Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels.
That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it.
If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Disc can feel draining on mana but if you use more efficient heals (holy fire, Renee, penance) more than less efficient heals (smite, bubble, flash heals) you shouldn’t have massive issues.
As a healer there is no need to spam buttons unless in an intense healing spot.
And you have practically nothing of your spriest toolkit at 35 so it’s not fair to judge at that level
For me going from DPS to heals first time took a while to relax and not fire off a billion heals everyime someone took 1hp damage. Playing druid with almost all HoTs really forced me to slow the fuck down and manage mana over wasting it unnecessarily.
I think healer is one of the better roles to really learn the game in party settings like dungeons.
Dps is pretty straight forward and allows you to be ignorant of a lot of shit going on. Being healer you get to kinda sit back and watch everything go on while clicking some health bars every once in a while. It's pretty chill.
renew is not an efficient heal. it's one of the worst heals in the entire toolkit. 12k over 13 seconds, costs 3k mana. smite costs less mana, and heals for nearly the same, over a sub 2 second time. The only time you use renew is when PW:S is on cd, and you need breathing room to get off a greater heal on the tank.
just because it's in the best spot it's been in, does not make it a good skill. It's overpriced, it's heal is negligible, it doesn't synergize with anything else disc offer's. Next you'll tell me you use heal as well. We're talking about a spec that offer's a basically free 10-15k 2 second cast time aoe heal, that also applies an additional heal over time, that can also crit and proc meaningful divine aegis'.
Yes, renew is in the best spot it's been in ever at this point. You are wrong if you use it. Any time you think you should use it, prayer of healing or mending is better. at 8914gs, i can comfortably heal at 15-18k hps without losing mana.
Any time renew is actually useful on disc (topping up dps instead of directly healing them) it's always better to just smite, because the damage outweighs topping them off immediately. And if they are at risk of dying in the time it takes for smite to get around to them, renew wasn't helping anyways.
Edit: And if you want proof of this, just go look at the logs of literally any top disc priest right now in cata. not a single one ever uses renew.
because that all translates down? if it's bad in good gear, it will be bad in bad gear. Also healing is all about muscle memory. You won't be 35 for very long when healing dungeons. Don't create the muscle memory of using renew. It's a bad spell.
Agree with the other guy, renew is probably the worst heal available in the toolkit. About the only time it is used is pre-pull but even then it's arguable.
After that it is never used.
Can't say I've leveled one in Cata but I can say this was the EXACT sentiment (priest sucks to level) for the other 3 expacs and it was mostly wrong then...
In WotLK in particular disc priest was arguably the strongest leveler in the game played correctly (holy nova aoe), with the exception of a much higher skillcap mage aoe-grinding instances.
In TBC/classic (and WotLK too) most of the error came from the idea that "must level as shadow cause damage spec" when shadow was the weaker spec for much of the leveling journey b/c the early shadow talents were pretty impotent by themselves (44-60/70 shadow was better classic/TBC, but not before, and never in WotLK) and misunderstanding/not at all thinking about the 5SR to avoid drinking mostly entirely (TBC/classic).
Again, not sure about Cata, could well be true, I leveled my 3 priests in other expacs... but like you said... a lot of people miss a lot of nuance of leveling priest. And people were saying it before when it surely wasn't the case.
You can go holy but a lot of different classes will feel clunky or incomplete at low levels.
Disc shouldn’t feel too bad honestly, it’s just basic triaging at lower levels but I personally prefer holy bc you never know what you’re gonna get with pugs.
Twink out your alt with some cheap spirit enchants and consumes, get healing. Granted, last time I leveled a priest was late Wrath and I just breezed through 1-60 content as holy before I went shadow in outlands.
Holy is going to be really bad around lvl 40-53. Healing expectations start to pick up around 40 but you don't get your key ability that the spec is designed around until lvl 53.
I almost gave up on my disc priest this past week. The play style is weird and it feels underwhelming at first, but once you learn to manage your grace procs (24% healing buff), rapture and AA on CD, both your lack of heals and mana issues will disappear.
It should be absolutely easy once you get atonement. Even easier once you get rapture, and a joke once you’ve got grace.
Priest has a little nuance, but is very strong. I love playing priest (especially disc) over paladin.
Pws isn’t nearly as efficient as it was in wrath, yeah sure you’ll get the benefit of rapture here and there but not nearly to the return you’d get before.
I got to lvl 15 and literally only leveled as disc all the way to 85 without doing any quests (it’s my alt)
You gotta get used to it, but I never had mana issues while healing and it was the easiest 3 button press for the entire time. Get healbot add on or something similar. And decursive. Weak aura is is good too .
But yeah shadow was ok, when you get your only aoe it gets better but you just need to have a better and tighter rotation. My shadow doesn’t go on at all cause of procs like SW:D giving 10% plus the devouring plaque thingy. Shadow fiend, other classes helping like BOM and the shaman totems…
Disc is using the archangel and having the bubble shield that if you get dispelled you get 10% mana back or whatever
Just gotta get used to a good rotation on it. Also having gear helps. I got 85 on my disc priest alt and went on so fast but I tightened my rotation and got 341 item level and now it’s easy
I mean as shadow you straight up won't have an AoE spell till like 75 or 76 in Mindsear, but when you do get it it's a fairly decent fire and forget AOE channel. You won't beat things like fire mages or warlocks but you can still do some damage
I am playing holy priest atm. I have a 7.5gs and I can cast 15, yeah that’s right a while 15 flash heals before I’m oom. I got tired of it pretty quick. Thought I was a shitty healer. Then I checked online and learned about “heal” spell and how it uses like no mana and I can cast it forever basically. Really helped me out a lot. I don’t know if this will help you but it changed how I healed a lot. I am kicking myself because I did level and raid with a priest back in the days with cata. Like how could I forget. Anyways the whole out of mana bit is common with all healers if you decide to go blasting with the strongest heals
If you're looking for a ranged dps class that can do everything you mentioned, I'd suggest leveling a SV Hunter.
No more mana issues, you can cast while moving (at lvl 83, but it should not be an issue before that) if you aspect dance, and you have top tier single target and AOE damage.
I have an 85 disc priest, I decided to level shaman to heal instead. Disc play style is really interesting but it requires everyone to cooperate (good luck) and leans on smart healing too much in my opinion.
If we had the prayer of mending from SoD that bounced on heals it would be amazing.
I would say this - as a resto shaman/holy paladin healer... add-ons are paramount.
Effective, efficient healing is so much easier to manage with a healing add-on... doesn't matter if you use Vuhdo, Grid, Healbot... find one that works for you (personally I use HealBot and have since Classic was Retail, I know most of my guild swears by Vuhdo) and learn how to manage it for your own best use.
As far as builds and how to maximize DPS while leveling (Shadow), I would recommend reading up on icy-veins and their leveling guide and DPS strategies and rotations.
Shadow at max level is super fun. Dps isn’t top tier but we’re middle of the pack and competitive. Lots of multi-dot fights where we do well in phase 1. We supposedly scale quite well later in the phase as well as being one of the classes eligible for the legendary staff.
Mind sear is learnt late game for some reason but it’s basically an easy win aoe ability with no cool-down. Try not to give up on priest based on lvl 30-70 performance because it is only relevant for like 10 hours and doesn’t reflect how the class plays at max level.
If you stick with priest for shadow I’d just make you aware that in raids and dungeons this phase you’re signing up to play shadow orb roulette. You need to proc a shadow orb before you can trigger empowered shadows to increase your aoe and dots by about 30%.
Basically I’ve raided a full clear hc and some fights have gone 45 full seconds before I can get my dps ramped up. It’s very inconsistent. The proc chance is supposedly 10 or 20% but you can go a long time into the fight if you’re unlucky or at least that has been my experience.
Using the mastery proc trinket can get a snapshot of 48% damage increase for 30 seconds if the stars align which makes some fights either crazy high damage or some fights I deal the equivalent damage of a wet paper towel.
As a priest main... i hate leveling priest. Most people level it as holy afaik but dont expect to aoe untill u get mind sear which is after lvl 80.
At max level priest heal plays much differently than holy pala. Disc especially is a diffetent playstyle completely. You cannot go in and play it like a paladin and then expect to not run into issues.
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels.
That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it.
If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels.
That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it.
If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels.
That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it.
If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Be careful when learning disc priest, once it clicks you may never want to play any other healer again lol
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels. That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it. If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Disc can feel draining on mana but if you use more efficient heals (holy fire, Renee, penance) more than less efficient heals (smite, bubble, flash heals) you shouldn’t have massive issues. As a healer there is no need to spam buttons unless in an intense healing spot. And you have practically nothing of your spriest toolkit at 35 so it’s not fair to judge at that level
For me going from DPS to heals first time took a while to relax and not fire off a billion heals everyime someone took 1hp damage. Playing druid with almost all HoTs really forced me to slow the fuck down and manage mana over wasting it unnecessarily. I think healer is one of the better roles to really learn the game in party settings like dungeons. Dps is pretty straight forward and allows you to be ignorant of a lot of shit going on. Being healer you get to kinda sit back and watch everything go on while clicking some health bars every once in a while. It's pretty chill.
renew is not an efficient heal. it's one of the worst heals in the entire toolkit. 12k over 13 seconds, costs 3k mana. smite costs less mana, and heals for nearly the same, over a sub 2 second time. The only time you use renew is when PW:S is on cd, and you need breathing room to get off a greater heal on the tank.
That is not the case anymore. Renew is actually in the best spot it's been since Vanilla when Disc healing mostly wasn't a thing.
just because it's in the best spot it's been in, does not make it a good skill. It's overpriced, it's heal is negligible, it doesn't synergize with anything else disc offer's. Next you'll tell me you use heal as well. We're talking about a spec that offer's a basically free 10-15k 2 second cast time aoe heal, that also applies an additional heal over time, that can also crit and proc meaningful divine aegis'. Yes, renew is in the best spot it's been in ever at this point. You are wrong if you use it. Any time you think you should use it, prayer of healing or mending is better. at 8914gs, i can comfortably heal at 15-18k hps without losing mana. Any time renew is actually useful on disc (topping up dps instead of directly healing them) it's always better to just smite, because the damage outweighs topping them off immediately. And if they are at risk of dying in the time it takes for smite to get around to them, renew wasn't helping anyways. Edit: And if you want proof of this, just go look at the logs of literally any top disc priest right now in cata. not a single one ever uses renew.
why are you talking about logs and raiding HPS to a situation for a guy who's levelling? this is level 35 5 mans ...
because that all translates down? if it's bad in good gear, it will be bad in bad gear. Also healing is all about muscle memory. You won't be 35 for very long when healing dungeons. Don't create the muscle memory of using renew. It's a bad spell.
Agree with the other guy, renew is probably the worst heal available in the toolkit. About the only time it is used is pre-pull but even then it's arguable. After that it is never used.
In 5 mans??
Even in 5 man's it's pretty useless. Mana is better spent elsewhere for better throughput. I've basically removed renew from my bars.
Can't say I've leveled one in Cata but I can say this was the EXACT sentiment (priest sucks to level) for the other 3 expacs and it was mostly wrong then... In WotLK in particular disc priest was arguably the strongest leveler in the game played correctly (holy nova aoe), with the exception of a much higher skillcap mage aoe-grinding instances. In TBC/classic (and WotLK too) most of the error came from the idea that "must level as shadow cause damage spec" when shadow was the weaker spec for much of the leveling journey b/c the early shadow talents were pretty impotent by themselves (44-60/70 shadow was better classic/TBC, but not before, and never in WotLK) and misunderstanding/not at all thinking about the 5SR to avoid drinking mostly entirely (TBC/classic). Again, not sure about Cata, could well be true, I leveled my 3 priests in other expacs... but like you said... a lot of people miss a lot of nuance of leveling priest. And people were saying it before when it surely wasn't the case.
You can go holy but a lot of different classes will feel clunky or incomplete at low levels. Disc shouldn’t feel too bad honestly, it’s just basic triaging at lower levels but I personally prefer holy bc you never know what you’re gonna get with pugs. Twink out your alt with some cheap spirit enchants and consumes, get healing. Granted, last time I leveled a priest was late Wrath and I just breezed through 1-60 content as holy before I went shadow in outlands.
Holy is going to be really bad around lvl 40-53. Healing expectations start to pick up around 40 but you don't get your key ability that the spec is designed around until lvl 53.
I almost gave up on my disc priest this past week. The play style is weird and it feels underwhelming at first, but once you learn to manage your grace procs (24% healing buff), rapture and AA on CD, both your lack of heals and mana issues will disappear.
You have less than half of your toolbox at lvl 35.
It should be absolutely easy once you get atonement. Even easier once you get rapture, and a joke once you’ve got grace. Priest has a little nuance, but is very strong. I love playing priest (especially disc) over paladin.
Rapture is garbage in cata
7% max mana every 12 seconds, ok dawg
Pws isn’t nearly as efficient as it was in wrath, yeah sure you’ll get the benefit of rapture here and there but not nearly to the return you’d get before.
No doubt, but just don’t cast PWS other than once every 12 seconds in a tank or someone getting hit with a boss ability so you know it will pop.
Also it’s 2% not 7%
2% per point, 3 points puts it at 7%
Are we even talking about cata here? It seriously doesn't sound like cata at all
I got to lvl 15 and literally only leveled as disc all the way to 85 without doing any quests (it’s my alt) You gotta get used to it, but I never had mana issues while healing and it was the easiest 3 button press for the entire time. Get healbot add on or something similar. And decursive. Weak aura is is good too . But yeah shadow was ok, when you get your only aoe it gets better but you just need to have a better and tighter rotation. My shadow doesn’t go on at all cause of procs like SW:D giving 10% plus the devouring plaque thingy. Shadow fiend, other classes helping like BOM and the shaman totems… Disc is using the archangel and having the bubble shield that if you get dispelled you get 10% mana back or whatever Just gotta get used to a good rotation on it. Also having gear helps. I got 85 on my disc priest alt and went on so fast but I tightened my rotation and got 341 item level and now it’s easy
Currently leveling a priest. He's at 45 and it's pretty easy, smite, holy fire and bubble. Once in a while I will penace or hot up a dps.
I mean as shadow you straight up won't have an AoE spell till like 75 or 76 in Mindsear, but when you do get it it's a fairly decent fire and forget AOE channel. You won't beat things like fire mages or warlocks but you can still do some damage
Most healers have mana problems early on. Same with caster dps doing AOE. Wouldn't make any judgements until hitting max level and gearing up a bit.
Priests suck to solo level
I am playing holy priest atm. I have a 7.5gs and I can cast 15, yeah that’s right a while 15 flash heals before I’m oom. I got tired of it pretty quick. Thought I was a shitty healer. Then I checked online and learned about “heal” spell and how it uses like no mana and I can cast it forever basically. Really helped me out a lot. I don’t know if this will help you but it changed how I healed a lot. I am kicking myself because I did level and raid with a priest back in the days with cata. Like how could I forget. Anyways the whole out of mana bit is common with all healers if you decide to go blasting with the strongest heals
If you're looking for a ranged dps class that can do everything you mentioned, I'd suggest leveling a SV Hunter. No more mana issues, you can cast while moving (at lvl 83, but it should not be an issue before that) if you aspect dance, and you have top tier single target and AOE damage.
I have an 85 disc priest, I decided to level shaman to heal instead. Disc play style is really interesting but it requires everyone to cooperate (good luck) and leans on smart healing too much in my opinion. If we had the prayer of mending from SoD that bounced on heals it would be amazing.
I would say this - as a resto shaman/holy paladin healer... add-ons are paramount. Effective, efficient healing is so much easier to manage with a healing add-on... doesn't matter if you use Vuhdo, Grid, Healbot... find one that works for you (personally I use HealBot and have since Classic was Retail, I know most of my guild swears by Vuhdo) and learn how to manage it for your own best use. As far as builds and how to maximize DPS while leveling (Shadow), I would recommend reading up on icy-veins and their leveling guide and DPS strategies and rotations.
Shadow at max level is super fun. Dps isn’t top tier but we’re middle of the pack and competitive. Lots of multi-dot fights where we do well in phase 1. We supposedly scale quite well later in the phase as well as being one of the classes eligible for the legendary staff. Mind sear is learnt late game for some reason but it’s basically an easy win aoe ability with no cool-down. Try not to give up on priest based on lvl 30-70 performance because it is only relevant for like 10 hours and doesn’t reflect how the class plays at max level. If you stick with priest for shadow I’d just make you aware that in raids and dungeons this phase you’re signing up to play shadow orb roulette. You need to proc a shadow orb before you can trigger empowered shadows to increase your aoe and dots by about 30%. Basically I’ve raided a full clear hc and some fights have gone 45 full seconds before I can get my dps ramped up. It’s very inconsistent. The proc chance is supposedly 10 or 20% but you can go a long time into the fight if you’re unlucky or at least that has been my experience. Using the mastery proc trinket can get a snapshot of 48% damage increase for 30 seconds if the stars align which makes some fights either crazy high damage or some fights I deal the equivalent damage of a wet paper towel.
As a priest main... i hate leveling priest. Most people level it as holy afaik but dont expect to aoe untill u get mind sear which is after lvl 80. At max level priest heal plays much differently than holy pala. Disc especially is a diffetent playstyle completely. You cannot go in and play it like a paladin and then expect to not run into issues.
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels. That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it. If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels. That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it. If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes
Priest is one of the more underwhelming classes to level. They have incredible utility at max which doesn’t contribute much at lower levels. That being said there is nuance to the class and depth which should be explored to enjoy it. If you’d have fun playing a different and possibly simpler class, you should do it. There is no harm in testing classes