The following guide can be considered valuable for both retail and private server play and is a guide according to my knowledge of priests. My only experience when rolling on retail has been with a priest, it's been my only character since 2006 to the present. This guide automatically assumes that the reader has a relative knowledge of WoW PvE and PvP purpose roles.
The guide is split into sections as of the following:
A. - Summary & Overview of a Priest's role in both PvE and PvP.
B. - Summary & Overview of a Priest's talents, what they're for and how they work.
C. - Gearing, Enchants, Buffs, Improved Buffs, etc.
D. - Q&A's
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A.
The Priest is a commonly under-estimated friend/foe.
Where as most people think of Priests as just being strictly deffensive/support/healing classes and a very weak one since they wear cloth, they can play a vital role in offensive encounters. For instance, if in a PvP scenario and you or your friends are trying to take down casters, since all of their attacks are mana-based, a Priest's Mana-Burn can be hugely effective at stopping foes from attacking your friends. Shadow obviously has it's strong offensive points, with multiple talents for +shadow damage, or +shadow damage vulnerability and mana/health regen based on damage... but a Priest's Physic-Scream can come in handy no matter your spec. In some cases, i've seen a good CC maneuver turn out to be a good offensive maneuver.
Whether in sports, real-life wars or video games, you've probably heard, "a good offense is a good defense" somewhere. This is a crucial stand-point of a Priest's role. From a defensive point of view, a Priest has two viable options: either discipline or holy... and yes, holy can be used for PvP defense (it's not just for PvE). It'd be rather un-orthodox, but it'd work. Holy Priests, while they don't have as much mana, health or resistance as Disc. Priests, take more damage, but can heal for a lot more... where as Disc. Priests get hit less hard, but heal for a little less.
If you roll a Holy Priest and plan to use it for PvP, you're playing Russian Roulette. They're like burst damage Warriors or Ret. Paladins, except with healing... so in a way, you're gambling. You my get hit for 3000hp, but then you can easily do a quick flash heal for 2800+. It's said, however, that Disc. Priests are one of the hardest classes to kill/outlast in the game (which I can attest to). Shadow Priests have horrible self-defense capabilities, though. That's why, imo, if you like the whole, "dotting people up and doing shadow damage" thing for PvP... just roll a warlock. Shadow Priests are pretty much meant for PvE, unless, you have a very large PvP raid going and you have other healers to protect you. By the time you start taking hits as a Shadow Priest, you have to pop out of Shadow-Form and go to heal, your mana will be atleast at 50%, if not less, and you will have to re-buff and re-Shadow-Form.
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B.
1. - Holy - Burst Healing (mainly PvE)
2. - Discipline - Huge Survivability Specialization/Support (mainly PvP or PvE spam healing)
3. - Shadow - Specific Traits (slightly iffy in PvE, iffy in PvP)
B.1.
Holy - In order to be a decent Holy Priest, you must first know that it's best not to go completely Holy, but have a few points in Discipline, particularly Inner Focus, Meditation, Silent Resolve, and Improved Power Word: Fortitude. In the Holy tree, talents such as Spiritual Guidance, Spiritual Healing, and Spirit of Redemption are not to be missed. One of the most common dilemmas you'll have when speccing is choosing between Divine Spirit and Circle of Healing (i personally always go with Diving-Sprit, you can CC your heals with a good eye and over-ride the importance of CoH) since you can't get both as the same time.
It's important to wear appropriate gear. Gear with "+Healing" spell stats is preferable, but "+Spell damage and healing" items are also good. As well as "+Healing", "+Spirit" gear which is also very important to a Priest, because of the Spiritual Guidance talent in the Holy tree which increases your spell damage and healing by up to 25% of your Spirit as well as the Meditation talent in the Discipline tree, which allows 30% of your total mana regen to continue while casting.
B.2.
The Discipline tree focuses on strengthening the Priest's buffs (such as Power Word: Shield and Fortitude and Inner Fire) and mana conservation while still balancing DPS and healing. At the end of this talent tree is the spell Pain Suppression. Pain Suppression reduces damage taken from any source by 40% for 8 seconds, granting the target extra longevity should the enemy focus on them. Another powerful Discipline spell (Power Infusion) grants the target a buff granting 20% bonus spell damage and healing. Unlike the Mage spell Arcane Power, Power Infusion can be cast on someone else, and it does not consume extra mana. Regrettably, these two spells do not stack.
The healing buff could be useful in an intense battle to have higher healing ability. Combining this with a powerful Spirit buff, the Priest can go on for many battles without running out of mana, especially in instances where the Priest heals. This is a useful category, as a Priest can get an extra 5% spell-critical chance as well as a permanent spell damage mod to offensive spells. There are very few Priests that don't have a few points in Discipline.
B.3.
Shadow talents primarily enhance a Priest's DPS. One of the most important shadow spells gained through Shadow talents is Mind Flay, a 3 second channeled spell that causes damage and slows the target to 50% of its movement speed. It has a low mana cost, making it one of the most mana-efficient spells in the game and is first available at level 20.
The Spirit Tap talent is generally the recipient of any Priest's first talent point. After killing a mob that grants experience or a player that grants honor, Spirit Tap doubles the Priest's Spirit and allows 50% mana regeneration while casting for 15 seconds. Another important talent in the Shadow tree is Vampiric Embrace, available at level 30. This shadow spell casts a debuff on a target for 60 seconds which heals all party members for X% of the shadow spell damage the Priest deals to the target.
The Silence spell and its prerequisite, Improved Psychic Scream, are utility talents placed in the middle of the Shadow tree. Shadow Weaving can be useful in party and raid situations, as it causes a debuff that lasts 15 seconds: a 2% bonus to all shadow damage caused to the target that stacks up to 5 times. The debuff is applied every time the shadow Priest successfully casts a shadow spell on a target, although it is subject to a separate resistance check.
Another vital talent of the Shadow tree is Shadowform. When activated, Shadowform gives the Priest a 15% Shadow spell-damage bonus and 15% reduction to physical damage taken, but prevents the casting of Holy spells. (As such, Vampiric Embrace is the only option besides consumables for a Priest in Shadowform to heal itself.) Some other useful talents in the Shadow tree can cause a 3-second stun on a successful shadow spell cast, reduce the threat caused by Shadow spells, and increase the damage the target takes from all sources of Shadow damage.
The new ultimate Shadow talent, Vampiric Touch, causes a 15-second damage over time effect on the target and provides an amount of mana equal to 5% of all Shadow damage dealt by the caster to all members of the caster's party while the DoT effect lasts.
One talent added by Burning Crusade is Misery. This talent causes an enemy to take X% more spell damage as long as certain Shadow spells afflict it. You can put up to 5 points in Misery, adding up to 5% more spell damage. This is extremely useful in parties and raids as it causes the target to take more damage from all types of spells.
Also, Power Word: Shield must be on your action bar in an easily located place! There is a very short de-buff from the shield and imo, when in the vicinity of foes, it's always worth the mana to have your shield on.
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C.
Gearing!
I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but no matter how important +healing is, spirit also goes a long way with Priests... I chose to think of it as a Druid's +mana per sec. type of deal. I usually split my +healing and +spirit by 2/3... 2/3 going to +healing, +1/3 going to spirit.
When "gemming..." do some basic math. Figure out hw many slots you have, how many gems you're going to have, and try and organize them in some way according to the 2/3 or 1/2 rule.
As far as PvP & PvE gear... for PvE, obviously just use the best gear, and for PvP gear, with any of my characters I just 4/4 them. Using 4 pieces of PvP and 4 pieces of PvE. Also... keep in mind that your Power Word: Shield can be viewed as a piece of armor itself, that's what i do (omg that's so deep huh).
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D.
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Wed 06 Feb 2019, 4:50 pm by 
Subject: Full Priest Guide / All Specs (Excluding 3.0/WOTLK Talents) 
