I got 4 points in wand spec gonna add a 5th I think. that will get me to +25% wand damage. I use it a lot and have a good wand. does any other priests level like this? im level 44, got 3 points in improved renew, all other points in shadow
I notice I do more damage with wand then I do with mind flay
after I have mob dotted up and used mind blast once or twice, when mob is at 40% or so i wand with the dot on so that spirit tap kicks in hard when I kill mob
The power of wands will drop off sharply as you level up. Honestly even at your level, it would probably be much better to put those talent points elsewhere. But if it doesnât feel agonizingly slow to you, then wand damage is pretty efficient.
yea I was thinkin, thats 4 points I could put to get 8% shadow damage buff, probly better
I just realized I could get shadowform, I need to respec mos def
Way better. Shadow priest damage is pretty mana-efficient with spirit tap. And obviously the more points you dump into shadow talents, the more efficient/strong it will be. Iâd suggest checking out the shadow priest leveling guide on wowhead. They have a build that works nicely as you level.
Keep in mind, wanding is still good! But itâs mostly a nice filler once you get your enemies nice and dotted up. Since you canât just keep mind flaying once the mobs reach you. Then you can also tap into your non-casting mana regen.
thanks, Iâm thinkin of something like this
I would still recommend wand damage talents, at least until you hit 50. When I leveled my spriest, i found it most efficient to MB, apply dots, mindflay x1 (optional), wand to death. This will get you into the 5 second rule by the time the mob is dead for maximim spirit tap efficiency.
My experience was that mana was by far more important than health to keep as high as possible for each mob. You could chain pull mobs and then eat and drink at the same time when health and mana are low.
Blowing all your mana to kill things a bit quicker will just mean having to stop to drink more often, even with spirit tap.
Holy spec is surprisingly better than you would think. Shadow has dots and the easily interruptible mind flay which doesnât match mob health as well unless you do a few at a time. Until dual spec Iâd go 14 in disc, 5 in spirit tap, and the talents for holy fire / smite.
Mind Blast > SW:P > wand wand wand wand
sure, itâs very dull but
Holy Fire > Mind Blast> SW:P > PW:S > Mind Flay Mind Flay
is also very dull, and there is no pushback on wands
Priest leveling is one of the strongest in the game because of spirit tap, sadly too many fall into the myth of wand spec without exploiting this.
Itâs simple; stack as much spirit as it takes to be able to chain pull without going oom. When you find that sweet spot, then stack pure shadow damage. Doing this on my priest resulted in leveling faster than my BM hunter. I never had to wand to save mana & never had stop to drink throughout all of azeroth. (though to be fair, i did trick my priest out with cheap spirit enchants)
Sadly, this tactic gets a bit of a nerf from the prepatch.
i was wand/shadow spec until 40
once you get 40 respect into full shadow and smooth till 70
By the level youâre at with Shadowform, your wand damage has fallen off by that point. You can still put points into it post-Shadowform (itâs still a good mana-free damage source), but it drops in priority.
Like the second poster said âoptimallyâ you drop wands at about level 40.
If lazy bubble wanding levels is you thing, then keep it.
I leveled all the way to 70 with it, because I am simply too lazy to respec, and it was fine. Probably gained an hour or two of level time from 1-70 but meh. I might have made up for that by efficiently killing mobs with it while I got a soda or answered the door etc. 
Tbh, I donât even remember the talent you take in its stead, but I doubt it matters unless you are speed running.
Look up whats called âsmiteâ spec. It gives you wand pts the shadow ones for mana regen and better shadow word pain and some holy too. You get enough holy you can still heal dungeons but you arent gimped when you go out questing. Honestly i have tried leveling shadow and its ok but then you cant heal dungeons if you want to. I get groups any time i want to as heals even with that spec and it worked well for me. I will likely do something similar when wotlk drops till i get to almost 80
Itâs the basic priest leveling system, until you get shadow form then you stay in shadow form, dot, dot, flay once or twice and wand it down with bubble up. Get rid of any holy talents, you donât want them
More Shadow damage talents, then you end up taking it anyway as itâs generally more useful than the alternative (unless youâre on a PvP server).
Wand + spirit tap are the best things for a priest in low levels. I also really recommend renew. Donât even go full shadow because itâs crap prior to shadow form. Youâre better off mixing builds and can simply respec at 40 if you want.
Shadow spec sort of blows until you get Shadowform & you will find a wand somewhat useful, especially if you are light/neglectful on Spirit stat. After 40, stack some Spirit & let Spirit Tap talent do the rest. Also once you get Vamperic Touch DoT/Mana-Return you can pull non-stop with the right rotation & never need to wand or stop to drink (& use PW: Shield even every 15 sec). It gets even better in WotLK for Shadow Priests, compared to their somewhat hobbled design in Vanilla & TBC. Shadow Priest will be my main in WotLK (along with a heal spec via dual spec feature).
Me who levels as a Holy Smite.
I heal like a boss and destroy enemies with the power of light. 
What makes shadow good is that there is âshadow wrathâ gear but no âholy wrathâ gear.
Yea, because of the quality of wands you can buy, I found my wand damage was better than my mind flay damage for a long time, maybe even until 60 or so. Once you get into outlands and start picking up some spell power gear that will change. But yea, I remember being really bored while leveling those pre-50 levels, because it felt like I was a shadow priest who didnât actually use my shadow spells lol.