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The Basics - Getting off to a Good Start

It’s very important for any class to set the right foot forward when they begin the game. All race and class combinations within World of Warcraft are viable but not for everyone. It’s up to you to pick the right combination of both Race and Class to make the perfect character both visually and play wise.

Be sure to check out our Priest forum if you ever have any questions about your Priest or have something to add to this guide!

What is the Priest class?

The first thing to do is consider, is the Priest class right for you? There is a lot of great things about the Priest class but as with any class it’s not for everyone. To get a better idea of what the Priest class stands for, we’ve compiled a list that describes what the class is. If that’s what you are looking for, then a Priest may be for you. If you’re not sure, then try one out! The low levels don’t showcase everything about a class, but it’s a good way to get a basic idea of how a class will work.

• Priests are primarily healers and as such are a support class.
• Priests have some of the best heals in the game.
• Priests can somewhat manage their threat generation with the fade ability.
• Priest can specialize in healing or doing damage (Shadow spec)
• Healing Priests are always in demand in groups and you will never go long without a group for something
• Priests can only wear cloth and therefor take lots of damage in combat when hit, be prepared to try to spend as much time at a distance as you can.
• Priests can be good DPS casters if they spec Shadow, however do not expect to find groups easily as they will likely be thinking of Priests as healers.
• Shadow Priests can be a deadly PvP sub-class.
• Priests have excellent group and raid buffs in the form of Fortitude and Spirit buffs.
• Shadow Priests have some very good debuffs in the form of extra spell and shadow damage, and mana and health regeneration.
• Priests can resurrect other players.
• Priests can play both ways (healing and DPS) however to be truly effective you will need to specialize your talents and gear to that one thing, giving up much of your flexibility.

So in summary, the Priest class is mainly a healer however can specilize to cause damage. While specialized to heal you will always be wanted in PvE groups and raids. In Shadow form you can level quickly and PvP well, but will have a difficult time getting a group for instances and raids.

Race Selection

Does my choice of race really matter? Yes it does! I bet you didn't expect that answer. Priests can be part of the Alliance (Good guys in the traditional sense) or Horde (Bad guys in the traditional sense). Alliance priests can be Humans, Dwarves, Draenei or Night Elves. Horde priests can be Undead. Blood Elves or Trolls. They are allowed to be Druids and Shaman.. Your choice of Alliance or Horde will dictate which zones you start in, who your comrades will be, and who you fight against in Player versus Player encounters. More importantly each of the different races also has different Priest Racial Abilities unlike other classes where no matter what race you all get the same abilities. Priests get the following abilities based on race:

Humans
Feedback (Priest's weapon has a chance to "proc" and drain 35 mana from the target each time it hits) and Desperate Prayer (Instant Heal)

Dwarves
Fear Ward and Desperate Prayer (Instant Heal)

Draenei
Symbol of Hope (Instant cast that gives part members 33 mana every 5 seconds for 15 seconds, with a 5 minute cooldown) and Fear Ward.

Nightelves
Starshards (Instant Cast - Damage over Time - 5 Seconds) and Elune's Grace (Reduces Ranged Damage Taken for Three Minutes)

Undead
Devouring Plague (Damage over Time spell that also heals the caster) and Touch of Weakness ( The caster's next damaging melee attack will cause additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target for 2 min.)

Trolls
Hex of Weakness (Weakens the target enemy, reducing damage caused for two minutes) and Shadowguard (The caster is surrounded by shadows. When a melee or ranged attacker hits the caster, the attacker will be struck with Shadow damage. Attackers can only be damaged once every few seconds. Three charges. Lasts 10 minutes)

Blood Elves
Consume Magic (dispels one buff from you and gives you mana based on your level.  It scales from 120 – 154 up to 455 – 488 at level 70.  It is an instant cast spell with a 2 minute cooldown) and Touch of Weakness ( The caster's next damaging melee attack will cause additional Shadow damage and reduce the damage caused by that target for 2 min.)

In the end due to racial traits and racial spells that you gain access to, if you are Alliance you should be a Dwarf and if you are Horde you should be Undead. Dwarf priests are critical to end game content due to their fear ward ability, and Undead priests abilities are far better than that of the Trolls. The other races can be ok, however in the end game you really need to be the best possible. If you are looking to play a PvP priest then your best choice is an Undead priest so that you have one additional damage spell.

If you are truly unsure of what race to pick then check out our list of races right here. In this list you’ll be able to see the various abilities each race has along with how they look.

The Basics - Getting Starting Resources

If you need additional help in leveling up or finding places to level then see these other extremely helpful resources that should aid in getting you started:

• Making Money Guide
• Alliance 1-60 Guide / Horde 1-60 Guide
• PvP Survival
• City and Starting Region Guides
• Weapons Guide
• Where to Adventure
• Must Know WoW Tips

The Basics - Mana

Mana is the magical energy that you have to draw on to cast your spells and use your abilities and special attacks.

The amount of mana you have is determined by your intelligence, and the speed at which it regenerates is determined by your spirit. Having mana is critical to a Priest, since it is used for all of your abilities. If you run out in a fight you will only be able to attack with your wand and will not be able to heal. As with all caster classes, you really need to learn to manage your mana to always ensure you have some left. If you run short in a fight you will die.

The Basics - Healing and Threat

When playing in a group it is important to learn to match your heals to the situation. It is not always best to use the biggest heal as you only choice. Using big heals means drawing a lot of threat, taking a lot of time to cast and using lots of mana. When setup to heal you should have multiple options available to you and cast the one that best suits the situation.

In most situations you should use your renew which is a HOT (heal over time) as a primary heal to keep players up while you cast other heals. This allows you to generate your threat over time instead of all at once from a big heal. It also allows the other players to be generating threat to counter yours as you heal them. If possible use multiple smaller heals than one large heal for the same reason. A large heal that critcals can mean your death if you draw aggro from the tank.

To further reduce your threat, save you fades for just after large heals or for when / if you draw aggro. It is also a good idea to save your shield for then as well.

The Basics - Shadowform

Shadowform represents the Priests opposite side from healing, their affinity with death. Shadowform allows you to inflict additional damage from all shadow spells while suffering less damage from attacks, the only down side is that you may not cast holy spells while in shadowform. This means that you can not quickly heal yourself or anyone else.

Shadowform is an excellent way to level or PvP and most Priests spec shadow until reaching near level 60 where they switch to holy/discipline to heal for groups.

The Basics - First Aid

When I first started off as a healer (my first character was a Paladin) I thought, why the hell would I need to know first aid, I can just heal myself. It turns out that many healers have this opinion, and suffer for it later.

All healers NEED to know first aid in the end game as a way to heal yourself without spending any mana. In end game instances and raids you will take damage due to AOE damage and zone effects, and mana is critical in long fights. Bandaging lets you heal yourself (usually more than enough) and still allows you to regenerate mana while doing it. Because it is not a cast, the 5 second mana regeneration rule does not apply to it and you can step out of combat for a little bit, bandage yourself and come back into the fight with more mana than you left.

In an emergency first aid can also be used on another target, although it is likely to be interrupted if you try it on someone in combat. Don't try this as it doesn't do much, but still puts the 30 second cool down on them. If you are going to use a bandage on someone wait until they step away from combat and drop aggro.

For the reasons explained here, I would suggest that everyone level first aid as they level their character. I have gone back to level it twice once I was level 60 and it is not fun.

The Basics - Picking a Profession

• Herbalism and Alchemy
  A decent combination for a Priest since you will be able to save your mana by drinking a potion instead of healing yourself, or gain mana if out in a fight. Alchemy can be used to make an assortment of extremely useful potions that can be sold for cash or used to make combat and healing easier.
• Mining and Blacksmithing
  Mining can make you a lot of money while you’re leveling up through selling ore and gems, however the mail and plate armor is of no use to a Priest since you can't wear anything but cloth.
• Mining and Engineering
  Engineering is can be fun for a Priest for things like stun grenades and a large assortment of gadgets can be very helpful in stopping escaping enemies. There are also some very good goggles and gadgets that can be helpful while leveling up.
• Skinning and Leatherworking
  Skinning can make you a lot of money while you’re leveling up, however the leather armor is of no use to a Priest since you can't wear much it.
• Mining & Skinning or Herbalism & Skinning
  A combination of gathering skills is often times the best choice when starting out. Selling everything you gather on the Auction House can create enough money to fund new armor, weapons, and even a mount!
  

The Basics - Stat Formulas

The 3 most important basic stats are Intellegence, Spirit and Stamina. Intelligence increases your mana pool and your critical hit chance with spells. Spirit is required to regenerate your mana pool, and stamina is required so that you can take a hit. Later in the game +mana regen, +healing or +spell damage will come into play depending on the type of priest you are trying to play.

Intellegence
Increases your mana pool and your critical hit chance with spells.

1 Intellect = 15 Mana

Also

100 Intellect = +1% chance to get critically cast spells

Spirit
Spirit raises your health and mana regeneration rate. While it is noticeable at higher levels of spirit, it takes a significant number of points in this to regain mana quickly enough that you will not want to stop and drink to gain it back. While these are base numbers, your intelligence will also affect the amount of mana regeneration that your spirit grants you.

4 Spirit = 1 Mana regenerated every 2 seconds

There is a 5 second rule on mana regeneration from spirit. How it works is that as soon as you are done casting a spell, mana regeneration from spirit stops for 5 seconds. Because of this you should cast your spells in groups and then wait while mana regenerates if possible. While fighting PvE I usually do Mind Blast, Mind Flay, SW:P, Psychic Scream, then wand. Wait until my mana regens and then do it again.

Stamina
Increases your health points so that you can take a hit. This is important for any class, but really important for cloth wearers since you want to be able to take a few hits before dieing so that your groups tank can pull the enemy off of you when you accidentaly grab aggro.

1 Stamina = 10 Health points

The Basics - Ability Bonuses

Besides stats there are several key item bonuses that are useful as a priest. As with statistics the importance of any of them depends on your talent build. The ones that are important for priests though are as follows:

+Healing - This bonus is critical for all healing priests and important for all priest to have a +healing set so that they can fill in healing in a group. It adds to the healing power of your healing spells. It does not add the full value though, each spell has a coefficient that gets multiplied by your total +healing to determine the amount added.

+Spell Damage - This bonus is important for all Priests who need to do damage as all of your damage is going to be caused by spells (other than the occasional wand damage). It adds to the damage of all your spell based abilities. As with +healing it does not add the full value though, each spell has a coefficient that gets multiplied by your total +damage to determine the amount added.

+X mana per 5 seconds - Useful to all Priests as a secondary bonus. Its usefulness depends on your build and play style. For PvP it is essentially useless, and for PvE end game raiding it becomes critical.

The Basics - +Damage and +Healing Coefficients

Just as important as the heal you choose, the stats or the ability bonuses that you have, is understanding the coefficient in which the +healing applied to your spells. As stated in the basics section of our priest guide the full value of your +healing or +damage is not added, each spell has a coefficient that gets multiplied by your total +healing to determine the amount added. To find out how much of your +healing will be added to each spell multiply the coefficient in the table below by your +healing bonus.

Just as important as the spells that you choose, the stats or the ability bonuses that you have, is understanding the coefficient in which the +damage applied to your spells. As stated in the basics section of our priest guide the full value of your +healing or +damage is not added. Each spell has a coefficient that gets multiplied by your total +damage to determine the amount added. To find out how much of your +damage will be added to each spell multiply the coefficient in the table below by your +damage bonus.

Priest Guide Credits

Contributors to this guide include:

• Messiah of the WoW.TenTonHammer.com website. (Mallaria on Dragonblight)
• BoomJack (Priest on the Feathermoon Server)
• Tsunaca (Priest on Silver Hand)
• Revealer form Bronzebeard Realm
• The Priests who frequent the Official and TenTonHammer.com message boards.

Comments

Have comments or suggestions? Thought of something that has been missed? Found an error? I would love to hear from you! Please post in our Priest Class guide forum or email me at messiah@tentonhammer.com

Ten Ton Hammer's Class Guides - Priest	Class Guides Rogue Guide Hunter Guide Warrior Guide Priest Guide Mage Guide Warlock Guide Shaman Guide Druid Guide Paladin Guide
Priest Guide: Basics | Playing a Priest | Quests | Weapons and Armor | Spells, Talents, and Talent Builds | Trainers | Where to Adventure | Priest Forums