Priest leveling guide for WoW Forever

The Priest in WoW Forever levels calmly: heal yourself, shield yourself and let damage over time and a wand do the work. At level 30 you choose between Discipline, Holy and Shadow. This guide covers the three builds, the rotation, the key levels, racial spells, wands and professions.

Easiest spec for leveling	Discipline with a wand
Key talents	Wand Specialization, Twin Disciplines, Spirit Tap, Penance, Mind Flay
Strength	Healing, shields, steady damage with few pauses
Weakness	Slow kills early, mana, little crowd control
Talent order per level	Priest level build
Builds to level 60	After the launch on 4 November

Which spec to level with

The first 20 to 30 levels barely differ. You start with Smite, get a wand as soon as you can, and then keep your health up with heals and shields while the wand kills. Around level 30 the road splits.

Discipline keeps that calm style and adds Penance at 30, for damage or a quick heal. Shadow kills faster with Mind Flay and Mind Blast, but only shines from about level 28, unless you have decent spell power. Holy is for players who spend a lot of their leveling time healing dungeons. Leveling alone as Holy is slow.

The builds below are made for the beta, which stops at level 30. Builds for level 60 follow after the launch.

Levels 1 to 10

You have no talents yet. Smite and Lesser Heal are your spells until you have a wand.

1. Attack with Shoot from your wand.
2. Cast Lesser Heal when your health gets low.

Use Power Word: Shield when you need to cast without interruption, and keep Shadow Word: Pain up when your mana allows.

Stats for every build at these levels: first Intellect and spell damage, then Stamina and Spirit, then armor.

Level 30 Discipline build

The same wand style as before, with as few pauses as possible. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Wand Specialization	2/2
Twin Disciplines	4/5
Holy Precision	1/3
Improved Power Word: Shield	3/3
Mental Agility	1/3
Inner Focus	1/1
Meditation	3/3
Mental Strength	5/5
Penance	1/1

1. Keep Power Word: Shield up when your mana allows, so damage does not slow your casts.
2. Open with Smite.
3. Cast Shadow Word: Pain when your mana allows.
4. From level 30: cast Penance on cooldown, for damage or to heal yourself.
5. Finish with your wand, or let Shadow Word: Pain do it.

Level 30 Holy build

For players who want to heal a lot of dungeons and do not want Discipline. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Twilight Focus	2/3
Holy Specialization	5/5
Divine Fury	5/5
Holy Nova	1/1
Inspiration	3/3
Improved Healing	3/3
Binding Heal	1/1
Litany of Light	1/2

The rotation alone is the same as for Discipline without Penance: Power Word: Shield, Smite, Shadow Word: Pain and your wand.

Level 30 Shadow build

For players who prefer damage, do not want to heal and do not want to wait for Shadowform at 40. Open the build in the talent calculator.

Talent	Points
Shadow Focus	3/5
Spirit Tap	5/5
Improved Shadow Word: Pain	2/2
Improved Mind Blast	4/5
Mind Flay	1/1
Improved Mind Flay	2/2
Vampiric Embrace	1/1
Shadow Weaving	3/3

1. From level 20: cast Mind Flay on the target until it reaches you.
2. Keep Shadow Word: Pain up.
3. Cast Mind Blast on cooldown.
4. From level 20: cast Devouring Plague on cooldown when your mana allows; it heals you too.
5. Finish with your wand, or let your damage over time do it.

For Shadow, shadow power counts with Intellect and spell damage. With points in Talented from the Legacy system, you reach every talent up to five levels sooner.

Key levels

Level	What you get	From
5	Lesser Magic Wand, apprentice professions	Enchanting, profession trainers
10	First racial spell	Class quest
13	Greater Magic Wand	Enchanting
20	Second racial spell, Fear Ward, Devouring Plague, Flash Heal, Holy Fire	Class quest, class trainer
20	Mind Flay, Inner Focus, Holy Nova	Talent tree
25	Vampiric Embrace, Binding Heal	Talent tree
30	Divine Spirit, Prayer of Healing, Mind Control	Class trainer
30	Penance, Silence	Talent tree
32	Shadow Word: Death, Abolish Disease	Class trainer
40	Greater Heal, riding, Dual Specialization	Trainers
40	Shadowform, Power Infusion, Prayer of Mending	Talent tree

Earlier spells come from the class trainer: Power Word: Fortitude at 1, Shadow Word: Pain at 4, Power Word: Shield at 6, Renew and Fade at 8, Mind Blast and Resurrection at 10, Inner Fire at 12, Psychic Scream and Cure Disease at 14, Heal at 16 and Dispel Magic at 18.

Racial spells

Every Priest gets two racial spells, at level 10 and 20, through a class quest. In Forever they were reworked, and Gnome Priests are new. Fear Ward and Devouring Plague are no longer racial: every Priest learns them at level 20.

Race	Racial spells
Human	Divine Grace, Feedback
Dwarf	Desperate Prayer, Chastise
Night Elf	Starshards, Elune’s Grace
Gnome	Confounding Flash, Contingency Plan
Undead	Touch of Weakness, Dark Sacrifice
Troll	Hex of Weakness, Shadowguard

More about the changes is in the class deep dive.

Weapons and wands

Priests use daggers, one-handed maces, staves and wands. Maces and wands come with the class; daggers and staves need a weapon trainer.

Weapon	Alliance	Horde
Daggers	Ilyenia Moonfire (Darnassus), Bixi Wobblebonk (Ironforge), Woo Ping (Stormwind)	Sayoc (Orgrimmar), Archibald (Undercity)
Staves	Ilyenia Moonfire (Darnassus), Woo Ping (Stormwind)	Hanashi and Sayoc (Orgrimmar), Ansekhwa (Thunder Bluff)

Your weapon is usually your biggest source of spell damage or shadow power, so upgrade it often. The wand does most of the damage early on.

Wand	Level	Where
Lesser Magic Wand	5	Enchanting
Greater Magic Wand	13	Enchanting
Sizzle Stick	15 or later	Quest in Wailing Caverns
Gravestone Scepter	18 or later	Quest in Blackfathom Deeps
Wand of Eventide	27	World drop, bind on equip

Professions

Leveling a profession alongside your Priest gives gear, consumables and gold, and saves catching up later. In Forever it matters more: spell damage coefficients changed, which makes crafted gear more attractive, and camps give buffs to every profession.

• Cooking helps every class: food gives extra experience, and you need it for a campfire.
• Tailoring has strong soulbound leveling gear you cannot get elsewhere.
• Enchanting gives enchants, wands without the Auction House and oils for spell power. Disenchant your spare Tailoring gear for materials.
• Fishing levels on the side and catches crates and pearls for Tailoring and Enchanting.
• Alchemy gives potions and a buff for mana regeneration.

Consumables

• Food and water. Cooked food gives extra experience, so stay Well Fed. Carry water of your level, because even with a wand you will need to drink.
• Potions. Health potions for emergencies, now also made with First Aid, and mana potions.
• Elixirs. Expensive to keep up, but useful against a hard monster or quest.
• Oils. Enchanting makes oils for spell power or mana.

More about food, camps and rested XP is in the experience guide.

Damage and healing over time

Spells that work over time are the core of the Priest. Renew heals every few seconds, Shadow Word: Pain deals damage every few seconds, and Devouring Plague does the same with a longer cooldown and heals you for the damage it deals.

On the beta these spells do not snapshot. Their value updates while they run, instead of keeping the value from the moment you cast them. A buff to your spell power during the spell counts right away. Blizzard has not announced this.

Mana

Mana matters for every Priest, even if you mostly shoot your wand. Carry plenty of water and a few mana potions. Spirit helps a lot, because it gives mana regeneration between pulls, and Spirit Tap and Meditation make it even stronger.

Healing

Even as Shadow you heal yourself and others.

• Heal is your basic heal, with Lesser Heal before it and Greater Heal from level 40.
• Penance heals in bursts as Discipline, or deals damage on an enemy.
• Power Word: Shield is not a heal, but a shield that works as a second health bar.

Holy adds Prayer of Mending, which jumps to the next target each time someone takes damage, and Binding Heal, which heals you and your target at once.

Crowd control and utility

Crowd control is not the strength of the Priest. Shackle Undead takes one undead out of the fight, as long as nobody damages it. Psychic Scream makes nearby enemies flee, which can save a pull but also pull more monsters.

Power Word: Fortitude raises Stamina and belongs on every group member, yourself included. Divine Spirit does the same for Spirit. Power Infusion, the last Discipline talent, gives a friendly target a lot of extra spell power for a short time. Vampiric Embrace heals your party, not your raid, for part of your Shadow damage.