Talent Build for Shadow Priest

[kyuusai]

I have a Level 12 Human Priest... Can anyone tell me where I could put the talent points I have [3] to lean towards being a Shadow Priest? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

My priest is lvl 36 atm and Ive been following this guide

http://wow.whispre.com/files/priest_guide_v1.0.htm

Im following the talents geared towards fast levelling atm but they have one for Shadow Spec too...either way this is a great guide to look at.

[kyuusai]

Thanks alot for the link!! Anyone else?

This was posted by a guildie in our forums - its for all 3 build types. I recomend going shadow until lvl 58 or 60. It'll help you a ton while questing.

Hello everyone, I have been asked several times about the priest build and I have toyed with my skills so much that I have found what I consider to be the most beneficial build for a high lvl healer.

Discipline/Holy 31/20

Let me explain why to go disc before we move forward. The discipline tree offers many talents that affect your mana usage, and mana pool. Since mana is life to a priest and his party, it is my overall suggestion to utilize this tree to its maximum potential. Also the discipline tree offers Divine Spirit, which is a buff to spirit. I know most people dont buy into spirit too much, but i assure you, priests rely on spirit nearly as much as mana. It is my mana regeneration rate that will save a party in conjunction with the size of my mana pool. I keep 2 staffs each with separate enchantments. The Soulkeeper with +26 spirit with a +20 spirit enchant, and the Argent Crusader with +30int and the +22 int enchant. I start a fight with the argent crusader for the mana pool, then after a few casts, I switch to the soulkeeper, this ensures I get the maximum mana for each fight, and throw the maximum amount of lifesaving abilities.

OK. Now that my lecture is over lets get to the build.

5 points Silent Resolve or Unbreakable Will
Silent Resolve gives threat reduced by 20% on all damage spells this is an allright skill, but it is more of a step toward the more useful skills you will do just as well by selecting Unbreakable Will which gives you a decent %chance to resist stun, silence, and fear effects. It all is depending on your play style.

3 points Improved Power Word Shield
This causes your weakened soul effect to be reduced to 15 seconds A MUST

2 points Improved Power Word Fortitude
This raises the effectiveness of fortitude by 30% at lvl 60, this means 70.2 stamina for the buff.

5 points Mental Agility
This reduces the cost of your instant cast spells by 10% a significant amount when buffing or throwing shields and renews

5 points Mental Strength
This increases your mana pool by 10% again, a must have

5 points Meditation
This allows 15% of your ana regeneration to occur while casting nice skill and meant for the priest that is in it for the long haul.

3 points Improved Inner Fire
This increases the effect of your inner fire spell by 45% great spell as it has a significant armor increse and noone likes a dead priest.

1 point Inner Focus
This is a spell which you have to click to use it is awesome for throwig a GHeal on your tank as it will save you the mana for more healing

1 point Martyrdom
This seems likea joke but if you happen to find yourself at the wrong end of a crit, it definitely comes in handy the 50% chance of it to proc is more than enough

1 point Divine Spirit
I swear by this skill and you will rarely see me without it buffed. spirit is the key to a long fight and you will have many of them



That is all for the disc tree if you like you may select whatever you want, these are only my reccomendations. But remember, this build is not for a priest that finds himself doing anything solo. you will have a very difficult time killing things, and more often than not, you will just be outlasting them rather than killing them.


Now we move on to the Holy tree

This is where all of your larger heal effects will come from, and a few mana saving skills as well

5 points Improved Renew
This adds 15% to your renew spell, a must, since it is paired with the reduction in mana cost for all instant casts

5 points Spiritual Healing
This adds 10% to all healing spells which also applys to renew

5 points Subtlety
This reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20% which is a very significant amount and once again, noone likes a dead priest

5 points Improved Healing
This reduces the mana cost of your lesser heal, heal, and greater heal spells by 15% this is simply more practice in conservation of mana

When selecting gear for this build, concentrate on
#1 intellect
#2 plus healing and mana regen gear
#3 spirit
#4 stamina

I have concluded the healer build, there are alot of wonderful priest talents that are not included here, such as the Holy Fire spell (one of my favorites, which i sadly had to forego) Sad and Inspiration, a talent that increases the armor of your target eg..tank after they recieve a crit heal from you, this may be interchangeable with improved healing, depending on how often you have a true defense spec warrior with you.
__________________________________________________ _______
Now for my lecture on the shadow tree.

This tree is amazing! You can damn near solo anything with this build. I never lost a duel to any other class when i had this build. If this tree is paired with the disc tree until lvl 55 you will have no problems surviving solo or in groups. Just make sure that you get the improved shield and fortitude from the disc tree as soon as possible, perhaps before any points are spent in shadow at all.
The shadow tree is my recommendation to level as quickly as possibly to lvl 55 or 60. However, the disc/holy specialization is (in my opinion) a must for higher lvl instances, and one should switch as soon as the higher lvl instances are reached eg.. scholo strat LBRS.

Shadow.. god i love this tree!

Shadow 33 / Discipline 18
5 points Spirit Tap
This is an unbelievable amount of mana regen right after you kill something, it reduces your downtime and when facing multiple mobs, it is a lifesaver or taker Twisted Evil

5 points Blackout
This is the only stun that priests have and it will save your party from being overwhelmed for 3 secs at a time, a must have

2 points Improved Shadow Word Pain
This increases your pain spell by 2 tics thats alot of extra damage

5 points Improved Mind Blast
This is your ultimate shadow spell and it is recommended that you use it often

1 point Mind Flay
This slows your attacker and damages them this is also a must have

2 points Improved Psychic Scream
This is great for a solo shadow priest and it is required to get to silence

1 point Silence
I dont think this needs any explanation

1 point Vampiric Embrace
This is the spell that returns the damage you inflict to you and your party A good tactic is to cast it on all enemies first then use shadow word pain on all of them then mind blast and mind flay repeatedly. You will rarely have to heal anyone when this tactic is being followed.

5 points Shadow Weaving
This makes your shadow spells more effective and it stacks up to five times when paired with the above tactic using vampiric embrace, it causes a significant amount of damage and also returns in healing. just cast vampiric embrace, pain, mind blast, flay, mind blast, and watch the bodies hit the floor, and your parties health never falter.

5 points Darkness
This increases the amount of damage you inflict with shadow spells, need i say more?

1 point Shadowform
This increases your shadow damage by 15%! on top of all the other shadow damage you inflict. and reduces the amount of damae you take by 15% can anyone say "INVINCIBLE!!!"


The Discipline tree should be paired with this one as follows:
The first three skills should be used before any points in shadow are used, these are extremely important.

5 points unbreakable will
3 points improved shield
2 points improved fortitude
______________________________________
5 points mental agility
3 points improved inner fire
these skills can be spent after you enjoy the shadow tree.


This will create an unstoppable priest up to lvl 60. But as i said, if you want to run high lvl instances, the Disc / Holy tree is my recommendation. i put this tree in here so that those of you who choose the darkside till 60 will never have a problem whippin some ass till you get there.

Also when you are selecting equipment for the shadow build, concentrate
#1 intelligence
#2 stamina
#3 any plus shadow damage gear
#4 spirit

i hope that this guide has been helpful, and i would appreciate your feedback if you disagree, enjoyed the suggestions, or have any further questions

best of luck to you,
Moonwarden

[some sweet shadow priest]

if u want to be a good shadow priest you need all your possible talents in the shadow talent tree it just makes sense to do it that way because all the shadow talents help you the most also you need the vamperic touch spell at the bottom of the tree


http://wowvault.ign.com/talentcalculator/?skillclassid=5[/url]
that my spec it works good for me so if i were you i would probably use it not saying other specs arnt good but it makes sense for a shadow priest to be speced full shadow because none of the other trees do much for shadow

[Bitter3nd]

OK ignore the fools who say only spec shadow tree as a shadow priest. Its very important to spec a little into disipline. Talent tree build I use very successfuly is as follows: 13disp/0holy/48shadow

Start in shadow tree:
5 in Blackout
2 in Improved Shadow Word: Pain
5 in Shadow Focus
1 in Mind Flay
2 in Improved Psychic Scream
5 in Improved Mind Blast
2 in Shadow Reach
5 in Shadow Weaving
1 in Vampiric Embrace
1 in Silence
2 in Improved Vampiric Embrace
5 in Darkness
1 in Shadow Form
5 in Shadow Power
5 in Misery
1 in Vampiric Touch

Discipline Tree:
5 in Unbreakable Will
2 in Martyrdom
3 in Improved Power Word: Shield
2 in Improved Power Word: Fortitude
1 in Inner Focus

As an end note: I know that Spirit Tap looks nice but you need to save those points for the Discipline Tree to get to Inner Focus. This build in Talent Tree is purely for dealing damage while giving you the best chance to stay alive and does nothing for keeping Aggro off you. Be warned.
Reference http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priest/talents.html for more info.

[greenwithenvy]

I completely agree with Pippen -- he definitely knows what he is talking about. I have a level 70 disc/holy priest that heals raids through SSC/TK and that's exactly what I use.