Welcome to the Overgear WotLK Classic Priest Guide. Here you can read the class overview, its strengths, and weaknesses. We hope this information will be useful enough for you to bring your Priest gameplay to the next level. Make yourself comfortable as we start!
WotLK Priest Overview
Some Priests dedicate their life to light, healing their party members’ wounds. Others learn to suppress pain and specialize in absorbing damage. But there is also a third way, the way of shadows. This type of Priests knows how to torture the body and the mind of their enemies.
Class Spec choice
In this part, you can find some information about class specializations and choose the one that fits your gameplay.
Discipline
Discipline Priests are masters of preventing and absorbing damage. Their ability to suppress pain leads mighty parties ahead to the fight. This time no pain IS gained.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
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Utility:
- Rapture – restores target’s mana, energy, rage, or rune power when shield gets off;
- Power Infusion – makes your target make more ‘pew-pew’ with fewer mana wastes;
- Pain Suppression – target gets 40% less damage during 8 seconds. That’s the mindblowing spell to save tanks in many bad situations;
- Mass Dispel – the only ability in the game that allows you to dispel a couple of targets at a time. Works both for allies (dispels negative effects) and enemies (dispels positive effects);
- Prayer of Fortitude – Stamina buff for an hour;
- Prayer of Spirit – Spirit buff for an hour;
- Hymn of Hope – regenerate mana for your raid, sounds good, isn’t it?
- Divine Hymn – a strong saving spell for the whole raid.
Holy
Holy Priests are classical healers who call to light to get power. They utilize light to heal and empower their allies even in the darkest time.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
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Utility:
- Guardian Spirit – increases incoming healing by 40% and prevents the target from dying. Really powerful and strong CD;
- Mass Dispel – the only ability in the game that allows you to dispel a couple of targets at a time. Works both for allies (dispels negative effects) and enemies (dispels positive effects);
- Prayer of Fortitude – Stamina buff for an hour;
- Prayer of Spirit – Spirit buff for an hour;
- Hymn of Hope – regenerate mana for your raid, sounds good, isn’t it?
- Divine Hymn – a strong saving spell for the whole raid.
Shadow
Who needs that pathetic light if you can infuse yourself with shadow? Watch your enemies cry in suffering while their bodies and mind slowly decay.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
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Utility:
- Misery – increases party or raid chances to hit targets with spells by 3%;
- Replenishment – provides you and your party with a mana regeneration buff;
- Vampiric Embrace – heal while doing DPS, why not?
- Mass Dispel – the only ability in the game that allows you to dispel a couple of targets at a time. Works both for allies (dispels negative effects) and enemies (dispels positive effects);
- Prayer of Fortitude – Stamina buff for an hour;
- Prayer of Spirit – Spirit buff for an hour;
- Hymn of Hope – regenerate mana for your raid, sounds good, isn’t it?
WotLK Classic Priest Changes
Wrath of the Lich King Classic expansion gives some classes fresh air. Shadow Priests now can be called a competitive DPS class rather than a support. Among many changes there are three that shine bright:
- Devouring Plague – now available not only for undeads;
- Inner Fire – now gives spell power;
- Mind Sear – finally some good freaking AOE.
What is more! Priests now scale with haste which makes this stat super important.
WotLK Classic Priest Leveling
Leveling is comfortable as a Shadow. Your healing spells can save you many times the same as your awesome DPS abilities.
General tips
- You are playing a very mana-dependent class so make sure you have enough water to replenish it between fights;
- Keep an appropriate level of Power Word: Shield and other buffs on you as you are very squishy;
- Buy a wand on early levels to maximize your damage output.
Talents
Shadow Leveling [13/0/58] – this is the build you want during your leveling. Start with the shadow tree to get the main talents asap.
Major Glyphs: Glyph of Shadow , Glyph of Mind Flay, Glyph of Dispersion.
Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Shadowfiend, Glyph of Levitate, Glyph of Fortitude.
Stat Priority
- Spell Power – increases the damage you do with spells;
- Spirit – increases your regeneration;
- Haste Rating – increases the speed of your spells;
- Critical Strike Rating – increases your chance to deal critical damage;
- Hit Rating – increases your chance to hit with all spells;
- Intellect – increases your maximum mana;
- Stamina – increases your maximum health!
Rotation
- Apply Vampiric Touch
- Apply Devouring Plague
- Apply Shadow Word: Pain
- Cast Mind Blast
- Cast Mind Flay
- Cast Shadow Word: Death
5.0WotLK Classic Priest Talents
Discipline Healer [54/17/0]: standard Discipline Healer build.
Major Glyphs: Glyph of Power Word: Shield, Glyph of Penance, Glyph of Flash Heal.
Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Shadowfiend, Glyph of Levitate, Glyph of Fortitude.
Holy Healer [14/57/0]: great all-around variant for healing.
Major Glyphs: Glyph of Guardian Spirit, Glyph of Circle of Healing, Glyph of Flash Heal.
Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Shadowfiend, Glyph of Levitate, Glyph of Fortitude.
Shadow Standart Build [14/0/57]: build is known as a standard PvE build.
Major Glyphs: Glyph of Shadow, Glyph of Mind Flay, Glyph of Mind Sear.
Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Shadowfiend, Glyph of Levitate, Glyph of Fortitude.
WotLK Classic Priest Stats
You should follow this priority list if you have an opportunity, to maximize your effectiveness in various encounters.
| Discipline | Holy | Shadow |
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WotLK Classic Priest Best Race
There are 3 available races to play Priest for Horde and 4 races to play for Alliance. Keep in mind that the best race depends on your spec and PvP/PvE preferences. Check out the list below to find more information about every available race.
Horde
| Blood Elf |
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| Troll |
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| Undead |
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Alliance
| Human |
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| Draenei |
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| Dwarf |
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| Night Elf |
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So, considering everything said above we can suggest the best race for every Priest spec.
| Discipline | Holy | Shadow |
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WotLK Classic Priest Consumables, Chants & Gems
A really serious WoW player can’t participate in any high-end activities without a bag full of suitable consumables and tons of enchants on gear. So, let’s check what you need to get depending on your specialization.
Discipline
| Gems | Chants | Consumables |
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Holy
| Gems | Chants | Consumables |
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Shadow
WotLK Classic Priest Best Professions
WotLK classic Professions make a huge impact on every class. They provide players with different bonuses and extra stats that bring the character’s power to the next level.
Talking about Priests, the best three professions are Tailoring, Engineering and Jewelcrafting.
- Tailors can enchant their cloak with Lightweave Embroidery which will occasionally increase the caster’s spell power. Tailoring isn’t the best way to make gold, still, you can craft bags and pieces of armor for selling on AH;
- Engineering is great for PvP and PvE content. It gives some great bonuses like gloves enchantment Hyperspeed Accelerators and boots enchantment called Nitro Boots. Boots are super great for Priests because they are in lack mobility;
- Just take a look at those unique gems like Quick Dragon’s Eye. They provide awesome bonuses and can only be used by Jewelcrafters. Also, this profession is a great choice for gold making as you can sell a variety of items on the Auction House.
WotLK Classic Priest Rotation
Note that the following is not the exact rotation to follow, just some tips to keep in mind.
Discipline
- Power Word: Shield – maintain it on as many targets as you can;
- Penance – bursting ability. Use it on a tank or low health group member to save his life;
- Prayer of Mending – bouncing ability that heals on damage taken;
- Prayer of Healing – consider it as a raid healing ability, useful when 3 people in group take damage;
- Flash Heal – your bread and butter, you will spam it the most;
- Renew – maintain it on your Tank;
- Binding Heal – heals you and your target. Don’t spam it as it has a heavy mana cost.
Holy
- Flash Heal – to heal low damage;
- Greater Heal – to heal huge amounts of HP. Only use it with stacked Serendipity;
- Binding Heal – heals you and your target. Don’t spam it as it has heavy mana cost;
- Prayer of Healing – consider it as a raid healing ability, useful when 3 people in group take damage;
- Power Word: Shield – predict damage and use it on target to save it. If there is a Discipline Priest let him do his job and ignore this spell;
- Renew – maintain it on your tank.
Shadow
| Single target priority | 2-8 targets priority |
Still, your opener is a bit out of priority just because you have to gain 5 stacks of Shadow Weaving asap. For the max DPS output it should be the following: Vampiric Touch – Devouring Plague – Mind Blast – Mind Flay – Shadow Word: Pain |
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If you have 8+ targets just spam Mind Sear, anything else will be a loss of DPS. If there is a strong enemy, use your single target priority to kill it faster.
WotLK Classic Priest Phase 1 BiS Lists
Finally, one of the most interesting moments of the article. Below you can find WotLK Priest pre-raid BiS and the best gear you can get during Phase 1.
WotLK Priest Pre-Raid BiS
WotLK Priest Raid BiS
WotLK Classic Priest PvP
In this part, we will take a look at Shadow PvP Priest. This is a great PvP class that has a lot of utility to offer. All those buffs and spells like Mana Burn makes Priest a very dangerous opponent to play against. Dispersion will help to survive hard times and healing abilities are able to turn over the whole battle.
Build and Comps
Shadow Priest PvP build [20/0/51]: considered to be classical for PvP to play Shadow Priest as it provides all the necessary abilities.
Major Glyphs: Glyph of Dispersion, Glyph of Power Word: Shield, Glyph of Shadow.
Minor Glyphs: Glyph of Shadowfiend, Glyph of Levitate, Glyph of Fortitude.
| 2v2 comps | 3v3 comps |
| Priest/ Subtlety Rogue Priest/ Frost Mage | Priest/ Frost Mage/ Resto Shaman Priest/ Affliction Warlock/ Resto Shaman Priest/ Frost Mage/ Resto Druid Priest/ Unholy Death Knight/ Holy Paladin |
WotLK Classic Priest Macros
And for dessert some basic macros for Priest.
Mouseover Macro
This macro is for friendly targets. If you move your mouse over someone, a spell will be cast on that target. If you don’t mouseover, it will be cast on your current target. If you have no target, then it will be cast on you. Make sure to replace <Spell> with the name of the desired spell.
#showtooltip Spell
/cast [target=mouseover,help] Spell; [help] Spell; Spell
Dispersion Macro
This macro cancels Dispersion on the same button you cast it.
#showtooltip Dispersion
/cancelaura Dispersion
/cast Dispersion
Thank you for reading this Overgear guide, hope you found it useful. Please give us your feedback and don’t forget to rate it. May the light guide your path and don’t forget that there is nothing bad in shadow.
