hammer of Grace[/ITEM]



Off Hand:

(pwr)[ITEM]Umbral Crystal[/ITEM]

(pwr)[ITEM]Beacon of Hope[/ITEM]

(stats)[ITEM]Prophetic Cane[/ITEM]



Wand:

(stats)[ITEM]Jaina's Firestarter[/ITEM]

(shdw)[ITEM]Ember Wand[/ITEM] of Shadow Wrath

(stats)[ITEM]Ember Wand[/ITEM] of the Eagle

(pwr)[ITEM]Ember Wand[/ITEM] of Healing



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Consumables:

Quick overview of all available consumables useful to a 39 priest.



Healing, Mana, and First Aid:

Potions are all on a 2 minute cooldown. Bandages make you un-bandagable for one minute, antivenom is an independent 1 minute cooldown.

*[ITEM]Greater Mana Potion[/ITEM] - Highest mana gained at 39.

[ITEM]Superior Mana Draught[/ITEM] - Cheap to obtain from a vendor at a bg entrance, but weak.

[ITEM]Superior Healing Draught[/ITEM] - Cheap to obtain, but weak.

[ITEM]Superior Healing Potion[/ITEM] - Highest health gained at 39.

*[ITEM]Combat Healing Potion[/ITEM] - equivalent to Superior, cheaper, and easy to obtain from Hall of Legends.

[ITEM]Dreamless Sleep Potion[/ITEM] - Higher reliable gain than anything else, but leaves you vulnerable for duration. Imo, just sit and drink.

[ITEM]Wildvine Potion[/ITEM] - Potentially highest gain of any restorative potion, but risky.

*[ITEM]Heavy Netherweave Bandage[/ITEM] - Learn to find times to use this instead of healing spells.

*[ITEM]Strong Anti-Venom[/ITEM] - Made from [ITEM]Large Venom Sac[/ITEM]s, rare recipe.

[ITEM]Anti-Venom[/ITEM] - Doesn't always work, but is on a separate cooldown from Strong.

[ITEM]Powerful Anti-Venom[/ITEM] - Basically overkill, much more expensive, but is on a separate cooldown.



Long Term Buffs:

You can have a guardian and a battle elixir active at the same time. Oils are seperate, and don't disappear on death.

*[ITEM]Lesser Wizard Oil[/ITEM] - Best available.

*[ITEM]Minor Mana Oil[/ITEM] - Best available.

[ITEM]Arcane Elixir[/ITEM] - Only available caster battle elixir at 39.

[ITEM]Elixir of Greater Intellect[/ITEM] - Best bang for your buck out of a guardian elixir.

*[ITEM]Catseye Elixir[/ITEM] - independent from guardian and battle elixirs.

[ITEM]Gift of Arthas[/ITEM] - Funky, but useful if you need the shadow resist.

[ITEM]Elixir of Greater Defense[/ITEM] - Best armor elixir available.

[ITEM]Elixir of Fortitude[/ITEM] - Best health elixir available.



Temporary Buffs:

These share a cooldown with healing and mana potions.

[ITEM]Invisibility Potion[/ITEM] - Can use to escape combat, but watch for warlocks.

[ITEM]Swiftness Potion[/ITEM]

[ITEM]Free Action Potion[/ITEM] - No longer dispellable, contraversial to use, tends to provoke mockery.



Food:

Food buffs are separate from other buffs, but now include Rumsey Rum. I included the bg food in spite of a lack of buffs because they give a higher regeneration rate than standard lvl 35 food, the best available. As a priest, you'd do well to carry multiple stacks with you into battle. Personally, I always keep at least half a dozen in my bank as well.

*[ITEM]Highlander's Iron Ration[/ITEM]/[ITEM]Defiler's Iron Ration[/ITEM] - Can only use in Arathi Basin.

*[ITEM]Warsong Gulch Iron Ration[/ITEM] - Can only use in Warsong Gulch.

*[ITEM]Rumsey Rum Black Label[/ITEM] - Highest available stamina buff, alcoholic.

[ITEM]Cooked Glossy Mightfish[/ITEM] - Don't have to wait 10 seconds to get buff.

[ITEM]Hot Smoked Bass[/ITEM] - Best non-alcoholic buff available.

[ITEM]Heavy Kodo Stew[/ITEM] - Same.

[ITEM]Spider Sausage[/ITEM] - Same.

[ITEM]Brewdoo Magic[/ITEM] - Alcoholic.



Offensive Consumables:

I note which ones require which profession to use, if required.

[ITEM]Really Sticky Glue[/ITEM] - Quest reward. Limited supply.

[ITEM]Magic Dust[/ITEM] - A pain to farm. Very few twinks use at 39.

*[ITEM]Iron Grenade[/ITEM] - Relatively cheap and easy to use. Engineering.

[ITEM]Mithril Frag Bomb[/ITEM] - Large area of effect. Engineering.

[ITEM]Flash Bomb[/ITEM] - Useful for hunters, druids, and ghost wolf.

[ITEM]Thorium Grenade[/ITEM] - Higher damage at higher cost. Engineering.

[ITEM]Dark Iron Bomb[/ITEM] - Rare, but longer duration stun. Engineering.

[ITEM]Fel Iron Bomb[/ITEM] - High potential damage. Engineering.

[ITEM]The Big One[/ITEM] - Highest potential damage, largest area of effect, and longest duration. Expensive, and requires Goblin Engineering to make. Engineering.

[ITEM]Goblin Sapper Charge[/ITEM] - Requires Goblin Engineering to make. Engineering.

[ITEM]Arcane Bomb[/ITEM] - Large mana burn and silence effect. Engineering.

[ITEM]Netherweave Net[/ITEM] - Cheap with the large available supply of netherweave, shares cooldown with grenades. Tailoring.



Defensive Consumables:

Items that help you but don't fit in the above categories. Basically the consumables that spawn something. Stone Statues, Battle Standards, and Dark Runes all share a cooldown, along with Health Stones.

[ITEM]Heavy Stone Statue[/ITEM] Short range healing totem. Don't use while running away from something. Jewelcrafting.

[ITEM]Solid Stone Statue[/ITEM] - Better than Heavy. Jewelcrafting.

*[ITEM]Dense Stone Statue[/ITEM] - Best available. Jewelcrafting.

[ITEM]Horde Battle Standard[/ITEM] - Requires 16500 honor to obtain.

[ITEM]Alliance Battle Standard[/ITEM] - Same as horde version.

[ITEM]Masterwork Target Dummy[/ITEM] - Use to buy a little time from hunter pets. Engineering.

[ITEM]Dark Rune[/ITEM] - Efficient conversion of health into mana, shares cooldown with Healthstone. Only drop in Scholomance.



Miscellaneous:

Various random consumables that aren't that helpful, or are only available during special events.

[ITEM]Chipped Power Core[/ITEM] - Can only carry one at a time, rare drop off low lvl Ghostlands mobs, so easily farmable without xp. The special event items can often be horded for a decent period of time (they often have durations), and since they do not take up a buff slot, can allow you to reach higher numbers you couldn't ordinarily reach.

[ITEM]Very Berry Cream[/ITEM] - Only available from Valentine's Day event.

[ITEM]Midsummer Sausage[/ITEM] - Only available from Midsummer event.
 
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Professions:

Overview of all the professions, and how helpful they can be for a 39 priest.



Alchemy:

Alchemy allows you to make next to nothing that can't be bought and used by a non-alchemist. The one item that you need to level alchemy to get is [Philosopher's Stone], and there are better trinkets to have. The item used to not require alchemy skill to use, but it does now, so unless you really want the trinket, I don't recommend bothering with it.



Blacksmithing:

Another profession that offers nothing to a 39 twink that can't be bought. The only exception is a trinket called [Glimmering Mithril Insignia]. This is pretty useful, particularly for dealing with a warlock. However, compared to what is available from other professions, this isn't worth the profession slot, especially since you must have 225 blacksmithing to use this, not to just obtain it. =/



Enchanting:

Enchanting gives nothing useful to a 39 twink that can't be bought. The only obtainable trinket at 300 enchanting or below is [Smoking Heart of the Mountain], and it requires lvl 50 to use.



Engineering:

Engineering is one of the best professions for a twink to have, and is a must-have for a serious caster twink. [Green Lens]es are the best caster headpieces in the 39 bracket, and [Catseye Ultra Goggles] are essential for serious rogues, and both requre engineering to wear. Moreover, engineering offers many different useful consumables, all of which require engineering to use. The most notable are [Iron Grenade]s, but there are other less popular consumables that deal more damage or have more unique effects, as well as numerous trinkets. If you choose no other profession, get this one.



The other thing with engineering is that at 225+ you get the option to specialize into Goblin or Gnomish Engineering. Gnomish Engineering offers the greater number of odd devices, such as the [Gnomish Death Ray]. Goblin offers a greater variety of explosives, such as [Goblin Sapper Charge]s, and [The Big One]. Thing is, most of the goblin engineering items do not require goblin engineering to use, so if you can find a goblin engineer willing to make you the specialized goblin explosives, get gnomish engineering for the bop trinkets.



Jewelcrafting:

The second best profession to have. Jewelcrafting is at least very useful to get for the many bop trinkets it offers at 39. Most useful for a priest is [Figurine - Jade Owl], but [Figurine - Golden Hare] is also useful in certain situations. As for consumables, jewelcrafting offers stone statues, which are short-duration totems that heal you every second. The best, [Dense Stone Statue]s, heal for 50 every second, for a total of about 1200 health (24 second duration). These statues bind on pickup, so you can not have someone else make them for you. These are not as vital as the engineering consumables, so you may wish to drop jewelcrafting after getting the trinkets, and pick up tailoring or blacksmithing.



Leatherworking:

Leatherworking offers next to nothing for a 39 twink. It does create some useful items however, that are useful for other classes. The most notable item is [Green Whelp Armor], which is a staple for healadins and druids. But you do not need the profession to use any special items at 39.



Tailoring:

My choice for a profession if I could pick a third is split between Tailoring and Blacksmithing. Blacksmithing for the fear immunity trinket, and tailoring for [Netherweave Net]s. As a priest, you have Fear Ward, but precious few ways of slowing or rooting an enemy, so I would probably go with tailoring. Tailoring also allows you to make a decent bop chest, [Robe of Power], but it does not require tailoring to use, and is replaced by [Robe of the Magi] or [Robes of the Lich].



Gathering Professions:

Patch 3.0 added a nice bonus for people with gathering professions. Once you get your skill past 75, you gain an ability, passive for two, and an activatable on one. This ability increases in rank and power every time you hit the next skill cap, and have to train higher. So rank 1 requires 75 skill, rank 2 requires 150 skill, then 225, then 300, 375, and finally 450. Patch 3.0.8 added level requirements, so you can only get a gathering profession as high as any other profession: 300.

Herbalism:

Gives an extra ability in the form of a 5 second self HoT on a 3 minute cooldown. Most valuable to twinks who specialize in arena matches and duels. The amount of healing often overshadows the other professions' buffs, and is now the most recommended with the max skill level being only 300. To level herbalism requires picking herbs, so make sure you have the experience needed to explore the zones you need to. Preferably, if you're not already lvl 39, go out and explore everything you can as soon as you have a mount.

Rank 1 (75 skill): 300 healing

Rank 2 (150 skill): 480 healing

Rank 3 (225 skill): 720 healing

Rank 4 (300 skill): 900 healing



Mining:

Gives a passive bonus to your health pool. A smaller bonus than herbalism, so not recommended unless you got to 375 or 450 before patch 3.0.8. To level mining, you can mine nodes, and will have to at times, but much of the leveling can be done through smelting. This isn't a guide on how to level professions, so I'll just leave it at that.

Rank 1 (75 skill): 30 health

Rank 2 (150 skill): 50 health

Rank 3 (225 skill): 70 health

Rank 4 (300 skill): 100 health



Skinning:

Gives a passive bonus to your critical strike rating. Generally the least useful of the gathering professions, I only recommend this to people who are desperate for the extra dps. Leveling skinning generally requires a high level escort to kill mobs for you to skin. Otherwise, again make sure you have the xp or explored the zones needed.

Rank 1 (75 skill): 3 rating

Rank 2 (150 skill): 6 rating

Rank 3 (225 skill): 9 rating

Rank 4 (300 skill): 12 rating



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Basics:



Tips:

Figured I'd do a list of tips here first, since it's difficult to know what might not come naturally to a new player. These are independant of spec; a shadowpriest is still a priest, as is a holy dps priest, and healing is still a tool that should be utilized even when you aren't specced for it.



-Against offensive dispels (shaman, priest, felhunter), try to have as many buffs up as possible. Even worthless ones, such as Fade and Abolish Disease can eat another global cooldown. Be aware of mana issues, so don't bother recasting buffs unless there is a good reason (e.g. buff an FC with everything you've got so their HoTs keep running for a while).



-Move when you can, you always want to give your enemies a moving target. Many of your abilities are instant cast, and even the ones that aren't instant aren't really designed to be spammed. Your job isn't to stay put and chain cast, you are more squishy than a shaman or paladin, so don't get caught by melee classes if you can avoid it.



-As shadow or holy dps you are a support dps class first, even in pugs. While you can solo effectively, you are more effective when your teammates are around to help and draw attention, so do what you can to keep them alive and functioning. Of course this is moot if your pug is a bunch of complete idiots.



-Utilize mana burn against twink healers, especially palys. It may not scale, making it inefficient most of the time, but it's great against healers with high efficiency heals and low manapools. It's much more effective than dpsing if noone's paying attention to you.

-Ghost Wolf, fears (nonwarrior), most DoTs, freezing trap, shocks, ignite, earthbind effect, hunters mark, fairie fire, HoTs, judgements, most buffs, insect swarm, moonfire, polymorph, and hammer of justice, are all dispellable.

-Power Word: Fortitude, Shadow Protection, Inner Fire, Divine Spirit, Shadowguard, Touch of Weakness, Fear Ward, Renew, Power Word: Shield, Fade, and Abolish Poison are all magical buffs, if you are a friend is getting focused and purge spammed, it may be useful to buff said target with various cheap ranks of the above spells.

-You may prefer to do dps, but remember that you're still the only class with a defensive dispel. Use it. (e.g. if you're working with a rogue twink, dispel hunters mark, fairie fire, and of course DoTs off him, he'll love you for it)

-Same with heals. There are times when it is advantageous to have 2 people alive at the end of a battle instead of one, even if you won.

-Have Rank 1 Shadow Word:pain available in case you need to force a blackout proc, like on a flag runner. Also nice for stacking shadowweaving on some poor sap before trying to get a mindblast crit, or to force other priests to have to dispel themselves more than just once.

-You are not a tank, but you will end up tanking at times. Movement and self dispels are key when getting focused. Also, it is rarely a good idea to spam mindflay on that twink rogue in your face, unless you're doing seriously well, or have no other choice.

-Do your best to be efficient with your spells. Don't SWP someone you know is about to get pyroblasted by your twink mage friend.

-Line of Sight (LoS) can be both your best friend and your worst enemy.



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Healing:

Priests are the most versatile class in healing. But note that word: versatile. Not the most efficient, or durable, or even necessarily most effective. Druids and Paladins, for example, are both more durable and more efficient in their heals. However, one can only do single target healing, and the other is almost exclusively Hots. Neither has Power Word: Shield, nor prayer of healing. And most of all, the Priest class is the only class with a defensive dispel before lvl 40.



Priests are good at coping with burst damage. Power Word: Shield, plus a high hps flash heal, and time reduction on Heal makes the Priest excellent at keeping other squishy classes (mages) alive even after said class gets ganked by a rogue. The priest is also the best defensive counter to warlocks, since they can dispel all of their spells except curses. The Priest class has some sort of tool that is extremely effective for almost any situation.



Maximizing Strengths:

One of the characteristics of a good player is that they use everything they have at their disposal. For a priest, this means not just healing spells. First thing you should think of doing is dispel; especially dispel crowd control such as polymorph, fear, and freezing traps. But then, provided no healing is needed immediately, what can you be doing? Wanding perhaps. Or perhaps mana burning the enemy healer(s). What else? Mind Control. At LM, if you have time, Mind Control people and run them off the cliff. The other thing is Psychic Scream. Your aoe fear is a good defensive move, and it sometimes is good to save it up for an emergency, but it is also a very effective offensive move. Just be sure to utilize good judgement in it's use. Learn what classes you can fear effectively, and when. Example: Don't Psy Scream that priest until after you dispel Fear Ward off him.



Take a careful look at every single spell and ability you have at your disposal. Where could it be useful? Take special care with the abilities that don't seem immediately useful. First Aid is an excellent example. Why level First Aid as a healer you ask? When a priest runs out of mana, they become virtually useless, so if you get ganked and lose half your health at some point, after fearing your ganker, why not use a Heavy Netherweave Bandage to heal to full, rather than waste valuable mana healing yourself? Also, realize that the high level bandages tick for half of a healing potion. There are times when you can get a 3 second running lead on someone while kiting and bandage to full health in just a few ticks.



Minimizing Weaknesses

There are ways available to minimize a Priest's weaknesses, such as poison. Poison is one of the few debuffs that a priest is unable to dispel, which makes First Aid valuable for another reason: Anti-Venom. Anti-venom is extremely useful against those smart hunters that viper sting you. Anti-venom is also extremely useful for getting cripping poison off to escape a rogue.



Another major weakness of Priests is efficiency. While this can sometimes be solved by getting out of combat and drinking often, that avenue isn't always open. Obviously there are mana potions. There is also the possibility of stacking some mana regen (limited in how much one can get), or spirit. Those are build solutions, but another possible way to increase your Priest's efficiency is behavioral: downranking your healing spells. This may require relatively high +healing, but in theory, one could reduce their mana pool, and still get similar levels of healing due to stacked +healing, while at the same time regenerating mana to full faster due to their smaller pool. If you're not interested in experimenting with high +healing builds, you can still down rank slower but more efficient healing spells based on how much healing someone needs. If you know someone is going to take damage in a few seconds (or is going to lifetap?), start casting a Heal beforehand rather than a more inefficient Flash Heal.



The final major weakness of Priests is survivability. Obviously gear can help a lot here, along with a friend or two who can protect you (which I strongly recommend; puggging as a healer is like Russian roulette). However, there are a number of minor ways of improving survivability. The biggest one is movement. PvP isn't PvE, as a healer you typically should not stand still in the back spamming heals. You will stand out to the other team, and their rogues will just walk up to you and start stabbing. Movement makes their job harder, if only because it will take them longer, but will also make you look more like any other player. You don't see dps classes standing still except maybe mages casting, but even the smart mages are moving around as much as possible. Confusion and chaos makes it less likely for people to notice you. Also, one minor thing is to face melee attackers as much as possible when not casting. It is impossible to dodge attacks from behind, and believe it or not, dodging things will save you a lot of health from time to time.



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Arena:

5v5

Serious 5v5 arena as a shadowpriest at 39 is generally not a good idea. It's just due to the difficulty of gearing. You either do insufficient damage to be worth having as shadow, or you are much too vulnerable to focus fire with a lack of escape abilities and an inability to nuke under fire, or you lose the mana game to inefficiency and a small mana pool. Another reason is similar to what paladins deal with: why spec for damage, even if it's competitive, when you're ten times better as a healer? That's fine when in a bg, where slots for players aren't in as short a supply, and versatility can come in handy, but arena is not as forgiving.



As a healing priest in arena, your greatest asset is your defensive dispel. At 39 there are fewer ways of escaping CC than at 70, making CC much more powerful, in spite of there being fewer CC abilities in general. Blind, Freezing Trap, Polymorph, and especially Fear are the major CC abilities, and a priest can dispel 3 of them, not to mention many forms of snares and roots.



As a healing priest in arena, you will be the tank. Gear being equal, you are (with the possible exception of a warlock) the squishiest - and most valuable - target. In 2v2 and 3v3 this means you will be generally healing youself. Get used to faking heals to dodge kicks, pummels, spellocks, and counterspells. Also, get used to kiting, and using Line of Sight against ranged opponents. A good idea might be to watch some videos of arena priests. The abilities and health pools may be different, but the basic mechanics are similar.



In 5v5, you hopefully will have teammates doing most of the healing on you. Your job at that point will be to dispel CC off your teammates so they can do their job. All of the other tips in the other sections are just as relevent here, arena simply changes the general theme along with a few rules.



3v3

I have the least experience with a priest in 3v3, but from what I've seen and experienced, a healing priest will be like a 5v5 healing priest, only he probably won't have another main healer to back him up. A shadow priest could concievably be effective, but most likely only in a 3 dps team that focuses on burst damage, since a shadowpriest is often weak on staying power, and is especially vulnerable to certain combinations of pure dps classes. Success will be heavily dependent on skillful timing and use of more than just damage spells. What could make the most difference in the outcome for a priest is their skillful use of Psychic Scream, Dispel, and Silence.



2v2

A priest can be effective in 2v2 no matter what spec he is. What's more important is who they have as their partner, and it's relevent to point out that there will almost always be a hard counter to whatever setup you form; you just have to live with it and have fun. I would not recommend pairing with a pure healer. A shadow priest doesn't have the burst to defeat other dps-healer teams, and doesn't have the mana to outlast 2dps teams, even if their healer keeps them alive through it. A shadowpriest is best off with another dpser or with another hybrid. Resto Shaman would be the only healing spec class I would consider pairing with personally.



The important thing is to keep track of your teammate as much as possible. Keep him as free from CC as you can, since rather than a CC class, you are more of an anti-CC class, you gain more advantage in 2v2 battle that involves all players than in a 1v1+1v1 battle, and you aren't built for simply outlasting a dpser if you're a healer.
 
I havnt read through all of this, but ive read it on that other twink site its on. Great guide, although I hope it does get a few tweaks in both the talent spec section and the gear selection to account for more recent changes (including the info on the wow forums talking a bit about the 3.1 patch changes incoming) Also some of the stuff about downranking skills and what not is out of date. Im sure you know all of this though ;p



Glad its coming over here!
 
Alteffour said:
I havnt read through all of this, but ive read it on that other twink site its on. Great guide, although I hope it does get a few tweaks in both the talent spec section and the gear selection to account for more recent changes (including the info on the wow forums talking a bit about the 3.1 patch changes incoming) Also some of the stuff about downranking skills and what not is out of date. Im sure you know all of this though ;p



Glad its coming over here!
Click to expand...



Ah, thanks for mentioning the downranking. I forgot I had written a section on that. >.<
 
You mention golden hare in the JC section but forgot it in the trinket section.



These are a great extra health and mana boost on a different CD than pots. Great in teams:

Major Recombobulator



<font color="#0068FF">Hypnotic Blade</font>

Binds when picked up

Main Hand Dagger

26 - 49 Damage Speed 1.40

(26.8 damage per second)

+8 Intellect

+3 Spirit

Durability 65 / 65

Requires Level 34

Equip: Increases spell power by 9.



Combined with Umbral Crystal

+5 Stam

+8 Int

+3 SP

+23 Spell dmg

Poor man's Jordan's Staff (6 less stats, 4 less spell dmg, the trade off for more stam and about same Int is not too bad).



For my own reference like the rest of this stuff: base mana is 607 mp for a 39 priest.



I've pvped with Disc. Priests extensively up to the 59 bracket. Here's my build for disc. 3.1



25/5/0

http://ptr.wowhead.com/?talent=bxcruhRboZf



For Glyphs there's a lot of hard decisions:



Inner Fire now gives +50% armor, it was amazing before, it was more amazing talented, i can't hardly think what it would be like with this glyph. (and more charges too, thank god.) Talented it should bring it up to 1566 armor. With an estimated 600 armor from gear comes to 38% phys. dmg reduction, we are talking near plate while warriors are in mail (INSANE!).



PW:Shield With the CD removed you will be able to spam this on everyone in sight and all buffed out a 20% heal is probably pretty nice I'm sure. Need info how much the heal is. PW:Shield is a 158 mana w/soul warding that's 110 mana, and from wiki it: Receives a 80.68% bonus from spell power now. :eek:



Dispel Magic I like the idea of percentage (+3% health) because that means it will scale with twinks better. Though 3% isn't much even for a twink. Dispel costs 85 mana without talents at 39.



Renew Reduces duration by 3 seconds (out of 15) and increases each tick by 25%. Someone reported on a forum that it is the same amount just over a shorter time. Important to note improved renew will now instantly heal 15% of renew's total healing. Renew costs a 115 mana to cast, apparently gets a 100% of the plus healing bonus over the 5 ticks (4 with glyph).



Flash Heal Last one I would even consider. Flash heal is always used a lot but with shield glyph, dispel glyph and the new change to improved renew maybe it's usage can be avoided for the most part. Can I get the mana cost at 39? OR base mana at 39?



Minor Glyphs: A tougher decision than any other class I can think of. PW:Stam would be super nice because the spell costs an insane amount of mana and when you have it improved you should be buffing decent players after they die or is dispelled and not just the beginning of a match, it's a huge huge bonus when you think about everyone having 400+ life x 10 or 15.



In the end I'm sure I would go with levitate and just deal with begging for mage water because I love hitting that spell constantly and frivolously and light feathers are a pain to collect.







Thanks.



Man now that I just thought about it, the new talent changes is a gigantic buff to 39 disc. priests. Reflect shield will be amazing, no CD shield with 30% less mana cost. I NEED TO ROLL. Now if they would only stop switching racials around every couple weeks.
 
Any chance at a 3.1 update. My current priest is sitting at 19 and i'm sort of bored of the 7 hunters =/.. Looking for some ideas. Thanks
 
Elol said:
Any chance at a 3.1 update. My current priest is sitting at 19 and i'm sort of bored of the 7 hunters =/.. Looking for some ideas. Thanks
Click to expand...



Yeah, but it's going to take me a while. Finals next week, along with a number of projects due. Plus, since I quit, I'm spending most of my time playing around with scripting in Neverwinter Nights 1, and don't really feel like getting drawn back into things any more than enough to post once every week or so.
 
Jadyn said:
Yeah, but it's going to take me a while. Finals next week, along with a number of projects due. Plus, since I quit, I'm spending most of my time playing around with scripting in Neverwinter Nights 1, and don't really feel like getting drawn back into things any more than enough to post once every week or so.
Click to expand...



No worries if someone else knows of a few changes and wants to chime in that would be great. I've looked over most of this and things look good but guessing like most patches some things change.
 
Elol said:
No worries if someone else knows of a few changes and wants to chime in that would be great. I've looked over most of this and things look good but guessing like most patches some things change.
Click to expand...



Basically just the talents and head/leg/shoulder enchants.
 
I'd say your mana is ok. I'm more worried about you only having 2.1k hp. Though, I'm not quite sure where you'd change anything to get more. >.<
 
Well my hp will be 2300 or so unbuffed. Chardev doesn't count the stats from Revelosh gloves and I will be using Eagle for an extra 9 sta. Also it didn't save my talents so I will get an extra 4% sta from improved PW:Fort.



A couple of the swaps I was looking at for raising Sta more if I needed to are swapping Jaina's Firestarter for a 5/5 Eagle wand (I think you can get those this level right? or maybe 4/4?) Or going with stamina instead of spellpower on my bracers.



If that still wasn't enough I could swap a spellpower trinket for the arena masters trinket. That would be a 14 spellpower for 12 sta swap...



Looking at other profiles it looked like I had quite a bit more spellpower than other twink priests in the bracket. Especially when you discount the leg armors they're still getting credit for.



Oh, also another 10(?) stamina from mining. That should put me right around 2400 before buffs.
 
To put "of the eagle" on your gloves click the enchants tab. At the top is a drop down menu that you may select your bonus.



For the talents I would say make sure you are clicking update in the save section after applying them?
 
Some observations:



-Rank 1 for Blackout is outdated

-Overrated the flash heal glyph. 10% of 177 is 18 mana, you'd need to cast 10 flash heals for it to be enough to gain one extra. Underrated the 6% gained from Inner Focus glyph.

-Download Shieldmonitor to know how much you have left in your PW:S
 
please update
 
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