World of Warcraft Guide Priest - Jump Start Your New WoW Priest
Congratulations, you have chosen to play a Priest. If this is the first time you have played a Priest you should find this information helpful to help get you going. Here we will give a general overview of basic Priest play and some points on getting your Priest on it's way too the higher levels A.S.A.P.
If your an experienced World of Warcraft gamer you can appreciate the value of the Priest. While other classes have some healing abilities, the Priest is pretty much the king of all healers. The Priest is the quiet character in the background keeping an eye on the group and nurturing them much like a Shepherd watches over his flock.
If your just starting out in World of Warcraft a Priest may seem a little boring at first, but as you learn the vital role of a Priest it becomes a challenging and multi faceted character that is never a bore to play. The Priest usually plays best as part of group. Although the Priest can play solo in basic circumstances, they do not hold up well against large mobs until the higher levels are reached. Once you get to level 25 or so you will find soloing to be much easier but as I said before the Priest is primarily a group player. Don't let this discourage you from choosing to play a Priest though, it is a very powerful range damage character and is very respected by other classes. One last thing before we move on, when playing a Priest in PVP don't be surprised when you find the other team concentrating more on killing you than the rest of your group. This just goes to show how valuable a Priest is. Your abilities as a Priest are much needed by the rest of your group.
In the original World of Warcraft you race selection was limited to draenei, dwarf, human or night elf for Alliance and blood elf, troll or undead for Horde.
With the Cataclysm expansion you will also be able to play gnomes and taurens as priests and both new races, goblins and worgen.
Getting your Priest through the first several levels:
When just starting out you will have the Lesser Heal spell and the Smite range attack, a great combination especially when you earn your first buff, Power Word Fortitude. Keep Fortitude on all the time for now and use it to help your group if you are with one. Make sure to keep your health and mana up, as a Priest you are very vulnerable and should pay close attention to your survival. Keep your distance, the Priest is not a melee fighter so don't play it like one. The farther you are from your enemies the better, let the hand to hand characters fight up close.
Before going out questing be sure to stock up with plenty of water, you will need to drink often especially after confrontations.
At level 4 Shadow Word Pain will become available to you, keep your distance and use Shadow Word Pain on mobs to debuff them. Keep this debuff on most of the time, but there will be times you will still want to use Fortitude. Strafe Smite from a distance to help keep mobs under control and be sure to watch for when your debuff, Shadow Word Pain wears off. Keep it going.
At level 6 Power Word Shield will become available to you, use this when preparing to go into battle or any time you are under attack. Being a frail character you will want to keep this shield up all the time, consider this a important part of playing a Priest. Also at level 6 you will want to visit a trainer to get your first substantial quest, take it and complete it as soon as you can.
At level 8 the Renew spell and Fade will become available to you. Renew is a excellent heal over time spell that will come in handy whenever you or your group is under attack, use it and use it often. Fade is used to help control your enemies aggro, very useful to keep your foe's attention away from you.
At level 10 things really get fun with the introduction of Mind Blast. Mind Blast is an awesome range attack spell that does great damage and doesn't use too much mana. Resurrection is now available to you enabling you to resurrect players. Also at level 10 you will receive your first talent point, so put some
thought to what kind of Priest you would like to become.
At level 12 you will get a very nice armor bonus buff called Inner Fire which is a great help against melee enemies and multiple attackers.
From this point on you will work your way up the levels at a pretty good pace, just check for quests at all times and think about how you wish to build your
Priest. And look into getting more advanced Priest information.
Thanks and Happy Gaming.
