WoW Classic Discipline Priest Leveling Talent Build from 1 to 60
On this page, you will find our Level by Level Discipline Priest leveling guide for WoW Classic. Make sure to use the slider to make the guide adapt to your level. For more general leveling information, please refer to our Priest leveling guide. We also have an Holy Priest leveling guide and a Shadow Priest leveling guide.
If you were looking for TBC Classic advice, please refer to our TBC Classic Discipline Priest leveling guide.
Discipline Priest Leveling Rotation, Talents, and Trainer Skills
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Talent Tree
Your first talent unlocks at Level 10.
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- Levels 10 to 14 — 5 points in
Wand Specialization
- Levels 15 to 19 — 5 points in
Spirit Tap
The first 10 points spent in your talent tree are
the most important for leveling as any spec and are used all the way to 60.
Spirit Tap provides excellent Mana regeneration while casting, allowing you to
continue pulling the next enemy and reducing your downtime.
Wand Specialization buffs your wand damage which is used for every
enemy you are killing. As Discipline you can use your wand to pick off weak enemies in
dungeons as well to gain the Spirit Tap bonus for additional Mana regeneration.
- Levels 20 to 22 — 3 points in
Improved Power Word: Shield
- Levels 23 & 24 — 2 points in
Improved Power Word: Fortitude
- Level 25 — 1 point in
Inner Focus
- Levels 26 to 28 — 3 points in
Meditation
- Level 29 — 1 point in
Martyrdom
The the first two talents
Improved Power Word: Shield and
Improved Power Word: Fortitude both
increase your effective health.
Meditation is a great regeneration
talent, and
Inner Focus is also used to save Mana by using it on an
expensive heal.
Advanced usage of Inner Focus: After
not spending Mana for 5 seconds, your character resumes regenerating Mana at
full speed, known as the 5-Second-Rule (5SR). Because spells cast using Inner
Focus do not cost Mana, that spell cast does not reset the 5SR which can help you
regenerate even more Mana before having to cast a spell costing Mana. Typically
you will use Inner Focus on
Heal or
Prayer of Healing
for maximum benefit.
- Levels 30 to 34 — 5 points in
Mental Agility
- Level 35 — 1 point in
Divine Spirit
- Levels 36 to 39 — 4 points in
Mental Strength
Mental Agility and
Mental Strength
both passively increase how long your mana pool will last.
Divine Spirit grants a buff you can cast on yourself and others
increasing their spirit which helps with your mana regeneration.
- Level 40 — 1 point in
Mental Strength
- Levels 41 to 44 — 4 points in
Force of Will
- Level 45 — 1 point in
Power Infusion
- Levels 46 & 47 — 2 points in
Healing Focus
- Levels 48 & 49 — 2 points in
Holy Specialization
Dungeons and Healing not your thing? If you find by Level 40 dungeon healing just is not doing it for you, and you spend most of your time questing solo, consider respeccing to Shadow now for the significant increase your damage dealt. If you are happy with your mix of solo questing and some dungeon healing and, continue as you are!
After finishing off Mental Strength,
we pick up some points in
Force of Will for some added damage. Next we
get access to a new ability
Power Infusion which cast be cast on an
yourself or an ally increasing the damage and healing done for 15 seconds.
Finally we finish up by picking up some talents in the Holy tree with
Healing Focus and
Holy Specialization. Healing Focus only
works for healing spells but is worth taking for dungeon healing and can help
save you if you over-pull while questing as well.
Advanced usage of
Power Infusion: Power Infusion is a great spell to use on a
friendly cast like a Mage while in dungeons to boost their damage output-
especially good for big pulls or difficult bosses. It is also a great ability to
cast on yourself for that extra damage boost while questing and facing
particularly strong or elite enemies.
- Level 50 — 1 point in
Holy Specialization
- Levels 51 to 55 — 5 points in
Divine Fury
- Levels 56 & 57 — 2 points in
Holy Specialization
- Level 58 — 1 point in
Force of Will
- Level 59 — 1 point in
Martyrdom
- Level 60 — 1 point in
Holy Nova
Holy Specialization and
Divine Fury provide you with not only a damage boost, but also a
healing boost which is helpful for the likely dungeon grind at 55 and beyond.
Finally we finish off by maxing out
Force of Will,
Martyrdom
and lastly
Holy Nova for those interested in AoE farming at 60. Instead
of these final 3 points you can also take 3/3
Inspiration from the
holy tree to supplement your tank healing.
These talents are great if you are mostly soloing
and went Discipline for added dungeon healing capability. If you are leveling in
a group all the way to 60, you might want to play with a pure healing spec
instead, such as the ones we list in our Healing Priest Talents page
. If you do decide to head down this path, it is still suggested you sacrifice 5
points in Spiritual Healing and take 5/5
Spirit Tap, and swap
5/5
Unbreakable Will for
Wand Specialization as they are
valuable all throughout your leveling journey.
Leveling Rotation (DPS)
- Ensure you have
Power Word: Fortitude active on yourself before pulling.
- Ensure you have
Inner Fire active on yourself before pulling.
- Cast
Power Word: Shield on yourself before pulling.
- Cast
Holy Fire, ideally with the enemy as far away from you as possible.
- Cast
Smite as the enemy is running towards you.
- Cast
Mind Blast
- Cast
Shadow Word: Pain.
- Cast
Smite until you go below 25% mana or
Improved Power Word: Shield drops off.
- Finish the enemy with your melee weapon.
- Wand off the remaining health on the enemy while your
Shadow Word: Pain keeps ticking.
When played correctly, you should hardly ever have any downtime as a Priest.
Playing correctly mostly means finding the right balance between how much Mana
and time to spend on your skills, versus using your wand. Most of the time,
after your initial casts you just have to apply Shadow Word: Pain then
finish them off with your wand. Your Mana will have started to regenerate again
already by the time you are close to killing the mob, and then when it dies,
Spirit Tap will provide you with Mana and health sustain to keep going.
That is the ideal order of events, though there will always be different
scenarios that you will have to learn to adapt to.
Leveling Rotation (Healing)
Power Word: Shield to buy time to save an ally with
Lesser Heal.
Power Word: Shield to buy time to save an ally with
Heal.
Power Word: Shield to buy time to save an ally with
Flash Heal (fast) or
Heal (slow).
Power Word: Shield to buy time to save an ally with either
Flash Heal (fast) or
Greater Heal (slow).
Lesser Heal to slowly heal a single target for a moderate amount.
Flash Heal in an emergency to quickly heal an ally for a small amount.
Greater Heal to heal an ally for a very large amount.
Heal to slowly heal a single target for a moderate amount.
Prayer of Healing if your entire party is quite injured and near one another.
Renew to smooth out damage on your tank or when an ally needs healing and you are moving. **
At Level 14, you get access to Cure Disease
(and at Level 32 the upgraded version
Abolish Disease) which can be used
to remove Disease debuffs from your allies. At Level 18, you can learn
Dispel Magic allowing you to remove Magic debuffs from your allies.
While you do not need to remove every disease and magical debuff, there are many
that are beneficial to be removed as your mana allows.
**Note: You should not pre-cast Renew at the
start of combat to try and maintain as much time regenerating mana as possible.
For example when you need to cast Heal on the tank, follow up
immediately with
Renew and then go back to wanding until more healing
is required.
List of Trainer Skills to Buy
The below suggestions focus on the skills that are most important to your leveling, but even still, this is by no means the only way to go about it, since it will vary on how much gold you actually acquire throughout the leveling process. The most important thing (and this can impact your skill buying decisions) is to make sure you have enough gold to buy your first mount as soon as you hit Level 40.
If you want to save a bit of additional gold, once you learn
Holy Fire you can stop learning
Mind Blast and remove it from
your rotation. If you plan on AoE farming for gold at level 60 be sure to
purchase additional ranks of
Holy Nova.
- At Level 1, buy
Power Word: Fortitude once you have the copper for it. This increases the Stamina of whomever you cast it on.
- At Level 4, buy
Shadow Word: Pain and Rank 2
Lesser Heal. Shadow Word: Pain is very Mana and damage efficient, provided that your targets live for the duration of the DoT.
- At Level 6, buy
Power Word: Shield and Rank 2
Smite.
- At Level 8, buy
Renew. Renew is decent at healing up any sustained damage you may take. Only buy
Fade if you plan on doing group content, as it is useless when playing alone.
- At Level 10, buy
Mind Blast, Rank 2
Shadow Word: Pain, Rank 3
Lesser Heal, and
Resurrection. Mind Blast does a lot of damage and will take a big chunk out of your target's health at the start of a fight.
- At Level 10, make sure to get your race-specific Priest ability!
- At Level 12, buy
Inner Fire, Rank 2
Power Word: Fortitude, and Rank 2
Power Word: Shield.
- At Level 14, buy
Psychic Scream and Rank 3
Smite.
- At Level 16, buy Rank 2
Mind Blast and Rank 1
Heal.
Lesser Heal is more or less obsolete at this point and you can replace Heal with it on your bars.
- At Level 18, buy Rank 3
Power Word: Shield, Rank 3
Shadow Word: Pain, and
Dispel Magic.
- At Level 20, buy
Holy Fire which will be your opening spell from now on, and make sure to get your second race-specific Priest ability!
- At Level 20, buy
Flash Heal and Rank 2
Inner Fire.
- At Level 22, buy Rank 3
Mind Blast, Rank 2
Heal, and Rank 4
Smite.
- At Level 24, buy Rank 3
Power Word: Fortitude, Rank 2
Holy Fire, and Rank 4
Power Word: Shield.
- At Level 26, buy Rank 4
Shadow Word: Pain and Rank 2
Flash Heal.
- At Level 28, buy Rank 4
Mind Blast, and Rank 3
Heal
- At Level 30, buy Rank 3
Inner Fire,
Shadow Protection, Rank 3
Holy Fire, Rank 5
Smite, and Rank 5
Power Word: Shield.
- At Level 32, buy Rank 3
Flash Heal.
- At Level 34, buy Rank 4
Heal, Rank 5
Mind Blast, and Rank 5
Shadow Word: Pain.
- At Level 36, buy Rank
4
Power Word: Fortitude, Rank 4
Holy Fire, and Rank 6
Power Word: Shield.
- At Level 38, buy Rank 4
Flash Heal, and Rank 6
Smite.
- At Level 40, buy
Greater Heal, Rank 6
Mind Blast, Rank 7
Smite, Rank 2
Divine Spirit, and Rank 4
Inner Fire.
- At Level 42, buy Rank 7
Power Word: Shield, Rank 5
Holy Fire, and Rank 6
Shadow Word: Pain.
- At Level 44, buy Rank 5
Flash Heal.
- At Level 46, buy Rank 7
Mind Blast and Rank 2
Greater Heal.
- At Level 48, buy Rank 5
Power Word: Fortitude, Rank 6
Holy Fire, and Rank 8
Power Word: Shield.
- At Level 50, buy Rank 7
Shadow Word: Pain, Rank 5
Inner Fire, Rank 3
Divine Spirit, and Rank 6
Flash Heal.
- At Level 52, buy Rank 8
Mind Blast, and Rank 3
Greater Heal.
- At Level 54, buy Rank 9
Power Word: Shield, Rank 8
Smite, Rank 7
Holy Fire.
- At Level 56, buy Rank 7
Flash Heal.
- At Level 58, buy Rank 9
Mind Blast, Rank 8
Shadow Word: Pain, and Rank 4
Greater Heal.
- At Level 60, buy Rank 5
Greater Heal, Rank 8
Holy Fire, Rank 4
Divine Spirit, and Rank 6
Power Word: Fortitude.
Discipline Priest Quest Guide
While leveling, you will need to complete various class quests to unlock Priest specific racial abilities. All of these are outlined in the guide below.
How to Advance your Discipline Priest at Level 60
Once you hit maximum level, we suggest you to read the Healer Priest Guide, which covers all there is to know about healing on your Priest at level 60.
Some of the most relevant pages to skim over are as follows
- The Healing Priest Talent builds guide has multiple builds for Healing Priests. Some are purely healing oriented, with a heavy investment on the Holy tree, others mix in Discipline talents for powerful abilities to buff and empower your allies.
- Our PvP Priest guide is where you can find the various recommended PvP builds. While healing will surely be a big part of your duties, you can expect to find some damage dealing builds in there as well.
- Goldmaking Guide for Healing Priests exists to explain to you some simple techniques you can employ to farm gold quickly at level 60, even while on a healer specialization.
- Our Healing Priest Rotation guide teaches you how to actually heal in a variety of situations, and you can find some advanced tips on how to manage your mana, spell ranks and specialty skills here as well.
- Browse Healing Priest Stats guide if you wish to learn more about your different stats and how they affect your gameplay.
- Finally, the Gear guide for Healing Priests will tell you which gear pieces to farm at level 60 and where you can farm them at.
Changelog
- 18 Nov. 2024: Page updated for Classic Anniversary.
- 14 Sep. 2020: Corrected an error with Lesser Heal not being available until level 4.
- 26 Sep. 2019: Page added.
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides
Classic Race Guides
Classic Class Overviews
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This guide has been written by Abide, TBC veteran for nearly a decade. Abide is a Warrior tank and multi-class expert currently playing on Faerlina as Horde. You can find him in the the Icy Veins Discord. You can also see him live on Twitch.
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