Discipline Priest Leveling Guide From 1 to 80 for WotLK Classic (2024)

Last updated on Jan 01, 2024 at 16:36by Abide2 comments

Welcome to our Wrath of the Lich King Discipline Priest leveling guide. Herewe will help guide you through your Discipline Priest's leveling journey towardLevel 80. Make sure to use the sliders shown down below to have the guide updateas you level up.

Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!

Level: 1

Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.

• Levels 10 to 12 — 3 points inSpirit Tap.
• Levels 13 to 17 — 5 points inHoly Specialization.
• Levels 18 to 22 — 5 points inDivine Fury.

Spirit Tap is great for Mana generationbetween fights. Holy Specialization is some good added crit,and Divine Fury is needed for the reduced cast time on Smite andHoly Fire.

• Levels 23 — 1 point inDesperate Prayer.
• Levels 24 & 25 — 2 points inHealing Focus.
• Levels 26 & 27 — 2 points inImproved Renew.
• Levels 28 & 29 — 2 points inSearing Light.

Desperate Prayer is a good emergencyheal. Healing Focus is useful for emergency heals when you arebeing attacked. Lastly, Searing Light is a great damage boost toSmite, Holy Fire, and Holy Nova.

• Levels 30 to 34 — 5 points inTwin Disciplines.
• Levels 35 to 37 — 3 points inImproved Inner Fire.
• Levels 38 & 39 — 2 points inImproved Power Word: Fortitude.

Twin Disciplines gives you a greatdamage and healing boost. Both Improved Inner Fire andImproved Power Word: Fortitude are good stat boosts.

• Levels 40 to 42 — 3 points inMeditation.
• Level 43 — 1 point inInner Focus.
• Level 44 — 1 point inImproved Power Word: Shield.
• Levels 45 to 47 — 3 points inMental Agility.
• Levels 48 & 49 — 2 points inImproved Power Word: Shield.

Meditation andMental Agility are great to reduce your Mana usage. Inner Focusgives you a free spell cast and increases the chance it crits by 25%.Improved Power Word: Shield further increases how much yourPower Word: Shield absorbs, which is a huge part of your rotation.

• Levels 50 & 51 — 2 points inReflective Shield.
• Level 52 — 1 point inSoul Warding.
• Levels 53 & 54 — 2 points inMental Strength.
• Levels 55 & 56 — 2 points inFocused Power.
• Levels 57 to 59 — 3 points inEnlightenment.

Reflective Shield is some goodfree damage since you will always have Power Word: Shield on yourself.Mental Strength and Enlightenment are some nice statboosts. Soul Warding helps with Mana sustain and Focused Powerfurther boosts your damage and healing output.

• Level 60 — Be sure to respecnow.
• Levels 61 to 63 — 3 points inSpirit Tap.
• Levels 64 to 68 — 5 points inHoly Specialization.
• Levels 69 to 73 — 5 points inDivine Fury.
• Level 74 — 1 point inDesperate Prayer.
• Levels 75 & 76 — 2 points inHealing Focus.
• Levels 77 & 78 — 2 points inImproved Renew.
• Levels 79 & 80 — 2 points inSearing Light.

Be sure to respec at Level 60!Power Infusion and Pain Suppression are great cooldowns for largeAoE pulls or elites. Rapture is a great talent for keeping your Manahigh. Penance is your new best single-target damage spell.Borrowed Time is a great haste boost after using Power Word: Shield.You will start re-taking talents that you previously had before.

Your leveling glyphs will differ from your endgame glyphs. Glyphs can be ahuge boost to your leveling speed as some greatly improve the baseline power ofyour key abilities. Be sure to check the price of these glyphs on your server tovastly improve your leveling experience.

1. Glyph of Smite
2. Glyph of Penance
3. Glyph of Holy Nova

1. Glyph of Fortitude
2. Glyph of Levitate
3. Glyph of Shadowfiend

1. Power Word: Fortitude keep this buff upbefore entering combat.
2. Inner Fire keep this buff up beforeentering combat.
3. Divine Spirit keep this buff up beforeentering combat.
4. Smite your target until it is dead.
5. Smite your target from max range.
6. Shadow Word: Pain your target after youenter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep yourdistance.
7. Continue using Smite on your target untilit is dead.
8. Holy Fire your target from max range.
9. Power Word: Shield yourself whilerunning away from the target. This gives you Borrowed Time, letting youget your rotation off much quicker.
10. Devouring Plague your target after youenter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep yourdistance.
11. Shadow Word: Pain your target. Run awayfrom the target while doing this to keep your distance.
12. Penance on cooldown.
13. Mind Blast on cooldown.
14. Continue using Smite on your target untilit is dead.
15. Smite as a filler if your target is highhealth.
16. Smite as a filler if your target is highhealth, but generally you will not need to.
17. Shadow Word: Death if a target did notdie from DoTs and would take too long to wand down. Ideally this would kill thetarget to prevent you from taking the backlash damage.
18. Shoot your target if theyare low enough to die from DoTs and wand damage.

You have very few spells early on. At the startof a pull you will want to be at max range. This helps you get off more damagebefore the mob reaches you. Running away from the mob while casting instant-castspells like Shadow Word: Pain help keep that distance from the mob,reducing your damage taken. Overall, this helps reduce how often youneed to drink as you will need to heal yourself less.

Now your rotation starts taking a more solidform. Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a longcast time, making it difficult to cast in combat; it also has a gooddamage-over-time component. Next you will want to cast Devouring Plague andShadow Word: Pain on the target while running away from it if possible,allowing you to keep some distance on it. Mind Blast and Smitethe target until it is low enough to die to DoTs andShooting from your wand. Be sure to use either Renew orPower Word: Shield whenever you are taking damage.

Make sure to respec at Level 60!Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a longcast time, making it difficult to cast in combat; it also has a gooddamage-over-time component. Now you will want to cast Power Word: Shield on yourselfto benefit from the Borrowed Time buff as it does not go away unless youhard cast a spell, allowing you to get the rest of your rotation off much morequickly. Be sure to run away from the target when using Power Word: Shieldto maintain distance between the two of you.

Next you will want to castDevouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain on the target whilecontinuing to run away from it if possible, allowing you to keep some distanceon it. Now you can stop kiting and fight the mob, starting with Penance,dealing massive damage over a quick channel. If the target is still high health,Mind Blast it down and it should be low enough to die to DoTs.Shoot it down with your wand until it dies, or Shadow Word: Death if itwill take too long to wand down. Be sure to use Renew orPower Word: Shield again if you are getting low on health.

An alternative to single-target damaging isAoEing with Holy Nova. This can be an effective way to level, butrequires decent gear to sustain the Mana cost of Holy Nova. If doingthis, follow the AoE rotation below:

1. Gather mobs with Shadow Word: Pain.
2. Renew yourself while gathering mobsto recover lost health.
3. Pain Suppression to reduce your damagetaken if needed.
4. Shadowfiend to sustain your Mana ifneeded.
5. Power Infusion whenever available tosave Mana and increase damage done.
6. Power Word: Shield yourself to activatethe Borrowed Time buff, capping out your global cooldown.
7. Holy Nova as much as possible untileverything is dead.
8. Reapply Renew andPower Word: Shield if needed.
9. Penance and Mind Blast anyremaining single enemies if Holy Nova is not worth using.
10. Penance, Shadow Word: Death andMind Blast any remaining single enemies if Holy Nova is not worthusing.

Training spells can be rather expensive, especially if you try to learn everyspell available to you. Here we will give you a list of your top-priority spellsthat you will want to train so you know which ones you can avoid and save somemoney.

• Be sure to keep these spells at max rank —Power Word: Fortitude, Smite, Shadow Word: Pain,Power Word: Shield, Renew, Mind Blast, Inner Fire,Psychic Scream, Devouring Plague, Holy Fire,Flash Heal, Holy Nova, Divine Spirit, Penance,Shadow Word: Death.

• Psychic Scream — You can delay upgrading this if you are low onmoney, but eventually you will want to learn higher ranks.

• Dispel Magic — You only really need 1 rank of this spell; trainthe second rank when you have the money to spare.

• These spells only have 1 rank and should be trained as soon aspossible — Cure Disease, Fear Ward,Abolish Disease, Levitate, Shadowfiend.

• Save your gold instead of training these spells —Lesser Heal, Fade, Shackle Undead, Resurrection,Heal, Mind Soothe, Mind Vision, Mana Burn,Mind Control, Prayer of Healing, Shadow Protection,Greater Heal, Prayer of Fortitude,Prayer of Shadow Protection, Prayer of Spirit,Binding Heal, Prayer of Mending, Mass Dispel,Mind Sear.

Congratulations on hitting Level 80 in Wrath of the Lich King! Now that yourleveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-80 Discipline Priestgameplay by reading ourDiscipline Priest guide,which covers everything you need to know to properly play your Discipline Priest.