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Anyone who has ever played a hunter or a warlock knows that leveling is a breeze. Send in your pet, damage up your target, and the experience starts rolling in. When you think about priests you wonder if they are anywhere in comparison to the fast leveling spree the warlock and hunter bring. I used to be a mega noob in Warcraft and so when I played the priest the first time through, it did take up a good amount of my time. Now, however, I understand the class much better and find it rewarding and quite fun grinding my way through the levels.

Priests have three talent specs. Discipline, Holy, and Shadow. In the higher levels, a mix of Discipline and Holy with the right gear can get you far in the PvE and PvP world, but while you are soloing I find it much more efficient to pick up deep in the Shadow tree. Not only do you get plenty of new spells to play around with (slow, mana returns, healing through damage, a new form!) but you will find yourself doing more damage than the other trees allow at your low levels.

The beginning levels of the game as a priest will be slightly slower than most classes, due to running low on mana, having minor damage spells and your class trainer pushing healing spells on you but remember this will all change once you start in on the good talents and before that when you start gathering more shadow skills. Now, I'm not saying healing is what is slowing you down, because if you can't heal yourself you won't be a stranger to the spirit healer and you'll get plenty of stink eyes from fellow gamers. Don't learn to watch the health bars for them, do it for yourself because it will save you a good amount of corpse runs which does slow you down considerably in the end.

Make sure your bags are cleared besides water, water, and more water. Oh, and bandaging. Yes, you can heal yourself, but it can save you downtime drinking and the bill on all of that water. Just pick it up as you level and it will be a breeze with the cloth you gather through the zones. Not to mention, if you get in a tight squeeze you can fear and bandage and that could save a fight for you.

When you get to Shadowform, practice switching in and out of it for healing purposes. It is a good skill to know for PVP and PVE, allowing you to save yourself from dying and return to doing damage in record time.

When out in Azeroth fighting, make sure to kill all the mobs between each location. Don't hop up on your mount unless the mobs are far apart, and at the end of the day when your quest log is filled with dungeon quests and you think your gear could use some upgrading, don't be afraid to jump into a group. Make sure they know you are shadow though, and if you're accepted as a healer (say in low level dungeons) don't be afraid to try it out. Who knows? You might jump over to Holy and level through dungeoning.

Learn more about this author, Donna Fallesen.
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