So getting back into Classic and I want to level a Forsaken. Back in the day I played Warlock but I enjoy the concept of Shadow priest with the Forsaken. In retail Affliction Warlock and Shadow Priest are similar these days but is that true for Wotlk Classic?
From what I have read Priest leveling is just wanding 90% of the time. Is it really? or are people just exaggerating, and trying to be efficient and get to max level as fast as possible? I’m not really caring about pvp or endgame. I mostly play by myself but not opposed to playing with others. I want to play this character for the nostalgia and going threw the old story of the forsaken again. Enjoying and exploring the old zones.
Also which class quest for the forsaken were the best? I remember the rogues being awesome, but that honestly all I remember.
However, Warlock is a pretty competitive class. You ought to be good at it if you want to get yourself a raiding spot. (If you ever choose to pursue this)
There are less priests overall, and there is a chance you might get sucked into healing, as Disc Priests are S-tier for raid healing and are fantastic in PvP all around.
Here is the logs overview. You can compare Affic vs Shadow performance. https://classic.warcraftlogs.com/zone/statistics/1018#sample=7&dataset=95
There are ~280,000 total warlocks parses vs ~130,000 Shadow Priests parses reported in wowlogs for last week. This means 2 things -
Warlocks are more desired, due to their perfomance.
Every raid still has a Shadow Priest, but the odds are, it’s only 1 per raid.
Both specs share identical gear more or less, outside of some spirit-based items, that AFAIK are more useful to warlocks due to life tap glyph and their overall synergy with spirit. Not 100% sure on Shadow Priests tbh.
In terms of leveling, leveling as a Warlock is a lot easier imho. Especially once you get Syphon Life talent. You just never die.
There really isn’t all that much wanding in Wrath tbh. But you’d be definitely drinking more as a Shadow Priest comparing to a Warlock. As for earlier leveling, I’d say Warlocks beat Shadow Priests fun/power/efficiency 10/10 times.
The only drawback of warlocks is needing to do pet quests. But for leveling, all you really need is the chunky boy (Imp for dungeons) and rest can be done later.
Instead of asking warlock vs priest, you should be asking warlock vs mage. I don’t think priest is a wise class choice if you only want to play shadow. 2/3 of your book is heals/buffs you don’t care about. It would be a better long term choice to play a triple damage class, which is warlock or mage. If you get bored of a page as warlock or mage, you have 2 others to play with. Shadow priest does not.
They still pound down lots of water lol. If you you don’t mix in wand you get lots of down time on drink breaks.
Server depending I’d also i f no tailor have the s. priest become the tailor. 2 part issue. Is the gear there in AH and are the prices reasonable if so.
Now if one mixes in pvp into the leveling here is where they look a lot better to me. A big reason for my interest in my s priest leveling (level 25 now) is what I have seen in BG.
Priest leveling is really fun now. By 20 you feel like a shadow priest. Stack as much spirit and shadow dmg as possible and enjoy. (Classic and BC 1-max was awful on priest.)
This is true. For the better part of this year i stayed twinked at 79 on my priest and it was glorious. Both Shadow and Disc are absolute monsters in BGs as you’re leveling up. Warlocks can be effective but they lack some important pvp tools (namely, Portal) in the leveling brackets and arent as strong as Priests in these brackets. Priest is INSANE twinked at 79.
Lowbie spriest is tons of fun in pvp, especially 70 and 79. I played a 79 (Chuckbobuck!) for a while earlier this year and crushed. Thinking about dusting him off and putting the fear back into the 79 bracket.
I hated yet was in awe of some 59/60 s. priests twinks the last 80 run I did met.
at some point mind flay…actually hurts when geared right for it. One shots basically. That hunter was a true 1 to 80 leveler, she did things lol. And was dying so fast.
That’s when I said I must have this for rdps besides hunter.
I can only speak from a warlock PoV. But out of every class I level I find affliction the most engaging and fun, as it becomes an internal resource management game where you juggle both your mana and health pools to make sure you always end the fight with both at 100%. You can also level as demo if you choose, but I find it less fun and superior to the drain tanking method.
Thanks everyone for the replies! I decided to make one of each and level them both to 10. And they both do honestly feel very similar, but the Warlock seems to have more going for it. A pet to tank, health stones, easy mount and while I enjoy the flavor and lore with the shadow priest more. Warlock is easier with the pet that can tank for me and not having to depend on other people. While I would love to make friends with my priest most people just want to use me as a heal bot and nothing else. While I don’t mind off healing or healing in a pinch. Just being a heal bot for people is not what I had in mind. If I had close friends to play with I would definitely go S Priest, so far it hasn’t gone well. I will say it is nice to be need it as a priest. Warlocks are a dime a dozen but everyone always wants the priest even if they just want me to heal bot. -_-
I started this priest a few days ago, been great so far. I only have heirloom shoulders but it’s been real fun. Use holy fire with smite until around level 30 then go shadow and get VE, for up to three mobs and want. You’ll drink a lot up to around level 40 then you get shadowform and really start to shine.
