Discipline Priest Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic

Last updated on Jan 01, 2024 at 16:36 by Abide 2 comments

Welcome to our Wrath of the Lich King Discipline Priest leveling guide. Here we will help guide you through your Discipline Priest's leveling journey toward Level 80. Make sure to use the sliders shown down below to have the guide update as you level up.

1.

Discipline Priest Level-by-Level Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 1
2.

Discipline Priest Leveling Talents in Wrath of the Lich King

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

Spirit Tap IconSpirit Tap is great for Mana generation between fights. Holy Specialization IconHoly Specialization is some good added crit, and Divine Fury IconDivine Fury is needed for the reduced cast time on Smite IconSmite and Holy Fire IconHoly Fire.

Desperate Prayer IconDesperate Prayer is a good emergency heal. Healing Focus IconHealing Focus is useful for emergency heals when you are being attacked. Lastly, Searing Light IconSearing Light is a great damage boost to Smite IconSmite, Holy Fire IconHoly Fire, and Holy Nova IconHoly Nova.

Twin Disciplines IconTwin Disciplines gives you a great damage and healing boost. Both Improved Inner Fire IconImproved Inner Fire and Improved Power Word: Fortitude IconImproved Power Word: Fortitude are good stat boosts.

Meditation IconMeditation and Mental Agility IconMental Agility are great to reduce your Mana usage. Inner Focus IconInner Focus gives you a free spell cast and increases the chance it crits by 25%. Improved Power Word: Shield IconImproved Power Word: Shield further increases how much your Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield absorbs, which is a huge part of your rotation.

Reflective Shield IconReflective Shield is some good free damage since you will always have Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield on yourself. Mental Strength IconMental Strength and Enlightenment IconEnlightenment are some nice stat boosts. Soul Warding IconSoul Warding helps with Mana sustain and Focused Power IconFocused Power further boosts your damage and healing output.

Be sure to respec at Level 60! Power Infusion IconPower Infusion and Pain Suppression IconPain Suppression are great cooldowns for large AoE pulls or elites. Rapture IconRapture is a great talent for keeping your Mana high. Penance IconPenance is your new best single-target damage spell. Borrowed Time IconBorrowed Time is a great haste boost after using Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield. You will start re-taking talents that you previously had before.

3.

Discipline Priest Leveling Glyphs in Wrath of the Lich King

Your leveling glyphs will differ from your endgame glyphs. Glyphs can be a huge boost to your leveling speed as some greatly improve the baseline power of your key abilities. Be sure to check the price of these glyphs on your server to vastly improve your leveling experience.

3.1.

Major Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Smite Icon Glyph of Smite
  2. Glyph of Penance Icon Glyph of Penance
  3. Glyph of Holy Nova Icon Glyph of Holy Nova
3.2.

Minor Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Fortitude Icon Glyph of Fortitude
  2. Glyph of Levitate Icon Glyph of Levitate
  3. Glyph of Shadowfiend Icon Glyph of Shadowfiend
4.

Discipline Priest Leveling Rotation in Wrath of the Lich King

  1. Power Word: Fortitude IconPower Word: Fortitude keep this buff up before entering combat.
  2. Inner Fire IconInner Fire keep this buff up before entering combat.
  3. Divine Spirit IconDivine Spirit keep this buff up before entering combat.
  4. Smite IconSmite your target until it is dead.
  5. Smite IconSmite your target from max range.
  6. Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
  7. Continue using Smite IconSmite on your target until it is dead.
  8. Holy Fire IconHoly Fire your target from max range.
  9. Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield yourself while running away from the target. This gives you Borrowed Time IconBorrowed Time, letting you get your rotation off much quicker.
  10. Devouring Plague IconDevouring Plague your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
  11. Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain your target. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
  12. Penance IconPenance on cooldown.
  13. Mind Blast IconMind Blast on cooldown.
  14. Continue using Smite IconSmite on your target until it is dead.
  15. Smite IconSmite as a filler if your target is high health.
  16. Smite IconSmite as a filler if your target is high health, but generally you will not need to.
  17. Shadow Word: Death IconShadow Word: Death if a target did not die from DoTs and would take too long to wand down. Ideally this would kill the target to prevent you from taking the backlash damage.
  18. Shoot IconShoot your target if they are low enough to die from DoTs and wand damage.

You have very few spells early on. At the start of a pull you will want to be at max range. This helps you get off more damage before the mob reaches you. Running away from the mob while casting instant-cast spells like Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain help keep that distance from the mob, reducing your damage taken. Overall, this helps reduce how often you need to drink as you will need to heal yourself less.

Now your rotation starts taking a more solid form. Holy Fire IconHoly Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat; it also has a good damage-over-time component. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague IconDevouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Mind Blast IconMind Blast and Smite IconSmite the target until it is low enough to die to DoTs and Shoot IconShooting from your wand. Be sure to use either Renew IconRenew or Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield whenever you are taking damage.

Make sure to respec at Level 60! Holy Fire IconHoly Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat; it also has a good damage-over-time component. Now you will want to cast Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield on yourself to benefit from the Borrowed Time IconBorrowed Time buff as it does not go away unless you hard cast a spell, allowing you to get the rest of your rotation off much more quickly. Be sure to run away from the target when using Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield to maintain distance between the two of you.

Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague IconDevouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain on the target while continuing to run away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Now you can stop kiting and fight the mob, starting with Penance IconPenance, dealing massive damage over a quick channel. If the target is still high health, Mind Blast IconMind Blast it down and it should be low enough to die to DoTs. Shoot IconShoot it down with your wand until it dies, or Shadow Word: Death IconShadow Word: Death if it will take too long to wand down. Be sure to use Renew IconRenew or Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield again if you are getting low on health.

An alternative to single-target damaging is AoEing with Holy Nova IconHoly Nova. This can be an effective way to level, but requires decent gear to sustain the Mana cost of Holy Nova IconHoly Nova. If doing this, follow the AoE rotation below:

  1. Gather mobs with Shadow Word: Pain IconShadow Word: Pain.
  2. Renew IconRenew yourself while gathering mobs to recover lost health.
  3. Pain Suppression IconPain Suppression to reduce your damage taken if needed.
  4. Shadowfiend IconShadowfiend to sustain your Mana if needed.
  5. Power Infusion IconPower Infusion whenever available to save Mana and increase damage done.
  6. Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield yourself to activate the Borrowed Time IconBorrowed Time buff, capping out your global cooldown.
  7. Holy Nova IconHoly Nova as much as possible until everything is dead.
  8. Reapply Renew IconRenew and Power Word: Shield IconPower Word: Shield if needed.
  9. Penance IconPenance and Mind Blast IconMind Blast any remaining single enemies if Holy Nova IconHoly Nova is not worth using.
  10. Penance IconPenance, Shadow Word: Death IconShadow Word: Death and Mind Blast IconMind Blast any remaining single enemies if Holy Nova IconHoly Nova is not worth using.
5.

List of Discipline Priest Trainer Skills to Buy

Training spells can be rather expensive, especially if you try to learn every spell available to you. Here we will give you a list of your top-priority spells that you will want to train so you know which ones you can avoid and save some money.

  • Psychic Scream IconPsychic Scream — You can delay upgrading this if you are low on money, but eventually you will want to learn higher ranks.
  • Dispel Magic IconDispel Magic — You only really need 1 rank of this spell; train the second rank when you have the money to spare.
6.

Continue Improving at Level 80

Congratulations on hitting Level 80 in Wrath of the Lich King! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-80 Discipline Priest gameplay by reading our Discipline Priest guide, which covers everything you need to know to properly play your Discipline Priest.

7.

Changelog

  • 01 Jan. 2024: Updated for Phase 5.
  • 05 Sep. 2022: Guide added.
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