by D A Lavizzo

Created on: December 25, 2006   Last Updated: October 24, 2011

(Updated for Cataclysm 4.0.6)

Priests, arguably, are the most underplayed and highly-sought after characters in World of Warcraft. Their ability to heal effectively, protect the group from harm and dump all of their threat at a moments notice places them on par with Druids, Paladins, and Shamans as effective raid and group healers.

Why, then, are priests so underplayed? In a nutshell, they're a pain to level. The long, arduous path from level 1 to level 85 is that much longer for a priest, who isn't designed to deal damage but to heal. While Dual Spec can help, someone playing a priest may have friends playing Hunters or Rogues, or other fast-leveling solo classes, and feel like they got the short end of the stick. Another possible reason is that most healers simply get burned out on healing. When the group is going well, nary a "thank you" is to be found. When things go sour, however, who is the first to take the blame? you guessed it - the healer. This brief guide is intended to help a leveling Priest see the light at the end of the tunnel, and provide a few pointers on how to surpass the leveling grind and come into your own as a strong, solid, level 85 healer.

Firstly, creating your healer is an important part of your leveling. For the Alliance, Draeni make excellent healers since they get a free heal-over-time spell that can be cast on anyone, though their other racials are not quite as good. Worgen also make excellent healers.

An Undead Priest is probably still the best healers for the Horde because of their offensive capabilities. Will of the Forsaken breaks fear and charm effects, giving the Priest a sort of personal Fear Ward, while Cannibalize is a highly effective skill that should always be on cooldown while running instances at the low levels. Coupled with the Priest's already strong healing, these are also two very strong PVP abilities.

For leveling, Shadow is still the best way to go. Shadowform is the ultimate shadow-talent ability. With Shadowform and Improved Vampiric Embrace, most Shadowpriests can auctually augment a true healer, and leveling is a breeze since while you're doing damage you're simultaneously healing yourself.

When grinding, take on as many quests as you think you can handle alone. If you can get your hands on heirloom gear, do so. The extra 5 or 10 percent experience is really noticeable. Quests are the real experience-givers in World of Warcraft - the only time I stop questing is if an instance queue

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