In the World of Warcraft, Priests are one of the classes that really have some problems with leveling. They can only wear cloth armor but they lack the damage potential of a Mage or a Warlock.

A few players actually try to level their character with a Holy or Discipline leveling talent build, but in my opinion, the fastest and easiest way to level up your priest is the (8/0/63) Shadow leveling spec. It’s superior to Holy or Discipline since it allows you to do quests on your own – the fastest way of leveling by far.

Let’s take a look at the talent points…

Priest Leveling Guide – (8/0/63) Shadow Leveling Spec

Shadow: 63 Points

• Spirit Tap 3/3
• Improved Spirit Tap 2/2
• Darkness 5/5
• Mind Flay 1/1
• Improved Psychic Scream 2/2
• Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2/2
• Shadow Weaving 3/3
• Shadow Reach 2/2
• Vampiric Embrace 1/1
• Improved Vampiric Embrace 2/2
• Silence 1/1
• Focused Mind 3/3
• Improved Devouring Plague 3/3
• Shadowform 1/1
• Shadow Power 5/5
• Improved Shadowform 2/2
• Misery 3/3
• Vampiric Touch 1/1
• Pain and Suffering 3/3
• Twisted Faith 5/5
• Dispersion 1/1
• Improved Mind Blast 5/5
• Shadow Focus 3/3
• Psychic Horror 1/1
• Mind Melt 2/2
• Veiled Shadows 1 / 2

Discipline: 8 Points

• Twin Disciplines 5/5
• Improved Inner Fire 3/3

Priest Leveling Guide – How To Play The Shadow Priest

When initiating the combat, hit the mob with your three Damage Over Time spells: Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague and Shadow Word: Pain.

Once you have “prepared” the enemy, your bread and butter spells are Mind Flay and Mind Blast. They are your standard nukes and you should use them whenever the cooldown allows.

Once you know about all your skills and abilities, you have to get your questing path dialed to get the most out of your Shadow Priest. The best way to do it is to get an in-game leveling guide. One that gives you instructions on your next step directly on your screen. If you want to level 1-80 really fast, I strongly recommend you to look at a WoW Leveling Guide.

The great advantage of a marksmanship build is in the huge burst damage and your ability to hit many targets at once thanks Multi-Shot and other skills. Although your pet will not be such a great tank as with a Beast Mastery build, you will still be able to deal a lot of damage.

Now, here’s the actual talent point distribution:

3.3 Marksman Hunter Leveling Spec 11/53/7

Marksmanship: 53 Points

• Lethal Shots 5/5
• Improved Concussive Shot 2/2
• Improved Hunter’s Mark 3/3
• Mortal Shots 5/5
• Go for the Throat 1/2
• Improved Arcane Shot 3/3
• Aimed Shot 1/1
• Rapid Killing 2/2
• Improved Stings 3/3
• Efficiency 5/5
• Concussive Barrage 2/2
• Readiness 1/1
• Barrage 3/3
• Piercing Shots 3/3
• Trueshot Aura 1/1
• Improved Barrage 3/3
• Master Marksman 5/5
• Rapid Recuperation 2/2
• Silencing Shot 1/1
• Marked for Death 1/5
• Chimera Shot 1/1

Beast Mastery: 11 Points

• Improved Aspect of the Hawk 5/5
• Endurance Training 3/5
• Focused Fire 2/2
• Aspect Mastery 1/1

Survival: 7 Points

• Improved Tracking 2/5
• Hawk Eye 3/3
• Survival Instincts 2/2

Playing with the Marksman Hunter Leveling Build

When spending your talent points, I highly recommend you to go for every talent that makes you more mana efficient ASAP!!

Compared to the Beast Master Hunter, the Marksman Hunter has to spend a lot more mana in order to deal damage. On the other hand your damage output is definitely stronger when it comes to burst damage.

Get Chimera Shot as soon as you can. Efficiency, Master Marksman and Rapid Recuperation will also help you to spend less mana and recover it faster. This is very important. If you spend too much mana and can’t recover it in time, you will spend a lot of time drinking and making breaks!

Hope you like my 3.3 Marksman Hunter Leveling spec – have lots of fun leveling your sharpshooter!

The Retribution Paladin is literally the only way to spec your alt if you want to deal some damage. Of course, some players prefer to level their characters by playing in groups and visiting instances, but let’s be honest: We want the highest xp/hour rate that is humanly possible!

Before I talk about the leveling tactic, let’s take a look at the 3.3 Retribution Paladin leveling spec:

3.3 Retribution Paladin Leveling Guide 0/12/59

Retribution: 59 Points

• Benediction 5/5
• Improved Judgements 2/2
• Heart of the Crusader 3/3
• Improved Blessing of Might 2/2
• Vindication 2/2
• Conviction 5/5
• Seal of Command 1/1
• Pursuit of Justice 2/2
• Sanctity of Battle 3/3
• Crusade 3/3
• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization 3/3
• Sanctified Retribution 1/1
• Vengeance 3/3
• Divine Purpose 2/2
• The Art of War 2/2
• Repentance 1/1
• Judgements of the Wise 3/3
• Fanaticism 3/3
• Sanctified Wrath 2/2
• Swift Retribution 3/3
• Crusader Strike 1/1
• Sheath of Light 3/3
• Righteous Vengeance 3/3
• Divine Storm 1/1

Protection: 12 Points

• Divinity 4/5
• Divine Strength 5/5
• Stoicism 3/3

How To Play The 3.3 Retribution Paladin Leveling Spec

The basics are simple: Grab a 2-h weapon and mail armor when starting to level up your Paladin. Important stats are Strength and Stamina.

When it comes to your talents, rush for Improved Judgements, Seal of Command, Art of War, Judgements of the Wise and Crusader Strike as soon as you can. Everything else is less important.

One word of warning: Although I like to call it a leveling strategy, leveling a Paladin as a dull task to begin with. On the one hand you will have little problems soloing even the hardest enemies thanks to your massive armor and healing power, but your damage output is quite poor.

Initiate the fight with Hand of Reckoning, then judge whenever possible. Once you spec Art of War, Exorcism can be used as an instant and you should do it whenever you can.

But first of all one word of warning: Destruction is both mana-inefficient and gear-dependant. I recommend you to use the Warlock Destruction leveling spec once you’ve got to level 60 or even higher.

Once you get to the outland, the gear suddenly gets a lot more powerful as you probably already know. You will get more mana and – most importantly – a lot of spell damage on your equipment.

Level 1-60 with the traditional Affliction or Demonology build and then you can easily switch to the devastating Destruction leveling talent build.

Here’s how my guide suggest you to spend all your talent builds:

Destruction (55)

• Bane 5/5
• Molten Skin 3/3
• Cataclysm 3/3
• Shadowburn 1/1
• Ruin 5/5
• Intensity 2/2
• Destructive Reach 2/2
• Improved Immolate 3/3
• Devastation 1/1
• Emberstorm 5/5
• Conflagrate 1/1
• Soul Leech 3/3
• Pyroclasm 3/3
• Shadow and Flame 5/5
• Backdraft 3/3
• Shadowfury 1/1
• Empowered Imp 3/3
• Fire and Brimstone 5/5
• Chaos Bolt 1/1

Demonology (16)

• Improved Imp 3/3
• Demonic Embrace 3/3
• Demonic Brutality 3/3
• Fel Vitality 2/2
• Soul Link 1/1
• Fel Domination 1/1
• Demonic Aegis 3/3

When it comes to equipment there are only a few things you should look for: Spell damage, Critical Strike rating and Haste rating. You will waste your mana very fast and there is no need to hold back. You will make lots of breaks to recover your mana. But that’s okay since you can kill off many mobs in little time.

That’s why you shouldn’t try to stack Intellect on your gear when you can also choose an item that increases your spell damage or crit. chance.

With this Warlock Destruction leveling spec you can fly through the last remaining 20 levels and finally ding 80 in no time.

For more information on fast leveling, check out my WoW leveling guide!

Your Pet also acts as a tank and regenerates health very fast. This way you will take the least amount of damage and die less often. And – most importantly – have to make only a few breaks now and then to regenerate mana.

Other Talent builds (Marksmanship for example) requires more mana, better gear, more breaks and your pet won’t tank very well.

Here’s how my Hunter leveling guide recommends you to spend your talent points:

Hunter Leveling guide – Beast Mastery Build (52/19/0)

Beast Mastery (52 points)

• Improved Aspect of the Hawk (5/5)
• Focused Fire (2/2)
• Thick Hide (3/3)
• Improved Revive Pet (1/2)
• Unleashed Fury (5/5)
• Improved Mend Pet (2/2)
• Ferocity (5/5)
• Spirit Bond (2/2)
• Intimidation (1/1)
• Animal Handler (2/2)
• Frenzy (5/5)
• Bestial Wrath (1/1)
• Catlike Reflexes (3/3)
• Serpent’s Swiftness (5/5)
• The Beast Within (1/1)
• Cobra Strikes (3/3)
• Kindred Spirits (5/5)
• Beast Mastery (1/1)

Marksmanship (19 points)

• Lethal Shots (5/5)
• Careful Aim (3/3)
• Improved Hunter’s Mark (3/3)
• Mortal Shots (5/5)
• Efficiency (3/3)

How To Play The Beast Master

Playing with this talent spec is really easy and will feel like you have an auto-pilot activated. Cast a Hunter’s Mark on your target, then send your pet in.

You only need to wait a very short amount of time before your pet has generated enough threat for you to start dealing damage. Auto-attack is the hunters’ best friends and I recommend you to use your abilities carefully.

On the one hand you can enhance your damage with many of your spells, but most of them are not really mana-efficient and the time you save by dealing a bit more damage can easily be consumed by the next mana-recovery break.

What I try to say is that you should only use the most mana-efficient abilities if you have to make breaks often. If you ‘never’ have mana problems, add more spells to save some more time and level faster.

I hope you got some value from my Hunter leveling guide!

Want more fast leveling techniques? Check out this WoW leveling guide.

I want to point out the best usage for every talent tree. Every tree can be used to level your mage, but the efficiency varies a lot. Every build depends on some core talents and are completely useless if your level is too low to spec them.

Before we press on and look at the talent builds: Here’s a comprehensive guide that you can check out if you want to level faster, earn 500g+ / hour and get exalted with all factions.

Click Here for the Ultimate World Of Warcraft Guide

1. Frost Mage Leveling Spec 2010

The frost build is widely considered the fastest leveling tree, thanks to mana-efficiency, survivability, crowd control and high burst damage.

Before you hit level 40, you will still lack some important spells: Ice Block and Frost Barrier. This makes using AoE abilities extremely dangerous. If things go wrong you will not be able to save your life and will often die. That’s why before level 40 you should stick to Frostbolt and Frost Nova.

After level 40 frost mages can unfold their full potential and go all in: Pull as many mobs as you can, Nova them and bring them down with your AoE spells. The fastest and easiest way to level up.

Take a look at this Frost Mage Leveling Spec.

2. Fire Mage Leveling Spec 2010

The fire leveling spec is known for the lack of AoE damage and incredible high damage on single targets. The mana-efficiency is rather low, though.

The fire talent spec is great in the early levels when Frost still lacks the most important abilities. Start out with Improved Fireball first.

The Fire leveling spec relies on high critical strike chance and spell damage. Talents such as Critical Mass and Pyromaniac are mandatory.

Playing this spec needs no explanation as it is very straight-forward. You always try to bring down a single target … and hit it with everything you’ve got. Just don’t use AoE abilities on single targets since they are even more mana-inefficient and might exhaust your mana too quickly.

Take a look at this Fire Mage Spec 2010 for detailed talent instructions.

3. Arcane Mage Leveling Spec 2010

The Arcane leveling build focuses on mana conservation and lacks the high damage of a Fire tree. Although it has a great potential to control the battlefield, the low damage output make the Arcane build hard to level on your own. It’s better suited for a group play.

I don’t recommend you to play an Arcane build if you want to level fast, but lots of Fire specs put a few points into the Arcane tree to further boost their critical strike chance and conserve some mana that they greatly need.

Check out each tree and see for yourself if you like the playing style. Or switch to another build later if you lack the core talents yet. I hope you got some value from my guide about the best mage leveling spec 2010.

Want more information about fast leveling? Check out this WoW leveling guide.

Frustrated With Slow Leveling Speed? Not Earning At Least 500g/hour?

If your answer to any of the above questions is yes, then I strongly recommend that you go and check out
The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide.

This regularly updated, essential guide includes both Horde and Alliance 1-80 power leveling guides, 500g+/hour gold guide, professions guide, reputation and daily quests guide, beginners guide, talent/gear guide for all classes, macro guide and more. And it’s constantly revised and updated by pro-gamers who love this game as much as you do. Click here to go check it out now!

Many players underestimate the power of Metamorphosis because they just think of it only as an emergency ability to save their lives in tight situations. But the abilities you get while changing into your demon form are great to farm (quest)mobs.

One word of warning though: I do not recommend you to play with this leveling spec if you haven’t hit level 50 yet. The Demonology talents are great and make it easy to level your twink. But the early talents are just not as efficient as the later ones. So don’t use a talent build that relies on the Felguard and Metamorphosis if you can’t actually spec these talents!

Warlock Metamorphosis Leveling Guide – Talent Points

When it comes to the Warlock Metamorphosis leveling strategy, I think Destruction supplements Demonology way better than Affliction. You need to get gear with lots of additional spell damage and critical hit to get the most out of your Metamorphosis AoE spells.

Why not go all the way and get the matching Destruction talents?

Warlock Metamorphosis Leveling Guide – The Glyphs

Felguard – Increases your Felguard’s total attack power by 20%

Until you get the Metamorphosis spell – and even after that – you will rely on the Felguard to tank and kill most of the mobs. Major Glyph: Felguard is mandatory!

Metamorphosis – Increases the duration of your Metamorphosis by 6 sec

No need for an explanation here. Leveling your Warlock with the AoE farming ability of Metamorphosis simply requires this Glyph!

I hope you enjoyed my Warlock Metamorphosis Leveling Guide and have lots of fun leveling your character with the Demonology Tree or take a look at another leveling guide.

I promise you it’s NOT pre-WotLK or even pre-BC content!

The build focuses – like every good fire spec – on critical hits and high critical hit damage. If you want to change some talents so that the talent spec fits your unique playing style, keep in mind that this build is about the big numbers!

Click Here for the Ultimate World Of Warcraft Guide

Alright, here’s the Fire Mage spec 2010 edition:

The build is primary a leveling build, meant to help your WoW mage to get from level 1-80 as fast as possible. It’s not a pure Fire Mage PvE Raid spec. I’m thinking about adding a Raid-build later though!

In case you are wondering which major glyphs are optimal to support the Fire Mage spec 2010, here are some recommendations:

Fireball – Increases the critical strike chance of Fireball by 5%, but removes the damage over time effect.

Fireball is one of your main spells. The DoT effect is diminishing compared to the higher crit chance. Remember, fire specs are always about critical hit chance and damage.

Scorch – Increases the damage of your Scorch spell by 20%

This major Glyph is okay. It’s not too great but good to fill your slot until you get the better glyphs.

Living Bomb – The periodic damage from your Living Bomb can now be critical strikes.

“…can now be critical strikes.” Does this ring a bell?

Molten Armor – Your Molten Armor spell grants an additional 20% of your spirit as critical strike rating.

Even more critical strike chance. Give it to me! Although the number will not be very high, every bit counts.

I hope you enjoyed my Fire Mage spec 2010 and can use it to level up your Mage alt (or even main?). Come back soon for more another up-to-date mage leveling guide!

Frustrated With Slow Leveling Speed? Not Earning At Least 500g/hour?

If your answer to any of the above questions is yes, then I strongly recommend that you go and check out
The Ultimate World of Warcraft Guide.

This regularly updated, essential guide includes both Horde and Alliance 1-80 power leveling guides, 500g+/hour gold guide, professions guide, reputation and daily quests guide, beginners guide, talent/gear guide for all classes, macro guide and more. And it’s constantly revised and updated by pro-gamers who love this game as much as you do. Click here to go check it out now!

Take a look at all the racial abilities and compare them… some are great while others are just mediocre or outright useless.

Choose the right race for your mage and you will be one step ahead while the wrong pick will never let you tap into your full potential.

Human

Perception – passive

“Increases stealth detection by 5 points.”

• Boosts your stealth detection by 1 level. Maybe the one level you need to detect the rogue behind you and cast Frost Nova in time, but good rogues will rarely let that happen.

The Human Spirit – passive

“Spirit increased by 3%. “

• Enhances your mana regeneration by a small amount. Now, because it’s hardy necessary for leveling or PvP, it’s only interesting for raids. But you will hardly notice any ‘real’ difference since you will use skills / potions all the time.

Diplomacy – passive

“Faction reputation gains increased by 10%. “

• Very useful. Saves lots of time if you ever want to farm reputation – and chances are high you will with all the new factions and rewards in every addon.

Every Man for Himself – instant – 2 min cooldown

“Activate to remove all movement impairing effects and all effects which cause loss of control of your character. “

• Useful for PvP, in combination with Blink you will often flee from a tight situation.

Sword Specialization – passive

“Expertise with One-Handed Swords and Two-Handed Swords increased by 3. “

• Useless for Mages.

Mace Specialization – passive

“Expertise with One-Handed Maces and Two-Handed Maces increased by 3.”

• Useless for Mages.

My Opinion:

The Human Mages’ advantage is definitely in his ‘Diplomacy’, but his PvP capabilities are nice, too. But since he is less effective than the gnome, the Human will probably the choice for players that want to save time when farming reputation.

Gnome

Escape Artist – instant – 1.75 min cooldown

“Escape the effects of any immobilization or movement speed reduction effect. “

• One of the ‘best’ PvP racials ever. That’s all you need to know.

Expansive Mind – passive

“Intellect increased by 5%. “

• 5 % more mana for a caster class like the Mage? Yes, please!

Engineering Specialist – passive

“Engineering skill increased by 15.”

• Engineering is simply the best PvP profession in the game and a bonus of 15 is great.

Arcane Resistance – passive

“Reduces the chance you will be hit by Arcane spells by 2%. “

• Unreliable, unpredictable, wasted.

My Opinon:

The Gnome Mage is – in my opinion – the best choice for both PvP and PvE and fast leveling for the Alliance.

Draenei

Gift of the Naaru – instant – 1.5 sec cast – 3 min cooldown

“Activate to heal the target 50 + 15/Level over 15 sec – 40 yd range. The amount healed is increased based on the caster’s Spell Power or Attack Power (whichever is higher). This ability does not lose casting time from taking damage. (At level 1 it heals 50 health, and 1235 at level 80) “

• This is controversial: On the one hand, a healing racial for a non-healing class should be very useful. On the other hand it’s a HoT – If a Mage is in a tight situation, he will likely not survive the next 15 seconds, and while leveling you will make breaks to get mana anyway.

Heroic Presence

“Increases chance to hit by 1% for you and all party members within 30 yards.”

• Heroic Presence is probably the argument for Draenei of all classes – a really great opportunity to max both your character as well as your party members. A Draenei Mage is an asset to every raid group.

Gemcutting – passive

“Jewelcrafting skill increased by 5.”

• For Jewelcrafter…

Shadow Resistance – passive

“Reduces chance to be hit by Shadow spells by 2%. “

• As every Resistance, it’s too unpredictable.

My Opinion:

The Draenei Mage is a good choice for party players thanks to Heroic Presence. If you want to help your raid to max the hit, go for a Draenei.

Now Get That Alliance Mage To Level 80 ASAP

As you can see, all races have their advantages. Gnomes are perfect for PvP players and also give you a nice mana boost. Humans have an easy time farming reputation and Draenei will help your whole raid group.

So, which is the *best* race for your mage? Well, that depends on what you want to do with your character once you hit level 80. You just have to know what you want to do in the endgame content.

Do you want to get the newest Arena gear and dominate other players? Or do you prefer raiding with your friends and guild mates?

If you are like me, I guess you have a picture of your level 80 mage in your mind and want to turn that picture into reality as fast as possible. Get over the boring part of leveling 1-80 and start playing with your friends.

One way to save days of your time on your way to the level cap is an ingame mage leveling guide. Such an add-on is made by progamers who have figured out the perfect questing path – the fastest way to get from level 1-80. And they give you a step-by-step guide directly ingame, on your screen.

If that sounds interesting to you, Click Here now to discover how to ding 80 in as little as 7 days.

First things first: Here are the levels at which new slots for Glyphs are unlocked:

· Level 15: 1 Major, 1 Minor

· Level 30: 2 Major, 1 Minor

· Level 50: 2 Major, 2 Minor

· Level 70: 2 Major, 3 Minor

· Level 80: 3 Major, 3 Minor

This leaves the question, starting at level 15, which is the most efficient major Glyph for Affliction Warlocks?

The Warlock Leveling Guide – The Best Glyphs For Affliction Warlocks

Corruption – Level 15 – Major Glyph

You Corruption spell has a 4% chance to cause you to enter a Shadow Trance state after damaging the opponent. The Shadow Trance state reduces the casting time of your next Shadow Bolt spell by 100%.

Curse of Agony – Level 15 – Major Glyph

Increases the duration of your Curse of Agony by 4 sec.

Siphon Life – Level 30 – Major Glyph

Increases the healing you receive from your Siphon Life talent by 25%.

Souls – Level 68 – Minor Glyph

Reduces the mana cost of your Ritual of Souls spell by 70%.

Drain Soul – Level 15 – Minor Glyph

Your Drain Soul ability occasionally creates an additional soul shard.

Unending Breath – Level 15 – Minor Glyph

Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.

Warlock Leveling Guide – Which Is The Best Order To Get Them?

As an Affliction Warlock you will already face a difficult decision at level 15: Choose Corruption or Curse of Agony as your first major glyph? The greatest benefit of Corruption is it’s synergy with Nightfall – which you will spec at level 28-29 if you follow our Affliction Warlock Leveling Guide. That’s why we recommend going for Glyph: Curse of Agony first.

Next decision when you hit 30. Glyph: Corruption will help you to finish mobs of faster as you use Corruption and Drain Life a lot! But this will also cost you more mana and often the DoTs will not run for their full potential. If you feel that you have absolutely NO mana and health problems, go for Glyph: Corruption and you will greatly increase your leveling speed! But if you need to drain more life, go for Glyph: Siphon Life.

Now, after making these 2 decisions everything else should be obvious. The minor Glyphs are less important so get them as you want.

Note: The improvements to your Affliction spells, especially to Curse of Agony and Siphon Life make the Affliction Warlock even more mana effective than he already is. With the Glyphs recommended in this Warlock leveling guide you will automatically complete every quest slightly faster.

And as you know, completing quests as fast as possible determines how fast you will ding 80. But did you know that most players waste lots of time doing the “wrong” quests that only give you little or no reward for your effort?

To get the most out of your Affliction Warlock, we strongly suggest you get an in-game add-on that shows you exactly how to avoid those junk-quests. Only do the most rewarding quests can save you hours of wasted time.

Next, click here now to read our review of a popular WoW leveling guide.