Thoughts on Leveling my Shadow Priest

Ahh maintenance day. I get to have the day off and servers are down for maintenance consuming my day off...... bummer! Unfortunately I didn't get to play much or at all on the weekend either, since was too busy working as well. But did get to play a little before the server shut down for maintenance enough to move my newbie Shadow Priest along to lvl 51. As well he will remain my entire focus in game play till he gets to lvl 80.

Good thing as well the Shadow Priest is my very last Alt I'm leveling up for the rest of WotLK as well and my last time leveling through the soon to to be forgotten world. I will be finally glad to be done with my leveling project as well. So the end is in sight as well.

And so far I'm also enjoying learning the ways of playing and leveling up Shadow Priest strictly for dps and to play around with like my other few 80 Alts as a option to the weekly emotional gyrations to all things Paladin.

I've had my Priest for almost as long as my Paladin has been around. He's was at first my banking mule, then prime banker for way too long. So its good he's finally seeing some long delayed adventure. One the thing whether I was tanking or in a instance I just never see much Shadow Priest around. Holy and Disc Priest for healers but few "fultime" Shadow Priests. I did read 35 pages of thread at Elitist Jerk forum to get up to speed. I cant say exactly what i remember, but I did learn a few things, though I cant really say what exactly that was after 35 pages and I read every one of them.

For leveling up my last Alt I needed something a bit different to play and something interesting to me at least. It was almost a shoe in bet that I would level up my lvl 22 Druid. I was sure it would be my Druid as well. But when I logged onto my Druid and looked at his spells having not played him in forever I just couldn't think of what the spells remotely was used for nor did the names make easy sense to me. My Priest remained a option, but it was my last option.

So I decided I would test run a Mage and a Warlock both to lvl 10 to see if it was something I felt like playing. And I did lvl both to lvl 10 quickly and couldn't quite decide between been a evil Warlock and a nukeum Mage. DPS capability of either class had no really factor to me. Something different and something fun, but something different! Between the Warlock and the Mage, i think i somewhat preferred the Mage. So then I decided to take my lvl 20 Priest for a test spin somewhere. I hadn't played him in years, I wasn't even sure what his spells did anymore or how to use.

He still had quests from Ghostland. So took him on a few quest spin through Ghostland on green quests to get relearn how to use spells and abilities and get a feel for things. Took me at least 2 levels to get the hang of playing things. And at some point playing my Shadow Priest it just seemed like something I would enjoy in a evil way. The style felt like something different and interesting to play. I noticed I never died much or barely ever. So I just kept playing and it seems like fun to me at least and kept playing and all options of possibly leveling my Druid with much versatility evaporated as well as any options of a nuking Mage. I'll level a Druid someday though I'm sure.

So 31 levels later I'm still playing my Shadow Priest. One the odd thing is I play classes that can heal, but you will never see me playing a healer. I like the versatility in utility but I simply don't play healer. I just don't enjoy it as a full time gig. In emergency as a utility yes, but otherwise no. My Paladin can heal, my Shaman can heal, but neither will ever be spec to heal. So my Shadow Priest will just be for pure dps.

My experience so far leveling and learning the ways of a Shadow Priest seems a bit like roguish Warlock. Both use dots and dots but with a few Blasts and Mind Seering that seems fun. And for me it was interesting enough as well and figure out how to use spells. In some way I find a Shadow Priest quite a bit tough even though they wear cloth and can take a few hits. And I guess what i mean they have survivability and seem tough to die vs the other cloth wearing class. And I guess I've always like that as well and was something to grow into liking about my newest alt.

Stuff seem to dies fairly fast leveling as Shadow within use of a few spells. And i guess you have to get use to playing the class and using the abilities as well. At some point at low lvl sometimes it can seem a bit boring but with limited spell options its easy to see why as well. Leveling I never ran into anything I couldn't kill or kill with a bit of strategy and some thinking in how to approach. At best If things seem challenging I could just fear away a mob and tow it about and mind seer it to death which always seems fun to do.

At least I survived which is always a good thing. But I've fought mobs at +3,+4 and fairly easy. At +5 it becomes a bit quite difficult due to spell misses which is tough on mana if spells are missing leveling. But I've managed to win the greater majority of the time still despite that but its usually a close call. But its fun testing out what your limits are and how tough you can be to manage to survive being killed by a mob. And that's something for me to like in playing Shadow.

Until you really pick up Shadowform things can seem a little slower. You do drink a bit after dot dotting a few mobs for a kill in a row for mana. But after picking up Shadowform the spells start getting a bit interesting for talents and abilities. While leveling I could easily stand surrounded in a camp of mobs and take down 3-5 one after another without needing to drink for mana and it can be fun. Sometimes I just play to kill a mob but mostly conserve mana to lessen the down time. Later on you pick up the Vampiric Touch for more Shadow Damage and mana regen and it gets even more fun and have even less of down time but more manageable. But it seems to get easier leveling with the talents and abilities. And that's making it fun to play the class and character. Something about dealing Shadow damage seems fun to me while melting the minds of mobs. Im aware of some the class/spec issues reading around on Elitist Jerk but class changes been at warp speed in WotLK and im sure things will keep changing for improvements and into the next expansion for the better hopefully.

I guess with good skill and gear allot of those abilities get enhanced. In leveling good gear can be difficult as well to come by reliably. For the most part i just make due and not worry about gear to much and just have fun toying with mobs. I can eventually see myself playing or dpsing as a Shadow Priest at 80. It seems fun enough to play despite whatever the class challenge is. Some people play classes just to be epeen on damage meters. I at least like to have fun in what I'm playing while seeing how good i can get playing my class and to work at increasing my damage output in what I'm doing.

So far my Shadow Priest is a Tailor and Jewelcrafter and only manage so far to be working on Tailoring since he had to drop 225 Enchanting since he's had that for forever to pick up Jewelcrafting since my Shaman is a full Enchanter. But so far I'm enjoying Shadow, its seem roguish to me as a caster. I'm not sure if you would enjoy it with a fair amount of play for the class, but I know I do.

For now its fun and I'm sure it will continue to be even more fun as the levels goes by. I'm enjoying the leveling and learning experience and that remain run in learning a new class for diversification