Disc/Holy Levelling Guide

[Marraphy]

Hiya! I noticed we were in need of a levelling guide so I decided to try writing one~

for

Holy / Disc

Quick Links:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...iest-Cataclysm [Priest Abilities]
http://wowtal.com/#k=.a67.priest [Priest Talent Calculator]
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images.../levelflow.jpg [Level Flow Map]

Table of Contents

0. Version History
I. Introduction
II. Why Holy/Discipline?
III. Where/How to Level
IV. Soloing Strategies
V. Speccing
VI. Beginner's Guide to Healing in Dungeons
VII. Conclusion

0. Version History

V 1.0 (10/14/2010): Made this guide ;D
V 1.2 (10/26/2010): Changed all of the Yellow-colored words to Orange, and the Orange-colored ones into Red, for easier reading. Removed the "levelling through battlegrounds" recommendations, since they nerfed the battleground experience. Added Section VI.: Beginner's Guide to Healing. Fixed "V. Conclusion" - that was a typo.
V 1.2.5 (10/28/2010): Changed all the Oranges to DARK Orange.
V 1.5 (11/27/2010): Added the Level Flow Map to the quick links, Note about Battlegrounds, and added updated levelling advice for 11-45. Added the PSA from bear Druids.

I. Introduction

Hello there, aspiring Priests! My name is Mara, and I have been in the Priesting business for about a year now. I am certainly not an expert on all that is Priest, nor would I consider myself a noob. I picked to do this levelling guide on Holy/Disc because those are the two specs that I'm most experienced/familiar with, and the most comfortable for me. Also, I feel levelling as Shadow is pretty straightforward and easy so people shouldn't need much help with it. :] Right now, I'm writing this guide up to ~level 20-30 or so, but I will update it in the future should there be a need to!

II. Why Holy/Discipline?

So by now you're probably wondering why you would want to level as a healer.. well, there are multiple reasons.

1. It's fun! : D
2. Better healing = more survivability while levelling
3. Faster dungeon queues
4. Recent talents/spells changes make Holy/Disc more viable for levelling
5. It's more challenging

If you plan on healing at level 80/85, but you want to spec as DPS for faster levelling, that's fine too. However, it's good experience if you spec Holy/Disc at an early level and get used to it; and with the new class changes it's almost as fast as levelling as Shadow! So give it a chance! : P

III. Where/How to Level

To prevent this part of the guide from becoming super long, I'm not gonna list each individual quest; (they're changing in Cataclysm anyway...) but I can suggest a few good levelling places.

Level 1-10: You start out in your race-dependent starting area. Just follow all the quests here, Smiting everything in sight and doing as many quests as possible, and you should be out of this phase in, at most, 2 hours. Now, this is just my personal preference, but I always level in the Blood Elf starting zone, Eversong Woods, because I know it like the back of my hand (Most of my characters are blood elves :x) and it seems to go faster for me. You may find this to be the same for you, or maybe not! Try it out and see what you think. I haven't had a chance to level in any of the new Cataclysm starting zones yet so they might go faster than the BC zones now.

Levels 11-20: So now you'll want to leave your race's starting zone, and go to your race's 11-20 zone. Consult the Level Flow Map up in the Quick Links to see where you should go. If you are BLOOD ELF or DRAENI, I suggest questing in Silverpine, Northern Barrens, or Darkshore instead of Ghostlands/Bloodmyst, because the new Cataclysm levelling zones are MUCH faster than the BC ones (And way more fun). At level 15 and beyond you should also consider doing dungeons, as they give a lot of experience, and most of them now contain quests inside the dungeon for even MORE experience.

Levels 21-30: Again, consult the Level Flow Map above for where you should go. Personally, I went to Ashenvale and then Stonetalon Mountains and I breezed through this period in half a day. Arathi Basin opens up at level 20, so I recommend trying it IF it is the Call to Arms battleground. More dungeons like the Stockades, Blackfathom Deeps, and Gnomerregan also open up, and most of them contain quests, too, so queue yourself up for those if questing starts to become dull. Oh, and at level 30 you can buy Dual Talent Specialization for only 10g, so definately purchase that!

Levels 31-40: From here I moved on to the Southern Barrens and did some quests, and then did a couple dungeons, and then moved over to Dustwallow Marsh. It barely took any time at all to level this way, but if you might prefer other zones (when I'm levelling a Goblin in Cata I think I'm going to level in Desolace and Feralas next time, just to see what's going on over there). The Scarlet Monastery dungeons open up too, and if you're Horde then there are Forsaken quests for each one. Make sure you go there since there's a lot of gear to be won.

Levels 41-45: Next, I went to Thousand Needles, which is one of the coolest new zones; the Speedbarge is just awesome. Levelling seemed to slow down at this point, but it might have just been the zone I was in. Anyways, consult the Level Flow map and pick a place that interests you. There are dungeons too, and the Eye of the Storm battleground also opens up.

A NOTE ABOUT BATTLEGROUNDS: Warsong Gulch is available at level 10, Arathi Basin at level 20, and now Eye of the Storm is level 40. If you like/are good at PvP then you may consider levelling through battlegrounds. HOWEVER, I would ONLY suggest doing this whenever the battleground is the Call to Arms battleground. Otherwise, you won't get much experience. Also note that battlegrounds are separated by every 5 levels now, so you won't have to worry about twinks if you're lower in the level bracket. :]

IV. Soloing Strategies

At level 1 you start out with a single ability, Smite. You can cast this virtually forever without running out of mana, and it does pretty good damage. You'll want to just spam this ability from maximum range; it should only take 2-3 shots to kill something around your level.
At level 3 you get Flash Heal, but you really won't need this too often.
Level 5 is when you get Power Word: Shield. Use this on yourself before entering combat, as it protects you not only from damage, but from spell push-back.
Don't use Shadow Word: Pain when speeding through mobs, it should be renamed Shadow Word: Mana Vaccuum.
You may want to use Mind Blast at this early stage to open with, since it has a 40 yard range. You will probably drop it out of your rotation later (for Disc, at least).

Once you reach level 10, you may spec Holy, Shadow, or Disc.

Discipline Priests:

In addition to the increased mana, you get a very important levelling skill right off the bat; Penance. After you get it, make your rotation this: Smite, Penance, Smite. Smite has an increasingly longer cast time every time you level up, so it's best to charge it up before you enter combat. Next, use Penance because you want to make sure you get all 3 pulses in before the enemy has a chance to attack you, otherwise you'll only get 2 ticks. Then, just Smite (Or Mind Blast) until it's dead.

Later on, you will acquire the Envangelism talent, which GREATLY improves your grinding/questing speed, and you'll also get Holy Fire, which will replace Mind Blast. Here's what you'll want to do: Smite, Smite, Smite, Smite, (Enemy might die here; quickly move on to next enemy and continue rotation: ) Smite....

Just keep casting Smite, and move from mob to mob to mob to mob to mob, never let the Evangelism stacks fall off. Use Penance and Holy Fire too, as they also benefit from Evangelism, but I would use 1 of them per mob, that way one is always off cooldown and available. Shield yourself if needed. If you run low on mana, simply consume the Evangelism stacks with Archangel, and if you run low on health, Renew yourself and keep on going.

Holy Priests:

Unfortunately, if you spec Holy then you can't level using the awesome might that is Evangelism. And you don't get Penance. But don't worry, you can still level as a Holy Priest; just not as fast as Disc.

The rotation is the same, only open with Holy Fire now, and then add in an instant Chastise after that: Holy Fire, Holy Word: Chastise, Smite, Smite, Smite...

Health shouldn't be much of a concern since you have a pretty potent Renew and with the Surge of Light talent proccing from Smite, you should get some nice mana-free heals.

V. Speccing

Discipline:

http://wowtal.com/#k=_u5VV.a67.priest.

Levels 10, 11, and 13 you'll want to immediately spec into Twin Disciplines. It's not much, but it buffs your damage so that's a plus.
Levels 15 + 17 go ahead and spec into Improved Power Word: Shield. Extra shield absorbtion is good for healing in dungeons, and your shields will last longer for levelling too.
Levels 19, 21, and 23 you need Evangelism and Archangel. :]
Levels 25 and 27 go ahead and pick up Soul Warding, just because it's useful for healing in dungeons. Of course, you could put the two points in Mental Agility if you want that instead. Inner Sanctum is not really worth it at this level.

From then on there are a lot of goodies; Attonement will help a little bit for levelling but they nerfed the healing by half when using it to solo, so... it's still a good talent though; it will help when you're trying to get Evangelism stacks in a dungeon. :]


Holy:

http://wowtal.com/#k=f1pIs.a67.priest.

Levels 10, 11, and 13: Get Divine Fury! It reduces the cast time of Smite and Holy Fire by .5 seconds, which is a very nice boost for levelling!
Levels 15 and 17 you can either put points in Renew or Empowered Healing.. I chose Renew since it's instant, which is more helpful when you're running from mob to mob.
Levels 19-27 are all healing talents. I suggest picking up Desperate Prayer first, since it's an instant and could be potentially more helpful while soloing than Surge of Light. The rest of the talents are great for dungeons though, so as Holy you might be more suited to healing in dungeons at this level than soloing.


VI. Beginner's Guide to Healing in Dungeons

This isn't exactly necessary, and a lot of people who are making a new character have experience with the game already; but just in case, I'm adding this to the end of the guide for anyone who doesn't know what to do, or wants to get better. Hopefully I can help you in some way. :]

In General:

First of all, I HIGHLY VERY MUCH ABSOLUTELY suggest you go to http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-a...continued.aspx and download the Healbot add-on if you haven't already. If you don't like Healbot or it's too confusing, you can look into some other add-ons like Vuhdu or Grid. Basically, Healbot will make your life easier, whether you're soloing, in a battleground, or in a dungeon. All it is, is a separate health bar for you, and health bars for the other people in your party. And you can simply click it to heal. Very easy. I highly suggest you get an add-on like it before you start healing since it will make the job easier. If you need any help setting it up in-game then send me a message!

Now that that's out of the way. Basically, at lower levels you'll be casting Heal on the tank whenever he takes damage. He should be the only one taking damage, but if not, then throw a Heal out to the other party members, if you have time. If there is more incoming damage than you can restore with Heal, then you may also use Renew or Power Word: Shield.

Finally, if there is a LOT of incoming damage, then you want to use Flash Heal. It's VERY effective but costs a lot of mana, so save it as an emergency heal. You should have all of your heals mapped out on Healbot (or another add-on if you prefer) and it will be very easy. Later you will obtain Prayer of Healing, which should be used when at least 4 party members have all taken damage.

The tank usually isn't always taking a ton of damage however, so feel free to employ the soloing strategies from earlier in the guide to help get the dungeon done faster.

Don't forget to buff! :] Use Power Word: Fortitude at the start of every dungeon!

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And now, a PSA (Public Service Announcement from Harky:

Please, please, please, please, please do not shield Bear tanks on large pulls. The extra damage your tank might take will be completely off-set by your tank losing all control of the mobs. This is the difference between your Bear buddy putting out 500 DPS at level 20 and putting out 80 while trying to pick up random mobs non-stop. Until level 36 -minimum- shields on Bears are a horrible idea.

To clarify: Absorbs prevent Thorns procs. Blizz decided to not give Bears Swipe until 36 and thought Thorns would suffice. It does! However, it's totally nullified by shields.

Thanks!
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Disc-Specific Strategies:

Power Word: Shield is more potent if you have the talent for it, so feel free to use it on the tank instead of Heal. Be ready to use Heal again if the shield breaks early. Penance is a very efficient healing spell so use it often.

When you get to around level 30, you can pick up the Attonement talent, which is useful because you can help DPS enemies down with Smite, and be healing at the same time. Plus, it's very easy to get 5 stacks of Evangelism this way, and have Archangel ready if you run low on mana or you need to produce more healing. So, I recommend taking the Attonement talent!

Holy-Specific Strategies:

There isn't much variation in the Holy-specific healing strategies, except that Renew will be more effective than shielding party members. Although Holy Word: Chastise can't be used for healing at the low levels, a 3 second stun could be used to mitigate tank damage so I suggest using it when you're taking on a group of enemies.

VII. Conclusion

Holy and Discipline are two very great specs to have when you're in the level 10-30 range because not only will you have shorter dungeon queue times, but you will also be able to solo quest/grind effectively. If you like healing, and you plan on being a healer at a later level, then I suggest speccing into it now so you get more experience with healing as a priest, instead of speccing Shadow just to level. You can be the key to victory in the early level Warsong Gulch matches because there aren't many healers at that level. This took me about an hour and a half to write, and I plan to update it with more information. Let me know if you see any grammatical errors, or any incorrect info, or just suggestions in general! Have fun levelling your holy or discipline Priest! : D

[Levoran]

hello, i just created an account to tell you that I loved your guide and to ask you to please continue it up to level 80, im using it right now and it's one of THE best leveling guids I've ever read!
Keep up the good work!

[Kelesti]

This might get a sticky, if you change that yellow into something that I don't need to highlight in order to read.
Also, it'd be awesome if you continued support a little beyond the level 30 range, even if it's only guidelines at that point.

[Maharishi]

I'm leveling a priest now, and using the RFD alot. I would like to point out that as disc, i'm doing as much dps as the dps, and now that I have atonement, I may only have to cast 1-2 heals for the entire run, my smites keep everyone up.

It's night and day since that patch for low level priest leveling.

[Zarghol]

Use a darker yellow for smite, my eyes hurt =( Otherwise great stuff! I leveled my priest to 37 before the patch as holy and would go as healer anyways, but lots of peeps don't know how easy it actually is. Disc is seriously faster than shadow, even at 40+ and with shadowform you just kill stuff faster, and your dungeons will FLY BY. Your tank can pull loads and you can DPS as well.

Just mentioning: Glyph smite, in combination with holy fire and evangelism it's a 40% damage bonus, and thus a 40% healing bonus as long as holy fire is up! For holy, I believe you'd be better off with smites until holy fire wears off, then holy word, as the smite damage bonus is niiiice.

[angael]

Nice... this might prove helpful for the priest alt (lvl 41) I have on another realm that I play occasionally...

Off topic: your avatar is pretty nice..

[Marraphy]

hello, i just created an account to tell you that I loved your guide and to ask you to please continue it up to level 80, im using it right now and it's one of THE best leveling guids I've ever read!
Keep up the good work!

Wow; thanks! That is really nice of you to say, I appreciate it :]]

This might get a sticky, if you change that yellow into something that I don't need to highlight in order to read.
Also, it'd be awesome if you continued support a little beyond the level 30 range, even if it's only guidelines at that point.

In that case I will change it to Orange. I'll see what I can do, but I'll have to rewrite most of the lvl 20+ information when Cataclysm comes since dungeons will be getting changed and there will be different levelling areas and quests; so I may put more effort into that portion when Cata is released.

Just mentioning: Glyph smite, in combination with holy fire and evangelism it's a 40% damage bonus, and thus a 40% healing bonus as long as holy fire is up! For holy, I believe you'd be better off with smites until holy fire wears off, then holy word, as the smite damage bonus is niiiice.

I should put in a glyphs section shouldn't I? O: I use Glyph of Smite and Glyph of Divine Accuracy for my Disc healer and it's very useful.

Off topic: your avatar is pretty nice..

Really? I drew it on an index card one day when I was bored but now I'm starting to think it looks kinda ugly : P Also, athiest priests are funny. It's like an oximoron. : P


Edit: Okay, updated!

[Ravemstr]

Since i'm leveling a priest right now as Disc i'll try and help out. I don't play that much but i went from 15 to 40 in under a week. This is my first healer so i'll also share what i learned about healing through LFD. I'm only 40 right now and i have heirlooms so your experience may vary.
- good point on the add-ons. Any will help! I'm using mouseover macros coupled with Tukui's "grid" but whatever works for you will do.
- your priority in healing is as follows. You > Tank > DPS. A dead you means a dead tank and a dead tank means a dead everyone.
- you need to remember one thing. Shields! With almost every cloth having Intelect on it at low levels shields are really powerful. There are a lot of cases where one shield will hold a tank through one pull. This will diminish through the levels if you don't get upgrades so learn what all abilities do. You'll need all of them.

How do you heal?
- shield the tank the second after he engages/uses any aoe. You'll pull aggro otherwise and if the tank isn't quick you will have those mobs on you. You don't want that. That just leads to more mana being wasted on healing yourself and that leads to downtime.
- if there are a lot of mobs throw a Renew half way through the Weakened Soul debuff. That should keep the tank way above 70% for the rest of the debuff untill you can shield him again.
- if any dps takes aggro during a small pull treat him as the tank. Any class can tank at low levels. If he takes aggro during big pulls shield him, renew him and ignore him. Remember your priorities.

As you move up the levels shields won't tank all the stress anymore so you will have to learn what the rest of the stuff does.
- Penance - don't use it on anything higher then 70%. You'll just overheal otherwise and that means wasted mana.
- Heal - your goto spell. If anything takes damage on a slow rate use this. It's a long cast so use it only when you have time.
- Flash Heal - if the tank takes a lot of damage fast use this. Usually a couple of Flash Heals and a Penance takes a tank from 0 to 100%
- Greater Heal - never used it. Got no idea what it's good for so far
- Prayer of Healing - as stated, use it if 3 or more members of your party take damage.

If you plan on leveling as a healer start low. Start to heal from lvl 15 because that will teach you lot of things and you will need experience. Pulling all the mobs in SM Cathedral will teach you how to heal and will force you to use everything you've got to keep everyone alive.
I would advice against Smite healing because everything dies fast, really fast! With everyone in heirlooms you'll barely have time to pull one or two Smites off before any boss is dead and since Archangel only returns 5% mana at 5 stacks it's not really worth it.
That's all from my own experience since i didn't find any leveling advice so take it with a grain(or 100) of salt. Sorry for all, if any, mistakes, misinformation or spelling errors. I'm having my coffee while i'm writing this so cut me some slack

[Marraphy]

Nice mini-guide. :] I will certainly add most of this if you don't mind. One correction though; Archangel restores 15% of your mana. And yeah stuff dies pretty fast, but if you can get a hit off on every mob then that's something. I'm in support of using the Smite-healing spec since it'll help your dungeon move along a tiny bit faster and plus it's pretty interesting.

Woot! A sticky :] Tyvm, I'll keep updating this until it's a super guide lol

[Kelesti]

Archangel restores 15% of your mana

5% now.

[Marraphy]

Really?? Wth D: I don't think I would even take that talent anymore, unless I was a Smite-healing Disc priest. I mean, 5% mana is barely anything, and when are you going to have time to build up 5 smites for a healing increase otherwise? Ughhh -_-

[Tronada]

I'm level 62 now- just got Holy Nova last night and glyphed and excited to try it out!

I have around 8300 mana and get over 1200 return from a 5 stack archangel. (15%) It's definitely worth it when you can use it to regen mana while you are healing for almost free.

Power Infusion makes getting those stacks up a lot quicker and effecient. You can Pain Suppress tank or just shield and renew them before you go into regen smite mode.

A good idea for the guide is to help set up some macros. I use mouseover macros for almost all of my spells and have inner focus macro'd to prayer of healing and greater heal.

The custom smite macro on this board is very useful as well as it functions as a mouseover and targettarget smite macro. I use similar ones for holy fire and penance.

The major glyph for psychic scream is very useful when you pull aggro or even to take pressure off of incoming tank damage. Very recommended for levelling in dungeon finder.

I can give a lot of tips for dungeon finder disc leveling in 4.0. Let me know if you need any help via PM Marraphy.

[Marraphy]

Are you playing on live or on beta? Kelesti just said Archangel was reduced to 5% mana return, in the beta I think.

Ah yes, the /target mouseover /target targettarget Smite macro - I use that. Comes in handy for dungeons. Also I didn't think of the PvE use of the Psychic Scream glyph.. that actually makes it pretty useful for low level stuff (Higher level dungeons are usually more spread out though so it becomes less valuable IMO). And sure your tips would be accepted lol, if you want me to put anything in the guide just give me your permission to do so :]

[Tronada]

The 15% I mentioned was on live. My mistake, sorry. Atonement healing is pretty terrible on Beta.

I did have a question - do absorbs cut down on the amount of AP tanks get through vengeance? I had the feeling that I was killing the tank's damage output by shielding him.

[calinass]

I got my priest up to 21 pre patch, and I went on to try it out after the patch.
I noticed shadow was meh, lacked the fun talents that I have now.
Then I tried disc, since I always liked the idea of penance (and casting penance looks wonderful as well).
I breezed through leveling with atonement and archangel. At 69 I went shadow because of dispersion and the increased dps (it was a personal choice, more downtime or less dps? I chose less dps (disc)] but at 69 I trained for dispersion and never went disc (unless I wanted to heal) :]

So I gotta say, 5 days 2 hours was a new record on this toon. I would reccomend this tree for leveling like no other :].

[harky]

Public Service Announcement from low-level Druid tanks: Please, please, please, please, please do not shield Bear tanks on large pulls. The extra damage your tank might take will be completely off-set by your tank losing all control of the mobs. This is the difference between your Bear buddy putting out 500 DPS at level 20 and putting out 80 while trying to pick up random mobs non-stop. Until level 36 -minimum- shields on Bears are a horrible idea.

To clarify: Absorbs prevent Thorns procs. Blizz decided to not give Bears Swipe until 36 and thought Thorns would suffice. It does! However, it's totally nullified by shields.

Thanks!

[Natus]

This is a great guide (and a great site!), so thank you. I am an eternal n00b and have a lvl 46 Dwarf Priest who only misses an AoE spell in order for his life to be perfect.

But after re-subbing recently, I was totally confused about Atonement and Archangel and how they work together. Anyone mind terribly explaining the situational uses of those spells, as if to an eager but dim-witted child?

Thanks!

[Marraphy]

Most bear druids don't go in and out of bear form to reapply that though, it resets your rage...

There aren't many large pulls that you have to worry about before level 36 though so I think people will be fine :]

[harky]

If they aren't shifting in and out to use Thorns on cooldown and aren't glyphing it to reduce the cooldown then they're bad. The only time it's not worth recasting is if you'd die in the 1 global it takes to shift back. It is by far the highest damage ability available to Druids at low levels. You can tell the difference between a good Bear and a bad Bear by looking at their #1 damage ability. If it isn't Thorns they're doing it wrong. Without Thorns a low level bear will need to pull slowly and take it easy. With Thorns you should be chaining pulls so that you have one pull every ~25 seconds so you can use Thorns again and repeat. The very first instance you can run is RFC and it has pulls of up to 5 mobs. Mobs at that level hit for nearly nothing, but they are annoying when not controlled.

There is nothing you could do with a full rage bar that would compete with a cast of Thorns. So even if you're at 100 rage and do not have Furor it is worth shifting out to cast Thorns. If you as a healer see a Druid not shifting in and out to keep it up as much as possible you should ask them to please use it and tell them that you are specifically delaying shields so they can use it. The reason I said 36 minimum is that even then it's a bad idea. Swipe is expensive, has a 6 second cooldown and doesn't hit as hard as Thorns. By level 40 it will be ticking for 300 every time the Bear is hit. Pulling 800-1000 DPS by 40 as a Bear is not uncommon in medium sized pulls. 80% or more will be Thorns.

So no, if your bear isn't shifting constantly to keep it up there's an easy answer: Tell them to start using it more.

[Flashbomba]

Nice guide so far - could become a very good tool. Just rolled a gnome priest. :-)

Anyone know how to link to level 1 abilities etc? Like [ u r l ] for displaying mouse-over explanations of abilities?

example:
Smite

Edit: Hmm might not work anymore?