Welcome to our Priest Leveling Guide for World of Warcraft Forever. This guide will cover everything you need to know to level a Priest in WoW Forever, including an overview of Priest Strengths and Weaknesses, a Leveling Talents Build for Priest, and the best Professions for a Priest.
Guide Contents:
- Strengths & Weaknesses
- Recommended Leveling Talents
- Playstyle and Core Abilities
- Key Spells & Levelling Milestones
- Best / Suggested Professions
- Other Priest Leveling Info
Strengths & Weaknesses of Leveling A Priest in WoW Forever
Strengths
- High sustain and clear speed (with wand)
- Good solo class due to mana efficiency and healing
- Can heal dungeons (even when Shadow spec)
- Power Word: Fortitude, Power Word: Shield and Inner Fire make you extremely tanky for a cloth-wearer
Weaknesses
- Before obtaining wand, high mana dependence and low damage
- Heavily reliant on crafting or buying Lesser Magic Wand/Greater Magic Wand and getting further wand upgrades until reaching Penance and then later Shadowform
- No AoE
Recommended Leveling Talents for Priest
Level 1-29
This is the Talent build I recommend for getting to Level 30.
Theorycrafting: Please note that all suggested builds beyond this point will be subject to updates as things change and more information becomes available.
Level 30-39
Once you hit Level 30, respec and run the following Discipline-focused build up to Level 40.
Level 40
At Level 40 we can now grab Shadowform, so I recommend re-speccing to Shadow with the following build.
Level 41-60
This is my suggested Talent Build for getting from 40-60.
Priest Playstyle and Core Abilities
Level 1-3
Smite until the mob is low or you run out of mana, then melee to finish the mob. Try to move as much as possible during swing timer to maximize efficiency.
Level 4-9
At level 4 you'll unlock Shadow Word: Pain.
Pre cast Smite > Shadow Word: Pain > Smite > melee. Try to preserve mana and maximize your Shadow Word: Pain damage by meleeing. Also worth noting that in WoW: Forever, dots are instant tagging mobs, unlike in previous iterations of classic. If you're competing for tags, start with Shadow Word: Pain to secure the tag instead of Smite.
At level 6 you'll unlock Power Word: Shield and Smite rank 2. Keeping a shield up before combat increases your dps by reducing the casting or wanding pushback you receive from enemies. As mana allows, try to keep a pre-shield up.
Level 10-29
At this point (in a launch scenario) you'd ideally have crafted your Lesser Magic Wand. Outside of launch scenarios, just buy one on the auction house as soon as you can use and afford it.
At level 10 you'll unlock Mind Blast. Mind Blast replaces Smite whenever it is off cooldown.
Pre cast Power Word: Shield > Pre cast Mind Blast > Shadow Word: Pain > wand (Smite or Mind Blast if no wand) > melee (if no wand and out of mana).
Against tankier mobs, refresh Shadow Word: Pain and Power Word: Shield as necessary.
This playstyle lasts basically until you reach level 40 and respec into Shadowform. During this time it is important to be consistently upgrading your wand through crafting, quest rewards or dungeon drops.
Level 30-39
At level 30, if you respec or skipped spirit tap in early levels, you'll unlock Penance from the talent tree. From the Blizzcon playtests, Penance seems to hit very hard and will likely be a good way to solo level until unlocking Shadowform. We'll also unlock it at a previous weak point in priest solo leveling, where wanding falls off but you can't yet go full shadow.
Pre cast power word : shield > Pre cast Holy Fire > Shadow Word: Pain > Penance > Wand.
Level 40-60
At level 40, we can respec and go shadow. This will give us access to Mind Flay and Shadowform. We will also be able to train Shadow Word: Death.
Shadow will be ideal for solo leveling and you'll still be able to heal dungeons without respeccing, albeit with slightly worse mana efficiency than a full healing spec.
Pre cast Power Word: Shield > pre cast Mind Blast > Shadow Word: Pain > Shadow Word: Death on cooldown > Mind Blast on cooldown > Mind Flay to fill. Refresh Power Word: Shield and Shadow Word: Pain as needed against tankier mobs.
Key Spells & Leveling Milestones for Priest
Below, I list out the key Spells and Spell Rank upgrades to look out for while you are leveling.
| Spell | Level | Impact |
| Shadow Word: Pain | 4 | Primary DoT ability |
| Lesser Magic Wand | 5 | Can equip your first wand, very useful |
| Power Word: Shield, Smite (rank 2) | 6 | More damage and survivability |
| Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Pain (rank 2), Resurrection | 10 |
More damage and rez teammates |
| Inner Fire, Power Word: Shield (rank 2), Power Word: Fortitude (rank 2) | 12 |
More survivability |
| Greater Magic Wand can be equipped | 13 |
~50% higher dps wand |
| Psychic Scream, Cure Disease | 14 |
Fear mobs and remove diseases |
| Mind Blast (rank 2) | 16 |
More damage |
| Shadow Word: Pain rank 3, Power Word: Shield rank 3, Dispel Magic | 18 |
More damage, survivability and remove magic debuffs |
| Mind Blast (rank 3) | 22 |
More damage |
| Lesser Mystic Wand can be used, Shadow Word: Pain (rank 4) | 26 |
Wand upgrade if nothing better, more damage on your DoT |
| Mind Blast (rank 4) | 28 |
More damage |
| Penance (after respec), Holy Fire (rank 3), Inner Fire (rank 3), Power Word: Shield (rank 5) | 30 |
Large boost to damage and survivability |
| Shadow Word: Death, respec to Shadowform, Mind Flay (rank 3), Mind Blast (rank 6) | 40 |
Large boost to damage, shadowform gives lower mana cost and physical damage reduction |
| Power Word: Shield rank 7, Shadow Word: Pain (rank 6) | 42 |
More damage and survivability |
| Mind Blast (rank 7) | 46 |
More damage |
| Prayer Of Fortitude, Power Word: Shield (rank 8) | 48 |
More survivability |
| Shadow Word: Pain (rank 7) | 50 |
More damage |
| Mind Blast (rank 8) | 52 |
More damage |
| Mind Blast (rank 9), Shadow Word: Pain (rank 8) | 58 |
More damage |
Best / Suggested Professions for Priest
If your primary goal is to level quickly, crafting professions are not worth the time investment, with one exception. If you are playing at launch and going fast, you might have to craft your own Lesser Magic Wand as there will be none on the auction house for you to buy. Outside of this one scenario, you can maybe level some gathering professions while you level but crafting professions are not worth it.
Profession 1: Enchanting
For leveling we'll be using enchanting to craft wands and disenchant. We only need 10 skill to craft Lesser Magic Wand, which we will get by disenchanting Brown Linen Robe and crafting our Runed Copper Rod.
Profession 2: Tailoring
For leveling we'll only be using tailoring to craft Brown Linen Robe, a green item that we can disenchant for the materials and skill-ups required to craft Lesser Magic Wand.
Secondary Professions
Once you have crafted your wand, you can use your cloth to level first aid while you have downtime. In general, priest values first aid while leveling less than classes that cannot heal themselves so don't worry too much about this.
In a launch scenario where you are not expecting to be able to buy Lesser Magic Wand from the auction house around level 7, you'll want to go tailoring and enchanting in order to self craft one.
Otherwise, gathering professions while leveling can yield some extra silver to help pay for spell ranks and water. Skinning and herbalism are the least intrusive in this category. Crafting professions, other than to make wands, take too much time away from actual leveling and are not worth it for the time invested.
Other Priest Specific Leveling Info
Don't be afraid to heal dungeons as a shadow specced priest, all the way until level 60. Make sure you're stocked on level relevant water before going into dungeons.
We hope our Priest Leveling guide for WoW Forever was useful to help you know where to spend your talent points and how to get the most out of the class whilst leveling.