Priest Progress...

My priest has made it to 58 and has stepped through the portal!

OK, to be fair, I've been bound in Shattrath since 50 or so to save on travel time in the old world... But 58 is the first level you can officially start questing in Outlands, so it marks the transition to UBERLEETNESS in free gear!

So, I should have blogged about it when it happened, but I didn't because I was busy playing :P sorry.

So, now I'm 61 already. :P When I got to Outlands, I made it a point to look up all the gear I could get at 58 from quests, and I went right for those quests directly. within an hour or two, I had replaced at least half of my gear with new Outlands gear, each of which is roughly as powerful as the kind of gear we used to get from Molten Core. Woot!

My plan for leveling is this: Each level, I'm researching spellpower gear available via quests, and if it's better than what I'm wearing, I go after those quests. Those quests that only grant gold or experience are being saved until after the item quests are out of the way. With the change to the experience requirements from 60-70 that was put in in 3.0.2, I found I don't have to do anywhere near the number of quests I had to do the last time through outlands. That's a nice change. Also, getting the gear first increases my power and makes doing every other quest easier.

So, for those wondering, here's how I look up this gear:

Go to WowHead.com
Select Database > Items
Click Create a Filter
Select Usable by: Priest
Select Required level 58 - 58
select filter: Added in the Burning Crusade: Yes
Add another filter
select filter: Rewarded by a quest: Yes
change Yes to "Alliance" or "Horde"
Add another filter
select filter: Spell damage item: Yes
click Apply filter

This filter shows 12 items, each of which is available the moment you step through the portal at 58. Save a shortcut to this page, and each level, change the 58-58 to 59-59 and so on to see the new stuff. Other classes will need to adjust the filters a little, but that's how it's done.

I'm also running instances when I get a chance. I've found that the spellpower gear gives me the ability to heal in an instance as shadow spec with very little problem - Renew and VE:Mind Flay spam is enough to do the main healing job, with the occasional Greater Heal when the tank decides to pull big groups (frequently, LOL)

Another thing I've found is that using Outfitter, my Heal, Mana, and DPS sets have converged. It's all the same gear now in Outlands with very little exceptions. This means that as a priest, I basically no longer need to maintain multiple sets to fulfill all my different roles. One set can do it all. GO SPELLPOWER! Woot!