If you are someone who has ever tried to put together a raiding group, or if you have ever been spammed with the message “Looking for Healer,” on your capital city’s trade channel, you know what a valuable resource a priest can be. The priest is World of Warcraft’s main healing class, and the higher the level, the more popular they are going to be. One of the reasons for this is that priests are often perceived as one of the most difficult classes to level in the game, and it is true that leveling them takes a different strategy than leveling, say, a warlock or a hunter. If you are set on getting a priest to the end game, though, there are a number of things to keep in mind.

In the first place, consider where you want to put your talent points. The talent tree that you build can be an important part of how quickly you proceed. For instance, when you are looking at how to level quickly, you will discover that the shadow talent tree is likely going to be your best bet. If you are planning to solo, you will find that this is an important thing for you to consider. While you will not be as valuable in group content, you can still play an important supporting role in end game content.

If you’re looking to be a classic healer instead you’ll want to focus on the Holy talent tree. When you go through the Holy talent tree you’ll be able to gain amazing healing power, as well as lower mana and lower casting and cooldown times. When it comes to parties a Holy Priest is extremely important.

If you want to develop some target or single heals rather than group healing spells try the Discipline skill tree. This will raise your mana and it can be a happy medium between the Holy and Shadow skill trees. Discipline Priests use aspects of both Holy and Shadow and they are a good way to survive your leveling.

Keep in mind that you want to consider your options in terms of trades when you start to level up the priest character you’ve chosen to play. Tailoring would be perfect for a priest, as you can make your own armor, saving you gold. This will help you out a lot. With that said, cooking is also helpful, if only for the buffs you can receive.

Something else that can help you keep you on track when it comes to leveling a priest is going to be the concept of re-speccing. One handy trick that many priests use is to to level their toons is to level until the late thirties as a shadow priest and then they change to something else. This is when you are going to start getting more requests to go on group instances, and the first re-speccing is even fairly inexpensive.

When you are leveling your priest, remember that an Alliance leveling guide can help you stay on track. Use all the resources you can to get the toon you are looking for!

Mike Miller’s 1-80 WOW guide is the number one guide to reach end of game content as quickly as possible. You can also check the alliance leveling guide page for extra tips.