Smite Leveling Build Lvl 70 to 80 [3.1 Edition]

If you are looking for an alternative leveling spec other than shadow to do your Wotlk grind from level 70 to 80, consider the following Smite build:

Discipline & Holy Hybrid: 31/27/3

Discipline (31 points)
5/5 Twin Disciplines damage & healing
3/3 Improved Inner Fire damage & healing via spellpower gained from buff
2/2 Improved Power Word: Fortitude survivability
3/3 Meditation mana conservation
1/1 Inner Focus mana conservation
3/3 Improved Power Word: Shield survivability
3/3 Mental Agility mana conservation
2/2 Reflective Shield damage
5/5 Mental Strength mana conservation
1/1 Soul Warding survivability & mana conservation
2/2 Focused Power damage & healing
1/1 Power Infusion damage & healing

Holy (27 points)
3/3 Improved Renew healing
5/5 Holy Specialization damage & healing
5/5 Divine Fury damage & healing
1/1 Desperate Prayer survivability
1/3 Inspiration filler
3/3 Improved Healing healing
2/2 Searing Light damage
5/5 Spiritual Guidance damage & healing
2/2 Surge of Light damage & healing

Shadow (3 points)
3/3 Spirit Tap mana conservation

With this build, you gain the best of both worlds. You can deal descent damage using your holy offensive spells for solo leveling or dpsing in instances. As well, you still retain your full ability to heal if you wish to take on such role.

As you level up, addition talent points can be placed to improve your leveling experience in the following order:

Level 71: 1/1 Spirit of Redemption
Level 72: 1/3 Enlightenment
Level 73: 2/3 Enlightenment
Level 74: 3/3 Enlightenment
Level 75: 1/3 Focused Will
Level 76: 2/3 Focused Will
Level 77: 3/3 Focused Will
Level 78: 1/2 Aspiration
Level 79: 2/2 Aspiration

If you prefer offensive damage dealing rather than healing, you can choose to max out Focused Will before Enlightenment for the extra critical strike ratings.

At level 79, your build should look like this: 39/28/3

A holy dps hybrid build is about maximizing your attributes and using them to your advantage. Talents are there to increase your intellect, stamina, spirit, and spellpower so that no attribute is wasted. I shall be bold and say that a holy dps hybrid build gives you the mana regeneration of a discipline priest, the healing capability of a holy priest, and damage numbers that can match a shadow priest when it comes to burst.

Typical Spell Rotation for Soloing
PW: Shield -> Holy Fire -> Smite x 2 or 3 -> SW: Death

Use Power Infusion and Inner Focus every cooldown. For Elites, apply Devouring Plague and SW: Pain after PW: Shield but before Holy Fire.

Typical Healing Strategy (Similar to Holy Priests)

• Keep Renew on tank at all time.
• Keep Prayer of Mending on bounce.
• Use Greater Heal for large damage.
  
• Use Surge of Light triggered Flash Heal to patch up small damage. Use Renew on Life Taping warlocks or those needing patch up in between pulls.
• Cast Fade if you pull aggro. Use Binding Heal if your Fade is on cooldown and your PW: Shield broke leaving you with the Weakened Soul effect.
  
• Use Desperate Prayer on yourself when you take heavy damage. Keep yourself alive.
• Use Inner Focus with high mana costing spells such as Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing.
• For heavy aoe damage, use Power Infusion coupled with Prayer of Healing.
• Activate Power Infusion when healing heavy spike damage to increase your casting speed.
• Use PW:Shield on squishy mages or other dps who pulls aggro. Shield tank if you think he is in danger of dying before your Greater Heal lands. Your PW: Shield is cheap enough to be used when you need it but not cheap enough to spam like discipline priests.

Glyphs Choices
Before reaching level 80, you only have two major glyph slots and three minor glyph slots. For your major glyphs, Glyph of Smite is a must, followed by Glyph of Shadow Word: Death is what I personally recommend. For minor glyphs, take Glyph of Levitate (for laughs), Shadowfiend, and Fade.

What Do You Remember About Being A Newbie?

I got tagged by Luthvian over at Polymorph: Pwny on an interesting topic regarding "noobish mistakes" from when we were newbies, so here goes nothing.

• The first toon I created in WoW was a mage. Been a long time Diablo II player I thought the talent trees mechanics work the same way in WoW as that in Diablo II. That is, you can't respec after you have inputted the points. The only way to respec was to make a new toon, at least that's what I thought. Heh guess what I did when I accidentally screwed up the talent points? Let's just say I know the human starting area very well, perhaps more so than I wished.
• My first Deadmine trip was fantastic. I think I spend a good four hours in that place? Never really finished in the end.
• During my second Deadmine trip, I noticed the druid in my group not doing anything but following me around. As both a clicker and a newbie, I guess I had some heavy tunnel vision. Been the aggro monster mage that I was, I didn't realize the druid was a healer until he offered to battle rez me after a wipe. Good thing I kept my mouth shut about him not doing any dps. "Ah so the green ribbon stuff you put on me were heals?" /facepalm
• I didn't know what a wand does until well into my late 20 levels.
• I thought you have to empty a bag completely in order to replace it with a bigger bag, so I vendored all my stuff every time I got a new bag.
• In my early levels, I avoided duals because I thought I'll lose all my equipment and gold. (I blame Diablo II)
• I didn't know about rest experience until I entered Outland.
• I thought getting killed by opposite faction members will destroy your experience points and turn your armor all red.
• As a priest, I healed by clicking on my party's portrait then click on the spell in my cast bar. I healed like this from level 1 to 60 as shadow. It was not until I entered level 70 heroic dungeons did I start to remotely use keybinding. I suppose all that mouse exercise from Diablo II made me a really fast clicker, as no one ever really complained about my healing. Think back, I don't really understand how I managed that. /finger flex
• I didn't know what a Battleground is until level 30 something.
• I thought you can only play on one realm with a single account.
• I rolled a Night Elf priest before making my current one which is a human. I think I spend a good half hour searching for the "Star Shard" spell in my spell book. I died a little inside when I found out that I was not suppose to have it due to priest racials. I always loved Desperate Prayer though.
• Going into battleground in a wedding dress and a white staff. I figure I won't be targeted as much...
• I had Warlock phobia for the longest time. See?
  
• I didn't know what DPS means, I thought it was another code name for mage.
• I didn't know what QQ means for the longest time.
• I once vowed I would always stay shadow on my priest...thought it was authentic or something.
  
• I'm a slacker when it comes to dailies, so saving gold for flying mounts is very difficult for me. I didn't have enough gold to buy cold weather flight skill for Woltk for the longest time. The first time I went to Naxx was with a pug. Someone was looking for one more dps in the trade channel. I offered my shadow priest, joined the raid, then realized that I only had 6oo gold in my bag. I told them "brb", and went off to all my alts, shipped all the gold from my bank mule, vendored all items I can find on my alts, and mailed everything to my priest. After 15 minutes, after clearing out half of my bank and vendoring all my TBC epics, I managed to gather 1000 gold with a few extra copper for repair. It was very silly. I was going to keep my TBC stuff for nostalgic reasons, but after a smooth Naxx clear in less than four hours, I guess my last minute effort at gathering gold was not in vain after all. Although I did feel like a newbie all over again, I still am.

Obvious Things to Know When Playing A Priest

1. Haste effect from Power Infusion does not stack with Heroism / Bloodlust.
2. Power Infusion can be used on others.
3. Twin Discipline affects Smite and Flash Heal triggered by Surge of Light. It also affects Mind Flay and Penance as an exception. It also increases Power Word: Shield (PW:S) absorption amount as well as healing done from Glyph of PW:S
4. Inner Focus + Divine Hymn = ZOMG!
5. Improved Inner Fire not only increases armor value granted by Inner Fire (IF), it also increases the total spellpower gained from IF by 54, giving you a total of 174 spellpower from the IF buff.
6. Aspiration reduces the cooldown of your Power Infusion, Pain Suppression, Inner Focus, and Penance spells on a percentage base. This means the shorter the cooldown, the smaller the reduction. For example, if Penance has a 10 secs cooldown, it will be reduced to 8 secs by Aspiration. If Penance has a 8 secs cooldown from Glyph of Penance, it will be reduced to 6.4 secs, -1.6 secs by Aspiration.
7. Pain Suppression is not bullet proof. It only reduces damage taken by 40%. You can still die when under the effect of PS so heal yourself!
8. Spell Warding reduces all magical damage taken. This includes curses, spells, fire/frost/nature/arcane/holy/shadow boss damage.
9. Desperate Prayer can saves raids. Dead priests can't heal. So spend a point for your own good.
10. Spirit of Redemption doesn't last that long. Evil GCD! You can cancel the effect by right click on the SoR icon on your buff bar.
11. Warlocks love Lightwell, doesn't mean you will spec into it, but still, warlocks love it so spread some love.
12. Guardian Spirit + Your Faction Leader = Angry Opposite Faction Raiders
13. Power Infusion + Prayer of Healing = ZOMG! And you think discipline sucks at aoe healing? (well, they do comparing with holy, but they don't suck as much as you think they do)
14. Dispersion is not bullet proof if you cast it at 5% health
15. You have a buff called Shadow Protection. It's one of those things you can use to not die on a certain Voidwalker in Violet Hold.
16. You have a spell called Power Word: Shield. It prevents spell pushbacks, it can be cast on others. It doesn't matter if you are discipline, holy, or shadow. Use it, love it, it saves lives.
17. Mind Control + Opposite Faction Players + Arathi Basin Lumber Mill = Death
18. Levitate + High Grounds = Soft Landing
19. Levitate can be used on others
20. Spirit Tap and Improved Spirit Tap do not stack
21. Spirit Tap is great for leveling.
    
22. Cure Disease, Abolish Disease, Fear Ward, Shackle Undead are all castable in Shadowform
23. First Aid does not cost mana, so learn it, use it, and love it. Especially if you play shadow.
24. You have a spell called Mind Vision. It can be used on friends or foes. It cannot be dispelled. Rank two does not require Line of Sight. Cast Mind Vision on rogue or druid before a duel will prevent them from going into stealth. You can also target flag carriers using Mind Vision, a wonderful spy glass. (Just keep an eye on your own health, while your mind is away in another's, your body is still in a war zone.)
    
25. You can break Polymorph by timing your Shadow Word: Death to land at the same time as Polymorph to break cc.
26. You can Dispel.
27. You have a spell called Binding Heal, it heals both yourself and your target for an amount equal to a Flash Heal. Consider it as a double Flash Heal that takes less time to cast and cost less mana with a lot less threat.
28. You have a spell called Mind Soothe, it's great to use on targets before Mind Controlling them. But be careful as it can be resisted. When that happens, be prepared to run as you will pull a whole pack of mobs. Also, Mind Soothe animation look exactly like Sap, so toss this around in battleground to cause some serious confusion, enough to keep your target starring at the screen for a fraction of a second or so. It might just be enough to get you out of a tough spot.
29. As a priest, half of your spellbook is filled with healing spells, so use them. Even if you are shadow, you can still heal in emergency situations.
30. If you apply Shadow Word: Pain before x5 stacks of Shadow Weaving, you need to reapply it yourself after reaching the 5 stacks. SW:P refreshed by Mind Flay will not carry on the characteristics of the new 5 stack SW, causing you to lose a good chunk of your dps.
31. Glyph of Smite is excellent for leveling.

The list goes on and on, there's probably a lot more obvious things but I just cannot remember them at the moment. o.O"