An Actual Classic Wow Priest Leveling Guide (Vanilla era/Hardcore)

[@kangaroochili]

Man this is what I’ve been looking for. Despite Classic being “solved” It’s hard finding high quality, well researched guides specifically for Classic Era. So many guides are 3+ years old, using knowledge from private servers, and/or regurgitate WoW Head’s guide.

[@server1ok]

Solved my ass, it's the 1.12 patch that's well researched but not solved. Have you heard about spell power rogues out dpsing physical damage rogues ? Have you checked the patches before 1.12 when proc items were buffed by spell power ? Have you seen a spell power hunter crit with + 1 k arcane shots every 5 sec on the 1.12 client ( while wearing full T 1 set ) ? You haven't seen shit my man. Sadly. Blame the streamers and blame the fixation on the last patch of Vanilla when everything was normalized

[@dandy0397]

This is so well put together and easy to understand! It looks like a lot of work but I hope you plan on putting similar guides out for other classes.

[@max7971]

Amazing guide, and very professional presentation style-love it!

[@Jbry760]

Around 220 spirit rn at level 46. Getting around 800 crits with smite. Absolutely blasting, thank you for this!

[@n3phalem754]

You dont have 800crit LOL

[@PhalanxR]

@@n3phalem754 My spriest with 160sp gets 900 mind blasts. 800 is totally doable with the spell power granted by spirit tap and his passive spirit.

[@neverbeen5691]

He might mean 800 damage when its crit ​@@n3phalem754

[@cagribaba4464]

@@n3phalem754 yeah 800 crit is bs. Maybe on level 1 critters.

[@SmokinKipper]

@@n3phalem754 I am 48 and my smite is critting for ~750s

[@od1401]

Also if you're holy/disc, you can double up as a really good healer. That versatility for getting groups is super important

[@seankiernan9369]

Sweet thanks for the guide! I'm 41 first HC attempt. Most other guides out there have 1 or 2 things that I'm not sure about, but this one really nails it.

[@ponyman13]

I don't even play priest but this is an incredible guide. I think I'll level up my dwarf priest now

[@mellowsunset7730]

Great guide - I leveled as holy in OG classic and absolutely destroyed as a healer in dungeons and solo dps. Glad to see that possibility highlighted here.

[@ClassicJay]

I really like the PowerPoint types of guides like yours. It reminds me of Kargoz' original guides made for classic. Unfortunately they're not available anymore and yours is a lot more technically advanced. Keep it up! Do you plan to do them for every class?

[@tekn0de]

I only made this because I play a priest on era, and didn't like the state of priest guides. No plans to make more but maybe

[@Jkg71]

​@tekn0de you should consider it. Theirs definitely a void left by kargoz. Plus the classic community is still alive.

[@jeremykothe2847]

Did Kargoz delete his due to the drama?

[@Jkg71]

@@jeremykothe2847 yeah sadly

[@DavidM-hz6rd]

this really has what other videos are missing, really appreciate the detail and actual useful information. would love to see other classes, would help a bit for sod but also a lot for ssf hardcore

[@bmnbl]

Very interesting! Really great to just see the raw numbers and honestly im sold on leveling Holy i do want to be healing while not just soloing because i love dungeons

[@Totescolin]

This is the best video I've seen for any class leveling, also getting all of gearing into one page is great lol

[@Joe-pm9xv]

gameplay visual was exactly what I was looking for to compare leveling holy/shadow, thanks!

[@Psychomantis74]

Thanks man for this guide. I have been playing priest since wow launched. I still heard a lot from you. Especially on spirit tap. Thanks for explaining that

[@gavinlangley8411]

You would be able to sustain better overall kill rate by smiting once less and applying pain during a longer wand phase. You can get very good regen during the wand phase and a very low drink rate that allows you to keep killing.

[@jonatanduelund9123]

Absolutely aced it man 👌 great guide! I’m def going dwarf holy/disc on the hardcore servers

[@fsdafdsafdas]

Amazing guide! If you make ANY more for any of them I'm subscribed now! Can't wait! I'm currently a Hardcore enjoyer and this one really spelt it out!

[@MPkorbz]

You've convinced me to go holy. I wanted to for flavour but everything says shadow is better and I don't wanna slow down my HC leveling. Gonna go blast some holy as undead priest haha

[@ThatsOurRobert]

Thanks so much! A few years back I had a 60 rogue already on the hardcore addon. I can't wait to start with teh priest on official hardcore! I do really love the rules the addon has set so I keep that going on official. No trading, no duo or grouping and no checking the inbox for fanmail!

[@verpeiler089]

Thanks for the guide, it was really nice that you got into some Details most guide don't. Only one thing I've noticed in your gameplay video: You should really use nameplates with debuffs on it, especially if you're in instances it's so much more helpful.

[@purephocus444]

Such an amazing guide, level 53 hitting 900 smites after spirit tap, just crazy dmg

[@jdcoffey06]

Great guide. Makes me want to play priest for official HC.

[@bigkrunt]

gonna be maining priest in hardcore and this is an amazing guide im gonna refer back to, thank you for your hard work good sir

[@Doolz51]

This guide feels more like a “someone said you can’t level as holy so I’m gonna prove you wrong” guide than an overall priest leveling guide. But I love it! Thanks

[@xtadeus4777]

Thank you very much for this guide. Always looking for real priest analysis and not following the masses without good thinking ! I am definitely will follow those advices for my level 20 priest on my hardcore journey.

[@tyk774]

I really hope there are more guildes coming! well put together.

[@malakov5]

Very good guide. Most guides just show going straight shadow from the get go (minus wand spec). I’m leveling disc to 40 or 44 then going shadow just like you laid out. Perfect

[@naylo44]

Really high quality guide, thanks!

[@Tobez]

I've always tanked and done dps. Mostly melee. Been playing for so many years, finally decided to level a healer. Tons of great info in this so thank you

[@pokedadsam9041]

16:51 There are some great farming spots for horde wands. The sailors from the keep, burning blade, trolls on the island, and quilboars. And if you’re undead the scarlet crusade and farmers will give you a ton of cloth. I usually go from the orc/troll area to trisfal at level 10. Do the quests there and pick up the RFC/WC quests before heading back. You want that crescent staff.

[@orpheusnz]

Great guide! Recently discovered, and am really enjoying playing Classic Era Priest. Lots of helpful info!

[@Neferens]

Absolutely incredible guide, I appreciated watching it a lot! I'm not a Priest main myself, and I havn't noticed the fantastic synergy between Spirit Tap and Spiritual Guidance before, nice! In hindsight it feels so obvious!!! Spirit Tap affecting Power Word:Shield is interesting. I didn't consider that, but it makes sense, too bad the spell power coefficient is so bad, but it is something! Your segment about spell power coefficients is a little misleadning. When you compare the spell power coefficients you need to take the cast time into consideration... The real reason for Smite having such a good spell power coefficient comes from the fact that you can reduce the cast time with the talent Divine Fury, without affecting the spell power coefficient negatively! Without Divine Fury or Improved Fireball, the spell power coefficient per time spent casting is exactly the same for Smite, Mind Blast, and Fireball... Mind Flay almost has the same spell power coefficient, but receives a 5% coefficient penalty for having a slow debuff. Holy Fire is a different story I think. You say that it has 100% spell power coefficient, which I believe is incorrect! Spells that have a Direct component as well as a DoT component are strange... According to my knowledge of spell power coefficients a 3.5 second cast with a 10 second DoT would have a spell power coefficient of: (3.5/3.5)^2/(3.5/3.5+10/15) + (10/15)^2/(3.5/3.5+10/15) ~= 87% This is significantly worse per cast time than Smite, but maybe it has good base damage instead! Cheers!

[@xavier2946]

So is your general advice to level with the discipline spec until 40 and then respec as holy or shadow?

[@s3k___20]

Bro I think I went to middle school with you lol. Osceola? If not my bad. Good video. Doing duo hardcore with a friend and this is going to change my build completely. I was pretty much going full discipline cuz shields are fun

[@tekn0de]

Dm me, if that's even possible on youtube (not sure)

[@nbailey9391]

very nicely laid out, much appreciate it.

[@andreasb6487]

Excellent info. Thank you. Looking forward to leveling holy for The fresh start! 🎉

[@Grits420]

Great guide! Its not to bad to get the linen for troll starting zone. You can farm sailors, trolls and the boar people (name? lol). Though if you're in the zerg they get farmed out quickly

[@roadkingnothing]

An actual decent guide for Priest, nice work man!

[@AlexWaff]

Here for fresh, and this is a HUGE help!

[@lufenmartofilia5804]

Amazing video 🎉 you have put so mich effort into it. I really appreciate it

[@richardn7537]

Great video, would love to see other guides for other classes or endgame content

[@cold_spagetti]

Quality guide. I like that u broke down the math too! Thanks!

[@tuushuu]

Nice video ! Love the level of detail 🤓

[@garrag0]

Great guide and very well explained. Thank you

[@andromidius]

This might be a useful guide if I decide to play Hardcore - since I'll probably be playing Priest (never really played one before, want to do something different).

[@demonboyjr4915]

Nice guide the only thing I didn’t agree with that you went over briefly was the PvP racials. If you’re Horde Troll is arguably better than Undead for Spriest in PvP. Blackout + Shadowguard is incredibly strong and helps you against every class and you only need Rank 1 Hex for the 20% MS. As far as Wotf you already shit on warriors and Warlocks are disproportionately unpopular. It does help you vs other Priest though, but so does Shadowguard+Blackout and 20% MS. You don’t actually need the fear break as often as it seems. Devouring Plague can be strong, but being a disease is easily dispelled.

[@Spyro-]

Shadowguard's pushback is juicy too.

[@TopHop100]

thank you for this video. would like more priest specific content

[@TehHippieEater]

best priest guide out there thanks a lot man

[@Knifehands__]

Top tier content, liked and sub'd. So basically Horde gets shafted in the Priest department, because they can't roll Dwarf...

[@kap5373]

A champion of the people

[@Lt.Mingus69]

I leveled two priests strictly as discipline, really enjoyed that spec.

[@neptuNo27]

finally a good priest guide, thank you

[@dtt719]

One thing I would like to see is shadow stacking +shadow sp. It’s really easy to stack in your 40s with items like shadoweave. Adding 100+ SP on top of all the bonuses to shadow damage you get seems like it would help with efficiency. On my warlock I was pushing 200+ SP by my early 50s all with gear that a shadow priest could use too

[@andreihlen7597]

If you're lvling through quests / grinding mobs shadow is still better by a pretty huge margin as going oom isn't a real thing, even with spirit tap as holy you have some downtime

[@FrosteMelon]

It's been a while. But I played a lot different. Aka a shadow style where you do not oom much.. Which is the main factor in you xp time + mob density and spawn rate. This is also kind of moot. as once you hit scarlet Monestary. You will be 4mage+1Priest AOE farming to lvl 56 for 3-4 times the xp and you will spec to do so.

[@theperfectbeing]

The best part about properly leveling a priest is the fact that even though they don't kill things fast at all, you never have to drink. The second best part is they get the highest value from cooked food because they double dip in the spirit value provided from it. Also everyone loves you when you give them a free fort buff :D Absolutely agree with everything you said here except for the 4 out 5 pvp healing rating. As someone who's taken priest to rank 14 and a few other classes to rank 11+ I can assure you that disc priest is easily the best overall pvp healer in the game. The power of mana burn, dispel (offensive/defensive), PI, fear, renew and PWS make them punishing to the enemy team in the right hands. That's why if you look at any of the top pvp teams for the alliance, they run a single pally and two to three priests.

[@JonathonTheAsshole]

The fact they never drink is why they actually kill fast. Taking an extra 3-4 seconds to kill something is WAY faster overall than killing 3-4 mobs then sitting and drinking for 30 seconds like every other class.

[@tekn0de]

Yeah I guess you could rate them 5/5. It didn't feel right to mark them 5/5 for me because I think they're pretty vulnerable to hunters and rogues.

[@jacebullen8299]

Do you think you could do a video on your plater settings? I like the way your health bar/mana bar looks

[@fireraassassin3911]

At 19:37 you stun the mob with Blackout talent, but no where in your guide you pick that talent. May i ask why and should i use blackout or no, but if i do i guess some other changes must be done too? Please reply Otherwise i love your guide ty a lot.

[@thifooo]

for HC highly dont recommend going holy after 40, 15% dmg reduction from shadowform, silence and lower cd on fear can decide whether you stay alive or not. Secondly you can heal every single dung as shadow as most of the time you doing nothing.

[@serb9265]

Hey man, do you reckon when you respec holy at 39 to rush straight down and get 5/5 Spiritual Guidance and then pick up 5/5 Spirit tap and THEN going down the rest of the Disc tree? Or would you pick up Spiritual Guidance later and get Wand Spec talents?

[@Calx9]

That was my question. Couldn't find an answer so I just went with my gut. I took the disc and shadow talents first for safety.

[@kaj4501]

Solid guide in general. Things I would change for hardcore is taking Blackout when you are a Troll. Shadowguard is so insanely strong with the chance to proc on each damage tick. It also benefits from the shadow talents and it essentially saves you the extra Mind Flay. For even more cost efficient killing, on single target mobs you can sometimes forgo with PW:S and use Vampiric Embrace every other mob. This will save loads of mana. Another small thing, the 5 second rule will also help you with regulating mana regeneration. There's an addon which helps with that.

[@Agostino9226]

Can I ask your opinions on what to focus on/ to consider when wanting to do some dungeons in hardcore? What’s a good safe hybrid for that? Thanks for the guide buddy!

[@Calx9]

He said holy if you want to do dungeons and level efficiently.

[@Mordog88]

Thank you for that well made Video. For no particular reason i level my Priest as full Diszi at the moment. I just Dinged lvl 32. You got any Words on Diszi? In Comparison to Holy and Shadow? Ups and Downs and so on? Thank you very mutch!

[@SlingshotFooty]

Amazing video, thank you!

[@gogakholuashvili5124]

Well done mate. good guide

[@neverclevernorwitty7821]

Really great guide, thanks! Just hit 40 on my first HC attempt, and decided to respec Shadow. For gearing since we +sp doesn't scale as well as Holy, do we have any guidance on how much more we should value +spirit gear over +sp? I don't have much +sp gear and wondering if I should be dropping some +spirit to get some.

[@Eddie_Gonzalez]

W guide, thank you! (:

[@geoffreyparlby4546]

Hard for me to believe a holy spec would compete in damage with shadow considering how much gear is available for a shadow priest at level 45. Full dreamweave/shadoweave shadow spec pumps way harder from what I have tested.

[@taylorpayne1993]

Best HC priest guide

[@dbasonic4728]

step 1. mind blast. step 2. wand. literally done.

[@johng2794]

u mean step1: shadowword pain^^

[@gytisu2425]

Great guide, love it! With Hardcore Reals coming on 24th August, any plans to add a second part with tips for Hardcore players?

[@JoaoPaulo-lr6wh]

This guide is 100% gooooood 🤟

[@dollarsex9020]

good guide, well done!

[@workgambit906]

We back on the fresh release baby

[@ludnqka]

you forgot the nelf racial jumping flips which puts them at S+ tier

[@Flux06-dy3ru]

this is couldnt be more correct.

[@Tycon]

Maybe a touch late but for an interesting thought experiment, considering the spell damage you gain from spiritual guidance, how mana efficient is star shards for damage to follow up holy fire if you pre-shield to block spell pushback for the channel.

[@tekn0de]

Starshards scales at 100% but it is very slow to get that 100%. You deal more damage with smites but it's more mana efficient than smite. It also can't crit. You're better off smiting, but it is good kick bait if a mob kicks

[@obviouslee2061]

Good shit bro. 10/10

[@jeremykothe2847]

should probably include the PWS talent in the disc tree as Key, since that's what lets your mp5 work while levelling

[@GabeTheBabe]

Dude this was such a huge help! Thank you

[@louishague1878]

Can I ask what addons you use? I love your UI! would love to know how I can replicate that before servers launch. Great video !

[@tekn0de]

Shadow UF and Bartender are 90% of that ui

[@mitkokurekov8452]

Hey appreciate the video insanly good guide i wanted to ask aboth a rotation brfore we get holy fire(lv20) and after we get mindblast at (10).Probably a dumb question but im kinda new to priest.

[@Cri354]

Is it generally always better to forgo bonus healing and damage over pure spirit? So one glove might give 4 spirit and 14 heal and dmg and another might hive 10-15 spirit but no heal and damage. What would be better? I am talking about the holy leveling with smite spam and spirit tap.

[@tekn0de]

In that example it would likely be the damage but it's not an obvious answer because things usually die in x spells casts+wand globals and a 1% damage increase may not impact the number of globals. In practice it tends to be quite obvious while leveling if something is an upgrade

[@grandmarnier3746]

I just can't help but get Blackout every time. Those clutch moments in Wpvp.

[@yufg_jyg]

Can you make one for druid class please?

[@kobi2643]

isnt wand talents kinda waste for holy later on ? as you just gonna use holy fire and spam smite ?

[@arcticbeak]

It would be even better if you did highlight the "Key Talents" and "Synergystic Talents" in a way that would enable us to better see how many points are actually spent there.

[@tekn0de]

Sorry 😅. The link in the description has the talents and the order to take them

[@fizzlebank]

if you have this knowledge on any other class definitely make a guide, people will find and appreciate this kinda in depth build info cause so few actually do it, its all regurgitated generic info.

[@90kalos1]

Is fear ward really that useful in PvE? Ive always preferred humans for leveling classic priests for the 5% bonus spirit (also the bonus rep for exalted but thats not relevant to leveling as a priest)

[@olaeret123]

Lots of raidbosses that fear :) But for levling i dont think its that huge no.

[@dororo4148]

What’s the stat priority for 1-40 discipline? The first build shown?

[@martinpedersen2650]

great guide

[@zoldlen883]

Can we get more class guides? Druid would be great.

[@scs-yt]

I legit thought I was THE nerd playing the same priest on retail since 2005. I think it is you.

[@yogurthewise-lj2yw]

If leveling as Holy, would you use Hypnotic Blade + Orb of the Forgotten Seer over using the Orb of the Forgotten Seer?

[@robz4632]

very good guide.

[@facts9538]

Please make a Hunter video. Great video bro.

[@Klax3]

for pve is healing power always better than spirit on gear for holy?

[@Calx9]

A bit of common sense for that question. You probably need the spirit more so for the leveling. That way your regen, dmg, and healing all get a increase. You aren't focusing on healing for dungeon, if you are then go for it.

[@jazzmeltsface]

As 39-40 Holy, do you lose much dropping the 5 wand spec points? obviously you will chuck one in immediately each level but will smite carry enough only having like 1 point in wand? and as HC primarily solo levelling would it be better to go for the mitigation points in holy instead of the healing? i feel like 2 points in renew, 1-2 points in imp healing and healing focus is kinda useless as at the point where you have to attempt healing yourself you probably should start running/leashing instead, and having 5 points in spell warding might be a bit better to save getting 1 shot by caster damage. Btw i 100% understand the synergy of having those heal points when healing dungos, not that priests really need it, but as a straight up solo leveler is spell warding good?

[@worldofwarpool5379]

Mana regen doesnt have anything to do with combat, just 5 seconds rule

[@WeNeededThis]

It kinda does when comparing Shadow to Holy since Holy rotation starts with a 3-3.5s cast whereas Shadow starts with a 1.5s cast. The 1.5-2s delta can often be the difference between getting a fat Spirit Tap tick and having to stop to drink

[@michaelbowman6684]

I know this is relatively underexplained part of the video, but I would argue that Trolls are better than Undead when it comes to PvP. Shadowguard being able to proc Blackout and Shadow Weaving on top of being a Shadow Damage clone of Lightning Shield is applicable in more situations than WOTF which helps in comparatively less matchups. This is on top of having a practically no mana cost -20% Healing Curse in the form of a Rank 1 Hex of Weakness, and Berserking doing stupid things with Mana Burn like getting it down to a 2.1 casting time with maximum Berserking effectiveness, 1.75 if you take the 2/2 Improved Mana Burn talent, or 2.25 if used at full health, making it _kind of_ comparable to TBC Mana Burn depending on the circumstances, and of course it helps to having shorter cast times whenever you drop out of Shadowform to heal yourself. All Dwarfs alongside all Priests and Paladins can cure diseases and thus nullify Devouring Plague, whereas only Mages (I haven't met one that has done so yet) and Druids (they have to transform into base form to do so) can dispel Hex of Weakness, and I don't feel like I need to explain why Touch of Weakness is just a worse Shadowguard.

[@eliashjelm8685]

Great video

[@cat891202]

So which one do u suggest? I’m hesitating to change shadow talent. But I’m do healer in dungeon most of the time.