Shadow Priests and me?

[Kaeyne]

I was recently looking into leveling a new character as I usually have a trend of swapping classes every time a new expansion comes around:

For Vanilla WoW: Rogue
For Burning Crusade: Mage
For Wrath of the Lich King: Paladin (I'm proud I leveled it pre-3.0. It shows my dedication)
And for Cataclysm I was looking at a Priest, most likely shadow.

How is the experience of leveling a Priest? I currently have one stalled at Level 35, with heirloom pieces, but as it stands, it's my lowest alt.
I understand that Shadow Priests are currently on the low spectrum of top-end DPS charts, but a few good friends of mine who used to play Holy or Discipline are now Shadow and loving it, including one who is the proud owner of Death's Demise and Grand Crusader.
I am a big fan of what appears to be the playstyle of a Shadow Priest, and was hoping for some confirmation from the more experienced players out there. It's not too different from a Feral Druid, in which there is no set rotation, just an order of importance for DPS. (From what I understand: DoT's Max Uptime, Mind Blast on Cooldown, Mind Flay for fillers, clipping as necessary to reapply DoTs)

I have a few more questions, but this seems to be enough for one person (or many) to try and tackle at once.

[Balance]

When you hit level 40 you hop on the fast track to win.
I had an easier time leveling a shadow priest than a feral druid.

[Phenomina]

Shadow Priests are very fun to play

http://www.shadowpriest.com is a great site with very current information regarding rotations, gear specs etc...

Welcome to the shadowhood of priests 8)

[Kaeyne]

When you hit level 40 you hop on the fast track to win.
I had an easier time leveling a shadow priest than a feral druid.

I have not leveled a Feral Druid sadly though, my best friend used to play one, and he taught me a bit about them.
I have a Druid nestled at level 60, the byproduct of Refer-a-Friend granted levels and pre-nerf Alterac Valley EXP.
I was contemplating using some gold to buy my way to about level 60-ish. I figure Ramps is about where the ability to be carried stops. On my Protection Paladin, I have little trouble with Hellfire instances, but have tried little beyond it.

[Kaeyne]

Shadow Priests are very fun to play

http://www.shadowpriest.com is a great site with very current information regarding rotations, gear specs etc...

Welcome to the shadowhood of priests 8)

Sorry if this ends up being a double post:
Yes, I've checked out ShadowPriest.com, and found much of the information very helpful (It's where I picked up my basics on Shadow Priests) I was just wondering what input the community here had about them.

[Kelesti]

If you were to level a Priest now, we have a general guide for it (though could use some updates for 3.3). Really, so long as you get Spirit Tap, you can generally do what you want to get up, and Shadow is pretty silly getting up there. After that though, you coast.

It's not super easy after 40, it's closer to 20 when you start being able to kill things before they hit you.

[Krazzy]

Spriest is fun to play. As long as you know and accept that you won't be topping any damage meter, you'll be fine. As a spriest, you are a cross between a mage and an affliction warlock. IMO you get the best of both worlds. If you get bored with dps, you can go heal for a while as an alternative life style. My priest is shadow/disc. The only pain/annoyance is having to get a dps set and a healing set. Other than that minor detail, I like playing my spriest a lot more than my lock who I've had since vanilla.

[Pitpat]

Leveled Holy, have healed since Naxx as disc with offspec as shadow and I love it. While others will suggest that shadow dps isn't super competitive and they might be right our 3.3 buffs will make us more competitive. This all being said I would suggest that people that put in the time to level a spriest are the same kind of people that will put in the work to learn their priority list and just outwork pure dps classes and can still do competitive dps. That being said pure dps classes that obsess like a significant portion of the spriest community will just beat you. Long story short is that given the work raiding spriest is a ton of fun and the constant attention they need in raids to stay competitive makes it that much more entertaining. I would suggest you give it a shot if you like to work to earn your dps.

[Kaeyne]

Spriest is fun to play. As long as you know and accept that you won't be topping any damage meter, you'll be fine. As a spriest, you are a cross between a mage and an affliction warlock. IMO you get the best of both worlds. If you get bored with dps, you can go heal for a while as an alternative life style. My priest is shadow/disc. The only pain/annoyance is having to get a dps set and a healing set. Other than that minor detail, I like playing my spriest a lot more than my lock who I've had since vanilla.

Trust me, I know exactly how you feel about multiple gear sets. I play a Paladin currently and I have:
A Prot Set (My main)
A Holy Set
A Ret Set
A Holy PvP Set
A Ret PvP Set
and a smattering of old tier items.
I think toning it down to Shadow and Disc will we a welcome change!

[eErike]

I have a shadow priest as my main atm, or well, it's my only lvl 80 that have some gear and I must say that I love to play a sPriest and I'm been a little anoyed when my friends wants me to go healing :P
Anyway, just wanted to say, without telling you my life story, that you won't be topping the charts as mages etc can, but you can still do good dps, allways. Dono how nice the new chages are yet tho but I did manage to get up to 5,8k dps in a 5man HC which is quite high regarding the short fight.

Things are looking good for shadows atm, go for it! ;P

[Porcupine]

Can really recommend lvling a spriest. Starts off a little harder than other classes until shadowform but after that its great. ANd I think shadow dps is getting quite competetive. outdpsed an equally geared arcane mage on several bosses in the new 5 man. And he knows how to play. If you like a somewhat more complex rotation and want to work hard for high dps, unlike pala face-on-keyboard-smashing (really no offense here. =) paladins really arent bad) or arcane mage (spam 111211121112), than go shadowpriest. Great fun at 80.

New patch buffed it big time. Up from 3,3k to 4k on the HC dummy.

[rubberbands]

well I'm not too familiar with the shadow side of things, but who doesnt love being the cool looking black blob at back of the raid?

[Nymie]

Shadow isn't for everyone but it is very fun to play. You end up being utilized in many ways- extra heals, yes, but also mind controllers, eaters of damage if needed (i.e. Algalon), and tanking (Mimiron's head!), on top of that mass dispelling groups of opponents in pvp. You also have a lot more to concentrate on than many dps classes so it doesn't get boring pressing 1 button over and over.

Leveling is boring until you get to be the cool purple kid running around, then it just gets better from there.

Take some time and try out priest healing, too. Especially disc can be tons of fun.

Best of luck!

[muto]

I composed a ranking of classes on how hard they're to level (10 being the hardest, 1 being the easiest)

10. rogue
9. warrior
8. shaman
7. druid
6. warlock
5. priest
4. paladin
3. mage
2. hunter
1. death knight

[Krazzy]

well I'm not too familiar with the shadow side of things, but who doesnt love being the cool looking black blob at back of the raid?

Plus, you don't have to worry about the colors of your gears not matching.

[Weena2]

I composed a ranking of classes on how hard they're to level (10 being the hardest, 1 being the easiest)

10. rogue
9. warrior
8. shaman
7. druid
6. warlock
5. priest
4. paladin
3. mage
2. hunter
1. death knight

umm, thats kind of off. PVE wise its like 10. druid, 9. priest, 8.warlock

DK's arnt as easy as people think to be honest, if you think a mage spamming 1 button and using 2CD's every 3min is harder than a DK well somethings wrong

[AetherMcLoud]

DK's arnt as easy as people think to be honest, if you think a mage spamming 1 button and using 2CD's every 3min is harder than a DK well somethings wrong

DKs start effectively at level 58 though which makes leveling to 80 both a lot of easier and faster

[Kelesti]

10. Warrior
9. Rogue
8. Shaman
7. Priest
6. Mage
5. Druid
4. Warlock
3. Paladin
2. Hunter
1. Death Knight

Fixed that list for you.

[muto]

druids are a pain in the butt to level a lot harder than priests, priests are easy to level, power word shield your self and spam mind flay which uses hardly any mana...also mages are easy to level if you have your talents in the frost tree..

[muto]

umm, thats kind of off. PVE wise its like 10. druid, 9. priest, 8.warlock

DK's arnt as easy as people think to be honest, if you think a mage spamming 1 button and using 2CD's every 3min is harder than a DK well somethings wrong

and death knights spam heart strike, death strike, and death coil...