New to Priest need some help please

[T-Shaddz]

I am new to playing a priest and have some questions as to what spec to level as. I have heard numerous debates between disc and shadow. Currently I am lvl 29 and specd shadow. I am able to kill things fairly fast but mana has become an issue and i am experiencing more down time than people tell me i should be. I was considering switching to disc for leveling. I was going to dual spec both anyway as soon as possible for healing dungeons but is it worth it just leveling as disc? If so what would the rotation be? Also if someone could suggest a shadow rotation id appreciate it as it may be the source of my mana problems. Thanks in advance.

[Palmer]

i leveled as shadow the entire way. yeah i had some mana issues but they got better as i progressed, albeit i was using lots of pots to keep goin. disc is fun if u wanna level in dungeons and get a feel for healing.

[Chireru93]

I'd say, honestly, lvl as disc until about 50-60 or so. There's a shadow talent that, if your shadow word: death doesn't kill a target, it refunds 10% of your mana. Once you get that your mana issues should be minimal at best. Take Evangelism, Archangel, and Atonement (I think. Your smite dmg heals ppl is the talent.), and you shouldn't have any problems with your hp (unless you chain pull mobs) and because of evangelism, the dmg on your smite, holy fire, and penance is increased per stack, up to a maximum of 5 stacks, so it's good for questing because you can keep pulling mobs and if you do that means higher dmg output overall.

[Zanjol]

I am currently lvl 68 on my shadow priest. Once you have spent 2 talent points into "masochism" use it on a full health enemy to get 10% mana back. Ya you take a hit health wise but with vampiric embrace activated its like it never happened. Shadow word Death has a fairly short CD so you should be able to get a little more viability out of your mana pool. Hope this helps!

[Scrogg]

I leveled as disc till 60, with atonement you can spam smite which becomes very mana efficient with a 5 stack and have zero down time.

Once i hit outlands i took the spirit tap glyph and leveled as shadow. Even then i would switch back to disc for the group quests and generally be able to solo them.

[Darkener]

Level as Shadow. Make darn sure you are using the Spirit Tap glyph and Shadow Word: Death glyph. Always kill mobs using Shadow Word: Death as soon as they reach 20%. If you are lucky you will get to use SW twice (instantly) to kill it and regain mana. Spirit Tap will also activate and return a lot of mana over 12 seconds. If you still have mana issues avoid using Mind Spike and Mind Blast to get mobs under 20%. Start out at max range and dot/flay to 20% then SW. You should be able get a feel for what it takes to get down mobs at your level and maximize your mana regen abilites to keep grinding. Pull single targets, multidotting and Sear are mana hogs. Brute forcing with Spike is a mana hog. Use them when your mana regen is more comfortable.

[Deleted]

I leveled as Disc from 1-80 and 80-85. This was probably dumb but I cba to go shadow for some reason. As you already heard shadow is the way to go for questing and for the occasional dungeon have disc as dualspec. If you intend to go raiding as a healer later on, i advise you to chainqueue for dungeons and quest inbetween.

It certainly is possible to level purely as disc but it just takes longer.

[Ruethgar]

I leveled and do DPS as disc. I don't have cata mind you so I cannot speak for level 80-85, but I found shadow to have far less survivability and more mana problems than I ever had with disc. Do note that you will kill things faster as shadow, about that I have no doubt. Currently I use glyphs of SW: Death, Spirit Tap, Smite and Divine Accuracy as my must have glyphs. I can solo most 80 heroics as an 80 disc priest and often end up as the tank, healer and top DPS in groups.

[Mikayo]

you need level 43 to get masochism;

Until you're 43, I'd level as disc. You don't have to, but I've found that until you have masochism you have a lot of downtime. Then just as Darkener said, get spirit tap glyph and shadow word: death glyph.

However, I'd get dualspec and have a disc offspec.
Running back-to-back dungeons from 80-82 with 4 melee and myself smiting (hardly ever needing to cast an actual heal) was too fun.