World of Warcraft: The Priest
Copyright 2005 i7ironwolf

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Table of Contents
0. Version History
1. Why a Priest?
2. What Race?
3. Spells
4. Talents
5. Playing
6. PVP
7. Professions
8. Items
9. Notes on level 60.
10. Etiquette
11. Thanks

0. (I didn't feel like this deserved a real number, seeing as to how minimally
important a chapter this is.)
1.0  Made guide, hope you enjoy.
1.1 Added a few small updates on Mind Control and additions from the first
person to E-Mail me with thoughts and whatnot.
1.2 Changed format to make it easier to read, added small notes.
1.4 More notes.
1.5 More changes.


1. Why a Priest?
There are many reasons to play a priest, some of the most notable being:
a.   Very popular class for parties, many people will take in a priest whereas
another class several levels higher would be turned down.
b.   When properly talent specialized (Shadow, more on that later) the Priest
is a very lethal PVP class.
c.   Can heal, heal, heal! No other class can heal like a Priest.
d.   I have been told by many that Priests level very swiftly compared to some
other characters, so play away!

There are, however, some drawbacks to playing as a priest, some of them being:
a.   A great deal of downtime, with mana being used often.
b.   A mana based class; melee is not so great even with a staff. Note: Wands
are you friend!
c.   You can receive a lot of crap if the party wipes out (your fault or not.)
d.   Minimal weapon and armor choices.
e.   In parties, expect to just sit and heal and run away from monsters while
others pull them off of you often.
f.   No travel form or speed enhancements, expect to be walking until you get a
mount.
All that said, Priests are an awesome class, at least in my opinion, and I
don't regret making one as my first class.

2. What race?
My Priest is a Horde priest, so I can only truly speak about that side of
things, but I will venture my opinions on the Alliance choice also.

Horde: The Horde has two very good choices-Trolls and the Undead.
a.   Troll
The Troll is not that astounding of a choice for a priest, but does get a
mention for one reason: their racial ability to berserk (Speeds casting and
attack times up by 10-30% based on health.) This is invaluable, for when you
are low on mana in those
desperate fights, that extra speed is the difference between a heal on you or a
party member, and potential death. Also, Berserking is an instant cast ability,
allowing for it to be cast while running away from something.
b.   Undead
The race of my priest, and THE pvp priest choice. The Undead priest gets two
amazing things: Will of the Forsaken and Devouring Plague. Will of the Forsaken
is one of the greatest PVP advantages ever, negating fear effects and whatnot.
Cast this before combat, or have I have learned and been pointed to about, when
feared, sleeped or charmed, and whee, you're set (Alternate Opinion:
It wouldn't be a great idea to cast WOTF before entering combat because it only
lasts 5 seconds now.  You can use it while charmed, feared, or sleeped, so
saving it for battles against warlocks is invaluable. Thanks to Don Mur for
this). Devouring Plague is a spell available to Undead priests only--a DOT that
gives you an equal amount of life as damage is dealt. Drop this on an
enemy and watch as you go up as he goes down. Lastly, and though it's small,
the Undead get 10 Shadow resistance, useful in dueling and playing.

Alliance:
a.   Humans
Humans get Desperate prayer, which is an instant cast heal on yourself with a
long cool down time. Amazing, great for pvp and surviving for just a bit
longer. And instant cast! Truly amazing. Unfortunately, the Human racial
abilities don't shine too much for a Priest.
b.   Dwarves
Dwarves also get desperate prayer, and as Nordam pointed out, the very useful
fear ward, removing a fear effect or canceling one out.
c. Night Elves: I had dismissed NEs until bigscarymonster pointed out the
following: "Shadowmeld.  The ability to go stealthed until you move or do
something.
Now, this can be helpful for any class, since you can go afk and use this to
keep yourself safe when you don't have time to get to an inn or safe place.
But as a priest in a group, this can be priceless.  If you are out of mana and
the party ignores you and runs off to the next fight, use Shadowmeld.  If
there's a really bad pull, one of those ones that guarantees a wipe, rather
than cast spells and go out in a blaze of glory, and rez at the start of the
instance only to spend a good amount of time running and fighting your way back
to where you were, just move back a bit and Shadowmeld.  In the even of a wipe,
if you Shadowmelded correctly, you can wait for the mobs to kill the rest of
the party and go away.  Then, when it's safe, just come out of Shadowmeld and
rez the rest of the group.  I rest my case." Thanks to Bigscarymonster for that.

3. Spells
Holy: The heals.
a.   Lesser Heal/Heal/Greater Heal
All a slower but more powerful heal, the only difference besides amount
healed being when you receive the option to learn them. When casting these, be
aware of the casting time, so time them so that your target, whether it be you
or something else is not dead by the time it's cast. Don't forget to account
for losing casting time if you're being hit. (Void with Power Word: Shield or
Martyrdom/Focused casting.)
b.   Flash Heal
The PVP heal. It's fast and does the trick, keeping someone alive for another
flash heal or giving enough time to let off a larger heal. Excellent spell,
keep this on your PVP toolbar if you keep no other healing spell.
c.   Renew
A heal-over-time spell, like a lot of the Druid's heals. A good spell to use
in the middle of combat, before things get too ferocious, or if you don't want
to be sitting there wasting mana by being at full mana while the party doesn't
need your help so much. Also, Gemroc points out the following: "Wanted to say
that I believe the power word: shield spell and renew spell are a very powerful
combination. I Use it for soloing and in party.  Usually they are the only
spells I use to heal others.  Mainly because they are both instant casts, and
use less mana than actual heal spells." Thanks to Gemroc for that information.
d.   Prayer of Healing
Heals everyone in the party around you. An awesome spell as soon as you get
it, keeps everyone happy, often, and doesn't need targeting. Mana high, but
good when everyone is at something like 2/3's health or lower.
e.   Resurrection
Even at rank 1, this is a reason to keep the Priest alive; everyone can be
brought back if the Priest lives with this. A must-have.

Discipline: Miscellaneous spells of great use, buffing up yourself or others.
a. Power Word: Fortitude
A Stamina buff, you can be everyone's friend, a great spell. Make sure it's
up at all times.
b. Power Word: Shield
An alternative to healing, adds a shield that absorbs damage that can be cast
before entering combat. Casting time is also not lost when this is up, so it's
also very useful for you and any casters. Also useful if you have Shadowform
(see Talents later) as it is something like a heal w/o being a Holy spell.
c. Inner Fire
A self buff that jacks up attack rating and armor. Use it, why not? My only
complaint is that it only lasts three minutes, so it's the kind of buff you
forget about, since it's only usable on yourself and no one complains if you
don't have it up, unlike Power Word: Fortitude. (Not that I've seen anyways.)
So keep it up and it'll be you friend.
d. Mana Burn
A slow casting but good spell that deletes mana along with health, useful in
PVP, but not so much in regular combat. Up to you.
e. Dispel Magic
A great spell, again especially in PVP or battlegrounds, helps that flag
carrier or whatever move along. If it's on you, it can often be dispelled. Very
useful, and it's a heal in a way if it dispels DOTs or whatever.

Shadow: Your damage spells: Great for Soloing and PVP.
a. Mind Blast
The spell to end all spells in PVP and soloing, with the right talents it's
fast and deadly.
b. Shadow Word: Pain
A DOT and a useful one at it, cast it at the beginning of a battle. An
interesting note that one of my friends brought up: it is eventually possible
to solo the Princess in Maraudon with this spell, cast it and run away in
circles--she's really slow.
c. Psychic Scream
A fear that's a lifesaver in both PVP and regular combat. Be wary when using
it in regular combat, for it will cause any enemies that the victim(s) run near
by to be drawn into the fight. In PVP, keep this up as often as you can, since
even thought the effects diminish you can deal damage or heal, and sometimes
NPC monsters are attracted to the running away enemy and will do a bit of
damage for you.
d. Shadow Protection
  Use it when needed.
e. Touch of Weakness
I guess it's not bad, but it's annoying to use and I never find myself using
it that much.
f. Mind Control
A simply awesome spell, I dismissed it at first, but this is a truly great
skill, akin to the rogues sap with regard to taking out an enemy while solo-ing
or partying. Use their skills, have them out of combat, and deal damage to
another enemy! Excellent to use in the beginning of a battle, before the
healing is needed the most. be warned, the monster you Mind Controlled will
HATE you afterwards and will be very hard to taunt off. (Don Mur offered a
valuable idea with regard to PVP and Mind Control: Mind control can be valuable
in PVP, but usually only in solo PVP.  A nice little strategy I like to use is
to mind control right off the bat.  If it's a mage I'll use up as much mana as
I can, while aggroing any mobs that are around.  With paladins you can MC them,
then make them use their divine protection and lay on hands.  It's easy to get
creative with casters, but a little harder on melee classes.  If there's a
cliff nearby then it's generally goodbye to warriors.  Also in BG it's always
fun to MC someone and run them through the portal to take them back to where
the BG entrance is.)
g. Fade
Fade is an AMAZING skill! As a guild member told me, for I had not used it
much, it is not like stealth, but instead lowers the aggro. on you. Ever cast a
heal when instancing and had a couple of monsters start munching on you while
you hope the Warrior or whatever pulls them off of you? Cast fade and they
often run off and attack someone else! So beautiful! Plus, you can heal them
while they're taking damage. Also, my guild friend pointed out that it doesn't
have much use until later levels, so if it doesn't seem to be helping much,
don't be disappointed and just wait. Thanks to my guild friend for that
information. (Mear, I think it was.)

I left out a few spells that didn't seem to be worth the mention, correct me if
I'm wrong, or were racial abilities or Talent gained spells, since those will
be mentioned later. But, I must say, Levitate is a dang great deal of fun.

4. Talents
Here is a list of the talents:
Information from:
http://www.thottbot.com/
http://wowvault.ign.com/
wow.allakhazam.com
http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/world_of_warcraft_talent.txt

Discipline
(Effects are per Rank, I.E. w. Unbreakable will, 1 Point is 3%, 2 is 6% and so
on.)

Unbreakable Will (5 Ranks)
  Increase your chance to resist Stun, Fear & Silence effects by 3%.
Silent Resolve (5 Ranks)
  Reduces the threat generated by your damage spells by 4%.

Talents Requiring 5 Points in Discipline

Wand Specialization (5 Ranks)
  Increases your damage with wands by 5%/Rank.
Martyrdom (2 Ranks)
  Gives you a 50% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6
seconds after being the victim of a critical strike. The Focused Casting
effect
  prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage.
Improved Power Word: Shield (3 Ranks)
  Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 5.0
  secs..
Improved Power Word: Fortitude (2 Ranks)
  Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude & Prayer of Fortitude
  spells by 15%.

Talents Requiring 10 Points in Discipline

Focused Casting (1 Rank) |2 Points in Martyrdom required|
  While active, you no longer lose casting time from taking damage. Lasts 8
  seconds.
Mental Agility (5 Ranks)
  Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 2%.

Talents Requiring 15 Points in Discipline

Improved Inner Fire (3 Ranks)
  Increases the effects of your Inner Fire spells by 15%.
Mental Strength (5 Ranks)
  Increase your maximum mana by 2%.
Improved Mana Burn (2 Ranks)
Reduces the casting of your Mana Burn by 0.3 secs. 1st Rank, & by a total of
0.5
  secs. 2nd Rank.

Talents Requiring 20 Points in Discipline

Meditation (5 Ranks)
  Allows 3% of your Mana regeneration to continue while casting.
Inner Focus (1 Rank) |5 Points in Mental Agility required|
  When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next spell by -100% &
  increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical
  effect.

Talents Requiring 25 Points in Discipline

Force of Will (5 Ranks)
  Increases your spell damage by 1% & the critical strike chance of your
  offensive spells by 1%.

Talents Requiring 30 Points in Discipline

Divine Spirit (1 Rank) |5 Points in Meditation required|
  Holy power infuses the target, increasing their Spirit by 23 for 30 minutes.

Holy
(Effects are per Rank)

Improved Renew (5 Ranks)
  Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 3%.
Holy Specialization (5 Ranks)
  Increases the critical effect chance of your Holy spells by 1%.

Talents Requiring 5 Points in Holy

Spiritual Healing (5 Ranks)
  Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 2%.
Improved Smite (5 Ranks)
  Increases the damage of your Smite spell by 2%.

Talents Requiring 10 Points in Holy

Holy Fire (1 Rank)
  Consumes the enemy in flames that cause 90 to 116 Fire damage & an additional
  28 Fire damage over 8 seconds.
Inspiration (5 Ranks)
  Increases your target's armor by 5% for 15 seconds after getting a critical
  effect from your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, or Prayer of Healing spell.
Subtlety (5 Ranks)
  Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 4%.

Talents Requiring 15 Points in Holy

Improved Healing (5 Ranks)
  Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal, Heal, & Greater Heal spells by 3%.
Improved Flash Heal (2 Ranks)
  Gives you a 35% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting
  Flash Heal.

Talents Requiring 20 Points in Holy

Divine Fury (5 Ranks) |1 Point in Holy Fire required|
  Reduces the casting time of your Smite and Holy Fire spells by 0.1 sec.
Improved Prayer of Healing (2 Ranks)
  Reduces the Mana cost of your Prayer of Healing spell by 10%.
Spirit of Redemption (1 Rank)
  Upon death, summons a Spirit of Redemption that heals nearby friendly targets
  for 318 to 360 & another 343 over 21 seconds.

Talents Requiring 25 Points in Holy

Master Healer (5 Ranks) |5 Points in Improved Healing required|
  Reduces the casting time of your Heal & Greater Heal spells by 0.1 secs..

Talents Requiring 30 Points in Holy

Holy Nova (1 Rank)
  Causes an explosion of holy light around the caster, causing 96 to 105 Holy
damage to all targets within 10 yards. The effect also temporarily reduces
your threat level against nearby targets for 5 seconds. Also, I have been told
by
xfpredator: "that   Holy Nova will   also heal all of your group within 10m of
the spell." Thanks for that   information, makes the spell a lot more useful.
Unfortunately, it is still a piece
of crap.

Shadow
(Effects are per Rank)

Spirit Tap (5 Ranks)
  Gives you a 20% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a
  target that yields experience. For the duration, your Mana may regenerate at a
  50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.
Blackout (5 Ranks)
  Gives your Shadow damage spells a 2% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

Talents Requiring 5 Points in Shadow

Shadow Affinity (5 Ranks)
  Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 5%.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain (2 Ranks)
  Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3.0 secs..
Shadow Focus (5 Ranks)
  Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 2%.

Talents Requiring 10 Points in Shadow

Improved Psychic Scream (2 Ranks)
  Reduces the cool down of your Psychic Scream spell by 2.0 secs..
Improved Mind Blast (5 Ranks)
  Reduces the cool down of your Mind Blast spell by 0.5 secs..
Mind Flay (1 Rank)
  Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 Shadow damage over 3
  seconds & slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.

Talents Requiring 15 Points in Shadow

Improved Fade (2 Ranks)
  Increases the duration of your Fade ability by 5.0 secs..
Shadow Reach (3 Ranks)
  Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells by 6% 1st Rank, 13% 2nd
  Rank, & 20% 3rd Rank.

Talents Requiring 20 Points in Shadow

Silence (1 Rank) |2 Points in Improved Psychic Scream required|
  Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.
Shadow Weaving (5 ranks) |1 Point in Mind Flay required|
  Your Shadow damage spells have a 20% chance to cause your target to be
  vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage
  dealt to your target by 3% & lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. (Note:
  this effect can be resisted.)
Vampiric Embrace (1 Rank)
  Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be
  healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you deal for 60 seconds.

Talents Requiring 25 Points in Shadow

Darkness (5 Ranks) |5 Points in Shadow Weaving required|
  Increases your Shadow spell damage by 2%.

Talents Requiring 30 Points in Shadow

Shadowform (1 Rank)
  Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% & reducing Physical
  damage done to you by -15%. However, you may only cast Shadow and Discipline
  spells while in this form.

Now, I myself have played all three talent trees, started off in Holy, went
Discipline second, and Shadow last. I started off thinking that it was
something of my duty as a party class to go holy specialized, but found myself
not having much fun soloing and in PVP, so I switched to discipline. Discipline
had some great talents, notable the shortened power word: shields and improved
power word: fortitudes, and I enjoyed it much more than  Holy, but still wasn't
so great for soloing or pvp, though I have heard it's good for the capture the
flag battleground. I lastly did Shadow and loved it. PVP rocked, Soloing
rocked, and I could still heal well enough in parties. Below is how I would
recommend making your Priest.


Shadow:
Blackout-5 points, the stunning is useful, but can be sometimes annoying if you
were expecting the target to come into range as you hit them with a spell, and
then it got stopped in its tracks and you have to move forward.

Improved Power Word: Pain-2 Points, Best choice that I can see.

Shadow Focus or Spirit Tap-3 Points, up to you, both don't matter too much.

Mind Flay-1 Point, an awesome skill that lets you deal damage while Mind Blast
cools down.

Improved Mind Blast-5 Points, this is the important part of Shadow.

Shadow Reach-3 Points, a truly awesome talent, ups your damage, since you can
get another spell off often with that 20% range increase before the enemy gets
close to you. Also, in PVP, you can get a running away enemy farther.

Improved Psychic Scream-2 Points, it might not seem like much, but it's useful,
especially in PVP, and it's a requirement for Silence.

Silence-1 Point

--Stop here and go onto Discipline at this point, or go on and go pure Shadow--

Vampiric Embrace-1 or 0 Points, go 1 if you plan on going all the way with the
Shadow tree.

Shadow Weaving: 5 Points if you're going pure shadow. If you aren't, I wouldn't
recommend any. Note, this effect can be resisted.

Darkness: 4-5 Points going pure Shadow, up to you, you'll want Discipline
Talents eventually.

Shadowform: 1 point It's often annoying, when you really want a heal, but
still, great for PVP and soloing, since it can just be dispelled by right
clicking on the icon any time you want. This is THE talent to get for solo-ing!

Discipline:
Unbreakable Will-5 Points, a great PVP talent, stunning is annoying.

Improved Power Word: Shield-3 Points, this is the second greatest talent in
this tree. 15 second Power Word: Shields are awesome.

Improved Power Word: Fortitude-2 Points, it helps. It might seems small, but
that's a bit more life.

Mental Agility-5 Points, it helps somewhat, and it's a pre-requisite for Inner
Focus.
Mental Strength/Wand Specialization--5 points in either. More mana, or more
wand damage? Your call-but
keep in mind that wands are great for solo'ing.

Inner Focus-1 Point, this skill is one of the main reasons to go Discipline,
reduces mana cost of your next spell to 0 and jacks up Crit. Chance by 25%.
This is almost as much damage as those extra darkness and shadow weaving
points, since that Critical helps, and more mana=more damage/survivability
possibilities.

--If you went to discipline after the first 22 points in Shadow, go back and
add to Shadow at this point.--

5. Playing
a.   Soloing
When soloing with the above Shadow or Shadow/Discipline build, I recommend A
Mind Blast followed by a Shadow Word: Pain Followed by a Mind Flay or Devouring
Plague (if Undead) followed by a Vampiric Embrace if you have it or want it.
Then, Mind Blast and Mind Flay while Mind Blast cools down, keep it up until
the enemy is dead. For grinding, mind blast, shadow word: pain, shield, mind
flay, wand/mindflay. If things
get hairy and you're in Shadowform, drop the
Shadowform and heal (right click on it, it'll end) or put up a Power Word:
Shield. You can also always drop out a Psychic Scream and run for it. It's
advisable to get the higher ranks of Psychic Scream even if the only thing that
increases is the amount of enemies it affects, because sometime you will get a
huge amount of people following you.
b.   Party Play
Expect to sit there and heal. Don't sit there and get bored and start mind
blasting or something because it will often aggro. the target, and you can die,
or even worse something will happen and you'll need to start healing and be low
on mana. Of course, if you're designated as a damage dealer, then forget that.

6. PVP
PVP is much like soloing, but keep in mind that your heals are what gives you
the advantage. Psychic Scream is you're friend, cast it and get off a Mind
Blast or 2, and then as it wears off, Mind Flay if they run towards you (melee
class) or cast a Mind Blast or a Heal as they cast. Silence if you have it is
invaluable. If you aren't Shadow specialized, PVP isn't too easy and you become
something of a support class, this is
assuming you are Shadow specialized. I will give my vote on what to do for
classes:
Mage
You should be able to win if you're at full health and mana. If not, it could
go either way. Silence and they're made a mockery of. Psychic Scream followed
by Silence is extraordinarily brutal, followed by another Psychic Scream soon
after, especially with Improved Psychic Scream. Use the insignia of the horde
if you have it should they polymorph you.

Warrior
Mind Flay is you're friend. When they're running back towards you from the
first Psychic Scream, it'll slow them down. When fighting a warrior, you're
just waiting for you're Psychic Scream to cool down, and when it is, keep your
Power Word: Shield up for the lack of interruption.

Druid
The Druid is a challenge, since their bear form gives tem so much health and
they don't lose mana while in bear form, so they can shift to druid form and
heal, and then go back to bear form. If they're in druid form, they should be
easy enough, same with cat form. With regard to Bear form, just try to time it
so you can silence them and then preferably psychic scream after tat wears off
while doing enough damage that they die before they can heal. Bottom line?
Druids are evil.

Rogue
Rogues are challenging, especially if they start off with a hard ambush or
something of the like. Their kick can be hard to deal with if it silences you,
run while that's in effect. Psychic Scream and Power Word: Shield are your
friends as usual, Power Word: Shield being the most useful when fighting a
rogue. Flash Heal will also help you greatly, since it's a faster cast and the
often fast hitting rogue won't affect your casting time quite as much when not
Power Word: Shielded. My friend also tells me that the key is just to run in
the direction they're attacking you, i.e. forward most likely so that they
can't attack you. (From Arty.)

Priest
If they aren't Shadow Spec'ed, you should win. If they are, use Shadow
resistance, that spell that seems to have minimal use. Also, if you're undead
their natural Shadow resistance should help. Will of the Forsaken should be the
first thing cast when feared, followed by a Psychic Scream. If you're silenced,
hit them
with your weapon, if they don't have a Power Word: Shield up, it should slow
down their spell(s) enough to limit the damage before the silence wears off. If
not, run circles around them so they can't aim much more than a mind flay on
you. Or take that time to heal.
Heal and Mana Burn-Mana Burn really helps since Priests are so mana focused.

Hunter
Dispel Magic is your friend, get rid of the Concussive shots and what not as
often as you can. Fear their pet first if they're range and focus on the Hunter
themselves. Generally speaking, if you can get a power word: shield up and
lasting, get close enough that you can fear them and their pet at the same
time. If you aren't taking too much damage from the pet, fear the character.
Try to keep them at close range--their primarily distance fighters. If they're
good, it'll be a hard battle.

Paladin
Paladins are hard. Fight them as a warrior, but save the silence until
towards the end. Try to guess when they'll use their invulnerability shield and
then cast silence right before they do and try to finish them off or cast
Psychic Scream.

Shaman
Haven't fought one, but I would imagine them to be challenging. Break the
totems and try to deal with them as a warrior. Watch out for the Earth Shock
and remember that Silence is less important than damage, until they look like
they're healing themselves. Watch out though, it's often guess and choose,
since they have a talent that makes a spell instant cast, i.e. a heal.

Warlock
Dispel their DOTs and use Will of the Forsaken if you have it. Just keep on
dispelling their DOTs when you can. Mana Burn is relatively useless--'Locks
almost never use up all of their mana. Also, since my knowledge on Warlocks is
somewhat limited, J.B. (Since he didn't want his name mentioned, and never gave
me a different name, I'm going to abbreviate it.) offered me GREAT advice:
"Hmm, even as a Warlock I do find a skilled Priest the most difficult class to
fight.  Then again, so are the other classes.  I can only tell you what some
Warlocks will bring to the fight.  I'll make it short.
- One of the Warlock pets to watch out for is the Felhunter.  It has Devour
Magic (a slower version of Dispel), and Spell-Lock.  Spell-Lock silences
casters for 3 seconds and if they are caught casting spells, it will shut down
the entire spell-tree for 8 seconds (doesn't work on insta-casts).  Also, if
you are fighting Demonology Warlocks, the Felhunter will give 1 All-Resist for
each level.  (up to 60 resists on all)
- Warlocks that specced to Demonology will have Soul link.  Soul Link is one of
the most powerful defensive spells against other classes. It absorbs all damage
by 50%, giving the lvl 60 Warlock practically 8000 HP. Only those that speced
to Demonology will have it.  Unfortunetly, it is also a magic buff.  >:
- Destruction Warlocks are about burning targets down as fast as possible."
Thanks a lot, J.B., great advice.

Now, I got a great E-Mail from a reader with comments on PVP that are well
worth reading.
From Orca782:
"As you can imagine, I'm shadow, 18/33 Disc/shadow (for improved inner fire,
helps a ton against melee).
So just as a disclaimer, the matchups I write about are for a shadow priest.

Note on Priest PVP:
Priests are casters, which means most of our spells require the enemy to be in
front of us to hit. The other
player knows this, and rogues, warriors, paladins, even druids will constantly
move around right on top of
you so it is very hard to get a solid cast off. For this reason, do not attempt
to mind blast, or any other long
casting time spell on them when they are on top of you. Simply mind flay, as it
auto targets them. Fear, then
mind flay for awhile (mind flay will not break fear), and finish off with a
mind blast, should be your
standard zerg (mind blast WILL break fear).
-If you come upon someone out in the wild, and you see them first, your
objective (besides warriors) should
always be to fear them. That gives you 8 seconds to buff yourself, mind flay
and dot them, and then mind
blast them. Make sure to dot rogues quickly as they may trinket out of fear and
vanish.

Warriors: Depending on how well equipped the warrior is, this should be one of
your easiest battles. The
first thing you want to do is throw either a mindblast then Shadow Word Pain on
them, or just the shadow
word pain if they see you first (and make casting difficult). Make sure your
shield is up, and you have inner
fire going. Now you can try to fear them after the inevitable first charge, but
any warrior worth his salt will
break out of it right away in berserker stance. You want to mind flay him while
he's far away from you, and
ideally by the time he gets back to you his life is rather low and you can just
reapply shield if you need to,
and continue to mind flay. Keep in mind that once your life gets to about 20%
they are going to spam
execute and you will die very fast, so try to keep your life around 35%. Use
health items if you have to, you
shouldnt run out of mana vs a warrior. Now, if the warrior is packing The
Untamed Blade, a rank 14
weapon, or that new Black Wing Lair Nefarion sword, you are in trouble, and
you're going to have to pop
every health item in the book otherwise he's going to out dps you and you'll
lose. Well equipped warriors
are (in my opinion) the primary PVP class as it now stands.

Paladins: I play horde so I fight quite a few paladins. Or should I say I try
to fight them. Against a paladin,
you might as well just leave them alone and save yourself a long fruitless
battle. Or you could buckle down
and try this. Shadow word pain rank 9 costs you something insane like 400 mana.
Shadow word Pain rank 1
costs something like 50 mana. Most paladins don't care which one you put on
them because they will just
cleanse it. However, beating a paladin is all about running him out of mana, so
you spam that rank 1 swp
and he'll keep cleansing it at around 200 mana a cleanse. Even better you put a
shadow vulnerability debuff
on him each time, so if he leaves it there your spells hit harder. Fear the
paladin whenever possible, and try
to get a mana burn or two off. Make sure to dispel them at the start of battle
for they are sure to have some
amazing buffs on. If they are in epic gear their regen will be quite high
already, so you have to get them low
on mana then nuke them with what mana you have left (fear them, and mind flay
into a mind blast). They'll
probably pop the shield at that point and bandage, or heal. Then you have to
zerg them again. Then they'll
do Lay on Hands and go up to full health again. So, bottom line you have to
kill them 3 times, and as a
shadow priest your mana pool is usually not up to the task. But you are welcome
to try. Non epic paladins
should go down fast with low mana regen, just silence them after they bubble
and zerg em.

Druids:
Druids are slightly more feasible than Paladins, but not much. They will see
you and either go cat form or
Bear form. Make sure to dispel them once to get rid of mark of the wild. Cat
form will deal more damage to
you, and move faster, whereas bear form will have more hit points. It comes
down to about the same, the
big thing is that if they ever throw a heal over time on themselves, dispel it.
Keep shadow word pain on
them, fear whenever possible, and when they come out of animal form at low life
to throw that Natures
Swiftness Full Heal on themselves, you should be one step ahead of them and
have them silenced. At this
point they are in caster form, have very little life and one mind blast should
finish them. The hardest druids
I have fought simply pull the 'healbot' routine, and heal themselves if they
ever drop below 70% life. They
can innervate themselves, I cannot. So I run out of mana trying to kill them
before they run out of mana
healing themselves. Either way, similar to paladins druids dps is very weak so
if you fail to kill them you
have a fairly safe bet at running away (fear, and dispel their roots).

Mage:
Even epic mages, rank 14 mages, whatnot, should be a rather easy matchup for a
pvp geared priest. A lot of
mages like to pull the old 'Sheep and Nuke' routine. If you were a PVE priest
then you'd die, no question.
But as a pvp priest, with fortitude your hit points should be in the order of
4000-5000hp. So if they do sheep
you, make sure to shield yourself right after you get hit by their first spell,
then silence them to prevent them
from burning cooldown after cooldown until you die. After they are silenced,
you have 5 seconds to run to
them and fear them. Shadow word pain them while you run to them. After they are
feared it's basically lights
out for them, you can eithre bandage or finish them off. I usually opt to
finish them off. Most mages don't
have much hp, and you can mind flay them into a mind blast that will drop them.
Even if they get out of fear
the worst thing they can do to you is iceblock to get rid of your dot's. Once
they get out of iceblock they'll
either aoe or blink away and run for it, either way keep your shield up and you
should be fine.

Warlock:
Warlocks seem to me to be one of the top pvp classes, right up there with well
geared warriors. They are
especially nasty towards priests, if their Felhunter is out. My advice is to
not even bother going for them if
Felhunter is out. What will happen, you ask? Well, their felhunter will eat
your shield and fortitude, and
shadow protection. Then it will silence you. The warlock meanwhile will be
terrorizing you (unbreakable
fear effect) so you can't do anything, and delivering shadow bolts with hit for
an average of 2000 damage).
Some less intelligent warlocks will throw their standard DOTs on you, but the
only one to worry about is
curse of agony, which sucks anyway. The Shadow Resistance curse is the one to
worry about. Everything
else can be dispelled. Warlocks also have a sort of shadow damage shield they
can use, so the bottom line is
there's no way in hell you are going to kill them before they kill you. If they
don't have Felhunter out, they'll
still be tough but it's worth a shot. If they have succubus, try to fear both
the warlock and the succubus.
Trinket out of charm, if you get charmed. Dispel any debuffs they use like
Corruption or Siphon Life. Try to
fear them and keep them DOT'd.

Priest:
Against another shadow priest, it's usually about the gear. Whoever can lay
down more damage faster will
win. Make sure to debuff their fortitude and shield, as well as shadow
protection. Use rank 1 shadow word
pain again to keep the debuff on them, and ideally keep them on the defensive.
Fear them and mind flay,
mindblast. If they ever leave shadow to heal, that's when to use the silence.
If it's going badly, silence them
and run for it.
Against a holy priest, it's tough going. Holy priests eat dirt to just about
any class except shadow priests.
Shadow priests just can't lay down the damage as fast as mages or warlocks, so
the holy priest can usually
heal themselves enough to stay up. A smart holy priest won't even try to damage
you, they'll just heal and
renew themselves. As a holy priest they will have more mana than you, and when
you run out of mana you
can either run, or wait around for their pitifully weak dot's and mind blasts
to kill you.

Rogue:
Rogues are another cakewalk, which is nice. The other casters fear rogues, but
shadow priests simply laugh
them off. A rogue will either open with cheapshot or ambush. The only
difference between the two is how
long you have to wait to kill them. Either way, fear them when you get out of
stunlock, DOT them, and lay
down the damage. Shield, and they shouldnt be able to kill you before you kill
them. Most rogues use health
items of all sorts while I simply sit behind my shield and shadow form (damage
reduction) and burn them
away.

Hunters:
Hunter's are not fun. First thing you want to do to a hunter, as always, is
fear him. However they often make
this hard by wing clipping you. Wing clip takes longer to fire off, so most
hunters only use concussive shot
to slow you down. Dispel this and keep charging at them. As always, ignore
their pet. If you get close
enough to fear them, you've pretty much won. Throw the dot's on them mind flay
and mind blast, and
reshield. They should be low enough in life to burn down at this point.
However, if they feign death while
you are running at them, they are laying an ice trap. If concussive shot stays
on you for too long, if they
wing clip you, or if you get stuck in an ice trap, they will run away again. As
long as they are at a range, not
feared, they will out dps you and you will die, not to mention they will Viper
Sting your mana away. So
with hunters it's all about getting in close and getting that fear off. Usually
fear will fear the pet too so you
can just blow them away while they run around.

Shamans:
I leave shamans for last because I'm horde and I have minimal experience with
them. From what I've heard,
shamans are pretty tough. They will purge your buffs, and shock you for quite a
bit of damage. Then they
will melee you while you try to cast, and heal themselves, as well as lay
totems which will inevitably mess
you up. I'd advise just sticking with the general formula, fear them and lay
the dot's. As long as they are
feared they can't do anything, and you should be able to burn them down. If
they start laying totems and
healing and such, it's time to run for it."        Thansk for the great info.,
Orca782!

7. Professions
If this is your first class, you might want to take up mining and skinning for
the cash. If you can stomach not working on a trade skill before the later
levels, go mining and skinning, since you will make a large amount of gold.
Blacksmithing and Leatherworking are pretty useless to you. Mining
and Engineering might work well, though I have not tried this. Tailoring and
Enchanting is a very good combination, but very expensive I've heard, so don't
take it if you don't want to be frustrated. I went herbalism and Alchemy and
loved it. You make cash, and towards the later levels get some pretty awesome
potions. If you have a gathering skill, keep leveling it as often as you can,
it'll save you frustration in the future, and having 300 in whatever skill
quickly is awesome. Potions are also a great way to make people appreciate you,
give 'em a heal and a pot. When they're and trouble and they're often happy.
(The nice side of being a Priest, even an Undead one.) Eventually at the late
levels (60, probably) when you have more gold, you can drop a gathering skill
for another profession if you want. Don't worry too much about gold, and worry
more about leveling--the gold will come swifter with levels.

8. Items
Items are not too much of a problem in World of Warcraft, luckily. You get a
great deal of your gear from quests. The stats you want most are Intellect and
Stamina. Anything else isn't too important. I personally prefer Intellect
because it gives more mana, and more mana is more versatile in my opinion than
more health, since you can just cast another Heal or Power Word: Shield with a
bit more mana but also have the option of a damage spell or something of the
like. As a Priest you are limited to cloth armor and no shields, which is
rather sad, but that's okay. I personally recommend staves, you start getting
awesome staves right from the time you get to Wailing Caverns. Nonetheless,
there are some great daggers and whatnot latter on (Charstone Dirk from the
Princess in Maraudon) The Scarlet Monastery also gives a great choice of a
necklace or offhand. I chose the
offhand, but would have to say that the necklace would've probably been a
better choice until later levels, where you get nice weapons such as the
aforementioned Charstone Dirk, especially if you have no amulet. There are a
great deal of great staves and whatnot to be found, so not having a shield
isn't too much of
a problem, and they have a good damage. Other than that, just look around for
nice gear and don't worry about it too much if it's you're first character. I
personally recommend saving cash for a mount, since as I mentioned earlier you
have no real travel forms. Or you can be an Auction House junkie like me and
not get your mount until later. Potions are a great option also, especially mana
potions. They'll keep you alive. The next piece of advice is probably the most
important in my opinion; buy or have a mage summon drinks, preferably the best
that you can use. This will help with the downtime greatly and hopefully make
you enjoy playing a priest more. Even if drinks seem expensive at times, I
recommend them.

9. Notes on Level 60
First off, congratulations. Well, 60's a lot different. I made a tri-spec.
build at 60, quick rundown of my
spec.:
Discipline
  5 Unbreakable Will
  3 Improved Power Word: Shield
  2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude
  5 Mental Agility
  5 Mental Strength
  1 Inner Focus
Shadow
  5 Blackout
  2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
  3 Shadow Focus
  1 Mind Flay
  4 Improved Mind Blast
  2 Improved Psychic Scream
  3 Shadow Reach
  1 Silence
Holy
  5 Improved Renew
  4 Spiritual Healing
I personally LOVE this build! You can heal, have a lot of mana, and PVP! I
reccomend trying it, even if
you seem hesitant about it at first. I was, but then came to love it. Then
again, I like to be able to heal in
Battlegrounds, so Shadowform wasn't really for me. Play whatever you want to,
but if you're unsure, try the
tri-spec. build. ^_^. What else about 60? Spirit and mana over time gear
becomes important. Lots of mana
for those MC fights, etc., since you will be healing often. Small note on the
Benediction quest: Do not think
the peasents are saved once they get to the NPC, thy're saved a bit past
here--got confused on that point
myself. Other than that? Enjoy all the high-end instances!

10. Etiquette
Okay, as a Priest, you have a few rules you should follow.
a.   Them before you in the heat of a battle. Unless you are being actively
attacked, heal others around you before yourself.
b.   Don't hold back healing someone because of a personal grudge. If you have
a grudge, don't make the whole party feel it by slowing down the game, resolve
it or leave the group.
c.   In a party, do not, as I said earlier, get bored and waste your mana
during a battle.
d.   Pay attention to people's health bars and keep them Power Word:
Fortitud'ed. If there's a lull in the battle that they're almost guaranteed to
win, just cast it again on them, even if you still have something like half of
the time left on the Power Word: Fortitude. It'll save time and mana and
possibly a battle later on.
e.   Don't be too greedy. This is universal, but you'll get items without being
too greedy. Just play the game and the items will come later. (The same goes
for grinding by yourself, leveling often gives you more cash and items in the
long run in my opinion.)

11. Thanks
Thanks to Blizzard. You rock. Thanks to Gamefaqs for being there in times of
need. ^_^. Thanks to all the guides I've read on this web page.
Thanks to you guys to reading this, feel free to message me if I'm on at
server: Gorefiend and character name: Fenriz. (60 Undead Priest.)
All E-Mails good and bad are greatly appreciated!