Spiritual Guidance: The dawn of the age of shadow
by Fox Van Allen 
Jul 7th 2010 at 7:00PM
Welcome to the Wednesday version of Spiritual Guidance, hosted by the shadowier-than-thou Fox Van Allen. Using information culled from his Real ID, Fox is 35 years old, thrice divorced and lives in a van down by the river.
When we last left off with our leveling guide, we were running around smiting things with abandon because ... that's just about all we knew how to do. Thankfully, the priest class gets exponentially more interesting and complex as you level.
In this latest installment of the shadow priest leveling guide, we're going to get you from level 20 to level 40. Why level 40? Because level 40 is when the game completely changes. We get Shadowform. We do more damage. We take less damage. We heal ourselves through causing pain. We're able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively. We become the gnome-destroying (and eating) machines we always knew we could be.
In short, at level 40, priests become awesome.
When we last left off with our leveling guide, we were running around smiting things with abandon because ... that's just about all we knew how to do. Thankfully, the priest class gets exponentially more interesting and complex as you level.
In this latest installment of the shadow priest leveling guide, we're going to get you from level 20 to level 40. Why level 40? Because level 40 is when the game completely changes. We get Shadowform. We do more damage. We take less damage. We heal ourselves through causing pain. We're able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively. We become the gnome-destroying (and eating) machines we always knew we could be.
In short, at level 40, priests become awesome.
The spells: levels 20 through 40
Throughout the leveling process, you'll want to visiting your trainer regularly. You can train to improve the strength of Mind Blast every sixth level (22, 28, 34, etc.) through the leveling process, and similarly improve the strength of Smite every eighth level (22, 30, 38). Beyond that, you'll also learn the following new spells at key milestones.
Level 20
- Devouring Plague Damages enemies and returns a small portion of that damage back to you as healing. A key part of the shadow priest tool box, especially during the end game. Less useful while leveling due to its high mana cost; save it for instance bosses and elite mobs.
- Fear Ward A highly useful, albeit highly situational spell. Fear can be a devastating attack in both PvP and PvE, and this spell makes you immune -- at least to one casting of it. If you're facing an enemy capable of fearing you, you should have this buff up.
- Flash Heal An especially useful healing spell due to its 1.5-second cast time.
- Holy Fire A damaging holy-tree spell that applies a minor, seven-second DoT. Given the limited number of spells available to you during the early levels, Holy Fire instantly becomes the preferred opener attack for level 20 priests. If you're looking to really ramp up your damage, this spell works especially well when paired with Glyph of Smite (hat tip to Pinochet for pointing this out last week).
- Holy Nova An instant-cast, area-of-effect attack that simultaneously serves as an area-of-effect heal. The caveat, of course, is that Holy Nova isn't especially good at healing or damaging and only becomes useful when you have a large number of hostile or health-starved friends immediately surrounding you. Be judicious about its use: Spamming this spell is a great way to run out of mana fast.
- Mind Soothe Another highly situational spell in the priest arsenal that most priests will never find themselves casting. Possibly useful for sneaking by enemies in close quarters, but enemies do have a chance to resist this.
- Shackle Undead The priest crowd control spell. Since it's only usable against the undead, it's not as helpful as it otherwise could be. In situations where you're dealing with one too many undead opponents (questing in Duskwood, perhaps?), a well-timed cast could wind up saving your life.
- *Mind Flay (Requires 10 talent points in the shadow tree.) Mind Flay's low mana cost and ability to reduce your enemies' movement speeds makes it an essential piece of the shadow priest arsenal. An excellent "second cast" attack that slows a hostile character's movement into melee range.
Level 22
- Mind Vision One of the most underrated spells in the priest tool kit, Mind Vision allows you to see the world from your target's eyes. An effectively unlimited range makes this spell supremely useful for finding targets. Can't find that NPC you need to complete a quest? Want to know where that stealthed druid went? Simply use the following macro:
/tar [character_name]
/cast Mind Vision
Level 24- Mana Burn A spell that eats away at your enemies' mana and causes a slight amount of damage as well. Potentially useful in PvP against opponents with low mana pools (paladins?), but virtually useless in PvE situations.
Level 30
- Mind Control This spell should be a lot more fun than it actually is. It rocks in concept: Cast this on an enemy, control their movements, cast their spells and walk them off a cliff. In reality, Mind Control tends to stink -- it's resistable; it breaks quickly, easily, and often; and it's useless in 99% situations. That other 1%? Any unfriendly character located on a dangerously high cliff.
- Prayer of Healing A powerful area-of-effect heal. This spell is almost exclusively cast by priests healing raids and 5-man instances.
- Shadow Protection A standard priest buff that increases resistance to spells from the shadow school. The spell is supremely useful in PvP and in PvE fights against enemies that deal large amounts of shadow damage. Its standard 10-minute duration can be frustratingly brief; many priests will use the minor Glyph of Shadow Protection to double the buff's length to 20 minutes.
- Divine Spirit Another standard priest buff that increases spirit, thus increasing mana regen. You'll want this up at all times. Since both holy priests and shadow priests can talent into spirit increasing their spellpower (eventually), this spell gets better with age.
- *Silence (Requires 20 points in the shadow tree; requires two points in Improved Psychic Scream.) Interrupts a spell cast and applies a spell school lockout to select targets. While this is a useful talent in PvP and PvE leveling, many priests may skip it because it also requires two talent points be invested in Improved Psychic Scream.
- *Vampiric Embrace (Requires 20 points in the shadow tree.) The quintessential shadow priest buff that allows you to absorb up to 25% of the damage (when talented) you cause as healing. Shadow priests should grab this ability as soon as possible as it dramatically increases survivability.
Level 32
- Abolish Disease A supercharged version of Cure Disease. Supremely useful against mobs that continuously attempt to apply disease effects.
Level 34
- Levitate A useful non-offensive spell that makes otherwise deadly drops survivable. Similar in effect to the mage spell Slow Fall.
Level 40
- Greater Heal A spell that combines a frustratingly long cast time with a spectacularly powerful heal effect. Much more effective when you talent the ability to have a lower cast time, but unless you're leveling as a healer, leave this spell off the cast bar.
- *Shadowform (Requires 30 points in the shadow tree.) This is it. The reason you rolled a priest. Shadowform is the ultimate middle finger to everything good and holy about priests, a personal admission that your goal in life is destruction. Your shadow damage immediately increases by 15% when you enter Shadowform -- a massive DPS boost at the expense of one lone talent point. As if more was needed to sweeten the pot, you take 15% less damage in Shadowform, too. The only trade-off is that you won't be able to cast spells from the holy school while in Shadowform. That's OK, though -- the trade quite worthwhile. If you've been sinking talent points into the holy tree along the way, pay your priest trainer to reset your talents the moment you hit level 40. There are gnomes out there that need destroying, after all.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Narshe Jul 7th 2010 8:01PM
Poor Mr Fox, writing a lvling guide now, and in 6 months will be writing it again after Cata is released lol.
Mondi Jul 7th 2010 8:02PM
"You'll have plenty of time to live in a van down by the river, when you're living ... in a van down by the river!"
Matt Foley ftw!
Bernie Roscoe Jul 7th 2010 8:59PM
Using information culled from his Real ID, Fox is 35 years old, thrice divorced and lives in a van down by the river.
Marita Jul 7th 2010 9:30PM
Holy Nova is the best way to heal during Hodir before getting raid quality gear
The problem is the ranged players usually die :P
Ignignokt Jul 7th 2010 10:08PM
You're a girl! Holy s***, and you're playing WoW! OMG!!
***
Prequel to RealID
Marita Jul 8th 2010 12:12AM
Lol XD
well, maybe that's why I'll wait before using real ID :/
SarahTheGnome Jul 8th 2010 6:23AM
I don't know if you guys have seen how little comments people are giving on your blogs today? Pro tip, we want discussion on real ID, only real ID, all day long :)
No seriously, wowinsider, help gamers unite, show us you are truly here for the community, now is your chance.
Tom Jul 8th 2010 8:15AM
I wanted to clarify on Shadowform because it's a very common newbie confusion.
Shadowform stops you casting spells from the Holy Tab of your spellbook, not spells from the Holy School. You can still for example cast Power Word: Shield which is a Holy school spell, but not in the holy tab.
scrum055 Jul 8th 2010 9:24AM
Looking at that skill list, it is clear that Shadow needs a true PvP skill. I guess that Mind Spike spell will help with spanking pretty well. But of all the DPS caster classes we lose out in PvP. Mages are damn near impossible to take down with there bubbles; Shaman = Mail and interrupts; I don't even want to talk about the bull dookie that is fear locking that is a Warlock; And I could open up a shop selling reasons I hate Paladins and their over powerednessness.
Listen, I think shadow does decent DPS and their mechanics are strong. But the cooldown on our silences and fears are waaaaaaay to long for the lack of power they have. Our PW: Shield even when spec'd into lasts about 2 seconds. My main role in pvp is to follow around other DPS and spam dispel to piss off a paladin when they realize all of their buffs and HoTs are gone.
But all-in-all priests are and have always been a supporter class. Never one you look to take into battle, but one where it just to convenient to have one every now and again for mass dispels and uber buffs. I wouldn't mind getting a little love from the PvP world.
This has been another rant by yours truly.
Marathal Jul 8th 2010 9:42AM
Thank you Fox. Been waiting on this. Got my Tiny SPriest up to lvl 25. Now if I can just get out of the bracket of Rouges trying to be tanks wearing caster gear. /facepalm. And the comments like your a priest why are you DPS and Oh cool two healers Ima gonna pull the room heal me.
iceveiled Jul 8th 2010 11:14AM
Just a quick tip for shadow priests. Fear Ward comes in really handy in instances where mobs use fear. I know I'm a bit too far ahead of this article at level 75, but last night I was pugging Drak Tharon Keep and the second to last boss (the big dinosaur) as well as one of the pulls leading up to the final boss use fear with an annoying frequency.
The tank asked me to put it on him during both encounters, which I thought was cool of him as it didn't even occur to me. I chose to put it on the healer instead, that way he could continue to heal the party through it all.
aramis Jul 8th 2010 12:26PM
Some thoughts on Shadow Priests and the light...(note: this is from a lore-based perspective, not a player and/or player-behavior-based perspective)
Mr. V-A, we don't FORSAKE the light as Shadow Priests. On the contrary, we embrace it. It seems to me throughout your columns, you think us merely Warlock-wannabe's who can heal on occasion, dealing shadowy death with the flick of the wrist. And while for the most part that's true (the damage-dealing part that is), the difference between us and warlocks is that we stay true to our roots...we are PRIESTS, children of the light (whatever source that light may be). We accept the light as the balance of ourselves. Life is about balance: pleasure and pain; good and evil; life and death; light and shadow.
Why just look at our spells:
Vampiric Touch
Shadow Word: Pain
Mind Flay
Ours are weapons that deal damage (and pain) through the use of anti-, or negative light. And "negative" is simply used here in the scientific sense of the word as in the opposite of light and not a "bad" (or "evil") use of it. As light shines down, the objects in its path cast shadows, and it's from there we draw our power. But as Priests we use light as our weapon, even if we use anti-light (shadow). We are not evil (well, an undead Priest, maybe...but that's debatable), moreover we use our light to damage the mind of our enemies and suck the very life from them to restore our own in retribution.
Now, you ask, what about light wielders that actually use pure light spells to deal damage (a la Smite or Holy Fire), and why do we not use them and risk dropping the very form that allows us to do more shadow damage. Well, that's simple. I reiterate that our tools are those that deal in negative light, not pure light, BUT, we can still use pure light as our means of damage if we so choose. A warlock could never use light as his weapon because he's fail. Er, I mean FEL, as in he uses fel magic as the source of his power which in turn corrupts. We don't corrupt, ourselves or others. We punish, there's a difference. The damage we deal is seen as punishment, not as a sick twisted means to serve our own demonicly-rooted purpose as would be the case with a Warlock (again, this is from a lore-based perspective...not based on player behavior that would dictate people go Shadow to kill gnomes, funny as that may be).
There is a line drawn between a holy priest and shadow priest (with Discipline priests being the fickle indecisive bunch who want to play both sides), the shadow priest only embraces his side to deal punishment, but that does not make him evil like a warlock any more than it would for a Retribution Paladin when compared to his Protection and Holy counterparts. When light can heal and deal pain, Shadow Priests focus solely on the pain aspect, but that also does not mean we forsake the existence of or occasional use of the other side.
In essence, the light fights the battle from both sides. The side where light shines the brightest, and the side where said lit object casts its shadow. But in the end, we are all soldiers of the light as priests regardless of specialization.