The Ultimate Priest Leveling Guide: the Talents, Gear, Glyphs and Methods to Get to Level 80 Fastest

LF1M need healer! Instead of looking for a healer be sought after for heroic content and raids every day. The Ultimate Priest Leveling Guide, will show you how to get there super fast so you too can be a level 80 healing priest. Priests get more attention from players than any other healing class, because most people associate priests with healing and other classes with tanking or damage dealing. When you log in as a high level priest, expect to get whispers immediately from players hungry for a healer.

Instance Healing for Beginners:

Unless you are a veteran player who wants to revisit low level instances for fun, do not look for pick up groups before you are level 70-80. Most low level pick up groups are an exercise in misery for a healer because: everyone is off spec (specialization) for their class, no one is well geared and many are still learning how to play their class.

Wiping repeatedly in the Dead Mines, Wailing Caverns or Scarlet Monastery is not going to advance your healing career. Skip the low level instances unless you have a higher level character to run you through for the sake of getting some exp, gear and quests. The only exception to the rule is if you have found some experienced players who want to work on their low level characters. Finally, it slows down your leveling while you wait for a pick up group and even more time consuming when they go AFK (away from keys), leave early and fight over loot.

Leveling a Priest:

Leveling a priest is not as easy as leveling a hybrid or pure DPS class. Because your DPS is lower and you are dependent on mana, you will gain experience points much slower. Do not count on getting instance runs and leveling as a healer 1-60 for the reasons previously mentioned. There are two methods of leveling a priest that are effective and will get you to level 80 quickly.

Leveling Method 1: Recruit-A-Friend

First off, old school leveling sucks because it is slow and tedious. Leveling moves fastest if you use the (Recruit-A-Friend) program and Dual box your two characters. Recruit A Friend gives a straight up triple experience point gain for both mob kills and quest turn ins and the ability to summon the other character once an hour. Also, if you use the Recruit A Friend program you will get a Zhevra Epic Mount and earn levels that you can grant to your priest. Having leveled up multiple level 80 characters the old way, including a priest, Recruit-A-Friend is a godsend. Level up with a DPS class or even faster if you level two DPS classes and grant levels to the new priest. If you can get instance runs and dual box, it is possible to get to level 60 in a couple days of game time, if not hours.

Leveling Method 2: Solo Shadow Priest

Shadow Priests enjoy the highest DPS of any of the priest talent trees and skills that regenerate mana. Because shadow priests are able to burn down mobs faster and regain their mana faster, they level faster than priests of the other talent trees. If you already have level 80 characters consider obtaining heirloom items for your priest to make the leveling faster and more mana efficient. Consistently choose talents, gear and glyphs which enhance your ability to kill quickly and regain your mana.

The Fastest Leveling Shadow/ Discipline Build: Shadow/Discipline

Shadow Talents

Spirit Tap 3/3, Improved Spirit Tap 2/2, Improved Shadow Word Pain 2/2, Shadow Focus 3/3, Mindflay 1/1, Improved Mindblast 5/5, Shadow Weaving 3/3, Veiled Shadows 2/2, Vampiric Embrace 1/1, Improved Vampiric Embrace 2/2, Focused Mind 3/3, Mind Melt 2/2, Darkness 1/5, Shadowform 1/1, Shadowpower 5/5, Darkness 5/5, Vampiric Touch 1/1, Misery 3/3, Pain and Suffering 1/3, Twisted Faith 5/5, Dispersion 1/1, Pain and Suffering 3/3, Improved Shadowform 2/2, Shadowreach 2/2

Discipline: take discipline talents after Dispersion at level 60

Twin Disciplines 5/5, Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2, Improved Inner Fire 3/3, Meditation 3/3, Inner Focus 1/1

Leveling Glyphs:

Major:

Glyph of Shadow Word Pain: Increases the damage done by your Mind Flay spell by 10% when your target is afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. Requires level 15

Glyph of Shadow: While in Shadowform, your spell critical strikes increase your spell power by 10% of your Spirit for 10 sec. Requires level 40

Minor:

Glyph of Fading: Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%. Requires level 15

Glyph of Fortitude: Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 50%. Requires level 15

Glyph of Shadowfiend: Receive 5% of your maximum mana when your Shadowfiend dies from damage. Requires level 66

Heirloom Gear:

Heirloom gear will scale with your new priest from level 1 all the way to level 80 and grant unique bonuses which will speed up your leveling. You will save money also, because your new character will not need to upgrade their gear constantly. The downside is that you have to invest time and emblems of heroism to obtain these items.

Level 1-80: Tattered Dreadmist Mantle: Has perfect stats for a shadow priest, spellpower and it grants 10% experience point gains from killing monsters. Cost 40 Emblems of Heroism.

Level 1-80: Discerning Eye of the Beast: Increases spell power. Restores 2% of your maximum mana whenever you kill a target that yields experience or honor. This item is a trinket and you can have two of them and there is no cool down on the mana gain benefit. Because this item both increases your spell power and restores mana, it is perfect for leveling. Cost 50 Emblems of Heroism, each.

Level 1-80: Dignified Headmaster's Charge: Increases Spell power and important stats such as stamina and intellect. Costs 65 Emblems of Heroism. You can also use the no level restriction enchant: Enchant Weapon Spell power on this item to add +30 spell power.

Normal Gear:

Use green "of the owl" gear as filler for leveling because this will increase your most vital leveling stats, intelligence and spirit. You may wish to obtain some crafted or bind on equip rare or epic items to speed the leveling processs.

See Kaliban's Loot List for an indepth guide to all the instances and quests that offer priest gear. When you are level 57 or higher you can begin to replace your gear with Prophet, Sorceror, or Invoker cloth to gain a combination of spell power, stats and spell critical that is unavailable on classic gear.

Add Ons for Leveling:

The Best addons for this method of leveling is Carbonite. Carbonite keeps track of all of your quests and shows you where to go in order to complete them in game. This addons is now free, perfectly legal to use in World of Warcraft and not to be confused with 3rd party autobot programs. When an addon is just modifying your interface or providing information and not automating the game, generally it is safe to use it with World of Warcraft. If you have any doubts about this there is an official Blizzard forum just for addons and macros that you can go to and ask questions and you can also ask a gamemaster ingame if you have any lingering doubts.

Cartographer and and MobMap are available on Curse.com MobMap is available through the developer's website at MobMap.de Both of these programs are good alternatives for Carbonite. Questhelper was once the add on of choice but was discontinued after Blizzard announced changes to it's policies about how developers can request donations.

Leveling Process:

If you don't have a friend, relative or guild member you can wrangle into running you through all instances go questing. Quest, quest and quest some more and keep your experience point bar on rested or blue bar the entire way.

Questing will take you a bit longer than being run through instances but will also yield nice gear and achievements for your new characters. I love Jame's guides because he tells you in a logical way how to plan what your doing in each zone to minimize the time you have to spend leveling and what items to pick up before you leave town. Jame keeps his guides updated and I have used his website for years.

Jame even has a new addon that you can use in game. Jame's guide is free, has a community that tests and supports it and has detailed information on how to complete the harder quests. I am so crazy about Jame's guides that I will not attempt to reinvent the wheel, just use his site if you need help with questing.

After level 70, you can change your specialization to healing or discipline and you will find that there is no shortage of people who need you to heal regular dungeons. While I was working on my new priest, I regularly got invited to heal as a fresh faced level 71 healer for BC raids, heroics and Northend instances including Drak'Tharon Keep. However the early change to a healing specialization will somewhat slow your leveling when you have to level.

Suggested Zones

1-10: Complete Quests in the starting area for your race

Horde

11-21 Ghostlands or Barrens

21-30 Thousand Needles

30-33 Shimmering Flats

33-35 Hillsbrad/Swamp of Sorrows

35-40 Dustmallow Marsh/Stranglethorn Vale

40-45 Tanaris

45-50 Feralas

50-55 Un'Goro Crater

55-60 Eastern and Western Plague Lands

60-62 Hellfire Pennisula

62-64 Zangermarsh

64-66 Terrokar

66-68 Nagrand

68-71 Blade's Edge or Shadowmoon Valley or Netherstorm

71-72 Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord

72-74 Dragonblight

75-77 Grizzly Hills

77-78 Sholazar Bazin/Zul'Drak

78-80 Ice Crown

Alliance:

11-21 Westfall or Darkshore

21-30 Duskwood/Lakeshire or Ashenvale or Wetlands

30-33 Stonetalon Mountains/Desolace

33-35 Hillsbrad/Swamp of Sorrows

35-40 Dustmallow Marsh/Stranglethorn

40-45 Tanaris

45-50 Feralas

50-55 Un'Goro Crater

55-60 Plague Lands

60-62 Hellfire Pennisula

62-64 Zangermarsh

64-66 Terrokar

66-68 Nagrand

68-71 Blade's Edge or Shadowmoon Valley or Netherstorm

71-72 Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord

72-74 Dragonblight

75-77 Grizzly Hills

77-78 Sholazar Bazin/Zul'Drak

78-80 Ice Crown

Now you should be level 80! Change your talent tree to Holy or Discipline and gear up for end game, you're now one of the most desired commodities on the server, a level 80 healing priest. See my Best of the Best Healing Guide for tips on how to get started as a healing priest.