style="width: 565px; height: 88px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64632">

Let me start by saying that this guide, like our last guide, is not a
leveling guide. This is a play guide. “What’s the
difference?” you ask. I am not going to tell you,
“take quest X, and Y, but skip quest Z because it’s
not worth the XP.” Instead I am going to give you tips and
suggestions on what spells are useful when, and ways to make playing
the game easier on you, and hopefully, more fun. Remember, this is a
game. A game is meant to be enjoyed, and believe it or not, there are
actually story lines and very amusing quests if you take the time to
read them. (Gasp! Heresy!)



style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 191px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64631">In
our previous guide we talked about playing a Priest solo from level 1
to 40. Those are by far the hardest levels for a priest to get through.
The constant downtime between fights, the fragile nature of the class,
and inability to handle multiple mobs at the same time, makes those
first levels quite painful for the Priest. If you are reading this
guide, I take it that you had the intestinal fortitude (look at me
using big words and sounding all smart) to stick it out and get past
the dark times of playing a Priest. Well, I have some good news for
you; you are about to really start enjoying this class. Your downtime
will be minimal, your survivability goes way up, you will be able to
handle multiple mobs at once with ease, and you will find that leveling
goes much more smoothly.



In the previous guide, I told you to put all of your Talent points into
the Shadow school. In this guide, I will continue to tell you the same
thing. Shadow is far and away the best school for soloing, and while
you might be able to get into a group now and then for an instance or
two, for the most part, you will be soloing a lot. Also, contrary to
popular belief, you can still heal with a Shadow spec. I have run many
instances as the healer in groups up through 60, and been able to do so
quite easily. If you plan on being the primary healer for Raids, you
can always respec later if you want to be a healing or discipline
Priest. For now, stay Shadow, and if you didn’t read the
previous guide and you have put your Talent points into other schools,
respec now and go full Shadow.



Level 41 to 50



Once you get to level 40, you are now a true Shadow Priest. To start
with, take the Talent Shadowform. This talent allows you to assume a
Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15%, reducing Physical
damage done to you by 15%, and threat generated by 30%. 
However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form except Cure
Disease and Abolish Disease.  Your href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Shadow_Word:_Pain"
target="_blank">Shadow Word: Pain, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Devouring_Plague"
target="_blank">Devouring Plague, and Vampiric
Touch abilities deal increased percentage damage equal to your spell
critical strike chance. What that really means is that you are now a
killing machine. In Shadowform, you will be dealing a lot of damage,
and taking a lot less, however you can not cast any of your healing
spells. It will take a bit of time to get use to this new style of
play, but the benefits will quickly show. Your spell rotation will
change quite a bit with Shadowform. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Smite"
target="_blank">Smite and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/Spells%201-40.html#Holy_Fire"
target="_blank">Holy Fire will disappear from your
action bar, and you will have to learn to prevent damage, since you
can’t cast heals. As you level thru the 40s put your Talent
points into Shadow Power, then Misery, and drop the last couple into
Darkness.



Your spell rotation will change since we have to drop all of our Holy
school spells. Make sure you always have href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Power_Word:_Fortitude"
target="_blank">Power Word: Fortitude and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Inner_Fire"
target="_blank">Inner Fire up at all times. When
you are ready to attack open up with href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Power_Word:_Shield"
target="_blank">Power Word: Shield, then cast href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/priest/spells#Mind_Blast"
target="_blank">Mind Blast, Vampiric Embrace,
Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Mind Flay. If the mob is still
alive, just toggle between Mind Blast and Mind Flay until dead. Use
your Psychic Scream if more than one mob comes, and keep your Power
Word: Shield up at all times. This can’t be stated enough;
you need Power Word: Shield up at all times while fighting. You
can’t cast healing spells without breaking Shadowform, so you
have to prevent damage. This shouldn’t be too hard; most mobs
will die long before your Shield drops. With this rotation, mobs should
be dropping left and right, and you should rarely need to stop between
pulls. It’s a good time to be a Priest.



Tip: A great Glyph to
have is Glyph of Inner Fire which doubles the charges of Inner Fire
from taking 20 hits, to taking 40 hits.


cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">1st Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">2nd Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center;"> style="font-weight: bold;">3rd Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center;"> style="font-weight: bold;">4th Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">5th Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">6th Spell style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Power
Word: Shield

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62652"> style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Mind
Blast

src="63190"> style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Vampiric
Embrace

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64636">
style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Shadow
Word: Pain

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62645"> style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">Devouring
Plague

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62637"> style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">Mind
Flay

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64635">

Level 51 to 60



As you level thru the 50s, continue down the Shadow school. Pick up the
Talent Vampiric Touch, which causes 495 Shadow damage over 15 sec to
your target and causes up to 10 party or raid members to gain 0.25% of
their maximum mana per second when you deal damage from Mind Blast.
This is another one of those Talents that are game changers for the
Priest. While Vampiric Touch is a nice DOT for us, the great thing
about this Talent is the gain in mana when you use Mind Blast, which is
one of your key damage spells. With the ability to recharge mana during
a fight this Talent will greatly reduce down time between pulls. You
are now done with Foo Foo Juice (well, for the most part)! Continue
putting the rest of your Talent points into Pain and Suffering, and
Twisted Faith. 



Your spell rotation will only change slightly to include Vampiric
Touch. Open up with Power Word: Shield, then cast Vampiric Touch, Mind
Blast, Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Mind
Flay. If the mob is still alive, just toggle between Mind Blast and
Mind Flay until dead. As long as your Shield is up, your DOTs will make
short work of even the toughest mobs.

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">1st Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">2nd Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">3rd Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center;"> style="font-weight: bold;">4th Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center;"> style="font-weight: bold;">5th Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">6th Spell style="background-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">7th Spell style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Power
Word: Shield

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62652"> style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">Vampiric
Touch

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64637"> style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Mind
Blast

src="63190"> style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Vampiric
Embrace

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64636">
style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);">Shadow
Word: Pain

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62645"> style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">Devouring
Plague

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/62637"> style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;">Mind
Flay

src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64635">

This should take you from a Priest who is scared of his own Shadow, to
a true Shadow Priest that holds pain in one hand, and death in the
other, and dishes out both equally (damn, look how cool the Priest
sounds now). It will take some getting use to the loss of Holy school
spells, but by the mid 40s you will be saying, “Holy
what?” So get out there and kick ass across Azeroth!



Where to Level

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
colspan="4" rowspan="1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Eastern Kingdoms style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Zone style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Level style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Faction style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Notes Stranglehtorn
Vale 31-45 Contested Badlands 35-45 Contested Swamp
of Sorrows 35-45 Contested Geared
towards Horde The
Hinterlands 40-50 Contested Searing
Gorge 45-50 Contested The
Blasted Lands 45-55 Contested Dark
Portal to Outland Burning
Steppes 50-58 Contested Western
Plaguelands 50-58 Contested Eastern
Plaguelands 53-60 Contested The
Scarlet Enclave 55-58 Contested Death
Knight starting area Blackrock
Mountain 49-60 Contested Deadwind
Pass 55-70 Contested

cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
colspan="4" rowspan="1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Kalimdor style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Zone style="text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Level style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Faction style="background-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"> style="font-weight: bold;">Notes Desolace 30-40 Contested Geared
towards Horde Dustwallow
Marsh 34-45 Contested Feralas 40-50 Contested Tanaris 40-50 Contested Azshara 45-55 Contested Felwood 48-55 Contested Un'goro
Crater 48-55 Contested Winterspring 53-60 Contested Silithus 55-60 Contested