Priests have a very limited selection of weapons and armor that they can use. They are limited to:

• Cloth Armor
• Maces (1 handed only)
• Daggers (trained)
• Staves (trained)
• Wands

Note that to use daggers and staves, you must pay a Weapons Trainer to train you. Check out the Weapons Guide for where to find the best Weapons Trainer for you!

Since the only real reason you carry any weapon as a priest is for the bonuses, it is not important to look at damage at all. The decision for your weapons come down to stats and effects only. If you can get a better stat bonus from a dagger and off-hand item then use it, if the 2 handed staff has a better bonus use it.

Best Priest Equipment

Depending on the character role (talent spec), level and playing style you will be aiming for different things out of your armor. For basic stats a priest will never go far wrong by aiming for Intelligence, Spirit and Stamina. Other bonuses and stats depend on what you are doing in the game.

Leveling Gear

While leveling up you really need to just focus on what is better for your primary stats. If you are a shadow priest this will be intelligence, spirit and stamina. For bonuses you will mainly be looking for +spell damage on anything you can get it on. If you are a holy or discipline priest then you will be looking for the same stats but +healing and +mana per 5 seconds for bonuses. Every quest reward that grants those stats in a bigger number than you have already is obviously going to be an upgrade. Anything not better can just be sold off.

While leveling it really isn't about the perfect items, because once you do find that perfect item, it's time to replace it already. So simply go with anything that improves your core stats.

PvP Gear

PvP gear at level 70 is relatively simple. You need to still focus on the same core stats as leveling or PvE, however they become secondary to Stamina and Resilience. What you really need to do is get the priest PvP set for your spec (either damage or healing), it has all of the stats you need for PvP.

The stats for PvP are the pretty much the same no matter your build, your priorities shift to stamina, resilience, and intelligence. This is because you will be hit often when your opponent closes range and intelligence so you can heal or cause damage back. Either way stamina and resilience become higher priorities so that you stay alive. For bonuses, you will still be looking for +damage if you are shadow or +healing if you are discipline or holy.

End Game PvE Gear

Stats

As a Priest the stats you require don't really vary on your build all that much, although the balance between the stats changes. The two main builds for a Priest are a Healing build (either based on Holy or Discipline) or a Shadow build for damage or PvP. As a Healing priest your main stats in order of importance are going to be Intelligence, Spirit and Stamina. While if you are a shadow priest you are going to pull aggro once in a while and need to take a few more hits, therefore the stats you want in priority are Intelligence, Stamina and Spirit.

As with any class, balancing the stats is not as simple as it sounds. Along with your build, the balance depends on your play style and level. For example, early on while leveling or while grinding for gold or rep late in the game, spirit may become far more important than intelligence as you may want less down time. In PvP you are likely to take far more hits in combat so Stamina may be the most important stat to you. Use the base examples above though and you won't be far off.

Effects

Here is where the differences in spec really come into play. As a Healing priest your main effect bonuses that you want are going to be +healing and +mana over time. This will allow you to better heal and control your mana pool by casting bigger heals less often, while still regenerating mana through fights.

As a shadow priest the effects you are most interested in are +spell damage, +spell critical chance and + spell hit. These allow you to dish out more damage in a shorter amount of time so that you can prepare for the next fight.

The complicated answer is that for each of these builds the balancing act comes into play again. There are many other stats and effects that can be helpful, but just how helpful are they? We have a guide to help figure out these bonuses that you can find here: What's with all these crazy new numbers?

Stats and Effects per Class type

Gear for healing is fairly easy to get and your main concerns should be +Healing, Intelligence, +Mana per 5 sec (+mp5) and Spirit. Luckily all of these come in at least pairs on most healing items you will find.

Gear for DPS as a priest is slightly harder to get than healing gear, if only because you will be competing against other DPS priests, mage's and warlocks for it while running instances. The gear you need to watch for should have +damage, intelligence, and spirit. These should come in at least pairs on all the items you collect. You also need enough stamina to take a few hits before you die, and resilience if you chose to PvP.

The best place to find out about the best stats and bonuses for each type of priest is in our two guides:

• How to Play a Healing Priest
• How to Play a Shadow Priest

Armor Sets

Each class has a different set of gear that is specifically for them and has some of the best stats in the game. Here are the names of each set and where most of the parts are located. If you're interested in the details of each set then have a look at our Ten Ton Hammer Database where you can search and find any item you're looking for.

Legend:
- DS: Dungeon Set (Rare to Epic Quality)
- Tier: Tiered Set (Epic Quality)

You can find a list of all the items in the set at Blizzards set item site here: High Level Armor Sets .

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 [email protected]