by Fox Van Allen

In this latest installment of the shadow priest leveling guide, we’re going to get you from level 20 to level 40. Why level 40? Because level 40 is when the game completely changes. We get Shadowform. We do more damage. We take less damage. We heal ourselves through causing pain. We’re able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively. We become the gnome-destroying (and eating) machines we always knew we could be.

In short, at level 40, priests become awesome.

The spells: levels 20 through 40

Throughout the leveling process, you’ll want to visiting your trainer regularly. You can train to improve the strength of Mind Blast every sixth level (22, 28, 34, etc.) through the leveling process, and similarly improve the strength of Smite every eighth level (22, 30, 38). Beyond that, you’ll also learn the following new spells at key milestones.
Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

This week, we’re digging a bit deeper, getting to 20, rocking some instances and doing some PvP — that’s right, life as a priest is finally ready to begin.

Before you jump back into killing stuff …

When we last left off, our baby priest had just hit level 10, the first major milestone to the end game. World of Warcraft isn’t just about the wanton slaughter of the innocent. It’s also about broiling meats and sewing dresses. You’re allowed to grab two main professions on each character. They’re a terrific source of buffs and sellable materials.

A lot of you will probably pick your professions as soon as you can (level 5), but if you haven’t yet, this is definitely the time. If you’ve already grabbed your professions, now would be a good time to make sure you’re up to speed. As a good rule of thumb, you should increase your skill in each profession by five points per level. (That is, when you hit level 10, you’ll be well up to speed if your professional skills are all at 50 or better.)

Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

It’s time to break the rules. We’re going to be our own DPS, our own healer and our own tank. It isn’t going to be easy, but if we play it smart, we’re going to be able to flatten some Burning Crusade content that a whole bunch of you have probably never even seen.

The talent build

Before we head into difficult content alone, we need to do a quick check of our talents and glyphs to make sure we only take along the best of the best. (This would be the point where you enjoy a self-satisfied breath of relief that you shelled out the 1,000 gold to dual spec.) There are probably about a hundred different ways you could design an instance-soloing spec, and there’s no perfect, one-size-fits-all option. Still, there are a few basic ideas you should keep in mind:
Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

The Lich King

For your raid group to down the Lich King, you’ll need good synergy — the tanks, the healers and even the DPS. Everyone needs to be on the ball. After all, this isn’t Wrath of Lord Marrowgar you’re playing, this is Wrath of the Lich King. The dude is the final boss of the expansion, and he acts like it.

As if you needed any indication as to how epic this battle would be, when you enter The Frozen Throne, the Lich King reacts by … doing nothing. That’s how badass he is. An army of heroes invades his inner sanctum, and it’s like, “Yeah, what? I’ll kill you all when I’m damn good and ready to. Go ahead, eat that Fish Feast. I’ll just sit here and stare at Bolvar Fordragon a little bit longer. I got time.”

Take a moment to savor the epicness of the encounter, sit through some painfully tedious roleplay and get that trigger finger twitching. We’re about to meet the man who sold 11 million World of Warcraft subscriptions, and we’re going to melt his face clean off.

Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

My shadow priest will always be my first love, but since he’s already a Kingslayer, I’ve been playing more and more with Shammyfox. She’s a sassy little Draenei shaman who can Lava Burst with the best of ‘em. Or, at least, with the best of ‘em who have recently hit level 80.

Her gear right now isn’t the best, but I’d like to continue to progress her through the end game. Shadow priests are equipping different gear, of course, but the main challenge remains the same. It’s not easy to figure out what to buy when to get the most value out of your emblems — and your play time.

If you hit 80 shortly after the Wrath release, you’d have run regular instances to gear up for heroics, so you could gather enough blues and purples to take on Naxx, where you’d get gear to take on Ulduar, where you’d get gear to take on Trial of the Crusader and Trial of the Grand Crusader. Yeah, yeah, grandpa, we get it. You walked through ten feet of snow 87 miles a day to get to school. The old way is passé. We bypass old raid content with emblems and supercharged heroics now — great news for the casual player or dedicated altaholic. But how do you get the most out of those hard-earned emblems and get ICC ready without even stepping foot inside a raid instance?

Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

As time goes on, more and more of you will find yourself in a similar situation: You’re exceptionally geared. You know your class and your spell priorities. You churn out rockin’ DPS. You keep getting better, but the tanks and healers you’re thrown into random groups with don’t.

The random dungeon finder relies a lot on luck. Sometimes, you wind up with a bad tank. Sometimes, you wind up with a bad healer. Worst-case scenario, both are going to stink. Unless you like running back to your corpse, these situations require you to use your brain and adjust your play.

Tankfails

I’ve been cheating on you, my dear shadow priest followers, with a level 67 elemental shaman. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to play around in Outland, and it’s nice to revisit every now and again. I’ve been refamiliarizing myself with the instances there, especially in Hellfire Peninsula.

Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

When I was leveling my shadow priest, I wasn’t thinking much about the end game. I grabbed a pair of professions as soon as the game would let me: Tailoring and Enchanting. They served me well through leveling. But a few months into level 80, I got to thinking — did I make the right choice?

I’m not gold capped, I’ll never be gold capped, and I have no desire to be a Warcraft billionaire. A lot of people take professions just to make money, but I’m more than happy with keeping enough cash on hand to pay for my repairs, buy some gems or potions when I need to, and buy cold weather flying for all my alts.

When I choose professions, it’s for the leveling and end-game benefit. A little cash along the way is always great (and really, you can make a little bit of cash with most of your professions regardless), but many professions will actually wind up increasing your end-game DPS. And really, isn’t that what us shadow priests really care about in the end?

Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

Valithria Dreamwalker

Let me start by saying that Valithria Dreamwalker is a creative “fight.” The goal is not to take a boss down to 0% health, but to heal one from 50% to 100%. It’s a great chance for healers to shine and prove their worth much the same way DPS battle it out on the meters.

For DPS though, let’s be honest — this one is kinda forgettably boring. Which is fitting, since Valithria is a forgettable, boring character. For DPS, there’s only one phase, and all we’re really doing is attacking the adds that spawn at the left and right sides of the room. The most work that’s required is remembering your list of priorities — that is, what adds to down first.

Positioning

The center of the room works best, close to Valithria. This way, you can easily switch between the sides when there’s something to be attacked with minimal walking time.
Read the rest of this entry »

by Fox Van Allen

The Blood Prince Council

Your mission: Target switch with reckless abandon! Run like hell from giant balls of fire! And for the love of C’Thun, stay alive!

The one cardinal rule of Warcraft: What gets killed never stays dead. Considering that Prince Taldaram, Prince Keleseth, and Prince Valanar were already dead to begin with, well… the fact that you’re facing them again shouldn’t be too surprising. (It also means Blizzard needs to make a couple fewer character models, a favorite gimmick around their office to be sure.)

Now, believe it or not, this one is pretty easy if you know what you’re doing. The enrage timer — ten minutes — is long enough that it should be a non-factor. This means the Blood Prince Council encounter is all about endurance, and endurance is what Shadow Priests do best. It won’t seem easy, because you’ll have about eighteen-thousand things going on in the room at once, but if you calm down and focus your attention where it needs to be — the few parts of this encounter that can kill an inattentive shadow priest — you should sail through this encounter so long as your teammates don’t mess it up for you.

Let’s start by breaking the encounter down piece by piece.

Read the rest of this entry »