World of Warcraft: Forever Holy Priest Leveling Guide

World of Warcraft: Forever has been making an emphasis on the journey rather than the destination. There's plenty more to explore in Forever: new quests to complete, new places to discover, and changes to class abilities and talents.

Leveling as a healer tends to be slower if you are not accompanied by others. Priests who play solo typically level faster by investing into the Shadow tree early on, resetting their talent choices once they're able to join group content.

This guide will go over all the elements involved in leveling as a Holy Priest, including talents, professions, gearing, and some additional tips.

Holy Priests in Classic were known to be a classic, reactive healer. In Forever, this theme continues, but with new and updated talents and abilities. These new talents include Prayer of Mending, Litany of Light, and Binding Heal.

Many of the talents that Holy Priests should pick affect our abilities through increasing their efficacy and reducing their mana costs. This is a common theme throughout all our core talents as we are looking to stretch our mana resource for as long as we can.

• Twilight Focus: Trying to cast spells when you are getting hit tends to lead to delayed casts (spell pushback), which can be deadly in certain circumstances. This talent is core since it helps to prevent that delay from happening.
• Improved Renew: This improves our heal-over-time ability, Renew, something that is invaluable for providing passive healing while you wand down foes.
• Holy Nova: Our only source of AoE damage. This is a core talent while leveling due to it being an instant cast that can easily tag multiple enemies at once.

While we are looking to primarily invest into the Holy talent tree, there are many other talents from the Discipline and Shadow tree that appeal to us.

• Wand Specialization: Wands are going to be the main weapon we use in combat. The philosophy behind this talent choice is simple — the faster we kill mobs, the faster we level.
• Spirit Tap: This talent is core at all levels since it aids greatly in our mana management.
• Meditation: Another key mana management talent that allows us to continue to gain a percentage of the mana regeneration that is typically halted due to the 5-Second Rule.

There are a couple main reasons why Priest healing specializations struggle to level efficiently early on: lack of overall damage and lack of AoE damage. These reasons are why many solo players tend to invest into Shadow until they are able to join group content consistently.

Below is the ideal sequence for your single-target rotation while leveling in the overworld. Keep in mind that you may need to diverge from the rotation in order to adapt to the specific conditions of the encounter you are in.

1. Make sure to have Power Word: Fortitude & Inner Fire on yourself before entering combat.
2. Before pulling, cast Power Word: Shield on yourself/your group's tank.
3. Cast Holy Fire on the furthest enemy, or a priority target if you are using the Power in Light talent.
4. Cast Smite as the enemy approaches.
5. Cast Mind Blast.
6. Cast Shadow Word: Pain.
7. Use your wand until the enemy goes down.

Single-Target while in a dungeon or raid depends on your party. If you find yourself running out of mana quickly, it may be best to stick to only wanding as your source of damage. It's best to conserve mana if you're not sure because, if you run out of mana, your party will likely die.

The only AoE DPS spell that priests have is unlocked through investing 11 points into the Holy tree for Holy Nova. This is not a very cost-effective spell until we are able to invest into Searing Light. You can look to blanket mobs with your Shadow Word: Pain, but it is generally better to just focus on a single target at a time.

1. Cast Holy Fire on the furthest enemy, or a priority target.
2. Continue your Single-Target Rotation from above.
3. When Searing Light procs, cast Holy Nova.

1. Use Power Word: Shield if you need to buy time to cast your healing spells.
2. Use Heal for a moderate heal after a few seconds.
3. Use Renew when you are looking to keep up with chip damage or if an ally needs some help while you're repositioning.
4. Use Flash Heal in an emergency.
5. Use Prayer of Healing when your party is heavily injured.
6. Use Holy Nova if Searing Light procs for AoE healing and damage.
7. Use Cure Disease and Dispel Magic when appropriate.

An important note about Cure Disease and Dispel Magic is that you may not need to cleanse your allies of all disease and magical debuffs. There will be times when you will need to make a decision about whether the debuff is worth spending mana on removing.

While Flash Heal casts much faster than Heal, it's prudent to reserve the use of Flash Heal for emergencies only. Mana management is key to survival and Flash Heal is more costly to your mana pool.

• Power Word: Shield: Allows you to increase your target's effective-hp (EHP) and gives you additional time to cast a healing spell when needed.
• Power Word: Fortitude: A 1-hour buff to the target's Stamina. This is another spell in our toolkit that works to increase the EHP of an ally.
• Lesser Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, Flash Heal, and Renew are going to be your tools for restoring health to your allies. These are core to priest healers.
• Cure Disease, Abolish Disease, and Dispel Magic: Allows you to cleanse your target of harmful diseases and magical effects, respectively. This can be especially important as some harmful effects will cost you more mana if ignored.
• Fade: Gives you a way to immediately reduce threat against yourself. This is only useful in situations where you're not alone in combat so that the enemy has another target with threat to turn their focus onto.

Priests have a wide variety of tools they can use to keep their allies alive. Some of the tools available will differ depending on which race you choose at character creation as each race have 2 priest-exclusive racial abilities. We will be going over all the tools available to every priest.

Click for More Information on Utility, Crowd Control, and Cleanse Abilities

4.1.1.

Utility

• Power Word: Shield: The main way we protect our allies is through our shielding abilities. This is the best way to buy time to cast a healing spell and will prevent spell pushback while the shield is up.
• Fade: Important to have for when you happen to take aggro while in a group. This has little use when playing solo as you likely will be the only target generating threat against your enemies.
• Resurrection: Revives a dead ally, only usable out of combat.
• Levitate: Our only ability that has a semblance of being a type of "mobility" ability. It enables us to avoid deadly falls by slowing our fall and allows us to walk over water.
• Mind Vision: Generally has little use in PvE, but can be used in PvP to gain information that can be used to make tactical decisions.

4.1.2.

Buffs

• Power Word: Fortitude/ Prayer of Fortitude: An hour long buff that increases your target(s) Stamina, giving them a higher health pool so they can take more hits.
• Divine Spirit/ Prayer of Spirit: An hour-long buff that increases your target(s) Spirit, giving them improved Health Regeneration and Mana Regeneration, if they have mana as their resource.
• Shadow Protection/ Prayer of Shadow Protection:
• Inner Fire: Increases your armor and will damage enemies that hit you with physical damage.
• Inner Focus: An optional talent in the Discipline tree that buffs our next cast by reducing it's mana cost by 100% and improving its critical strike chance if it fits the right criteria. This is especially effective if your party is heavily damaged to get a high-value Prayer of Healing.
• Power Infusion: This buff comes from the capstone of the Discipline tree and is incredibly powerful when used right. This ability works best when it is used to take down an enemy faster, or if you're needing increased healing throughput. Used it on an allied DPS when there is an opportune moment for a damage window on a threaten enemy.

4.1.3.

Crowd Control

• Psychic Scream: An AoE Fear that can be used to escape a sticky situation. Be careful using this in a densely populated area of mobs as the feared enemies will pull additional mobs.
• Mind Control: Allows you to take control of a Humanoid enemy, essentially giving you an additional party member. This is best used on strong enemies to have them fight for you, or to reposition them. Keep in mind that this ability can be resisted and is a channeled ability. You won't be able to take any other actions, such as healing your party or repositioning yourself, while you are channeling this ability. To determine whether you should use this skill, ask yourself if using this ability would prevent more damage than you could heal in the dame amount of time and whether your party can survive for its duration.
• Shackle Undead: While this ability has no use in PvP, this ability can be invaluable in PvE content that involves undead mobs. This ability can take any Undead enemy that is not immune to Crowd Control or is specifically immune to the effect. This ability can miss, can be resisted, broken early by a successful heartbeat resist roll, and/or broken early through any instance of damage dealt to the target.
• Mind Soothe: This ability makes it easier to avoid additional, unwanted pulls by reducing the Humanoid enemy's aggro radius.

4.1.4.

Cleanses

• Cure Disease, Abolish Disease, & Dispel Magic: At level 14 we gain access to Cure Disease, and at level 18 we gain Dispel Magic. Both of these abilities are important to use as they can cleanse yourself or target ally of a harmful effect. When it comes to knowing which effect to cleanse and which to leave alone is something that will come with time as you learn about the game.

Our stat priority is as follows:

1. Healing Power
   • Healing Power increases the efficacy of our healing spells, meaning we will need to cast less often to heal the same amount. This is a stat that can absolutely affect your mana management and is incredibly useful since it increases your potential DPS through using fewer GCDs on healing.
2. Mana Per 5 (MP5)
   • Mana Per 5 is another mana management tool that is important, because MP5 is active even if the 5-Second Rule is triggered.
3. Spirit
   • Spirit is a stat that affects your mana regeneration while the 5-Second Rule is not active (aka while you're not casting). Reiterating from the section covering the 5-Second Rule, the Meditation talent from the Discipline tree can help supplement your MP5 mana regeneration while your Spirit regen is halted. Once we get access to Spiritual Guidance, our Spirit stat will also increase our spell healing.
4. Intellect
   • Intellect increases our mana pool and gives us additional Spell Critical Strike Chance. This is lower on our priority list, but still desirable enough to be a worth grabbing.
5. Critical Strike
   • Critical Strike is likely the lowest of our stat priorities as a Holy Priest. If you're playing well by avoiding overhealing, then the crits you may get will often translate into accidental overhealing.

Use Your Time Effectively

It's often not worth the time to travel to and farm dungeons in order to obtain the BiS of your current level, especially if you are traveling solely on foot. While there are some exceptions, it's generally best to only do each dungeon once for the quest and kill experience.

The first thing we should look at obtaining is a wand. Novice's Practice Wand and Lesser Magic Wand are available at Level 1 and 5, respectively, through Enchanting. If you aren't an enchanter or can't find an enchanter to make you one, you can buy one from the various wand merchants throughout Azeroth:

• Stormwind City — Ardwyn Cailen
• Orgrimmar — Katis
• Undercity — Zane Bradford
• Ironforger — Harick Boulderdrum

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Loch Modan/Darkshore
  • The Barrens
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Ragefire Chasm

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Westfall/Darkshore
  • Silverpine Forest
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes
  • Ragefire Chasm and Ruins of Lordaeron

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Darkshore/Redridge Mountains
  • The Barrens/Stonetalon Mountains
• Available Dungeons:
  • Hall of Thanes, The Deadmines
  • Wailing Caverns

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Redridge Mountains/Duskwood
  • Hillsbrad Foothills/Stonetalon Mountains
• Available Dungeons:
  • The Stockade
  • Shadowfang Keep and Wailing Caverns

• Zones to Quest in:
  • Ashenvale/Wetlands
  • Wetlands/Thousand Needles
• Available Dungeons:
  • Blackfathom Deeps and The Stockade
  • Blackfathom Deeps and Shadowfang Keep

Items to look out for:

• Wands
  • Horde Riptear's Spare Arm: An early wand option for Horde that can be earned through completing the Rear Guard Patrol quest.
  • Alliance Deepblaze: A wand option for Alliance that can be earned through completing the dungeon quest, Old Ironforge Incursion.
  • Alliance Cookie's Stirring Rod: While this wand doesn't have any Healing Power, Spirit, or Intellect, this wand is likely a huge DPS increase from any wand you may have at this point. Dropped by Cookie> in The Deadmines.
  • Sizzle Stick: Earned through completing the Wailing Caverns dungeon quest, Deviate Eradication.
  • If we are using the Enchanting crafting profession, we can craft ourselves a Lesser Mystic Wand at level 26.
  • Wand of Mana Concentration: Obtained from the City of Dalaran dungeon as a potential drop from the Arcanic Enigma.

• Staves
  • Alliance Staff of Westfall: An amazing early-game staff that grants a movement speed bonus while in Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, and The Deadmines dungeon. Earned by completing the The Deadmines questline, The Defias Brotherhood.
  • Horde Gnarled Necromancer's Staff: An amazing early-game staff that grants a movement speed bonus while in Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad Foothills. Earned by completing the Horde Ruins of Lordaeron quest, The Wrath of Rath'mael.
  • Horde Crescent Staff: Obtained through completing the Wailing Caverns dungeon quest, Leaders of the Fang.
  • Odo's Ley Staff: Obtained from the Shadowfang Keep dungeon as a potential drop from the Odo the Blindwatcher.
  • If we are using the Enchanting crafting profession, we can craft ourselves a Glimmering Staff at level 25.
  • Wind Spirit Staff: Obtained from the Razorfen Kraul dungeon as a potential drop from Earthcaller Halgmar.

• Helms
  • While helms can be a rare drop from any overworld mobs, at this level, it's much more reliable to obtain a helm through through Tailoring. Our best craftable helm is the Pristine Circlet at level 20, and the Filigreed Pristine Circlet at level 25.

• Necklaces
  • The first necklace that we can equip is the Ephemeral Choker from the Alliance Hall of Thanes as a potential drop from Faldrim Anvilmar. While Horde players could do this dungeon, getting there may be more trouble than it's worth.
  • The Scholarly Pendant is a reward from the Friend of the Library quest, earned by turning in 10 books to the library. This can be quite time consuming to complete since the books are scattered throughout the world.

• Rings
  • There aren't many early options for rings and the stats are limited in comparison to other gear slots. However, you can work towards earning the Philanthropist's Ring from the Greater Friend of the Library quest, which requires turning in 20 books to the library in total. This can be quite time consuming to complete since the books are scattered throughout the world.
  • Another option that is available to Alliance players is the Malignant Root ring. This is earned through killing Nightveil Rotheap in The Wetlands overworld and bringing the Rotheap Innards to The Greenwarden.

• Back
  • Glowing Thresher Cape: A potential drop from Old Serra'kis in the Blackfathom Deeps dungeon.
  • Red Wool Cloak: A potential drop from Bazil Thredd in The Stockade dungeon.

• Shoulders
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves the Double-Stitched Woolen Shoulders at level 17.
  • Death Speaker Mantle: A potential drop from Death Speaker Jargba in the Razorfen Kraul dungeon.

• Chest
  • Death Speaker Robes: A potential drop from Death Speaker Jargba in the Razorfen Kraul dungeon.
  • Robes of Arugal: A potential drop from Archmage Arugal in the Shadowfang Keep dungeon.
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves a Pristine Gown at level 22.

• Wrists
  • An early option for Alliance are the Alliance Aetherwisp Bracers. Found in the Hall of Thanes dungeon as a potential drop from Faldrim Anvilmar. While Horde players could do this dungeon, getting there may be more trouble than it's worth.
  • An early option for Horde are the Crystalline Cuffs. Found in the Ragefire Chasm dungeon as a potential drop from Taragaman the Hungerer.
  • Mindthrust Bracers: A potential drop from trash mobs in the Shadowfang Keep dungeon. One of our best early game gear pieces since it has both Intellect and MP5.

• Hands
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves the Pristine Gloves at level 15.
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves the Truefaith Gloves at Level 25.

• Waist
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves a Novice Ardent's Sash at Level 10.
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves a Pristine Sash at Level 17.
  • Belt of Arugal: A potential drop from Archmage Arugal in the Shadowfang Keep dungeon.

• Legs
  • Alliance Silk-threaded Trousers: A potential drop from any enemy within The Deadmines.
  • Alliance Ogre Loincloth: A potential drop from Rhahk'Zor in The Deadmines.
  • Rotmender's Leggings: A potential drop from The Abandonded in the Ruins of Lordaeron. While Alliance players could do this dungeon, getting there may be more trouble than it's worth as Alliance players will be automatically flagged for PvP on entering The Undercity's courtyard.
  • Gaze Dreamer Pants: A potential drop from Twilight Lord Kelris in Blackfathom Deeps.
  • Leech Pants: A potential drop from Aku'Mai in Blackfathom Deeps.
  • If we are using the Tailoring crafting profession, we can craft ourselves Pristine Leggings at Level 25.

• Feet
  • Pristine Boots: Crafted through Tailoring and only equippable by its crafter.
  • Alliance Nimbus Boots: A quest reward option from completing the Blackfathom Deeps dungeon quest, Twilight Falls.
  • Horde Rotmender's Treads: A potential drop from Rath'Mael in the Ruins of Lordaeron. While Alliance players could do this dungeon, getting there may be more trouble than it's worth as Alliance players will be automatically flagged for PvP on entering The Undercity's courtyard.
  • Gilded Slippers: Crafted through Tailoring and only equippable by its crafter.

We can speculate to the moon and back, but there's no certainty in any information beyond Forever's beta level cap of 30 at this point. Check back after WoW Forever fully launches to get information for leveling from 30 onwards!

• Make sure to go Camping — Camping buffs are invaluable for leveling since all of the buffs gained will increase your combat power and can grant you a Rested bonus. If you see a campfire and do not have an active Campfire buff, make sure you take the time to rest at it since it only takes 1 minute to gain a 1 hour multi-buff.
• Unlock and utilize a Sleeping Bag — This involves a questline that takes you throughout many lower-level zones. It provides a buff that increases your exp gain by up to 3% for 2 hours. To get the full 3% buff, it takes 3 minutes in the bag. You can also bum one off a party member since they can be used by anyone in the same party as the bag deployer.
• Stay well-fed — The well-fed buff comes from player-made foods. They provide a variety of stats, including a boost to our experience gained from killing mobs.
• Prioritize questing in clusters — Questing is the best source of experience and will be the primary way to level. Prioritize nearby quests, particularly those that are close to each other. Avoid pursuing quests that send you very far for unimpressive experience gains.
• Don't ignore foes — While questing is the best way to earn experience, it's still a good idea to kill some mobs as you travel to your next quest destination rather than ignoring them entirely.
• Log out in a safe zone — When looking to log off the game for any long period of time, it's highly recommended to log out in an inn or a capital city. Whether you're offline or AFK, your character will earn Rested XP that increases the experience gained from killing enemies.
• Don't let your dungeon quests collect dust — Once you've picked up a good amount of quests for a dungeon, it's a good idea to run it. Try to avoid running a dungeon before you've accumulated the quests for it.
• Practice good mana management — As a healer, your party's fate rests on you and whether you have enough mana to survive an encounter.

Below is a table of the leveling milestones that Discipline Priest has to look forward to. Each important talent milestone is marked in the soonest possible level to unlock them.

Level	Milestone Unlock
6	Power Word: Shield
8	Renew | Fade
10	1st Priest Racial | 1st Talent Point
14	Cure Disease | Psychic Scream
16	Heal
18	Dispel Magic
20	2nd Priest Racial | Fear Ward | Holy Fire | Holy Nova (Talent)
25	Binding Heal (Talent) | Searing Light (Talent) | Improved Healing (Talent)
30	Divine Spirit | Prayer of Healing | Spirit of Redemption (Talent) | Litany of Light (Talent) | Spiritual Guidance (Talent)
32	Abolish Disease
35	Spiritual Healing (Talent)
40	Prayer of Mending (Talent) | Greater Heal | Lightwell

• Recommended: Tailoring + Enchanting.
  • Tailoring provides some of the best options for gear while leveling. Since the best crafted pieces are BoP, it's recommended to be your own Tailor. These pieces significantly improve your stats and will make the leveling experience smoother.
  • Enchanting gives you access to wands early on, boosting your damage and making a noticeable difference to your time-to-kill. It gives you the added bonus of being able to open up bag space as you level through disenchanting.
• Alternative: Alchemy + Herbalism.
  • Alchemy provides you access to crafting your own elixirs, mana potions, and protection potions. Due to other crafting professions requiring the dyes that Alchemists can make, this profession can net you a good amount of money.
  • Herbalism allows you to gather your own materials for various alchemy recipes. You may also sell the materials gathered to players for additional profit.
• Alternative: Engineering + Mining.
  • Engineering give you access to unique trinket options, such as Major Recombobulator, Gyrofreeze Ice Reflector, and Gnomish Poultryizer. This profession is weighted higher for those playing as Gnome Priests.
  • Mining allows you to gather your own materials for your engineering recipes. You may also sell the materials gathered to players for additional profit.

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