The Discultimate Leveling Guide: Zero to Twenty in Five Seconds

Levels One Through Twenty: The Early Years

Of Certain Interest: The Discultimate Gear Guide, Levels 0-10 and Levels 10-20

IF ONLY IT did take five seconds, my little discipline priestlings. But hope springs eternal, and while it may take longer than five seconds, you can zwish through your first 20 levels with only minor inconvenience and light bruising without once being tempted to walk the sad path of Shadow Priest ( I see you there, with your finger on the button! Don’t do it, you fool!).

Grind your way up to level 10, enjoying the sights and sounds of your native land for a mere hour. Take a moment to savor the transitory ease of leveling, and then bounce into 11 with a good basic understanding of your introductory Discipline spells and talents.

It’s worth thinking at this point about whether you’ll be willing to respec often, perhaps as the healing alt of a moneyed character, or whether you’ll need this spec to go the distance (translation: you’re a cheap bastard), pulling into 80 without once changing your course.

In this guide, I’ll be outlining specifically how to stay disciplined the whole long road. Leveling as a Disc Priest is challenging, certainly compared to leveling as a Shadow Priest, but I think provides unparalleled opportunities to learn your Disc character inside and out.

I’m also assuming that your leveling will be a combination of Random Dungeon Findering and solo questing. I used to argue strenuously against using quests to level as a Disc Priest, but with the pacing of the new Cataclysm quests, I’ve done exactly that five or six times now (what can I say? I’m a fool for love!). With a little bit of know-how, solo questing as a Disc Priest is not only possible, but gleefully dangerous.

And we’ll not be taking on Discipline PvP- at least, not yet.

Patience, my pets.

THE FACTS

Talents are the choices that you make on your character Talent Tree screen. You get to allot one point every two or so levels. Abilities are the spells that you learn from a trainer, which show up in your spellbook. You can drag abilities to your quickbar to cast them more rapidly.

TALENTS

• 10    1/2 Improved Power Word: Shield
• 11    1/3 Twin Disciplines
• 12    – No points –
• 13    2/3 Twin Disciplines
• 14    – No points –
• 15    3/3 Twin Disciplines
• 16    – No points –
• 17    1/3 Mental Agility
• 18    – No points –
• 19    2/2 Improved Power Word: Shield
• 20   – No points –

ABILITIES

• 0     [Smite] – Quick damage
• 3     [Flash Heal] – Quick heal
• 4     [Shadow Word: Pain] – DoT
• 5     [Power Word: Shield] – Instant protection
• 7     [Inner Fire] – Self buff
• 8     [Renew] – HoT
• 9      [Mind Blast] – Big damage
• 12    [Psychic Scream] – Interrupt
• 14    [Power Word: Fortitude] – Group buff
• 14    [Resurrection] – Revive companion
• 16    [Heal] – Medium heal
• 18    [Holy Fire] – Medium Damage + DoT

GLYPHS

• None

The Big Idea: You can get into a Dungeon Finder group quickly and easily as a healer, but I’m assuming you’ll be splitting your time between instancing and questing. Power Word: Shield will be your go-to spell in both places; you’ll use it to protect the tank in instances, as well as using it on yourself while questing.

As you solo quest, you’ll need a bit of oomph behind your Shadow spells. As Disc, though, oomph is severely lacking. Because of that, I highly recommend picking up Twin Disciplines as soon as possible to increase the effectiveness of your damage spells while questing (and, incidentally, your healing spells while instancing).

After all, there’s only so much abuse you can take from low-level cloth-geared LFD warrior tanks, amirite?

Discipline Priest Build at Level 20

 

ROTATION IN INSTANCES

• Buff all with Shadow Protection and Power Word: Fortitude, and yourself with Inner Will
• Shield the tank and hit him with a Renew *just* as he starts to run forward, then sit and drink just before they draw aggro (you’ll spend a lot on drinks, but it’s worth it to top off at the beginning of every fight)
• Flash Heal small damage
• Greater Heal big damage
• Shield specific DPS/yourself if they or you are consistently taking a lot of damage
• Use Fade often. Tanks don’t have a lot of threat tools yet.

[Instance Toolbar Image Coming Soon!]

ROTATION IN QUESTS

• Buff yourself with Shadow Protection, Power Word: Fortitude, and Inner Fire
• Cast Holy Fire (or Mind Blast, if you don’t have Holy Fire yet) at your target, then cast PW: Shield on yourself. Immediately cast Shadow Word: Pain and then SmiteSmiteSmiteSmite
• If you’re running out of mana, use your wand (I know, I know)
• When your bubble wears off, renew it unless your target is at less than 20% health

[Questing Toolbar Image Coming Soon!]

QUEST AREAS

• [Your Racial Starting Area] (0-10)

If you play a Horde character, I highly, highly recommend that as soon as you hit level 10 you get your butt over to Brill, outside of Undercity, and begin the beautifully epic/hilarious Forsaken quest chain, which will take you through to level 35 without pausing for breath.

If you’re Alliance, move with speed to Darkshore (you can get to Darnassus by taking a boat from Stormwind Harbor, then take the boat to Lor’Danel) for the revamped Cataclysm quest chains there. It’s no Dark Lady, but hey.

ALLIANCE:

• Westfall (10-15)
• Bloodmyst Isle (10-20)
• Darkshore (10-20)
• Loch Modan (10-20)

HORDE:

• Azshara (10-20)
• Ghostlands (10-20)
• Northern Barrens (10-20)
• Silverpine Forest (10-20)

ALLIANCE & HORDE:

• Ruins of Gilneas (14-16)
• Redridge Mountains (15-20)