WoW Classic Level 29 Priest Twink Guide

Likely the biggest workhorses of any of the World of Warcraft classes, Priests are, none the less, a fun and challenging class to play.  In PvP, Priests are relied upon heavily for their healing ability, as they are thought by any to be the best Healer in the game.  They have some minor talents at DPS as well, but are far more potent when supporting others in a group, or Arena team.  If you enjoy aiding allies and being there to save your friends at the last second, the Priest is a great choice for you.

Contents

• Races:  Which races can play as Priests and which race’s traits and racial spells are the best for that class?
• Professions:  Which professions should a level 29 Priest use and what are the benefits to them for a Twink?
• Spells and Abilities:  What spells are at a level 29 Priest’s disposal and how can they be best employed in PvP?
• Talents:  Which talent builds are viable for a PvP Priest at level 29?
• Gear:  What is the Best in Slot (BiS) gear for a level 29 Priest and how can you get it?
• Enchantments:  Which enchantments should you get for your Priest’s gear?
• Buffs:  What spells, scrolls, elixirs, food and other consumables are the most useful to a level 29 Twink Priest?

Races

While there aren’t as many races to choose from as some other classes, Priests do offer a unique advantage outside of their normal allotment of spells and abilities.  Unlike any of the other classes in World of Warcraft, Priests gain special racial priest spells.  These spells are in addition to the normal traits that all classes gain from their race.

What follows is a short description of each race available to the Priest class, along with the racial traits of that race that are useful to a Priest and the special Priest spells for each race.  If you would like a more detailed description of all of the playable races in WoW, click here.

Alliance

• Dwarf:  Only two of the standard racial traits for dwarves are particularly useful to a Priest, those being Stoneformand Frost Resistance.  The former is a fantastic short term buff that negates Bleed, Poison and Disease, while also giving a slight armor increase.  The latter is a pretty generally useful boon that can stop some of the damage from Mages and Hunters.  Find Treasure is useful to any class, so it is worth a mention.  Desperate Prayer is the racial spell that dwarves have access to at this level and it’s phenomenal, as it heals for almost as much as Heal, which is your best healing spell!  Dwarves also have access to the spell Fear Ward, which drastically increases their usefulness in PvP
• Human:  Humans likely have the most racial traits useful to a Priest, though other races might have moreuseful ones.  Diplomacy is good for helping with that WSG (Warsong Gulch) rep to get some of your BiS gear.  Having an edge over Rogues, whose first order of business is usually to find and kill the Priest, is always a good thing, so Perception is helpful.  The Human Spirit gives a solid buff to mana and health regen and is useful to any class, especially a Priest.  While it might seem of paltry benefit, Mace Specialization shouldn’t be ignored.  You can attack with a weapon for a reason – sometimes it’s all you have left and that minor percentage increase in skill might mean the difference between life and the graveyard.  Like Dwarves, Humans also possess Desperate Prayer, but at level 20, they also gain the use of Feedback, which is helpful in countering other Casters.
• Night Elf:  Nature Resistanceis always good, because it negates lightning and poison damage, which is helpful again Druids, Hunters, Rogues and While Quickness might not seem all that valuable, every little bit helps and even a miniscule chance to completely negate damage is worth considering.  Here’s where an interesting point comes in that most people don’t consider about Night Elves. Wisp Spirit lets you travel to your corpse a lot faster than other classes, while Shadowmeld offers limited stealth while not moving and allows you to eat and drink while stealthed.  These two things, if properly implemented, can allow the Night Elf Priest to bring an entire party back from the dead, if they are cunning and cautious.  Another great ability, only available to Night Elf Priests, is Starshards, which is the most damaging Priest spell at this level.  Nightelves also gain Elune’s Grace, which – when coupled with Quickness, takes your chance to dodge to 11% and that ain’t bad.

Horde

• Troll:  At this level, trolls jump from being one of the worst choices for a Priest, to one of the best. Why?  Shadowguard.   This spell instantly damages anyone trying to damage you for a significant amount, damages Casters, melee combatants and ranged attackers equally and lasts for 10 minutes.  It also generates no threat, which is pointless in PvP, but still!  Regeneration is a great trait for its obvious survival benefit and is the Troll’s main bonus.   Hex of Weakness is a decent DeBuff, especially if your enemies have weak Healing.  Beast Slaying may be somewhat useful against Hunter Pets, or Druids in their animal forms, but most of the time it is useless in PvP.
• Undead: Cannibalize is a pretty nice, weak but free bandage that’s useful at the end of a fight, but since you can already heal a lot and you will have bandages…it’s probably just ok.  Shadow Resistance will help against Warlocks and other Priests as well.  Probably the best racial ability that the Undead possess and definitely one of the best racial traits for PvP, Will of the Forsaken is a great nope button for any obnoxious fear effects used against you.  Touch of Weakness is one of the racial spells for an undead and it is good, but Devouring Plague the other and it is oh so much better.  The fact that it heals you while damaging your enemies is delicious too.

If the choice of which race was best were not obvious in the previous bracket, it’s even less so now.  With the addition of really handy magical spells, all of your choices here have gotten more attractive.  Dwarves now can counter their own CC (Crowd Control) and help out their allies to boot. Humans and Trolls now have a way to return an opponent’s damage in kind and the Undead are somehow more useful.  Still though, for sheer number of abilities helpful to a Priest, it’s likely the Undead.  Then again, your choice is likely going to be centered around what race/faction your main is.  So take your time here and make this choice carefully.

Or just play as the pretty Nightelf, cause their pretty.  It’s whatever. 

Professions

There are a lot of professions to choose from, which can make deciding which ones to go with hard.  Especially when considering that in Classic WoW, Professions do not give stat buffs at all.  Fortunately, one of the coolest professions is also an absolute necessity for a Twink of any class.  Engineering.  There are a plethora of gadgets, devices and bombs that are extremely useful within Battlegrounds and you won’t want to miss out on them.

While Engineering is a necessity, you’re other Profession is also important.  Which ones you’ll be interested in will largely depend on your class.

What follows is a description of each of the Professions that should be of interest to a level 29 Twink Priest and why.

Engineering

For any Twink, at almost any level, Engineering is an absolute must.  Between the CC benefits of certain bombs like the Mithril Frag Bomb (the stun effect of which can work against even level 60 characters), to the utility of items like the Parachute Cloak and the clear advantage of devices like the Discombobulator Ray, there are some clear benefits to be had.

There are also some items from the lower tier of Engineering that are still amazing at this level.  The Ornate Spyglass allows you to spy on your enemies and is particularly useful in Battlegrounds (BG).  There are also really great support items, like the Minor Recombobulator which counters the CC effects of the Mage’s Polymorph spell.  While there are some more damaging bombs, the Explosive Sheep is unique in that it guards you until an enemy is detected before charging off and exploding.  This can be a great early warning system for when rogue come out of stealth, or just for when you didn’t notice that one foe get too close.

Enchanting

Enchanting is probably the best choice for players who are not supporting their Twink with another character.  It has few expensive reagents that must be truly gathered, most being products of disenchanting items you are already likely to pick up.  It also offers lucrative selling opportunities with the many materials you will acquire from breaking down all of the Green and Blue items you do not need.  Of which there will be many.  Being a clothie, the amount of items that you pick up that you can use is much smaller than the amount of items you can’t.  Those items usually get sold, but if you can disenchant them, the materials derived from them are usually worth more than the item itself.  It can also offset the cost of getting your own enchantments some, as higher level enchanters are sometimes on the lookout for lower level materials.

Alchemy

If you are being supplied herbs and reagents by another character, Alchemy can be an extremely useful Profession to endeavor upon.  The ability to simply create the many potions and elixirs that offer decided advantages in PvP at this bracket, instead of having to go shop for them, almost pays for itself.  Alchemy is of particular use to Priests, as it gives easy and early access to Healing and Mana potions.  It can also be a great way to make money, especially if the reagents and materials can be acquired cheaply.

Other Professions

If you are being funded by another character, and you should be, the gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning) should be avoided, because they are mostly good for earning money, which you wouldn’t need as much of.  The only other profession useful to a Twink Priest is Tailoring and its usefulness is slim at best compared to Alchemy or Enchanting, because none of your BiS gear is acquired through Tailoring.

Secondary Skills

Cooking:  Cooking has but one benefit to any Twink at any level bracket.  The Well Fed Buff.  The food that offers the highest possible Well Fed bonus at this level is Soothing Turtle Bisque, which gives a +8 bonus.  You can get the recipe to cook these food from Kelsey Yance in Booty Bay.  Some players may wish to go for the Giant Clam Scorcho, as it is acquired through a faction based cooking quest.  This is still viable, but is more complicated to acquire than the Turtle Bisque.  The choice is, of course, yours.

First Aid:  First Aid might seem pointless to a Priest, but you are going to run out of Mana eventually and when you do, it’ll be nice to be able to still be useful.  The only thing to worry about here is to get your First Aid maxed as high as it will go, so that you can use the Heavy Runecloth Bandage, which can heal you almost completely full with just one bandage.  To do this, you will need the three books Expert First Aid – Under Wraps, Manual: Heavy Silk Bandage and Manual: Mageweave Bandage.  The only trouble is that, because you still can’t get your Secondary Skills up to 300 yet, you’ll have to find someone to craft the bandages for you.  Alternatively, you could simply purchase them off of the AH.

Fishing:  This skill is not as important at this level bracket, but it’s still a great way to increase your income, especially while you’re bored and waiting around near some water.  Take any opportunity you can to fish, because each time you fish is a chance to catch a rare fish that can earn you some good. 

Spells and Abilities

At level 29, Priests have an impressive array of spells at their disposal.  Not all of them are useful in PvP, but many are.  Priest spells break down into three basic groups:  Healing Spells, Offensive/Damaging Spells and Utility/Support spells.  Keep in mind that, being the best at Healing, while you will likely be focusing on using healing spells most of the time, you will use all of your spells at some point.  So familiarize yourself with all of your capabilities.  What follows is a brief description of the spells in each of these categories that are pertinent to a Twink Priest.

Healing Spells

These are all spells which in some way restore health to the target.  They will also be the abilities which you will use the most often in PvP.

• Renew:  This is probably the spell that you will use the most, when your party members are only slightly dead.  It’s a good spell to use when moving from one spot to another, or kiting, but try not to over heal with it.
• Lesser Heal:  While slightly more mana efficient that many of your other healing spells, is almost useless at this level, because it doesn’t ever get upgraded after rank 3. It’s mentioned here for its situational usefulness, but should largely be replaced by Flash Heal..
• Heal:  Your most efficient healing spell and your most powerful.  If you combine it with Divine Fury it is easily the most effective way to burst heal at this level at all.
• Resurrection:  This is the best, most mana efficient spell for bringing a dead party member back to life, especially at this level.  It uses less of you mana pool and restores more health and mana than any other spell from any other class.
• Flash Heal: This spell, while not being as mana efficient as Lesser Heal, casts much faster and heals for more.  It will likely be your minute to minute workhorse at level 29.

Damaging Spells

While you’ll largely be staying out of the actual fighting and sticking to healing most of the time, you might find these spells useful in PvP from time to time.  If a foe is close to dead, it might be more worth it to help drop them before they pop a potion – or worse, kill your tank and pop a potion.  Besides, if any of your allies die, you can just resurrect them!

• Mind Blast:  While not a spell you want to use outside of PvP very much, when engaging other playersthis is a great spell to chain with Smite, as it’s casting time is far lower.  It also has a higher base damage output. Pop one off after a Smite to maximize your damage.  Oh, and if you max out Blackout, this too has a chance to offer some CC
• Smite:  The main offensive spell of the Priest, at this level at least.  Does a decent amount of damage for the mana cost and that’s pretty much it, really.  Remember to only even start using this if you have to, or you are sureyour help will drop the target quickly.
• Shadow Word: Pain:  Thisspell is a much better choice for an out the gate attack to support melee classes.  It does far more damage than either of your other offensive spells, but more importantly, if it has been augmented with the Blackout talent, it suddenly becomes a minor CC ability.
• Holy Fire: This is a nice secondary DoT (Damage Over Time) to compliment Shadow Word: Pain and it is often wise to pair them together for maximum damage output.
• Mana Burn: This spell may actually be used more than you expect.  The ability to sap an opponent’s Mana while also doing damage to them is rare and incredibly useful, especially in PvP.
• Mind Flay: Mind Flay is a fantastic damaging spell with a minor CC effect attached.  Never under estimate the usefulness of slowing your enemies.  It’s also especially effective, as few players are expecting the Priest to use, or even have such abilities.

Utility Spells

These spells do everything that the first two groups of spells don’t.  Buffs, CC and removing DeBuffs are all to be had in this group of incredibly useful spells.

• Power Word: Fortitude:  The most commonly overlook (or perhaps taken for granted) buff in the game.  PWF is a spell that benefits literally every recipient of it, because at the end of the day, no one ever died from more health.
• Power Word: Shield:  Somewhat situational, but you will likely find yourself in a situation where it is useful at some point.  This is great for when a fellow caster is taking damage and can’t quite get off that AoE (Area of Effect) spell that will solve everyone’s problems.  It’s also useful for protecting a close to death character, so that you have time to heal them.
• Cure Disease:  Another self explanatory spell.  This one is going to be really situational, because almost no class has any disease abilities before level 20.  So, outside some rare Hunter Pet abilities, it’s not going to see much use.
• Inner Fire:  This is a great buff that offers significant protection and has a unique duration in that it is both timed, but also based on how much you get hit.  Renew it maybe once during a lengthy fight and always between fights and you should be never run out of charges.
• Psychic Scream: Probably the best CC in the game for PvP.  Use at opportune moments during a fight to get everyone off of your party, so you can throw down some fast healing, or when you are overwhelmed, so that you can retreat to a safe zone, or hiding place.  This works especially well for Night Elves who can let loose a scream, run away a good distance and then Shadowmeld to eat, drink and regroup.
• Dispel Magic: This spell is infinitely useful and can really level the playing field, even against your betters.  Removing buffs from opponents is important, but negating their debuffs may be more so, because you not only make their casting of it useless, you also made them waste the mana to cast it in the first place.  Where’s your buff now!?
• Mind Vision: Easily the most useful utility spell for PvP in the Priest’s pocket, Mind Vision literally allows you to see through the eyes of the target for 1 minute.  This spell can target enemies, or allies and is one of the best spells in the entire game for scouting a BG.

Don’t forget about the racial spells that were discussed earlier, they can be extremely useful when used in the right situation.  Playing a Priest is a lot like playing any other caster, in that it often boils down to mana efficiency.  You have a number of different healing spells for a reason.  Using the less powerful ones early and reserving high mana cost spells for when you’re in trouble is important.  Don’t forget that you also have multiple ranks of healing spells as well and that you might want to map them all.  Having a lower cost, lower output heal in your back pocket can be very useful.  This is why Lesser Heal, while being a bit outclassed, is still useful.

Knowing when to heal, when to attack…and when to completely bail is also crucial.  It’s better to run away and hide and come back to Resurrect everyone than it is to have a party wipe.

Talents

For a Priest in PvP, just like a Priest in everything else, is going to find that they are most desirable as a main Healer.  That being said, there are some schools of thought that suggest that a Shadow Priest can be very viable in both BGs and the Arena.  This Guide makes no assumptions about what spec a given player might want to endeavor upon, but there are definitely some talents that should be avoided completely, as they are of no use in PvP at all.

What follows is a short breakdown of the short list of different specs that are best for a level 29 Twink Priest.

Pure Healing

This is the primary healing build for PvP that you will want if you are the primary Healer for your Arena team or battle group.

Holy

Healing Focus 2/2

Improved Renew 3/3

Holy Specialization 5/5

Divine Fury 5/5

Inspiration 2/3

Improved Healing 3/3

Support Healing

This is more of a support spec that offers a balance of mana efficiency, buff bonus and healing.

Discipline                                                                                            Holy

Unbreakable Will  5/5                                                                     Healing Focus 2/2

Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2/2                                    Improved Renew 3/3

Improved Power Word: Shield  2/3

Martyrdom 2/2

Inner Focus 1/1

Meditation 3/3

Shadow CC

This build is for players interested more in the versatility of increased crowd control, than in maximizing their Healing.

Shadow

Blackout 5/5

Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2/2

Shadow Focus 5/5

Improved Psychic Scream 2/2

Mind Flay 1/1

Shadow Reach 3/3

Shadow Weaving 2/5

These are by no means the only specs for a Priest, but they are the ones streamlined for a Twink Priest.  If you’re interested in seeing exactly what the Priest has to offer in the way of talents, or perhaps you want to try your hand at your own build, check out the Priest Talent Calculator and see what is available for yourself!

BiS Gear

Head

• What: Holy Shroud
• Where: Prince Raze, Ashenvale 0.005%

 Neck

• What: Crystal Starfire Medallion
• Where: Vengeful Ancient, Stonetalon Mountains 1.1494%

Shoulders

• What: Berylline Pads
• Where: A Vengeful Fate (Horde)/ The Crone of the Kraul (Alliance)

 Cloak

• What: Caretaker’s Cape
• Where: Sold by – Rutherford Twing (Horde) /Samuel Hawke (Alliance) – Arathi Highlands  (Requires Honored with AB factions)

 Chest

• What: Beguiler Robes
• Where: Scarlet Conjuror, Scarlet Monestary 0.08%

Bracers

• What: Gallan Cuffs (Horde)/Arcane Runed Bracers
• Where: Quests:  To Steal From Thieves / Wanted! Marez Cowl

 Gloves

• What: Hotshot Pilot’s Gloves
• Where: Dark Iron Agent, Gnomeregan 0.04%

 Belt

• What: Defiler’s Cloth Girdle/Highlander’s Cloth Girdle
• Where: Sold by – Rutherford Twing (Horde) /Samuel Hawke (Alliance) – Arathi Highlands  (Requires Honored with AB factions)

Legs

• What: Elder’s Pants (of the Eagle)
• Where: Giggler, Desolace – or – Vile Sting, Thousand Needles both at 1.111%

 Boots

• What: Defiler’s Cloth Boots / Highlander’s Cloth Boots
• Where: Rutherford Twing (Horde) /Samuel Hawke (Alliance) – Arathi Highlands  (Requires Honored with AB factions)

 Ring One

• What: Lorekeeper’s Ring / Advisor’s Ring
• Where: Sold by – Illiyana Moonblaze / Kelm Hargunth  (Requires Honored with WSG)

 Ring Two

• What: Plains Ring
• Where: Rotting Agam’ar, Razorfen Kraul 0.3218%

Trinket One

• What: Insignia of the Alliance/Insignia of the Horde
• Where: Sold by – Officer Areyn(Stormwind)/Sergeant Ba’sha (Orgrimmar)

Trinket Two

• What: Defiler’s Talisman(Horde)/ Talisman of Arathor (Alliance)
• Where: Sold by – Rutherford Twing (Horde) /Samuel Hawke (Alliance) – Arathi Highlands  (Requires Honored with AB factions)

Main Hand

• What: Death Speaker Scepter
• Where: Death Speaker Jargba, Razorfen Kraul 33%

Off-Hand

• What: Omega Orb
• Where: Compendium of the Fallen

Two Handed

• What:  Healing – Lorekeeper’s Staff (Alliance) / Advisor’s Staff (Horde) / For Shadow – Staff of the Shade  / For Either Acrobatic Staff (of Healing/Shadow Wrath)
• Where:  Illiyana Moonblaze / Kelm Hargunth / Rotting Agam’ar, Razorfen Kraul 0.12%  / Vile Sting, Thousand Needles 1.111%

Wand

• What: Starfaller / Gravestone Scepter
• Where: Prince Raze, Ashenvale 0.005% / Quest – Blackfathom Villainy(Alliance), Blackfathom Villainy (Horde)

Enchantments

The enchantments for your gear are almost as important as the gear itself.  Make sure to get all of the best enchantments for each gear slot item that can be enchanted.  If your Main is not an enchanter, then acquiring these enchantments will be expensive, so keep that in mind.  Here are all of the best enchantments for a level X Twink

• Head:  Arcanum of Focus
• Shoulders:  Resilience of the Scourge
• Cloak:  Formula: Enchant Cloak – Greater Resistance/Formula: Enchant Cloak – Superior Defense
• Chest:  Enchant Chest – Greater Stats
• Bracers:  Formula: Enchant Bracer – Healing
• Gloves:  Formula: Enchant Gloves – Healing Power
• Legs:  Arcanum of Focus
• Boots:  Formula: Enchant Boots – Greater Stamina/Enchant Boots – Minor Speed
• Weapons:  Formula: Enchant Weapon – Healing Power(Either Main Hand, or Two Handed, or both)

Buffs

There are a lot of great consumables out there that are of use to a Twink Priest.  Make sure you pick them all up.

Elixirs

You might not find as much use for the great majority of elixirs, as there are no Battle Elixirs that Priest Twinks will find helpful, but the ones you can use are very useful.

• Elixir of Fortitude:  Everybody likes more health, especially squishy Mages
• Mighty Troll’s Blood Potion:  This can help give your healer a bit of a breather, or swiftly bring you back from the brink, if the Healer is lost.
• Elixir of Greater Defense:  The huge jump in armor this gives is like having two more sets of robes on.  Definitelyuse it if you have it

Potions

It might seem redundant to have healing and aid potions on hand, but rest assured, you will need them and when you do, you’ll want a surplus of them.

• Minor Magic Resistance Potion:  Makes other caster’s colored light hurt you less, while you are trying to make colored light hurt your friends less.
• Lesser Invisibility Potion:  Very useful and often unexpected.  Turn the tables on a sneaky Rogue or Druid
• Swiftness Potion:  Use this when your party has gone to crud and you need to get out of town fast, so you can return and rez everyone later.
• Jungle RemedyEven though you’ll have to farm these, the benefit of curing your own disease and poison is worth the work.
• Minor Rejuvenation Potion:  Pop one of these when you are taking damage, it’ll let you worry about your own health less.
• Greater Healing Potion:  Again, you can already heal, but other people can’t always heal. Not to mention, even the best of healers have run out of mana at least once.
• Mana Potion:  Speaking of running out of mana.

Scrolls

Not always the best choice, especially if better party buffs are to be had, but scrolls can be a big help in providing buffs that the Elixirs and allies that you have don’t provide.  Important fact: Never use a Scroll of Stamina.  Your own stamina buff is much better and cheaper, only costing mana.

• Scroll of Intellect:  There are definitely better intellect buffs to be had, but if those are not available and this is, why not use it?
• Scroll of Protection II:  A good stand by for the Elixir of Defense and a more accessible armor buff for a shorter term.  Use either when you don’t have the EoD, or when you don’t want to waste it.
• Scroll of Spirit II:  There aren’t a lot of spirit buffs and this one is better than a campfire.  Might get replaced by Mark of the Wild if a Druid buffs you, but that’s better anyway.

Team Buffs

Power Word: Fortitude  should always be on, end of story and all other classes want it as well and the health it gives.  Arcane Intellect is also extremely useful, as it increases your Mana pool.  Mark of the Wild raises all of your stats a little and stacks with most buffs.  Blessing of Kings does kind of the same thing as Mark of the Wild, only a bit better and only for Alliance players.

Other Consumables

• Minor Wizard Oil:  Like all Imbues, this stacks with whatever enchantment you have on your weapon, so you’d be foolish to not use it if you have it.
• Rumsey Rum Black Label:  Being a little tipsy is a small price to pay for an extra 15 Stamina
• Minor Wizard Oil:  These things are great, because imbues will stack with weapon enchantments.  So if you’re a caster, get this on your weapon.

Now you know all there is to know about how to build the best level 29 Twink Priest.  You can now choose a party out of the dozens that will want a Priest as a Healer.  Or, perhaps you already have friends who have been desperately pestering you to play a Priest.  Rest assured that this is also because they need a Healer.  Pretty much everyone is going to expect you to heal, it’s kind of a thing.

Have fun!