WotLK Classic Priest Guide

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
Great supportive AOE healers; A lot of utility; No gear dependence; Easy to master	Hard to heal AOE solo.

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
A lot of utility; Great healers.	Easy to replace with other healing classes.

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
Great AoE; A lot of utility; Fun to play.	No hard bursting damage; High loot competition.

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

WotLK Classic Leveling!

Get any level you want!

WotLK 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
Haste rating  Spell power Crit rating Intellect Spirit Mana per 5 seconds	Spellpower Haste Crit Intellect Spirit Mana per 5 seconds	Hit rating (cap at 289) Spell power Haste rating (cap at 1640 rating you need to aim for 1 second GCD) Crit rating Spirit Intellect

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	Arcane Torrent – AOE silence that has 2 minutes CD. It also restores 6% of your mana. Great ability that might save your ass; Magic Resistance – good for PvP, sometimes might be helpful for PvE. Better let your tank take the damage; Arcane Affinity – just handy for Enchanters, doesn’t improve your damage or defense potential.
Troll	Berserking – awesome 20% attack speed on-use racial spell; Beast Slaying – sounds good but there aren’t many beasts to face in Northrend; Da Voodoo Shuffle – Sometimes can be good for some PvE fights, great for PvP; Bow Specialization – Priests don’t use bows, unlike hunters. Doesn’t make much sense; Throwing Specialization – Nothing to say here, almost useless ability; Regeneration – combining with a lot of Spirit this might help during the process of leveling but it is barely useful in the late game.
Undead	Will of Forsaken – situational ability for PvE and a very strong option for PvP; Cannibalize – helps during the leveling process; Shadow Resistance – just let your tank do his job. Mostly useless for Priests; Underwater Breathing –  nothing to say much, useless for raids and dungeons.

Alliance

Human	Sword Specialization – useless for us; Mace Specialization – read the statement above; Will to Survive – great for PvP, might even find its use in PvE; Perception – great PvP ability that makes Rogues and Druids hate you. Almost useless for PvE; Diplomacy – more like quality of life ability, doesn’t really make sense for PvP and PvE; The Human Spirit – the awesome ability for healers.
Draenei	Heroic Presence – everyone loves Draeneis because of this; Gift of the Naaru – weak HoT ability, doesn’t do much but it is better than nothing; Shadow Resistance –  just let your tank do his job. Mostly useless for Priests; Gemcutting – just handy for Jewelcrafters, doesn’t improve your damage or defense potential.
Dwarf	Mace Specialization – a better variant of Human’s racial ability. Still totally useless for us; Stoneform – PvP ability that might occasionally be useful in PvE; Gun Specialization – leave it for Hunters, we prefer casting spells; Frost Resistance – almost useless ability; Find Treasure – interesting ability during the process of leveling but nothing more.
Night Elf	Quickness – if something is hitting you in a dungeon or in a raid then you are doing something wrong; Nature Resistance – garbage; Shadowmeld – while being great for PvP it is not that useful in PvE; Elusiveness – another good PvP ability, that sometimes might be helpful for PvE in the open world. Still, Priests can’t go Stealth unless they use Shadowmeld; Wisp Spirit – the less you use this racial the better it is for you.

So, considering everything said above we can suggest the best race for every Priest spec.

Discipline	Holy	Shadow
Horde: Blood Elf Alliance: Human	Horde: Blood Elf Alliance: Human	Horde: Undead/Troll Alliance: Human

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
Meta –  Insightful Earthsiege Diamond Red –  Runed Dragon’s Eye or Runed Scarlet Ruby Blue –  Royal Twilight Opal Yellow:  Luminous Monarch Topaz	Head –  Arcanum of Blissful Mending or  Arcanum of Burning Mysteries Shoulder –  Greater Inscription of the Crag or  Greater Inscription of the Storm Cloak –  Lightweave Embroidery or  Darkglow Embroidery or  Springy Arachnoweave Chest –  Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats Belt –  Eternal Belt Buckle and  Frag Belt Bracer –  Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower Gloves –  Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower or  Hyperspeed Accelerators Legs –  Sapphire Spellthread or  Brilliant Spellthread Boots –  Nitro Boosts Weapon –  Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower or  Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower Ring –  Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower	Flask –  Flask of the Frost Wyrm Elixirs –  Spellpower Elixir and  Elixir of Mighty Thoughts Food –  Fish Feast,  Tender Shoveltusk Steak,  Firecracker Salmon Potion –  Runic Mana Injector or  Potion of Wild Magic

Holy

Gems	Chants	Consumables
Meta –  Insightful Earthsiege Diamond Prismatic –  Nightmare Tear Yellow –  Brilliant Dragon’s Eye or Brilliant Autumn’s Glow Blue –  Seer’s Forest Emerald Red –  Luminous Monarch Topaz	Head –  Arcanum of Blissful Mending Shoulder –  Greater Inscription of the Crag Cloak –  Lightweave Embroidery or  Darkglow Embroidery or  Springy Arachnoweave Chest –  Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats Belt –  Eternal Belt Buckle and  Frag Belt Bracer – Enchant Bracers – Exceptional Intellect Gloves –  Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower or  Hyperspeed Accelerators Legs –  Sapphire Spellthread or  Brilliant Spellthread Boots –  Nitro Boosts Weapon –  Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower or  Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower Ring –  Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower	Elixirs –  Elixir of Mighty Thoughts and  Guru’s Elixir Flask –  Flask of the Frost Wyrm Food –  Firecracker Salmon or  Cuttlesteak Potion –  Runic Mana Injector and  Potion of Wild Magic

Shadow

Gems	Chants	Consumables
Meta –  Chaotic Skyflare Diamond Red – Runed Cardinal Ruby or  Runed Scarlet Ruby Orange – Reckless Ametrine or Veiled Ametrine Blue – Purified Dreadstone or  Purified Twilight Opal	Head –  Arcanum of Burning Mysteries Shoulder –  Master’s Inscription of the Storm or  Greater Inscription of the Storm or  Lesser Inscription of the Storm Cloak –  Lightweave Embroidery or  Springy Arachnoweave or  Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed Chest –  Enchant Chest – Powerful Stats or  Enchant Chest – Major Spirit Bracer –  Socket Bracer and  Fur Lining – Spell Power or  Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower Gloves –  Socket Gloves and  Hyperspeed Accelerators or  Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower Belt –  Eternal Belt Buckle and  Frag Belt Legs –  Brilliant Spellthread or  Sanctified Spellthread Boots –  Nitro Boosts or  Enchant Boots – Tuskarr’s Vitality or  Enchant Boots – Icewalker One-Hand Weapon –  Enchant Weapon – Black Magic or  Enchant Weapon – Mighty Spellpower Two-Hand Weapon –  Enchant Staff – Greater Spellpower Ring –  Enchant Ring – Greater Spellpower	Flask –  Flask of the Frost Wyrm Elixirs –  Elixir of Deadly Strikes,  Elixir of Spirit Food –  Fish Feast,  Firecracker Salmon,  Tender Shoveltusk Steak Potion –  Potion of Speed,  Potion of Wild Magic

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

1. Power Word: Shield – maintain it on as many targets as you can;
2. Penance – bursting ability. Use it on a tank or low health group member to save his life;
3. Prayer of Mending – bouncing ability that heals on damage taken;
4. Prayer of Healing – consider it as a raid healing ability, useful when 3 people in group take damage;
5. Flash Heal – your bread and butter, you will spam it the most;
6. Renew – maintain it on your Tank;
7. Binding Heal – heals you and your target. Don’t spam it as it has a heavy mana cost.

Holy

1. Flash Heal – to heal low damage;
2. Greater Heal – to heal huge amounts of HP. Only use it with stacked Serendipity;
3. Binding Heal – heals you and your target. Don’t spam it as it has heavy mana cost;
4. Prayer of Healing – consider it as a raid healing ability, useful when 3 people in group take damage;
5. 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;
6. Renew – maintain it on your tank.

Shadow

Single target priority

2-8 targets priority

Maintain Shadow Word: Pain; Maintain Vampiric Touch; Maintain Devouring Plague; Cast Mind Blast; Mind Flay – use it as a filler 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

Maintain Shadow Word: Pain on every target if it lives more than 12 seconds of the fight; Maintain Vampiric Touch on every target if it lives more than 12 seconds of the fight; Maintain Devouring Plague on 1 priority target; Cast Mind Blast on a target with Vampiric Touch if your group needs mana, otherwise ignore this step; Use Mind Sear on 3+ targets otherwise skip this step; Mind Flay –  as a filler

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

Discipline	Holy	Shadow
Visage Liquification Goggles Lattice Choker of Light Runecaster’s Mantle Wispcloak Heroes’ Robe of Faith Cuffs of Winged Levitation Heroes’ Gloves of Faith Plush Sash of Guzbah Skirt of the Old Kingdom Sandals of Crimson Fury Titanium Spellshock Ring Signet of Hopeful Light Je’Tze’s Bell Darkmoon Card: Illusion War Mace of Unrequited Love Faces of Doom Rod of the Fallen Monarch	Visage Liquification Goggles Lattice Choker of Light Dark Runic Mantle Wispcloak Spellweave Robe Cuffs of Winged Levitation Spellweave Gloves Elegant Temple Gardens’ Girdle Breeches of the Caller Sandals of Crimson Fury Signet of Hopeful Light Band of Guile Soul Preserver Darkmoon Card: Greatness Staff of Draconic Combat Wand of Ahn’kahet	Visage Liquification Goggles Encircling Burnished Gold Chains Dark Runic Mantle Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape Heroes’ Raiments of Faith Cuffs of Winged Levitation Gloves of Glistening Runes Plush Sash of Guzbah Woven Bracae Leggings Sandals of Crimson Fury Annhylde’s Ring Signet of the Kirin Tor Sundial of the Exiled Mark of the War Prisoner War Mace of Unrequited Love Ward of the Violet Citadel Wand of the San’layn

WotLK Priest Raid BiS

Discipline	Holy	Shadow
Valorous Crown of Faith Torque of the Red Dragonflight Valorous Shoulderpads of Faith Disguise of the Kumiho Sympathy Cuffs of the Shadow Ascendant Valorous Handwraps of Faith Sash of Solitude Leggings of Mortal Arrogance Boots of Forlorn Wishes Band of Channeled Magic Ring of Decaying Beauty Soul Preserver Figurine – Sapphire Owl Spire of Sunset Fading Glow	Valorous Circlet of Faith Torque of the Red Dragonflight Valorous Shoulderpads of Faith Cloak of Kea Feathers Blanketing Robes of Snow Cuffs of the Shadow Ascendant Valorous Gloves of Faith Sash of Solitude Leggings of Mortal Arrogance Serene Echoes Seized Beauty Wyrmrest Band Je’Tze’s Bell Forethought Talisman Torch of Holy Fire Urn of Lost Memories	Hood of Rationality Wyrmrest Necklace of Power Mantle of Dissemination Pennant Cloak Heigan’s Putrid Vestments Unsullied Cuffs Valorous Handwraps of Faith Leash of Heedless Magic Leggings of the Wanton Spellcaster Arcanic Tramplers Band of Channeled Magic Signet of Manifested Pain Dying Curse Illustration of the Dragon Soul Torch of Holy Fire Surplus Limb Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians

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.