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WoW Priest Leveling Guide - Cataclysm Leveling & Spec

Free WoW Priest Leveling Guide:

Priest is a definitely one of the best, if not the best, healing classes there is in Cataclysm and can surely be a dps character that every raid will need. The priest, like other classes have gone through a quite some changes in Cataclysm, one thing that certainly did not change is the general rule that less down time and higher dps will result in faster leveling.

Both the holy and discipline trees have been buffed with damage making them usable for leveling although they are still not the best choice for leveling. Shadow spec was and still is the best choice for leveling a priest. However, keep in mind that if you are a fan of the random dungeon system it is always much easier and faster to queue as a healer than a dps. Always consider having dual spec on a priest for running random dungeons. The fact that blizzard was wise enough to put in a talent in the shadow tree that will convert your spirit to hit will surely remove any gear problems you might have for running a dual spec.

Shadow priest damage is much higher than that of a holy or discipline priest while still providing you with enough self healing and mana regeneration to avoid any downtime.

Shadow priest is also healing healing himself while doing damage and has quite strong cc combined with dispersion makes him quite strong and hard to kill. This is also a good choice if you are playing on a PvP realm as shadow priests are not an easy target to gank.
Shadow spec for priest leveling should be something like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfMRZZG0GdMzrddso

Shadow build for leveling if you plan on facing quite a bit of PvP situations :
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bf0cZZGMGzrkMddfo

It has same core talents as the first one but with more crowd control, interrupts and mobility making you even harder to gank.

The spec is built for maximum damage and survivability, and with twisted faith talent allowing you to use items with spirit instead of hit, and allowing you to have a second spec as holy or discipline for healing in random dungeons. Here is how those healing specs should look like:

For discipline spec: http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfMsrRcbfoMoMhMZb
For holy spec : http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bfMsrRcbfoMoMhMZb

Naturally, the spec is adjustable but the core must be same. In order to offer a second talent build for questing besides shadow you might consider going discipline and use holy fire / smite combo for killing purposes, but I don’t  suggest it, as it is way slower than just running shadow.

For off spec dungeon healer suggested is to be disc until you reach level 75 and go holy after that, which with the changes in Cataclysm, would be a much better choice.

To summarize, for leveling your best choice is going in shadow spec. Whether you’re on a PvE or PvP realm, as a shadow priest you will have least trouble leveling. If you can afford the dual talent specialization, take it and go into discipline or holy for healing random dungeons as it is much faster to get a group as healer.

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