Priest The Zones Guide

The Zones

1-20: Starting Zone -> Barrens (h8@Silverpine). If you're Alliance, I guess go to Westfall instead. Never been to Darkshore but I hear it sucks. I leveled a Paladin on the Honor Contest 1.10 PTR and Westfall was a great zone. Lots of good quests. You shouldn't ever need to grind before 20. If you're out of quests, do WC or VC. Never done VC as Horde, but there's decent cloth loot there I think.

20-40: Primarily instance a lot. As a healer, you will have no problem being as low as 1-2 levels below the minimum for an instance. Just know how to heal. Don't get a 60 to run you through. It's good healing practice. Healing instances is a great break from DPSing mobs for an hour, and I don't care what you say, Healing is so much easier than topping the DPS meters. Keep grinding to a minimum. Grind Quests are your friend. You can't instance ALL the time, though, so try different zones, such as:

• Southern Barrens - Bael Modan (get the quest along the road) and Quillboars north of RFK
  
• Hillsbrad Foothills - The ganking isn't that bad and the quests here are awesome. Grind Mudpaw Gnolls in southeast after you're out of quests.
  
• 1,000 Needles - Good questing here. They removed the Mark of Shame, so feel free to do that chain if you have all the Flight Paths for it.
  
• Shimmering Flats - Finish the quests, grind the bugs afterwards.
  
• Arathi Highlands - Fun PvP zone, very few gankers outside your level range. Quest.
  
• Stranglethorn Vale - Some people hated it, I enjoyed the questing here. Tons of quests.
  
• Badlands - Rock Elementals. Not many quests.
  
  40-50:
  
  
• Badlands - Finish off the low 40s with the Rock Elementals in Badlands, move onto Tanaris.
  
• Tanaris - Lost Rigger Cove has a lot of quests and GREAT grinding. No 60s ever come here, but both mid-40 factions do. Good luck.
  
• Tanaris - Thistleshrub Valley, I loved grinding these things. The level 49s died so easily. Easy pulls, constant pace, awesome herb loot (occasional BoE epic), great area.
  
• Keep doing instances. Uldaman sucks, though, I didn't bother ever clearing that more than once or twice. I ran ZF a lot, and Maraudon as I got higher leveled.
  
  50-60: This is where it gets "Eh." Not many good instances for exp (great loot though, in the high 50s you should be running DM daily), and constant mind-numbing grinding is the only way to get through it. The key to grinding at 50 is to make money while you do it. The more money you make in the 50s, the less you'll need to farm as a raider.
  
  
• Avoid WPL on a PvP server. Too much of a PvP zone for 60s. I tried grinding in Felstone Field, but a pathetic Human Warrior named Bigbomb camps there all day every day with nothing better to do. Yeah, I felt like calling him out publicly for everyone on Bleeding Hollow, in case this ever gets stickied.
  
• Move onto Un'Goro Crater. First clear out all the quests there (fun stuff), then grind a few levels in Fire Plume Ridge. There will be china farmers here, but they shouldn't give you much trouble (especially Alliance). Most suck at playing their class anyway. This place has the highest Essence of Fire (http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=10062) drop rate in the game, other than MC.
  
• Next up: Felwood. I skipped all the quests, you might want to do 'em. Farm Jadefire Run for a few levels. Easy experience, and the loot is awesome. Tons of Runecloth, Felcloth, and Demonic Runes. Start with the ones in the south until you're higher, then move up to the North.
  
• In the upper 50s, you've got a few options. Next up should probably be Silithus. The quests here are easy and they're not in highly PvP-centered parts. Grind the Rock Elementals up north, they have a good Essence of Earth (http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=7534) drop rate.
  
• Eastern Plaguelands! With the addition of Naxx in the next patch, I don't know how packed this place will become with 60s, but right now it's just too big, high level, and out of the way to be a great PvP zone like BRM and WPL. There are SO many quests here. Group up with a friend and get em done, you'll get a lot of exp.
  
• Finally, if you're lucky, you can finish off your last 2 levels in a few hours. How? Burning Steppes. I had a T2 Mage tap level me on all the Elite Dragonkin here. I would get ~600 exp per kill and it wouldn't take any longer than normal. Tap leveling is when you damage a mob (Pets don't count, FYI) then have someone out of your party help you kill it, granting you almost full experience. Power leveling is great here.
  
  Again, much later added (6-26-07):
  
  With the release of the expansion, making money is entirely different. You should no longer worry about making money before 60, cash will come to you so easily in Outlands.
  
  
• Try a gathering profession. There is so much money to be made in Herbalism, although hard to level if you're starting this late. Skinning and Mining are excellent as well.
  
• Do plenty of the right quests, if you do enough you should have no trouble buying a flying mount by level 70.
  
• Save certain quests for 70. You'll make a lot more money off of quests once you reach the experience cap. I saved all my Netherstorm quests for 70, plus a bunch in Shadowmoon Valley and most of the elite Nagrand quests.
  
• You can do all the other Nagrand quests, most of Shadowmoon Valley (especially if you couldn't stand grinding there like me), Zangarmarsh, and Blades Edge Mountains.
  
• Some people save their Hellfire Penninsula quests for 70, because the last thing they want to do is have to run Shattered Halls over and over as their only means of gaining rep. If you're not opposed to pick-up groups, run Ramparts and Blood Furnace at the lower 60s. It's worth it, for rep, gear, a little experience, and saved quest money later on.