2 fast 2 ferious, faradhim's leveling holy priest build in northrend

PATCH 3.1 HAS BEEN RELEASED. INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS NOW OUT-DATED.

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR MY 3.1 RAIDING SPEC CLICK HERE.

OTHER WISE STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER POST REGARDING 3.1 HOLY LEVELING SPEC.


My priest is the my last character I bought into northrend. Both my warrior and my hunter have advanced further in the icy north although priest is my main. One reason for the lag is because of my pre-conceived notion that leveling as a holy build in northrend would be painful and unbearable. I toyed with going to shadow for leveling but ultimately decided to give holy DPS another chance. Now I am a few levels into northrend and I have been pleasantly surprised by his ability to hold his own.

Northrend leveling with a holy priest is not only possible but can be pretty enjoyable. My priest is no hunter but my DPS is only about 5% shy of hers at the same level. Here is a brief recap on what I did for leveling as holy DPS in northrend. He can't do AOE and good crowd control but the DPS is every bit as efficient as my hunter and my warrior.

Priest Talents(at level 70)

Discipline Talents - 17 point(s)

Twin Disciplines - rank 5/5

Improved Inner Fire - rank 3/3

Improved Power Word: Fortitude - rank 2/2

Improved Power Word: Shield - rank 3/3

Inner Focus - rank 1/1

Meditation - rank 3/3

Holy Talents - 41 point(s)

Improved Renew - rank 3/3

Holy Specialization - rank 4/5

Divine Fury - rank 5/5

Inspiration - rank 3/3

Holy Reach - rank 2/2

Improved Healing - rank 3/3

Searing Light - rank 2/2

Spirit of Redemption - rank 1/1

Spiritual Guidance - rank 5/5

Surge of Light - rank 2/2

Spiritual Healing - rank 5/5

Holy Concentration - rank 3/3

Empowered Healing - rank 3/5

Shadow Talents - 3 point(s)

Spirit Tap - rank 3/3

Talent point distribution from 71-80
At level 71-72; take Empowered Healing - rank 3/5, rank 4/5
At level 73, take Circle of healing - rank 1/1
At level 74-76, take Serendipity - rank 1/3, rank 2/3, rank 3/3
At level 77-79, take Test of Faith - rank 1/3, rank 2/3, rank 3/3
At level 80, take Guardian Spirit - rank 1/1 or you could respec to a traditional raid healing build.

The end result looks like this:



My talents is spread between three trees. This build is similar to a raid heal build with a couple differences. I will review the difference from a raid heal build and why I speced it that way.

1. Shadow Tree:
   3 points were spent in shadow tree for Spirit Tap. During leveling Spirit Tap is critical as it gives much needed mana regeneration boost after each kill.
   
2. Disc Tree:
   At tier 2 I took Improved Inner Fire over Silent Resolve. I did this because improved DPS generation of the new Inner Fire provides. I also found that most AOE tanks now generate enough threats wherebyI am okay healing them without Silent Resolve. On Tier 3 I took 3/3 Improved Power Word:Shield. IMHO this is a worthy investment for a solo priest as your only protection is your shield. To make its mileage go further I am stacking a Power Word:Shield glyph on top. The glyph gives extra shield time and provides a small boost to heal when casted.
3. Holy Tree:
   I took 2/2 Searing Light, 2/2 Surge of Light, 2/2 Holy Reach which is not always common in a raid holy priest build. These points are used to buff my damage generation of the Smite Spell. The rest of the talent selections are more in line with a cookie cutter raid priest.

Priest Gylphs

Major Gylphs:
Glyph of Smite; Glyph of Power Word: Shield;

Minor Gylphs:
Glyph of Shackle Undead; Glyph of Levitate; Glyph of Fading

Glyph of smite is a god sent for any solo leveling priest. I noticed having vs not having has huge affects on amount of spell disruption you will experience. Less knock back means better over all DPS. Glyph of Power Word: Shield like I noted above will increase your protection time while provide small amount of heal. If you enough money you can buy sets of healing glyphs and DPS glyphs and swap them in and out as needed. Doing this however can get expensive. For most part I will simply uses the Smiter Glyph.

The minor glyphs are mostly cosmetic can be customized depending on playing style. Glyph of Levitate will remove the reagent requirement thereby saves a bag slot. Glyph of Fading will decrease amount of mana required when casted. But if you find yourself fading all the time you may need to find a new tank.

DPS rotation

The preferred way is to engage mobs one at time and from distance. Before entering combat make sure your Power Word: Fortitude and Inner Fire are up. Start by casting powerword:shield(PW:S). At maximum combat range pull mob with Holy Fire. Because of holy reach you should be well outside the aggro radius of the said mob. While mob is running toward you cast Shadow Word: Pain followed by rotations of Smite. When mob drops within 1000 HPs cast Shadow Word: Death. Alternatively you can finish off a mob's few hundred HP by using your wand. Almost always your mob will be dead before your Shadow Word: Pain runs out. Same level mob general will take 3-4 rounds of Smite before drop. You will recover significant amount of mana with Spirit Tap which lasts 15 secs. Without this said I am always not patient enough to wait for that long before I charge into the next combat.

Some other random thoughts

When dealing with multiple mobs it is important to keep your Shadow Word: Pain on all of them. If are taking hits from multiple mobs your shield won't be up 100% of the time. Apply your only crowd control ability Psychic Scream carefully. Feared mobs is likely to bring back additional friends which will only make things worse. If you can't shield because of the cool down you may want to cast Renew and Flash Heal on yourself and buy time. If your mana runs low don't forget to use your Shadowfiend. Also don't feel bad to run. If you are being hit by multiple mobs with little chance of surviving, toss out your Psychic Scream and run like a mad man. Since you are a healer you should use your ability to heal to your advantage. Before long fights always pre-preemptively start a Renew. If your health goes critical don't be afraid to use great heals. Unlike a hunter or a warrior, priest has no panic button so detailed mana/health management is needed at all times.

Also it is helpful to have 2 sets of gear. One set for DPSing (solo) and one set for healing. The new spell power had helped a great deal but it always better to have a MP5 set for instance healing and a +Spell Power set/+Spirit set for farming and questing.


Click here for some gearing suggestions for level 70-75.