Prinsesa

I'd just like to say that buying specialized equipment is in no way mandatory for a Prot grinding build. Prinsesa was my first toon on this server, and thus had to earn everything she had.

When I started grinding on the Dabyrie Farmstead, I was only using the [Commander's Crest] from SFK. Eventually I got the [Aegis of the Scarlet Commander] and the [Sword of Omen] from tanking SM runs, and those lasted me well until 60.

Better equipment just allows you to make bigger pulls, but isn't really required to make the style work, more than knowing how and when to juggle between Light and Wisdom.

http://armory.mmo-champion.com.nyud....63815BffMm.png

 

Currylaksa

For warriors, opinions are usually very divided over fury and arms.

Arms is fairly slow until 51+. The power of heavy 2H comes from instant attacks and rage. If you went Arms all the way, the lack of crit from gear and Cruelty means you are always rage-starved. Heroic strike is on next swing and has severe rage opportunity costs. If you took Cruelty first before going Arms, you will take 5 levels longer to get Mortal Strike. At almost lv40 I got twinked on SM gears plus a Mograine's Might, going into Dustwallow Marsh it took forever to kill one mob as pure Arms. 41-50 was painful as well. Fury was better despite the misses, the rage generation was better. Contrary to what earlier posters said, the talents 1 through 41 increase DPS. Enrage is very underrated, as you'll be surprised how often you get crit. The pool of obtainable 1H weapons was a lot better too. Blue 2H weapons off the AH have high prices, fast swing timers, and procs we don't always care about.

Arms starts to shine around 51+, with Endless Rage and Poleaxe specialization. Firstly, you get [Ice Barbed Spear] off an AV quest, which is powerful for the level. Secondly, at 51+ you can start to work in both Endless Rage and Cruelty, meaning you get a ton of rage. Thirdly, you start finding Beast/Bandit/Soldier green gears giving a lot value for money. Getting TM towards the late 50s will give you more options between WW, overpower, pummel and berserker rage.

IBS can last you fairly well until 60. At 60, a simple run through Ramparts of BF will get you either a [Hellreaver] or [Warsong Howling Axe]. Either weapon will last you to 65. At 65, getting friends to run you through Ring of Blood questline will net you a [Honed Voidaxe]. That weapon is good till 69, where you can replace it with the cheap [Crystalforged War Axe] from AH for the final level and subsequent quests. All weapons benefit from Poleaxe specialization, means you don't have to respec from 51 to 70.

 

glowacks

I've been leveling a paladin straight prot from the beginning (10-30 might have been better as Ret), and will second this. I'm on a low population server, so finding groups for anything low level when I level him (usually the middle the of the night) is impossible, so I have purely solo-quest gear. The AH usually has nothing worthwhile. I wish I knew someone who was a Blacksmith, because I can't find anyone who will make me shield spikes.

Nonetheless, I've not had a problem, although I have very rarely ground for XP and haven't at all since the buff to quest XP. I just pick up 3-4 mobs in the area that include ones I need to kill and juggle Seals so I can minimize downtime. Now, since my gear is weak I can't take on 4 same-level mobs and expect to come away with full life, but I can still kill them with only a bandage. I can solo "normal" elites a few levels below me without trouble; I've yet to try same-level or higher ones.

When playing as a Prot paladin when you have full (or nearly full) Ardent Defender, you want to keep your life just about at 30% so that you get the full benefit of it; it makes Seal of Light (and pots) that much stronger. Hopefully you're not on a large pop PvP server. If you have any competition for mobs, be sure to use rank 1 Consecrate to tag them (or just smack each one once); Reflected damage will not tag mobs, no matter how much you do. Use bandages instead of mana to heal so that you can kill faster (use Holy Shield and Consecrate more) - that much is true for *any* healing class except Enhancement Shaman post-Shamanistic Rage.

 

ZeroWashu

While it is not ideal I am looking to push a restoration shaman up. I would like to get some advice as to leveling this spec as it does not have any damage talents until the third tier if I stick strictly to the restoration tree.

Gear is easy, tuxedo pants and spell thread or clefthoof path. Then as much nature damage as I can lay my hands on. However I am at a loss for talents. It doesn't seem to matter in the restoration tree. If I pursue this route I look to leading off with lightning bolts and melee to finish.

I don't expect it to be as easy as going Elemental but as many have mentioned before the spec for a Shaman doesn't seem to matter all that much till the thirties. This is how I expect to spend talents to thirty Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

Opinions?

 

Touf

If you're really going to do that you should get Nature's Guidance for sure, and probably Imp Reincarnation.

 

Tizzlewump

This is very wrong. VT is an amazing dot that rivals SWP to the point that pain is usually dropped from grinding cycles before touch is. The mana regen is bonus. If you didn't love shadow priest grinding from 50 on, this is the most likely problem. Dots abuse the five second rule. You didn't spec Misery.

If you're taking so much damage that it's outracing your bandage cooldown along with improved VE (stop wasting mana on shifts), you need to fight weaker mobs. Hell, if you have to PWS yourself regularly you need to fight weaker mobs. Toward that end, shadow focus can get cut way back -- if you need more than +4% hit for a mob, you need to fight weaker mobs. Spirit Tap returns fixed mana for your given spirit no matter what you kill, so fight green mobs not orange ones. Don't discount post-BC shadow till you've seen SWD. If you're drinking, you're wasting too much mana. I often log off of my t5 mage to farm with my priest wearing 5/6 tailoring and level 70 greens "of Spirit" because drinking annoys me -- shadow priests have 0 downtime unless you're trying to kill stuff that's too strong for you. The 2.4 buff to spirit is completely nuts.

Your nod to Meditation is worthwhile. Around 61-63 you can spec out of deep shadow and into 1x/0/41 to start working on meditation to further limit downtime, and pick up inner focus at 64 for fun. If you're not stacking spirit (see especially healer blues that have spirit+spellpower, like [Gloves of Piety], in outland) your results will be lacking no matter what you spec.

I used to get high on life until I found out that life is cut with idiots.

 

wilfan

Apart from the burning question of WHY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY RESTO (even if only to 30), I'd swap Totemic Focus with IHW. You don't really put totems down much, especially 1-30 as you get air totem at 30 and water at 20. IHW will shave a few minutes off your /played and might save you if you overpull and can't run away.

 

psiphre

Thanks for the tips. I was killing even-leveled quest mobs in hellfire when I made the switch, which is pretty much what leveling is about these days (I hit outland pre-2.4) if you hit outland as soon as possible. Of course, once you hit 70, farming is a different ballgame from questing for levels entirely.

The reason that i use pw:s on every single pull is because I hate pushback. I hated losing time off of mind flay, I hate having my smite turn from a 2 sec into a 5 second cast, and as I mentioned, reflective damage is hideously broken.

My own spreadsheet (which is ridiculously amateur and likely wrong ) showed that VT overtook talented SWP from a mana efficiency standpoint around 500 spell damage, but doesn't out-dps swp until around 1000 spell dmg. 1000 spell dmg just isn't viable at in your 60s for leveling (and certainly not pre-outlands unless you're dusting off your old raiding toon). I'm just now getting close to breaking 500 spell dmg at 64 on another character (mage) in green drops and quest rewards. On top of that, the extra duration of a talented SW:P really helps beat the 5 second rule for maximum spirit tap efficiency.
And, of course as I mentioned, a healer is 10x more desirable for instances than a shadow priest.

Lag is also an issue for me, though that is difficult to quantify, since I play from Alaska on an east coast server (damn auto-picking realm list). The bottom line is that the disc build just works better for me even if shadow looks better on paper.

I tried not to dis shadow spec too much, because it obviously works for a lot of people, just trying to get another perspective on priest leveling out there.

 

Anedris

One thing a lot of people seem to forget about for shadow levelling is psychic scream. Mind flay is practically designed to work in conjunction with the fear. My levelling rotation was VT, SW:P, (apply VE if you need the health), flay, scream, flay, flay (mob is usually dead or can be SWed now). When I got shadowfiend I swapped to VT, MB, flay, scream, flay, flay, SW.

In essence, a mob doesn't run very far if you flay it as soon as it's feared, so there are very few places you can't use fear to avoid pushback.

(That said, the basics of priest levelling is just to get spirit tap and stack spirit through the roof. As long as you follow that formula you can be any spec and you'll do fine.)

 

ZeroWashu

The primary reason to go Restoration all the way up is to establish the mindset from day one. I have already leveled an elemental to 70 and have an enhancement at 65. I was mildly disappointed with enhancement. In that vein I do not have a dedicated healer on my main account so I decided that as I like the Shaman style that Restoration was the next logical step.

If not restoration, how do I avoid NOT taking elemental all the way up and getting restoration. I fully understand that with sufficient gear a non-resto shaman should be sufficient in healing but I wasn't able to pull that off myself with my elemental shaman. It just seems to me that Restoration "fixes" that class more so than what Priest experience.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft is the to 50 that I have mapped out. If you or others think I am just inviting too much pain I would ask, should I go elemental till 50 then swap? Is Restoration viable as a leveling spec after Earth shield?

 

Tizzlewump

I have no issues with you leveling a disco priest, it's your toon and I had a former toon who adored 31/20/0. I am only talking about shadow grinding. Don't spreadsheet mobs you're grinding, you're not raiding BT quite yet. Without multiple dot cycles running their full course, the theorycraft applied to raids is inappropriate to grinding shadow (keeping 4 other people chain casting is a different job than keeping yourself chain pulling). Mobs are going to die before dots fall very often, VT+SWP give you a lot of control over exactly how much dot dpm you waste. A shadow kill is going to throw 1-2 dots and then some nukes -- almost always at least one blast, flay and SWD. You add extra nukes or wand shots depending on cds, 5SR, mana, and range. Just think of all your pushback losses (dps for MB and dpm for MF) as on the same order as the dots you let fall off.

As much as I've said about priest grinding in the talent thread I should post the base shadow talents I used 62+. I took 0/3 focused mind because I was literally mana capping every pull; improved MB is a natural talent to reduce if you're not. The 0/5 shadow focus should scream "incompetent" at me but with [Zangar Epaulets] (quest reward) and one or two green gems with spell hit I got hit capped for what I was grinding. In principle 3/3 SA was supposed to make my dps 5mans easier, but in practice I healed every run anyway so I can't say if it helped. I want to stress that this is an Outland-only spec; you just won't reliably find spell hit any sooner. From there I went to meditation, inner focus, and back to marginal shadow talents after.

This next bit is not specifically about priest grinding but is general advice. You don't need every pull to go 100% correctly and according to plan. You just want 90 of every 100 pulls to go well, so overnuking one mob and needing to wand the next isn't two failed pulls but just the rough spot on your long grind. Taking 6 seconds to bandage after only 10% of your pulls is far better than plant-casting a heal for 1.5 seconds every pull.

I used to get high on life until I found out that life is cut with idiots.

 

Touf

No, soloing as resto is just painful. All it lets you do is solo a few more elites, which don't really exist anymore. Earth shield doesn't stop pushback that much, so all you're getting is less bandage time. The playstyle is the same. Also, Nature's Guidance is really important, that's basically 3% more damage (since hit gear is hard to find), which beats a lot of other talents. At worst you can swap out the crit talent for a minor gain in dps. Also, imp chain heal is worthless for leveling and 5 mans, while Nature's Guardian is really awesome for everything.

If you wanted to practice healing or something, elemental can heal most leveling dungeons adequately, especially with all the new damage gear out there (downrank), and the only tool you're missing is earth shield.

What exactly disappointed you about enhancement? When did you do it? After 2.4 enhance is THE fastest leveling spec, period (post 40). Only hunters and warlocks come close. You do ridiculous amounts of damage, you have instant ghost wolf to save travel time in those short hops that mounting is worthless for, and you never run out of mana. Granted, you might not be able to heal some dungeons, so...in any case, the best practice is found at 70, so the sooner you get there the better.

 

ZeroWashu

The problem I have with enhancement is the amount of damage I take downing mobs of equal level or higher. Compared to my Elemental build who only took damage if I just had bad luck or more that two adds it was a shocker. I live off of band-aids to conserve mana. I make regular use of my Shamanistic Rage to recoup mana and soak damage with three plus mob foul ups. Stoneclaw totems do wonders in keeping adds busy but it burns off too quickly. Still she is 65 (Tokimi of Eitrigg) and I do my best keep weapons up to date.

I will rethink my restoration plan then. I am alternating between the resto experiment shaman, a bm hunter, and a new shadow priest. I like to take multiple classes up within ten or so levels of each other to understand the game mechanics better by seeing how each performs on similar content.

 

Ngita

If your pulling more then 3 adds, Stone claw, instant ghost wolf and reset. 66 is a turning point with Earth elemental. But just how much better my mildly twinked enhance shaman is compared to say my Ret Paladin who had t2.5/Naxx continues to amaze me.

I did try resto for leveling in the 50's as I stockpiled honor,tokens as a AV twink but its about as viable as Holy Paladin leveling. If you want to do instances as resto and leveling on the same server as a 70 main. Simple respec every 5 levels post 50 and the cost is relativily painless.

 

Sabyn

I am leveling a shaman now, currently 35 and enhance. I've been looking forward to 40/41, but I have a question, which is better to take first, Stormstrike first or dual wield? Also, are there many options for early DW weapons? [edit, just picked up 2 [Heaven's Light] for 40, should be fun]

Also, a more long term concern is eventually switching to resto around mid 60s-70 (depending on when I want to do instances). I will have to go with enhance quest rewards for leveling purposes. Is there any good way to balance the two, or will I just need to be smart with upgrades and transition slow?

 

ZeroWashu

Go with dual wield first.

Use all green quest rewards towards leveling. Use instance drops towards building a restoration set. Still I would not concentrate on Restoration items until post 65 as most drops before then will be vendor fodder afterward. The only quest rewards I remember having by the time I reached 70 on my first shaman was the HFP reward for killing the demon in the slime pits and the totem reward. i finished 70 before netherstorm and shadowmoon which left me much better situated to choose appropriate quest rewards.

Oh, since your only in your 30s, make sure when passing through fellwood/winterspring to do the complete Quest: Words of the High Chief - Thottbot: World of Warcraft which is the end of the chain dealing with the furballs. The quest rewards are very very good, being +29 spell damage or +50 attack power in trinkets. On each character which completed the quest I kept these trinkets a LONG time. The quests are both easy and follow your natural leveling progression, meaning they should both be done by the time your 58 and will be hard to replace before 65

Trinkets
Power of the High Chief - Thottbot: World of Warcraft
Strength of the High Chief - Thottbot: World of Warcraft

 

Nizghalad

I'm having a lot of trouble to compare attack power/strength/agility values when choosing my equipement as an enh shaman (lvl42 currently).
Wowwiki is quite confusing with all the formulas, so did I miss something, or should I use an addon which can enable to better my dps?

 

• frmorrison

Since you don't have Kings, 2 AP = 1 Strength = 0.8 Agility (including more dodge and armor here)

 

Taja

I'm leveling a shaman aswell which is currently level 50. He is full enhancement just getting shamanistic rage which cut in my downtime alot. Before that I pretty much used bandages all the way trough to heal myself up. And use mana spring totem and try pulling mobs to it all the time to get its full duration. And of course totemic recall when your moving away. You shouldn't really worry about the resto mindset or whatever that even is, lower level instances are so easy you can heal with any spec. I did ZF at 44 with full enhancement without even a shield and a few pieces with int/spirit or +8 heal etc. Aslong as you heal efficient it really ain't to hard. If you don't think your up for it try grouping with a ret pally or something to make sure you get wisdom which makes it a lot easier.

 

Karoo