The Priest is a caster class and is considered by most to be the best all-round healer in WoW. His spells are Holy and Shadow based. A Priest can also do quite a bit of damage but is mainly known for his great healing capabilities in both PvE and PvP.
One of the downsides of playing a Priest is the leveling. Even though the Shadow talent tree is available, which greatly increases a Priest’s damage done, it can still be time taking because the spells cost a lot of mana. Once you get to the higher levels though, you can always count on a spot in any kind of party or raid wherever they are going because a Priest is just great and everybody knows it.
All the Priests are able to cast a Stamina buff on themselves and party and raid members. If a few points in the Discipline tree are spent another buff called Divine Spirit becomes available. This buff boosts the Spirit of players. A Priest’s healing spells are based on Holy power and one has a variety of instant, small, big, HoT and AoE heals to choose from which make the priest the best overall healer. If a Priest prefers to do damage he is pretty much stuck on the Shadow spells if he wants to get the best out of his Priest.
You can choose from quite a few races if you want to play a Priest. The Human Spirit and Blood Elf’s Arcane Spirit racials make them nice choices. Other races you can choose from are Dwarves, Night Elves, Draenei, Trolls, and Undead.
A Priest can choose to go for a full Discipline build if he likes to heal and likes to play PvP. There are some great talents in the tree that make the Priest tougher, his heals more effective and the Priest will also gain some new abilities like Pain Suppression and Power Infusion. The Discipline Priests are great single target healers. This, together with abilities like the ones mentioned above make the Discipline Priests great for PvP as well.
The Holy tree is also great for healing. It’s probably a bit better when it comes to raw healing then the Discipline tree. Some other healing spells like Circle of Healing are learned which make the Priest even a better healer. The Holy build gives more bonus healing and is normally considered to be better for PvE purposes when it comes to healing.
Finally, the Shadow build. Priests make great healers but they sure can do good damage as well. His damage is based on Damage over Time (DoT), and fast spells like Mind Blast and Mind Flay. The great thing about a Shadow Priest is that he can also support his group by placing some debuffs on a target like Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch which will convert some damage done to mana and hitpoints for both the Priest and his group members.
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A Paladin has received some great boosts with the WoTLK expansion. It is especially their damage tree that has gained a lot of improvements. In this guide I will explain which talents should be used and for what reason.
Let’s first have a look at the build:
Paladin Leveling Build
You basically take all the Retribution talents except for Deflection and Divine Purpose, except if you plan to play with somebody else often, then you can make a few changes and use Divine Purpose.
What makes the Retribution tree so powerful? To begin with you will improve your Blessing of Might which is the Blessing you will be using on yourself all the time to increase your attack power. Then you got your Improved Judgment which allows you to use Judgments more often which also results in a lot more damage output.
Heart of the Crusader is not only great for single playing and can also increase the damage of entire parties and even raids. Pursuit of Justice is really great because it improves both your movement speed as well as the mounted movement speed by 16%!
Then you have some other nice talents and you will end up being able to choose Sanctified Retribution which allows you to turn on your Retribution Aura which increases Holy damage done by 10% which is really nice. This one gets even better when you get the Improved and Swift retribution upgrades more down in the talent tree.
You will also be able to take Repentance which is a great crowd control ability. The Art of War allows you to instantly heal when some of your damaging abilities have a critical strike and that is just great because it keep you going. You will need some mana however but that is provided through Judgements of the Wise which gives a nice boost to your Judgement spells: you will receive 15% of your mana whenever you cast a Judgement spell and you will also get the replenishment effect which restores even more mana.
With Crusader Strike and Divine Storm you will gain two ace abilities when it comes down to dealing great damage. Together with your Seal of Command and your Retribution Aura you will be able to deal out massive damage. Righteous Vengeance is also really nice and adds to all the damage dealt in the form of a DoT (damage over time) talent.
Al together you can say that the Retribution tree is just great for leveling. While still being able to heal you can dish out massive amounts of damage and hit that level cap in no-time.
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Everyone always wants to know about the fastest way to level their World of Warcraft characters, and dungeon leveling offers a unique new way to power level. The dungeon finder was added with patch 3.3, and it creates an easy way for anyone to find groups to run through dungeons with. Instead of being limited to the other players on your server, you now have a much larger pool to find a group from. The dungeon finder pulls together players from any of the servers in your playgroup. This is why even people who usually play during their server’s off times can easily find dungeon groups to level with. It also leaves no excuse for not experiencing all of the Classic dungeons from the original World of Warcraft.
To try out the dungeon finder, click on the button that looks like a green eye on the bottom of your action bar. It’s toward the right side of your screen. This is the “Looking for Group” button, and it takes you right into the dungeon finder.
The first time you try dungeon leveling you’ll discover immediately that you gain experience much faster than you do while solo questing. Some WoW add-ons like Titan Panel will even put concrete numbers on exactly how much experience you’re gaining per second, but trying the dungeon finder just once will probably be enough to show you how much faster you can power level through this method.
There are several reasons dungeon leveling gets you more experience faster. One reason is all the elite monsters you’ll have a chance to kill. Elite creatures give a lot more experience than regular monsters, and you certainly won’t be able to take down any elites by yourself. It will take all five of you working as a team to defeat the elite creatures you’ll only discover through instance leveling.
Another important factor in the increased experience offered through dungeon leveling is the quests. Instance leveling alone will bring you plenty of experience, but simply doing the quests that accompany each of the Classic and Burning Crusade dungeons can bring you half of a level or even a full level of experience in itself. That experience is in addition to all the experience you picked up while you were in the dungeon actually killing the mobs.
Another reason you should do all the quests for each of the dungeons is the fact that you get twice as much experience from the quests as you do for regular solo quests outside of the dungeons. Blizzard considers all dungeon quests to be much more difficult because of all the mobs and elite monsters you’ll find in them. This is why completing just four dungeon quests is equivalent to completing eight solo quests on your own.
Instance leveling with the dungeon finder is a great way to get a lot of experience very fast. You’ll probably even find that you spend much less time being dead and a whole lot more time actually killing monsters and getting experience.
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The Paladin is a hybrid class, capable to tank, heal and do damage. The Paladin can wear plate armor, shields and most melee weapons. The Paladin uses the Holy magic school and physical attacks for most of his abilities.
One of the most well known abilities of the Paladin is Divine Shield, often called ‘Bubble’. The Divine Shield is an instantly casted spell that protects the Paladin from any damage for 12 seconds. Divine Intervention is almost as good as Divine Shield and can even be casted on party or raid members. It protects the target from all physical attacks. The Paladin also has various auras that affect the entire party and several buffs that can also be cast on different players. The Paladins abilities cost mana, no matter what build one chooses.
The following races have Paladins in their ranks: Humans, Dwarves, Draenei, and Blood Elves.
A Paladin can be a very capable tank when the Protection talent tree is used. While using a shield and some abilities that create high amounts of threat, the Paladin can easily tank in dungeons. A Paladin tank is probably the best tank when it comes down to keeping aggro on multiple targets. This comes at a cost though meaning that he isn’t as good as a Warrior Tank in example when it comes to single target tanking. Some buffs also become available in this talent tree like Blessing of Sanctuary and Blessing of Kings, even though the last one doesn’t have to be chosen since it requires quite a few talent points.
A healing Paladin should use the Holy talent tree to maximize the effect of his healing spells and to obtain some other healing spells that will make him a great healer. A Holy Paladin is a very capable healer known for his fast heals. Known to be one of the best single target healers while his weak spot is the lack in heals that can heal an entire group. A Holy Paladin should focus on getting a lot of critical strike rating, because his heals will heal more and a lot of his heals will refund mana this way.
Finally there is the Retribution Paladin. While wielding a 2h weapon and being able to use several abilities that deal great amounts of damage, the Retribution Paladin is a great class for both PvE and PvP. This hasn’t always been the case; before the WoTLK, Retribution Paladins were almost never welcome in either raids or PvP teams. This is probably why they have received a great boost and are now one of the stronger PvP classes and builds out there.
A Paladin is a strong class, fighting one can be really annoying as it seems that they have multiple lives sometimes. Playing one is a great experience. A nice thing about a Paladin is that you can gather different types of gear and then change from a tank to a healer or DPS if you get a bit bored with your build.
The Ultimate World of Warcraft
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As a Mage you have some great advantages while leveling. Of course, many classes have their pros and cons but a Mage is great to level because he can make his own food and water, teleport to cities from one to another continent and is able to Blink which also reduces run-time. As for the best leveling build, the opinions are divided. Some would swear with the Frost build because it is more mana efficient. I however, would go for a Fire/Arcane build for the simple reason that you take down the enemies faster and the Arcane tree will provide you with mana regeneration and more stats.
Lets first have a look at the full Fire talent tree though.
Mage Leveling Build: Fire
As a Fire Mage you can start attacking with either a Fireball or a Pyroblast, shoot a 2nd Fireball and then a Fire Blast. If the target isn’t dead yet you just Frost Nova, take a step back and make another Fireball+Fire Blast combo. Blast Wave and Dragon Breath will also become available at a later level and they can do the finishing touches as well.
Now why I didn’t take Improved Scorch is because you don’t use Scorch until you get the Hot Streak talent. Molten Shields, Fiery Payback and Blazing Speed are not necessary for leveling purposes. I did choose Impact (I know many Mages skip this one) because it’s nice for leveling. If you manage to use three or four Fire based spells before the mob reaches you, you have a 30-40% chance to stun the mob for two seconds before he even reaches you.
I took a bit of Frost because of the reduced mana cost of both Frost and Fire spells through the talent called Precision.
Another option, and my favorite, is to go Arcane+Fire which is a nice combination.
Mage Leveling Build: Fire/Arcane
This build has a mana preserving advantage because 60% of the regeneration continues while casting. You will also be surprised with the amount of critical hits you will get with this build which will also refund 30% of the spell’s costs. You will also have 10% more Spirit and 15% more Intellect. Arcane Concentration will allow about 10% of your spells to be cast free of costs.
This build will not give you AoE spells likes Blast Wave and Dragon Breath but will be mainly focused on Fireballs, Pyroblasts and Fire Blasts. Your Arcane Explosion will be boosted a bit so that is a good choice for AoE purposes. Presence of Mind and Arcane Power will give you two extra great abilities that will cause high burst damage when needed.
You can choose to go full Frost but especially in the first 30 levels you will be a lot worse of than the builds stated above. Shatter then becomes nice, and later you got Icy Veins, Water Elemental, Cold Snap etc. but the damage output of this build isn’t as high as compared to the ones above.
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Virtually every World of Warcraft player has wondered about the fastest way to level a character at some point, and right now the fastest way to do it is by leveling with the dungeon finder. Blizzard added the dungeon finder with patch 3.3, and it’s so much more than just a way for level 80 characters to find groups more easily. Dungeon leveling is now the fastest way to level in the game, and any WoW player who doesn’t admit this is missing out on a whole lot of experience in a short amount of time.
There are so many benefits to dungeon leveling that you really can’t afford to learn how to do it. Just think for a moment about your average gameplay time. How much of it is spent running around town, grabbing quests, and trying to figure out where to go next? By instance leveling instead of solo questing, you get the fastest experience gain per hour. Let’s take a look at exactly how you gain more experience through dungeon leveling.
As mentioned earlier, solo questing involves a lot of down time while you’re trying to figure out where to go next. When you level with the dungeon finder, you kill creatures non-stop and take on a new mob every minute or so. You don’t spend time travelling from place to place and mob to mob. Instead, your time spent instance leveling in the dungeons gets you more kills on average per second. More kills equals more experience, so you can see just why dungeon leveling will get you to level 80 faster on this basic level.
Also there is power in numbers, and the only way to harness this power is by leveling with the dungeon finder. You’ll find power leveling your character to be much easier by using the dungeon finder, especially if you’re a clothie or other somewhat squishy character. All World of Warcraft players know that dying frequently and having to run back to your corpse is very time-consuming, especially at the low levels, and instance leveling is the perfect solution for this problem too. By leveling in a group, you’ll probably spend a lot less time being dead and running back to get your corpse. Less time spent dead means more kills, more experience, and hitting every single level faster than you would have if you were power leveling on your own through the solo quests.
Another added bonus to dungeon leveling is the added experience and bonuses you get from killing elite monsters. Of course there’s no way you would be able to take on an elite creature by yourself, and instance leveling allows you to do this easily and efficiently, mopping up a ton of extra experience from each elite kill. Elite monsters also drop unique items that are sure to make your power leveling experience even easier. The better gear you have, the easier even solo questing will become. Can you really afford not to use the dungeon finder?
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A Mage is a powerful casting class capable to do immense amounts of damage and control the enemies.
While using Arcane, Fire and Frost a Mage is definitely one of the best damage dealing classes in WoW. Mages are known to do great Area of Effect (AoE) damage with several great abilities and be able to control both enemy NPCs and players with Polymorph, Frost Nova and the like.
The downside of a Mage is that one usually has low hit points and his cloth armor doesn’t help with his survivability. He does have spells to keep enemies at bay though or to cast an Ice Block which makes the Mage immune to any damage for a period of time.
A mage is incapable to heal or tank so damage dealing is his main purpose. The Mage does have other abilities that make him wanted in many groups and PvP teams. Like said before, the Polymorph ability is great to control mobs because it turns a Humanoid or Beast enemy NPC or Player into a Sheep, Turtle, or Pig. A Mage can also teleport to other cities and even make portals so others can benefit from his ability. Another reason why a Mage is always welcome in a group is his ability to conjure food and water which is especially welcomed by healers that otherwise would have to buy their mana drinks.
These abilities also come in very handy while leveling. Being able to teleport will save a lot of time on the long run and making food and drinks whenever one pleases is also a time and money saver.
The Mage can also buff himself with Arcane Intellect and has several magical armors he can choose from. He can also cast Arcane Intellect on his party or even entire raids.
One nice thing that is nice to know is that Dalaran, the capital of Northrend, is a Mage city. The Kirin Tor is a faction of Mages and all the Mage players start with Friendly reputation towards this faction.
The Mage class can be played by Gnomes, Draenei, Humans, Trolls, Blood Elves, and Undead players.
Mages have three talent builds namely Arcane, Frost and Fire. You will run into mages that have specialized in any of these talent trees because they all have pros and cons. It is up to your own preferences to whatever build you would like. I would advise you, if you intend to make a Mage, to try out several builds to see what you like best and not just follow anybody else’s opinion.
I can tell you though that the Frost Build is quite nice to level because it doesn’t burn your mana away that fast and you have several nice abilities like the Water Elemental and Ice Barrier which absorbs damage. At 80 this build is still nice and can be seen quite often in PvP.
Then there is the Fire build which focuses mainly on single target damage, even though also two AoE spells become available in this tree.
It was never really worth it to go 100% Arcane until the WoTLK arrived. With some new talents and a bigger variety of damaging attacks this build has become a lot better and is now also a great build for PvE and PvP. Arcane is also often used for Hybrid builds (Frost/Arcane, Fire/Arcane).
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