Spaztick

I'll only roll on a fresh server if I get a r14 60 at the start.

Shadow is the better choice. It is more efficient and more damage with shadow talents and no spell damage (which you will have little of while leveling). If you want to learn to heal while leveling go do a dungeon. First five points into spirit tap, read the guide for leveling and wand selection.

You will be healing at least a little. If you don't want to heal/rebirth/innervate but want to tank you should roll a warrior, so collect a healing set and be a druid, which is to be flexible. I like druid tanks over warrior tanks while leveling as they usually have the bear threat/cat stealth talents and hold better threat. Crushing blows and threat issues aren't a problem while leveling, and druids bring more to a dungeon as a tank versus a warrior. And of course you will always find groups as a tank. My druid is in the mid 50s and I've always used him as a tank in dungeons. Occasionally I would heal instead and I can only remember once I was asked to DPS.

I put together a math formula for calculating your DPS as a shadow priest assuming all debuffs and buffs are up (shadowform, darkness, shadow weaving, warlock debuffs). Some of the numbers are rounded but otherwise accurate: y = 1.7((.055x+47.33)+(.15x+142)+1.025(.0573x+55)) where x is your spellpower. ((buffs and debuffs) x (SW:P)+(mind flay)+(mind blast considering cooldowns and cast time)) I did this with a smite build as well (assuming you are in a group with a ret paladin with sanc aura and improved judgement of crusader: y=1.3(.055x+47.33)+1.175(.357x+240)+1.3(.0452x+55) ((buffs and debuffs) x (SW:P)+(smite)+(mind blast)) These formulas: assume certain specs: 3/5 Mind Blast, Shadowform, Darkness, Shadow Weaving for shadow and Improved Smite, Force of Will for holy; and do not take hit into account and; do take crit into account. This means the holy formula is slightly higher than realistic as you will never be hit capped with current itemization as holy without gimping dps; and unrealistically assume 100% SWP uptime and mind blast usage without interrupting mind flay or smite. Someone will have to double check my math but at ~430 spellpower you should come ahead of shadow in pure dps. Of course, you will have to get a lot more to make up for the warlocks not having shadow weaving. Still if you are a priest on loatheb and want to put out some extra DPS shoot for a lot of spellpower and you will equal the shadow priest in raw damage!

Perhaps the bug was fixed in a previous patch but I've noticed losing the last tick again.

I'd like to discuss the power of spirit on spriest gear when accounting for druid innervates. This would make 2.5 a little more valuable mana-wise, What would the math work out when accounting for an innervate on spirit's value? Twenty seconds of mana regeneration is equal to 24-28 normal ticks of mana, roughly 2500-3000 mana for myself, but with 2.5 pieces in place it would be more.

Couldn't loot Netherwind robes to Lacunera (died too far away from Nef). Raid ID 426. http://i.imgur.com/IqrFwHa.jpg I've looted it to myself and am waiting for GM response in-game (no ticket submitted). http://realmplayers.com/RaidStats/FightOverview.aspx?Raid=81738&Fight=8

Can do, the in-game message says forums are "quicker & casual" support, but I suppose it's a meaningless phrase?

I would add engineering as a viable PvE profession. Two shadow reflect trinkets combined with demo is 100 free shadow resist for twins on top of goblin sappers for viscidus, and grenades are useful on Nefarian. The bloodvine goggles are nice for extra hit/crit/mp5.

The most broken OP racial in the game that didn't receive adjustments until WotlK, and was actually balanced in Warlords (too much, unfortunately, and everyone rerolled their race to the new OP Human racial instead). Even then the cooldown was only equivalent to other racials (EMFH aside, which was a dumb overcompensation). In Vanilla WotF has the following: 2 min cooldown (lower than any other equivalent racial other than warstomp) Immunity for 5 seconds (far better than a pvp trinket), as well as breaking Charm/Fear/Sleep. Shares no cooldown with trinkets Elysium isn't Blizzard, and doesn't have to follow Blizzards retarded idea of balance or act slower than molasses to make changes. Having the immunity duration removed, cooldown raised, or allowing immunity but not breaking CCs would balance it. But WotF is balanced! Of course it is, which is why half of Horde and 2/3rds of active 60s are Undead. It's not because of an OP racial, people just happen to like the look of Forsaken (the OP racial being a bonus). Nullifying entire classes because you picked a certain race is Blizzard's definition of balance, after all. Blizzard wasn't motivated by profit either, and didn't have to worry about people quitting because they nerfed a racial.

The changes to WotF continuous (meaning Blizzard new it was OP, but was slow to change it) and the addition of EMFH made the racials unbalanced in the other direction (Humans had an even better form of CC break than WotF).

I agree it can be easy to overdo tuning. Blizzard has been notorious for it; particularly I believe EMFH was overcompensation and damage control to not upset the throngs of subscription-paying undead (and coincidentally re-rolling race was a (payable) option from Blizzard). Most people are complaining because the idea of a balanced sheet of racials is different and not what their childhood emotions experienced, and is therefore scary and bad. I played WoW from launch until WotLK on Alliance and Horde.I was a R14 UD rogue and an alliance shadow priest. Up through TBC the only solution to counter WotF was rolling Horde (and I did, because playing as a priest on alliance side was misery). Despite flyheal's awful rhetoric they put forth the counterpoint that vanilla is PvE first and PvP tacked on and its imbalanced, but I've yet to be presented with an argument and a solution. Blizzard is a business and they have to make a profit. Their game design choices for vanilla were influenced by the fact that they need to make money, from as many people as possible. Elysium is unburdened by that. It's a non-profit server with volunteer staff paid entirely by donations. If WotF was changed tomorrow undead players would complain and either reroll another race or stick with what they have, and perhaps a few would quit. Players who would quit over a racial are unlikely donating to help cover server costs. What does it say about a racial that would make a player quit if it was balanced?

Do you have any evidence to back this claim up?

So our two arguments so far are "Vanilla is imbalanced deal with it" and "it's supposed to be shitty like Blizzard intended," as if Elysium were supposed to be a pure recreation of Blizzard's (shitty) early incarnation of the game. Both seem to only agree with my point, so I'm not sure I understand.

Excellent counterargument. You're right, time to pack it up, I'm convinced.

The stat allocation makes it more appropriate for PvP. The weapons are competitive for raiding, but it is the pinnacle of the ranking system. Going back to how we can predict the future (because Blizzard made all of Vanilla already) I see no reason not to push 1.11 changes to live, which includes the caster PvP weapons and the buffed gear.

The question that follows after is will Elysium always allow weapon/armor purchases based on highest attained rank? I think they should. Patch 1.7 removed PvP purchases based on highest attained rank. It was a mistake on Blizzard's part. Elysium seeks to recreate vanilla, but Blizzard couldn't predict their own future. Here we know the honor system was revamped in TBC and Naxx was the end of Vanilla. NOT following 1.7 PvP changes to the letter will allow the previous R14s to purchase the weapons only available in 1.11, a huge improvement over Blizzard's decision to revert purchases based on highest attained rank.

The math says you will put out more dps with smite and such but only once you get over ~300spell damage. To get 300 spell damage on PvP gear requires BWL and R14. Not reasonable for most people and not why you would PvP as shadow. Shadow is the PvP DPS spec because it comes with high mitigation, spell vamp, and silence, and allows you to substitute spell damage with stamina. Being a smite priest in PvP is like being a mage without the mobility or iceblock.

Is there a pre-AQ BiS list floating around? Intuition tells me T2 + Benediction or Lokamir and various trinkets.

To maximize being useful on an Alliance team I recommend going shadow and being the dispel/shield bot. Alliance teams use Paladins to heal first and preists second. Horde shamans can purge, but for Horde try 21/30/0 to maximize your survivability and utility you bring to a PvP team. If you are healing as a Horde priest it's shield, renew, and flash heal: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#bxMushboZbvzIb0ax The build is flexible, but you must have Unbreakable Will, Healing Focus, Holy Nova, & Spirit of Redemption. DOs: Roll Undead or Dwarf priest. Holy Nova - a must for flag spinning and unstealthing rogues. Spirit of Redemption combined with Holy Nova is critical for flag spinning in AB. A guaranteed reinforce if you stay on the flag; 10 seconds of spirit form plus 10 seconds for the enemy cap means you are likely to get reinforcements even if you run to the flag, die, and spam holy nova. An alternative build is Power Infusion but you lack Spirit of Redemption in an environment where you are the #1 target. Expect to die often if you PvP without it. Use PvP or stamina-heavy gear. +Spell damage/+healing comes second to more health. DON'Ts: DPS - Without Divine Fury to reduce smite casting time you do poor damage. You are mana burning enemy healers primarily. If you want to DPS go shadow. Don't bother with Spirit Tap - your team mages should be passing out lvl 55 water.