Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. But since it's Memorial Day weekend and Canadians don't celebrate the holiday, I decided to keep you all entertained on Monday! Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus, and this week he's written different "If" statements to follow.

The launch date for the new expansion is coming ever closer, and soon the race will begin to get from 70 to 80. Looking forward to the grind? I know I'm interested in the new quest designs and mechanics! I'm one of the few crazy people in WoW who leveled Disc/Holy. There are a few good tips on leveling to 70 without having any points invested in Shadow. This week's piece discusses the reasons for leveling as Discipline, talents you should consider, and the spells in your arsenal. I'm happy to see the purpose of the Discipline tree being more focused. Here's why I did it, and why I plan on doing it again when Wrath of the Lich King is released.

How do I know if Discipline is right for me?

If you want to go straight to 70 non-stop, then Shadow is the fastest way to go. I've found it the most efficient and self-sustaining way to level.

On the other hand, what are the perks of Discipline?

• Want to heal instances and maintain solo ability?
  • Your mana costs for several offensive and defensive spells increases your ability to stay out in the field more. Also means you don't have to drink as much.
  • When you're leveling, you have the option of running an instance if needed as a healer. I guarantee you will have no trouble finding groups for instances.
• Increases survivability
  You have the ability to withstand attempted ganks for a little while longer, allowing time for help to come or for you to run to a safe zone.

Talents to Pick up

Discipline Tree

Here's a list of notable talents that you may wish to consider picking up when going for the grind from 60-70. How many points you wish to invest in each one is entirely up to you. When I finished my talents, I ended up 42/19/0 at level 70. While certainly not exhaustive coverage of either tree, these are a few of the highlights.

Force of Will: You can't go wrong with a 5% increase in damage and critical strike chance. It's good to have early on when leveling.

Power Infusion: This one is something of a toss up. It's great to use on that Mage you are leveling with. That player would love you forever. Alternatively, if you can remember to use it on yourself often enough, all that spell haste will add up. Setting up a macro to use your trinkets and then Power Infusion is pretty simple (and I'm sure you can find a spiffy link). For just one point, if you remember to use it, Power Infusion can be nice to have.

Reflective Shield: I believe this talent is a must have. You will be taking fire from mobs, and every point of damage against them is an advantage for you.

Pain Suppression: PI is fairly situational. It's great to have when you accidentally bite off more pulls then you can chew. It's also handy when that opposing faction Rogue stealths the moment you get within visual range.

Holy Tree

Divine Fury: This talent lets you get your Smite spell off half a second earlier - another no brainer. The sooner your spells go off, the more damage you can do over time, right?

Holy Nova: When you pick this spell, I implore you to keep one important fact in mind. You are not a Mage. No matter how cool it looks, how hard you try, or how much you think you can live, you can not run into a group of mobs and hope to Holy Nova them all down to death without the possibility of you dying. I'll tell you how to make the best use out of Holy Nova later on.

Searing Light: A 10% increase in Smite damage. Since you will be Smiting a majority of the time, this talent is a big plus.

Holy Reach: Being able to open up on mobs further away means they need to travel that extra distance just to get within range of you. Keep in mind, this will likely be the last talent you'll invest in.

Spell Sequence

When I was working my way to 70, I liked to open up on mobs with Shadow Word: Pain. I'd follow it up with a Power Word: Shield on myself in order to reduce spell pushback as much as possible. After that, I'd light up my target with Smite repeatedly until it goes down.

But honestly, that is child's play. Let's have a little fun on our Priest, shall we?

For multiple targets, open with a Power Word: Shield on yourself first. You want to burn the Weakened Soul cooldown as much as you can, so you can recast your Shield. Ensure your Inner Fire is up and cast a Renew on yourself. Go ahead, start selecting different mobs, and light them up with Shadow Word: Pain. (6 is a great number to start with.) Try Smiting them several times each, in rotation, keeping your Power Word: Shield up as much as possible. If you have room, drop a Psychic Scream, continue to refresh your DoTs on the mobs and Renews on yourself. When they return, they should easily be within 3 or 4 shots of Holy Nova spam.

If you prefer, you can open up with Holy Fire, Smite, then a Mind Blast. The choices are entirely up to you. At the end of the day, all that matters is getting your quest mobs down so you can move onto the next set and get to 70. Remember, when you're a Discipline/Holy Priest, you go at a slightly slower rate but you have a wider array of options at your disposal.

Gear selection

As you're slowly picking up pieces during your grind, pick up spell damage pieces, especially if you have stamina and intellect items. When you run into gear with gem slots on them, lean towards any combination of gems involving Spell Power. Although prices have risen recently, consider using these green gem goodies:

Red and yellow slots
Runed Blood Garnet
Veiled Flame Spessarite
Potent Flame Spessarite

Blue slots
Glowing Shadow Draenite

One more thing

Although it isn't located in the Disc or Holy trees, Spirit Tap is worth a few points to invest in as it speeds up your mana regeneration after killing a target. It makes the leveling process quicker.

I've never truly acquired the taste of being Shadow. I'll be respeccing my Priest again for a non-Shadow build when the expansion comes out because it's how I'm used to playing. Even though I won't level as fast, it shouldn't matter. I don't have to be the first player to level to 80. I just have to be first player in my guild.

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Want to find more great tips for carrying out your Priestly duties? Spiritual Guidance has you covered -- before the long hiatus, we checked out the Shadow Diaries and examined threat. And don't forget to check the WoW Insider Directory for more priestly info -- there's lots of guides, writeups and discussions over there as well.

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