Leveling Builds

Shadow tree considered fastest leveling build

It is common knowledge that the fastest, cheapest, most worry free way to level a priest to 70 is to have the little neighbor girl do it while you read the complete works of Hermann Hesse in another room. But on the off chance that you've lost your copy of Steppenwolf or that Sally is away for the week at Blizzcon, then the shadow tree is widely considered the fastest solo method for leveling a priest in PvE. Discipline and Holy have extremely useful applications in PvP, Arena, and Raid environments, of course, but the high DPS and safety of a Shadow build makes it the most popular choice for general leveling.

a full 13/0/58 with a focus on solo levelling.

Penance Raiding Build

• 58/13/0
  

This build is the level 70 Disc build modified slightly for 80 compatibility. The big changes between this spec and the level 70 one are as follows:

• Take Improved Inner Fire over Silent Resolve because of the added spell power.
• Divine Aegis should proc a lot due to crit playing a major role.
• Aspiration will lower the cooldown of a lot fo useful abilities but is mainly taken for Penance.

Smiter with Spirit of Redemption and Pain Supression

• 42/28/0 +1

Crit heavy Holy build

Bliz seems to be itching to open up an intellect build for healers. In fact, it is difficult to choose talents in the holy tree while avoiding crit considerations. Holy specialization and Test of Faith increase crit chance 5% or 11% if target is under 50% health. Holy concentration * Imp Holy conc, together with Surge of Light give an almost 50% chance of a clearcasting state after a healing crit. The clearcasting state with this build procs a mana-free flash heal, a mana-free greater heal, and 30% spell haste for two greater/binding/flash heals. I need verification, but a holy crit would seem to open up a spell hasted sequence of greater heal + greater heal + flash heal for the mana cost of a single greater heal cast. Alternatively, if casting mana-free spells does not reset the 5 second timer, healers could use a critical heal to cast a mana-free greater heal + flash heal and quickly thereafter begin to recharge mana.

• 14/57/0

High spirit Holy build

A more traditional build focusing on high spirit. This build extends to Mental Agility to receive the 10% mana reduction bonus to instant cast spells.

• 20/51/0

Imp Divine Spirit Holy Build

A new version of the old Holy/Disc hybrid build. This allows you to have Imp. Divine Spirit while getting a lot of the goodies out of the Holy tree (minus CoH). If you raid consistently with another priest that has CoH this is a great secondary build that can heal main tanks all night long due to their larger mana pool. Casters will also love the Spirit buff.

• 28/43/0

Solo PvE Shadow build

High damage build focused on solo PvE play. For a raid environment, priest could take Shadow Affinity and/or Psychic Horror instead.

• 14/0/57

Shadow Raiding Build

High damage with mana efficiency.

• 14/0/57

Holy Leveling Build

A WotLK build for a solo holy priest. Focus is on abilities to maximize solo DPS and healing in 5 men instances while leveling.

• 17/51/3

Holy-Crit Build (PvE)

A build based on Holy Concentration (Improved) and Surge of Light while keeping mental agility up. It is based on a stable mp5 and a decent crit rate (try to keep spirit and intellect 1:1 and build up you crit to 20%). Keep an eye out for buffs that pop up and use them wisely.

Note: A priest can choose to put 2 points from Healing Focus into Improved Renew; however, it has been noted that damage received in most heroics and some raids can increase in this case, and it's considered that putting those 2 points in Healing Focus can be a better use.

• 13/58/0

Hybrid-Holy/Discipline Build

A build based on maximizing healing and mp5 without Guardian Spirit. Sacrificing a few of the higher holy talents for pure healing power of the mid range discipline tree, this spec is excellent for constant big heals and focuses completely on heroics and raids, and not soloing. Sacrificing Divine Providence for mental strength (15% intelect) and incorporating Divine and Improved Divine Spirit for the extra 80 spirit and 120 sp. Also Focused Power (increases healing by 4%) costs only 2 talent points whereas Test of Faith costs 3 (6% more healing and crit chance on target below 50% health). This spec is purely healing power and mana efficiency.

• 30/41/0

Hybrid Power Infusion Build

This build is based on Boosting the power of your MP5 and Healing power at the same time. With this spec you trade the usual Circle of Healing for Power Infusion. Power Infusion is a double-edge sword. It can not only be cast on yourself to increase your mana efficiency, but it can also be used to help DPS of casters in your raid. I find it to be very useful in a main-tank healing situation.

• 31/40/0

Selecting Your Talent Tree

Warriors have the choice of three talent trees: Arms, Fury and Protection.

Arms is known for Mortal Strike and Bladestorm which makes it popular for PvP along with Improved Hamstring.

Fury is known for Titan's Grip and has higher sustainable single target damage than Arms making it popular for PvE.

Protection is the tanking tree. The introduction of Shockwave as part of WotLK has increased a Warrior's ability to simultaneously tank multiple targets.

Arms Warriors use one 2H weapon, whereas Fury Warriors duel wield 2H weapons. Protection Warriors use one 1H weapon and a shield.

Leveling Builds

Protection

As of patch 3.0.2, leveling as a protection warrior is actually not so tedious. Here is a good way to start:

• Level 70 - Protection Build
  • Levels 10-14 : Start with 3/3 Improved Thunder Clap, then put 2 points into Shield Specialization.
  • Alternatively, do not put points into Imp. Thunderclap. Using Thunderclap will slow enemy attacks which slows rage generation which slows leveling.
  • Levels 15-19 : 3/3 Incite is good since you'll be using Thunderclap a lot for extra damage early on. Put 2 more points into Shield Specialization to get to the next tier.
  • Levels 20-24 : 2/2 Improved Revenge is next because you'll be using it to do most of your damage in the early levels. Now get Glyph of Revenge which now creates a dps dependency on being able to dodge, block and parry opening Revenge and in turn producing a free Heroic Strike. Dump extra rage into Thunderclap at this point. The next 3 points can split into Shield Mastery and/or Anticipation because they can both indirectly improve chances to use Revenge.
  • Levels 25-29 : Use the next few levels to finish out Shield Mastery, Anticipation, and grab Last Stand.
  • Levels 30-34 : Gag Order is a choice you can make, I use Shield Slam quite often in the later levels and the extra 10% really helps slam mobs into the ground. Concussion Blow is helpful for survival in tough fights. You can choose other talents for sure here since neither of these will really help you level faster.
  • Level 35-70 : The rest of the talents sort of come in order from here on. Make sure you spend 51 points in the Protection tree before moving to another tree. I know Armored to the Teeth looks promising for more dps, but the talents at the bottom of the Protection tree are much better especially Sword and Board and Damage Shield.

And yes gear wise, find the best shield you can get.

Level 80 Builds

Arms

• Blade Storm with Piercing Howl(PvP) (57/14/0)

• Arena build for 2v2 and 3v3 (54/17/0)

• Arms PVE build (54/17/0) - Focuses on maximising DPS with bleeds, overpower and execute.

Fury

• Weekend's Fury PvE Raiding Variation w/ Bloodsurge (18/53/0)
  • Rotation: (Bloodrage>Berserker Rage)>WW>BT>Slam(if BT crits)>Heroic Throw>HS>Battle Shout>Demoralizing Shout>Battle Stance>Rend>Thunderclap>Overpower if it procs>'Beserker Stance rinse and repeat>Battle Stance after Rend has dispelled off of mob/boss'.
    • Rotation requires practice but keeps the global cooldown moving a long and when each move is accessed by the time you return the cooldown will be finished. Rage should not be a big issue. I've incorporated Bloodsurge because from experience I've had high crit ratio with a Bloodsurge Slam.
  • Glyphs: Major: Glyph of Heroic Strike, Glyph of Rending, Glyph of Whirlwind. Minor: Glyph of Battle, Glyph of Bloodrage, Glyph of Thunder Clap.
  • Precision, Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Warrior talent) and 1 point in Weapon Mastery (warrior talent) is utilized for very high hit chance and damage . Fury warriors after patch 3.0.8 will become even more viable at melee DPS due to the 5% hit penatly being removed from Titans Grip
  • Notes: Macros and key binding will be powerful tools. Bloodrage and Berserker Rage should be used often, try to not use them when you are about to switch stances, it will be a waste of cooldown and rage. Enrage (warrior talent) is often overlooked by many raiding guilds, but it gives all melee and spellcasters within range a large dps boost. Death Wish and Recklessness are used at player's discretion. Warriors have stances so you can utilize a variety of spells during a fight, I highly reccomend no matter what build you choose to analyze the best route for maximizing damage or threat. Always remember your role in a raid/instance, when there are no other warriors, or the tank is a non-warrior tank, use your Sunder Armor, Demoralizing Shout, and Thunder Clap these abilities will go a long way regardless of the raid/instance.

• Elgrun's AoE? Fury PvE Raiding
  • Notes: This spec works best if you have a paladin with Improved Blessing of Might because this spec dose not have Commanding Presence but with Ret paladins putting out the kind of dps that they are its fairly common to find one in a 25 man. This spec also misses out on Weapon Mastery and if you have a decent amount of expertise and a weapon chain on your weapon this is a negligible talent.
  • Glyphs: Glyph of Whirlwind, Glyph of Cleaving, and Glyph of Execution these are the important ones.
  • How To's: Real simple play style of spamming Bloodthirst, Whirlwind, on BT crits Slam, and Cleave to dump your rage (i tend to be spamming this and still have enough rage to BT and WW).Don't be afraid to cleave tanks now have so much TPS that its difficult for a fury warrior to pull off any tank Take note of using Death Wish when ever you feel that you can, the 5% increased damage is not enough to strain the healers beyond there limits.

• Unstoppable PvE Build (18/53/0)
  • Rage generation is not an issue and this is by far the best dps build I have found using the Rotation Recklessness-BT-WW-Slam(With or Without Proc to reset the rotation) With a Heroic Strike in there when above 50 Rage. Huge amounts of damage with this PvE build.

• PvE Raiding Build w/ Bloodsurge (18/53/0)
  • Precision (Warrior talent) and Weapon Mastery (warrior talent) create maximum hit chance.

• PvE Raiding Build w/out Bloodsurge (18/51/2)
  • Since Slam is not effective on many bosses regardless of cast time, it is dropped in favor of Improved Execute & Improved Bloodrage.
  • Tactical Mastery, Improved Charge & Improved Bloodrage create maximum rage generation.
  • Rotation: Execute>BT>WW(If Rage>50)>Heroic Throw>HS.
  • Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Warrior talent) chosen in favor of Armored to the Teeth. Six % damage > 2-3% AP.
  • Glyphs: Heroic Strike, Execution, Whirlwind. Minor: Battle, Bloodrage, Charge

• Titan's Grip without Unbridled Wrath (19/52/0)
  • Armored to the Teeth and Booming Voice chosen in favor of Unbridled Wrath for maximum AP and shout duration.
  • Rotation: BT>Slam if BT crits>WW>Repeat(HS if rage is above 55).

• Titan's Grip without 2H Weapons Specialization (17/54/0)
  • Rotation of BT>Slam if BT crits>WW>Repeat(HS if rage is above 55)
  • Feedback: Choosing Armored to the Teeth over Two-Handed Weapon Specialization (Warrior talent) makes no sense.

Protection

Getting Started

• These 28 talent points are in most tanking builds. (5/0/23)
  • All 7th-11th tier Protection talents are a must except Safeguard.
  • This leaves eight elective points that must be used within the Protection Tree.

    • Improved Spell Reflection, Improved Disarm and Gag Order can be selected to increase defensive abilities.

    • Improved Thunder Clap and Puncture can be selected to reduced the rage cost of abilities.

    • Incite and One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Warrior) and can be selected for improved offense and threat generation. Note that One-Handed Weapon Specialization (Warrior) increases all damage dealt while wielding one-handed weapons, not just damage dealt with a one-handed weapon, thus increasing all threat generated by 10%.

Off Spec Talent Points

• After Deflection is selected, you have 15 elective talent points.
  • Maximum Health.
    • Commanding Presence is helpful for raid boss tanking.
  • Maximum Rage Generation.
    • Improved Charge, Tactical Mastery, Anger Management and Improved Bloodrage creates additional rage.
  • Alternatively, you can select Protection Talents not already selected.

Overview

Hunters are known for their pets, their long-range, sustained DPS, and their traps.

The three trees of a Hunter are all viable for a hunter to choose for leveling, player versus player combat, or end game raids or instances, but since only two of the three trees allows for the complete use of talent points the player is forced to cross trees, hybridizing into other talent trees. The three trees all have options to offer for utility, open DPS, and survivability.

Beast Mastery

Beast Mastery offers the highest potential personal DPS in the game for hunters in the raiding environment. This statement is only true if said hunter can use his pet effectively and understands the importance of ranged attack speed in rotation. BM is also the fastest leveling build, as uptime is limited only by the health of your high-armor pet.

• Beast Mastery (52/19/0)

  • Well, as we all know...the potential builds have changed significantly since WotLK was released. The builds are much more varied than ever before. Without having gone into all the math to figure out exactly how much damage can be caused by each talent, I've put together what seems to be a logical build for level 80. The changes in the structure of the trees allow us Hunters to invest more heavily in the BM tree and still maximize our damage. With previous patches, a BM hunter needed to have significant points in the Marksmanship tree to be viable as a raid participant. Here, I've developed a build that goes deep into the BM tree, and uses only 19 points in Marksmanship to maximize DPS. The important thing to remember here is that your pet is the focus of most of your damage. This is why I chose to invest in Endurance Training instead of Improved Aspect of the Hawk.

Disadvantages of Beast Mastery

A large part of the Hunter's damage is imbued in the pet, who must be alive in order to use Bestial Wrath/Beast Within. This is frequently seen as a fatal flaw to the build. This is especially the case in arenas, where your pet will often be the main target of the opponent. Seeing as it does not scale with resilience and only very little with your armor and stamina, it makes an easy target which severely cripples a BM hunter. In raids, the hunter alone should have no trouble keeping their pet alive with Mend Pet and careful control of the pet's actions (treat your pet as a player, do YOU draw aggro from the Main Tank?). Should the pet die, the Beast Master can recover quickly and cheaply with Improved Revive Pet. Nevertheless, Beast Mastery play-style requires a significant amount of diligence in managing the pet's actions and threats on top of managing threats to the hunter.

Marksmanship

This strength of this tree lies in burst damage. Your shots are far slower than that of the BM hunter, but you hit quite a bit harder. This tree is also the land of PVP talents.

• MM raid build (5/51/5)

  • Standard raid build with steady shot steady shot steady shot chimera shot rotation

Disadvantages of Marksmanship

This is a PvP Talent tree, yet the best Raid Specs all include at least 10 points from this tree. A design flaw yes, but as far as any actual flaws, the core Marks Builds have less sustained DPS and are less mana efficient than BM builds.

Survival

Out of the three Talent Trees available to a Hunter, Survival is the least chosen spec. Survival Tree is mostly considered as the PvP tree due to the many abilities that help with Survival and Melee combat. But this Talent Tree if points are spent wisely can hold its own against the other Trees in terms of DPS and damage. Survival plays on the Hunter's main stats: Agility, Attack Power and Crit Chance.

• Survival (7/13/51)
  • This build is designed to give the Hunter maximum DPS for PvE. By dodging around abilities that increase Hunter's melee capabilities, which would be useless in PvE, this build is able to give the Hunter the three main stats needed by a Hunter. Because of Lightning Reflexes this build is optimal for high agility Hunters, and this in turn giving more Attack Power and Crit Chance to the Hunter. With Careful Aim and Hunter vs. Wild also giving more Attack Power to the Hunter these Talents in turn improve the effect of Expose Weakness which is activated when a Hunter Crits. So that the Hunter crits more to activate Expose Weakness and deal out more damage points have been put in Lethal Shots, Killer Instinct and Survival Instincts aswell as the possible +10% crit chance ability of Master Tactician.

Disadvantages of Survival

Expose Weakness is now only applicable to to the Hunter. Also, you may notice a slight decline in your damage compared to other builds because it takes more of an effort to be a good Survival DPS Hunter.

Which build is best for what purpose?

Heroics

In heroic instances a hunter is required to CC targets, forcing them to either excel at kiting, or spec into a build with redundancy in case a trap is resisted. The main talents that give this are Readiness and Wyvern Sting, and to a lesser extent Scatter Shot. Note that having Trap Mastery can make things easier, but a trap being resisted or breaking is the biggest danger and it doesn't help with that at all.

Raiding

Beast Mastery is the first and foremost DPS raiding build. In fights where Pet Survivability is really difficult (and with higher gear levels), Survival becomes about equal. Survival scales well with the Agility your gear has on it, increasing your personal DPS very much through high Crit percentages and high Attack Power. If Surv Hunter with 800 Agility and a BM Hunter were in the same raid on Leotheras, but the BM Hunter's pet dies, and sometimes more than once, the advantage of Surv on that fight becomes clear. While Marks is also viable at high gear levels, Survival is THE alternative to BM.

PvP

The Hardcore PVP Hunters are generally Marks/Surv and may or may not take the health talent from the BM tree. Marks was designed as the PVP tree for hunters, and the design holds true, as it offers more burst DPS, less crit-reliant DPS, and the very utile Silencing Shot and Scatter Shot. Improved Concussive Shot is also a must-have for PvP.

Solo DPS

Beast Mastery and Marksman builds are both very viable soloing specs. Survival not completely bad, but killing can be slower, since you miss out on the Improved Multishot damage. Scatter shot is also very useful in soloing.