Cataclysm Classic Discipline Priest Leveling

Discipline is not recommended for leveling as it falls behind the other specializations. If you want to level as Discipline, we suggest playing almost entirely in dungeons as a healer. If you are interested in the fastest solo leveling experience, check out our Shadow Priest Leveling Guide.

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Your first talent point unlocks at Level 10.

Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt.

Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Improved Power Word: Shield increases the absorb of your Power Word: Shield by 20%.

Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Improved Power Word: Shield increases the absorb of your Power Word: Shield by 20%. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%.

Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Improved Power Word: Shield increases the absorb of your Power Word: Shield by 20%. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%. When you have 5 stacks of Evangelism, you can activate Archangel to regenerate 5% Mana and increase your healing done by 15%.

Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Improved Power Word: Shield increases the absorb of your Power Word: Shield by 20%. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%. When you have 5 stacks of Evangelism, you can activate Archangel to regenerate 5% Mana and increase your healing done by 15%. Atonement causes Smite and Holy Fire heal a nearby ally for 100% of the damage they deal, or heal yourself for 50% of the damage dealt.

Twin Disciplines gives 6% increased damage and healing dealt. Improved Power Word: Shield increases the absorb of your Power Word: Shield by 20%. Evangelism increases the damage done by Smite, Holy Fire, and Penance by up to 20% and reduces their Mana cost by up to 30%. When you have 5 stacks of Evangelism, you can activate Archangel to regenerate 5% Mana and increase your healing done by 15%. Atonement causes Smite and Holy Fire heal a nearby ally for 100% of the damage they deal, or heal yourself for 50% of the damage dealt. Power Infusion is a 2-minute cooldown, 20% casting spell and Mana cost reduction cooldown that you should use whenever available.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield. Rapture gives you 7% of your max Mana back whenever a Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield. Rapture gives you 7% of your max Mana back whenever a Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed. Pain Suppression is a 2-minute cooldown, giving you a defensive ability to use whenever damage taken is high.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield. Rapture gives you 7% of your max Mana back whenever a Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed. Pain Suppression is a 2-minute cooldown, giving you a defensive ability to use whenever damage taken is high. Reflective Shield causes your Power Word: Shield to reflect 45% of the damage it absorbs back onto attackers, giving you a bit more damage.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield. Rapture gives you 7% of your max Mana back whenever a Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed. Pain Suppression is a 2-minute cooldown, giving you a defensive ability to use whenever damage taken is high. Reflective Shield causes your Power Word: Shield to reflect 45% of the damage it absorbs back onto attackers, giving you a bit more damage. Grace gives you a big boost to your healing output, which is great when healing dungeons.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield. Rapture gives you 7% of your max Mana back whenever a Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed. Pain Suppression is a 2-minute cooldown, giving you a defensive ability to use whenever damage taken is high. Reflective Shield causes your Power Word: Shield to reflect 45% of the damage it absorbs back onto attackers, giving you a bit more damage. Grace and Divine Aegis give you a big boost to your healing output, which is great when healing dungeons.

Borrowed Time gives you a huge increase to your spell casting speed for a short time after you cast Power Word: Shield. Rapture gives you 7% of your max Mana back whenever a Power Word: Shield is completely absorbed. Pain Suppression is a 2-minute cooldown, giving you a defensive ability to use whenever damage taken is high. Reflective Shield causes your Power Word: Shield to reflect 45% of the damage it absorbs back onto attackers, giving you a bit more damage. Grace and Divine Aegis give you a big boost to your healing output, which is great when healing dungeons. Power Word: Barrier is a powerful cooldown that spawns a barrier at the targeted location, reducing damage taken by players inside and prevents spells from being pushed back by damage taken.

With the Discipline tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Holy and Shadow trees. Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to both your damage and healing capabilities by reducing the cast time of spells such as Smite, Holy Fire, and Greater Heal.

With the Discipline tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Holy and Shadow trees. Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to both your damage and healing capabilities by reducing the cast time of spells such as Smite, Holy Fire, and Greater Heal. Darkness gives you a 3% total Haste increase, further boosting both your healing and damage.

With the Discipline tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Holy and Shadow trees. Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to both your damage and healing capabilities by reducing the cast time of spells such as Smite, Holy Fire, and Greater Heal. Darkness gives you a 3% total Haste increase, further boosting both your healing and damage. Improved Shadow Word: Pain increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain by 6%, increasing your damage on bosses and elites.

With the Discipline tree being completed, you can now grab powerful talents from the Holy and Shadow trees. Divine Fury gives you a huge boost to both your damage and healing capabilities by reducing the cast time of spells such as Smite, Holy Fire, and Greater Heal. Darkness gives you a 3% total Haste increase, further boosting both your healing and damage. Improved Shadow Word: Pain increases the damage of Shadow Word: Pain by 6%, increasing your damage on bosses and elites. Improved Devouring Plague causes your Devouring Plague to instantly deal 30% of its total DoT instantly on application, increasing its damage and allowing you to use it while moving for burst damage.

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

1. Glyph of Penance — Penance is one of your main spells, making this a great glyph.
2. Glyph of Power Word: Shield — Adding an additional heal to Power Word: Shield makes your main healing spell even better.
3. Glyph of Shadow Word: Death — This is good when leveling solo so you can spam Shadow Word: Death to execute low health targets.
4. Glyph of Prayer of Healing — Use this instead of Glyph of Shadow Word: Death if you are mostly leveling through dungeons.

1. Glyph of Divine Accuracy — This is the most important glyph for you while leveling, making your Smite and Holy Fire guaranteed to never miss.
2. Glyph of Smite — Increases the damage of your Smite by 20% on targets debuffed by Holy Fire. Since these are your 2 main damage spells, this glyph is mandatory.
3. Glyph of Spirit Tap — Restores 12% of your maximum Mana whenever you deal a killing blow with Shadow Word: Death. This is great for sustaining your Mana, but requires good timing in group play.
4. Glyph of Prayer of Mending — You may want to replace Glyph of Spirit Tap with Glyph of Prayer of Mending if you are mostly leveling in dungeons.

1. Glyph of Fortitude — Saves a little bit of Mana each time you rebuff Power Word: Fortitude.
2. Glyph of Levitate — Removes the resource requirement from Levitate. This is useful when jumping from a tall location to avoid taking fall damage.
3. Glyph of Shadowfiend — Restores 5% of your maximum Mana if your Shadowfiend happens to die before its timer runs out.

When you are leveling solo, either questing or farming between dungeon pops, this is the ideal rotation you will want to follow.

1. Power Word: Fortitude keep this buff up before entering combat.
2. Inner Fire keep this buff up before entering combat.
3. Shadow Word: Death only when the mob is low health, as this is an execute spell. You want Shadow Word: Death to deal the killing blow, as that will proc your Glyph of Spirit Tap, giving you a high amount of Mana sustain between pulls.
4. Smite your target until it is dead.
5. Smite your target from max range.
6. Mind Blast your target from max range.
7. Shadow Word: Pain your target after you enter combat. Run away from the target while doing this to keep your distance.
8. Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
9. Penance your target from max range, and whenever off cooldown.
10. Shadow Word: Pain and run away from the target to keep your distance.
11. Mind Blast on cooldown.
12. Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
13. Continue using Smite on your target until it is dead.
14. Archangel between pulls when you have 5 stacks of Evangelism to restore Mana.
15. Holy Fire your target from max range, and on cooldown if they are still healthy.
16. Power Word: Shield yourself while running away from the target. This gives you Borrowed Time, letting you get your rotation off much quicker.
17. Shadow Word: Pain and run away from the target to keep your distance. Only do this on enemies with high health, like elites.
18. Devouring Plague and run away from the target to keep your distance. Only do this on enemies with high health, like elites.
19. Penance on cooldown.
20. Smite any of your open globals.
21. Mind Blast if Holy Fire is on cooldown and the damage over time debuff is not up on your target.
22. Shadowfiend use when running out of Mana or for extra damage if fighting an elite.
23. Power Infusion use for extra damage or if fighting an elite.
24. Pain Suppression when fighting multiple enemies, or more dangerous ones such as elite mobs.
25. Inner Focus use when you are healing yourself to save some Mana.

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

Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat. Penance deals high damage and should be used on cooldown after this. Lastly, you will want to use Smite as your main filler as it is buffed greatly in this spec with Glyph of Smite and Evangelism. That being said, Mind Blast is still worth using if your Holy Fire debuff has fallen off but is still on cooldown, and Penance is not ready yet either.

Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat. Penance deals high damage and should be used on cooldown after this. Lastly, you will want to use Smite as your main filler as it is buffed greatly in this spec with Glyph of Smite and Evangelism. That being said, Mind Blast is still worth using if your Holy Fire debuff has fallen off but is still on cooldown, and Penance is not ready yet either. When the mob is about to die, try to get the killing blow with Shadow Word: Death; if you time it properly, this will proc your Glyph of Spirit Tap, giving you a high amount of Mana sustain between pulls.

Holy Fire will be the ideal spell to use on pull as it has a long cast time, making it difficult to cast in combat. Power Word: Shield yourself after casting Holy Fire while running away from the mob if possible. This will give you the Borrowed Time buff, allowing you to get the rest of your rotation off quickly. Penance deals high damage and should be used on cooldown after this. Lastly, you will want to use Smite as your main filler as it is buffed greatly in this spec with Glyph of Smite and Evangelism. That being said, Mind Blast is still worth using if your Holy Fire debuff has fallen off but is still on cooldown, and Penance is not ready yet either. When the mob is about to die, try to get the killing blow with Shadow Word: Death; if you time it properly, this will proc your Glyph of Spirit Tap, giving you a high amount of Mana sustain between pulls.

Shadow Word: Pain shouldn't be needed for normal mobs and should ideally only be used on high health mobs like elites. Try to use it while running away from the target if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Heal up whenever needed between pulls.

Shadow Word: Pain and Devouring Plague shouldn't be needed for normal mobs and should ideally only be used on high health mobs like elites. Try to use these while running away from the target if possible, allowing you to keep some distance on it. Heal up whenever needed between pulls.

Always be mindful of your Evangelism stacks. When you have 5 stacks you will want to activate Archangel between pulls, restoring 5% of your maximum Mana.

Always be mindful of your Evangelism stacks. When you have 5 stacks you will want to activate Archangel between pulls, restoring 5% of your maximum Mana. Try to use Power Infusion on cooldown for faster kill times, or save it for an upcoming elite mob.

Always be mindful of your Evangelism stacks. When you have 5 stacks you will want to activate Archangel between pulls, restoring 5% of your maximum Mana. Try to use Power Infusion on cooldown for faster kill times, or save it for an upcoming elite mob. Use Inner Focus whenever you need to heal yourself between pulls to save some extra Mana.

Always be mindful of your Evangelism stacks. When you have 5 stacks you will want to activate Archangel between pulls, restoring 5% of your maximum Mana. Try to use Power Infusion on cooldown for faster kill times, or save it for an upcoming elite mob. If you are taking a lot of damage from multiple mobs or an elite, use Pain Suppression on yourself as needed. Use Inner Focus whenever you need to heal yourself between pulls to save some extra Mana.

Always be mindful of your Evangelism stacks. When you have 5 stacks you will want to activate Archangel between pulls, restoring 5% of your maximum Mana. Try to use Power Infusion on cooldown for faster kill times, or save it for an upcoming elite mob. If you are taking a lot of damage from multiple mobs or an elite, use Pain Suppression on yourself as needed. Use Inner Focus whenever you need to heal yourself between pulls to save some extra Mana. Hymn of Hope is a nice bit of Mana restoration you can use between pulls every 6 minutes.

Always be mindful of your Evangelism stacks. When you have 5 stacks you will want to activate Archangel between pulls, restoring 5% of your maximum Mana. Try to use Power Infusion on cooldown for faster kill times, or save it for an upcoming elite mob. If you are taking a lot of damage from multiple mobs or an elite, use Pain Suppression on yourself as needed. Shadowfiend can be used in combat to restore Mana, or for the extra damage if figthing a strong enemy. Use Inner Focus whenever you need to heal yourself between pulls to save some extra Mana. Hymn of Hope is a nice bit of Mana restoration you can use between pulls every 6 minutes.

Discipline is not the fastest solo leveling spec, and it is likely that you will want to run dungeons through the dungeon finder tool while doing regular quests and grinding mobs when waiting for the queue to pop. Below is the recommended healing rotation for grouped content while leveling.

1. Archangel between pulls when you have 5 stacks of Evangelism to restore Mana.
2. Penance this is your best heal, use it on cooldown.
3. Power Word: Shield use this on the tank on cooldown, as well as anyone else taking frequent damage.
4. Prayer of Mending use this on the tank on cooldown.
5. Holy Fire use this on cooldown to heal injured allies with Atonement.
6. Smite ideally you want to use this on targets debuffed with Holy Fire, or whenever the tank is not taking high damage. Will heal injured allies through Atonement.
7. Renew try to keep this up on the tank when they are getting hit hard.
8. Binding Heal use this if you and a target are both low health.
9. Flash Heal use whenever someone is low health and needs a quick heal.
10. Heal use this to preserve Mana and heal a moderate amount of damage after a long cast.
11. Greater Heal only if the target is taking very high damage.
12. Prayer of Healing whenever the whole group is taking high damage.
13. Holy Nova you can use this if your whole group is taking damage and there are a lot of mobs nearby that you can AoE.
14. Divine Hymn use this if your normal rotation is not enough to keep the group alive.

While leveling, you will not need to use all of your spells. Many can be skipped to save gold and trained at a later date, when you have more gold available to you. We recommend to not train these spells below, and save your gold for gear, glyphs and mounts instead.

• Shackle Undead
• Mind Vision
• Mind Control
• Shadow Protection
• Mind Soothe
• Mana Burn
• Mind Spike
• Inner Will

Congratulations on hitting Level 85 in Cataclysm! Now that your leveling process is over, you can learn more about Level-85 Discipline Priests gameplay by reading our fully detailed guide below.