Levelling Spec Advice

[Azazel]

So as I've said more than once, I've just started playing again after a long break, and after grinding dailies like a mofo for a couple of weeks, I've decided that I might want to level up some of my alts a little as well, but after such a long break, and many talent changes and gameplay changes in the interim, I'm not sure what's good anymore. So I'm asking here.

The alts I've got are as follows:

Rogue (71)
Paladin (61)
DK (59)
Warlock (50)
Priest (30)
(Wife's) Warlock (30)
Druids (12 and 20)

I also don't mind dual-speccing them if that's going to help out.

Will I catass them all up to 80? Not likely, but I'm interested in having a play around with them to see what I enjoy the most. I haven't played my Pally much since Vanilla, where I grinded like a no-dps cockroach up to 55, and I think I PLed the pally through to 60 with my wife's mage, than Hellfired sime EZ quests to 61.

[Sjofn]

Ret and protection are both good for leveling a paladin (I dunno which one is considered better, I leveled mine as protection and felt it was pretty good). The vanilla days of the paladin sucking ass and autoattacking to victory very slowly are over, at least for one that is level 61!   

I leveled my druid as feral and it was fun and sturdy and stuff. If you're heirlooming it, the leather overlaps with what you'd want for the rogue so that's nice too, I guess!  Druids are pretty sweet overall, really, their flexibility is really nice. Their flight form is nice too, as it is instant cast.

The DK, you can pick whatever catches your eye. I'm sure there's some optimal spec but none of them are "Jesus Christ this suuuuuck to solo wiiiiith," which I assume is your biggest concern here. If you spec more tank-oriented it would make getting into a PUG a lot faster, but that depends on you actually wanting to tank. I leveled as a tanky frost spec, killed stuff plenty fine and had almost no downtime because I wasn't getting particularly hurt.

I leveled my rogue as combat and it was totally fun, partly because combat has more to do pre-80 in trash packs (blade fury + killing spree = lawl). but I am stuck with mutilate spec now because I cannot get a decent damn sword or axe drop to save my life. Mutilate is kinda fun too (er, that's the assassination tree), but fussier and probably not as fun to level up with. Still, yours is 71 so if you have some nice daggers you could give it a whirl anyway!

I know fuck all about current warlocks or priests, alas.

[brellium]

locks should be stupid easy still.

I was amazed when I took a 6th level lock and killed 7 yetis at the same time when I got mobbed by them.

I had gotten my Lock upto something like level 58 before I quit.

[apocrypha]

Priest go shadow and dual-spec discipline healing for fast dungeon queues if you plan on going past 40.

Druids pick whatever you fancy really, it's all good. Balance is fun and easy, feral dps is a bit more complex but good for levelling fast - very like a rogue but less squishy. Again I'd suggest dual speccing, resto off-spec if you go balance or bear tank offspec if you go feral. And only if you intend to random dungeon level (which I highly recommend).

Most of the talent specs are easy to do just by picking talents yourself, it's hard to gimp yourself as long as you remember that they're specialisations i.e. 1 point in everything is bad    If you want specific advice on any class spec ask in here or even have a look on the official forums (gasp!) - the class forums have stickies with links to useful threads.

[Selby]

Priest go shadow and dual-spec discipline healing for fast dungeon queues if you plan on going past 40.

This for priests.  Spec shadow 100% until 61 and then you can play around in disc for some helpful bonuses.  It's ridiculously easy.

Warlocks... you can level as any of them, but I leveled to 80 as demonology.  The felguard is just a very nice pet to have.

My DK was unholy to level with and is now unholy for the off-chance DPS need and blood for tanking primarily.  Just FYI there is a slight difference between leveling as unholy and doing max DPS in raids\groups as unholy, but that's likely not a concern now ;-)

Go feral for druids 100% unless you *really* want to *only* heal instances leveling up or want a caster in space chicken form.

[apocrypha]

Don't you diss the space chicken! 

[Sheepherder]

Rogue: Mutilate or Combat.  Subtlety works better for leveling than it does for endgame PvE, but I don't know it well.
Paladin: Mainspec Retribution, blow shit up.
DK: All specs work.  I prefer Blood.  Rotation is hard to fuck up badly.
Warlock: 1-59 as affliction, 60-80 as Destruction.  Four second fights are cool.  Fuck felguards, Demonology specs feel borked to play.
Priest: 1-40 as Holy (nuke spec).  40-80 as Shadow.  Prior to Shadowform Shadow Priest is really, really shitty.  Offspec disc if you want to heal.

I spec for leveling, these are similar to raid DPS builds, but sacrifice small amounts of DPS for utility.

Don't forget to glyph, a lot are huge improvements in damage and functionality.

Yes, the Holy nuke spec does actually work for a while.

[Zetor]

DK: spec unholy. Yes, blood has tons of self-heals and frost can tank like a champ in pugs, but unholy gets this and this. Having faster run / mount speed is VASTLY better for questing than having 10% better dps or whatever.

edit: seconding the destruction spec for warlocks after you have spellpower gear. Immolate, chaosbolt / conflagrate (you decide the order, there is a slight lag on conflag lighting up esp. if you have bad ping so I usually put cb first), maybe an incinerate, loot. You get less self healing than affliction, but fel armor + soul leech + improved soul leech will keep you going forever, especially when most mobs won't even get a shot at you.

[Lantyssa]

DK: spec unholy. Yes, blood has tons of self-heals and frost can tank like a champ in pugs, but unholy gets this and this. Having faster run / mount speed is VASTLY better for questing than having 10% better dps or whatever.

I found the speed boost just doesn't matter that much, especially with flying mounts in Outland.  If you can get Cold Wind Flying due to a main, even better.

My DK leveled as a Blood/Unholy hybrid and never had trouble.  I partially did another with my final blood tank spec and she was a beast.  Really any DK is fine.  Stick a couple of points in the first Tier tanking talents then find the trees that appeal to you.  Leveling will go fast.

[Arrrgh]

DK: spec unholy. Yes, blood has tons of self-heals and frost can tank like a champ in pugs, but unholy gets this and this. Having faster run / mount speed is VASTLY better for questing than having 10% better dps or whatever.

edit: seconding the destruction spec for warlocks after you have spellpower gear. Immolate, chaosbolt / conflagrate (you decide the order, there is a slight lag on conflag lighting up esp. if you have bad ping so I usually put cb first), maybe an incinerate, loot. You get less self healing than affliction, but fel armor + soul leech + improved soul leech will keep you going forever, especially when most mobs won't even get a shot at you.

It's a play style issue. Dest is for big numbers on a single target. The soul link/siphon life affliction leveling builds are great fun though. Wade in, cast two instant cast DOTs on every single mob you see, toss off a shadow bolt when nightfall procs, life drain here and there for health. Use a voild walker to tank and act as a health battery. 

[Der Helm]

Protection Paladin is the most fun I have had in WoW in a long time. You can basically walk into any given pack of (level appropriate) mobs and KILL THEM ALL WITH HOLY FIRE (and damage reflection). 

[Threash]

I started leveling my 70 rogue as combat because i had some nice arena pvp swords from before i quit, but as soon as i got some good daggers i switched to mutilate and i've been having a lot more fun and killing faster.  For your other classes i say if you are interested in using the random dungeon at all spec tank if you can, most tank specs are good for leveling now a days and instant queues are a huge benefit.  I don't understand why every single DK i've ran into on random dungeons queues up as dps, do they LIKE waiting?

[Selby]

Warlock: 1-59 as affliction, 60-80 as Destruction.  Four second fights are cool.  Fuck felguards, Demonology specs feel borked to play.

I like that, might have to level up my alliance warlock as Destruction just for a change (she's 62).  I do like my felguard ;-)

I don't understand why every single DK i've ran into on random dungeons queues up as dps, do they LIKE waiting?

It's because they SUCK.  Well, not all, but a good portion of them.

[Shrike]

Cant help with clothies. None of mine made it out of the teens, except my warlock, who only got to 33 before I pulled the plug. Can't help much with rogues, either. Mine has been stuck at 58 for four years and probably isn't going anywhere (though, I do like combat...sorta). I like killing rogues more than playing them. I've never played a druid, so can't help at all there. Supposedly, feral is the shiznit. All I got.

Now the two plate classes, there I can help.

Paladin. Man, level as protection. It's a hoot. There're some flat spots in mana recovery, but the ease and security (Elite quest? Surely you jest. Bring it!) of just steamrolling everything in sight is...satisfying. Also, daily dungeon stuff is a pleasure. Instacue? Yes, please. All day long. The only caveat is get a set of cobalt put back for when you hit 70. After that, it's smooth sailing to 80. Fun in PvP, too, though a protection PvP spec is a little different to a PvE one.

DKs. Eh, this one. Rolling in tank gear for PvE stuff is an advantage here. I leveled mine this way. It's just easier. When you start to overgear things, then you can run around in blood presence in your dps gear and just rip things up. Until then, the added security of being in frost with high-defense gear is nice. You can sail through the Outlands as a blood tank with just quest reward gear very easily. Strap on a set of cobalt at 70 in Northrend and you simply crush everything in your path. Twin sets of tempered and savage saronite will take you from 78 to 80 easily--in fact, rolling savage in PvP is one of the more fun things you can do in WoW at the moment. Elites generally aren't a problem. Oh, that's an elite? I didn't notice. This applies to blood. The other two subclasses don't have quite the same degree of recovery. I did most of my leveling as unholy, but it was different then, not leastways because of old-school scourge strike.

[Xanthippe]

I recently started sort of playing my priest (who is really my tailor) just to finish her to 80.  Last time I played her, holy was considered the good healing spec.

What is a good disc spec for dungeon healing?  Or does it matter much? Can I just make my own disc spec and it works? Is it that easy?

[apocrypha]

What is a good disc spec for dungeon healing?  Or does it matter much? Can I just make my own disc spec and it works? Is it that easy?

I'm levelling this one at the moment, and it's pretty easy yeah. It's an odd healing style to get used to - it's more preventative than reactive. PW:S and PoM are the mainstays, with Pennance for ohshit moments.

I've had mana issues, but not too serious once I hit about 65. Alchemy helps a lot, <3 Endless Mana Potion!

[Nevermore]

For Druid, go feral.  Stealth and flight form make quests easy.  It doesn't matter if you focus more on dps or tanking when leveling; so many of the skills give you bonuses to both that you can do either one effectively while you level.  When soloing, go bear for the elites and cat for everything else.  There's very little you can't do yourself.

For Rogue, I leveled all the way up to 80 specced Subtlety, but the caveat here is I leveled a lot in the battlegrounds.  Pre-80, Sub is awesome in the battlegrounds.  Sub is one of the single worst specs at level 80 pve though, so at that point go Mutilate (Assassination spec) if you're a masochist or Combat if you like to have fun.  It's not hard getting a good main hand for Combat spec if you're on a decent server.  Before I quit, I was able to get Gutbuster in just a couple of ICC pug runs on Windrunner.  For offhand, get an Unsharpened Ice Razor to start with for either spec.

For DK, it honestly doesn't matter what spec you pick to level.  Just choose one you have fun with.  For mine, I leveled as a Blood/Frost hybrid.  I went high enough into Blood for Improved Rune Tap and went Frost with the rest.

[Arrrgh]

I recently started sort of playing my priest (who is really my tailor) just to finish her to 80.  Last time I played her, holy was considered the good healing spec.

What is a good disc spec for dungeon healing?  Or does it matter much? Can I just make my own disc spec and it works? Is it that easy?

http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbuhhVRIsffRtoxxc:AbdVz

Use a couple of mana trinkets and the mana metagem if you have mana issues. I use vuhdo--bubble is left click, prayer of mending is right click. Left click and right click tank once before pulls. If anyone gets agro left click them once then go back to sleep. If you need an AE heal try inner focus plus prayer of healing.

[Selby]

What is a good disc spec for dungeon healing?  Or does it matter much?

I raid\dungeon as this and have for a while now.  It's pretty much a cakewalk.  You can't really screw up disc too much, but there are a few talents that are better reserved for PVP than dungeon healing, so be sure to skip those if you aren't going to PVP.

[DraconianOne]

Warlock: 1-59 as affliction, 60-80 as Destruction.  Four second fights are cool.  Fuck felguards, Demonology specs feel borked to play.

At level 71, this is the spec you need. A hybrid aff/demo spec for when you absolutely have to kill every motherfucking mob in the zone.

Features:
Siphon life - your damage gives you health
Fel Synergy - your damage gives your demon health
Soul link - any damage you might occasionally receive is shared with your demon
Mana feed - your (improved) life tap gives you AND your demon mana
Felguard - your demon of choice; accept no substitutes

With this build, your fights will still last four seconds but you will have killed everything around you in that time using corruption and CoA and letting the Felguard mop up. You will not need for health or mana. Your only downtime will be waiting for new mobs because you're killing way faster than they can respawn. If you have the patience and know how to manage threat, you can take on elite quests of your level (with one or two exceptions which may have been more down to my skill - or lack of it - rather than the build).

Downside? It's shit for instances. Dual-spec to 51 points in destro or aff. (Can't advise on Demo but haven't heard many people rave about Metamorphosis)

[Sheepherder]

Immolate, chaosbolt / conflagrate (you decide the order, there is a slight lag on conflag lighting up esp. if you have bad ping so I usually put cb first), maybe an incinerate, loot. You get less self healing than affliction, but fel armor + soul leech + improved soul leech will keep you going forever, especially when most mobs won't even get a shot at you.

Soul Leech and Imp. Soul Leech aren't needed, from my experience.  ~120 HPS with a lot of it wasted on overheal and 1% mana return every 5 seconds (~100 Mp5) is not a great deal for five points unless you absolutely do not need that 3% hit in affliction (leveling you should be running with ~6% hit).

It's a play style issue. Dest is for big numbers on a single target. The soul link/siphon life affliction leveling builds are great fun though. Wade in, cast two instant cast DOTs on every single mob you see, toss off a shadow bolt when nightfall procs, life drain here and there for health. Use a voild walker to tank and act as a health battery.

At level 71, this is the spec you need. A hybrid aff/demo spec for when you absolutely have to kill every motherfucking mob in the zone.

SL/SL has been nerfed into the fucking ground, in addition to the rest of the deep tree warlock specs being buffed.  As SL/SL my DoTs would tick off a mob without killing it, wheras Demonology allowed me to solo Last Rites fairly comfortably.

Paladin. Man, level as protection. It's a hoot. There're some flat spots in mana recovery, but the ease and security (Elite quest? Surely you jest. Bring it!) of just steamrolling everything in sight is...satisfying.

EDIT: WUA

What is a good disc spec for dungeon healing?  Or does it matter much?

Pretty much spec to the bottom of the tree, then take every point there that isn't for PvP.

[Azazel]

Probably gonna go Ret for the pally for now. Given that It's been a fucking long time since I did any TBC content, I don't want to be that shitty tank who's undergeared, doesn't know their way around the place and doesn't know how to tank. Once I gather up a pile of money to dualspec (gemming up 2 sets of Khadgar's is killing me atm), I'll offspec to Protection and learn the tanking part of the class that way. I have to say, that doing outland again is quite offputting. I didn't mind it the first 2 times, but I'm not excited for Zangarmarsh or BEM or Netherstorm or that shitty zone in the south where you learn to fly that has all it's solo chains end with a 5-man req battle. 

I think the Lock is going to get a few chaperoned trips through Scholo and Strat with my wife's mage, (along with EPL and WPL quests) so that should take care of most of the 50's (since I have no intent on going near Sililthis ever again) until I hit outland.    Then we'll see.

[Sheepherder]

Probably gonna go Ret for the pally for now. Given that It's been a fucking long time since I did any TBC content, I don't want to be that shitty tank who's undergeared, doesn't know their way around the place and doesn't know how to tank. Once I gather up a pile of money to dualspec (gemming up 2 sets of Khadgar's is killing me atm), I'll offspec to Protection and learn the tanking part of the class that way. I have to say, that doing outland again is quite offputting. I didn't mind it the first 2 times, but I'm not excited for Zangarmarsh or BEM or Netherstorm or that shitty zone in the south where you learn to fly that has all it's solo chains end with a 5-man req battle. 

I think the Lock is going to get a few chaperoned trips through Scholo and Strat with my wife's mage, (along with EPL and WPL quests) so that should take care of most of the 50's (since I have no intent on going near Sililthis ever again) until I hit outland.    Then we'll see.

1. Tanking is easy now.
2. Dualspec is going to be 100g rather than 1000g when Cataclysm hits (at the latest).
3. You can completely skip Zangarmarsh, Blade's Edge, and Netherstorm.  They buffed the fuck out of exp gains.
4. A paladin can solo a lot of 5 man quests now.  Not shitting you.  You might consider going deeper into prot than I suggested if you want to try that as Ret.
5. Flying is trainable at level 60 for a couple hundred now.
6. Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace are better than Scholo/Strat if you're getting ran through.

[Azazel]

1) 
2)  - I'll wait! (almost dual-specced the rogue this morning with the 1k I'd saved. Thanks!
3)   
4) 
5) 
6)  - Soloable by an 80 mage, though? Lock is still 51, so got to do the others first - with dungeon quests on top it should work well. Besides, I still like Scholo and especially Strat.

[Sheepherder]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRCyhj0-vLI

[Evil Elvis]

What is a good disc spec for dungeon healing?  Or does it matter much?

I raid\dungeon as this and have for a while now.

Needs Healing Focus, especially for pug dungeon leveling.

[Selby]

Needs Healing Focus, especially for pug dungeon leveling.

See, I used to use it and everyone told me to, but I *never* took damage on a decent to not-half-bad run.  On total fail PUG runs?  Sure, but shit's going to be hitting the fan anyways and my ability to keep everyone alive if they are ALL taking damage is kind of limited early on.

[DraconianOne]

SL/SL has been nerfed into the fucking ground, in addition to the rest of the deep tree warlock specs being buffed.  As SL/SL my DoTs would tick off a mob without killing it, wheras Demonology allowed me to solo Last Rites fairly comfortably.

That wouldn't surprise me (although I missed the patch notes about the nerfs). It seemed to be an inordinately powerful hybrid build back at WotLK's release. I levelled to 80 with it quite capably AOEing everything around me and then doing the Wanted quests in Dragonblight solo (including Sarathstra). 

[Azazel]

Any buzz on them dropping the mount/flying mount/cold weather heirloom costs with Cata? I'd like to check before dropping all my savings on it.

[SurfD]

Only news i have heard is that currently, 310% speed for all your mounts is trainable for 5k in beta.  No idea if the other ranks will scale accordingly, or if it is still going to be 5k for 280%, then an additional 5k for 310%.   I would lay odds on them possibly dropping the price for Cold Weather flying, but chances are the 280% / 310% thing will remain expensive, since 310% is supposed to be a luxury item expense.

[Merusk]

Any buzz on them dropping the mount/flying mount/cold weather heirloom costs with Cata? I'd like to check before dropping all my savings on it.

I expect they'll do the same thing as they did with BC and lower the price and level of CWF. It won't happen for the first few months, though.   They've never touched the badge prices of the older gear, but that's because nobody uses it.  We have no previous clues to see if they'll do it for heirlooms.

[Sjofn]

I started leveling my 70 rogue as combat because i had some nice arena pvp swords from before i quit, but as soon as i got some good daggers i switched to mutilate and i've been having a lot more fun and killing faster.  For your other classes i say if you are interested in using the random dungeon at all spec tank if you can, most tank specs are good for leveling now a days and instant queues are a huge benefit.  I don't understand why every single DK i've ran into on random dungeons queues up as dps, do they LIKE waiting?

If you don't enjoy tanking or feel intimidated by it, you're not going to do it. And frankly, I'd prefer them not tanking if they don't know how or don't want to do it, because they're probably lousy tanks as a result. 

[brellium]

Warlock: 1-59 as affliction, 60-80 as Destruction.  Four second fights are cool.  Fuck felguards, Demonology specs feel borked to play.

At level 71, this is the spec you need. A hybrid aff/demo spec for when you absolutely have to kill every motherfucking mob in the zone.

Features:
Siphon life - your damage gives you health
Fel Synergy - your damage gives your demon health
Soul link - any damage you might occasionally receive is shared with your demon
Mana feed - your (improved) life tap gives you AND your demon mana
Felguard - your demon of choice; accept no substitutes

With this build, your fights will still last four seconds but you will have killed everything around you in that time using corruption and CoA and letting the Felguard mop up. You will not need for health or mana. Your only downtime will be waiting for new mobs because you're killing way faster than they can respawn. If you have the patience and know how to manage threat, you can take on elite quests of your level (with one or two exceptions which may have been more down to my skill - or lack of it - rather than the build).

Downside? It's shit for instances. Dual-spec to 51 points in destro or aff. (Can't advise on Demo but haven't heard many people rave about Metamorphosis)

eh, I could solo most quests, even the elite 3-5 man mobs with my mage.  that one is always funny as hell. 500k hps? uhm, yeah, isn't that nice.

[Sheepherder]

That wouldn't surprise me (although I missed the patch notes about the nerfs). It seemed to be an inordinately powerful hybrid build back at WotLK's release. I levelled to 80 with it quite capably AOEing everything around me and then doing the Wanted quests in Dragonblight solo (including Sarathstra).

The change to Siphon Life came afterward (Ulduar launch), and was a pretty huge nerf explicitly targeted at SL/SL.  The new version of Siphon is not nearly as good a source of damage (or healing, AFAIK) even though it requires no cast, since you significantly reduce the DPS boost by not taking Unstable Affliction.

[Azazel]

I started leveling my 70 rogue as combat because i had some nice arena pvp swords from before i quit, but as soon as i got some good daggers i switched to mutilate and i've been having a lot more fun and killing faster.  For your other classes i say if you are interested in using the random dungeon at all spec tank if you can, most tank specs are good for leveling now a days and instant queues are a huge benefit.  I don't understand why every single DK i've ran into on random dungeons queues up as dps, do they LIKE waiting?

If you don't enjoy tanking or feel intimidated by it, you're not going to do it. And frankly, I'd prefer them not tanking if they don't know how or don't want to do it, because they're probably lousy tanks as a result. 

Heh, I've never tanked in WoW. I did play a Shadowknight (and a damn good one) so I tanked and pulled plenty in EQ1, but that was 5 years ago, in an overall slower game. I'd prefer to get some gear via DPS path before starting.