So I Hit Level 80 On My Priest - Now What? Talent Specs, and PvE Gear

So I Hit Level 80 On My Priest - Now What? Talent Specs, and PvE Gear
Page content

Overview

So, you’re a Priest that has just recently conquered the frozen wastes of Northrend and hit level 80. Surely you cannot rush headlong into combat with Kel’Thuzad himself, or hoards of enemy players - not just yet. So, now what? In this guide, geared towards the fresh 80 Priest, we’ll take a look at everything a newly 80 will need to know: Talent specs, gear, and enchants.

Talents

Once level 80, talents become one of the easiest and most important ways to increase the power of your character. Whether you’re intending on doing healing or DPS, PvP or PvE, having the correct talent spec is crucial. What follows are the generally accepted best talent specs for each situation a newly 80 Priest may find themselves in. Of course, there is some flexibility, so treat these as guidelines.

PvE

Holy PvE - 13/58/0 with Greater Heal usage

Holy PvE - 14/57/0 without Greater Heal usage, Renew focus

Discipline PvE - 57/14/0

[Shadow PvE - 13/0/57](https://shadow pve - http//www.wowarmory.com/talent-calc.xml?cid=5&tal=0503203000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000325023051223010323152301351)

PvP

Discipline PvP - 57/14/0

Shadow PvP - 17/0/54

Shadow/Discipline Hybrid PvP - 38/0/33

PvE Gear

Holy Priest in Tier 7.5

The biggest hurdle a newly 80 Priest must overcome is the lack of good gear. Through questing and a few dungeons you may have acquired a few decent pieces, but most raid groups are going to want you to have, at the very least, full level 80 blues. The best place to gear up pre-raid is in Heroics, but you may not even be geared enough to do them just yet. You could run some of the higher level normal dungeons, but those are usually rather difficult to find groups for. A better option is to seek out level 80 BoE blues and epics, and crafted items.

For example, the Titansteel Spellblade or Titansteel Guardian are fantastic epic weapons crafted by blacksmiths. A jewelcrafter can outfit you with rings and a neck, either epic or superior depending on the size of your bank account. If you’re a tailor, you should focus on crafting one of the epic sets that suits your chosen spec.

Finding gear upgrades is as simple as visiting the Armory and using the “Find an Upgrade” feature. However, this feature will often not take into account your spec. That is why it important that you understand how to gear your character, so that you can recognize an upgrade on site.

Gearing a Holy Priest

Holy Priests rely heavily on critical strikes. Additionally, they gain necessary bonuses from having high Spirit. An aspiring raiding Holy Priest should look closely at gear that has Intellect, Spirit, Spellpower, and Critical Strike rating. Hit rating is completely useless to a healing Priest. Haste is nice to have, but not as important since Holy Priests use a lot of instant spells. MP5 is always a good thing to have, but a robe that has Spirit and no MP5 is much better than one that has MP5 and no spirit, in the majority of cases.

Gearing a Discipline Priest

Discipline Priests love haste. Since Power Word: Shield, Flash of Light, and Penance are the main spells of a Disc Priest, and two of them have a cast time, getting them to go as quickly as possible, and have as short of a cooldown as possible, is key. Critical strike chance is also important, but haste should be favored. Discipline Priests gain no extra bonus from Spirit the way Holy Priests do, so will often opt for items that have MP5 instead. A mod, such as Rating Buster, can help you determine whether the Spirit on an item will grant more MP5 than an item with MP5 and no Spirit. Again, hit rating serves no purpose.

Gearing a Shadow Priest

Shadow Priests get a lot of benefit from Spirit and Critical Strike rating. Like any caster, Spellpower is the stat behind their damage, but the other two listed here add much to the class. The one important thing to remember is that, as a DPS Caster, you need a lot of hit rating. In order to hit a boss level mob as much as game mechanics allow, you need 17% additional chance to hit. You can get this through talents and debuffs offered by other classes, but you must ensure that you will always have that 17% chance. For this reason, a lot of DPS-oriented cloth gear has hit rating - and you should pick it up.

PvP Gear

Priest in full Season 2 PvP Gear

It is much easier to gear your Priest for PvP than for PvE, but that doesn’t mean having the right gear is any less important. Unfortunately the only way to get good PvP gear is - you guessed it - through doing PvP. And, before you have good gear you’re going to spend the majority of your time in any battleground (or arena if you’re feeling particularly foolish) dead.

Doing battlegrounds awards Honor, which can be spent to purchase Epic non-set PvP gear, like boots, belts, bracers, cloaks, rings, and necklaces. These items are from the Deadly Gladiator or Furious Gladiator sets. Head, Chest, Legs, Gloves, and Weapons are also available, but they also require an arena rating to purchase. Additional Honor can be gained from doing the daily Call to Arms! quest that is offered in your faction’s PvP area of Dalaran. You can turn in a Mark of Honor from each battleground to gain additional honor, with the quest Concerted Efforts (A) / For Great Honor (H).

Wintergrasp offers yet another way to earn Honor and PvP gear. Stone Keeper’s Shards can be earned from completing the quests offered in Wintergrasp. They can also be picked up off of Northrend dungeon bosses while your faction is in control of Wintergrasp. With them you can purchase a variety of PvP items, like resilence gems and patterns and shoulder enchants. You can also purchase Commendations, one of which gives you 2000 honor upon use. Additionally, when you compete in a Wintergrasp battle you earn Wintergrasp marks of honor - 3 if you win, and 1 if you lose. These marks can be used to purchase epic Helms, Boots, Chests, Belts, and Trinkets. Of course, you gain massive amounts of honor by killing off opponents during the battle.

Once you have some decent PvP gear, you’ll be able to do fairly well in rated arena matches. The gear you can get from having a high arena rating is the best PvP gear in the game. Furious Gladiator Helms, Chests, Legs, Gloves, and Weapons are only purchasable with arena points, and require a very high personal and team rating.

Enchants

81 Spellpower to Staff (Courtesy of WoWhead.com)

A great way to give your current gear situation a boost is through enchants. There is some kind of enchant or item enhancement available for nearly every equipable item. Let’s look at good Priest enchants and where to find them.

Head

Arcanum of Blissful Mending - Spellpower and MP5 head enchant, sold by the Wyrmrest Accord quartermaster. Requires Revered reputation.

Arcanum of Burning Mysteries - Spellpower and Critical Strike Rating head enchant, sold by the Kirin Tor quartermaster. Requires Revered reputation.

Shoulder

If you’re not a Scribe (Inscription), the only place to get shoulder enchants is from the Sons of Hodir, in the Storm Peaks. The Lesser or Greater Inscription of the Crag gives Spellpower and MP5, and the Lesser or Greater Inscription of the Storm gives Spellpower and Critical Strike Rating.

Chest

Powerful Stats or Super Stats

Cloak

Speed or Greater Speed

Bracer

Greater Spellpower or Superior Spellpower.

Gloves

Major Spellpower or Exceptional Spellpower

Belt

Add a gem slot with an Eternal Belt Buckle

Legs

Brilliant Spellthread

Boots

Greater Spirit for Healers, and Icewalker for Shadow Priests

Rings

Enchanters can put +19 Spellpower on their own rings.

Weapon

Mighty Spellpower or Enchant Staff: Greater Spellpower

This post is part of the series: WoW Level 80 Raiding Guide

I dinged level 80: Now what? Preparing for raiding with various classes in World of Warcraft.

  1. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for Mage
  2. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Paladin
  3. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for Warlock
  4. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Shaman
  5. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Death Knight
  6. I Dinged Level 80: Now What? Preparing for Raiding: Heroics, Enchants, and more for the Priest