i want a shadow priest

yeah so what talents should i do hes level 30 now.

h4x lvl 300.

Wouldn't you want to start out with holy first and respec shadow at 60? I thought holy priests were much more in demand at lower levels.

Never had one though so I'm not sure.

well i dunno first priest ever. so i started as shadow still am shadow i do good damage in duels.. so i dunno

No, you want to be shadow until like low to mid 50s, otherwise soloing is a bitch.

With the new holy tree, it isn't so bad, or so I've heard.

This is your basic full shadow path:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...02323100511251
Your ideal combat goes something like this:
Mind Blast (pulls)
Mind Flay (damages and keeps him off you for a bit)
Shadow Word: Pain
Psychic Scream (he's on you by now)
Vampiric Embrace (to recover lost HP and take up time until you can cast...)
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Power Word: Shield (fill some time preventing future pain)
Mind Blast
Mind Flay (he'll be on return sometime during this)
Mind Flay
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Mind Flay
Repeat from psycic scream, replacing VE with SW:P

Of course, for this to work right, you need plenty of room to fear. In closer quarters, combat goes like this:
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Vampiric Embrace
Shadow Word: Pain
Power Word: Shield
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Mind Flay
Repeat from mind blast, recasting PW:S and SW:P as necessary.

If you're just putting into shadow to make leveling not suck, you only need Spirit Tap, Improved SW:P, Mind Flay, and the 3 points in Improved Mind Blast (6.5 seconds is just long enough for a real human to do two mind flays).
Since you'll be expected to heal in groups, I suggest putting lots of points into discipline, which helps you both solo and in groups.

This is my personal end-game raiding build:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/...32004100501200
While this is not a damage build, it does allow me to do fair damage when soloing. The role of this build in a raid is to heal a DPS group (usually rogues with a hunter with trueshot aura, and if you're unlucky, a warrior with improved battle shout--believe it or not the warrior takes the most damage...) and to keep up shadow weaving for the warlocks (they'll love you for it). Above all, you keep your group alive, hopefully mostly by VE, with the occational flash heal or prayer of healing; when your party is good on HP, you only mind flay since it is more mana efficient and less aggro than Mind Blast. On the issue of aggro, you'll have lots of it between the damage, the healling, and the massive over-healing, so don't think you can get away with cutting the threat reduction talents or take a blessing of wisdom instead of a blessing of salvation. With 5 points in Mental Agility and a group that usually doesn't take tons of damage, you are also designated decurser for fights that need it. If you decide to go this route, note that you should never introduce yourself to a prospective guild as a "Shadow Priest" (which carries a strong connotation of useless); with this build, you are a "VE healer hybrid".

From my experience leveling a priest to 60 with holy ...I'd never do it that way again. Specs make less difference at the beginning of the game with priests, tbh.

I have played both shadow to 60 and holy to 60. Honestly.. I prefer holy and I have learned to hate shadow priests in shadowform. Unless they are pve specced. In my experience though leveling my holy priest took much less time. Groups finished instances quickly which alowed me to grind out more.

Also... It takes alot of skill to play a holy priest correctly in terms of solo grinding. If you want a challenge, horde spirit.

Why would hording spirit make a challenge? I was a spirit whore most of my time leveling and it totally paid off regen wise. I mean, I could keep two people renewed indefinately in SM from all the regen. If you max out meditation, every 10.6 spirit is equivilant to 1 mana/5 seconds while casting. Untill MP5 gear becomes readily available, spirit is a priest's best friend.

Because of the fact that you wont have the raw mana pool you would have if you neglected spirit, not to mention you wont have as much stamina. Sure holy + spirit pays off but in the same way that stam and int + shadow pay off.

In my experience, you don't need a huge mana pool when you have a ton of regen. If you're solo shadow, you'll need to not get hit so you can use mind flay, anyway, so sta doesn't help much, either.

My mindflay never gets interrupted by damage =/

Any intelligent person using shadow will have a lot less down time if they use spirit tap correctly. Im designing my priest so I rarely have to drink for when Ex pak comes out.

Lucky you. Everyone else has to kite the monsters or use PW:S to get the full effect of mind flay. Also note that it doesn't get interrupted, just the time remaining gets reduced.

I have a leet wand .

Lucky you. Everyone else has to kite the monsters or use PW:S to get the full effect of mind flay. Also note that it doesn't get interrupted, just the time remaining gets reduced.

Im aware of that, I've just never had a problem with it I guess. I still believe intel is better than spirit if you are shadow. I got stam and intel on my priest and he was able to level quickly, and survive pvp situations with ease. Maybe its just me but I would rather have the stamina to survive a long fight rather than have the spirit to regen mana while im already casting. Of course I was also alchy so I would pop potions constantly =/ I guess it really just depends on the play style.

I'd rather play an easier class, but thats just me.

The plus side of playing a priest is that it's easy to get into instance groups. Pretty much, the easier it is for a character to solo, the higher the chance that you're not needed...

The plus side of playing a priest is that it's easy to get into instance groups. Pretty much, the easier it is for a character to solo, the higher the chance that you're not needed...

Definitely make sure you enjoy healing, and try it in a Raid environment before fully committing yourself to your Priest is my only advice.

I levelled a Priest to help with our guild progression at one point, and got stuck with it for a year until I could feasibly switch from it to something I enjoyed.


As a Shadow Priest, you may not go the raiding route, but there's only so far you can currently go without a Raid guild. Hopefully, the Burning Crusade will give some more options than just strictly grinding raid content in roles that people may not necessarily enjoy.

Oh, definately. If you're not the healer type, then Priest or Druid isn't the class for you, but don't go rogue or hunter unless you just can't stand the other classes. In my guild, mages and warlocks seemed to always be in pretty short supply, though that may not happen universally; I know that guilds are full on rogues and hunters, though, because even PUG UBRS raids get broadcast as "LFM UBRS, full on hunters and rogues" . . .