GUIDE: Leveling a Priest or Druid to 80 [as a healer]

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I'll start by saying I've levelled many healers to max level in my travels. Two of them happened to be before the Burning Crusade and I am currently levelling a Druid. Levelling a healer is not hard to do - it's just like playing a DPS class, or a tanking class, except slower while solo questing.


Firstly, let’s take a look at some of the Pros and Cons of levelling a healer:


Pros:

• It’s easy to find groups for instancing and questing.

Cons:

• You are unable to solo quests as efficiently as a DPS class can.
• You lose that satisfaction of completely dominating someone with raw DPS.
• You are basically only useful while in a group, whether it be instancing or questing.

Yes, the cons outweigh the pros, but the pros are what make you level fast and efficiently. Despite this, you must also remember questing solo is not impossible due to Blizzard changing Plus Damage and Plus Healing to one simple thing that we all love now, called Spell Power. All the gear you attain will effect whatever offensive spells you can cast on your enemies, as well as heals on friendly targets.

Here is a general guide to follow when levelling your healer to 80:

Priest: Before reaching levelling 60, you’ll want to mainly cast Flash Heal, keep Renew active on the tank, and only shield when necessary. 60 is where you get your power heals, so learn what rotation you feel most comfortable with, but try not to use AoE heals too often, aside from the occasional Holy Nova or Circle of Healing when you feel it is safe enough. At 60 you get Penance and you will love your heals after you receive this spell, it really is a beauty.


Druid: Before dinging level 64, you’ll want to mainly cast Regrowth on a target with 75% HP, instantly Rejuvenate them; and you should barely use Healing Touch as it is not mana efficient and takes far too long to cast. In place of healing touch, use Swiftmend (and ensure to pick up a glyph for it too). After level 64, you’ll be doing pretty much the same thing but every now again throw Wild Growth up, and keep Lifebloom on the tank when he's fighting bosses. Nourish is learned at 80, and it will soon become your best friend, it's the equivalent to a Priest's Flash Heal.


Before we get into the details of the guide, let me begin by saying that you should always ensure you have collected all the quests associated with the instances you are planning to run, as they grant a considerable boost your overall levelling experience.
Which faction is for me?

Alright, let's sort this out; which faction is better suited to you? Firstly, it must be said that choosing a faction best suited to a healer is now impossible to do since both now have Paladins and Shamans. Before the Burning Crusade it may have been a debate, but now it is null and void. Pick whichever appeals to you personally.

Alliance:
Solo quest or find a partner to get yourself to level 16, from there, mass-instance in between zones. Start healing the Deadmines at 16; quest around Westfall and the Wetlands and instance until around level 24, than heal Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathom Depths, and the Stormwind Stockades. All in all, this should get you to about level 27. From there, quest in Duskwood and heal Gnomeregan until you're about level 30. Once you ding 30 you should go to Desolace and try to get a group for the Scarlet Monastery, either the Library or Graveyard wing. This should get you to around level 34, once you ding, you can head to Stranglethorn Vale while occasionally running the Scarlet Monastery’s Armory and Cathedral wings. You may also want to consider running Razorfen Downs; this should allow you to reach level 39 or 40.

Horde:
This guide is very similar to the Alliance version, with a few minor tweaks. Firstly you will pretty much solo or group quest until level 11, you start a bit earlier than Alliance because of Ragefire Chasm, and Durotar has a good chain leading up to a few quests in there, so I'd suggest starting in Durotar. Once you hit level 10 or 11, try getting a group for Ragefire Chasm (RFC). After running this, you should be around level 12 or 13. Head over to The Barrens; the first few quests should be a breeze because you're a bit high, but eventually it will slow down, this is why I suggest instancing. Continue questing until 17. Immediately start farming Wailing Caverns with groups, head to Shadowfang Keep if you want as well.


Finish all the Northern Barrens quests and head over to Ratchet to complete the coast-side Pirate quest-chain. Afterwards, head to Stonetalon Mountains to complete the quests there until you reach level 22 – you can then begin to start running Blackfathom Depths (BFD). After you finish with BFD you can head over to Thousand Needles at around level 25 and finish those quests up getting you to around level 28, easily readying you for Gnomeregan, and eventually preparing yourself to enter the Scarlet Monastery. From there on out, it's pretty much the same for both factions, so make sure to use the last part of the Alliance guide as a reference.

Ensure you keep the following items in your travels, as they are used in later parts of this guide:

• Savage Frond
• Dark Iron Scraps
• Crypt Fiend Parts
• Bone Fragments

Once you surpass level 40, you can finish questing in Stranglethorn Vale, and start Tanaris quests until you're about 42, than once again, instance farm Zul'Farrak until about 45, than start healing Maraudon until you reach level 48. At this point, Horde players should head over to the Hinterlands and Alliance players should head over to Searing Gorge, from there you can get an easy level or two from each zone. It is around this point where you should start considering running Blackrock Depths (BRD). You'll easily be able to do a full BRD clear if you're 50, and know how to heal. One would assume you’d possess this knowledge at such a late stage in the game. At least fill the group with people level 52 or above, but you can get away with only being 50 on account of being the groups healer.


You should aim to run BRD around 4 or 5 times, it will begin to become a tad tedious, but in the end you should be roughly level 53. From there, you can head Western Plaguelands and complete the Cauldron quest line; it's fast and easy, and gives about 150 thousand experience. At this stage, you should be around level 56, if not, head to Winterspring or Felwood and get an easy level by completing the quests there. As soon as you hit 56, head to Eastern Plaguelands, stop by the NPC Tirion Fordring and grab his quests. They are grinding quests, but grant a considerable chunk of experience.



After completing these quests, head over to Light's Hope Chapel and turn in all those items you have saved, the Savage Frond, Dark Iron Scraps, Crypt Fiend Parts, and Bone Fragments. They are each work 9550 experience, totalling almost 40 thousand experience for minimal effort. Complete all the quests, but you can skip the Scholomance and Stratholme quests, as they are mostly dead on account of the expansions. Once you hit level 58, immediately head to the Blasted Lands and go through the Dark Portal, leading you to the Outlands.


Once you hit Outlands you're pretty much home-free so-to-speak. Instances are going to give you incredible amounts of experience compared to what you are used to; also, your character will become a lot stronger, and have a wider range of spells and abilities to use. First, start off by completing the first ten quests in Hellfire Peninsula, whether it be at Thrallmar or Honor Hold, the quests are identical, except for being tweaked a bit to become either "Horde-ish" or "Alliance-ish", respectively.



The quest rewards will give you enough spellpower to heal Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace with ease. Once you've replaced a few pieces of gear, start looking for groups.

Instance grinding should now be your primary source of experience with each instance only takes a maximum of 35 minutes. Grind them out until level 62, at which time you should start running the Underbog and Slave Pens until level 64. After these, make sure to run Mana-Tombs and Auchenai Crypts until 66; once you ding, you will head back to questing for a while.



Head to Nagrand and complete all the Nesingwary Hunter Camp quests. They're just like the ones from STV, ordering you to kill twelve beasts, followed by another twelve, and finally an elite. After each individual quest chain is complete, there is a final 'test' which asks you to kill an elite (King Bangalesh style) elephant. After that, find a group for the "Ring of Blood" quest chain in Northern Nagrand. You must be atleast level 66 to do this chain; it's an easy 85 thousand experience and 66 gold. The whole ordeal takes maybe twenty minutes tops. It's about five quests and all the boss mobs require four to five players to take down. You really will need a group to do this one (or a generous level 80).


Once you're 67, you can continue questing by going to Shadowmoon Valley, or you can instance grind in Shadow Labyrinth or Shattered Halls, you can always find people wanting to do instances on most medium to high population servers. Once you hit level 68, head straight to Northrend.


Once you reach Northrend, I suggest you quest – simply because the quests are quite enjoyable and aren’t as boring as those which proceeded them. If you're a Druid you should have about 1000 gold saved up; make sure to go and train the dual specialisation feature. You don't spend the money on a flying mount, so it's pretty much a free dual spec for druids.



If you're a Priest, you'll be alright because most mobs are Undead and your Holy Damage really comes into its own here. Instances in Wrath of the Lich King (WoTLK) are a lot more enjoyable than what you would have become accustomed to while levelling. Encounters are new, and it should give you a new feel for the game. The only zone I insist that you complete in entirety is Dragonblight. It is purely the most epic World of Warcraft experience anyone will ever have if they have any passion for the lore and story of the game.


Instance grinding! That's what this is all about, right? Do what we did in the Outlands, complete a few quests to replace some gear to get 'about on-par' with the various instances’ requirements. Start off by healing Utgarde Keep (UK), it's the easiest instance in WoTLK; the pulls are smaller, and the damage isn't as hard on the tank. Once you're 70, you're safe to heal The Nexus, but I strongly suggest being level 70 at minimum for this one, I tried healing it at 69 and barely got through, if you're pro at your class (and I hope you are by 70) you should be able to at 68-69, but do UK to be safe.


Levels 70 and 71 are going to be a brick wall. For a start, it’s 1.5 million experience per level from 70 to 80, so this actually takes time. Instance grinding can drive you insane, and can get you bored of your class, so I suggest questing throughout Northrend.


The following zone sequence has proved successful in my travels: Borean Tundra -> Howling Fjord -> Dragonblight -> Grizzly Hills -> Zul'Drak -> Storm Peaks -> Icecrown. Instance in-between zones, but most instance quests are chains, so I would suggest searching those and picking them up.


Once you're 80, you're going to want a minimum of 1300 spellpower in order to heal heroics safely. Heroic gear should upgrade you easily to 1500-1800, and from there on out, hit up some raids, whether they be PuG raids, guild raids or PvP raids (VoA). Getting gear is addictive and probably the best part about this game, but that’s obvious, who doesn't want a pimped out character?


Thank you for reading, please visit The Dalaran Inn | World of Warcraft news, articles, tips, opinions and theories for more great articles like this one.

[1337-kage]

Thanks for the time and effort. Though, could you make this a downloadable guide instead?
+3 rep.

[Erase]

Good guide. I got the feeling of starting a Huamn Priest now. +Rep.

[Nattsvart]

Nice guide, +2 repZ

[slip9]

Thanks alot

[Wizardscom]

thanks i needed one of these

[butsweat]

excelent work

[slip9]

excelent work

Glad you liked it.

[vipe1987]

Good guide. I got the feeling of starting a Huamn Priest now. +Rep.

Chrille is it u from ex-SS? )

[Chronic1337]

I vote for dual-spec shadow

[HaxOMatic]

I also vote for dual speccing if you're a healer .) But nice guide anyway mate!

[slip9]

Yeah, but this is for people who want to level purely as a healing spec (or don't have the 1000 gold for dual-spec)

[00kevin]

should save me a bit of time rolling another druid up.

+rep

[trev1776]

+Rep for the guide

[slip9]

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