by Tim Peters

Created on: January 01, 2010

No class in World of Warcraft has a tougher time leveling up than priests, especially solo.  Until their Shadow spells kick in, they're reliant on healing and shields to outlast their enemies.  Priests are also notorious for needing to recover mana often, as they're virtually useless without it.  And any priest who doesn't specialize in Shadow will have a tougher time leveling up alone than those who do.  But while it requires more preparation and patience, it is possible to level up the priest class, whether in a group or out.

BASIC TACTICS

- Keep your buffs (such as Power Word: Fortitude and Inner Fire) active and renewed regularly, especially just before combat.

- For gear, focus on anything that boosts Spirit, Intellect, and healing spells.  Melee boosts (such as Strength, Agility and Attack Power) should be low priorities.

- The sooner you find a wand, the better.  Wands are a priest's most reliable weapon, with melee weapons more useful for their side benefits than DPS (damage per second).

- In the Talent tree, specializing in Holy results in the best group-friendly healers, Shadow offers the best solo damage-dealers, and Discipline yields durable jacks-of-all-trades.

- Enchanting, Tailoring, and Inscription have the most immediate practical value as professions to priests, though skinning and mining are good pure income sources.

LEVEL 1-9

Until you reach level 10, your best strategy is pretty basic.  Use Shadow Word: Pain and Smite as your primary weapons, Power Word: Shield and healing spells to recover, and all the milk and water you can hold.  If you have a wand, this process will speed up tremendously.  Be on guard if you're fighting two enemies, and run like crazy if you somehow draw three or more.

LEVEL 10-20

As soon as you reach level 10, spend at least one point on the Spirit Tap talent, no matter which tree you want to focus on.  This will help speed up your mana recovery between fights.  Mind Blast will now replace Smite as your primary offense spell.  By level 15, Holy-specced priests will discover they're in high demand with the Dungeon Finder, and will find it their best bet for leveling up.  Discipline-specs, meanwhile, will find themselves consistently in the fight.  Shadow priests will also be popular in groups, being damage-dealers who can also resurrect when needed.  Just remember: no Shadow Scream in instanced dungeons, as the enemies you hit will often bring

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