Leveling spec - Any reasons not to choose Disc?

[Thimagryn]

I've been leveling a Pandaren priest in full heirloom gear, and I've found Discipline to be the strongest spec so far for leveling. I've taken Shadow as a secondary spec, but for the damage output it seems I do very comparable damage (maybe even more) in Disc, while maintaining high survivability. Also take into consideration that the 15% hit passive for Smite/Holy fire is given very early in leveling, you won't miss any offensive spells. I find Shadow takes a bit of ramp up to get damage out, and I haven't touched holy at all.

Is Disc meant to be the go-to leveling spec, or are Holy and Shadow supposed to be comparable and I'm just playing those specs wrong? Is there a point when Holy or Shadow become better specs for leveling?

[Vashi]

I've been leveling a Pandaren priest in full heirloom gear, and I've found Discipline to be the strongest spec so far for leveling. I've taken Shadow as a secondary spec, but for the damage output it seems I do very comparable damage (maybe even more) in Disc, while maintaining high survivability. Also take into consideration that the 15% hit passive for Smite/Holy fire is given very early in leveling, you won't miss any offensive spells. I find Shadow takes a bit of ramp up to get damage out, and I haven't touched holy at all.

Is Disc meant to be the go-to leveling spec, or are Holy and Shadow supposed to be comparable and I'm just playing those specs wrong? Is there a point when Holy or Shadow become better specs for leveling?

For pandaria you will for sure need Shadow spec, since you will kill stuff 3x slower in Disc spec.

[Darkener]

Holy using Chakra Chastise and FDCL (once you get there) is a very strong leveling spec. You will not run out of mana, and you self heal all you need to. The DPS output is higher that Disc and the survivability is better than Shadow. I leveled 85-90 as Holy in DPS Chakra.

[casually]

depends what u feel comfortable with. shadow is more blasty at the start and its much less dotty then it used to be.. dots are worthless in dungeons and burst is king at low lvls...but if u are a fast soloer u can do great with shadow just by using void tendils. mass dotting.. and blasting everything away..

i find theres tons of retard tanks in dungeons and bads.. plus dungeons rely on other people to help u lvl.. and i find its easier just to rely on yourself.. so i do quests with shadow and use a disc os.

but if u arent interested in questing and just wanna sit around and do dungeons.. disc is the way to go.

[Kuniku]

1-85 was pretty fast as disc, with no down time really, 85-87 so far is seeming slower, there is no risk of dying, even when pulling silly amounts of mobs by accident, but they do seem to take a while to go down . . . especially with a lack of any decent aoe damage . . .

[Sprinky]

Gone from 10-55 so far on my priest as disc and its pretty overpowered right now. I level in dungeons and queue as a healer, but im almost always top on dps. Usually just shield the tank before pulls and then blow everything away. Great fun

[Danner]

Agreeing with Darkener here. FDCL+Chastise as Holy makes a heck of a powerhouse. The "father's crossbow" quest was almost trivial with the holy spec.

Sure, it's not shadow fast. But it's faster than disc, and you're unkillable, and mana is infinite. No other spec could pull 12 level-appropriate mobs and survive. And trust me, you'll have a fantastic fun time doing so.

[roflpot]

I'm levelling 85-90 on my disc priest - it's great. Maybe a little slower killing mobs but I haven't died once yet to alliance or environment and I can hop straight in to bgs and dungeons.

[Deleted]

Wouldnt be surprised if disc or holy is better than shadow for leveling. Did shadow to lvl90 and basically single target damage to mob is horrible slow to set up, getting dots up then MB etc makes killing tedios, gotta play like pianist with procs+dots+mb+swd and damage is still meh. Where shadow was good was pulling 4-5 mobs at a time, dotting them and then rooting them on place. Even then dots alone feel pretty weak so even multidotting was slow. So if disc/holy give access to more direct nukes it could be surprisingly good.

[Darkener]

Agreeing with Darkener here. FDCL+Chastise as Holy makes a heck of a powerhouse. The "father's crossbow" quest was almost trivial with the holy spec.

Sure, it's not shadow fast. But it's faster than disc, and you're unkillable, and mana is infinite. No other spec could pull 12 level-appropriate mobs and survive. And trust me, you'll have a fantastic fun time doing so.

Now though at 90 I do go Shadow to get dailies done faster. You may die if you pull too many, but keep it to a couple mobs and you should be fine. Void Tendrils works well except in some cases pull to many and they get out fast and are on you.

For people trying to level as Holy you don't need much Spirit gear if you stick to HF & Smite with a SWP here and there. I levelled in my shadow T11 gear (extra SWP and SWD) until I started replacing with greens around 88. Reforge spirit and mastery to haste & crit.

[Deleted]

Wouldnt be surprised if disc or holy is better than shadow for leveling. Did shadow to lvl90 and basically single target damage to mob is horrible slow to set up, getting dots up then MB etc makes killing tedios, gotta play like pianist with procs+dots+mb+swd and damage is still meh. Where shadow was good was pulling 4-5 mobs at a time, dotting them and then rooting them on place. Even then dots alone feel pretty weak so even multidotting was slow. So if disc/holy give access to more direct nukes it could be surprisingly good.

Dots aren't where your damage is as shadow; for quick kills just MB, MF and DP when you have 3 orbs.

[Vaelyn]

For pandaria you will for sure need Shadow spec, since you will kill stuff 3x slower in Disc spec.

I agree once you're 85. The OP was asking for low-level. Disc is the easiest and fastest way to level, due to the self-healing while DPSing that Atonement provides. I'd respect to Shadow when you get to MoP content, just because of the health pools

[Deleted]

Dots aren't where your damage is as shadow; for quick kills just MB, MF and DP when you have 3 orbs.

That is not quick kill though, thats the point. Putting dots and first MB on target already takes 4 seconds and its 10 sec more before you got 3 orb ready and 3orb dp on mob (if you spared orb from previous mob). If holy/disc has spammable direct nukes with reasonable damage, its easy to believe they could be simply faster against single target or even against 2 targets.

[bozolino]

leaving personal choices aside, there's no reason whatsoever to level up with any spec other than shadow

you never run out of mana, you can't die and kill everything MUCH faster than any other spec

just make sure to pick From Darkness, Comes Light and Divine Insight, then run arround casting VT and SW:P on every mob you see, and proceed to spam MS and MB as the procs don't stop, plus DP when you get 3 orbs

i don't have any shadow gear (all my gear is for disc/holy) and sometimes i can even two shots some mobs with DP and MB crits

[Deleted]

That is not quick kill though, thats the point. Putting dots and first MB on target already takes 4 seconds and its 10 sec more before you got 3 orb ready and 3orb dp on mob (if you spared orb from previous mob). If holy/disc has spammable direct nukes with reasonable damage, its easy to believe they could be simply faster against single target or even against 2 targets.

My point was you don't put dots up. Pull with MB. Then MF until it comes off cooldown and MB again. SW:D when it's available. Anytime you get 3 orbs, use DP.
I found I don't even get to DP on the first mob - it's dead before they're available, but then you get a 3 orb DP for the next mob which basically insta dies.

You should more or less always have an orb in hand anyway as you should be finishing with SW:D.

[Deleted]

there's no reason whatsoever to level up with any spec other than shadow

This. I'm critting over 8k on Outland mobs with DP at level 63. I can pull as many as I want, kill them all and continue unscathed with no mana issues whatsoever. I have not even come close to dying.

[Deleted]

My point was you don't put dots up. Pull with MB. Then MF until it comes off cooldown and MB again. SW when it's available. Anytime you get 3 orbs, use DP.
I found I don't even get to DP on the first mob - it's dead before they're available, but then you get a 3 orb DP for the next mob which basically insta dies.

You should more or less always have an orb in hand anyway as you should be finishing with SW.

That makes no sense. Mobs in pandalandia die slow enough that at least first SW:P gets fully used, and as swp has lot better dpet than MF it should be automatically used. MF hits so low damage that it barely causes target healthbar move. If you talking about lower levels then not using dots is ok but if not using dots then its better go disc anyway as disc has more direct nukes and most mobs die in like 5 seconds with heirloom gear. Holy Fire, Smite, Penance -> dead mob. Only reason to use shadow lower levels is to use dots for killing lot of mobs same time, but unfortunately when questing its often not reasonable to get more than couple mobs at a time so on average direct nuking one mob at time is just equal fast for questing.

[Deleted]

That makes no sense. Mobs in pandalandia die slow enough that at least first SW:P gets fully used, and as swp has lot better dpet than MF it should be automatically used. MF hits so low damage that it barely causes target healthbar move. If you talking about lower levels then not using dots is ok but if not using dots then its better go disc anyway as disc has more direct nukes and most mobs die in like 5 seconds with heirloom gear. Holy Fire, Smite, Penance -> dead mob. Only reason to use shadow lower levels is to use dots for killing lot of mobs same time, but unfortunately when questing its often not reasonable to get more than couple mobs at a time so on average direct nuking one mob at time is just equal fast for questing.

You're forgetting that shadow has instant mind blasts, instant mind spikes and 3-orb devouring plague nukes. When you dot up a few mobs you get procs going off like crazy and things drop fast, way faster than you could do in any other spec.