Priest Level Guide to 80 for WoW WotLK Classic

You always wanted to level up a priest to 80? But as always, you start the long journey at level 1. To prevent you from throwing in the towel when leveling up to 80, we’ll give you the right tips in this WotLK Priest Level Guide. This way you’ll be able to get to level 80 quickly and comfortably. We’ll tell you which quest areas you should avoid and when you really need to go back to the Priest Trainer in the capital.

Step 1 – proper preparation

Through the heroic instances and the ultimate heroic dungeon guide, surely your main character is swimming in Emblems of Triumph? So you don’t need the unnecessary Emblems of Triumph anymore? Then you can perfectly use these emblems for leveling. Instead, exchange them for Emblems of Heroism to gain access to the important heirlooms. In this Priest Level Guide for WotLK Classic, we’ll show you what heirlooms are available, where you can get them and what benefits you’ll get from them.

The heirlooms

The chest and shoulder armors are the two most important heirlooms. Besides the effect that these heirlooms also “level up” and you don’t have to worry so much about your gear, there is also a 10% experience bonus on these heirlooms. So you will also benefit again every time you complete a quest or kill monsters. With both pieces, you’re already getting 20% more experience points (EP). If you want to do it really professionally, you can also get the Dread Pirate Ring, which increases your experience bonus by another 5%. This ring is given to you as the weekly winner of the Kalu’ak Fishing Event. With this additional bonus, leveling up will be even easier.

If you have any emblems left, you can use them to buy a weapon and the Trinket “Discerning Eye of the Beast”. This Trinket will restore 2% of your mana for every enemy you kill. It may not matter much at the beginning, but as your mana pool grows, the utility of the trinket increases.

What else you need to get started

Send your priest 100 gold along with the heirlooms. This way, you can directly acquire the riding ability including the mount at level 20 and 40. In order to store the loot from enemies or quest rewards, nether cloth bags are accordingly an advantage. For this you can simply ask a tailor or look in the auction house. What glyphs you should also get in advance, will be clarified in the following WotLK Classic Priest Level Guide.

 

 

Step 2 – Let’s go!

Now that all the preparations have been made, it’s time for your new priest to get serious. Like all other characters, your character will see the light of day in the starting area of the corresponding race. The equipment you have sent with your main character cannot be accessed at first due to the missing mailbox. To finally get the equipment (heirlooms), if available, you must first travel to the next largest settlement. However, we recommend that you first complete all quests in the starting area. In less than two hours, you should have completed the first eight levels, after which you will be sent on to the next village. The back and forth only costs valuable time and the first levels can be completed without any help.

Set your interface

However, before you can start questing, you should set your Interface. How to do that is explained in this section of the Priest Level Guide for WotLK Classic. We recommend activating the Auto-Loot option. It saves you valuable time when you search the enemies for loot. You should also assign hot keys to the abilities you use most often. Even if you used to prefer activating abilities with mouse clicks. Most importantly, once you’ve adapted, you’ll never want to become a mouse clicker again.

Navigation just got easier

Additional add-ons like Questhelper or Carbonite are not really necessary anymore, since the integrated quest help in WoW WotLK Classic works really well by now. Unless you’re the kind of person who can’t find the liquor store across the street without a navigation device. In this case we recommend the Questhelper add-on, which shows you a directional arrow to the next quest step directly on the screen. With this arrow, you are guaranteed not to get lost.

Step 3 – the first ten levels

After you accept all the available quests in the starting area, you’re ready to go. But when exactly do you have to go to the trainer and learn the new skills? We will clarify this in the next section of the Priest Level Guide for WotLK Classic. However, you won’t feel much of the priest’s power yet, since there are only two skills available at the beginning. Minor Heal will heal your wounds and Smite will do damage to your opponent. Don’t forget to renew your Prayer of Fortitude every 30 minutes, because it will increase your hit points a lot.

So, until level 8, you will usually stay in the starting area. At the same time, don’t forget to stop by the priest trainer when you reach levels 2, 4, 6 and 8 to benefit from new abilities. When it’s worth visiting the trainer later on, we’ll explain in the next section.

Making the right decisions

When you have completed all the quests in the starting area, you will be sent to the next village. There you can pick up your heirlooms, if you have any, from the mailbox. By doing so, your priest will get a real boost in stats and a pretty cool look by the way. If you already have a level 80 character, you can ignore the profession trainer. Namely, we recommend the beginner to choose two gathering professions. For this purpose, it is best to choose herbalism and also mining. So you can take all the raw materials directly when leveling and sell them profitably in the auction house. This way you can finance your mount later on. However, if you already have a chunk of gold at your disposal, you can safely postpone your choice of profession until level 80 and a rainy spring evening.

However, you should only learn first aid right away, so you can make bandages out of the materials that you found. Although you can usually heal yourself, you can fall back on your bandages in situations where your mana is low. Even if you take it slow, the first ten levels can be completed in an afternoon.

When do I need to go to the Trainer?

Only special abilities and new ranks of the main spell justify a visit to the trainer. Because every two levels you get a new ability. Especially in the first ten levels, this happens faster than you think. That’s why we won’t include the skills up to level 10 here. But when is it worth visiting the trainer when leveling up, and when does it make more sense to stay in the quest area? We’ll tell you when it makes sense to visit the city.

Step 4 – Level 10 to Level 20

You have already reached the first small milestone with level 10. From now on, you can also distribute talent points with every level up. Our advice: Even if you prefer to play healer at level 80 later on, you should still level up as a shadow priest. After all, you want to reach level 80 quickly, and that’s much faster as a Shadow Priest. The only exception is permanent leveling with a partner (preferably DD or tank). Here you can safely level as a healer and heal your friend all the time while he takes care of the enemies. Solo, you invest the first three talent points in Spirit Tap, which benefits your mana balance, followed by five points in Darkness. After that, the Shadow Word: Pain is improved.

At level 15 you also get access to the first glyphs. Levitate is the best choice here, since you won’t need reagents for it anymore. Also, be sure to renew the Inner Fire ability immediately after it expires.

Step 5 – Level 20 to Level 40

The first thing you do when you reach level 20 is to visit the riding trainer of your race. From now on, you will only be able to travel on horseback. Don’t put off this step until later, because faster travel is synonymous with faster leveling – and that’s what this Priest Level Guide for WotLK Classic is all about, after all. In addition, you’ll finally learn the talent Mind Flay, which you can increase the range of directly with the glyph of the same name. In order to hit the enemies, the hit rating is very important. The talent Shadow Focus comes in handy here, which you can gratefully take with three talent points. To get Shadow Reach and Shadow Weaving, you have to invest one more talent point. Put this point into Improved Psychic Scream.

Vampiric Embrace gives you permanent healing when you deal damage. You can restore your mana with Focused Thoughts. Another point then goes back into Psychic Scream. At level 30, don’t forget to add the glyph Shadow Word: Pain, which also restores mana. At level 40, you can also upgrade the Devouring Plague and Vampiric Embrace abilities to heal yourself even more effectively.

Step 6 – Level 40 to 58

By reaching level 40, you have also reached another milestone. Now you finally have the Shadowform talent. This talent finally makes you a real shadow priest. You will now also deal much more shadow damage and also take more overall. Take this opportunity to visit the riding trainer of your race. A new level of riding skill and a new companion await you here. Remember, don’t wait until later to take this step. From level 40 you can also learn a dual talent specialization. What exactly this is and what it does for you, we will explain in the next section of the Priest Level Guide for WotLK Classic.

Dual talent specialization

Consider investing 1000 gold in dual talent specialization. Although you will continue to level solo as a Shadow Priest, it is much easier to find groups for dungeons as a healer. It’s always handy to be able to use a healing specialization as well as a shadow specialization as a priest. In low level areas you can regularly find groups for instances. This way, you can collect a lot of experience points and gear in addition to the quests, which in turn makes leveling even faster. From level 80 at the latest, you can’t avoid buying the dual talent specialization. We therefore advise you to get it as early as possible.

Area hopping

Slowly, from level 48 onwards, you will find that you need more quests to reach the next level. In order not to get into quest trouble, you will have to change regions more often. We will show you which areas are best for questing in the next section. On your quest through Azeroth, you will distribute your talent points as follows. Mind Melt 2/2, Shadow Power 2/5, Improved Shadow Shape 2/2, Misery 3/3, Vampire Touch 1/1, Pain and Suffering 3/3, Shadow Power 3/5, and Occultism 4/5. Also, don’t forget to add the small glyph Power Word: Soul Strength at level 50. This will lower your mana cost from now on.

Step 7- Level 58 to 68

You have made it! Finally, you can leave the lands of the classic WoW world. Next, you will advance to the areas of the Burning Crusade. Since your equipment, with the exception of the heirlooms, is rather average, you will get a lot of trouble during the first quests. Therefore, proceed with extreme caution. However, this situation will change very quickly, as you will receive an equipment upgrade at the beginning of almost every quest. Your health, mana and spell power points will also increase very fast. This is a great way to level up after completing a few quests. Also, try to find a group for the first two instances (Hellfire Ramparts and The Blood Furnace). Besides a lot of experience points, you’ll also get good equipment and a little gold.

When you reach level 60, you can take a short break and go back to the flight trainer. There you can learn how to fly. Questing is much easier and faster from then on.

Finally: Dispersion and Shadowfiend!

In addition, you finally get Dispersion, your life insurance, which also restores a good portion of mana. You get your Shadowfiend at level 66, which will help you in battles and take care of your mana. The Veil of Shadow talent also reduces the cooldown time by two minutes, so you can use your faithful companion even more often when leveling. Take a short detour to Nagrand, where an arena quest series awaits you in the north. Here, however, you will need the active support of a group. After all, there are thousands of experience points every minute. With the new talent points, you will of course continue to expand your shadow tree. Occultism 5/5, Dispersion 1/1, Shadow Power 5/5, Improved Will Drain 2/2, Improved Mind Blast 2/5, and Veil of Shadow 2/2.

Step 8 – From level 68 to level 80

“Brrr, I’m cold!” This could be because at 68 you drop everything and head out into the icy expanses of Northrend. Don’t waste time with old quests or reputation factions. Nobody needs them in the new lands anymore. So consistently delete all open tasks from your quest log. In the new areas, there are also far more experience points and, above all, better rewards for completed quests. Players who already have a level 80 character now have access to the Tome of Cold Weather Flight, which costs 1000 gold. This immediately gives your priest the ability to use his flight mount in Wrath of the Lich King areas. Your speed during the leveling phase will thus be significantly increased.

Tundra and Fjord

Start your journey in the Borean Tundra and then switch to the Howling Fjord. Why bother with hard enemies when you can have it easy? You gain most experience points by completing quests anyway, not by killing enemies. With level 73/74 the fjord should be finished. Time to pay a visit to the Dragonblight. With level 78 to 79 you can go to the last act in the Sholazar Basin, where you can collect the last experience points for level 80 through the quests.

Take a quick look at the Grizzly Hills and Zul Drak in between: Just like in Nagrand, two arena quest series await you here, which in turn provide massive experience points. However, here again you need the help of a group, or high-level companions. Don’t forget to use the glyph Shadow Spirit at level 70! Your new talent points will continue to flow into Improved Mind Blast and then into the Discipline talent tree (Twin Discipline, Improved Inner Fire).

Emblems and the Dungeon Finder

From level 70, you should also play a random instance via the Dungeon Finder at least once a day. Because for the completion you already get emblems of triumph, which you need in masses at level 80 anyway. In addition, you can directly complete the instance quest, get experience points and possibly even the one or other piece of equipment. This way you kill four birds with one stone!

Step 9 – and now?!

Congratulations, you have managed to play a priest to level 80! But the journey is far from over. Before you continue, decide what role you want to play later. Do you want to continue dealing damage as a shadow priest and benefit from the experience you gain while leveling up? Or do you also want to try your hand at healing in raids? No matter which path you choose, the important thing is that you choose it at all. The much preached flexibility works at the beginning more bad than good. Concentrate on a specialization, especially at the beginning. And improve your equipment for this specialization. For your second choice you can also collect items on the side until you have a complete set there as well. However, it is best to invest your emblems of triumph and frost in equipment that supports your main specialization.

Don’t miss: the riding skills

Time is valuable. So if you travel faster, you’ll complete more quests in less time. In this section of the Priest Level Guide for WotLK, you will get all the important information. This includes the prices, the required level and the riding speed.

• Apprentice Riding
  Speed: 60%
  Costs: 6 Gold
  Mount cost: 1 Gold
  Required level: 20
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• Journeyman Riding
  Speed: 100%
  Costs: 50 Gold
  Mount cost: 10 Gold
  Required level: 40
  ⠀
• Expert Riding
  Speed: 150%
  Costs: 250 Gold
  Mount cost: 50 Gold
  Required level: 60
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• Artisan Riding
  Speed: 280%/310%
  Costs: 5.000 Gold
  Mount cost: 100 Gold
  Required level: 70

The best Quest Areas

After you leave the starting area, head to the following quest areas.