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Contents

Introduction

Updated for Cataclysm 4.3

Shadow Priests are a pretty cool class, once you get into the good stuff, and they present a solid variety of damage capabilities plus the ever-present healing/buffing power of any priest.  All in all they also come in very close to Warlocks in terms of style and grinding ability, they just lack the pet.

Shadow priests also have quite a bit of their own playstyle to enjoy, face-melting with mind flay (lazers!) as well as certain mind control hijinks.

So, read on and learn how to maximize your shadow priest's leveling experience.

As far as Holy and Discipline Priests go, well, your solo leveling experience will be a bit on the slow side, due to lack of damage. Join a group (PvP or Dungeon,) keep them healthy, and you'll level just fine.

Shadow's the way to go for the damage and the solo leveling.

Quick Priest Leveling Guide

Race: Any race, except Orcs, but including Pandarens, can be a priest. For leveling purposes your race won't matter much, so play what you like to play. While each race has certain special abilities those abilities just don't matter that much while leveling.

On the other hand, if you want to be efficient for end-game raiding or whatever:

• Troll, for the Berserking and increased damage Vs beasts.
• Gnome or Human for Alliance.
• More about races

Builds & Glyphs: Click the links to see the builds

You're either ranged damage or a healer. If you choose to be a healer you're better off with a team while leveling, since your damage output won't be very interesting.

• Shadow - Unless you want to stick to being a dungeon healer, this is what we recommend for leveling up. Nice damage and you can drop out of Shadow to heal yourself (or others.)
• Holy - Nice as a dungeon/raid healer, not so hot for questing.
• Discipline - Also a good dungeon healer and a good PvP healer. This is also a good way to go if you're dungeon leveling.
• Check out this in-game leveling guide to get to 85 (or 90 or whatever) fast.

Stats:

• Stack Stamina until you're happy with your life expectancy.
• After that, stack all the Int that you can.
• Twisted Faith gives Hit rating based on your Spirit, making Spirit a valuable stat. Shadow wants Hit to kill things, healers want Spirit for better mana regen.
• You have no use for Str or Agi.
• Resilience is for PvP only.
• Don't worry about Haste, Crit, etc., unless you're teaming regularly.
• More about stats

Gems:

• When you find items with sockets and you want to bother with gemming, then Gem for Int. and Int. only. Skip socket bonuses unless they are at least half of the value of that Int gem.

Enchants:

Cheap enchants, such as Stamina, can often be found on the Auction House. You're probably going to level out of your current gear very soon, so spending too much gold on enchants is pointless. Heirlooms can be enchanted with any enchant that will work on ilevel 1 items.

• Look for Stam, Int, Spellpower, and Haste.

Gear:

• Same as Enchants.
• Healers need Spirit for better mana regen.
• Wands are nice, especially when they have useful stats.

Consumables:

• Potions of Mana or Int
• Foods for Stam and/or Int/Spirit
• Scrolls of Int or Stam

Professions:

• Skip the tradeskills unless you're rolling in cash.
• If you have lots of gold, then tailoring and enchanting are a nice combo for priests.
• To earn more gold, pick two of these and work them hard: Skinning, Mining, Herbalism.
• You don't need first aid, obviously, but it might have certain uses. Such as healing your partner with a bandage rather than a spell, just for the LOLz.
• More about professions

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Race Choice for Leveling Your Priest

For leveling purposes your racial choice really doesn't matter much. Trolls might level the fastest, due to the added damage Vs. beasts and their Berserking ability, but if a Gnome or Pandaren is what you want to play then go for it.

If you really want to be efficient, because you're going into end-game raiding or PvP and want to sqeeze our over last bit of effectiveness, then read on:

In a case of blatent racial discrimination, Orcs are the only race that cannot be priests.

In Mists of Pandaria you will be able to play a Priestly Panda and play as either Horde or Alliance.

• You get Better buffs from foods
• Skilled with cooking
• Bouncy (less falling damage)
• Rest XP lasts longer
• The touch of your paw can put an enemy to sleep.

For the Horde!

Blood Elf - Best looking hair of all priests, but not much in the way of useful racials.

• Arcane torrent will restore some mana, but is otherwise a point blank area effect and you won't usually be that close to the opposition.
• Enchanting skill is increased
• Resistant to Arcane damage

Goblin - Hey Bud, ya wanna buy a holy symbol? Cheap?

• Rocket Jump is a nice escape or emergency movement.
• Haste increased, which is nice since Haste is one of your best stats.
• Launch rockets? Do you care?
• Vendor discounts and a personal bank have their uses.
• Increased Alchemy skill and better effects from your own potions.

Tauren - Big, fuzzy, big, lovable, big...

• Warstomp isn't so hot since you won't usually be in melee range, but it has its uses when the opposition gets too close and/or your fear is on CD or undesireable.
• Increased health doesn't actually provide much at 85 or beyond.
• Increased Herbalism skill and speed.

Troll - Best tusks in the game.

• Bereserk increases casting speed when you need it. Nice.
• Damage increase Vs beasts is nice for leveling and some PvE content.
• Reduced duration of movement impairing effects is always nice, especially in PvP.
• Regen is increased, by a very small amount. You have heals, do you care?
• Since you don't use bows or throwing knives you won't care about the extra crit with these items.

Undead - No special abilities for leveling or PvE, put they sure look the part of the Evil High Priest.

• Remove fear, sleep, charm - very nice for PvP, sometimes useful in PvE.
• Underwater breathing helps with the many underwater quests and might have PvP use.
• Consuming corpses to regain mana (and health) has its uses, and might be a nice "in your face" for PvP. Kill 'em and eat 'em!

For the Alliance!

Draenei - Tentacles. 'nuff said.

• The heal is fairly useless, for you, but it's free.
• +1% chance to hit helps with end-game gearing, especially in PvE. Much less useful if you become a healer.
• Jewelcrafting skill increased.
• Resistant to Shadow damage

Dwarf - Bless this ore... No particular PvE abilities.

• Stoneform wipes bleeds and reduced damage by 10%, nice when that Rogue is too close or those other "oops" moments.
• Ummm... you're short?
• Good with Archeology
• You won't care about expertise with maces or increased crit with guns.

Gnome - Hmmm... how can we mechanize this ritual... No direct PvE abilities.

• Escape from speed altering effects has uses in PvE and PvP.
• Increased mana pool is nice.
• Engineering skill increased.
• Resistant to arcane damage.
• Expertise with small blades isn't interesting to Priests.

Human - A pretty solid choice for Priests, especially healers.

• Increased Spirit is nice for Discipline and Holy, not so much for Shadow and Shadow is what we recommend for leveling.
• Bonus to rep gains is nice with all the many factions in this game. if you're going to be doing any rep grinding then this is a nice plus.
• Expertise with mace and swords. Do you care?
• PvP trinket ability allows use of two DPS trinkets in PvP. Also has occasional PvE use.

Night Elf - Nelves and shadows, a match made in... well... someplace. No special PvE abilities.

• Fade into the Shadows. Lurk in wait, pop out with a fear... Also drops aggro in dungeons.
• Being a bit more more difficult to hit is always nice, especially in PvP.
• Resistant to Nature damage
• Faster movement while stealthed? Nice for Rogues...
• Wisp form so you can get back to your dead body faster.

Worgen - Just don't get them wet, the smell is ... disturbing. Besides that, they're a good general priest race.

• Sprint is nice
• An added 1% Crit chance with spells is nice for heals or damage.
• They're good with skinning.

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Professions - Talents - Gear - Level faster

Tradeskills

Tailoring provides us, as well as mages and warlocks, with gear sets matching or surpassing gear obtainable from all sources other than raids and arenas.

As a complementing skill I’d suggest picking up Enchanting, it works well in synergy with tailoring to disenchant crafted items and sell, making back some if not all of the crafting cost while simultaneously raising your tailoring skill.

If you don't have a steady cash flow then consider the gathering professions. You'll make enough gold to keep yourself in gear and mounts, where leveling two crafting professions will make you a small fortune, if you start with a large one.

Check out our Tailoring & Enchanting profession guides for more information on leveling those skills.

• Consider Cooking for the buffing foods.
• First Aid is useful for those times when you just don't want to spend the mana to heal or you find yourself both out of mana and nearly out of health. You can also troll other players by using your bandages to heal them instead of your spells. Obviously it's a much less useful skill than if you're, say, a Warrior.
• If you don't take Tailoring and/or Enchanting then take any two of the gathering skills: mining, skinning, and herbalism. They'll keep you in gold as you level up.
• Check out our gold guide if your gold supply is weak.

Min/max Professions

If you have a ton of gold and want to power level one or two of the crafting professions to get the buffs, then go for it. Each of the main professions will provide a self-only buff worth about 80 Int. over the next best choice. Not a lot at all in terms of level 85 damage capability, but if you're in a race to get every tiny bit of DPS, then go for it. Mists of Pandaria will increase the maximim crafting skill level to 600 and the buff bonus will at least double from current values.

If you're not doing Tailoring and Enchanting, then consider Engineering since that Int boosting ability is on demand, not just a random proc.

• Alchemy - Besides generally being able to create all kinds of useful potions and flasks, you will get an additional 80 Int from your Flask of the Draconic Mind. Oh yeah, there's an extremely expensive to make top of the line potion that lets you turn into a dragon. That may be worth getting Alchemy right there.
• Blacksmithing - all told, not a really useful profession for you. Still, it'll let you add a socket to your gloves and wrists, for some nice gems. And you can make axes or armors for your Warrior pal. With the introduction of the epic gems in patch 4.3 Blacksmithing pulls ahead, since it will let you slot two +50 Int gems for +100 total Int.
• Enchanting - besides being able to keep you gear enchanted as you level you will always be able to disenchant all that junk gear that your groups find. Oh yeah, you can also enchant your rings for 40 Int each.
• Engineering - Besides making all sorts of cool gadgets and that motorcycles, you can also make the awesome Synapse Springs gadget for your gloves which adds 480 Int for 10 seconds, with a 60 sec cooldown. That's an average of about 80 Int over a long fight, but that 480 Int is on demand, not a random proc, so you can fuel your bursts with it.
• Inscription - Besides glyphs and useful off-hand items and such, you get a nice shoulder enchant which adds 130 Int.
• Jewelcrafting - You can make some money with this skill, if you're careful and pay attention, you can also make yourself three +67 Int gems.
• Leatherworking - About as useful as Blacksmithing, except that the enchant adds 130 Int to your writsts. You can make stuff for your Rogue and Hunter friends.
• Tailoring - A pretty useful skill when leveling and actually goes well with Enchanting (You can disenchant all the extra greens you create.) Your LightWeave embroidery sometimes adds 580 Int to your cloak for 15 seconds.

Shadow Talents for Cataclysm

This build is designed to reach the core points of the shadow tree ASAP, allowing you to become the mana efficient non-stop killing machine of legend, as well as picking up what I consider the best choices of supporting talents.

This build assumes that you will do most of your leveling via questing, but it will also be fine as DPS if you choose to gain a few, or many, leveling in the dungeons through the random dungeon finder tool.

Unfortunately enough, shadow really doesn’t come into its real/full potential until level 29, when you get Shadowform. Until you hit that "killing machine" stage you'll just have to take it easy and have a bit of patience.

With the availablility of dungeon and PvP leveling there is little to stop you from going either the Holy Priest or Discipline Priest routes, but Shadow is generally faster. If you want to be a healer and like to team a lot (and do instances,) then go for it. You can get the "Dual Spec" ability from your trainer for 10 gold. Do Shadow for your damage and a healing build if you want to give that a shot.

You might also find that teaming, in PvP, with a pure damage dealer (Warrior, Ret Pally, Rogue, etc) can make for a fast leveling experience, especially if your team is winning.

Cataclysm Shadow Priest Leveling Build

Your special abilities for going Shadow are:

• Mind Flay - A short duration DoT that also slows the opponent
• Shadow Power - Spell damage increased and your crits do 100% bonus damage instead of 50%.
• Shadow Orbs - You gain a chance to summon Shadow Orbs which will increase the power of various spells when consumed.
• Mastery: Shadow Orb Power - Improves the effectiveness of your Shadow Orbs. Trainable at level 80.

Pain and Suffering pretty much sums up what you do. Lots of damage. Once you earn your 31st talent point you can reach out and grab talents from other trees.

10/0/31 Cataclysm Shadow Priest Leveling Spec

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Professions - Talents - Gear - Level faster

Leveling, Stats, Gear, & Stuff

Your Stats:

Int converts into Spellpower (as of Cataclysm release.) Int also adds to your mana pool and a small amount to your crit rating. Anytime that you grab new gear you'll want to be looking for Int and Stam. With plenty of stam you can DoT up a few opponents, shield yourself, and watch them expire at your feet.

1. Int is the new spellpower. Stack as much as you can.
2. Stamina - is going to keep you alive, especially on PvP servers. Get as much as you need in order to survive, then go for more Int.
3. Hit Rating - you don't need much for leveling and you don't need any for healing. If you go dungeoning/raiding as Shadow then you will need a fair amount, but see #4.
4. Spirit - Spirit on gear is now good as the Twisted Faith talent adds Hit Rating based on your gear based Spirit. Especially useful if you are shooting for the raid content. It also helps with your mana regen.
5. If you're going to work on Hit rating...
   • You'll want about 4% or so for leveling
   • 4% is fine for PvP
   • 14% is needed to always hit dungeon bosses
   • 17% is what you'll want for raid bosses.
6. Haste Rating - Your most important secondary stat.
7. Mastery Rating is only a concern after level 80, but is almost as good as Haste.
8. Crit chance - Useful for leveling, but Int counts for more.
9. Agility is useless. It will provide some trivial defense gain, but nothing else. Skip it.
10. Strength is useless to you, skip it.

Gear, Gems, Enchants, etc.

As you can tell from the above look for Int first, then Stam and Spirit. Gems slots are rare before 60 and all gems should be Int (generally "brilliant" gems.)

• Brilliant Inferno Ruby: +40 Int. This should go into all slots unless some requirement has to be met or the slot bonus is really good (see above.)
• An epic +50 Int gem, Brilliant Queen's Garnet, is avaialble, but commands a pretty fair chunk of gold. Not worth it for leveling.

Enchants are frequently expensive and you'll be leveling quickly enough that you'll probably need a new one (for your new gear) in a few mnutes. Ok, a few levels. As above, go for Int, Stam, and Spirit. Really cheap enchants can sometimes be found, so keep an eye on the Auction House if you're interested.

Scrolls and Potions and Foods

Scrolls are available either from the Auction House or from a Scribe (Inscription Profession.) Scrolls can buff your Int/Stam/Spirit for not much gold.

Potions can buff Int/Mana and various stats. Healing potions are nice for when you need to be throwing spells elsewhere. Mana potions are good for those Out of Mana (OOM) times.

You can only have one buffing potion or scroll up at a time (scrolls are now "battle elixers.") You can have a food buff up at the same time. Food buffs stam at low levels (the spirit is an effect, so benefits from Twisted Faith.)

And, of course, there's your very own Power Word: Fortitude to increase your stam, as well as that of your entire group.

Go to => Top - Quick notes - Race - Professions - Talents - Gear - Level faster

Leveling Tips:

1. The goal is to spend more time actually leveling and less time on other things. If you have to run back and forth from the vendor to buy supplies and dump stuff then you're wasting time. Taking breaks to do fun stuff (duels, hanging with friends, etc. is cool, but doesn't help you level faster. But, since the game is supposed to be fun...)
2. Set up a bank alt and mail all of your sellable stuff to that character.
3. Buy the biggest bags you can afford, even from level 1.
4. Buy plenty of any supplies you might need, spell reagents, etc.
5. Learn cooking to gain access to the buffing foods, or just buy them off the AH.
   
   
6. Questing is much more efficient than grinding for gaining XP, if you group smiliar quests together so you can do more than one at the same time.
7. Always log out at an inn, to get the rest XP when you log back in.
8. Leveling with a competent buddy will make things go faster. Less XP per kill, but faster kills and less downtime will more than make up for it.
   
   
9. Dungeons used to require time to gather a group and travel to the dungeon. WoW's Dungeon Finder tool is a big help here. Dungeon leveling can result in pretty fast XP gain and gives out better gear than questing. Most of the dungeons quests can be found just inside the dungeon entrance. As Shadow you're wait times to get into the dungeon (using the tool) will be at least a few minutes, so you might want to combine dungeoning with questing or gathering.
   
   
10. At level 30, if you can afford it (a brutal 10g,) buy the dual talent capability and make your second build a healing build, which will put you in much higher demand for groups (and youi'll get into dungeon grouips faster.)
11. Beware of fear spells. Mobs will run and bring back friends. You will learn all about this soon.
12. Use your hearthstone often.
13. Only buy gear upgrades if it's a major upgrade. It's a waste of time and gold to buy new gear every level, you won't see much benefit from the small upgrades. Instances have great gear and that gear is free, you just have to win the rolls for that gear.
    
14. Skip crafting, unless you enjoy it, since it takes a lot of time and gold.
15. Skip gathering, unless you need the cash or you're feeding a profession.
16. Heck, depending on how you're feeling at the moment, skip looting! (Heresy, I know.) Just blast everything, hand in the quests, get more, continue.

If you want the best gear while leveling and don't want to spend time gold-grinding, then you should be doing the instances.

Priest Leveling Guide for 1-90