Starting a Priest... more difficult than other classes?

[Atho]

Hey MMO-Champion Priest Community!

So I've been playing a Holy Paladin for almost 3 years now, and am loving it. I really am starting to wish I had a bigger toolbox, so I'm deciding to level a priest. I also have been very fond of Shadow Priests, as they seem like alot of fun. In the past, people had said that a priest is the hardest class to level, is this still the case? I know that it gets pretty easy after 40 (once you get shadow form), but can you really level as effeciently/fast as well and fun as every other class? I'd love to hear your opinions. It seems like it'd be a lot easier especially with the dungeon finder as well. My main plan would to level as shadow from 1-60, and then do dungeons as disc (or holy whichever I like better, but disc seems alot of fun) while questing.

[sacrypheyes]

back in vanilla, leveling a priest was quite a pain in the *** and shadow was about the only way to go for better soloing. but never did i think that it was hard, pallies were 10 times worse than that, whatever their spec was.

things have changed a lot meanwhile and well, priests do level fine with any spec nowadays. shadow only shines if you intend to go mostly soloing past lvl60 thanks to vampiric touch, otherwise, just go rdf all the way to 80 as disc or disc/holy.

my advice would be:
01-40: disc or holy with 3pts in spirit tap
40-60: whatever, any spec works fine
60-80: shadow if you mostly solo, disc or disc/holy otherwise.

[Duronos]

I find the priest the hardest class to level until shadowform if they intend to quest the entire time. If your doing rdf then yes thats easier and I personally choose that.

[Atho]

Could someone clarify what RDF is? I should probably know this, but don't recall ever hearing about this...

[sacrypheyes]

Random Dungeon Finder?

[Arcsecant]

random dungeon finder. I'm leveling a priest with it now. He's 74 and healing as disc and it is super smooth. Mana efficient enough to not have to sit and drink the entire run. Just use shadowfiend on every boss.

[Mused]

Thank god I leveled my priest back when there was still Star Shards on Nelfs. Made those first levels till 20 so much easier. Honestly you should be able to level very easily as any spec so long you have those 3 points in spirit tap. I did a smite spec and went down the disc tree to Power Infusion. Very OP. Went quick. But shadow would be just fine. Play what you like/want.

[darkfenix_rizen]

IMO priests are still pretty difficult to level. Shadow just doesn't do as well when solo grinding as other classes. But don't let that discourage you. Priests are great healers and level 80 shadow priests are amazing. The random dungeon finder nearly negates all soloing between 1 and 60. Priests, in my opinion are harder to heal with in the beginning levels but I'm not a very good healer

Good luck, I think you'll enjoy it.

[Atho]

Hmm... I feel like an idiot... sorry =/ Anyway, I am kinda stuck between a Human (Female), Dwarf (Male), or Draenei (Female). I know the human would be the most beneficial, but is the spirit increase that good at 80?

[Eldar45]

most of us call it the Dungion finder or LFG tool

And I would chose a race based on looks, not on racials. The racials are being changed in Cataclysm anyway.

[omod]

Hmm... I feel like an idiot... sorry =/ Anyway, I am kinda stuck between a Human (Female), Dwarf (Male), or Draenei (Female). I know the human would be the most beneficial, but is the spirit increase that good at 80?

honestly its up to you whatever you think looks best. the benefits are minimum once you get higher levels.

[Russle]

Human Female Priests are HAWT

[Deleted]

Lvling a priest myself, and it's 29 atm. Soloing as shadow, and signing dungeons as healer. Healing as shadow right now is not an issue, tho I guess it would be at later levels. I'm gonna go disc tho and heal thru dungeons up to 60 or 70. Female nelf ftw.

[mornaistar]

The only thing i can say to you is, Priest was THE CLASS i said i was never going to level, i said that since the start.
I recently went and created one and now guess what...
reached lvl 80 really fast- few days after
love the playstyle as shadow pve / disc pvp
bought the bike
and ended up being my main char now. ^^

[Zurth]

Hmm... I feel like an idiot... sorry =/ Anyway, I am kinda stuck between a Human (Female), Dwarf (Male), or Draenei (Female). I know the human would be the most beneficial, but is the spirit increase that good at 80?

I would say Human only because of the free trinket which is handy in PvP and PvE situations.

[Novie]

I'm currently leveling a priest and I haven't found it very difficult. I had a mainly holy spec until 52 - as dps, but I could heal in the same spec if necessary. Actually did quite a bit of damage. The reason I waited to switch to shadow was because I wanted to have enough talent points to get vampiric touch; makes things a ton easier.

[Urdoa]

The last toon I got to 80 was my priest. He was full PVE heirlooms (PVP shoulders) and Disc heals all the way. Getting to 15 is easy even without heirlooms then you can start Qing for random dungeons as a healer or DPS. As Disc heals you can u can pretty much out dps everyone until you approach 60. Be sure to glyph holy nova as it is retardedly OP. The glyph and mana reductions from disc tree on instant spells make it very viable. Especially if you can get the heirloom trinkets (double Discerning eye is beast link below) that restore mana on kills as most pulls will be large group pulls. I don't know how many times the tank stuffed up and pulled way too many mobs and could not hold agro so everyone is taking uber damage. I tell everyone to stack and I holy nova the crap out of everything (power infuse if you're lev 40+) and cause zero threat while I am at it. Not only do you end up saving the day but you also top dps... sometimes 3 fold. Threat is such a non-event on Disc healer at those levels. Obviously if you don't have heirlooms you can still do all this too but without the trinkets you just may have to watch your mana a little for those nova spam moments.
I pretty much levelled through healing dungeons (as short Q times) however at some level brackets there is still a wait do to lack of tanks so you can still get some questing in. The same holy nova spamming (this time be sure your bubbled) means you can mobs grind 4 to 8 mobs at a time. Better than mage and lock aoe farming in some ways (yes I have an 80 mage and lock too). Pre 40 disc questing was a breeze. Even once I got duel spec at 40 and went shadow form, disc beat shadow hands down. Was questing for brief moments as disc right up til 80, shadow is too just slow.
The journey was alot quicker than when I levelled my mage. More so because of the healers short random Dungeon Q times. I actually wish every toon was this easy to level.


http://www.wowwiki.com/Discerning_Eye_of_the_Beast

[Nivrax]

Get Spirit Tap 3/3, and then put next 10 points into Holy for 5% crit and faster Holy Fire/Smites, together with Glyph of Smite (you can continue Disc tree for Meditation after that). It's far more better than dotting, SPriest is terrible before getting Vampire Touch. Especially if you can get boa gear, you can kill most mobs in HF and 2 Smites.

And get a good wand, as this is what you will be doing most for first 20 levels.

[Azyoulike]

but is the spirit increase that good at 80?

For holy priests yes, for disc priests kinda, for shadow priests no. But ally doesn't really have any better racials for PvE so you may as well, at least till Cata.

[martyisokay]

I've leveled just about every class, (except a DK...bleh) and I will say that I have certainly enjoyed the priest class the most even though it was pretty challenging leveling before the LFG tool. Thank God for bubbles and psychic scream! Right now, my priest is my main and has been for the last 3 years. I have several 60-80 alts but I get bored with them very easily and I just go back to my priest. Priests FTW!!! So good luck in your priestly journey's.