Jadyne
39 Evangelist
With the large number of players rolling 39 twinks on Molten's WotLK servers, I thought it'd be a good idea to dig up my old 39 twink priest guide I wrote for WotLK twinking, and update it for private server use. If you're playing on retail live WoW, please disregard this. It's not a useful resource for you unless you decide to join us.
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.
Last updated for 3.3.5a.
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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
d. Armory Links
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 is that theoretically damage, stats and crit can be supplimented by gear and skill. But there is no item at 39 that increases the duration of Gouge by 1.5 seconds, or increases the range of your Mind Flay by 4 yards.
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 wrong if you can justify it to yourself. That said, you can make a case that some are stronger than others in certain situations.
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, Vampiric Embrace, and Improved Devouring Plague. The version that I built here is focused on maximizing your burst damage. With Devouring Plague doing 200-300 damage instantly, it becomes a good way of finishing people off and increasing your burst after a Mindblast. The primary weakness is mana. You will go oom, and fast. The key is deciding when that's okay and when it's not. One thing you can do to try to offset that is to drop 3 points in Spirit Tap, and try to use Devouring Plague to steal killing blows. That's only something I would suggest in pugs, however. At higher skill levels, you can't rely on getting killing blows.
7/0/23 - Shadow + Martyrdom. Same basic idea as full shadow, but you drop 7 points in disc for Unbreakable Will 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. Alternatively, you could drop Martyrdom and Improved Vampiric Embrace and go for Silent Resolve, if you're facing a lot of priests.
0/2/28 - Shadow + Healing Focus. Basically, full shadow but drop Mind Melt for Healing Focus. Give up on getting crits; they'll happen once in a blue moon. Any priest is going to play a utility role, and this build sacrifices a small amount of dps to allow you to heal more under fire. Just don't try to out heal anyone actually specced for it.
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 and Mana Burn. 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 and Divine Fury give you nice offensive options. An obvious variation is to drop Divine Fury for Spell Warding, since you may not 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. 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.
28/2/0 - Disc variation - My current build (3/29/14). I've been trying out a heavy regen build, and it's surprisingly effective. You'll still go oom, but you last a lot longer, and you recover a lot quicker between fights. Went for Imp Inner Fire because survival becomes much more useful when you're not stuck useless for a long time after going oom. With this spec, I go for 3k hp, ~140sp, and ~108 mp5 when not casting. Rainstrider Leggings make it this actually effective, and Spellsurge is viable on Molten-WoW because it doesn't have an internal cooldown.
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, though good luck getting killing blows.
17/2/11 - "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. Disclaimer: I've never tried this; it's an example of what you can experiment with if you want to be creative.
Glyphs:
Glyphs are provided by the new Inscription profession. I'll leave the irrelevant details to other sources of information. The important things to know are that at 39 you can get 2 major glyphs and 1 minor glyph. 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 relevant 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.
Glyph of Fear Ward
*** Useful, but an extra 30 seconds will rarely make a difference at 39 worthy of a major glyph slot.
Glyph of Flash Heal
***** 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.
Glyph of Holy Nova
** Useful, but Holy Nova is too expensive for it to be very useful. Not recommended.
Glyph of Inner Fire
** Useful, but very limited in it's effect. Better to use the slot on something else.
Glyph of Mind Control
* Not useful due to diminishing returns already limiting the duration.
Glyph of Mind Flay
*** Useful, and one of only two glyphs that directly and usefully help shadow specs. However, Mind Flay is useful more for it's snare than its dps, so I don't recommend this glyph.
Glyph of Power Word: Shield
**** 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.
Glyph of Prayer of Healing
** Useful, but situational. One doesn't often see Prayer of Healing being used in pvp.
Glyph of Psychic Scream
** Sort of useful, though fear often breaks early anyway, so you won't feel the benefit from it as often as other glpyhs.
Glyph of Renew
***** 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.
Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
** Not very useful, even if SWP ticks for full duration, doesn't refund the total cost of the spell, let alone regenerate more than the cost.
Glyph of Smite
**** Good for a holy dps build. Otherwise, not recommended.
Glyph of Spirit of Redemption
** 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:
With the way gear works in WotLK, gearing for healing vs dps is not at issue. Instead, the question is tanky vs glass cannon. A glass cannon dps priest will wear roughly the same gear as a glass healing priest. And vise versa for a tanky 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 you 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)Green Lens of Shadow Wrath
(pwr)Green Lens of Healing
*(pwr)Miner's Hat of the Deep
(stats)Green Lens of the Eagle
(pwr)Papal Fez
(stats)Whitemane's Chapeau
(stats)Darkmist Wizard Hat of the Eagle
Neck:
*(stats)Necklace of Calisea
*(pwr)Scorn's Icy Choker
(pwr)Jade Pendant of Blasting
(stats)Triune Amulet
(pwr)Glowing Eye of Mordresh
(pwr)Citrine Pendant of Golden Healing
(pwr)Pulsating Crystalline Shard - <Note: Currently unavailable in Molten-WoW>
Shoulders:
*(stats)Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
(stats)Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle
(stats)Lunar Mantle of the Eagle
(pwr)Inquisitor's Shawl
(pwr)Bloodmage Mantle
(shdw)Lunar Mantle of Shadow Wrath
(stats)Berylline Pads
Back:
*(pwr)Mantle of Lady Falther'ess - +20 Spell Penetration/+120 Armor/+7 All Resistances/+15 Shadow Resistance
(pwr)Icy Cloak
(stats)Silky Spider Cape
(stats)Battle Healer's Cloak
(stats)Caretaker's Cape
(stats)Gossamer Cape of the Eagle
(pwr)Gossamer Cape of Healing
(shdw)Gossamer Cape of Shadow Wrath
Chest:
*(stats)Robes of the Lich - +6 Stats/+150hp/+15 Resilience/+15 Spirit/+7 mp5
(pwr)Robe of the Magi
(stats)Death's Head Vestment
(pwr)Robe of Power
(stats)Sorcerer Robe of the Eagle
Wrists:
(shdw)Bloodwoven Bracers of Shadow Wrath - +15 Spellpower/+12 Stamina/+12 Intellect/+8 mp5
*(stats)Bloodband Bracers
(stats)Bloodwoven Bracers of the Eagle
(pwr)Bloodwoven Bracers of Healing
Hands:
*(stats)Revelosh's Gloves of the Eagle - +20 Spellpower/+10 Crit Rating/+15 Hit Rating
*(pwr)Revelosh's Gloves of Healing
(stats)Revelosh's Gloves of the Owl
(pwr)Black Mageweave Gloves
(stats)Royal Gloves of the Eagle
(pwr)Royal Gloves of Healing
Waist:
*(stats)Deathmage Sash
(pwr)Defiler's Cloth Girdle
(pwr)Highlander's Cloth Girdle
(stats)Sutarn's Ring
Legs:
*(stats)Necromancer Leggings - Thick Armor Kit
*(stats)Rainstrider Leggings
pwr)Blighted Leggings
(pwr)Red Mageweave Pants
(pwr)Shadoweave Pants
(stats)Regal Leggings of the Eagle
Feet:
*Defiler's Cloth Boots - +12 Stamina/+10 Crit&Hit Rating/+5 mp5
*Highlander's Cloth Boots
Encarmine Boots
Furen's Boots
Finger:
*(pwr)Underworld Band
(stats)Deadman's Hand
(pwr)Advisor's Ring
(pwr)Lorekeeper's Ring
(pwr)Golden Ring of Power
(pwr)Blazing Citrine Ring
Trinket:
*Inherited Insignia of the Horde/Inherited Insignia of the Alliance
Insignia of the Horde/Insignia of the Alliance
(stats)Arena Grand Master
(stats)Figurine - Jade Owl
(dmg)Gnomish Death Ray
(dmg)Goblin Bomb Dispenser
(dmg)Goblin Mortar
(stats)Rune of Perfection
(stats)Philosopher's Stone
(stats)Mark of the Chosen
*Tidal Charm
Gnomish Shrink Ray
Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector
Nifty Stopwatch
Discerning Eye of the Beast
Swift Hand of Justice
Main Hand:
*Dignified Headmaster's Charge - +30 Spellpower/+22 Intellect/+20 Spirit
*Grand Staff of Jordan
Devout Aurastone Hammer
The Blessed Hammer of Grace
(pwr)Staff of Jordan - +40 Spellpower/+54 Shadow&Frost Power/+30 Intellect/Spellsurge
(stats)Advisor's Gnarled Staff
(stats)Lorekeeper's Staff
(pwr)Hand of Righteousness
(shdw)Sacrificial Kris of Shadow Wrath
(regen)Spiritchaser Staff of Spirit
(pwr)Spiritchaser Staff of Healing
(stats)Spiritchaser Staff of the Eagle
Off Hand:
(pwr)Umbral Crystal
(pwr)Beacon of Hope
(stats)Prophetic Cane
(stats)Furbolg Medicine Pouch
Wand:
*(pwr)Lady Falther'ess' Finger
(stats)Jaina's Firestarter
(shdw)Ember Wand of Shadow Wrath
(stats)Ember Wand of the Eagle
(pwr)Ember Wand 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 1 minute cooldown. Bandages make you un-bandagable for one minute, anti-venom is an independent 1 minute cooldown.
*Greater Mana Potion - Highest mana gained at 39.
Superior Mana Draught - Cheap to obtain from a vendor at a bg entrance, but weak.
Superior Healing Draught - Cheap to obtain, but weak.
*Superior Healing Potion - Highest health gained at 39.
Combat Healing Potion - equivalent to Superior, cheaper, and easy to obtain from Hall of Legends.
Dreamless Sleep Potion - Higher reliable gain than anything else, but can be interrupted. Best to just sit and drink.
Wildvine Potion - Potentially highest gain of any restorative potion, but risky, and highly expensive to make.
*Heavy Frostweave Bandage - Learn to find times to use this instead of healing spells.
*Strong Anti-Venom - Made from Large Venom Sacs. <Note: Not currently functioning in Molten-Wow>
Anti-Venom - Doesn't always work, but is on a separate cooldown from Strong version.
Powerful Anti-Venom - 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 separate, and don't disappear on death.
*Lesser Wizard Oil - Best you can use as a 39.
Minor Mana Oil - Best you can use as a 39.
*Arcane Elixir - Only available caster battle elixir at 39.
*Elixir of Greater Intellect - Best bang for your buck out of a guardian elixir.
*Catseye Elixir - Can be used simultaneously as guardian and battle elixirs.
Gift of Arthas - Funky, but useful if you need the shadow resist.
Elixir of Greater Defense - Best armor elixir available.
Elixir of Fortitude - Best health elixir available.
Temporary Buffs:
These share a cooldown with healing and mana potions.
Invisibility Potion - Can use to escape combat, but puts all potions on a 10 minute cooldown.
Lesser Invisibility Potion - Shorter duration, but cheaper to make. Same cooldown however.
Swiftness Potion
Free Action Potion - No longer dispellable, controversial to use, tends to provoke mockery and/or drama.
Food:
Food buffs are separate from other buffs. 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.
*Arathi Basin Iron Ration - Can only use in Arathi Basin.
*Warsong Gulch Iron Ration - Can only use in Warsong Gulch.
Halaani Whiskey - Highest available stamina buff at 39.
*Rumsey Rum Black Label - Can buy from bartender in Southshore in Old Hillsbrad Foothills instance.
Rumsey Rum Dark - <Note: All rums currently can stack with each other on Molten-WoW. Beware that stacking them at 39 is actively discouraged however.>
Gordok Green Grog
Rumsey Rum Light
Cooked Glossy Mightfish - Don't have to wait 10 seconds to get buff.
*Clamlette Magnifique - Only dps-boosting food buff available at 39.
Hot Smoked Bass - Best non-alcoholic stamina buff available.
Heavy Kodo Stew - Same.
Spider Sausage - Same.
Brewdoo Magic - Alcoholic.
Offensive Consumables:
I note which ones require which profession to use, if required.
Really Sticky Glue - Quest reward. Limited supply.
Magic Dust - A pain to farm. Very few twinks use at 39. Shares cooldown with explosives.
*Iron Grenade - Relatively cheap and easy to use. Engineering.
Mithril Frag Bomb - Large area of effect. Engineering.
Flash Bomb - Useful against hunters, druids and ghost wolf.
Thorium Grenade - Higher damage at higher cost. Engineering.
Dark Iron Bomb - Rare, but longer duration stun. Engineering.
Fel Iron Bomb - High average and potential damage. Engineering.
The Big One - Largest area of effect, and longest duration. Expensive, and requires Goblin Engineering to make. Engineering.
Goblin Sapper Charge - Requires Goblin Engineering to make. Engineering.
Arcane Bomb - Large mana burn and silence effect. Engineering.
Netherweave Net - Cheap, 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 and Charged Crystal Focuses.
Heavy Stone Statue - Short range healing totem. Don't use while running away from something. Jewelcrafting. <Note: Consumables that spawn an npc, so statues, and mechanical sheep, are bugged. The spawned mob does not function properly, and often simply attacks a target. Depending on behavior, this could be a bannable exploit.>
Solid Stone Statue - Better than Heavy. Jewelcrafting.
*Dense Stone Statue - Best available. Jewelcrafting.
Horde Battle Standard - Requires 16500 honor to obtain.
Alliance Battle Standard - Same as horde version.
Dark Rune - Efficient conversion of health into mana, shares cooldown with Healthstone. Only drops in Scholomance.
Charged Crystal Focus - Best use of this cooldown, but huge pain to farm.
Miscellaneous:
Various random consumables that aren't that helpful, or are only available during special events. The special event items can often be horded, and stack with other buffs. Beware that excessive use can lead to becoming a target at 39.
Chipped Power Core - Can only carry one at a time, rare drop off low lvl Ghostlands mobs, so easily farmable without xp.
"Enchantress" Perfume - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
"Wizardry" Cologne - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
"Forever" Perfume - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
"STALWART" Cologne - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
Toasted Smorc - Only available from Midsummer event.
Midsummer Sausage - Only available from Midsummer event.
Fire-toasted Bun - Only available from Midsummer event.
Elderberry Pie - Only available from Midsummer event.
Pyroblast Cinnamon Ball - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween event.
Soothing Spearmint Candy - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween event.
Chewy Fel Taffy - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween event.
G.N.E.R.D.S. - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween 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 Lenses are the best caster headpieces in the 39 bracket, and Catseye Ultra Goggles are essential for serious rogues, and both require engineering to wear. Moreover, engineering offers many different useful consumables, all of which require engineering to use. The most notable are Iron Grenades, 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 Charges, 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. Be aware that these trinkets require jewelcrafting to equip, so you can't get them and then abandon the profession.
Leatherworking:
Leatherworking offers next to nothing for a 39 twink. It does create some interesting items 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 Nets. 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:
These are the primary professions to choose from for your second profession. On Molten-WoW, right now you can get to 300 skill with Herbalism and Skinning, and 450 skill with Mining. This basically makes it a choice of Herbalism vs Mining.
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 depending on your play style, you may want it more than mining.
Rank 1 (75 skill): 300 healing
Rank 2 (150 skill): 480 healing
Rank 3 (225 skill): 720 healing
Rank 4 (300 skill): 900 healing
Here's a video guide to herbalism routes:
Mining:
Gives a passive bonus to your health pool. A smaller bonus than herbalism, but still quite large. 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, but here is a written guide.
Rank 1 (75 skill): 3 stamina
Rank 2 (150 skill): 5 stamina
Rank 3 (225 skill): 7 stamina
Rank 4 (300 skill): 10 stamina
Rank 5 (375 skill): 30 stamina
Rank 6 (450 skill): 60 stamina
Here's a video guide to mining routes:
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.
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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Armoy Links:
These are not all BiS, or even necessarily the best builds. Also, Molten's armory is not quite as complete as Blizzard's, but it's a good start, and these should give you a sense of the variations possible.
Jadyn
Bishopz
Badzor
Imaginez
Darkpray
Fodar
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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 independent 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 ticking for a while).
-Move when you're not casting, you don't want to be predictable about where you are if possible. 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 make it easy for melee classes to catch you.
-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 pugs are a bunch of complete idiots.
-Utilize mana burn against twink healers, especially paladins. It may not scale, making it inefficient most of the time, but it's great against healers with high efficiency heals and small manapools. It's much more effective than dpsing if no one'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, silence, and hammer of justice, are all dispellable.
-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.
-You are not a tank, but you will end up tanking at times. Movement and self dispels are key when getting focused. Also learn to fake cast to avoid kicks, windshears, and counterspells.
-Do your best to be efficient with your spells. Don't SWP someone you know is about to die anyway.
-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 maybe 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 Frostweave Bandage to heal to full, rather than waste valuable mana healing yourself? Also, realize that the high level bandages tick for half or more 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. Another option is to learn to anticipate incoming damage, and to cast slower more efficient spells like Heal ahead of time. This also requires being aware of who may target you for a counterspell or other interrupt.
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 70+ 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 a 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.
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.
Last updated for 3.3.5a.
~*~*~
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
d. Armory Links
III. Basics - General tips on how to play more effectively, and how to handle certain situations.
a. Tips
b. Healing
c. Arena
~*~*~
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 is that theoretically damage, stats and crit can be supplimented by gear and skill. But there is no item at 39 that increases the duration of Gouge by 1.5 seconds, or increases the range of your Mind Flay by 4 yards.
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 wrong if you can justify it to yourself. That said, you can make a case that some are stronger than others in certain situations.
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, Vampiric Embrace, and Improved Devouring Plague. The version that I built here is focused on maximizing your burst damage. With Devouring Plague doing 200-300 damage instantly, it becomes a good way of finishing people off and increasing your burst after a Mindblast. The primary weakness is mana. You will go oom, and fast. The key is deciding when that's okay and when it's not. One thing you can do to try to offset that is to drop 3 points in Spirit Tap, and try to use Devouring Plague to steal killing blows. That's only something I would suggest in pugs, however. At higher skill levels, you can't rely on getting killing blows.
7/0/23 - Shadow + Martyrdom. Same basic idea as full shadow, but you drop 7 points in disc for Unbreakable Will 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. Alternatively, you could drop Martyrdom and Improved Vampiric Embrace and go for Silent Resolve, if you're facing a lot of priests.
0/2/28 - Shadow + Healing Focus. Basically, full shadow but drop Mind Melt for Healing Focus. Give up on getting crits; they'll happen once in a blue moon. Any priest is going to play a utility role, and this build sacrifices a small amount of dps to allow you to heal more under fire. Just don't try to out heal anyone actually specced for it.
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 and Mana Burn. 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 and Divine Fury give you nice offensive options. An obvious variation is to drop Divine Fury for Spell Warding, since you may not 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. 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.
28/2/0 - Disc variation - My current build (3/29/14). I've been trying out a heavy regen build, and it's surprisingly effective. You'll still go oom, but you last a lot longer, and you recover a lot quicker between fights. Went for Imp Inner Fire because survival becomes much more useful when you're not stuck useless for a long time after going oom. With this spec, I go for 3k hp, ~140sp, and ~108 mp5 when not casting. Rainstrider Leggings make it this actually effective, and Spellsurge is viable on Molten-WoW because it doesn't have an internal cooldown.
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, though good luck getting killing blows.
17/2/11 - "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. Disclaimer: I've never tried this; it's an example of what you can experiment with if you want to be creative.
Glyphs:
Glyphs are provided by the new Inscription profession. I'll leave the irrelevant details to other sources of information. The important things to know are that at 39 you can get 2 major glyphs and 1 minor glyph. 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 relevant 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.
Glyph of Fear Ward
*** Useful, but an extra 30 seconds will rarely make a difference at 39 worthy of a major glyph slot.
Glyph of Flash Heal
***** 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.
Glyph of Holy Nova
** Useful, but Holy Nova is too expensive for it to be very useful. Not recommended.
Glyph of Inner Fire
** Useful, but very limited in it's effect. Better to use the slot on something else.
Glyph of Mind Control
* Not useful due to diminishing returns already limiting the duration.
Glyph of Mind Flay
*** Useful, and one of only two glyphs that directly and usefully help shadow specs. However, Mind Flay is useful more for it's snare than its dps, so I don't recommend this glyph.
Glyph of Power Word: Shield
**** 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.
Glyph of Prayer of Healing
** Useful, but situational. One doesn't often see Prayer of Healing being used in pvp.
Glyph of Psychic Scream
** Sort of useful, though fear often breaks early anyway, so you won't feel the benefit from it as often as other glpyhs.
Glyph of Renew
***** 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.
Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain
** Not very useful, even if SWP ticks for full duration, doesn't refund the total cost of the spell, let alone regenerate more than the cost.
Glyph of Smite
**** Good for a holy dps build. Otherwise, not recommended.
Glyph of Spirit of Redemption
** 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:
With the way gear works in WotLK, gearing for healing vs dps is not at issue. Instead, the question is tanky vs glass cannon. A glass cannon dps priest will wear roughly the same gear as a glass healing priest. And vise versa for a tanky 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 you 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)Green Lens of Shadow Wrath
(pwr)Green Lens of Healing
*(pwr)Miner's Hat of the Deep
(stats)Green Lens of the Eagle
(pwr)Papal Fez
(stats)Whitemane's Chapeau
(stats)Darkmist Wizard Hat of the Eagle
Neck:
*(stats)Necklace of Calisea
*(pwr)Scorn's Icy Choker
(pwr)Jade Pendant of Blasting
(stats)Triune Amulet
(pwr)Glowing Eye of Mordresh
(pwr)Citrine Pendant of Golden Healing
(pwr)Pulsating Crystalline Shard - <Note: Currently unavailable in Molten-WoW>
Shoulders:
*(stats)Tattered Dreadmist Mantle
(stats)Exquisite Sunderseer Mantle
(stats)Lunar Mantle of the Eagle
(pwr)Inquisitor's Shawl
(pwr)Bloodmage Mantle
(shdw)Lunar Mantle of Shadow Wrath
(stats)Berylline Pads
Back:
*(pwr)Mantle of Lady Falther'ess - +20 Spell Penetration/+120 Armor/+7 All Resistances/+15 Shadow Resistance
(pwr)Icy Cloak
(stats)Silky Spider Cape
(stats)Battle Healer's Cloak
(stats)Caretaker's Cape
(stats)Gossamer Cape of the Eagle
(pwr)Gossamer Cape of Healing
(shdw)Gossamer Cape of Shadow Wrath
Chest:
*(stats)Robes of the Lich - +6 Stats/+150hp/+15 Resilience/+15 Spirit/+7 mp5
(pwr)Robe of the Magi
(stats)Death's Head Vestment
(pwr)Robe of Power
(stats)Sorcerer Robe of the Eagle
Wrists:
(shdw)Bloodwoven Bracers of Shadow Wrath - +15 Spellpower/+12 Stamina/+12 Intellect/+8 mp5
*(stats)Bloodband Bracers
(stats)Bloodwoven Bracers of the Eagle
(pwr)Bloodwoven Bracers of Healing
Hands:
*(stats)Revelosh's Gloves of the Eagle - +20 Spellpower/+10 Crit Rating/+15 Hit Rating
*(pwr)Revelosh's Gloves of Healing
(stats)Revelosh's Gloves of the Owl
(pwr)Black Mageweave Gloves
(stats)Royal Gloves of the Eagle
(pwr)Royal Gloves of Healing
Waist:
*(stats)Deathmage Sash
(pwr)Defiler's Cloth Girdle
(pwr)Highlander's Cloth Girdle
(stats)Sutarn's Ring
Legs:
*(stats)Necromancer Leggings - Thick Armor Kit
*(stats)Rainstrider Leggings
pwr)Blighted Leggings
(pwr)Red Mageweave Pants
(pwr)Shadoweave Pants
(stats)Regal Leggings of the Eagle
Feet:
*Defiler's Cloth Boots - +12 Stamina/+10 Crit&Hit Rating/+5 mp5
*Highlander's Cloth Boots
Encarmine Boots
Furen's Boots
Finger:
*(pwr)Underworld Band
(stats)Deadman's Hand
(pwr)Advisor's Ring
(pwr)Lorekeeper's Ring
(pwr)Golden Ring of Power
(pwr)Blazing Citrine Ring
Trinket:
*Inherited Insignia of the Horde/Inherited Insignia of the Alliance
Insignia of the Horde/Insignia of the Alliance
(stats)Arena Grand Master
(stats)Figurine - Jade Owl
(dmg)Gnomish Death Ray
(dmg)Goblin Bomb Dispenser
(dmg)Goblin Mortar
(stats)Rune of Perfection
(stats)Philosopher's Stone
(stats)Mark of the Chosen
*Tidal Charm
Gnomish Shrink Ray
Gnomish Net-o-Matic Projector
Nifty Stopwatch
Discerning Eye of the Beast
Swift Hand of Justice
Main Hand:
*Dignified Headmaster's Charge - +30 Spellpower/+22 Intellect/+20 Spirit
*Grand Staff of Jordan
Devout Aurastone Hammer
The Blessed Hammer of Grace
(pwr)Staff of Jordan - +40 Spellpower/+54 Shadow&Frost Power/+30 Intellect/Spellsurge
(stats)Advisor's Gnarled Staff
(stats)Lorekeeper's Staff
(pwr)Hand of Righteousness
(shdw)Sacrificial Kris of Shadow Wrath
(regen)Spiritchaser Staff of Spirit
(pwr)Spiritchaser Staff of Healing
(stats)Spiritchaser Staff of the Eagle
Off Hand:
(pwr)Umbral Crystal
(pwr)Beacon of Hope
(stats)Prophetic Cane
(stats)Furbolg Medicine Pouch
Wand:
*(pwr)Lady Falther'ess' Finger
(stats)Jaina's Firestarter
(shdw)Ember Wand of Shadow Wrath
(stats)Ember Wand of the Eagle
(pwr)Ember Wand 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 1 minute cooldown. Bandages make you un-bandagable for one minute, anti-venom is an independent 1 minute cooldown.
*Greater Mana Potion - Highest mana gained at 39.
Superior Mana Draught - Cheap to obtain from a vendor at a bg entrance, but weak.
Superior Healing Draught - Cheap to obtain, but weak.
*Superior Healing Potion - Highest health gained at 39.
Combat Healing Potion - equivalent to Superior, cheaper, and easy to obtain from Hall of Legends.
Dreamless Sleep Potion - Higher reliable gain than anything else, but can be interrupted. Best to just sit and drink.
Wildvine Potion - Potentially highest gain of any restorative potion, but risky, and highly expensive to make.
*Heavy Frostweave Bandage - Learn to find times to use this instead of healing spells.
*Strong Anti-Venom - Made from Large Venom Sacs. <Note: Not currently functioning in Molten-Wow>
Anti-Venom - Doesn't always work, but is on a separate cooldown from Strong version.
Powerful Anti-Venom - 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 separate, and don't disappear on death.
*Lesser Wizard Oil - Best you can use as a 39.
Minor Mana Oil - Best you can use as a 39.
*Arcane Elixir - Only available caster battle elixir at 39.
*Elixir of Greater Intellect - Best bang for your buck out of a guardian elixir.
*Catseye Elixir - Can be used simultaneously as guardian and battle elixirs.
Gift of Arthas - Funky, but useful if you need the shadow resist.
Elixir of Greater Defense - Best armor elixir available.
Elixir of Fortitude - Best health elixir available.
Temporary Buffs:
These share a cooldown with healing and mana potions.
Invisibility Potion - Can use to escape combat, but puts all potions on a 10 minute cooldown.
Lesser Invisibility Potion - Shorter duration, but cheaper to make. Same cooldown however.
Swiftness Potion
Free Action Potion - No longer dispellable, controversial to use, tends to provoke mockery and/or drama.
Food:
Food buffs are separate from other buffs. 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.
*Arathi Basin Iron Ration - Can only use in Arathi Basin.
*Warsong Gulch Iron Ration - Can only use in Warsong Gulch.
Halaani Whiskey - Highest available stamina buff at 39.
*Rumsey Rum Black Label - Can buy from bartender in Southshore in Old Hillsbrad Foothills instance.
Rumsey Rum Dark - <Note: All rums currently can stack with each other on Molten-WoW. Beware that stacking them at 39 is actively discouraged however.>
Gordok Green Grog
Rumsey Rum Light
Cooked Glossy Mightfish - Don't have to wait 10 seconds to get buff.
*Clamlette Magnifique - Only dps-boosting food buff available at 39.
Hot Smoked Bass - Best non-alcoholic stamina buff available.
Heavy Kodo Stew - Same.
Spider Sausage - Same.
Brewdoo Magic - Alcoholic.
Offensive Consumables:
I note which ones require which profession to use, if required.
Really Sticky Glue - Quest reward. Limited supply.
Magic Dust - A pain to farm. Very few twinks use at 39. Shares cooldown with explosives.
*Iron Grenade - Relatively cheap and easy to use. Engineering.
Mithril Frag Bomb - Large area of effect. Engineering.
Flash Bomb - Useful against hunters, druids and ghost wolf.
Thorium Grenade - Higher damage at higher cost. Engineering.
Dark Iron Bomb - Rare, but longer duration stun. Engineering.
Fel Iron Bomb - High average and potential damage. Engineering.
The Big One - Largest area of effect, and longest duration. Expensive, and requires Goblin Engineering to make. Engineering.
Goblin Sapper Charge - Requires Goblin Engineering to make. Engineering.
Arcane Bomb - Large mana burn and silence effect. Engineering.
Netherweave Net - Cheap, 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 and Charged Crystal Focuses.
Heavy Stone Statue - Short range healing totem. Don't use while running away from something. Jewelcrafting. <Note: Consumables that spawn an npc, so statues, and mechanical sheep, are bugged. The spawned mob does not function properly, and often simply attacks a target. Depending on behavior, this could be a bannable exploit.>
Solid Stone Statue - Better than Heavy. Jewelcrafting.
*Dense Stone Statue - Best available. Jewelcrafting.
Horde Battle Standard - Requires 16500 honor to obtain.
Alliance Battle Standard - Same as horde version.
Dark Rune - Efficient conversion of health into mana, shares cooldown with Healthstone. Only drops in Scholomance.
Charged Crystal Focus - Best use of this cooldown, but huge pain to farm.
Miscellaneous:
Various random consumables that aren't that helpful, or are only available during special events. The special event items can often be horded, and stack with other buffs. Beware that excessive use can lead to becoming a target at 39.
Chipped Power Core - Can only carry one at a time, rare drop off low lvl Ghostlands mobs, so easily farmable without xp.
"Enchantress" Perfume - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
"Wizardry" Cologne - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
"Forever" Perfume - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
"STALWART" Cologne - Only available from Valentine's Day event.
Toasted Smorc - Only available from Midsummer event.
Midsummer Sausage - Only available from Midsummer event.
Fire-toasted Bun - Only available from Midsummer event.
Elderberry Pie - Only available from Midsummer event.
Pyroblast Cinnamon Ball - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween event.
Soothing Spearmint Candy - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween event.
Chewy Fel Taffy - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween event.
G.N.E.R.D.S. - Stacks 4 times. Only available during Halloween 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 Lenses are the best caster headpieces in the 39 bracket, and Catseye Ultra Goggles are essential for serious rogues, and both require engineering to wear. Moreover, engineering offers many different useful consumables, all of which require engineering to use. The most notable are Iron Grenades, 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 Charges, 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. Be aware that these trinkets require jewelcrafting to equip, so you can't get them and then abandon the profession.
Leatherworking:
Leatherworking offers next to nothing for a 39 twink. It does create some interesting items 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 Nets. 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:
These are the primary professions to choose from for your second profession. On Molten-WoW, right now you can get to 300 skill with Herbalism and Skinning, and 450 skill with Mining. This basically makes it a choice of Herbalism vs Mining.
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 depending on your play style, you may want it more than mining.
Rank 1 (75 skill): 300 healing
Rank 2 (150 skill): 480 healing
Rank 3 (225 skill): 720 healing
Rank 4 (300 skill): 900 healing
Here's a video guide to herbalism routes:
Mining:
Gives a passive bonus to your health pool. A smaller bonus than herbalism, but still quite large. 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, but here is a written guide.
Rank 1 (75 skill): 3 stamina
Rank 2 (150 skill): 5 stamina
Rank 3 (225 skill): 7 stamina
Rank 4 (300 skill): 10 stamina
Rank 5 (375 skill): 30 stamina
Rank 6 (450 skill): 60 stamina
Here's a video guide to mining routes:
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.
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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Armoy Links:
These are not all BiS, or even necessarily the best builds. Also, Molten's armory is not quite as complete as Blizzard's, but it's a good start, and these should give you a sense of the variations possible.
Jadyn
Bishopz
Badzor
Imaginez
Darkpray
Fodar
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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 independent 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 ticking for a while).
-Move when you're not casting, you don't want to be predictable about where you are if possible. 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 make it easy for melee classes to catch you.
-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 pugs are a bunch of complete idiots.
-Utilize mana burn against twink healers, especially paladins. It may not scale, making it inefficient most of the time, but it's great against healers with high efficiency heals and small manapools. It's much more effective than dpsing if no one'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, silence, and hammer of justice, are all dispellable.
-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.
-You are not a tank, but you will end up tanking at times. Movement and self dispels are key when getting focused. Also learn to fake cast to avoid kicks, windshears, and counterspells.
-Do your best to be efficient with your spells. Don't SWP someone you know is about to die anyway.
-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 maybe 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 Frostweave Bandage to heal to full, rather than waste valuable mana healing yourself? Also, realize that the high level bandages tick for half or more 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. Another option is to learn to anticipate incoming damage, and to cast slower more efficient spells like Heal ahead of time. This also requires being aware of who may target you for a counterspell or other interrupt.
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 70+ 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 a 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.
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