Priest Leveling Guide 1-120 Battle for Azeroth (BfA) 8.1

Table of Contents

• 1. General Battle for Azeroth Leveling Tips
• +2. Leveling 1-120 as a Shadow Priest
  • 2.1. Gear Options
  • 2.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents
  • 2.3. Talents to Level Up as a Shadow Priest
  • 2.4. Rotation to Level Up as a Shadow Priest
  • 2.5. Summary of learned Abilities for Shadow Priests
  • 2.6. Shadow Priest War Mode Talents for Leveling
    • 2.6.1. General PvP Talents
    • 2.6.2. Shadow Priest PvP Talents for Leveling
  • 2.7. Legendary Options
  • 2.8. Quest Rewards
  • 2.9. Consumables
    • 2.9.1. Gunshoes Macro
  • 2.10. Congratulations!
• +3. Leveling 1-120 as a Discipline Priest
  • 3.1. Gear Options
  • 3.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents
  • 3.3. Talents to Level Up as a Discipline Priest
  • 3.4. Rotation to Level Up as a Discipline Priest
  • 3.5. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Discipline Priests
  • 3.6. Discipline Priest War Mode Talents for Leveling
    • 3.6.1. General PvP Talents
    • 3.6.2. Discipline Priest PvP Talents for Leveling
  • 3.7. Legendary Options
  • 3.8. Quest Rewards
  • 3.9. Consumables
    • 3.9.1. Gunshoes Macro
  • 3.10. Congratulations!
• +4. Leveling 1-120 as a Holy Priest
  • 4.1. Gear Options
  • 4.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents
  • 4.3. Talents to Level Up as a Holy Priest
  • 4.4. Rotation to Level Up as a Holy Priest
  • 4.5. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Holy Priests
  • 4.6. Holy Priest War Mode Talents for Leveling
    • 4.6.1. General PvP Talents
    • 4.6.2. Holy Priest PvP Talents for Leveling
  • 4.7. Legendary Options
  • 4.8. Quest Rewards
  • 4.9. Consumables
    • 4.9.1. Gunshoes Macro
  • 4.10. Congratulations!
• 5. Changelog

1. General Battle for Azeroth Leveling Tips

Welcome! While this leveling guide is specifically made for the class and specialization(s) listed, we also have a general Battle for Azeroth leveling guide that focuses on the specific features of the Battle for Azeroth expansion including preparation of your mission table that will be used to unlock new areas, progressing on your faction's War Effort to save time at Level 120, and a reminder to keep ALL of the gear you find for the Scrap-o-Matic 1000 or Shred-Master Mk1, which will greatly increase your resource generating capabilities. Please visit our 110 to 120 leveling guide for this information and more (including Heirloom and War Mode advice that also applies to players who are not yet Level 110.

2. Leveling 1-120 as a Shadow Priest

2.1. Gear Options

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

2.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents

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

2.3. Talents to Level Up as a Shadow Priest

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

Your talent set up should be as follows.

• Level 15: Fortress of the Mind
• Level 30: Body and Soul
• Level 45: Dark Void
• Level 60: Psychic Horror
• Level 75: Shadow Crash
• Level 90: Mindbender
• Level 100: Dark Ascension

2.4. Rotation to Level Up as a Shadow Priest

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Smite.

1. Cast Void Eruption whenever you can to go into Voidform.
2. Cast Dark Ascension on cooldown, ideally hitting as many targets as possible to benefit from the burst AoE.
3. Cast Shadowfiend on cooldown.
4. Cast Mindbender on cooldown (bear in mind this replaces Shadowfiend in your spellbook).
5. Cast Void Bolt on cooldown when in Voidform.
6. Apply Vampiric Touch to all targets.
7. Apply Shadow Word: Pain to all targets.
8. Apply Shadow Word: Pain to targets if Dark Void is on cooldown, up to 3 targets.
9. Cast Mind Blast on cooldown.
10. Cast Dark Void on cooldown and try to hit as many targets with it as possible for the AoE damage and to apply Shadow Word: Pain.
11. Cast Shadow Crash on cooldown and try to hit as many targets with it as possible.
12. Cast Mind Flay as a filler.
13. Cast Smite as a filler, if necessary.
14. Cast Mind Sear as a filler at 3 or more targets instead of Mind Flay.

2.5. Summary of learned Abilities for Shadow Priests

You learn your first ability of interest at Level 3.

• At Level 3, you will learn Shadow Word: Pain. This is one of two damage over time abilities you will learn as a Shadow Priest.
• At level 5, Flash Heal is learned and can be used to heal yourself or allies.
• At level 8, you learn Power Word: Shield, which can used on yourself or other friendly targets to shield them.
• At Level 10, you will learn Mind Blast and Mind Flay. Mind Blast is your primary Insanity generator and Mind Flay is a spell used as a filler in the rotation, meaning that it is used when no other important spells need to be cast.
• At level 12, you learn Shadowform, which increases your spell damage by 10% and reduces physical damage taken by 10%. Always make sure you have this toggled on.
• At Level 13, you will learn Mind Vision, which can be used to see ahead by targeting an enemy and casting the ability.
• At level 14, you will learn Resurrection, which can be used to resurrect fallen allies.
• At level 18, you will learn Psychic Scream. This spell can be used to fear groups of enemies in the case of an emergency.
• At level 20, you learn Voidform, the main mechanic of Shadow. You can enter Voidform at 90 Insanity by casting Void Eruption and while in Voidform, Void Eruption turns into Void Bolt. Void Eruption deals a burst of AoE damage to enemies around your target and Void Bolt is the defining spell for Shadow, dealing a moderate amount of damage on a low cooldown. Note that Shadowform gets disabled during Voidform, but it will be automatically enabled again once you leave Voidform.
• At level 22, you will learn Power Word: Fortitude. This buff provides you and your allies 10% additional Stamina. Maintain this buff on yourself.
• At level 22, you will learn Purify Disease. This is a castable dispel that will remove any Disease effects on yourself or allies.
• At level 24, you will learn Vampiric Touch, which is your second damage over time ability. Vampiric Touch lasts longer than Shadow Word: Pain but also ticks slower. It also heals you for 50% of the damage it deals.
• At level 26, you will learn Mind Sear. This is primarily used to replace Mind Flay in the rotation when facing 3 or more targets, but is also sometimes used as an AoE spell.
• At level 28, you will learn Shadow Mend. This replaces Flash Heal and can be used to restore health to you and your allies. The damage component of this spell is negligible and can be ignored.
• At level 28, you learn Vampiric Embrace, which makes you heal a nearby ally for 85% of your single-target damage. This can also heal you and damage that your DoTs do also count as single-target damage.
• At level 32, you will learn Levitate. This spell allows you to walk on water and will slow your fall speed. Provides a great escape from enemies if needed.
• At level 34, you will learn Shackle Undead. This spell is useful to crowd control enemies that are categorized as Undead. This typically is not very helpful for leveling.
• At level 36, Void Bolt gets upgraded and it now also extends the duration of Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch by 3 seconds on your target and all enemies around it.
• At level 38, you will learn Shadowy Apparitions. This is a passive ability that makes an apparition float towards your target whenever your Shadow Word: Pain deals a Critical Strike. This apparition deals damage.
• At level 38, you will learn Focused Will. This is a passive ability that grants you a 15% damage reduction for 8 seconds whenever you are hit by melee attacks.
• At level 40, you will learn Shadowfiend. This spell is on a 3 minute cooldown and summons a pet that will attack your target for 15 seconds. This is a nice boost to damage when it is up, so it is best used on cooldown or on elite enemies as needed.
• At level 42, you will learn Mind Control allowing you to control a humanoid enemy for a short period of time.
• At level 44, you will learn Fade. This drops your threat on all enemies for 10 seconds and can be used to let other players tank something or even to let your Shadowfiend or Mindbender tank instead!
• At level 48, you will learn Dispersion, which is your only personal cooldown as a Shadow Priest. It reduces all damage you take by 60% in addition to removing all movement impairing effects and making you immune to them for the duration. However, during the 6 seconds that Dispersion lasts, you can not attack or cast spells.
• At level 52, you will learn Silence which silences your target for 4 seconds. This prevents them from casting any spells for 4 seconds. It also interrupts any spells and prevents them from casting spells of that school for 4 seconds in the case that your target is immune to silence effects.
• At level 56, you will learn Dispel Magic which will allow you to dispel beneficial Magic effects on enemies.
• At level 58, you will learn Hallucinations. This is a passive ability that grants you 6 Insanity whenever you successfully use Dispel Magic, Mass Dispel, Purify Disease, Vampiric Embrace, and Power Word: Shield.
• At level 63, you will learn Leap of Faith. This spell allows you to pull members of your party or raid to you. This spell has little to no effect on leveling, but can be used to pull party members to safety as needed.
• At level 78, you will learn Mastery: Madness. This simply increases the damage of Void Bolt, Void Eruption, Mind Flay, Mind Sear, Vampiric Touch, Shadow Word: Pain, and Mind Blast.
• At level 80, you will learn Mass Dispel which allows you to dispel harmful Magic effects from friendly players within range of the targetable reticle, but also to dispel beneficial Magic effects from hostile targets within range of the targetable reticle.

2.6. Shadow Priest War Mode Talents for Leveling

In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Shadow Priest-specific PvE talents.

2.6.1. General PvP Talents

• Relentless is a passive ability, but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities. Instead, it reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
• Adaptation is recommended; it is likely your most passive choice, since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds.

2.6.2. Shadow Priest PvP Talents for Leveling

1. Psyfiend summons a guardian that deals damage equal to 1% health of a target every second. It also slows the target by 50% and reduces their healing received by 50%. It is very good for fighting strong elite mobs and helps kite mobs.
2. Psychic Link makes Mind Blast deal 20% of its damage to all targets that have your Vampiric Touch on them within 40 yards. It adds some extra free cleave, which is nice for leveling.
3. Void Origins makes your Void Eruption an instant cast, which is a tremendous quality of life improvement.

The rest of Shadow's PvP talents are all fairly mediocre and do not do much for us in a PvE setting. The only other option besides the three I list above is Driven to Madness, as this helps to decrease the time between Voidform, the primary benefit being that you get to cast Void Eruption more. This is useful if you plan on gathering mobs and AoEing them down.

2.7. Legendary Options

If you are just coming out of Level 110, you will probably have a number of different Legendary items to choose from. Your Legendaries' special effects will stop working at Level 116, but until then, they can be a very powerful addition to help you level up quickly. These are our Legendary recommendations for leveling as a Shadow Priest in Battle for Azeroth:

• Sephuz's Secret is great as it gives you a passive movement speed boost, as well as giving you a speed boost when you proc the legendary. This makes pulling mobs a breeze and the Haste helps you kill them quicker.
• Heart of the Void increases our Void Eruption damage by 75% and also makes the damage heal us. This legendary is just incredible for Shadow and it vastly improves our burst AoE potential, especially when you take Dark Ascension as your level 100 talent.

2.8. Quest Rewards

You should equip new quest rewards when their item level starts beating out your previous set of gear. In Shadow's case, Tier 21 gear is not very useful while leveling and it is recommended that you replace it once you find gear about 15 item levels higher than the Tier 21 gear you are wearing, provided that their stats are well optimized for you. You will obtain Azerite pieces relatively early on and these are worth using over Tier gear in most circumstances, but do not replace Heart of the Void with Azerite gear until level 116.

If possible, we recommend holding on to all Quest Rewards you do not use. They can be scrapped at Level 120 for material resources for profession crafting.

2.9. Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Skystep Potion increases your movement speed by 150% (more than a mount!) for 8 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. This is extremely useful and should be used often and aggressively for any travel that is more than ~100 yards long.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.

2.9.1. Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving for as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

• #showtooltip
• /use Gunshoes
• /cancelaura Gunshoes

2.10. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! Now that you have hit Level 120 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level. To get yourself prepared for the end-game content ahead, we strongly recommend this Battle for Azeroth Raiding Lexicon/Spreadsheet by Medivh. It is a gold trove of information that will help you when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth and more.

3. Leveling 1-120 as a Discipline Priest

3.1. Gear Options

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

3.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents

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

3.3. Talents to Level Up as a Discipline Priest

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

Your talent set up should be as follows.

• Level 15: Castigation
• Level 30: Body and Soul
• Level 45: Power Word: Solace
• Level 60: Psychic Voice
• Level 75: Sins of the Many
• Level 90: Divine Star
• Level 100: Lenience

3.4. Rotation to Level Up as a Discipline Priest

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Smite.

1. You will learn Penance at level 10, use this when it comes off cooldown, and open all your fights with Shadow Word: Pain. Use Smite as your filler.
2. At level 40 you will learn Shadowfiend, your first damage cooldown. Use it as often as you can to provide a nice boost to damage.
3. Power Word: Solace is our recommended level 45 talent. Use this on cooldown.
4. At level 58, you will learn Power of the Dark Side which requires you to maintain as many Shadow Word: Pain debuffs on as many targets as possible to provide a damage proc to your Penance.
5. Divine Star is our recommended Level 90 talent. This talent is best used after pulling several enemies to maximize the damage it does. This spell will travel in a line in the direction you are facing, and after traveling a certain distance, will return to you. Making sure enemies are stacked in its path for both instances of damage is important.

3.5. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Discipline Priests

You unlock your first ability of interest at Level 3.

• At Level 3, you will unlock Shadow Word: Pain. This is your only damage over time ability and is ideal to use to pull enemies.
• At level 5, Flash Heal is unlocked and can be used to heal yourself or allies.
• At level 8, you unlock Power Word: Shield which should be used on yourself to absorb damage.
• At Level 10, you will unlock Penance. This is your primary damage ability besides Smite
• At Level 13, you will unlock Mind Vision which can be used to see ahead by targeting an enemy and casting the ability.
• At level 14, you will unlock Resurrection which can be used to resurrect fallen allies.
• At level 16, you will unlock a buff to Smite increasing its damage by 50%.
• At level 18, you will unlock Psychic Scream. This spell can be used to fear groups of enemies in the case of an emergency.
• At level 20, you will you will unlock Atonement. This will provide a buff after using certain abilities, namely Power: Word Shield which should be used to apply Atonement to yourself while questing.
• At level 22, you will unlock Power Word: Fortitude. This buff provides you and your allies 10% additional Stamina. Maintain this buff on yourself.
• At level 22, you will unlock Purify. This is a castable dispel that will remove any Magic and Disease effects on yourself or allies.
• At level 26, you will unlock Desperate Prayer. This is a fairly powerful personal cooldown that can be used to increase your health pool and provide yourself a heal for 25% of your Health.
• At level 28, you will unlock Shadow Mend. This replaces Flash Heal and can be used to restore health to you and your allies. The damage component of this spell is negligible and can be ignored.
• At level 32, you will unlock Levitate. This spell allows you to walk on water and will slow your fall speed. Provides a great escape from enemies if needed.
• At level 33, you will unlock Holy Nova. This AoE ability does relatively little damage and would require many targets to be useful. Not likely that you would use this while leveling too frequently.
• At level 34, you will unlock Shackle Undead. This spell is useful to crowd control enemies that are categorized as Undead. This typically is not very helpful for leveling.
• At level 36, you will unlock a buff to Smite allowing the spell to absorb the next damage event from the enemy.
• At level 38, you will unlock Focused Will. This ability procs when melee damage is taken and provides you with a damage reduction buff.
• At level 40, you will unlock Shadowfiend. This spell is on a 3 minute cooldown and summons a pet that will attack your target for 15 seconds. This is a nice boost to damage when it is up, so best used on cooldown or on elite enemies as needed.
• At level 42, you will unlock Mind Control allowing you to control a humanoid enemy for a short period of time.
• At level 44, you will unlock Fade. This ability can save your life by dropping your threat on an enemy.
• At level 48, you will unlock Pain Suppression is a very powerful personal cooldown and should be used in emergencies to reduce you or your allies damage taken.
• At level 50, you will unlock Rapture. This is a powerful cooldown that will increase the amount of your Power Word: Shield absorbs for a short period of time.
• At level 52, you will unlock Power Word: Radiance which allows you to apply Atonement to one target and 4 nearby allies while also providing a small heal to those affected.
• At level 56, you will unlock Dispel Magic which will allow you to dispel magic effects on enemies.
• At level 58, you will unlock Power of the Dark Side. This buff has a chance to proc when your Shadow Word: Pain does damage, increasing the damage of your next Penance.
• At level 63, you will unlock Leap of Faith. This cooldown allows you to pull members of your party or raid to you. This spell has little to no effect on leveling, but can be used to pull party members to safety as needed.
• At level 66, you will unlock Mass Resurrection allowing you to resurrect your party with one spell cast.
• At level 70, you will unlock Power Word: Barrier. This is a 3 minute cooldown that can be used to reduce the damage taken by yourself and all allies standing within it. Use this cooldown as needed to reduce damage taken.
• At level 78, you will unlock Mastery: Grace. This will allow you to begin taking advantage of the Mastery stat and increase healing on your Atonement targets. This has a minimal effect during leveling but is helpful for increasing your healing in groups.
• At level 80, you will unlock Mass Dispel which allows you to dispel magical effects on friendly players within range of the targetable reticle.

3.6. Discipline Priest War Mode Talents for Leveling

In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Discipline Priest-specific PvE talents.

3.6.1. General PvP Talents

• Relentless is a passive ability, but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities. Instead, it reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
• Adaptation is recommended; it is likely your most passive choice since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds.

3.6.2. Discipline Priest PvP Talents for Leveling

1. Trinity increases your Atonement healing and duration but limits your maximum potential Atonement targets to 3. This is not an issue in open-world leveling making this rather strong for self healing.
2. Searing Light increases the damage of your Smite by 15% and each Smite reduces your Penance cooldown by 1 second. This obviously is quite a DPS increase making soloing as Discipline much easier.
3. Dark Archangel increases your damage, and the damage of all allies with your Atonement by 15% for 8 seconds. This is great for soloing or small group world content.

Dome of Light, Premonition, Purification, Purified Resolve, Strength of Soul, Ultimate Radiance, and Archangel have limited use in PvE content in terms of increasing your damage in the open world, but they can be situationally useful.

3.7. Legendary Options

If you are just coming out of Level 110, you will probably have a number of different Legendary items to choose from. Your Legendaries' special effects will stop working at Level 116, but until then they can be a very powerful addition to help you level up quickly. These are our Legendary recommendations for leveling as a Discipline Priest in Battle for Azeroth:

• Sephuz's Secret is a must, giving you passive movement speed. Psychic Scream, Shackle Undead and Purify will allow you to proc its special effect reliably in the open world. It is by far the best leveling Legendary
• Muze's Unwavering Will provides a passive casting speed increase for Smite, our main damage dealing ability and is recommended as a preferred legendary while leveling as a Discipline Priest.
• Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish provides you with an on-use ability that provides AoE damage, which is specifically ideal if leveling with a group and pulling multiple enemies at once.

3.8. Quest Rewards

You should equip new quest rewards when their item level starts beating out your previous set of gear. If you are currently wearing Tier 21 gear, it is best to let the quest rewards significantly beat your existing item level before using them. With that said, you will unlock Azerite pieces early on, which are worth using over Tier gear in most circumstances.

If possible, we recommend holding on to all Quest Rewards you do not use. They can be scrapped at Level 120 for material resources for profession crafting.

3.9. Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Skystep Potion increases your movement speed by 150% (more than a mount!) for 8 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. This is extremely useful and should be used often and aggressively for any travel that is more than ~100 yards long.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.

3.9.1. Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving for as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

• #showtooltip
• /use Gunshoes
• /cancelaura Gunshoes

3.10. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! Now that you have hit Level 120 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level. To get yourself prepared for the end-game content ahead, we strongly recommend this Battle for Azeroth Raiding Lexicon/Spreadsheet by Medivh. It is a gold trove of information that will help you when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth and more.

4. Leveling 1-120 as a Holy Priest

4.1. Gear Options

When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of loot with the highest item level. The only exception to this rule is if you have a Ring or Necklace with a slightly lower item level, but 2 secondary stats on it instead of 1.

4.2. Level by Level Rotation and Talents

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

4.3. Talents to Level Up as a Holy Priest

Your first talent row unlocks at Level 15.

Your talent set up should be as follows.

• Level 15: Trail of Light
• Level 30: Angelic Feather
• Level 45: Guardian Angel
• Level 60: Censure
• Level 75: Surge of Light
• Level 90: Divine Star
• Level 100: Apotheosis

4.4. Rotation to Level Up as a Holy Priest

Starting at Level 1, you only have one main attack ability: Smite.

1. You will learn Holy Fire at level 10, use this when it comes off cooldown, and use Smite as your filler.
2. At Level 16, you will learn Holy Word: Chastise, which should also be used on cooldown.
3. At Level 36, you will learn Holy Nova giving you the ability to do AoE damage to a group of creatures at once.
4. At Level 36, Holy Fire gains additional functionality allowing the damage over time effect to stack twice on your target, and giving Smite and Holy Nova a chance to reset the cooldown of Holy Fire.
5. Censure is our recommended Level 60 talent. This gives Holy Word: Chastise a stun.
6. Divine Star is our recommended Level 90 talent. This talent is best used after pulling several enemies to maximize the damage it does. This spell will travel in a line in the direction you are facing, and after traveling a certain distance, will return to you. Making sure enemies are stacked in its path for both instances of damage is important.
7. Apotheosis is our recommended Level 100 talent. When cast, this talent provides you with increased cooldown reduction applied to Holy Word: Chastise when casting Smite.

4.5. Summary of Unlocked Abilities for Holy Priests

You unlock your first ability of interest at Level 5.

• At Level 5, Flash Heal is unlocked and can be used to heal yourself or allies.
• At Level 10, you will unlock Holy Fire. This is your primary damage ability besides Smite
• At Level 10, you will unlock Holy Word: Serenity. This can be used to heal yourself or allies for a large amount.
• At Level 12, you will unlock Renew. This can be used to place a buff on yourself or allies providing healing over time.
• At Level 13, you will unlock Mind Vision which can be used to see ahead by targeting an enemy and casting the ability.
• At Level 14, you will unlock Resurrection which can be used to resurrect fallen allies.
• At Level 16, you will unlock a buff to Smite increasing its damage by 50%.
• At Level 16, you will unlock Holy Word: Chastise. This becomes another primary source of dealing damage.
• At Level 18, you will unlock Psychic Scream. This spell can be used to fear groups of enemies in the case of an emergency.
• At Level 20, you will you will unlock Holy Words. This passive reduces the cooldown of your holy words when associated filler spells are cast.
• At Level 22, you will unlock Power Word: Fortitude. This buff provides you and your allies 10% additional Stamina. Maintain this buff on yourself.
• At Level 22, you will unlock Purify. This is a castable dispel that will remove any Magic and Disease effects on yourself or allies.
• At Level 24, you will unlock Heal. This can be used to heal yourself or allies.
• At Level 26, you will unlock Desperate Prayer. This is a fairly powerful personal cooldown that can be used to increase your health pool and provide yourself a heal for 25% of your Health.
• At Level 28, you will unlock Prayer of Healing. This group heal can be used to heal up to 5 allies at once.
• At Level 32, you will unlock Levitate. This spell allows you to walk on water and will slow your fall speed. Provides a great escape from enemies if needed.
• At Level 32, you will unlock Spirit of Redemption. This passive causes you to become a Spirit upon death for 15 seconds, unable to move but you may continue to cast healing spells until the 15 seconds expires and you die.
• At Level 33, you will unlock Holy Nova. This AoE ability does relatively little damage and would require many targets to be useful. Not likely that you would use this while leveling too frequently.
• At Level 34, you will unlock Shackle Undead. This spell is useful to crowd control enemies that are categorized as Undead. This typically is not very helpful for leveling.
• At Level 36, you will unlock a buff to Holy Fire allowing the damage over time effect to stack twice on your target, and giving Smite and Holy Nova a chance to reset the cooldown of Holy Fire.
• At Level 36, you will unlock Focused Will. This ability procs when melee damage is taken and provides you with a damage reduction buff.
• At Level 40, you will unlock Holy Word: Sanctify. This spell allows you to heal up to 6 allies in a targetable area.
• At Level 42, you will unlock Mind Control allowing you to control a humanoid enemy for a short period of time.
• At Level 44, you will unlock Fade. This ability can save your life by dropping your threat on an enemy.
• At Level 44, you will unlock Guardian Spirit which is a very powerful cooldown and should be used in emergencies to reduce your or a single ally's damage taken.
• At Level 50, you will unlock Prayer of Mending. This healing spell bounces between you and your allies healing them as they take damage.
• At Level 56, you will unlock Dispel Magic which will allow you to dispel magic effects on enemies.
• At Level 63, you will unlock Leap of Faith. This cooldown allows you to pull members of your party or raid to you. This spell has little to no effect on leveling, but can be used to pull party members to safety as needed.
• At Level 66, you will unlock Mass Resurrection allowing you to resurrect your party with one spell cast.
• At Level 70, you will unlock Divine Hymn. This is a powerful 3-minute cooldown that can be used to heal all nearby allies while channelled.
• At Level 78, you will unlock Mastery: Echo of Light. This causes your direct healing spells to leave a buff on their target which heals them for an additional amount depending on how much Mastery you have.
• At Level 80, you will unlock Mass Dispel which allows you to dispel magical effects on friendly players within range of the targetable reticle.
• At Level 85, you will unlock Symbol of Hope which allows you to restore missing Mana to yourself and nearby healers when cast. The amount of Mana restored is based on the targets missing Mana.

4.6. Holy Priest War Mode Talents for Leveling

In this section we will rank the PvP talents best for leveling and doing solo / small group PvE content. Below is a ranking of both General PvP Talents and Holy Priest-specific PvE talents.

4.6.1. General PvP Talents

• Relentless is a passive ability, but it does not automatically remove crowd control abilities. Instead, it reduces the duration.
• Gladiator's Medallion is an on-use ability that removes all movement impairing effects and all loss of control effects.
• Adaptation is recommended; it is likely your most passive choice since it will automatically remove loss of control effects over 5 seconds.

4.6.2. Holy Priest PvP Talents for Leveling

1. Greater Fade increases your movement speed by 50% for 4 seconds when you cast Fade, as well as causing most melee, ranged and spell attacks to miss you for the duration.
2. Inner Focus can be used on cooldown to provide an additional damage boost.
3. Holy Concentration provides situational benefit against some more difficult creatures.

Delivered from Evil, Divine Attendant, Greater Heal, Holy Ward, Miracle Worker, Rapid Mending, Ray of Hope, and Spirit of the Redeemer have limited use in PvE content in terms of increasing your damage in the open world, but they can be situationally useful.

4.7. Legendary Options

If you are just coming out of Level 110, you will probably have a number of different Legendary items to choose from. Your Legendaries' special effects will stop working at Level 116, but until then they can be a very powerful addition to help you level up quickly. These are our Legendary recommendations for leveling as a Holy Priest in Battle for Azeroth.

• Sephuz's Secret is a must, giving you passive movement speed. Psychic Scream, Censure, Shackle Undead and Purify will allow you to proc its special effect reliably in the open world. It is by far the best leveling Legendary.
• Muze's Unwavering Will provides a passive casting speed increase for Smite, our main damage dealing ability and is recommended as a preferred legendary while leveling as a Holy Priest.
• Kil'jaeden's Burning Wish provides you with an on-use ability that provides AoE damage, which is specifically ideal if leveling with a group and pulling multiple enemies at once.

4.8. Quest Rewards

You should equip new quest rewards when their item level starts beating out your previous set of gear. If you are currently wearing Tier 21 gear, you will replace this with quest rewards as T21 provides us with no benefit while levelling. You will unlock Azerite pieces early on, which are worth using over all other gear in most circumstances.

If possible, we recommend holding on to all Quest Rewards you do not use. They can be scrapped at Level 120 for material resources for profession crafting.

4.9. Consumables

There are several consumable items that can be purchased that will help you with your leveling speed.

• Skystep Potion increases your movement speed by 150% (more than a mount!) for 8 seconds. It has a 1-minute cooldown. This is extremely useful and should be used often and aggressively for any travel that is more than ~100 yards long.
• Gunshoes are an Engineering item that increase your movement speed by 200% for 25 seconds. These will make you almost as fast as a Flying mount. We recommend having a lot of these, and using them whenever you are traveling more than ~250 yards.
• Goblin Glider Kit is very useful for covering long distances from high places.

4.9.1. Gunshoes Macro

The Gunshoes will not let you stop moving for as long as they are active. Using this macro twice will click the buff off and allow you to stop.

• #showtooltip
• /use Gunshoes
• /cancelaura Gunshoes

4.10. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching Level 120! Now that you have hit Level 120 we recommend looking at our Easy mode page and Talents section to learn how to play at max level. To get yourself prepared for the end-game content ahead, we strongly recommend this Battle for Azeroth Raiding Lexicon/Spreadsheet by Medivh. It is a gold mine of information that will help you when gearing up in Battle for Azeroth and more.

5. Changelog

• 10 Dec. 2018: Updated for Patch 8.1 changes.
• 13 Aug. 2018: Added Holy section.
• 12 Aug. 2018: Consistency updates to give all leveling guides a similar feel.
• 10 Aug. 2018: Updated Priest leveling guide. Now covers Shadow + Discipline from Level 1 to 120.

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