Finding the right gear for your Priest will not be an easy process. Not
only will you be competing for gear with other caster DPS, such as
Warlocks and Mages, but you will also be competing for gear within your
own class. It’s true, Priests of all classes tend to value
basically the same stats. There are of course small differences
depending on if you play a Shadow, Disc, or Holy Priest. To see which
stats benefit the various specs more check out our href="http://tentonhammer.com/node/26195" target="_blank">Priest
Basics page.



Disc and Holy Priests can use the easy method of eliminating some gear
choices by simply checking if it has +hit on it. If it does,
it’s clearly not a piece of gear that is meant for a healing
class, it’s not like heals can miss or anything. Even Shadow
Priests can let some gear with hit on it pass to the Warlocks and
Mages. thanks to the overabundance of hit on T9 and above gear.



While leveling up choose a spec and stick with it. Pick up gear
relative to that spec, most of which will come from quests and drops
from mobs from levels 1-60. Running instances at these levels is
usually pretty difficult to do, and probably not worth your time. You
can make it to 60 with quest rewards/random drops just fine.



style="float: left; width: 273px; height: 450px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77682">Once
you hit 60 you will (like all other
classes) gain a ton of rather
nice green gear that will tide you over for awhile. Doing instances
from 60-70 is much easier, and if you can get a competent group run as
many as you can. Be sure to check around the towns in the instances for
any quests that may give blue items that are upgrades for your
class/spec before doing the instance. If you are not able to run any
instances, quest reward greens and random drops from mobs will work
just as well to get you to level 70.



Once you hit level 70 you will once again receive a pretty much
completely new set of green gear just by doing the first quests in the
zone you start at. Getting instance runs here should be even easier
than before. Once again be sure to check out the quests available for
quests relating to the instance you are doing. There are some excellent
blue quest items out there. Don’t miss out on them. Even if
you do no instances from level 70-80 you should still have enough gear
to start your heroic career when you reach 80.



Once you hit 80 it becomes a simple process to gear up. Heroics,
heroics, heroics, and when you are sick of heroics do some more. While
doing Heroics you will receive Emblems. These Emblems can be traded in
for very high quality epic gear. Also try to do the Heroic Daily every
single day if possible. This daily will give you Emblems of Triumph,
giving you access to even better gear and putting you in a better
position for end game raiding.  With the full set of gear
available to you through Emblems you will easily be able to hold your
own in any non-heroic raid. Good Luck!


style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">

While you are leveling or running end game instances, which
stats are important for your chosen spec is one of the biggest things
you need to know. While all specs of Priest value several stats, the
importance of these stats varies from spec to spec. Knowing your spec
and what stats are good for that spec can’t be stressed
enough. For example a Shadow Priest taking gear with tons of Intellect
and Spirit. will not only be hurting themselves, they will probably be
taking gear from another class/spec that can use it much more
effectively.



Now a quick look at what stats are best for each spec (most important
will be listed first and so on):



style="width: 21px; height: 22px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77681">
Shadow - Spellpower, +Hit ,
Haste, Crit



style="width: 21px; height: 22px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77677">
Discipline - Crit,
Spellpower, Haste, Intellect, Spirit, MP5



style="width: 21px; height: 21px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77679">
Holy - Spirit, Spellpower,
Intellect, Haste, Crit, MP5



Keep in mind that some of these stats drop off the list once a certain
percentage is reached. Hit (11%) for Shadow Priests, and Haste for Holy
(12-14%) and Disc (11%) and Shadow (10-11%) Priests. However, until
these caps are reached this stats ais very, very important. For this
reason be sure when getting new gear that you stick close to cap on all
of these stats.

As you pick up more and more gear you will find some of the pieces will
have gem slots in them. Gemming correctly will help improve your
performance. You will find there are plenty of gems to suit your needs
of almost every color.  Below is a list of gems commonly used
by Priests:

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Red

[Runed Scarlet Ruby]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Blue

[Sparkling Sky Sapphire]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Yellow

[Brilliant Autumn’s Glow]

[Quick Autumn’s Glow]

[Purified Twilight Opal]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Purple

[Royal Twilight Opal]

[Misty Forest Emerald]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Green

[Seer’s Forest Emerald]

[Intricate Forest Emerald]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Orange

[Reckless Monarch Topaz]

[Luminous Monarch Topaz]

[Potent Monarch Topaz]

style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Red

[Runed Cardinal Ruby]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Yellow

[Brillant King’s Amber]

[Quick King’s Amber]

[Rigid King’s Amber]

[Smooth King’s
Amber]
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77678">



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Blue

[Sparkling Majestic Zircon]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Orange

[Luminous Ametrine]

[Potent Ametrine]

[Reckless Ametrine]

[Veiled Ametrine]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Green

[Dazzling Eye of Zul]

[Forceful Eye of Zul

[Intricate Eye of Zul]

[Jagged Eye of Zul}

{Lambent Eye of Zul]

[Misty Eye of Zul]

[Radiant Eye of Zul]

[Seer’s Eye of Zul]

[Shattered Eye of Zul]

[Shining Eye of Zul]

[Tense Eye of Zul]

[Timeless Eye of Zul]



style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Purple

[Glowing Dreadstone]

[Mysterious Dreadstone]

[Purified Dreadstone]

[Royal Dreadstone]

[Insightful Earthsiege Diamond]

[Bracing Earthsiege Diamond]

[Chaotic Skyfire Diamond] - (Shadow Priests only)

[Ember Skyflare Diamond]

[Revitalizing Skyflare Diamond]



Keep in mind while gemming your gear the stats that are important to
your spec (listed above), gem for these stats, and avoid the stats that
you know are useless for you (such as MP5) unless attempting to meet a
socket bonus. Epic quality gems should be used whenever possible,
however Rare quality will suffice for gear that will be replaced
quickly, or for those who really cannot afford Epic quality. Never ever
use Green quality gems.

style="width: 21px; height: 22px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77681">
Shadow



Head
- Arcanum of Burning Mysteries

Shoulder
- Greater Inscription of the Storm/Master’s
Insciption of the Storm

Back
- Greater Speed/Springy Arachnoweave/Lightweave Embrodery

Chest
- Powerful Stats

Wrist
- Superior Spellpower/Fur Lining - Spell Power

Hands
- Exceptional Spellpower/Hyperspeed Accelerators

Waist
- Eternal Belt Buckle

Legs
- Brilliant Spellthread

Feet
- Icewalker/Nitro Boots

Weapon
- Greater Spell Power/Mighty Spell Power



style="width: 21px; height: 22px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77677">
Disc/ style="width: 21px; height: 21px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77679">
Holy



Head:
- Arcanum of Burning Mysteries

Shoulders
- Greater Inscription of the Crag/Greater Inscription of the
Storm

Cloak
- Wisdom/Haste

Chest
- Powerful Stats

Bracers
- Superior Spellpower

Gloves
- Exceptional Spellpower

Legs
- Brilliant Spellthread/Sapphire Spellthread

Boots
- Tuskarr’s Vitality/Greater Spirit

Weapon
- Mighty Spellpower/Exceptional Intellect/Exceptional Spirit

A list of Glyph suggestions is listed below. Use the Glyphs that you
feel best suit your style of play!



style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> style="width: 21px; height: 22px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77681">
Shadow
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">


[Glyph of Shadow]

[Glyph of Mind Flay]

[Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain]

[Glyph of Shadow Word: Death]



style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> style="width: 21px; height: 21px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77679">
Holy



[Glyph of Circle of Healing]

[Glyph of Guardian Spirit]

[Glyph of Flash Heal]

[Glyph of Prayer of Healing]




style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> style="width: 21px; height: 22px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/77677">
Discipline



[Glyph of Penance]

[Glyph of Power Word: Shield]

[Glyph of Flash Heal]

[Glyph of Prayer of Healing]



That’s the basic’s for outfitting your gear as a
priest. Good luck and here’s hoping your journey is filled
with many purples!