A priest with problems pre-teen.

[Jarulf]

The last few days, I have mostly played my Undead priest. (Were are all the lurkers on the Horde side on Tenares?). I just hit level 12 and was mostly finnished with quests in the starting area (that I can do solo at least) so I moved to silver pine forest nad have got into huge problems. It is horribly hard to survive due to a few reasons.

* I have not found any way for a priest (at this level) to keep monsters away from you. Mages (which also are cloth users) seems to have some sort of frost spell for example), meaning I typically end up in melee range quickly.

* I have cloth only and have at the moment less Armor than my starting paladin at level 2!!! This means I take lots of damage.


I have a horrible time fighint same level monster (although this I usualy manage), currently bears and spiders and some odd wolf (worg). However, just moving up to level 13 foes (and most are this level) it is typically a 50/50 chance of me dying or simply being able to get away with 3 lifes left or something but no kill. My Druid on the other hand, cruised through quests at this level, typically fighting monsters 2 or 3 levels above or taking on 2 monsters of the same level at the same time, without a sweat or having to find some optimal skill combination.

Am I missing something? Are there some secrets to how the priest manage at this level? I didn't have much problems before (even with higher level monsters) as long as I stuck fighitng 1v1.

[Treesh]

The last few days, I have mostly played my Undead priest. (Were are all the lurkers on the Horde side on Tenares?). I just hit level 12 and was mostly finnished with quests in the starting area (that I can do solo at least) so I moved to silver pine forest nad have got into huge problems.
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Terenas is where we have a Lurkers guild for Horde PvE set up. It may just be a case of people not being on because of the time zone differences. There are even fewer people who can get on during the day over on Terenas so that may be the issue. I'm assuming you've joined the lurkers channel over there.

Were you able to purchase inner fire? Now that you're 12, that should be active whenever you are fighting. If you are taking a lot of damage, power word: shield needs to be used occasionally too. You'll also find having a renew on you helps greatly to mitigate damage using the occasional lesser heal. For soloing fade won't help, but it is a great way to shed aggro when you are in a group.

You will take a lot of damage (or else suck down a lot of mana by shielding frequently), but you can also heal yourself for quite a bit of damage. But yes, you will have a harder time at the lower levels than with a druid or paladin.

[Drasca]

Were are all the lurkers on the Horde side on Tenares?
Am I missing something?
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You might want to consider questing out of Razor Hill south of Ogrimmar (ask for directions to Zep tower).

Not all Horde lurkers are on Terenas. Some of them, like Artega, and myself are on PvP and other servers. Mongojerry's on Tichondrius. I'm on Mannoroth. Not sure which Artega is on. The rest are spread out.

[bernard shakey]

hi jarulf, if your using power word shield as much as possible and keeping renew active all i can say is that your going to find different levels more difficult for different characters depending on the high cost of manna for new spells or inefectiveness of older spells.
I draw them with a mind blast and try to get SW pain to go off at the same time.shoot my wand (you will get some manna regen when you do this) till mind blast is ready again. bubble when they get to me,renew when the bubble comes down. the fight should be almost over now but sometimes you can bubble or renew again. Hope there was something here that helped!

[Jarulf]

Terenas is where we have a Lurkers guild for Horde PvE set up.  It may just be a case of people not being on because of the time zone differences.  There are even fewer people who can get on during the day over on Terenas so that may be the issue.  I'm assuming you've joined the lurkers channel over there.

Ohh, I am allready in the guild there. And the first time there were a few there. I was mostly making a small comment to get people to play more Horde chars there :)

Were you able to purchase inner fire?  Now that you're 12, that should be active whenever you are fighting.  If you are taking a lot of damage, power word: shield needs to be used occasionally too.  You'll also find having a renew on you helps greatly to mitigate damage using the occasional lesser heal.  For soloing fade won't help, but it is a great way to shed aggro when you are in a group.

Don't have Inner fire. Might be something I have missed. As for the other two, believe me, I use them both. The PW:Shield though is taken down relatively quickly although it do help out. One problem applying both the PW:shield and renew, is that although I have quite a bit of mana, my main damage comes from spells as well since the mace I use, simply do to little damage for me ti kill the monster fast enough. Meaning I end up without mana at times and that is one of the reasons I tend to die fighting monsters higher than my level.

You will take a lot of damage (or else suck down a lot of mana by shielding frequently), but you can also heal yourself for quite a bit of damage.  But yes, you will have a harder time at the lower levels than with a druid or paladin.
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From what I have read, it turns better after level 20 or so. I have considered to move to ORc land and do some quests there (after all, I will sooner or later since I want to collect them all, so might just as well go now and gain a level or 2 first).

[Jarulf]

Double post!

[Jarulf]

hi jarulf, if your using power word shield as much as possible and keeping renew active all i can say is that your going to find different levels more difficult for different characters depending on the high cost of manna for new spells or inefectiveness of older spells.
I draw them with a mind blast and try to get SW pain to go off at the same time.shoot my wand (you will get some manna regen when you do this) till mind blast is ready again. bubble when they get to me,renew when the bubble comes down. the fight should be almost over now but sometimes you can bubble or renew again. Hope there was something here that helped!
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The only wands I have seen for sale (have not found any) seems to require level 16 or something like that.

I typically use mind blast, followed by the initial spell (don't recall its name) since I can get it off uninterupted before the monster reaches me, then I go for PW:Pain and depending on the outcome so far, I might cast for example renew or if I don't have it yet, the shield. By then mind blast is usually ready again.

However, at that time, the monster is still usually (even with no resistance) well above 50% health. The mace I have gives far to little damage, and my spells get interupted quite often meaning they take quite some time. The shield typically last for enough time for one spell or so only.

Perhaps I picked bad quests/monsters though and simply need that one extra level or two before it turns easy. Will go and check new skills, I might have missed something for level 12.



Thanks for input so far!

[Selby]

Perhaps I picked bad quests/monsters though and simply need that one extra level or two before it turns easy. Will go and check new skills, I might have missed something for level 12.

My warlock had the same problems at level 11-12 in that area as well. Run into an elite while adventuring and the journey got over very frustratingly quickly. I finally did finish most of that area with some help. I'd recommend heading over to the orc lands and doing their starting area quests while you can still get some experience for them. It's easier to fight a bunch of yellows and greens a few levels lower than you than to fight a few yellows and oranges a few levels above you ;-)

[RTM]

These are probably stupid questions, but have you upgraded your Power Word: Shield spell? I believe you get a new rank at level 12 which should hold up for longer than you seem to be experiencing. And if you did upgrade, are you using the new rank? When I played open beta I started with a rogue- most new ranks of skills replaced the old ones. When I started a caster class, I played for many levels thinking the same thing applied. I noticed a marked increase in my killing speed when I started using the appropriate ranks. :)

[kandrathe]

A good staff helps. I suffered with my priest until I found a good melee weapon.

My typical encounter at that level was to start with SW:P from maximum range, wand them as they closed, after they have got a swipe or two on me I cast Shield, then renew, then melee or wand until my damage is about 1/2 and I when can reshield, then I heal myself, reapply SW:P as needed and etc. etc. etc.

Once at 14 you can cast Psychic Scream, and using it against beasts you will not have add problems.

[Jarulf]

A good staff helps.  I suffered with my priest until I found a good melee weapon.
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Can Priests use staves? I thought it was not in my skill list when I looked. ONly maces and wands was there I think.

[kandrathe]

Can Priests use staves? I thought it was not in my skill list when I looked. ONly maces and wands was there I think.
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Yes. But you might have to make a journey to the weapons master in Thunder Bluff. I would check with Under City first since you are closest, then Orgrimar on the way, and finally TB.

[jhartelt]

I do not remember having difficulties with 1on1 encounters of the same level or 1 above my priest's level. At any level. Monsters 2 levels above my priest have a chance to beat me ans I am only a few mm away from death if they dont. She is lvl 24 currently.

What I did different so far is, that after casting the initial attack spell and applying SW:pain, I meleed the enemies. If things look bad, I cast the shield and Renew.

I am now using a staff weapon. I do not remember at what level I spent the 10s to learn that skill. But it was worth it IMO. A staff offers nice damage and you can find them with the regen attribute on them (playing a german version I cannot currently say what it is named in englisch. willpower would be my by-word translation). Go ahead and look for an update for your mace and try meleeing some enemies.

I did not buy Inner Fire, because the priest I play is primarily a healer. But the skill gave me the idea to start a fighting priest some day. It should be able to offset the lack of heavy armor.

I, too, did not find a wand until late in her teens. It was a quest reward. I never saw one in a shop till then. Perhaps I just looked in the wrong places? But then again, I doubt I will use it much until they one day fix their design and give automatic fire to all classes.

[lfd]

I did not buy Inner Fire, because the priest I play is primarily a healer. But the skill gave me the idea to start a fighting priest some day. It should be able to offset the lack of heavy armor.[right][snapback]79512[/snapback][/right]

I thought that at first, and then I actually took a look at the difference Inner Fire makes. It adds such a large bonus to your armour rating (typically taking damage reduction from 10% to 20%) that you can't really afford to ignore it - it makes you much sturdier when you inevitably pull aggro, which even dedicated healers do occasionally.

By not using inner fire you're basically halving your damage reduction, and it all counts when you're wearing cloth. It won't compensate for not being able to wear the higher classes of armour, but it's cheap to cast and lasts through a few fights - why wouldn't you use it?

Haven't ever got as far as taking the Improved Inner Fire talent, so don't know how much better it makes the spell, if any.

[Treesh]

A good staff helps.  I suffered with my priest until I found a good melee weapon.

My typical encounter at that level was to start with SW:P from maximum range, wand them as they closed, after they have got a swipe or two on me I cast Shield, then renew, then melee or wand until my damage is about 1/2 and I when can reshield, then I heal myself, reapply SW:P as needed and etc. etc. etc.

Once at 14 you can cast Psychic Scream, and using it against beasts you will not have add problems.
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My priests melee frequently as well, especially while young.

Don't start with your quickest cast spell to lure them in. Draw them with your longest casting spell. At Jarulf's level it's smite. Since they haven't aggroed you, you won't be interrupted with the long cast time. As they are running to you, then cast mindblast with the shorter cast time since you'll have less time to cast, but while they are running it still gives you breathing room without having the cast be interrupted. Now that they are on you, pop a pain, make sure inner fire isn't going to go down, hit a renew and melee to your heart's content. While you're meleeing and pain is doing all that damage for you, your mana will be regening so you can either fire off another offensive spell or your lesser heal or if things are really bad, a shield. Using that setup, all my priests at that level have little to no downtime and if you get an add, you'll have enough mana to deal with the add as well.

[Treesh]

The only wands I have seen for sale (have not found any) seems to require level 16 or something like that.
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I'll have Mogoraindyn make you a wand. The wands enchanters can make only require level 5. I'll make a couple of different leveled wands and mail them off to you. Wands make your life as a priest easier. :)

[KiloVictor]

My priests melee frequently as well, especially while young.

Don't start with your quickest cast spell to lure them in.  Draw them with your longest casting spell.  At Jarulf's level it's smite.  Since they haven't aggroed you, you won't be interrupted with the long cast time.  As they are running to you, then cast mindblast with the shorter cast time since you'll have less time to cast, but while they are running it still gives you breathing room without having the cast be interrupted.  Now that they are on you, pop a pain, make sure inner fire isn't going to go down, hit a renew and melee to your heart's content.
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That's an important point, to open with your longest cast-time spell. I modify the casting order slightly to get a bit more damage up front by hitting SW:P immediately after the Smite, and then strafing to one side (faster than backing up) while I'm waiting for the 1-sec cooldown before I fire Mind Blast. If you are good with your positioning and start at max range, you can usually go Smite-SW:P-Mind Blast before they close on you for melee.

I'll usually toss Renew on myself at the start of the melee too, just so I can maximize the mana regen time to my next cast.

While you're meleeing and pain is doing all that damage for you, your mana will be regening so you can either fire off another offensive spell or your lesser heal or if things are really bad, a shield.  Using that setup, all my priests at that level have little to no downtime and if you get an add, you'll have enough mana to deal with the add as well.
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That's the other key thing for a low-level priest, the "five second rule" for mana regen. Once you stop casting, it takes five seconds for mana regeneration to start, and it continues until you *finish* casting your next spell -- time spent in the cast is still regeneration time.

That's why you want to group your casts, and that's why I add the Renew at the start of the melee. It's a bit more mana-efficient than using the shield, and it means I can go a few seconds longer in melee without casting, so I get a bit more mana regen. It works well; like Treesh, my low-level priest didn't have a lot of downtime.

If you're going with Shadow talents, getting the Spirit Tap talent as soon as possible makes a huge difference in downtime. I'd suggest it as the first talent if you're going to invest in Shadow at all.

The only other thing that I'd suggest is start grouping with people. You want to have a good list of other classes to group with, so best to start meeting the other players now. :)

Kv

[Quark]

I thought that at first, and then I actually took a look at the difference Inner Fire makes.  It adds such a large bonus to your armour rating ...
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Here's the best way to put it. Priests with Inner Fire have more armor than my Rogue. Which also means they probably beat Druids at the Druids' supposed advantage of having leather.

[Sir_Die_alot]

It's good to have you on the server Jarulf! Now if I could just get back on... :wacko:

I'm surprised nobody suggested this: look for a group. I have NEVER made a character that would pass up a grouping with a friendly priest. Also as someone else suggested, try Razor Hill and Barrens (at your level I would try Barrens first, and if that is too hard go back to RH). Orc troll and tauren quests all lead here instead of silverpine so it's usually easier to find a group.

You could also spam that you are the diablo 1 and 2 celebrety Jarulf in the LFG channel. That might get someone who remembers you to help out. ;)

[Tharn]

For melee DPS, there should be some affordable mace or staff available on AH, probably below 40s.