Another Dwarf Priest

In the works

2010-11-10T13:50:00.002-05:00

The guide hasnt gone anywhere! Its still being whipped into shape. Updating the talents and their explainations is taking longer than expected with alot of stuff only now starting to shake out a few weeks after 4.0.1 and Cataclysm is only a few weeks away!

So stay tuned or send me an email to get involved!

Priest PvP Tips vs. Other Classes

2010-11-01T11:19:00.007-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

STILL UPDATING

Lots of hotfixes and talent changes+glyphs to account for

When facing off against other classes in PvP, it is important to understand how they can shut you down. Here are some tips for fighting against different classes as a priest.

These aren’t step-by-step strategies, just general tips and advice focused on a 1v1 setting. These tips may wildly fluctuate based on balancing issues but the general information about how to deal with the particular class should not vary too widely even with balancing changes.

Warriors

General Strategy:

Keep Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire, Prayer of Mending, and Renew up at all times. Time your Psychic Screams for when the warrior’s anti-fear abilities are on cooldown. Draw out spell interruption from casting Mind Control or faking a heal in order to be able to get a real heal off on yourself. Limit the amount of time you spent stunned.

What to Watch for:

Charge

15 second cooldown

Stuns you for 1.5 second, gives the warrior rage.

Can only be used out of combat.

Pummel

10 second cooldown

5 yard range

Will interrupt spell casting, and prevent spells from that school for being cast for 4 seconds.

Intercept

20-30 second cooldown
8-25 yard range
Warrior charges at you, stuns you for 3 seconds.

Intimidating Shout
2 min cooldown
8 yard range
Fears enemies for 8 seconds.

Execute
5 yard range
Does hefty damage to enemies under 20% health.

Berserker Rage
30 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Warrior becomes immune to fear effects.

Death Wish
3 min cooldown
Lasts 30 seconds
Warrior becomes immune to fear effects.
Requires Arms talents.

Mortal Strike
5-6 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
5 yard range
Debuff that decreases healing done on you by 50%.
Requires Arms talents.

Tips:

Warriors need rage to do damage and special moves. They do not get rage their attacks are being absorbed by your Power Word: Shield.
The damage prevented by Power Word: Shield is not lessened if you are under the effects of Mortal Strike. With Mortal Strike upon you, Power Word: Shield is effectively your most mana-efficient single-target “heal.”
Use an instant cast offensive spell, like Shadow Word: Pain, to quickly put (and keep) warriors in combat to avoid being Charged (as Charge is a decent rage bump for them).
If a warrior gets a Charge off on you, you can try to Psychic Scream right away. With some luck, you could catch him/her in Battle Stance (and with Death Wish on cooldown).
Try to save Psychic Scream for when the warrior has all anti-fear abilities on cooldown (Death Wish, etc.).
Control is key. Draw out a Pummel when you want it by faking a large heal or casting Mind Control first. If the warrior doesn’t interrupt Mind Control, use it to get some distance or cause mass confusion.
Healing against a warrior can be a challenge. Keep Renew and Prayer of Mending up on you at all times for heals, and keep Power Word: Shield and Inner Fire up to prevent damage.
Don’t spend a lot of effort running away from a warrior. Distance on a warrior only allows him/her to use Intercept for a free stun. If you see a warrior running the opposite direction, run the same way. S/he is likely just trying to get distance on you to Intercept.
Trinket out of Intercept.
If you have a Battlemaster’s trinket, use the health gain from it to stay out of Execute range (stay over 20% health).
Stoneform (if you are a dwarf) after a warrior gets a large crit on you to avoid taking heavy damage from bleeds (if the warrior has the Deep Wounds talent; many do).

Rogues

General Strategy:

Keep Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire, Prayer of Mending, and Renew up at all times. Draw out spell interruption from casting Mind Control or faking a heal in order to be able to get a real heal off on yourself. Adapt to the type of poison being used on you.

What to watch for:

• Kidney Shot

20 second cooldown

Lasts 2-6 seconds

5 yard range

Stuns the target.

• Cheap Shot

Lasts 4 seconds

5 yard range
Stuns target. Must be used from stealth.

• Blind
3 min cooldown
10 yard range
Lasts 10 seconds
Disorients the target. Broken with damage.

• Gouge
10 second cooldown
Lasts 4-5.5 seconds
Stuns target. Broken with damage.

• Sap
Lasts 10 seconds
5 yard range
Incapacitates the target. Must be used from stealth. Broken with damage.

• Kick
10 second cooldown
5 yard range
Interrupts spell casting and prevent any spells fromt hat school from being cast for 5 seconds (can also silence all magic for 2 seconds, with Combat talents).

• Sprint
3 min cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Increases movement speed by 70% (at max rank).

• Cloak of Shadows
1.5 min cooldown
Lasts 5 seconds
Removes harmful magic effects and makes 90% resistant to spells.

• Deadly Throw
Lasts 6 seconds
30 yard range
Reduces movement speed by 50%.

• Wound Poison
Can reduce the healing done to you by 10%-50%.

• Mind-Numbing Poison
Can increase casting times by 60%.

• Crippling Poison
Chance to reduce your movement speed by 70%.

• Vanish
3 min cooldown
Lets the rogue stealth mid-combat.

• Dirty Deeds
Rogue causes up to 20% more damage against enemies under 35% health.
Requires Subtlety talents.

Tips:

• Mind Vision a rogue if you know s/he is about to stealth as you will then be able to see him/her. Most rogues will not notice. The ones who do notice may waste Vanish on it.
• If you are looking for a stealthed rogue, use Holy Nova.
• If you are near a rogue that has activated spirit, Psychic Scream if you can to get some distance.
• Don’t use Psychic Scream with the rogue has Cloak of Shadows up.
• Cloak of Shadows will not reduce the damage done by your Shadowfiend.
• Keep your back away from the rogue if they’re carrying daggers,
• If you want to get a heal off, draw out a Kick by faking a large heal or casting Mind Control first. If the rogue doesn’t interrupt Mind Control, use it to get distance on the rogue so that you can heal.
• Try to adapt to the poisons being used on you. If you have Crippling Poison on you, focus more on DPS or healing than running around (and rely on Psychic Scream or Mind Control to get some distance). If you have Mind-Numbing Poison on you then be mobile and focus on instant cast heals and DPS. If you have Wound Poison on you, play defensively, keeping Power Word: Shield up.
• Keep Inner Fire and Power Word: Shield up for damage reduction.
• It can get real tough to get long casts off against rogues; be sure to keep Renew and Prayer of Mending up at all times.
• Don’t just trinket out of any stun and don’t waste it on an opener (Cheap Shot) when you are prebuffed with protective goodness. It is best to save your trinket for Kidney Shot when the rogue has 4-5 combo points on you.
• Use Psychic Scream immediately after using your trinket. Make a macro if you must:

/use 13
/cast Psychic Scream

This will let you get some distance (and/or line of sight) on the rogue and be able to get some healing.
• In terms of stacking debuffs/DoTs on the rogue, try to save long cooldown spells like Devouring Plague for after s/he uses Cloak of Shadows.
• If you are a dwarf, save Stoneform for remove crippling effects (such as Wound Poison) after using your trinket in order to get some distance on the rogue to heal, etc.
• If you have a Battlemaster’s trinket, use the health gain from it to stay out of the Dirty Deeds range (stay over 35% health).

Hunters

General Strategy:

Positioning is everything. Use Psychic Scream whenever you have the opportunity. Be offensive. Watch for traps. You’ll generally want to ignore the pet and just go straight for the hunter. Self dispel.

What to watch for:

• Freezing Trap

30 second cooldown

Lasts 10 seconds

Freezes you in place, disallowing any action (will break on damage).

• Frost Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Will slow hostile players in a 10 yard radius by 60%.

• Snake Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
6-8 snakes will attack nearby players, sometimes poisoning them.

• Viper Sting
15 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Affects you with a poison that drains 4% mana from you (at max rank, more with the Improved Stings talent).

• Concussive Shot
12 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Dazes you, reducing movement speed by 50%.

• Scatter Shot
30 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Disorients you (unable to cast or take action).
Requires Marksmanship talents.

• Silencing Shot
20 second cooldown
Lasts 3 seconds
Silences you (unable to cast any spell).
Requires Marksmanship talents.

• Bestial Wrath / Beast Within
2 minute cooldown
Lasts 18 seconds
Pet / player immune to fear and deals extra damage.
Requires Beast Mastery talents.

Tips:
• A hunter without mana can’t trap or do hefty damage. Mana Burn is very effective against them.
• Try to keep yourself positioned in a place where the hunter will have to stay in the open, within line of sight of you at all times. Do not let yourself get kited (if you can) and do not let the hunter pull a shoot-and-hide routine. This kind of duck-and-cover just lets Viper Sting tick down your health and mana while you cannot damage the hunter. Or, alternately, make a hunter chase you into an enclosed space making it easy to keep him/her in melee range.
• Holy Nova is perfect to kill snakes from a Snake Trap.
• Fade, being the buggy thing that it is, will sometimes cause a pet to stop attacking you.
• Tough to pull off, but if you can, use your Psychic Scream for when a hunter is casting Aimed Shot.
• Use whatever means you have to cure to the poison from Viper Sting (Stoneform, etc.).
• Stay on a hunter (melee range) to reduce damage done to you, but be careful of traps.
• Be watchful for traps. Look for the animation of a hunter placing the trap, and avoid that area. If a hunter seems tied to a spot and willing to let you just run up to him/her, then there is likely a trap nearby.
• Dispel Hunter’s Mark and Concussive Shot off of you.
• Some hunters, when at less than 75% health, will Feign Death to try to trick you into thinking that they are dead. Don’t be fooled.
• If a pet / player have turned bright red, it means that they are under the effects of Bestial Wrath / Beast Within. They cannot be feared, and deal extra damage. This can be used to break fear effects.

Mages

General Strategy:

• Frost Mages: Be offensive and force the mage to use cooldowns. Use burst damage to keep the pressure on. Dispel Frost Nova right away. Heal early. Be mindful of their Counterspell cooldown.
• Fire/Arcane Mages: If you can survive their burst, you have a good shot against them. Heal early and often. Be mindful of their Counterspell cooldown.

What to watch for:

• Counterspell

24 second cooldown

Lasts 8 seconds

Interruptsspell casting, and stops you from casting spells from the interrupted school.

• Polymorph

Lasts 10 seconds

The mage changes you into a harmless critter, preventing you from taking any action. Heals any damage previously done to you. Breaks on damage.

• Evocation

4 minute cooldown

Lasts 8 seconds
Mage gains mana back (60% if channeled the full duration). Breaks on damage.

• Spellsteal
Lasts up to 2 minutes
Steals a random buff from a target player.

• Presence of Mind
2 minute cooldown
Next spell cast with casting time less than 10 seconds will be instant cast.
Requires Arcane talents.

• Shatter
Increases spell damage done to targets frozen (by Frost Nova, Freezing Trap, etc.) by 10-50% (depends on talents).
Requires Frost talents.

• Summon Water Elemental
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
A Water Elemental combat pet is summoned to the aide of the mage.
Requires Frost talents.

• Ice Block
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Protects the mage from all damage for 10 seconds, but the mage cannot take any action. This will also clear many debuffs and damage over time spells that were on the mage.
Requires Frost talents.

• Cold Snap
8 minute cooldown
Ends the remaining cooldowns on all the mage’s recently cast spells.\
Requires Frost talents.

Tips:

• Against arcane/fire mages, spam Dispel Magic if you think they are about to try to burst you down. If you can manage to remove Presence of Mind, then you saved yourself from eating an instant-cast Pyroblast.
• Arcane/fire mages have nasty “burst” damage when popping all their cooldowns. Some will Polymorph you first to set up their burst. Trinket out of the Polymorph if you expect this is the case.
• When fighting frost mages, be sure to keep the debuffs dispelled off of you. Frost mages do a small amount of burst damage if you are snared with Frost Nova (this is called a “Shatter Combo”). If you keep everything dispelled off of you, you should have no trouble dispelling Frost Nova fast to avoid that burst.
• A frost mage will likely Iceblock if his/her health gets too low. Be ready will a Mass Dispel to strip the mage of it. Be aware that most frost mages will be able to Iceblock again 30 seconds later (due to Cold Snap).
• A Water Elemental can be annoying, and frost mages can use it to get you frozen for a Shatter combo. It is a caster pet, so it should be pretty easy to get out of its line of sight. It will follow you, but the AI on it makes it think before chasing you. It should be easy to get some distance on it. Alternately, if line of sight is not available to you, then if you can burn it down fast, go for it.
• Keep a mage clear of buffs.
• Watch the Counterspell cooldown, and when the mage can cast it rely on instant cast spells. You can bait its use with fake-casting to force the mage to waste it.
• If you see a Polymorph incoming, cast Shadow Word: Death a fraction of a second before the Polymorph lands. The backlash damage from Shadow Word: Death will knock you out of the Polymorph.
• Be wary of using certain self-buffs that a mage can Spellsteal (such as Shadow Protection, if you are a shadow priest).

Warlocks

General Strategy:

Ignore the pet (unless it can be taken out with a DoT or two). Stay mobile. Save your interrupts for fear effects and Unstable Affliction. Offensively and defensively dispel.

What to watch for:

• Shadow Ward

30 second cooldown

Lasts 30 seconds

Prevents 900+ shadow damage (at max rank).

• Curse of Tongues

Lasts 30 seconds

Increases your casting times by 30%.

• Fear

Lasts 10 seconds

Casues you to flee in fear, unable to take any other action.

• Deathcoil

Lasts 3 seconds

Causes you to flee in horror, unable to take other action. Deals damage to you, and heals the warlock for that damage.

• Howl of Terror

Lasts 8 seconds

Causes up to 5 enemies to flee in fear, unable to take other action.

• Spell Lock

24 second cooldown

Silences you for 3 seconds (prevents all spell casting) and interrupts you, preventing any spell from being cast from that school for 6 seconds.

Felhunter ability.

• Devour Magic

8 second cooldown

Removes a harmful debuff from a friend, or a helpful buff from an enemy. Heals the Felhunter.

Felhunter ability.

• Seduction

Lasts 10 seconds

Prevents you from taking any action. Breaks on damage.

Succubus ability.

• Unstable Affliction

Lasts 18 seconds

Deals damage over time. If dispelled, it will do 2k+ shadow damage to you and will silence you for 5 seconds.

Requires Affliction talents.

• Soul Link

Warlock shares damage taken with its pet (up to 20%).

Requires Demonology talents.

Tips:

• When you see the Warlock casting Fear at you, buff yourself with Fear Ward right before their spell ends. (You don’t want to leave Fear Ward up on yourself as they warlock will likely have their Felhunter devour it before it can be used; only cast Fear Ward right before it is needed).

• Many affliction warlocks will open with casting Unstable Affliction against you. Interrupt Unstable Affliction every chance you get, and keep the warlock moving (and casting instant cast spells). A warlock’s DoTs are easily dispelled by you (without Unstable Affliction on you).

• If you see a warlock casting Shadow Ward, dispel it right away (if you rely on doing shadow damage).

• Fade will sometimes cause a pet to stop attacking you. It is also useful as dispel-fodder for a felhunter that may be munching on you (you can use rank 1).

• Psychic Scream, if it lasts the full time, can yield the opportunity to get a Mana Burn off. If you can wear a warlock’s mana down, s/he will likely have to Lifetap to get some back.

• Don’t use your trinket on Deathcoil. Save it for longer-lasting fears (Fear, Howl of Terror).

• Be very careful with dispels if you are up against an Affliction lock. If you cast Mass Dispel and it removes multiple instances of Unstable Affliction, you could easily blow yourself up. Even the silence effect from an accidental dispel of Unstable Affliction can mean your demise.

Druids

General Strategy:

• Balance: (mostly Moonkin form) Mana Burn. Dispel offensively. Be ready to interrupt a large heal if the druid changes form. Be quick to dispel Innervate. Heal early.

• Feral: (mostly Cat or Bear form) Save your interrupts and burst for when druid changes form to heal. Keep Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire, Renew, and Prayer of Mending up at all times.

• Resto: (mostly Tree and humanoid form) Be very careful with your mana use. Dispel Innervate right away. Interrupt large heals.

What to watch for:

• Travel Form

Druid changes form; movement speed is increased by 40%. Only usable outdoors.

• Cyclone

Lasts 6 seconds

Banishes you. You take no damage, but can take no action. Has diminishing returns.

Requires humanoid or Moonkin form.

• Entangling Roots

Lasts 10 seconds

Deals damage and holds you in place. Breaks on damage. Also has diminishing returns.

Requires humanoid or Moonkin form.

• Innervate

6 minute cooldown

Lasts 20 seconds

Regenerates mana equal to 450% of the Druid’s base mana pool.

Requires humanoid, Moonkin, or Tree form.

• Pounce

Lasts 3-4 seconds.

Stuns you and deals damage over time.

Requires Cat form.

• Rip

Lasts 12 seconds
Finishing move that causes bleed damage over time.

Requires Cat form.

• Maim

Lasts 2-6 seconds.

Finishing move that does damage and stuns you. Breaks on damage.

Requires Cat form.

• Mangle

Lasts 12 seconds

Damages you and gives you a debuff that makes you take extra damage from bleeds.

Requires Cat or Bear form.

Requires Feral talents.

• Bash

1 minute cooldown

Lasts 4 seconds

Stuns you, preventing you from taking any action. Also used as an interrupt for spell casting.

Requires Bear form.

• Feral Charge

15 second cooldown

Lasts 4 seconds

Requires 8-15 yard range

Interrupts your spell casting for the duration.

Requires Bear form.

Requires Feral talents.

• Force of Nature

3 minute cooldown

Lasts 30 seconds

Summons 3 treants to attack the druid’s enemies.

Requires humanoid or Moonkin form.

Requires Balance talents.

• Nature’s Swiftness

3 minute cooldown

Druid’s next nature spell cast is instant cast.

Requires humanoid or Tree form.

Requires Restoration talents.

Tips:

• Mind Vision druids if you know they are about to stealth as you will then be able to still see them when they do.

• If a druid drops to humanoid form (from cat / bear / moonkin), it is likely to heal. Keep Psychic Scream or, better yet, Silence, for this. The druid will likely try to Cyclone you first.

• You can Psychic Scream or Silence a druid if s/he is about to Cyclone. Cyclone is used to get distance and/or time for the druid to drink or heal (or escape altogether). Cyclone has diminishing returns (first time cast on you it lasts 6 seconds, the second time is 3 seconds, the third is 1.5 seconds, the fourth and subsequent times you are immune) which gets reset after 15 seconds.

• Proactively dispel heals and buffs the druid has on him/her. Quickly dispel Innervate and HoTs when cast. It is generally considered better to dispel Lifebloom than to leave it up, unless you are in a battle against a Resto druid.

• A mana burned druid cannot shapeshift, but the only times a druid isn’t immune to Mana Burn is in humanoid, Moonkin, and Tree forms.

• Mind Control will only work against a druid in humanoid form and Moonkin form. You can fake casting it against druids in one of these two forms to force them to shapechange (to avoid the effect). All that shapechanging kills their mana pool.

• When you are up against only a Feral druid, trinket out of the opening stun from Pounce.

• You can trinket out of Cyclone as well.

• If you see a druid in bear form running the opposite direction, run the same way. S/he is likely trying to get distance on you to Feral Charge.

• If you are a dwarf up against a feral druid, save Stoneform for the bleed damage from Rip (finishing move), not Pounce (opener). Rip does almost twice the bleed damage that Pounce does.

• Balance druids will usually save their summoned treants (from their Force of Nature spell) for when they are trying to burst you down. Save Psychic Scream for them.

• Be very stingy with your mana use against a Resto druid. Most can heal a lot longer than you can DPS.

Shaman

General Strategy:

• Elemental: Be sure to keep Silence or an interrupt handy for heals. Knock out Tremor Totem before you fear and Grounding Totem before going on offense. Mana Burn is a good way to shut them down, though be very careful with Earth Shock’s interrupt. Offensively dispel.

• Enhancement: Kite away from totems. Stay out of melee range as much as possible. Dispel Frost Shock’s snare right away. Have an interrupt handy for when the shaman tries to heal.

• Resto: Give yourself a buffer for dispels (with Fade, etc.). Knock out mana gain totems right away. Keep shutting down healing spells with interrupts. Mana Burn is a good offensive spell against them, but be careful of Earth Shock’s interrupt.

What to watch for:

• Ghost Wolf

Shaman changes form; increases movement speed by 40%. Only usable outdoors.

• Earth Shock
5-6 second cooldown
Lasts 2 seconds
Interrupts your spell casting and prevents any spell from that interrupted school from being cast for the duration.

• Frost Shock
5-6 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Deals damage and reduces your movement speed by 50% for the duration.

• Purge
Removes 1-2 buffs from the shaman’s target enemy.

• Bloodlust / Heroism
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 40 seconds
Increases melee, ranged, and casting speed by 30% for all the shaman’s party members.

• Grounding Totem
15 second cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
Will absorb one harmful damage spell directed at the shaman, destroying the totem.

• Mana Tide Totem
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 12 seconds
Restores 6% of total mana every 3 seconds for every in shaman’s party.
Requires Restoration talents.

• Mana Spring Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
Restores 41 mp5 to the shaman’s party members.

• Tremor Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
Removes fear, charm, and sleep effects from the shaman’s party members.

• Earthbind Totem
15 second cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
Slows the movement speed of enemies by 50%.

• Windfury Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
The totem provides 16% melee haste to all party and raid members within 30 yards.

• Healing Stream Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
Heals the shaman’s group member for a very small amount every 2 seconds.

• Searing Totem
Lasts 1 minute
Deals ranged fire damage to the shaman’s enemies.

• Fire Elemental Totem
20 minute cooldown
Lasts 2 minutes
A Fire Elemental is called to aide the shaman, and will shoot fire at enemies. It can be destroyed by killing the totem; the totem has well over 1k health.

• Earth Elemental Totem
20 minute cooldown
Lasts 2 minutes
A Earth Elemental is called to the aide of the shaman, and will melee enemies that come near it. It can be destroyed by killing the totem; the totem has well over 1k health.

Tips:

• Ghost Wolf form can be dispelled.
• Heroism/Bloodlust can also be dispelled.
• If a shaman is spamming Purge at you, you can use silly things like Fade to give yourself some Purge protection.
• A fast wand it great for taking out totems.
• Quickly take out Tremor Totem and follow with Psychic Scream before the shaman has a chance to recast it.
• Kill the Grounding Totem before offensively casting.
• You can get a Mana Burn off if Psychic Scream lasts the full 8 seconds.
• If you are up against an Enhancement shaman, take out the Earthbind totems right away. If there are other enemy melee classes nearby, be sure to take out the shaman’s Windfury totem, too.
• A shaman’s healing spells all have cast times. Interrupt what you can (with Silence, Psychic Scream, Chastise, etc.).
• If a shaman is quick to recast totems, start kiting the shaman instead of trying to take the totems out. Most totems have a 20-30 yard range.
• Be careful with your use of spells with cast times. A shaman can keep shutting them down with rank 1 Earth Shock every few seconds. Be mindful of its cooldown. Also, you can bait Earth Shock by feign-casting healing spells or with Mind Control.
• A Searing Totem has a ranged fire attack (20 yards), and can cause a lot of annoying spell pushback for you unless you take it out.
• You can use Fade, etc. to see if the shaman will waste mana purging it from you. If the shaman uses Purge on it, then you can keep using spells to force the shaman to waste mana purging.

Paladins

General Strategy:

Keep the pressure on to force the paladin to cast Divine Shield, and be ready to Mass Dispel it right away. Save interrupts for Holy Light. Offensively and defensively dispel. Be careful with your mana use.

What to watch for:

• Hand of Freedom

25 second cooldown

Lasts 10 seconds

Grants immunity to movement impairing effects.

• Hand of Protection
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Protects the paladin from physical attacks. Paladin cannot make any attacks during that time (but can heal, etc.).

• Divine Shield
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 12 seconds
Protects the paladin from all attacks. Increases time between the paladin’s attacks by 100%.

• Divine Protection
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Protects the paladin from all attacks. Paladin cannot make any attacks during that time (but can heal, etc.).

• Avenging Wrath
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 20 seconds
Increases damage done by 20%.

• Lay on Hands
20 min cooldown
Paladin heals a friendly target to an amount equal to the paladin’s maximum health. Changes how much mana the paladin has (typically depletes all but a little bit).

• Hammer of Justice
45 second – 1 minute cooldown
Lasts 6 seconds
Stuns you.

• Hammer of Wrath
6 second cooldown
Ranged attack that deals a moderate amount of damage. Only usable on enemies under 20% health.

• Cleanse
Removes 1 poison, 1 disease, and 1 magic effect from a friendly target.

Tips:

• When paladins get down to about 1/3 health, most will use Divine Shield followed by Holy Light (a large heal). Be ready with a Mass Dispel followed by a Silence (or Psychic Scream).
• Divine Shield cannot be dispelled with regular old Dispel Magic. Mass Dispel will let you remove immunities (like Divine Shield), so you have to use that instead.
• Psychic Scream, if it lasts the full time, can yield the opportunity to get a Mana Burn off.
• Save Silence (and Psychic Scream) to be your interrupts of healing spells.
• The lack of ranged spells on a paladin means that you are at the advantage if you are at a distance from him/her.
• Dispel Blessings from the paladin.
• Dispel Judgement of Seals from you.
• When used, Hand of Protection, Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Avenging Wrath all cause the “Forbearance” effect, preventing the paladin from using any of those abilities for a minute. It is useful to track the cooldown on Forbearance. All those effects can be dispelled.

Priests

General Strategy:

The first priest who runs out of mana loses; use Mana Burn liberally. Be quick with offensive dispelling.

What to watch for:

• Mass Dispel

High mana cost spell that removes 1 magic debuff from up to 10 friendly targets and 1 magic buff from up to 10 enemies in a 15 yard radius. It select a random thing to dispel in each case, with the exception of targeting immunities (Blessing of Protection, Ice Block, etc.) first.

• Dispel Magic

Removes up to 2 debuffs from a friendly target or up to 2 buffs from an enemy target.

• Mana Burn

Drains a good chunk of mana from the target. Deals 0.5 points of shadow damage for each point of mana drained. Does not scale with gear, etc.

• Psychic Scream
30 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Causes up to 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee in fear for the duration.

• Power Word: Shield
4 second cooldown
Lasts 30 seconds
Absorbs a moderate amount of damage. Prevents spell pushback until the damage absorption run out or the buff ends. Targets buffed with Power Word: Shield cannot be buffed by it again for 15 seconds.

• Shadowfiend
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Summons a shadow pet that will aide the priest. The priest gains mana equal to amount of melee swings the pet lands.

• Silence
45 second cooldown
Lasts 5 seconds
Silences the target, preventing all spell casting from him / her.
Requires Shadow talents.

• Power Infusion
2 minute cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Increases spell casting speed by 20%.
Requires Discipline talents.

• Pain Suppression
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Reduces all damage taken by target by 40%. Increases target’s resistance to being dispelled by 65%.
Requires Discipline talents.

• Devouring Plague
24 second cooldown
Lasts 24 seconds
Disease effect that deals a moderate amount of shadow damage and heals the caster for the same amount.

Tips:

• Much of a priest’s defenses are magically-based buffs (Power Word: Shield, Shadow Protection, Renew, Prayer of Mending, Blessed Resilience, etc.). Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel are key to shutting down their defenses.
• Fade will sometimes cause an opposing player’s shadowfiend to stop attacking you. It is also useful as dispel-fodder for when you are being spam-dispelled.
• Use line of sight whenever you can to block Mana Burn.
• If a priest runs in close to you, it is likely to cast Psychic Scream. Try to beat him/her to the punch by spamming your hotkey for it when the other priest moves in towards you.
• Psychic Scream, if it lasts the full time, can yield the opportunity to get a Mana Burn off or to get some much needed healing.
• The best time to use your shadowfiend is in a Mana Burn race. The spell pushback that it causes can tip the scales in your favor.
• If another priest puts their shadowfiend on you, then shield yourself. It will prevent them from getting mana back and will help your avoid spell pushback.
• Don’t bother wasting the mana on Mass Dispel if the enemy has Pain Suppression up, as Pain Suppression will give your opponent an extra 65% chance to resist dispels. Use regular Dispel Magic instead (if you must); it’s cheaper.
• Remember that priests of other races will have have race-specific spells different than your own and you may need to be prepared for their use.

Feel free to email me with updates and strategies/links. I don't PvP as much as I used to and this information would do well to be updated with more direct experience, especially if you play a Priest in the Arena ladders!

Back to Priest Guide menu==>

Priest DPS

2010-10-27T17:02:00.005-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

This focus of this page is predominantly on what spells to cast and in which order (when in instances/raids).

• Information on talent builds can be found here.

• Information on gear can be found here and here.

For information on DPSing while soloing or leveling, check out the leveling guide instead.

What is “DPS?” What is “Utility?”

The prominent priest DPS talent builds are shadow-tree focused (31+ talent points); this is for good reason. Shadow talent builds provide solid DPS with fantastic utility.

DPS, or “damage per second,” describes the units in which we measure the damage we dish out to mobs over time. The term “DPS” is also used to describe the act of actively dealing damage.

Utility refers to additional benefits above and beyond the DPS you are providing. A shadowpriest’s major utility strengths are being able to provide strong health regeneration and/or mana regeneration for themselves and their party members as well as some spell haste.

Mastery

Patch 4.0.1 that brought us the talent revamping also brought us Shadow Power for setting the Shadow tree as our primary specialization, which used to be rolled into the old Shadowform talent and was not available until level 40. Now Shadow priests can enjoy the increased spell damage across all their school as well as double damage from Shadow spell criticals. One of the largest introductions of the 4.0.1 was the Mastery system which provided an exclusive ability based on the selected tree. Shadow priests have access to Mastery: Shadow Orbs . Shadow orbs is a stacking buff that increases the damage of your next Mind Blast or Mind Spike by 34% per a stack up to a maximum of 3 stacks. Shadow Orbs have a 10% chance to generate from damage ticks of SW:Pain and Mind Flay, which when generated will orbit around your avatar as well as appear in your buff monitor with the current number of stacks. By finding gear with the Mastery stat on it you can increase the damage modifier by 4.3% per a point of Mastery. Currently it is not known exactly how and when the Mastery point effects are included in the damage increase calculation(or if the Mastery damage modifer if any good currently) so may priests are waiting on seeking out this stat until more information is known about it.

Vampiric Embrace

Since this was changed to being a constant self-buff like Inner Fire a while ago, you’ll want to make sure to have Vampiric Embrace (VE) up whenever you have access to it. It will be a nice help to your healers and also give you a steady source of self healing taking a bit of the pressure away from the healers.

Spell Casting

Welcome to Spell Juggling 101…

Playing as a shadow priest in a raid or group environment largely depends on keeping your damage over time (DoT) spells up on mobs while minding the cooldowns of some of your direct damage spells. This is called spell juggling.

Your DoT spells are Vampiric Touch (VT) , Devouring Plague (DP) and Shadow Word: Pain (SW:P) .

• VT lasts 15 seconds
• SW:P lasts 15 seconds (Longer with endgame tier gear)
• Devouring Plague lasts 24 second.

Your direct damage spells are Shadow Word: Death (SW:D) , Mind Blast (MB) , and Mind Flay (MF) . Mind Spike will be added with the release of Cataclysm.

• SW:D has a 10 second cooldown but can be instantly reset when glyphed. The glyphed version trigger does have an internal cooldown of 6 seconds
• Mind Blast has a 6.5-8 second cooldown (depending on talents)
• Mind Flay has no cooldown (but is a 3 second channeled spell)

Given the varied lengths of our spells’ cooldowns and up times, shadow priests do not have a “cast sequence” like some of the other DPS casters. What we have is more of a “casting priority,” meaning that when multiple spells are available to us, certain things are more beneficial to cast first.

Generally speaking, our casting priority up to the 4.0.1 changes(the eggheads are still working on the theorycrafting) looks something like this:

VT > SW:Pain > DP > MB or SW:D > MF

Or, in a little more detail:

Starting DPS

To start off, you would likely want to open with:

VT > DP > SW:P > SW:D > MB > MF

Then start juggling as above. You may want to give your tank 1-3 seconds to establish aggro lead depending on their spec and playstyle to avoid peeling off any mobs.

SW:Death vs. Mind Blast

SW:D, since it causes backlash damage to you equal to the damage you deal, has its own caveats. You never want to use it when you are in danger of taking enough damage from other sources to kill yourself after it bumps down your health, or when the backlash damage itself can kill you (unless, of course, you are trying to avoid taking durability loss from an incoming wipe).

Shadow Word: Death is higher DPM (damage per mana) than Mind Blast, meaning it gives gives you a little more bang for your buck. Also, having Mind Blast after SW:D will help heal the backlash damage up quickly. This is why SW:D is prioritized before Mind Blast. If mana and health return are not an issue, Mind Blast does deal more damage than SW:Death and should be given higher priority.

Additionally, as you are causing damage to yourself with Shadow Word: Death, be careful of threat if you have Vampiric Embrace up. A heal over time (HoT) or small heal from another healer is enough to cover the damage, but most healers will quickly become annoyed with having to heal you every 12-15 seconds.

Welcome to the Price is Right of DoT Casting…

It is very important to understand how your damage over time spells work.

Every three seconds after the spell is cast, it will deal an amount of periodic damage until it expires. That means that right as the spell is expiring, it will be dealing its last tick of damage.

If you refresh your DoTs too early, you will be cutting off that last tick of damage.

If you do it only a fraction of a second too soon, then that is practically 6 full seconds without that DoT having dealt damage. It is better to wait for the spell to have ended before reapplying.

Try to reapply it as close as possible to the end of the expired DoT as you can.

You want to get as close as you can without it going over! (Yes, like the Price is Right…) This is better for both your mana and your DPS.

If you have to reapply a DoT before it is over, try to do so right after it has ticked for damage (3 second mark, 6 second mark, etc.). Use a DoT timer add-on (like Quartz) to know how long your DoT has been up.

Shadowy Apparition DPS Boost

Patch 4.0.1 added the new Shadowy Apparition http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=78204 talent to the Shadow tree that adds a 12% chance on each SW:Pain tick to summon a walking speed homing bomb shadow clone at your current location that will zero in on the mob that triggered it. The damage your Shadowy Apparition deals does scale with your spellpower and they can critical for 50% extra damage. While this may not seem like much the benefit of these clones is in that last line of the tool tip. When you are forced to stop casting and move out of the way of incoming damage or run from a damage source, your chance to create a mindless hollow shell of yourself jumps up to 60% of your DoT tick. This gives shadow priests a nice chance to continue to dish out a fair amount of damage even if on the move. How the apparitions interact with Vampiric Embrace is currently unknown.

Trash and AoE

If you are fighting trash mobs who die quickly and/or are in an “AoE” situation, your casting priorities are completely different.

On trash mobs with low health, you do not have to put up all your DoTs, as the mob(s) will likely be dead before the DoTs come anywhere near doing all their damage. “VT-> MB -> MF until dead” is a good option on trash mobs (add SW:D if needed).

In situations where AoE is needed, you can SW:P every mob you can while tossing out MB and SW:D when they are off cooldown. You will run out of mana quickly casting a lot of SW:P, so be careful about using this method in places where you will need to keep DPSing right after without a break to drink.

In all other AoE situations, Mind Sear should do the trick. Simply spam this spell to quickly and effectively DPS down multiple mobs.

Inner Focus

Which spell to use Inner Focus with is debatable. For maximum mana efficiency, use it with Shadow Word: Pain (highest mana cost spell). For maximum damage, use it with Mind Blast (highest damage potential from a crit).

The trick is to use it reliably. Some raid boss battles can go on a long time, easily giving you the chance to use this spell more than once. If you are bad at remembering to use this, then make a macro to attempt to use it whenever you cast your spell of choice.

Trinkets!

If you have trinkets that increase your spell damage on use, be sure to use them to their maximum potential! If you cast DoTs with such a trinket activated, then the DoT will receive the benefit for its entire uptime, even when the trinket’s effects wear off you. Your shadowfiend also benefits as well.

If you have trouble remembering to use them, make a macro to use them whenever you cast a DoT.

You can do something as simple as:

/use 13
/cast Shadow Word: Pain

That will try to use the trinket in your top trinket slot before casting Shadow Word: Pain.

The Blessing of Utility

Vampiric Touch is the defining utility spell of shadow priests. If you can keep the spell up 100% of the time, then you will be regenerating 25% of your shadow DPS (not damage, but your DPS) as mp5 for your whole party (example: a priest doing 800 DPS, or “damage per second,” of shadow damage would be giving 200 mp5, or “mana per five seconds,” to his or her party if Vampiric Touch is kept up the whole time). This spell historically was one of the main reason why shadow priests were brought to raids prior to the Dev team’s “bring the player not the class” stance. Keeping this spell up all the time is your #1 priority. Don’t leave home without it.

Vampiric Embrace will regenerate 15% of the shadow damage you deal as health for yourself and passing on 3% of that to your party (depending on your talents). It is quite handy on fights that have high amounts of environmental damage (situations where many people are taking damage). It is also useful if you use Shadow Word: Death a lot. And since it’s been changed to a self buff, you can set it and forget it. Score!

Shadow priests have other utility, such as being able to fear and stun mobs from talents, being able to change form to toss heals (if necessary), and being able to cast Dispel Magic or toss Power Word: Shield (as needed). Crowd control in the form of Shackle Undead or Mind Control could count as utility, too.

The Curse of Threat

Shadow priests get threat from the damage they deal, the healing from VE (if applicable), and the mana regen from VT (if applicable). Even with every threat reduction effect possible, shadow priests can easily out-threat an undergeared or underskilled tank. Priests have no permanent way to shed threat, besides death.

A shadow priest has what is called “backloaded threat.” While your threat may ramp up slowly at first, once you get going, even if you stop casting, you can still be generating threat. Think of your threat generation as a very large truck with bad brakes. It takes a bit of effort to get going, but once you are you are difficult to stop. You need to be able to hit the brakes a good number of seconds before you really need to be stopped.

You live and die by your threat. Install a threat meter (I really cannot recommend the add-on Omen or Skada enough!).

You can drop spells from your casting priority if threat is an issue.

Which order to drop them in while stuck in an encounter?

Shadow Word: Death should probably be looked at first, since it is causing you to also take damage.
Drop Devouring Plague, if applicable. Devouring Plague causes healing generating additional threat.
The next thing on the priority list that you can drop is Mind Blast.
If you really must, after dropping Mind Blast out of your rotation, you can drop Shadow Word: Pain.
That leaves you with Vampiric Touch and Mind Flay. You really shouldn’t drop either of those. If you are having threat issues with a tank while only casting those two spells, then you really need to find a different tank.

Increasing Your DPS

First, fix any bad habits:

• Don’t cut of your DoTs when reapplying them.
• Make sure you keep your DoTs up as best your can.
• Don’t cut off the end of Mind Flay with another Mind Flay. Mind Flay, like a DoT, has a tick of damage at the end.
• Keep casting! Don’t spend time looking around or thinking about what to do next instead of acting.
• Don’t wait for a spell to finish casting before starting the next one. Use the spell queue system; start trying to cast the next spell while your previous is still casting. Just mash the hotkey for the next spell toward the end of the previous spell’s cast. It will be put in the queue to start casting right as the other one is done. (Be careful when using this at the end of Mind Flay.)

Second, examine your stats:

• Are you hit capped with spell hit (446 is the cap for lv 80 non draeni) for what you are attacking?
• Are you running out of mana and having to wand? Are you keeping Vampiric Touch up all the time? Are you using your potions and shadowfiend early enough? Do you have enough DPS for your encounter? Because of VT, your mana regen is largely a function of your DPS.
• Are you focusing on ideal stats? (For example: spell damage / spell hit / spell haste are all much better than spell crit for increasing DPS).

Third, if still having trouble, examine your environment:

• Is your latency bad? Do you have a lot of video lag? Shadow priesting is very unforgiving to those who “play in the red.” Do what you can to reduce it.
• Are you having to shift out of shadow form to heal? That really kills your DPS (and your mana pool). Similarly, are you having to Dispel Magic or Power Word: Shield others a lot?
• Are you threat capped with your current tank, meaning can you continually use your spells without stealing aggro?

Fourth, run some tests:

• Find a mob that you can attack without it attacking back. You want to choose something that doesn’t die (quickly). Dr. Boom (level 68 mob in Netherstorm with over 400k health) or one of the “Servant” mobs in the Blasted Lands (mid-50s in level, have another player kite them away from their stone and tank them and they won’t die, though threat may become an issue). Attack at length to test your longevity, DPS, casting priority, talent spec, etc.
• You can analyze your DPS and longevity using a combat parser mod like Skada Damage Meters or Recount. For better, more in depth information, you can set WoW to save your combat log and can have Wow Web Stats process it (this is your best option) [instructions for Wow Web Stats here]. Things to look for are the uptime of your DoTs (check the DoTs column for the number of ticks, multiply by 3; that number should be close to the number of seconds you were in battle), your average DPS, and your spell hit rate.

Advanced Tactics

Despite what was just stated above, there may be times when you might want to cut off Mind Flay early on purpose. If your DPS is high enough, mana should not be too much of an issue with you, so you can afford to possibly spend the mana cost of Mind Flay but only use one or two of its ticks.

You would want to do this when a DoT ends or a spell comes off cooldown while you are in the middle of Mind Flay. You would make the conscious decision to forgo the last part(s) of Mind Flay’s damage in exchange for something “better.” This becomes more of a concern when you start to accumulate gear with spell haste and your spell casts in between DoT applications become a bit irregular. Again, you would only want to do this if you are in a place where mana efficiency isn’t much of a concern for you.

The trick is, you have to cut it off right after it ticks for damage! If you cut it off too soon or too late, you would be effectively losing DPS. Mind Flay lasts for 3 seconds and it ticks at the end of every second that it is channeled, but if you have spell haste you have to recalculate and figure out how long you Mind Flays are lasting to find the ticks (1/3 the casting time, 2/3 the casting time, and at the end of the channel).

The easiest way to do this is to install a casting bar add-on that clearly shows you the spell’s intended length and how many seconds into the cast you are, and can account for your latency. Quartz does this very well. Use a “/stopcasting” macro bound to a hotkey to cut the spell off. You have to be ready with the next spell right away, or use it as a part of the /stopcasting macro.

Example:

/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Word: Pain

Mind Flay clipping is a difficult skill to master, especially at high latency. It takes a lot of practice to really get this down. Luckily there is an add-on out there to help out in the form of MFClip, which shows you when your DoTs will tick and alot more items beneficial to spreading the power of the Shadows.

… but what about holy DPS?

As previously stated, speccing at least 31 points into the shadow tree is the way to go for great DPS and utility as a priest in raiding. People have tried holy/disc DPS builds, and have had mixed success. If you wanted to try it, you would probably want to go with some variant of an updated old 43/28/0 build which hasn’t been quite worked out yet but will be posted as soon as a decent Hybrid raider build crops up. I’ve left the old information here in the meantime in case you are feel adventrous and want to try to apply it to figuring out the Holy DPS raider puzzle.

For optimal sustainability and success, you would want to be put into a group with a retribution paladin, a balance druid, an elemental shaman, and one or more shadow priests. Group choice can really make a difference for you.

The utility you provide is poor in comparison to that of a shadow priest. You have the potential to provide Improved Divine Spirit and Improved Fortitude if no one else has it, possibly Power Infusion, and the ability to heal without switching form. However, a shadow priest can spit back mana and health to their party while being competitive on a damage meter and not ever breaking a sweat.

The #1 reason why holy DPS isn’t seen is mana efficiency. As a shadow priest, you are a mana-regenerating machine. As a holy priest, well, you sure do burn through that mana pool quickly. You are the mana suck. :) You just don’t have the longevity or efficiency that a shadow priest does.

Spell Choice

DPSing as a holy priest? Yawn.

Your casting sequence: Smite -> Smite -> Smite -> Smite … etc.

Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast are too high in mana cost and will run you out of mana quickly. Holy Fire, while more mana efficient, will not do the damage you need. The best optimization of damage and mana for holy DPS is Smite. Smite is also affected by certain talents (such as Surge of Light) making it a good choice.

Downranking is your crutch on long fights. You may have to use rank 9 of Smite instead of rank 10 if you are having mana issues. You will be able to do more sustained damage that way.

Starting DPS

Open with Holy Fire. Then proceed to start smiting.

Gearing

Spell hit is a major concern; you can only get 4% from talents. You’ll rely on spell crit for mana efficiency (from Surge of Light). Also, if you are looking for +holy damage items in the game, there are only two.

Be Prepared

… to be laughed at. People laugh at the unexpected, and a priest doing holy damage is sure to catch them off guard.

However, if you can competitively pull it off, you will sure be turning some heads, embarrassing some lazy DPSers, and making yourself a legend in your own right.

Back to Priest Guide menu==>

Priest Guide

2010-10-27T12:05:00.005-04:00

A depository of information on the World of Warcraft priest class.
UPDATE: Attempting a 4.0.1 and onward update since Cataclysm is gonna change everything!!

Includes info up to Patch: working on 4.0.1!

Last modified: 10/26/2010 (3.2.2==>4.0.1)

Menu:

What is a Priest?
Strengths and Weaknesses
Is a Priest Right for Me?
Priest Races
Professions
Talents

Talent, Explained
Leveling Talent Builds
Sample Level 80 Talent Builds - 4.0.1 builds and some explainations are up, but some are out of date again...

Spell Guide
Leveling Guide
Instances and Raids

Healing

Healing as a Shadow Priest

Crowd Control
Damage Dealing

Tips vs. Other Classes - Needs fact checking but general info should be valid
Battlegrounds
Arenas

Equipment

Gear

The Best Holy Priest Healing Gear
The Best Disc Priest Healing Gear
The Best Shadow Priest DPS Gear

Enchants
Gems
Consumables

Reputation
Roleplaying

Priest Archetypes
Faiths

Add-on/Mod Suggestions
Macros
Tips and Tricks
Theorycraft

Schools of Magic and Spell Lines
Spell Coefficents
Downranking (Removed)
Spirit, MP5 and Mana Regen
Spell Hit, Spell Penetration, and Resistances

Spell Resistance as a Defensive Stat

Weighing Priest Healing Stats
Spell Haste
Threat

Priest Bugs
History of the Priest Class
Usefull Priest Links & Blogs

About This Guide...

This guide is an update and continuation of MK's orginal guide (and Esdras' updates). Her guide had excellent information and launched many a priest. This guide will continue in the spirit of Mina's original site and update her orginal guide with new info and the current state of priesting in WoW. I myself have played a priest thru many combinations in both WoW and other MMOs and still find them to be one of the most rewarding classes. I'll even be giving it a fresh go for the purpose of updating the levelling content!

The Menu will be linked as each section is completed and posted, along with any notes for that section.Updates and new content will be added to the guide as required as long as I have the time.

This first attempt at updating this guide was orginally formed while patch 3.2.2 was live and 3.3 was running on the PTR before I noticed that Esdras was maintaining it...

UPDATE: Currently I've got the time to attempt a 4.0.1 and onward update since Cataclysm is gonna change everything!!

If you'd like to help keep the guide up to date let me know and I'll try to add you to the authorship!

The lovely artwork featured on this page is from the original “Priest Guide” page was made by the insanely talented Anya!

Give your thanks to MK

and Esdras for birthing and raising this guide!

World of Warcraft™ and Blizzard Entertainment® are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment in the United States and/or other countries. These terms and all related materials, logos, and images are copyright © Blizzard Entertainment. This site is in no way associated with Blizzard Entertainment®.

Priest Crowd Control

2010-10-27T12:05:00.000-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

The phrase “crowd control” refers to the act of keeping mob(s) from actively attacking you (or your group). Priests have a few means of keeping mobs indisposed.

Shackle Undead

Priests first learn the spell Shackle Undead at level 32. For 9% of your base mana you can cast this on any undead mob to prevent their movement, attacking and casting spells. That last part allows the spell to be used as an pseudo interrupt if need be against undead mobs attempting long casting time spells with hard-hitting effects.

Shackle Undead will only hold undead mobs in place, not undead players (as they count as “humanoids”).

Only one mob can be under the control of your Shackle Undead spell at a time.

Damage caused to the shackled mob will cause Shackle Undead to break, so make sure your group knows not have the shackled target caught up in Area of Effect spells. However, casting things like Vampiric Embrace on the mob will not break the shackle, as it causes no damage. DoTs won’t break the shackle until they tick for damage.

Once a mob is shackled, there are periodic checks every few seconds to see if the mob stays shackled. If the check fails, then the shackle will break early and the mob will run at whoever is highest on its threat list (typically you!). These periodic checks are the same as your initial check to see if the spell lands.

Important! Repeat after me:
Reshackling every 15 seconds does not prevent early breakage.
Reshackling every 15 seconds does not prevent early breakage.
Reshackling every 15 seconds does not prevent early breakage.

The spell hit stat is the only thing that can reduce the chance of a shackle breaking early.

The effect of spell hit on Shackle Undead is probably the most misunderstood aspect of the spell. There will always be a chance each check that the shackle won’t hold, if you are not capped on your spell hit, even if you recast Shackle Undead every 15 seconds.

From the Lux et Umbra priest guide stickied on the WoW-US priest forums:

I don’t recommend casting Shackle “every few seconds.” Each periodic check is the same as the initial resistance check. Instead, start casting and cancel repeatedly if you want to improve average response time to a break.

If you are in a situation where you are going to have to keep something shackled for a long time, you should only reshackle just often enough to ensure that if you hit an emergency scenario you would be able to do whatever it is you need to do (move, spam heal, etc.) and not miss reshackling the mob. A ten second buffer should be more than enough.

If you are reshackling every third heal, you are just wasting mana. Period.

Use a focus macro (/focus) to keep an eye on the mob you shackled; if it breaks early, you’ll want to be able to reshackle right away. This macro will set your target as your focus and attempt to cast Shackle Undead on it:

#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/clearfocus [modifier:alt][target=focus,dead][target=focus,help][target=focus,noexists]
/focus [target=focus,noexists]
/cast [target=focus]Shackle Undead

The macro will clear your focus if your target is dead, invalid, or if your hit the macro with the Alt key down.

Various timer mods (like Quartz) can put a timer bar on your screen to let you know when the spell is set to end. Do recast it before the timer is over; don’t wait for the spell to end before reshackling.

A mod like CCBreaker can tell you when a shackle breaks early, which player (if any) broke it, and how.

It’s good to have some protection if Shackle Undead breaks early. First off, don’t stand near your shackle! Really! That way you have some time while the mob is running toward you to get it reshackled. Give yourself that buffer space; the spell has a 30 yard range. Secondly, you’ll want to have some way to snare the mob before it plows you down. Have a hunter place a Frost Trap, a mage ready with Frost Nova, or carry around some Frostweave Nets from tailoring.

Keep in mind that Shackle Undead does cause threat on the mob, and the threat is additive every time you cast the spell.

Mind Control

Priests learn the spell Mind Control at level 38. This scales with your level (2 levels above your own) allowing you to control mobs up to level 82 at max. Mind Control lets you take control of a humanoid character’s actions. You will be able to use a limited set of its abilities and will be able move it around. However, when you are mind controlling something, your character cannot make any other action (without breaking the spell). It will last for up to a full minute against mobs and up to 10 seconds against other players.

Mind Control can be used on most any humanoid. The exceptions being humanoids that are friendly to you and select humanoids in instances/raids. You can never Mind Control a boss. Some undead and other kinds of mobs can appear humanoid-like, but do not count as humanoids. Only mobs whose tooltips explicitly say “humanoid” are viable targets.

Positioning is important when using Mind Control as it is a channeled spell. If you are near a mob that has an AoE or a Cleave and you are taking bits of damage, the channel on the spell will end sooner rather than later. Keep in mind that the mob you are controlling will have its own aggro radius, so use caution when positioning it.

Similar to Shackle Undead, Mind Control has periodic checks to see if it continues to hold. This is based off of your spell hit stat. Additionally, if you move the mind controlled mob more than 20 yards away from where you are standing, the chance that the spell breaks early increases significantly.

With Mind Control, you can potentially crowd control two mobs. How? Well, just take the one you have mind controlled and have it start attacking a second mob that no one else is. However, if your mob manages to kill a second one that no one has touched, then you will not be able to loot it. The same thing goes for if other mob(s) kill yours (if no damage was done to yours by your group prior to its death).

Threat-wise, Mind Control is much higher than Shackle Undead (somewhere over 3k at max rank). Try to practice safely breaking this spell whenever you can. Run the mob far away from you, alert your party that you will be release the spell, and then break the channel on it by casting Power Word: Shield or Fade (depending on how quickly you feel you tank will pick up the mob).

There are a few tricks with Mind Control in PvP. It is a handy tool to get some distance from your opponent so that you can pull off a heal or run away. Opponents can be thrown off of cliffs and bridges while under the effect of Mind Control. You can use it to run an enemy flag carrier in the wrong direction. Lastly, you can use Mind Control to buff a player of the opposite faction by casting this on them then casting Power Word: Fortitude, Shadow Protection, Divine Spirit, etc. while targeting them (though the channel on the spell will end immediately after you cast a buff).

Psychic Scream

Psychic Scream is learned at level 12. It will fear up to 5 mobs away from you for 8 seconds. Most non-player undead mobs will be immune to Psychic Scream, as well as most demon mobs.

It is common to think of Psychic Scream as a panic button, but use caution with it. Mobs that are feared from you can easily run into more mobs and bring them back with them. That is one of the reasons why this spell only sees situational use in instances and raids, but the glyphed version of this spell changes the fleeing fear into a rooted fear, which can be very helpful in instances that require crowd control.

Psychic Scream is commonly used in multi-mob situations. For instance: the priestly version of AoE farming (without Holy Nova) is to apply DoTs (like Shadow Word: Pain) to a handful of mobs, fear them, apply extra damage to them if needed, then move on pulling the next set of mobs. They should, in theory, die from the DoT while you are moving on to picking up the next set.

Psychic Scream only lasts 8 seconds, so it is typically used as a way of lessening damage done to you by a mob, or as aide in fleeing from a bad situation. The cooldown on the spell (30 seconds, without talents) is a major limiting factor in its use to crowd control.

Shadowfiend

Shadowfiend is learned at level 66. He is a summoned pet that will give you mana equal to the damage that he deals. However, you could think of this little guy as a pocket tank. He doesn’t have a lot of health, but he has high AoE damage avoidance. Your Shadowfiend only lasts for 15 seconds, and has a cooldown of 5 minutes, so he is not in any way a long lasting form of crowd control.

The best use for a Shadowfiend is to toss him at a mob if:
• you accidentally pull too many.
• you need to run by the mob to get to something first (quest item, herb, ore).
• you aggro a mob you don’t want to deal with and need to run away.

A Shadowfiend isn’t a typical means of crowd control, just a way to buy yourself some time if things get sticky.

Kiting

Kiting is the act of keeping a mob focused on you while you are running away from it. Small bits of damage are applied to it to hold its attention. Kiting is primarily used when you need to take down a mob that you do not have the defenses to survive attacks from. By kiting, you are limiting the amount of damage done it does to you by (hopefully) keeping it at a distance.

Kiting is not a specialty of priests in any way.

The best way to kite a mob as a priest is with damage over time spells, like Shadow Word: Pain. Every 7-8 seconds the spell will have to be reapplied, else the mob will lose interest in you and run back to where you found it initially. When kiting with Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Shadow Word: Death, you will not need to turn around to cast the spell. You are able to keep running. Psychic Scream (and possibly Power Word: Shield) should be used if the mob ever gets too close to you.

You can either kite to kill, which can take forever, or you can kite the mob to people who will help you kill it (such as: other players, or NPC guards).

Back to Priest Guide menu==>

Healing as a Shadowpriest

2010-10-27T10:54:00.001-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

Don’t let the fact that you have zero points in the Holy or Discipline trees stop you from healing in instances. A shadow priest should be able to heal any non-heroic instance just fine. Don’t be afraid to offer to heal, especially if you think you will be healing more in the future (either as Disipline or Holy). Healing as a shadowpriest is excellent practice, as it will force you to learn good habits in terms of both mana and healing efficiency.

Here are a few simple tips:

1. Be Prepared

Level 40 and beyond you should start holding onto pieces of gear that focus more in healing stats than what you would wear to solo with. Thankfully, with the recent itemization overhaul you will be able to use a bunch of your usual gear that is not focused on stacking hit. You will have to keep an eye out for gear that matches to the healing method you prefer. Even if you do not keep the extra gear on you, be sure to keep a set in the bank, and be sure that it is updated appropriately (no, you shouldn’t be healing a level 70 instance in healing gear that you have had since level 50).

Be sure to have: mana potions (you don’t always need the max rank; keep a few of the lower rank, too, for when you just need a little boost), health potions (saving yourself could easily save a wipe), and bandages (it’s a mana-free self heal!).

If you are looking for some additional boosts, try picking up some Mana Oils appropriate to your level (especially if you are pugging; they persist through death). They are cheap and will last.

2. Be Efficient

Welcome to the “Price is Right” of healing. The name of the game is trying to heal the tank’s health up as much as you can without going over (overhealing). As with healing in general, it’s all about hitting that “sweet spot”. Holy specced, you might typically aim to heal the tank up to about 85% health with each heal. As a shadow priest healing, your heals aren’t as quick, so you have to aim a bit higher (90%+). Repeatedly start casting a heal before a tank takes damage, and just interrupt the spell cast if the heal isn’t needed, or looks like it will miss the sweet spot.

Your heals are more costly, too, which means you have to milk your mana pool for all that it is worth. You cannot afford to be constantly overhealing. You also can’t afford to be tossing around spells that do little healing compared to their mana costs; you need the be as efficient as possible.

Use caution with these spells during combat:

• Power Word: Shield should only be used situationally, or in those true life-or-death moments.
• Holy Nova has provides little healing for its high mana cost.
• Prayer of Healing isn’t worth it’s cost unless it will be healing at least three party members the full amount.
• Binding Heal is only worth it if both you and the target have taken damage.
• Avoid renewing Renew, unless it is over, or close to it.

3. Be Confident

Priests retain strong healing potential, even with zero points in their Holy tree. Don’t be shy about healing instances, even with people you don’t know. Don’t think of it as a way you could potentially fail, but as a fantastic opportunity to show other just how wonderful the priest class can heal. Priest healing is very adaptable, allowing us to do well in many different healing scenarios. Our flexibility as a healing class makes us ideal for healing without the proper spec.

If you find things not working out too well in an instance, don’t immediately blame yourself. Though you are there to heal, it does NOT automatically make it your fault if someone dies. Reflect on the workings of the whole group: is everyone doing their job properly? Is the tank holding aggro and not taking a tremendous amount of damage? Are the DPSers watching their threat? Is there appropriate crowd control?

4. Be Realistic

Knowing what we lack can help us adapt to our non-specced role better. For instance: we do not have the threat reduction to our healing spells that other priests may have. However, by ensuring that our tank starts battle with Power Word: Shield, and by waiting a bit before casting any other heal on him/her, that fact is compensated for.

If you find that you are having trouble getting past a certain boss, do not be afraid to ask another healing hybrid class in your group to help out by tossing a few heals. It can sometimes be difficult to keep up with spike damage if the tank’s gear is mediocre.

There are times when it may be best to not have you healing at all! In a few Outlands instances, mobs with the words “Physician”, “Mender”, or “Acolyte” in their names typically have some strong healing ability. Mind Control the mobs and make them heal for you.

5. Be Courteous

Don’t whine and complain about how hard healing is, or how much of a sacrifice it is for you to be healing though you are not specced for it. You are just wasting a good opportunity to gain a lot of respect from people. Good healers are hard to find on many servers, and even worse, many people don’t realize that a priest can be a great DPSer or healer, without having to respec. Impress others with your skills, and do the priest class proud!

Be clear when joining a group that you intend to roll on any cloth DPS pieces (if you are). Some people may assume that since you are healing, you may be passing on them. It’s best to clear this up before an issue arises.

Not being specced for healing, you can’t be creating any miracles. If the group doesn’t have its act together, there is little chance you will be able to just save the group by healing harder. Be upfront with that fact if things look a little shaky with the group. Don’t make excuses, but just calmly explain that you can’t keep up a mage tank, for instance. It’s just a matter of practicality.

As always, remain positive, and stay constructive if you have to offer up any advice.

Back to Priest Guide menu==>

Sample Level 80 Talent Builds

2010-10-26T15:29:00.003-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

For your information, reference and ease-of-access. Also an easy place for me to go when I've forgotten where to stick my points.

The spec explainations in italics are undergoing revamping as well due to stat changes, talent tree pruning and outdated info.

Disclaimer: These specs are "cookie cutter", and can take a point or two of tweaking to suit your personal play style. Also keep in mind that these specs are optimized for their purpose in the current patch; deviating heavily from these specs is not recommended unless you are very confident with Priest mechanics.

PvE

Holy

Fantastic throughput, which an incredible range of spells at your disposal. You are as proficient at single target healing as you are at AoE raid healing. Stacking Int will be to your best bet in this spec thanks to the stat changes, increasing your spell power, critical chance and mana regeneration. Haste is a great secondary stat. This current spec is to mostly get familiar with all the new tools available to the Holy priest before Cataclysm drops.

3/32/1 - Glyphs of Guardian Spirit, Lightwell, Renew, Circle of Healing, Holy Nova, Dispell Magic

If you find yourself in the OOM range a bit too much steal 1 point from Darkness and 3 points from Twin Disciplines to unlock 2pts of both Veiled Shadows and Mental Agility.

Discipline

Shielding and damage reduction effects still don't always show up correctly on the healing meters, but a Discipline Priest can be the most powerful healer in a raid if played right. Stacking Intellect will be to your advantage here, increasing the regeneration from Rapture and Replenishment. Crit is always a good secondary stat for Disc priests, however with the removal of our haste talent and changes for the new Borrowed Time, you may want to stack haste if you aren't having any mana problems.

31/3/2 - Glyphs of Penance, PW:Shield, Prayer of Healing, Holy Nova, Divine Accuracy, Dispel Magic

This spec is the new Archangel Atonement healing spec that puts the tank healing hat back on for Discipline priests. Atonement is DPS based single target healing effect where your damage = healing with the requirement that the healing target needs to be within 15 yards of your DPS target.

Hybrid

This is not an efficient spec for higher gear levels, but is useful for starting healing priests. It can also be useful when deciding between Holy and Disc as your main specs. Stacking Spirit and will help you keep up during longer boss fights, although Intellect will also benefit you. MP5 is a great secondary stat.

None yet for 4.0.1

Note: I'd strongly suggest dropping a point out of the above spec for Lightwell, but whether to drop the point out of Rapture or Holy Concentration is heavily reliant on your play style.

Shadow

To pull the most juice out of the shadow tree you will be taking the majority of the talents as they create great synergy with your existing spells and effects. After taking all the talents to push your Shadow DPS up you'll have 2 points left over that can be used to grab whatever suits your play style. Mental Agility will lower the costs of SW:Pain, Devouring Plague and SW:Death. Psychic Horror will give you an interrupt. Phantasm will add movement recovery to Fade. Paralysis will give your Mind Blast criticals the ability to root your target.

Stack Intellect for boosts to spell power, haste and critical. With the talent tree revamping Spirit will give you spell hit thanks to the Twisted Faith talent so you'll have an easier time getting to the 446 hit rating cap with out having to heavily stack hit. Crit and haste are both great secondary stat and the choice of which to go after will depend on your playstyle, with haste being slightly higher on the stacking scale unless you have a disproportionate amount.

3/0/31 with Glyphs of Mind Flay, Shadow Word:Death and Shadow Word:Pain

PvP

Holy

Highly experimental at this stage, the Holy tree now provides poison cleansing and a speed increase for PvP utility. It also allows the Priest to stack Spirit, which greatly increases throughput and longevity. What it's missing is survivability, as Blessed Resilience and Guardian Spirit don't live up to Pain Suppression and Penance.

None yet for 4.0.1

Discipline

Tried and true, the shielding and damage mitigation potential of the Discipline tree has made it an easy favorite. However with the recent changes in mana regeneration, the Discipline tree does better to stack crit and Intellect than it does Spirit. Great short term survivability and phenomenal healing make this spec most viable with burst teams.

None yet for 4.0.1

Hybrid

Combining the poison cleansing and speed increase of the Holy tree with the buffs of the Discipline tree looks good on paper, but is in fact difficult to pull off in an Arena setting. The lack of a 51 point talent is very noticeable in combat, although the theoretical longevity of this spec could prove interesting if correctly applied.

None yet for 4.0.1

Shadow

Shadow Priests still have a hard time being viable in Arenas, although the changes to Psychic Horror have improved viability slightly. For improved longevity Glyph of Power Word: Shield and Glyph of Dispel Magic can be switched out, but at the sacrifice of burst damage.

2/0/34 - Glyphs of Dispersion, Power Word:Shield

A good starting spot for tailoring a PVP DPS spec to your playstyle.

Back to Priest Guide menu==>

Talents

2010-10-26T14:59:00.000-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

You start earning talent points at level ten (press "n" to view your Talents window), and with the changes made in patch 4.0.1, will gain one talent point every two levels until you hit level 80 for a current total of 41 talent points. When you recieve your first talent point you will also be asked to choose a talent tree that will provide some passive bonuses and an ability unique to that tree. Selecting a tree will also lock your character into that talent tree as the primary tree until you have invested 31 talent points in it, which will be around level 70.

The the trees for priest are Discipline, Holy, and Shadow. A priest’s solo play and role in groups can vary based on which talent tree is selected as their primary, especially at the higher levels. I suggest periodically taking some time and messing around with a talent calculator to try to plan where you want your points to end up. The changes in 4.0.1 also introduced a confirm and accept concept when assigning talent points that allows you to place points in talents to preview them and their effects before actually accepting the assigning of points. So don't worry about clicking around on different talents, the game will ask you if you are really sure you want to assign your points that way first.

The three talent trees for priests are Discipline, Holy, and Shadow.

• The Discipline tree improves longevity (increased stats, mana regeneration, extra buffs, ways to reduce damage taken, and some spell damage increases).

• The Holy tree increases the power and use of your holy spells (your healing, and to a lesser extent, your holy damage spells).

• The Shadow tree significantly increases the damage of your shadow spells and gives you some ways to increase your party’s spell haste and regeneration of health and mana.
Each tree has its merits and drawbacks. Shadow’s increase to spell damage makes it the best for ease of leveling. Holy and Discipline are a bit more tedious to try to level with, but can make healing easier, if that is your objective. Most people find that with proper gear they are able to heal just fine in instances as a fully shadow specced priest until they get to around 70 in level.

At level 40 you will unlock the ability purchase the "Dual Talent Specialization" from the class trainer for 100 gold. This ability will allow you to have two independent talent builds that you can switch between with the Activate Secondary Spec ability or the new side tab that will appear on your talent window which will have an Activate button on your inactive talent spec. Your two talent specializations are seperate from each other so you can choose different primary trees for each one. Each of your specs gains talent points based on your level, so whenever your purchase your blank secondary spec you will be able to assign talent points for the levels you have gained so far and then assign talent points as usual when you level up.

If you ever want to totally overhaul your talent setup you have the option to visit a class trainer and have all your earned talent points refunded for a cost. The costs of respeccing starts at 1g and increases by 5g every respec until a maximum of 50g is reached. There is decay in the cost of respeccing, a discount of 5g/month. The more months between respecs the lower the cost to a minimum of 15g.

More on Talents:

• Talents, Explained - A detailed look at all the talents in all the trees (Being overhauled for 4.0.1 change to 41 talent point system)

• Sample Talent Builds - A shortcut to some useful "cookie cutter"-esque talent builds

A future update will have some useful talent builds for different leveling peaks.

Back to Priest Guide menu==>

WoTG - Day 2 - Goblinish Experiements

2009-11-11T16:57:00.000-05:00

Was able to teach myself herbalism and mining. That should help me start bringing in money while practicing my skills. Was able to sell vendor items on AH for giant markup. Will continue to experiment. Using the handy Auditor addon to keep track of my money. Want to find something with a bit more granularity. May start recording details by hand + bean counter. I'll transcribe my cash flow a bit later. Dun Morugh looks like the place to grow and farm but switching between SW forest and there due to needing some weapon skills.

Day 2 end result - Lv 8 with 3g2s

WotG - Day 1 - Daxlon's Journey Beings

2009-11-10T20:05:00.000-05:00

Today I decided to venture out into the world. Not sure why. Maybe its because I was tired of being poor and that I was determined to prove Gorvon wrong, that humans can be as crafty and cunning as goblins.

Found myself in Northshire abbey. Needed some equipment fast so I started killing off some of the nastier locals for the abbey staff. Pretty sure there was a reason in there somewhere, all I wanted was the quick cash. Only bothered to grab those collect X quests if I was sent to go decimate the same people. Time spent searching bodies for random objects is less time killing more random bodies.

Got bored after a while and shot off to SW after learning some more skills from my trainer. Grabbed my level 5s and ran to get Herbs & Mining. Need to start brining in some cash...

Tram to IF was quick. Dun Morugh however is cold. At least there is plenty to harvest. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow there will be some money waiting for me since I dropped off a few stacks of linen at the local AH. Got em all while killing so might as well make a profit.

Tomorrow looks like more running around looking for flowers to pick and things to mine to start getting my bankroll going...

The Way of the Goblin

2009-11-10T01:26:00.000-05:00

So I found another interesting project inspired and used by Gevlon of the blog Greedy Goblin. The ways of WoW profit are held in the wisdom of the smallest greenskin race. Being a huge fan of greenskins (I rock Orks in 40k and a squigherder in WHOnline), I'm going to give his ideas a full shot and keep track of my progress.

So begins the saga of Daxlon, a human paladin determined to change his families fortune! Much more info and adventures to come....starting with inital UI screens tomorrow!

UI Project - Out with the old

2009-11-04T16:22:00.000-05:00

My guild moved raid night from last night to tonight. I suddenly had a large chunk of playtime that now had no preallocated purpose, so the UI project beginnings started cramming itself in.

The biggest find of the project so far? FuBar is no longer in development due to the Data Brokers framework's growing adoptance.

If you look at the manager screenshots below you can see I was using a fair number of info plugins for FuBar, so all those and FuBar itself are now either swapped for a data broker component or removed completely due to lack of use.

I plan to make far more detailed posts on how I set up my UI and why once I actually finish finalizing it, right now I'm taking you through my thought process as I experiment with different configurations and concoctions.

Heres the list of addons that I always run as I find they allow me to spend more time playing and less time figuring out how to manage info & data:

ArcInventory - Inventory mod that has its own scripting language. As a developer and designer this mod just meshes well with me and allows me to organize information in MY way.
Bartender4 - Lets me place button bars where I need them to be and in the groupings I need them to be in.
Parrot - A very good combat text addon that has good level of depth controls and lets me set what orientation I want which information to appear in
OmniCC - An excellent cooldown utility that overlays important CD information directly onto spell icons.
Prat 3.0 - Its a non essential gameplay mod, but makes info and data source management a lot easier
Xloot + Monitor - Allows me to set at a glance loot information as well as provide a loot history should I need it
Buffalo3 - Buffs & Debuff tracking with a nice amount of options yet not bloated
Quartz - The latency tracking ability in the cast bar is key and the castable debuff/dot monitoring is very useful

Im sure there are a few others that I do not like to be without, but its harder to recall them while at work waiting for the clock to finish so I can head out of the office and back into Azeroth!

Edits and updates to this post will come after gametime!

UI Project - The current overgrown lists

2009-11-03T00:39:00.000-05:00

New UI Project

2009-11-02T19:10:00.000-05:00

So I've been piling addon on top of addon for a while now whenever I come across anything I find useful. I've been using addons since probably pre BC days when I finally got back into the game. I stopped playing for a long time in college, and when I finally got around to playing WotLK my addons were sorely out of date. I started over from scratch by scouring the web for updates for all my old mods. I quickly found that the majority of what I had been using was either out of date or simply had disappeared.

So I started from scratch again with the help of Curse and a few comments on Dwarf Priest. An addon for this, an addon for that, a useful new feature here, a useful new feature there. I soon had a huge pile of addons, addons that I relied on to give me vital data and make playing more fluid. That made playing on two different computers almost unbearable, plus keeping them all up to date was even more of a pain.

Enter Curse Client.

Curse Client was a godsend. All of a sudden all my mods(well most of them) showed up in one easy to scan tab and told me which ones had updates available! All I had to do was click a button and all my mods would be downloaded, extracted, and installed. So simple! Life was grand.

But then I found the search feature. Right from within Curse Client I could add new mods I hadn't been able to find before! The list of mods started growing again.

Then Curse Client ditched me.

Actually they started their premium tier program. In order to use Curse Client like you were familar with you now had to pay for access to the update all button AND for them not to throttle your downloads.

Damn. My ease of updating and keeping track of all my addons started evaporating. I wasn't going to pay for such limited functionality.

About that time one of the sites I had been visiting to update one single addon raised its hand and pointed me to its new little creation. MMOUI Minion.

JOY!!!

Now MMOUI Minion is still offically listed as in Beta status, but it is probably my favorite WoW tool aside from my WoWhead sidebar gadget. The Update All button works exactly like its supposed to plus it doesn't bury Addons it doesnt have mirrors too on another tab. Since it connects into the MMOUI.com database it handles finding new WoW addons pretty well. It also has the potential to handle the Addon managment of other games hosted at MMOUI.

So where does all that lead? To my current problem I have over 70 addons scattered across to UI manager clients. Yes, 70. That number seems dangerously too high for my own tastes. Couple that with the fact that some mods show up only on Curse Client (exclusive hosting) I have to do double work updating and managing. Many of the mods that I update and continue to configure have now been replaced with better versions, enhanced versions, or had their functionality intergrated with something else. A fair number of them are also aimed at the leveling grind.

Its time to prune that tree. I'll be starting to redesign my interface for my new play environment as a shadow priest heroic train member, a disc tank healer, and raid shadow DPS.

I'll be keeping you informed of my progress in case I can develop a UI package that would be useful. My goal is to be able to have a significantly more intuitive and cleaner interface than I do now. The project begins tonight!

No fear! Updates are forthcoming!

2009-10-31T12:37:00.000-04:00

Haven't updated in a while mostly because there are so many talents to describe, rank and explain. I managed to finish all the Discipline talents yesterday so the rest of the Talents, Explained section should be done soon and put up for everyone to read and comment on. The talents section is where I'd love feedback as my ratings of talents are only from my own play style and would love to know how other people view them and try to offer 1 differing opinion per a talent.

Its the end of the Hallow's Eve event so back into the game I go to try and get the last 2 achievements I need for the holiday. I'll post a wrap up of the holiday thru the eyes of a priest once its over. Completing all the achievements gives the priest a very fitting vanity title, The Hallowed, great for Disc priesting :)

Enjoy your spooky Halloween's and steer clear of haunted horsemen!

Professions for Your Priest

2009-10-28T16:37:00.000-04:00

Last updatedL 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

The one profession that really shines for priests, and I cannot recommend it enough, is Tailoring, especially when you reach level 70-80 and can make epic crafted sets that are better than some of the gear you’d find in many end-game raid instances. Good leveling gear is bit tough to find on the auction house for decent prices, so it is nice to be able to make your own along the way as well. Tailors also have access to Embroidery which allow them to place powerful proc buffs on their cloak. If you are not leveling with tailoring, but think you might switch to it later, be sure to try to stockpile some cloth either in your bank or on a bank alt to make the switch easier later.

Blacksmithing and Leatherworking are near useless for priests. There are next to no items craftable with these professions that are of any use to us. The caveat here is that during endgame some players may elect to chose these professions for the additional custimization options such as the ability to add an extra gem socket to bracers and gloves from blacksmithing or the ability to add Fur Lining enchants to bracers from leathworking which are more powerful than the Enchanting versions.

Gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning) are always nice, as they provide a steady way to make money. If you are working on your first character on a new server picking up 2 gathering professions while you level is a great way to fund yourself now that you are able to track multiple types of nodes at the same time.

Engineering is favored for PvP. In addition to the nifty gadgets and explosives you can make with it, there are a number of very good goggles (head armor) that are better than what you would find in most instances, and can also be used at low levels when head armor of any type is elusive or non-existent.

Other primary professions, in particular Enchanting, Alchemy, Inscription and Jewelcrafting, all have their unique benefits for priests. Enchanting will let you boost your stats by enchanting your equipment, Alchemy will allow you to increase your combat capabilities thru buffing with potions, Inscription will give you stronger spells, and Jewelcrafting allows you to make your own rings, necklaces, trinkets and gems.

Keep in mind that certain primary professions have synergy with others. For instance, with the Enchanting profession you can disenchant the items you create while leveling your tailoring skill and sell results for a fair profit on the AH.

Other primary profession synergies:

Mining / Engineering
Mining / Jewelcrafting
Herbalism / Alchemy
Herbalism / Inscription
and (less typical for priests) Skinning / Leatherworking and Mining / Blacksmithing

As for secondary professions, First Aid is a must. Players often mistakenly assume that since priests are healers, they will not need another way to heal theirselves. First Aid could be the difference between life and death when playing in a group; it is, essentially, a mana-free self-heal. Also, the ability to cure poisons at low levels can come in handy as priests lack the natural ability to do so.

Cooking and Fishing have their benefits, especially once you reach higher levels when you get the ability to make some really nice stat bonus buff food. However, these professions are not necessary, especially if you have another character that already knows these professions on the same server and faction.

Back to Priest Guide menu >>

Priest Races

2009-10-28T16:32:00.000-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

There are four different Alliance races that can be priests (Dwarves, Humans, Night Elves, and Draenei) and three different Horde races (Trolls, Blood Elves, and Undead). Previously priests (and paladins) also received 2 racial-specific spells but these spells have now been turned into regular spells, become unlocked via talents, or removed entirely. Below are the snapshots of the racial traits along with a call out of traits useful to priests.

Dwarves:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Stoneform is very useful in the 75-80 level range in the harder instances. Frost Resistance can take a little of the edge off of soloing in Northrend and other dungeons where casters favor icy damage.

Humans:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Human Spirit helps the priest boost their Spirit stat which increases our mana regen. Diplomacy can be a significant edge in reputation grinding in the 75-80 level range when trying to unlock the ability to buy advanced equipment and enchantments. Every Man for Himself lets the priest break out of a fear effect and immediately jump back into DPS or healing which may be the difference between living and a walk from the graveyard.

Night Elves:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Nature Resistance and Quickness are the most combat useful traits here.

Draenei:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Gift of the Naaru gives the priest another healing spell, which gains potency based on the amount of spell power you have. Heroic Presence increase hit chance for shadow priests, and is also very useful for your groups. Shadow Resistance is situational useful.

Trolls:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Regeneration helps out with lowering your downtime and Da Voodoo Shuffle can come in handy when you are trying to escape from a bad situation.

Undead:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Will of the Forsaken can drop you back into the fight and avoiding some nasty surprises. Cannibalize will help reduce your downtime in between fights and Shadow Resistance will help a bit with all the Shadow using mobs late in the game.

Blood Elves:

Racial Abilities:

Callout: Arcane Torrent can help stop you from running out of mana in a critical fight. Magic Resistance helps take the edge off every spell the game might throw at you.

Starting Stats

Each race starts with slightly different starting stats. These differences are insignificant in the bigger picture and are just listed for the sake of completeness and showing the new classes that will be joining the priest ranks in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. They should probably not be considered when choosing a race for your priest.

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Is a priest right for me?

2009-10-28T16:25:00.000-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

Priests can be excellent damage dealers or healers.

If you like to be in the thick of the action:

A melee or tank class might be better for you.

If you want to be a damage dealer:

Shadow priests excel at dishing out constant damage, have high single-target DPS, and an even better multi-mob damaging ability through their Mind Sear spell(Currently being reviewed based on changes to all AoE damage and Mind Sear itself) . Doing damage as a shadow priest is largely similar to playing an affliction specialized warlock; it involves managing your damage-over-time (DoT) spells and ensuring that they remain active your enemies. At higher levels, shadow priests more commonly fill the role of a damage-dealer (DPSer) in groups, but are still commonly asked to heal. That being said, you probably should not select the priest class if you think you will never want to be asked to heal in groups. Shadow priests are desirable in raid environments due to the Replenishment (mana regenerating) buff that they can bring and the ability to pass on some healing to the raid while doing damage.

If you want to be a good healer:

A priest is a very powerful healer. They have a wide range of abilities at their disposal to keep their party members alive: large heals, small heals, a shield, a heal over time, and multiple group and multi-target heals. However, a priest specializing in healing will not have the ease of defeating enemies in solo play that shadow priests or other damage dealers might. They may rely more on doing instances or groups to gain levels. Fortunately, a priest with many talents in the shadow talent tree can still be an excellent healer in groups with the proper skill and gear. A priest’s naturally powerful healing is usually sufficient, and you should not feel required to specialize in talents that increase your healing ability in order to be a good healer while leveling. Many priests will level with a shadow talent spec and will respec or dual-spec in the higher levels to a more healing-oriented spec, if that is their objective. Priests are the only class with two trees aimed at healing, and the only type of healer that can specialize in damage prevention.

If you have high latency:

Healing is very tough if your computer or internet connection is such that you have high latency, but it can be done. I’ve found that healing at high latency is a bit easier as a paladin, due to the spam-heal mechanics. A shadow priest at high latency is at a large disadvantage compared to other casters. Most all shadow damage spells are either instant casts or have short casting times. A mage suffers a lot less from high latency as their spells have longer cast times. Warlocks do as well (depending on talent choices). Even elemental shaman and balance druids have longer casting time damage spells than shadow priests.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

2009-10-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/10 for patch 4.0.1.

Strengths:

Good buffs and damage mitigation
Can resurrect fallen comrades
Has a damage absorbing shield spell
In groups, is able to stand back at a distance from enemies
Can perform some “crowd control” on enemies
Able to heal quite well, regardless of talent specialization
Have the option of specializing in doing damage or healing
At higher levels, are one of the best AoE damage dealers in the game - This is currently up for review as we wait to see how Blizz works out the Mind Sear changes
Priest healers are one of the best healers in the game, making them high in demand for groups
Shadow priests increase magic damage done by other casters, and can regenerate other players’ health and mana while doing damage to enemies (making them a great “utility” for groups)

Weaknesses:

“Squishy” (low in HP, can only wear cloth armor)
Crowd control abilities are situational, and can hard to use if expected to be healing at the same time
Have no permanent loss of threat (“aggro dump”)
Healing requires constant attention
Often targeted first in PvP, regardless of spec
AoE damage spells are mana-intensive - Again up for review based on Mind Sear changes
As a support class, priests often have little control over the pace of group play
~~Shadow priests may have trouble finding groups as priests are sometimes expected to heal in groups.~~ The introduction of the Dungeon Finder tool has gone a long way towards being able to be a full time DPS purple death dealer.
~~Shadow priests have a shorter range on their spells than other ranged damage dealers~~ - Thankfully this was addressed and you can melt faces at the same general range as the other classes.

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What is a priest?

2009-10-28T16:09:00.000-04:00

Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1

A defender of the light or champion of the darkness, all priests fall into essentially two categories: healers or ranged damage dealers.

Apart for some very special and bizarre circumstance, priests are not meant to be tanks, nor melee DPS.

Shadow Priests:

A priest with the majority of their talent points in their “Shadow Magic” talent tree specialize in dishing out the damage to enemies. At higher levels, shadow priests gain a bit of utility by gaining talents that will let them continue to pour on damage while regenerating their party’s health and mana. The ability to replenish group HP via Vampiric Embrace is a nice gift to your group's healers.

The one thing that perhaps sets shadow priests apart from other priests is the newly moved now 11-point talent in their shadow tree: Shadowform. This gives the priest the ability to change form into a shadowy, purple version of their previous avatar, granting an increase in damage given, reduction in physical damage taken, and giving out spell haste to your group, but rendering them unable to cast any spell in the holy school. This talent used to double the damage from your critical spell hits but that was pruned away in favor of pruning the talent tree and combining talents.

Unfortunately, many non-priest players regard priests as healers and nothing more, so should you choose a damage (shadow) talent build, you may encounter some “lol priests r 4 hael n00b” attitudes. Do not be deterred, though: it is possible for shadow priests to out-damage other damage-dealing classes when played well. Thankfully this attitude has lessened alot since the release of Lich King, you can thank all the face melting end game raiders going for the Kingslayer achievement for that.

When it come to end game raiding keep in mind that a Shadow priest does suffer from the 5% hybrid tax. Many times you won't notice it unless you are in completely optimal gear and can't understand why you just can't quite reach the optimal damage output of a mage.

Many players level as a shadow priest for the ease of doing damage to their enemies. This leads to faster experience gains, and hence, faster leveling.

Healing Priests:

One of the strongest healers in the game, priests focused in healing are able to keep party members alive with ease.

Holy priests are considered to be the hybrid of the healer classes: paladins specialize in spamming heals to keep party member(s) alive, druids specialize in using heals-over-time (HoTs) to keep party members’ health stabilized, and shamans specialize in keeping their entire party alive with area of effect (AoE) group healing. Holy priests can do all three of these things well. This gives us great flexibility in end game raiding and keeps priest healers in high demand.

Priest healers specializing in the discipline tree instead of the holy tree focus more in damage prevention than raw healing power. This unique role makes them the ideal healers for tanks, the soakers of damage. Disipline priest also can use their damage prevention spells to mitigate damage raid wide to create a lot more breathing room for the other healer's in the group. Discipline priests can also hold their own very well in PVP if you are so inclined.

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When one door closes, another opens

2009-10-28T15:16:00.001-04:00

Let me start off by saying that I am very sad that the orginal Dwarf Priest as shuttered her doors. We shall miss you and your high quality information.

This blog is created in tribute to Dwarf's amazing Priest guide. Her guide is what got me started on priesting and helped me learn a tremendous amount. I've decided that I would like to attempt to update her great guide for all the new priests and keeping it up to date with the post 3.1 patches.

The original guide can be found at Dwarf Priest's orginal site.

It was well written and formatted so I will be keeping most of her style and information. I encourage anyone happening upon this blog to help me update and write by leaving comments or sending me an email.

I hope you enjoy the guide and we will miss you Dwarf!