Priest Build - Need feedback

[Otyugh]

Hi there,
I am thinkig of theses 2 options, what do you think?

Holy/Discipline

5/5 Improved Renew
5/5 Spiritual Healing
5/5 Subtlety
5/5 Improved Healing
2/2 Improved Flash Heal
2/2 Improved Prayer of Healing
1/1 Spirit Of Redemption
5/5 Master Healer

5/5 Unbreakable Will
3/3 Improved PW:Shield
2/2 Improved PW:Fortitude
5/5 Mental Agility
5/5 Mental Strength
1/1 Inner Focus

Discipline/Holy

5/5 Unbreakable Will
2/2 Martyrdom
3/3 Improved Power Word: Shield
2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude
1/1 Focused Casting
5/5 Mental Agility
1/1 Improved Inner Fire
5/5 Mental Strength
5/5 Meditation
1/1 Inner Focus
1/1 Divine Spirit

5/5 Improved Renew
5/5 Spiritual Healing
5/5 Subtlety
5/5 Improved Healing

Max

[Shady]

Hi Max, I'm mainly shadow so might not be best placed to offer advice on holy/disc builds. Having said that, I have toyed with several different specs. What's your playstyle? Do you have healing in instances/raids in mind or group pvp healing?

[Otyugh]

Hi Max, I'm mainly shadow so might not be best placed to offer advice on holy/disc builds. Having said that, I have toyed with several different specs. What's your playstyle? Do you have healing in instances/raids in mind or group pvp healing?

Wish I can say, not even lvl 10 yet.
I am planning ahead but I tend to solo mostly, however, I would like to be effective and usefull in instances.

M :werd:

PS: I was considering the shadow as well but I got lost in the talent tree as I am not high enough to actually gadge the damage abilities of the shadow tree. WHat is your build? WHy did you chose shadow? DOes it make a big differance in your experiance when you do instance run as a healer?

[Shinzo]

Ello :x i have that first build:nurse:

And i like it, but you will REALLY suck at soloing. So i would say go shadow till you are lvl 55+ or something and if you still want to try Holy...:)

I teamed both with Predje who is shadow build and is a great healer.
And with Prophet who is Disc build and he is a great healer asswell:lmao:

What can i say im still not sure what build i should stick with. :book2:
But for now i like Holy coz i group a lot.

[Shady]

I was considering the shadow as well but I got lost in the talent tree as I am not high enough to actually gadge the damage abilities of the shadow tree. WHat is your build? WHy did you chose shadow? DOes it make a big differance in your experiance when you do instance run as a healer?

I'm very recently changed to 19/0/32 as per below. I chose it specifically for battlegrounds and it misses some key elements that you'd need for any instance healing (Improved Fade, Subtlety etc). I've toyed regularly with the idea of respeccing back to a holy/disc build and although I did it once, I can't see myself ever doing it again until I have another lev 60 char with whom I can happily pvp with.

The difference I found in the lack of damage output at holy/disc as opposed to shadow/disc was massive. The difference I found in terms of healing output was marginal at best. Having said that, I wasn't running any high level instances at the time when just that very little extra healing capability could make all the difference. This argument is ALL over the priests boards and has been since release.

Me:

Discipline Talents (19 points)

Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%.
Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 30%.
Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%.
Mental Strength - 4/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 8%.


Holy Talents (0 points)
None

Shadow Talents (32 points)

Blackout - 5/5 points
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds.
Shadow Focus - 4/5 points
Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 8%.
Improved Mind Blast - 5/5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 2.5 seconds.
Mind Flay - 1/1 point
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.

Level 28: 126 damage over 3 seconds
Level 36: 186 damage over 3 seconds
Level 44: 261 damage over 3 seconds
Level 52: 330 damage over 3 seconds
Level 60: 426 damage over 3 seconds
Improved Psychic Scream - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 4 seconds.
Shadow Reach - 1/3 point
Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 6%.
Silence - 1/1 point
Silence the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.
Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Darkness - 5/5 points
Increases your Shadow spell damage by 10%.
Shadowform - 1/1 point
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form.


At the moment the holy tree is gimped for the most part. There are talents in the discipline tree that you couldn't do without, regardless of what you plan on doing. Improved power word shield is priceless while both levelling, pvp'ing or pve'ing. Certain skills I found extremely useful while levelling include spirit tap (reduces downtime), Improved Mind Blast and Improved Shadow Word Pain.

Good luck Max. It's a great class and is pretty versatile, hope you enjoy it :)

[Otyugh]

Thanks Shady,

I spent some times looking at the talent tree, can you tell me why you would or would not advise agains this build:

Priest Talents

Minimum Required Level: 60
Required Talent Points: 51
Discipline Talents - 20 points
Unbreakable Will - rank 5/5
Improved Power Word: Shield - rank 3/3
Improved Power Word: Fortitude - rank 2/2
Mental Agility - rank 5/5
Mental Strength - rank 5/5

Shadow Talents - 31 points
Spirit Tap - rank 5/5
Improved Shadow Word: Pain - rank 2/2
Shadow Focus - rank 5/5
Improved Mind Blast - rank 5/5
Mind Flay - rank 1/1
Shadow Reach - rank 3/3
Shadow Weaving - rank 5/5
Darkness - rank 5/5

I was thinking of me, a mainly solo, occasionally do instnace and with leveling in mind.

Max :lmao:

[Shady]

Sorry for the slow reply Max.

That build looks very good, especially for solo'ing. I do have one suggestion though which involves making a very slight change.

I'd take the same number of points in each discipline, but i'd forego shadow reach (saving 3 points) and would put 2 into fade and 1 into shadowform.

Fade is vital for instances, keeping aggro off you means you can spend time and mana keeping the rest of your party healed as opposed to shielding and healing yourself. You do get a fade ability without talents but it doesn't last nearly long enough. Those extra seconds can save not only your life but everyone else's. It's especially important when you haven't spent any points in reducing the threat caused by your heals. (like me!)

While shadowform has been nerfed slightly (and justifiably so imo) it still rocks. I remember thinking that it felt like a boost of about 3 or 4 levels all at once when I got it. If I remember rightly the earliest you can possibly pick it up as level 40. Assuming you'll be spending points in Unbreakable Will and IPW:S first, it'll probably be mid to late 40's before you get it - as I did. It really makes those last 10-15 level's go a lot smoother.

As far as solo'ing in shadowform is concerned, I wouldn't worry overly about not being able to use holy spells. Fact of the matter is that it costs no mana to drop out of shadowform and then heal if absolutely necessary - and to be honest I didn't find I had to do this much. You can then stay in normal form for the remainder of the fight. Meanwhile, up until that point your shadow damage has been inflicting 15% more than it would in normal form and your physical damage has been reduced by 15%. Add to this (and I suppose it's kind of ironic) but I hardly ever found myself needing to heal myself - my shield usually held up until whatever I was fighting was dead, then the added mana I'd used for the shield would regen nicely with spirit tap.

Levelling Priest isn't exactly easy. It's about finding the right balance between killing things as quickly as possible, while not using up too much mana. Level wands as best you can, they're not great but they can help to finish off a mob nicely, especially when coupled with a nice Shadow Word: Pain :)

That's my thoughts anyway mate. If you wanna grab me for anything else (ingame or here) feel free.

Cheers :)