Returning to "the game" - BC Priest/Mage Spec advice?
Long time lurker, first time poster. A friend turned me onto the Podcast and I really enjoy the show and site.
(with that out of the way)
Noticed that you have a nice little WoW community and instead of banging my head against the boards on IGN or the official forums I figured I might look for a little advice from a more mature group. 
I've been away from "the game" (wife's title for WoW) for about a year now after I found I simply couldn't devote time to the end game. BC brings back the good ol' questin' and lootin' that originally charmed me so I'm very tempted to pick it up and enjoy some of the new scenery. Problem is, I have no idea what I'm doing anymore. Seems that while I was gone they re-arranged some of the talent trees and, from what I understand, offered a free respec for certain classes.
So, I'm looking for some suggestions on how I might distribute my points -- specifically for my Priest as he's my primary, though any suggestions for a mage would be greatly appreciated as well. I would probably spend a a good amount of time soloing but would also like to make myself useful in instances.
Thanks in advance!
Welcome Jelob!
As a mage, I went with heavy frost and really like it. The water elemental is good when you get an unexpected add or just need the extra DPS. It also has it's own frost nova, which is good for crowd control. Additionally, with cold snap you can summon it twice in a row. If you're not into frost, this arcane/fire build has good utility with the slow debuff for groups and soloing. It's worth noting that arcane missile have been "fixed" and are viable damage dealer. Plus you'll get burst damage from presence of mind + arcane power.
Sorry, I don't have any advice for priests. Good luck though! BTW, what server are you on?
Xbox Live: Stilgar Black
I am by no means a Priest expert (highest I've gotten one is 25) but my friend plays priest exclusively (he actually has 3 priests at 60 or higher). This is his current spec at 65:
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=dVG0zhZfxt0frqbuZx
It's more of a leveling spec, with lightwell thrown in for elite soloing and 5-mans. He has incredible staying power and is one of the most effficient (and quick!) levelers I've seen, which is pretty amazing, considering he's a priest.
This build might not be for you. He's a pretty weird guy, and likes to be thinking about a lot of things at once while playing.
I, on the other hand, am full frost with my 65 Mage. Literally full frost. I may spec Arcane/Fire in the future just so I feel like I'm actually working, but more often than not I'm hurling frostbolts at people while watching TV.
XBox Live Gamertag: Warlockbert
I'll third the frost suggestion, though it's the only spec I've played with my mage (level 61 now, 2/0/50 spec, which is great for 1v1/boss fights but sucks for AoE), so my experience is pretty limited. It gives a decent amount of DPS, with great survivability. I found that it was pretty easy to solo level with, and the elemental is awesome for boss fights or hunting elites.
As for the priest, I just started one so I'm not real familiar with the specs.
IronClad Online: PurEvil
This is my build to 60: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=bVzZbZEMxzMxRhtVo
It's a solo-oriented grind build. Spirit Tap is the most important talent on there, and my gear is very Spirit-heavy. The plan is to run through greens (preferably humanoids) with Mind Flay and finishing with a wand, so when Spirit Tap kicks in, you get double mana regen. By the time you start on your next victim, you should be full health, full mana. It works like a charm. (Keep the highest damage wand you can.)
MechaSlinky wrote:
-on L4DThanks for the responses. Looks like frost is the way to go with the mage.
booty: I'm on Elune - pretty crowded sometimes. I've heard that I could move, though I'm not sure how that works. Most (if not all) of my old friends have long quit.
Chumpy_McChump: Thanks for the tips -- wands are in? If memory serves, I only have my old staff that was pretty terrible before the expansion, so I imagine it's wroth dirt now. Are they fairly easy to find in BC?
PS - What GUI add-ons are en vogue? Insomniax (sp?) still the king?
Just to throw in my own 2 cents, I've really enjoyed my weird build -> 5 / 45 / 3 .
Good single target dmg (esp with +crit gear, and rolling ignites), decent aoe (multiple aoe attacks: dragon's breath, blastwave, AE, etc), and some extra penetration / resistance lowering from the other trees.
Skriss: lvl 70 undead mage - Bloodhoof
Kyrator: lvl 63 night elf rogue - Blackhand
Thadryn: lvl 70 draenei mage - Blackhand
This Hubb's new priest build that I'm experimenting with: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=dxMhZfbtMfMzZAM0tb
I wanted to be able to solo but still be able to give some better-than-average healing in instances.
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
I like my elementalist build for my mage. Some of the frost tree talents are a bit of a throwaway, but the main objective was to get a bunch of slowing talents and end up with iceblock/cold snap. I do all my damage with the fire tree; with a combination of stacked improved scorch, ~400 +dmg, combustion, and ToEP/ZHC, I can pull off multiple fireball crits on cue that hit for around 2600-2800 (even more in the situation where the mob has less than 20% health (Molten Fury) and not including the ignite DOT that adds 40% more dmg). It's situational, and takes a little while to set up, but it's great against bosses in instances. If you do manage to pull aggro off the tank, that's when iceblock saves you.
I'll probably re-spec to more of a full fire build with dragon's breath once I get invisibility, but for right now this works nicely for me. Don't worry about getting your hands on trinkets either, there are several quest/rep rewards that are readily available and are almost as good as the ToEP or ZHC.
Xbox Live - fuzzybunny81
Hey Fuzzy, if you're not really using frost spells much, you should drop the 3/3 frost channeling and put that in shatter. You probably aren't even noticing the benefits of that talent, but you'd get an extra 30% chance to crit frozen targets, even with your fire spells.
I just think it would be more useful for ya.
IronClad Online: PurEvil
Excellent suggestions. The mage is going to be easier than the Priest simply because it's (the mage's) purpose is pretty clear. Frost looks like the most fun, so I'm gonna start with that.
I started with hubbinsd's "Jack-of-All-Trades" Priest build to get my feet wet, but may end up with something a little more like Chumpy_McChump's. From what I've seen, there's just not a whole lot of grouping going on so all the extra healing isn't doing me much good.
Anyway, thanks for the tips.
Woohoo! I win! (sorta
)
MechaSlinky wrote:
-on L4DTyrian Glad to see someone else does a build like this. This is my goal with Ningauble (12th level mage on Baeglon or however its spelled).
-Jayavarman
Blackhand: Beowoof, level 60 human fighter
Baelgun : Ningauble, level 12 Bloodelf mage
-Jayavarman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayavarman_VII
Well - for the mage: After 66 lvl as a deep fire mage I went deep frost. I doubt I'll go back. while the dmg is 20 % (or so) lower the other advantages of frost more than makes up for it. It's funny - it requires less effort to solo with frost. And at 65 you'll get a nice little boost.
-Xino
With victory comes a price, however.
Have you done much in the way of instances yet? Are you a capable healer?
My gear is sub-par to say the least with nearly everything that I've been rewarded or found being an upgrade. Is my outfit going to hold back the top potential of the build?
.. and lastly, with your full shadow spec, would you mind walking through what you would do during a solo pull?
Thanks for all the help (from everyone, really).
For the longest time, I was deep fire, because I had so much fire specific +dmg gear (Eye of Flame, flaming band of the owl, etc). Thanks to the expansion, I could easily switch over to frost and not suffer a penalty any longer.
Skriss: lvl 70 undead mage - Bloodhoof
Kyrator: lvl 63 night elf rogue - Blackhand
Thadryn: lvl 70 draenei mage - Blackhand
I am specced basically as a shadow priest. Two points only in Holy. I hit 28 last night in Razorfen. I dont think I've really had any trouble keeping up with the instance groups from a healing perspective, and so far its been great fun. Honestly, the shadow side of things is mainly for solo-ing and levelling, which is really important to me at this stage of the game, and it surely greases the wheels.
I've done SFK, WC, BFD and RFK instances so far and though I'm not specc'ed as a healer, its been pretty smooth sailing keeping the groups alive. I dont cast many offensive spells at all while churning through the instances though, a couple here and there with heavy use of my wands while watching the health bars. There will come a time later in the life of my priest that I'm sure I'll look at respecc'ing, as leveling becomes less of an issue, and I begin to eye more raids, but you can get by for sure as a healing shadow priest. Just to reassure you, I dont feel 'neutered' at all because of how I've allocated my talent points so far.
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
Note: my priest is currently at lvl 37; the extended parts of my spec are planned.
I've not had problems in the instances that I've run. Part of that may be the group that that character runs with -- two mages, two warlocks, and me. The "DPS Express" doesn't tend to run into a lot of problems, especially with the amount of crowd control that we have. That being said, I don't think that I'm too gimped on healing.
In terms of gear, I've twinked her a little bit, but seeing as I'm putting a premium on +spirit gear -- and no one else does -- even twinking had been pretty cheap to do. The AH tends to have big +spirit gear for fairly cheap. Good wands are fairly few and far between, unfortunately; make due with the best you can find/buy.
As to a typical pull:
Holy Fire (but could just as easily be Mind Blast)
Shadow Word: Pain, then run back to gain a little time while the spell countdown resets (if you turn 90 degrees, you can strafe away full speed, rather than backing up slowly)
[Vampiric Embrace if I feel like it - continue backing away]
Mind Flay
Mind Flay
Mind Flay
if even con mob, or you're taking a bunch of damage (which is when I'm more likely to use VE), Psychic Scream
Mind Flay until mob is ~25% health
wand until dead
You don't need to shield unless things go very wrong (though that could be an option instead of fearing, if there's a reason for it). Even con mobs generally require a fear; 2-3 levels below you won't. Humanoids work best, as they run at ~10% health, saving you a couple of hits. Extra Mind Blasts can be thrown in against particularly tough things.
I generally end fights at 70%+ health and 75%+ mana; by the time I've got my next target/Spirit Tap runs out, I'm at 90%+ health and full mana.
MechaSlinky wrote:
-on L4DOK - here's a first time priest question. Playing a blood elf priest that just hit level 20. Went to Silvermoon City and picked up the crapload of new skills. Was messing around on Thottbot and noticed these race-specifc priest spells (Elune's Grace, Feedback, etc). Are there any race specific priest talents for the Blood Elves? I haven't stumbled across a class quest yet.
Xbox Live: Trashie
From WoW Wiki:
Checked Allakazam, and you should have picked it up with the rest of your level 20 spells. There probably isn't a quest for it.
IronClad Online: PurEvil
They are the same as the undead ones.
Unfortunately, if I slash my wrist with my lightsaber it cauterizes instantly. - PurEvil on emo Star Wars plots.
Indeed. I checked that one and didn't see the racial requirement. Thanks.
Xbox Live: Trashie
well im about to start leveling my priest again (hunter is 2 bars from 70) so time to get the priest there. my priest is currently setup for raiding (healing and dicipline) and i got her to 60 without even using shadow. I might throw a few points in there just for kicks, but mostly going to be holy/dicipline. it may take me a bit longer to kill mobs solo, but i can usually find a willing mage / warrior to grind with. i can still kill 2 mobs at a time with my priest and they cant even break my PwS.
as far as wands go, the boe ones for lvl 60 are about 70 dps...and 65 boe's are about 95....i replaced my priest's purple wand before she even went to hellfire...I would just check the AH for a good wand...dont replace any other gear as the quest items are well worth earning. (i completed 3 quests now on my hunter that had "healing" mace rewards....aka +165 healing 1 hand mace) shadow gear still seems hard to come by though. just my 2 cents
*edit* forgot to add...insomniac (mod) will get your account banned...dont use it.
It does? How? Why?
Mercury's been in retrograde most of the week. It's like a full moon with a side of kicked-in-the-nuts. -- H.P. Lovesauce
it is an "unauthorized" mod. We had 4-5 accounts from guild get banned already :/