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Priest builds

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Classes: Death knight Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
Class races: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Quests: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Abilities: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Trainers: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Talents: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Talent builds: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Tactics: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Armor sets: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
Starting a: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
PvE guide: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr
PvP guide: Dk Dr Hu Ma Pa Pr Ro Sh Wl Wr

Since the talent review in the 1.10 patch, most (except for Improved Fade) of the talents available to priests will find a use somewhere. You can use this page to give you ideas about the kinds of options that are available to you as a priest. Mix and match the talents that appeal to you and your style of play.

You should read the Priest Talents page for more information about specific talents.

Contents

Leveling a Priest to 70

"What is the Best Leveling Spec?"

While leveling a priest to 70, it is recommended to specialize in the Shadow tree, as it has both efficient and effective damage spells and great survivability (through passive healing and damage reduction). A shadow build allows you to level more fluidly and is less prone to mistakes. Furthermore, the shadow priest's healing capabilities are perfectly sufficient for any non end-game instance.

In any build, Spirit Tap greatly enhances leveling speed.

"Should I use Blackout or Spirit Tap?"

For leveling purposes and solo PvE in general, Spirit Tap is often regarded the better choice, as it considerably reduces downtime, especially against mobs of lower level. This talent is very useful in battlegrounds too, helping you to resist during long fights. If your emphasis is on PvP, Blackout normally is superior to Spirit Tap. Some players find the situational benefit of Blackout to be of greater value than the regeneration provided by Spirit Tap even for PvE or solo leveling. What will benefit you more will depend on your own play style. Note that Spirit Tap is activated only when you make the actual killing blow and therefore only really shines when you solo, while Blackout (albeit much more random) is valuable no matter if you solo or are in groups.

Note that tanks will not thank you for putting points into Blackout. Bear form druids and warriors are not able to generate rage by suffering damage if their target is stunned (and thus, not causing them any). Paladins generate a decent portion of their threat by being struck, an action that stunned targets do not tend to do. Stunned targets are also difficult to position. In short, never ever take Blackout in a raiding build, without a really good reason (encounter-specific requirements, for example).

Spending Priest talent points to 70

As with any build for any class, the only "best" build is the one that you enjoy playing the most. However, many players who level a priest by doing solo quests will find something similar to the following to be very effective.

This guide will focus primarily on talents that will help you level a Priest through PvE combat, but an alternative talent build that favors PvP combat will also be suggested. There are a large number of possible effective talent builds, however, so mix and match to your own preference.

Levels 10 to 19

Spend all the talent points you get on early Shadow talents. Reducing downtime between combat is the primary consideration, as most of your quests will be in the "Kill x of y" format and the less time you spend drinking the faster you will level. You will be able to heal any group you are in without taking holy talents.

  • Spirit Tap: A crucial talent for solo levelling, if you plan effectively maxing Spirit Tap as soon as possible will take care of most your mana regeneration needs while questing.
  • Improved Shadow Word: Pain: The harder battles you fight will last longer than one application of Shadow Word: Pain, and if you fight multiple mobs at once your first action should be to SW:P all of them. Greatly increases the damage per mana (efficiency) of the spell.
  • Shadow Focus: Allows you to reduce the chance your spells miss (are resisted). Three points will be all you need for most situations, unless you often fight mobs that are a few higher levels than you are.
    • Alternative Blackout: Gives a chance to briefly stun a mob that you cast a Shadow spell on. If you plan to PvP at lower levels you will want this talent, but it is still useful in PvE.

Your talents at level 19:

Levels 20 to 29

Stick with improving your damage-dealing Shadow abilities. You can still be the healer for any group you will be in. (See below for an alternative route from 21 to 39 that uses some Discipline and Holy Talents.)

  • Mind Flay: An incredibly useful talent. Gives you a spell that does decent damage, has the best mana efficiency of any Priest attack, and its 50% movement speed snare effect will help both in keeping you from being hit and from keeping runners from aggroing other mobs. Take this right away at level 20, it will change the way you play your Priest.
  • Improved Mind Blast: Reduces the cooldown of the highest DPS attack you have. Unless you have a lot of lag problems, only put 1 or 4 points into this talent. The Priest global cooldown is 1.5 seconds, so you want Mind Blast to have either a 6 second or a 7.5 second cooldown.
    • Alternative Improved Psychic Scream: Reduces the cooldown on your fearing spell, so that you can use it more often on enemies. Can be nice in PvP, but mostly taken because it is a prerequisite for Silence.
  • Shadow Reach: Allows you to attack targets from a greater distance, meaning more distance they have to cover before they start to bash on your Power Word: Shield.
  • Shadow Weaving: The first of several Shadow tree talents that improve the overall dps done by shadow spells.

Your talents at level 29:

Levels 30 to 39

Continue to improve your damage output, and also start to heal yourself (and your group) as you dps. Group healing is still no problem for you, but be sure to run some instances so you can start practicing how to heal at later levels if you plan to go Holy down the road.

  • Vampiric Embrace: This talent returns a portion of the damage you cause to you (and your group) as healing. Allows you to greatly reduce dependency on Power Word: Shield, in favor of taking and healing damage as you go.
  • Focused Mind: Improves the mana efficiency of your bread-and-butter damage spells.
    • Alternative Silence: Crucial PvP talent that again has some utility in PvE.
  • Darkness: Increases overall Shadow damage by 10%.

Your talents at level 39:

Levels 40 to 49

Similar to the 30 to 39 section, you are still improving your shadow damage output and remain a viable party healer. PvE'ers will be picking up PvP road talents described above.

  • Shadowform: The definitive Shadow Priest talent. Increases shadow damage done by 15%, reduces physical damage taken by 15%, and makes you look so much cooler.
  • Misery: Boosts all spell damage taken by the target by up to 5%. This includes from other casters in your group. Lethal in PvP and loved in raids.
  • Shadow Power: Improves crit rate for both Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death. More useful in PvP, however combined with VE and once you get VT this can have huge mana returns from MB and SWD.

Your talents at level 49:

Levels 50 to 59

Beginning to branch out into the Discipline tree.

Your talents at 59:

Levels 60 to 69

At this point, there are a huge number of possibilities. Many priests will respec at 60 to put points into Holy in order to improve their ability to heal Outland instances while still keeping points in Shadow to effectively level, among many other possible paths.

PvE
Maximizes damage output in PvE.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVMhzoZbZxMgtMtRhtVo

Healer
This build is very popular among Priests looking to heal on raids. It aims to improve the power of your healing while stretching your mana pool out for a long as possible using Inner Focus, Improved Healing, Mental Strength and Meditation so you can keep healing through the long fights in MC and BWL. Very hard to solo level with this build.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxRhzhxtZfhtcc0qVh

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxT0zhxzbZfbxcfzqVhc <=== A better version of the build that has less threat per heal, better plus heal from improved divine spirit and empowered healing. It loses Mental Strength because 10% extra mana isn't worth the talent points and Improved Shield is a waste on a talent that is only used in emergencies. Points can be removed from Empowered Healing to take Lightwell, which is handy for warlocks without Dark Pact.

PvP
A heavy emphasis on the Shadow Tree gives you the maximum raw DPS. This build generates a lot of threat, and so is most suited for PvP. For tough instances try the Shadow Raider build below.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bx0GzZbZVMGtMtRhtAo

Notes:

  • Swap some points for Spirit Tap, this gives less DPS but longer killing in for example BGs before having to pause and drink again.
  • Healing Focus. This is only 2 points and a huge 70% of a chance not to get casting interruption while healing, so vital to most Priests. The problem is that you can't heal while in Shadowform, so this talent isn't for those who don't like to shift out of face-melting mode occasionally. Furthermore, in many situations Martyrdom will allow casting without interruptions, anyway.

Holy Warrior
This build focuses on maximizing Holy damage. The DPS and DPM is not as good as the Shadow build, but healing is better. The basic build:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxrMzhxt0tZfxx0cbVb

Alternate Route: Levels 21 to 39

This build minimizes downtime between fights, but lengthens the fights themselves. Start with the level 19 PvE build from above and take Mind Flay. Then add Wand Specialization and after that Improved Renew. At level 28 your build should look like this:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVZcZxMhz

After level 28, spend your points in the shadow tree like the shadow builds in this article. When you hit level 40, respec to get Shadowform.

How to use this build:

  • At max range start with Power Word: Shield
  • Pull with Holy Fire or Mind Blast, which ever does more dmg for your level.
  • Start your Shadow Word: Pain DoT
  • Do some more damage with Mind Flay, 1-2 applications should be good.
  • (If you expect to take lots of damage, use Renew)
  • Finally, use your wand until the mob is dead
  • After five seconds of using your wand the spirit regen will start filling your mana.
  • Spirit Tap will kick in when the mob is dead, which should return you to full mana by the time you reach the next mob

This way you can grind mobs and almost never stop for a mana break.

Here is a talent tree http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVMhZZEMztMxRGtEo

PvE "Disc/shadow" Grinding Alternative

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVMhZZEMztMxRGtEo

Level 70 Builds

Standard Healing Builds

Primary Disc/Holy

These are standard level 70 builds for a primary healers, which should include Circle of Healing. Unlike previously implied, Mental Agility is a must. Changes to Lightwell, though nice, have been inconsistent. However that is not to say that the large boost to the bonus of +healing it receives is not welcome. Some players are able to expend all charges by rapidly clicking the Lightwell, while others are forced to wait out the duration of the buff.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxG0khxZfMxcfMaVhVo

This build focuses on maximum efficiency and accentuates the well-rounded qualities that comprise the raiding priest's abilities.


Variations include:

-Taking one point out of Absolution into Silent Resolve. One point in Absolution will have a small impact on your mana usage when casting Dispel, or Mass Dispel. However, it is an impact nonetheless. Silent Resolve may be the difference between pulling aggro with Circle of Healing from an offtanked mob.

-Taking the two points out of Holy Specialization into Spell Warding. Crit percentage may be nice, and a well timed crit heal may seem satisfying, but the Priest class was not meant to effectively take advantage of crit, as can be seen by our class mechanics and itemization. The damage a priest receives in a typical raid environment is most likely spell damage, thus Spell Warding is effectively a percent boost to Stamina, per point.

-Taking one point out of Healing Prayers and putting the last point into Spiritual Guidance. This is generally not recommended, as Prayer of Mending should be cast often, and its mana costs can add up. Also, the mana cost reduction to Prayer of Healing is very desirable. As a rule of thumb, if Prayer of Healing was cast at least once in a boss encounter, then it was worth it.

-Alternatively, Inspiration may be skipped and used to max out Spell Warding or Holy Specialization, though it is wise to have Inspiration available to you in a raid situation, whether you the raid is heavy on Restoration Shamans or not.

Secondary Disc/Holy

A common build that complements a priest with a deep holy build as above. It gets a useful caster buff of Divine Spirit with Improved Divine Spirit and sacrifices Circle of Healing and healing bonuses. A guild with two priests raiding together will likely prefer for one of them to have this build. Still a capable tank healer and raid healer. Not much changes when going from Circle of Healing to obtaining Improved Divine Spirit, except for that Silent Resolve may not be of much use, as untanked targets will aggro from healing, regardless of how many points into Silent Resolve you may have.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMhkhxzbZfMxcfMaVhc

For variations, refer to the section above.

Support 40-Man Raid Healer

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMhuhxtb0oZfbxcf0VV

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMhkhxzZbxtcfMqVzV (with more healing and less utility)

This build should not be widely used. Its main focus is enabling the support healer (as opposed to the main healers) in the raid to efficiently assist in healing the raid while the main healers heal the tanks. Since not many raids actually need support healers this build is very specialized for large raids. The build retains enough Holy talents to replace killed main healers for a short time.

  • Caster Boosting - Using both the Improved Divine Spirit and Power Infusion talents these priests can improve the performance of any caster in the raid dramatically. This combined boost of spell damage and healing can boost a raid's DPS or healing dynamically as required during raid engagements.
  • Improved Decursing - Decreased mana cost of decursing spells, combined with a larger mana bank make these priests decursing machines. When facing one of those pesky raid bosses or even trash, who take a fancy to debuffing the entire raid or large portions of it, these priests prove to be a valuable asset.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxghzhZfVt0fMqVhV (with holy nova, inner focus, and binding heal)

This spec is an off-shoot of the above two, but tweaked to reduce threat and spell damage, whereas the above two do not reduce aggro threat. This is an effective spec for PvE as well as PvP, but purely built for healing.

Notes

  • These builds avoid Holy tree abilities that require a critical hit on the priest to proc, such as Blessed Recovery and Blessed Resilience. They also avoid offensive abilities, in particular Searing Light and Surge of Light. These are generally PvP talents.
  • Critical heals are often a waste since they have a tendency to overheal, especially in raid situations with multiple healers. However, with Inspiration critical heals gain an important secondary effect. It's possible to spam low-rank heals to trigger the effect.
  • A great deal of threat reduction is not usually necessary with expert tanking, but helpful in some encounters and will help deal with poor and undergeared tanks.
  • Mental Agility gives a mana reduction on most of the spells affected by Absolution, but given the scarcity of useful low-tier talents in the Discipline tree, Absolution is a popular choice.
  • Some priests choose to put extra points in Wand Specialization, but many guilds ask healing priests not to use their wands in a raid as doing so can delay healing at a critical moment.
  • Lightwell has been changed to give a great deal more healing and Spirit of Redemption now lasts 15 seconds after death and increases spirit by 5%, so depending on your playstyle and the amount of Spirit you have these may be viable talents.

PvP "Face Melter"

This build is a pure PvP build. The build is only slightly viable for raiding, but in the new arena system, as well as normal PvP, it will truly "melt faces."

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxxrz0MZZVMGtMtRhtVo

Notes:

  • Mana Burn and Silence are powerful tools. They are vital against healing classes.
  • Silent Resolve's dispel resistance might be worthwhile against dispelling classes.
  • Martyrdom could be useful in various situations.

Raid Shadow

The Shadow Priest is an extremely powerful group supporting spec, which deals steady damage and offers a lot of utility.

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMhzhZZxGxpMLohtEo

Notes:

  • Shadow Focus: Shadow Focus can be adjusted based on your spell hit rating. If you have 76 hit rating, you need 5/5 Shadow Focus. If you have 101 you can go 4/5, 126 hit for 3/5. If you have more than 126 hit rating, you should re-think your gearing.
  • Unbreakable Will vs Wand: Normally, UW is preferable, but depending on the Priest's use of wands, the second one might be the better choice.
  • Blackout vs Spirit Tap: Neither really qualifies for raid use. Both very occasionally proc in a raid environment, and as such, the decision mostly depends on what one prefers outside of raiding.
  • Silence and Improved Psychic Scream are left out due to their largely limited raid use.

Smiter

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgMzhMtbxoZfxt0bbVb

Designed for maximizing Holy damage, the build provides enormous and reliable damage (due to Holy damage not being subject to resistances). In addition the Priest retains their ability to heal, making them useful as a healer and DPS. The downsides are the lack of possible damage sustainability and utility. Unlike the shadow tree, which allows a priest a consistent and efficient damage output, the Smiter is able to quickly deal large amounts of holy damage.

Another powerful tool used by the holy warrior is the ability of Power Infusion. This becomes incredibly useful for buffing not only yourself for healing or attacking, but also as a utility for other spell casters in a party.

The major downsides of this build are the relatively high mana consumption (both healing and damage) and the vulnerability to interrupts. For these reasons a priest is expected to have decent gear before attempting this build.

The changes to Spirit made in Patch 2.4 complement this build quite well, since Meditation, Spiritual Guidance, Improved Divine Spirit and Spirit of Redemption invite heavy use of Spirit as a way to both improve spelldamage as well as Mana regeneration, making a Smiter build an excellent choice for a Priest soloing and both dealing damage and healing in small instances with the ability to cast skilled greater heals in 0,5 seconds less time, compared to unskilled Priests like most shadow builds.

Still the mana usage is quite remarkable and is best supported with trinkets like Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon and/or Bangle of Endless Blessings. An Option is to forego Power Infusion in favour of Spirit of Redemption and Spirit Tap looking somehting like this:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxxzzhgzbLZfxtM0babZx

Playstyle for the different Smiter builds varies slightly, depending on whether Spirit Tap or Power Infusion has been skilled, but usually Freecasts from Surge of Light - which is the Holy Warriors compensation for the +100% Crit Damage that other DDs gain - is used in combination with Inner Focus to gain a few seconds out of the Five Second Rule for some Manareg, when dealing Damage. Since Holy Nova can crit on both party members as well as Mobs, it will frequently give freecasts from Surge of Light, at a very high mana cost though.

The important stats for the Smiter (Hit>Crit>Spirit>Spelldamage) are somewhat hard to find for a priest in endgamge content at the moment (Patch 2.4).

Beginning play you are usually asked to heal and shouldn't discount your own abilities as stats up to 60 should be int/spirit due to spirit increasing damage by such an amount. It is now possible to stack spell crit at lower levels but until you get Surge of Light it is not suggested. After 60 definitely get spell crit over spirit. It should not be hard to get 30% spell crit for Holy Offense spells, note that it will only be listed as 20% crit, 25% Holy crit on your tooltip. You can get up to 35% if you sacrifice spirit but doing so would reduce longevity and damage per hit. Keep Fade hotbarred at all levels as the damage can be quite a bit more than low level tanks are capable of holding. If you are running low on mana use rank 1 Holy Nova since the crit rate is unchanged and surge will give a full powered smite.

Most raids will rather decide for a shadowpriest for the greater utility a shadow brings.

Shadow Healer

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bZfxxcc0qZVGMdMpRht

This build is recommended for versatile priests, occupying good holes in group (as a dps healer, or as support healer, or as main healer, if none are present this is a decent healer spec), and giving survival to priest in soloing.

For this priest, it is well recommended to accumulate Spirit more than Intellect, even if just to rise duff their mana regen from talents.

Depending on what you do when not raiding/grouping, you can always switch Blackout for Spirit Tap.

  • Strengths - The combination of damage output and good healing.
  • Weaknesses - Small mana pool

Please note that this spec would only be feasible for 5-man encounters. Do not attempt to use this spec in a 10 or 25 man raid encounter, as you are less useful than a Holy Priest or Shadow Priest using a cookie-cutter build.

UnHoly Shadow Mix

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMhzZfxt0bbVbZVMxd0xR

This build puts points across the board. The Discipline tree is taken as far as Inner Focus to provide that emergency heal with no mana cost. Since the chance of crit will be much higher a free Smite can be cast because of the talent Surge of Light from the Holy tree. The Shadow Tree is used to get Vampiric Embrace along with the improved version. An alternative would be to strip the points from Shadow Weaving and use them and one point from Improved Vampiric Embrace to get Silence

The standard method of playing would involve landing Vampiric Embrace followed by Shadow Word: Pain. If grouped then in between healing duties a Mind Flay can be used with refreshing VE and SW:P as needed on the main target.

Disc PvP Healer

(47/14/0) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxTGzhMtrcqtf0tc

A build with increased survivability. Strong buffs, including Pain Suppression and Power Infusion. Mana Burn is the strongest spell to use against opponents if you get caught in a 1v1 situation. A .5 second Mass Dispel, as well as Improved Power Word: Shield, Reflective Shield, and Healing Focus make this a very effective healing build in PvP.

Common Disc PvP Healer (livelong build)

(41/20/0) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxgMuhgtMcozfVxbc

This build seems to be the best current build for PvP priest healers as it allows you to take plenty of hits while still doing your job. This build is also the most popular among the 25th and up top rated priests in 2v2 3v3 and 5v5![citation needed]


Common Disc PvP Max Healer Build

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html?5002320133505112021551230051300000000000000000000000000000000000

This build I find keeps me alive long enough to top charts in healing in battle grounds. for a more arena spec healer you should see the one above this one. This build is to max out your healing while keeping you alive. The high stats will keep you going for a long time the large mana pool should keep you going for a long time plus the additional bonus healing on yourself while taking damage. Reflect shield will almost kill anyone dealing damage to you. I find this vital when grouping with a friend especially a rogue with high burst damage because if another rogue sneaks up on you and they will then half damage put back on them plus your rogue friend will be able to finish them off with burst damage. Just keep shield up and inner fire at ALL times.


Blessed Resilience PVP Disc/Holy build

(28/33/0) http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxLGzhgzMZfVthcMoV0h

Not as popular of a PVP arena spec as the full discipline build, at low levels of resilience (less then 250 to 300) and gear blessed resilience is more beneficial for survival then focused will, as the priest may not be able to live through enough crits for the stacking buff. Unfortunately, this build also must skip out on pain suppression, but gains better healing power, and still retains the ability to heal 5-man instances quite well.


Multi-purpose PvP build

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMGzIztbZbZVMgzztR0t

While this build leaves out the powerful 41-shadow-point Vampiric Touch ability and Misery, it incorporates Shadowform, Meditation, Inner Focus, Divine Spirit and Improved Divine Spirit, the latter four to try to prolong the priest's mana as long as possible. This build should be used for PvP battles, where a priest can damage and heal (secondary healer perhaps) concurrently. Shadowform here is debatable, due to its restrictions on healing while used, and can be switched (along with the 2 point Healing Focus) into the build to get Power Infusion if wanted. However, already with the discipline talents of Mental Strength, Matrydom, Improved Inner Fire, and the Divine Spirit talents, this build hopes to increase the survivablility and longevity of the priest while battling, at the same time leaving enough Shadow talents to increase the damage output of the priest.

  • note: Spirit Tap/Blackout is also for the priest to choose.

Unorthodox Disc Priest Arena Build

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bxMRkhgtMcqufZV0gz

Mainly the standard Discipline build but with more emphasis on 2v2 Arena PvP. The method of using a rank 1 Mind Flay to keep an opponent from kiting a less mobile partner and a rank 1 Shadow Word: Pain to procure Blackout make it extremely specialized. The addition of Improved Psychic Scream can be stacked with the effect from Vengeful Gladiator's Mooncloth Gloves (or any version of a priest's Arena Reward gloves,) reducing the cooldown on Psychic Scream to 23 seconds. The use of Power Infusion is noticeable when used to push damage as an opponent is near death and the addition of the priest's damage would end the match quicker. Despite the damage talents, the main focus of this build is to provide support by both healing and harassment towards an opponent's healer through a variety of interrupts, Mana Burns, and dispels. A Priest paired with a Rogue would see the most benefit from this build.

Tank Specced Unarmed Melee Priest Build

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bEMh0cxLZZEMMzMtRMt

This build is designed to be played as an off tank. Doing unarmed damage and providing support for casters. In the event of the death of the tank this build will take over the tanking for the team until the main tank is rezzed. It is played in shadowform for the 15% damage resist coupled with inner strength for the armor bonus. Circumstances in which this would be useful are rare at best.

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