Tips on leveling a priest

A while ago, I went over some general things I have learned by leveling a shadow priest. That priest is now level 47, and though I still have a ways to go before hitting the level cap, there are some things I have learned by leveling him that I would like to share with anyone out there considering leveling a priest.

1. Be prepared to be bored.
Priests are definitely near the top of the list of most boring classes to play at early levels, along with paladins and druids. You'll spend a lot of time spamming Smite, since that will be your only worthwhile offensive spell until level 10, when you get Mind Blast. Shadow Word: Pain? Only worth using if your enemy will be alive for a while, which, at low levels, they won't be. Things get much better at level 20, when you get Holy Fire, Holy Nova, Devouring Plague, and if you spec'ed shadow, Mind Flay. Yep, your offensive arsenal more than doubles in size when you reach level 20.

2. Take advantage of Mind Flay's speed debuff.
I like to start every battle with either Mind Blast or Holy Fire. Obviously, once you get Shadow Form, Holy Fire isn't an option, but before then, it's usually more mana-efficient and causes more damage. Anyways, start your battles at maximum range, then use whichever ability you plan on starting out with. Immediately when your cast finishes, use Mind Flay. That will slow your enemy and damage them, and if you used Holy Fire, it gives some time for the DoT to do its work. I can usually use Mind Flay twice before the enemy reaches me if I start at maximum range. Doing this also applies five stacks of Shadow Weaving if you have three points in that, allowing you to start the battle out strong. Also, if your enemy runs away from you, use Mind Flay to finish them off and slow them down at the same time, reducing the risk of them bring back more of their buddies. In fact, I often find that when I use Mind Flay to slow down a runner, he tends to run in the opposite direction when I use it, meaning back to me and away from his friends, but he is still technically fleeing, so he won't attack me.

3. Use this macro.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
This macro allows you to cast Mind Flay, but only if you are not channeling it already. Thus you can spam it and start using Mind Flay again immediately after you finish casting it, which is useful for the above-mentioned method, without clipping it and losing out on damage.

4. Don't use your DoTs unless your target will take a while to kill and the DoTs will run their full duration.
Your damage-over-time spells are some of your most mana-intensive spells. They aren't worth using unless you are using them to their full potential, meaning you won't get the most out of them unless your enemy takes a long time to die. Now, granted, I have been known to drop Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on an enemy that attacks me while I am attacking someone else so that they don't have as much health once I get to them, but aside from doing that and when facing elite enemies or targets a few levels above you, DoTs aren't worth using. When facing a target a few levels above you, it's generally better to use one of your DoTs, rather than both, otherwise you'll burn right through your mana. Use whichever one is more mana-efficient. Once you get Improved Devouring Plague, that will generally be Devouring Plague, but until then, it's usually which ever one you last bought an upgrade for.

5. Keep Inner Fire up at all times.
With Inner Fire active, you'll have a similar armor-count to what a leather user has, which definitely makes it amazing. Trouble is, you lose one charge everyone time you are hit, so after 20 hits, you're right back down to your crappy cloth armor-count. This means you'll need to refresh it at the end of every two or three battles, or even in the middle of battle if you are facing multiple enemies or an elite (yes, you can solo-kill elites on a shadow priest if you know what you are doing; I solo-ed Big Game Hunter while it was still yellow in my quest log). Like a shaman's shields, it's easy to forget to reapply it in the middle of battle, but be sure you do so.

6. Take advantage of Spirit Tap to buff yourself while regenerating mana.
Speaking of buffs.... Spirit Tap is an amazing talent that doubles your spirit after you kill something and allows most of your spirit-based mana regeneration to take place, even if you are casting. That means you should use it as an opportunity to reapply the multitude of buffs you'll need to keep active on yourself so that you don't gimp yourself out of mana by buffing yourself when it will activate the five second rule.

7. Get Glyph of Shadow.
Spirit Tap alone is a good reason to stack spirit on a Shadow Priest, but this glyph makes it an even more lucrative stat. I don't know why, but this glyph was particularly hard to find on my realm's Auction House. If the same is true on your realm, then as you start approaching level 40, you should look on the auction house to see if someone put it up. Anyways, this glyph gives you a spellpower boost based on your spirit when you crit with Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Sear, or the instant damage of Improved Devouring Plague, and considering that you'll probably use the first two pretty frequently, you are bound to learn personally just how sweat this glyph is, especially when that Mind Blast you start the battle with critically hits.

Since this post probably qualifies, I will be submitting it as part of Tree Burglar's Elder Blogging Event. You can read about it here on his blog or here on Blog Azeroth.