Is there any spec more helpless without dungeon finder than Holy Priest? It's just so slow to level through quests. So your choices are to bubble and hit things with your stick, or to spec as shadow even if that's not what you want to play and it's *still* slow. The dungeon finder allowed holy priests to have a reasonable leveling rate. Very hard to do it without DF.
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Member
Holy Priest Leveling (ugh)
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Banned
http://wotlk.openwow.com/?talent#bxc...cboZMxthbbVbZh
Start with 3/3 Spirit Tap, then move to Holy until Surge of Light, then fill up the remaining points in Discipline. Glyphs: Smite & Inner Fire. Your Smite and Holy Fire hit like a truck, you have mail-like armor with glyph of inner fire and plate-like armor after you get Improved Inner Fire. Reflective Shield adds up even more damage, Power Infusion turns you into a Smite machine gun, and if you ever get into trouble - Desperate Prayer, Blessed Recovery and Martyrdom will take care of everything. Whatever you do, remember the most important thing - stack Spirit like it's the only stat in the game. Usually you'll end up having more spell power than a leveling shadow priest...
You're welcome.
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Member
Pretty much this. I think it's safe to say that Holy is the better leveling spec early on with the correct talents.
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Member
I appreciate this advice, and while it has improved leveling a bit, it doesn't address my complaint that the Holy Priest spec isn't meant for leveling through quests. The loss of the RDF is harder on some specs than others.
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Member
Holy leveling alone is masochism. Good solution might be to organize a group and simply run to dungeons (oldschool style - with meeting stone and stuff). Or grab a dps friend and level in pair - quests go way faster even for them with pocket healer :-).
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Banned
Well, Holy is better than Shadow at least until 40lvl. Holy Fire + Smite spamming is indeed incredibly boring, but it is also far more mana efficient than Shadow's DoTs and limited damage spells before it gets Vampiric Touch and some mana-regenerating talents. Do try the Holy build above and after 5-10 levels if you still feel frustrated by its limited playstyle, go ahead and respec to Shadow.
Edited: April 11, 2016
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Banned
The thing is that shadow heals good enough to solo heal any dungeon until level 80.
So whats the point to go holy?
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Banned
Because it doesn't. You basically have to drink after every pull. And Holy is just more mana-efficient than Shadow for a good part of the whole leveling. Holy Fire + 2-3x Smite kills a mob your level for around half the mana you would need as Shadow - DoTs just suck.
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Member
Priest was rather easy to level with the right tactic. Taralej is right, holy is superior to shadow when questing at the early levels.
Talent build: http://wotlk.openwow.com/talent#bZfxt0bbqbZh
Start with spirit tap in shadow after that take the holy talents.
lvl1-19: SW:pain/smite + wand spam
lvl20-49: Holyfire + smite spam
lvl50: This is when I specced in to shadow. I think If I were to level another priest I would wait until lvl60 for dispersion before going shadow.
Smite glyph is a must have.
Favor spirit gear and spellpower gear over everything else.
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Member
taralej:
So, I think I was around level 20 when I posted this, now level 62 with my Holy Priest. I did exactly as you directed and became much more mana efficient. Yes, smite does hit like a truck. The other day, I bought dual-spec and redid my talents and switched to shadow and I found out that I'm doing less damage and needing to drink every other pull. So I switched back to your build, and I can quest almost indefinitely without drinks. Maybe I'll stay in this build during the whole leveling phase.
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Banned
The question is if its more effective to go holy and kill mobs one by one with holy fire and smite or go shadow and dot multiple mobs with vampiric touch and shadow word pain.
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Member
Just lvl as shadow then go holy priest when you reach 80 but be warned holy priest is one of the most difficult healing specs to play and you will have mana issues.
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Member
Doesn't really solve the issues above considering mana efficiency etc?
Doing holy build myself, lvl 43 atm. Only needing to drink every 8-10 mob.
Pulling multiple mobs is hard though.
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Member
Good to see that there are more holy priests out there I feel awkward when I tell a raid leader I'm holy priest and and get asked why not play disc?
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Member
every time when raid leaders ask go disc on bosses like sindra with over time damage, all i do is facepalm. Hopefully people use some iq and calculate how much shield absorbs and how much renew heals, both global cd. Disc is for lk and bosses which do heavy direct damage as council or morrogrow to prevent people geting oneshots.
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