This may not help, as solo leveling isn’t particularly the most fun aspect of WoW for everyone. And, at least in my subjective opinion, some classes are much more fun for this particular part of gameplay than others.
Get a wand. Use that to finish the mob so you can regenerate mana during a fight for the next pull.
Spirit tap is fantastic for soloing as well, even if you aren’t going shadow.
In terms of levels? Probably the 30s.
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I hear Mind control is reason enough to roll a priest. Otherwise you’re just a squishy wannabe paladin without any muscles like yours truly.
Paladin < Mana Burn
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When the consensus is to seriously invest in the caster equivalent of an auto attack you know you’re in for a rivoting experience.
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Shadow Form. That is the turning point.
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I thought it would be fun to level a shadow priest and its fun initially but HOLY COW it blows after level 20 or so when your mana pool can’t keep up even with twinked gear. Gets a bit better at 40, but still awful leveling compared to other classes. I even preferred soloing on a warrior (which is notoriously bad) to leveling an spriest, by far my least favorite.
My muscles say otherwise.
Really? It’s been a long, long time since I played a Vanilla priest so I may be mis-remembering here, but I remember Spirit Tap being really good at maintaining mana as long as you’re front-loading your damage and finishing things off with your wand.
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Yup. That is indeed you.
I mean it’s Classic WoW, so never. Shadow Priest is really only good in like… T2.5+ or something.
It’s pretty god damn bad.
If you’re really only concerned with leveling speed, that’s neither here nor there. Every class blows at leveling outside of Mage, Lock, and Hunter.
But really, I wouldn’t hold my breath with Priest. In my opinion, it’s the least fun class in the whole game.
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Bubble, DoT, and Wand friend. Repeatedly until your eyes bleed.
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As a class with lots of defensive capability/utility that’s limited by mana, the ability to be reasonably offensive without tapping into it is HUGE.
I’m going to assume you are in the early levels of priest. Your first 5 talent points should be put into “Wand Specilization”. Followed by the next 5 talents points you should put into “Spirit Tap”. Those are your two most important skills you want to get first for level.
Next you want to make sure you have an appropriate level wand at all times. Most of your grinding of mobs is going to be purely wand damage. Your wand actually does more damage faster and at no cost to your mana pool compared to your spells in the early levels of priests. As you lvl you can start adding more things into your rotation line Shadow Word Pain, Mindflay, and Mindblast as you get higher level…
The important thing about priest leveling. It’s all about consistency and no downtime drinking. If you use your rotation correctly you effectively never need to drink.
In the early levels it’s wand everything to death.
Then start to introduce a single Shadow Word Pain then wand to death.
Then Start with a Mindblast, followed by a Shadow Word Pain, ending with wanding to death.
Eventually when your higher level. You can MindBlast, Shadow Word Pain, Mindflay, ending with wanding.
As you grow in levles and strength introduce more and more spells. But in the early levels in mostly all wand damage. You really wont see Shadows true potential till you get 60 and have some good gear.
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It is. You’re not misremembering. He must have thought priests should keep casting continuously just because they can.
Best way to play priest pre shadow form is to get a wand (as everyone else said), put points into spirit tap/imp wand spec, and use the following rotation to never take damage and always start fights at full mana: bubble, mindblast, SWP, wand. You’re not a caster like a mage, you’re more of a holy warlock with no pet. Do damage and apply dots upfront then rot it down.
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5/5 Wand Specialization + 5/5 Spirit Tap…
That’s your bread and butter until Shadowform. Then it gets much better.
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Shadow leveling feels woefully incomplete until you get Shadowform at 40. Shadow spec in general is pretty lacking in a variety of ways in Vanilla/Classic & isn’t really that viable until TBC xpac (which has a lot better talent trees & gear itemization). Quite a few classes & specs in Classic will mostly suck until TBC Classic is released.
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Shadow at 40 is a trap - Shadow Priest is a terrible class for PvE. The first 30 or so levels spent questing even with just a wand/wand spec are relatively better and more fun. 40 is when you want to full spec into dungeon healing, as that’s where you’re going to be spending your last 20 levels. Avoid Shadowform like the plague.
Just get Spirit Tap and Wand Spec. You’re a murder machine with just those two talents.
No I frontload damage, maximize dots and spirit tap, and buy the best wand available at every level (including blue wands) and use that to preserve mana. My downtime is low but that’s because it’s taking forever to kill every mob auto-attacking with a wand.
It’s awful and slow. You can’t use your abilities or you run out of mana. Wanding is slow and boring. You’re mostly solo pulling and generally can’t do elites or even orange higher level mobs. Compared to other classes its absolutely awful, you feel like a gimped warlock. Honestly the only way you could think it’s fast with a wand is if you haven’t played any other class. Every other class kills faster, can generally chain pull or multiple pull, and doesn’t have to just mindlessly auto-attack single mobs or risk dying or going oom every other pull. Grats you got mindflay, whoops you can’t use it because you need to wand to save mana.
The guy above who said you should just level in dungeons with holy/disc is absolutely correct. That is far more enjoyable and uses the class better.
Shadow at 60 is probably more fun, but I’ll wait until TBC when its actually worthwhile.
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Theres a secret check to see if you have any Vulpera on your account, and if you do, the fun stays locked in the vault. The only way to open the vault and let the fun out for harvesting is to delete your vulperas.
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