After running Gleja as the Disciplinarian Nun for the past month or so, I've reviewed my talent choices and am respeccing to a somewhat odd 22/29 Disc/Holy (right now she's at 40/11 Disc/Holy). So you all are less likely to get the ruler for talking in class.

These changes are really geared to making her better in groups, which is all she ever does anymore. Even after the expanion, I doubt she'll solo all that much.

The new spec: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priests2/talents.html?50520013050010023505101030005400000000000000000

I rolled an undead priest on a server with some friends. I haven't researched priests yet, but they were telling me I had to go shadow. What is your opinion on that?

Shadow is the easy mode to level up and really quite effective after that. Ask aro!

My opinion is that there is nothing you "have" to do. I leveled up Gleja to 60 in 21 days of play. And she never touched the shadow tree. Does shadow give you more offensive power? Yes. Do you have to do it? No. Pick the talents you want.

Oh, there was no coercion involved. They were just telling me it was the way to go. I'll have to do a bit of research, but 'Undead Shadow Priest' does sound cool. Maybe if they get the server moves going some day, I'll be able to reunite with the VS horde group and drag my friends over there.

And don't buy into the "Shadow priests can't heal" hype either. Although I give Aro a lot of crap for her puny mana bar, Shadow Priests can heal - especially with the right gear. I think a Shadow/Disc priest could be mighty powerful. When the expansion hits & I roll a Draeni priest, I plan to go that route.

YAY THERE ARE PRIEST QUESTIONS I GET TO DO MY JOB <3 <3 <3

There is no question that the shadow tree gives you more direct damage. For example, when I'm in shadow form, if I burn Inner Focus (from the disc tree heart heart heart) to improve my crit chances and then slam something with Mind Blast, my damage ranges from 1300-1800, depending on shadow resistance. This, considering that I am a priest, is INSANE.

By the same token, it's true that Gleja gives me a lot of crap about my mana -- for example 'Jesus, I'm out of mana, I have no idea what the hell happened.' 'I think that's called "speccing shadow."' -- and there is a common conception that shadow priests can't heal. This is bullshit, and if anyone ever tells you that, you should punch them in the face. I was level 52 when the respec hit on the new talent trees, and before then I had all of my points in shadow. Every single one. The biggest problem I had was levels 35-45 or so, which is the Priest's dead zone. Every class has this area: the place where even shit your level is kicking your ass, so you have to go two levels lower in order to NOT DIE and consequently you level reaaaaaaaaaaaally slowly.

With the revamp of Holy Fire and the addition of Holy Nova, the holy tree actually kicks a lot of ass. I've known people to level priests through holy only (I'm intending on trying it), and even when I leveled through shadow I used Smite a lot solo. A LOT. Don't underestimate Smite, especially with all the bonuses to range, damage, and casting time the tree now provides.

I would advise away from levelling with points only in discipline just because the only damage benefit it brings you is Wands. And that's great and all, but that will never take the place of an additional spell (Holy Nova, Mind Flay, etc etc).

But what about my spec, oh wise Aro?

I think it's exactly perfect to go with me on groups and let me use shadow form. <3 <3 <3

Honestly, I am interested to see Inspiration proc.

Sadly, it has no proc animation that I can see.

Undead shadow priests are nasty in pvp too. :)

The undead racial ability is, imo, the best. Feedback is so lame it causes me physical pain, but Touch of Weakness unf unf unf.

Human shadow priests are also pretty wicked in pvp. At least, they are when they know the right way to go in AV.

I feel bad for troll priests, their racial ability is lame. Desperate prayer is pretty cool, and elfs have the starshards, which is nice as an extra damage spell, especially in those lower levels (this is how Lauris got away with levelling holy, she has an arcane damage spell that channels, thus taking not forever and three days to cast).

I have never seen Touch of Weakness in action, because I am shallow and played mostly Alliance on account of they are prettier.

If I was going for pretty, why did I pick a dwarf, you ask? Eloquently I say to you: shut up.

Well, now I am a grumpy priestess.

I spend 5 talent points in "Spiritual Healing" (yes, the song is stuck in my head too). This means that all my healing spells should get a +heal equal to 25% of my total spirit.

So I run some tests. 100 Flash Heals with my spirit buff on, 100 Flash Heals with my spirit buff off. Now, the spirit buff gives me +40 to spirit, so that should translate to a +10 to my heals.

But there's no noticeable difference. My high-spirit crits healed for slightly more, on average (1583 vs 1535). But the high-spirit non-crits healed for LESS (1028 vs 1033). So I'm not seeing the love from my spirit talent.

They changed Hex of Weakness since I last played Rajani.

I bet it still sucks though, it's always felt something like "I'm using a lock spell only INFINITELY SUCKIER, lookit meee!"

That sounds like something you should report as a bug, Gleja.

...Like, for example, I am supposed to get +70 stamina with PoF, and yet it's only +54. WTF is up with that? Is it ignoring my bonus, or what? I can't imagine that no one has noticed this, and yet I find no posts about it in the priest forum.

I have reported it. Good idea.

Well, the Spiritual Guidance talent is either broken or it sucks. After finding out that the +heal bonuses are weighted by the casting length of the spell, I re-ran all of my tests using Prayer of Healing (my longest spell at 3 seconds).

Average PoH without spirit buff: 1078
Average PoH with spirit buff: 1081

So, yeah, 5 talent points for an average 3 extra hp? Um, no.

Further testing shows that this talent is broken. B0rken!

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?ForumName=wow-bugs&ThreadID=140899

Well, if SG is broken. Maybe I'll go this route:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priests2/talents.html?50520013050010023505103030210400000000000000000

You are obviously not holding your tongue right.

After learning all sorts of exciting things about +heal, it now looks like SG is working correctly. And when I use it, I get a whole +2 per tick of Renew. So far this fails to excite me. If I were in a group with a Pally and a Druid, who gave me Blessing of Kings and Gift Of The Wild, then SG could be a useful talent.

But how often does that happen? Maybe it happens in raids.

So it looks like I get to spend 20 more gold on a respec.

I feel your pain there, Glej. I have respecced so many times that if I do it again, it will be so very very expensive.

AND YET I KEEP THINKING ABOUT IT.

Sigh. As much as I hate to turn this into a "Rate my spec, plz!!!" thread, I simply can not decide.

Option 1: 31 Disc/20 Holy
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priests2/talents.html?50523013050510123305103030000000000000000000000

This is a pretty straightforward build. I get the mana-boosting benefits of the Disc tree, and most of the healing benefits of the Holy tree.

Option 2: 21 Disc/30 Holy
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/priests2/talents.html?50520013040010023505103230010500000000000000000

This is kind of a weird one. It grabs all the healing boosters in the Holy tree, and some of the mana boosters in Disc. I also get Spirit of Redemption, which is the main attraction for me. Who doesn't want to heal from BEYOND THE GRAVE?!

I really, really like the 21/30 build, because it's interesting. It's like a smattering of all the cool shit in both trees, and also I think Spirit of Redemption is cool as hell.