Priests are OP Solo (says the Hunter, lol)

Jumped on my lvl 34 priest to grind out a quest or two during a down moment.

I really want to ding 35 to train Artesian alchemist and tailor (well, really want to ding 50 for Master, but gotta start somewhere), so I've been trying to give him a whirl whenever I get a chance.

His spec is wonky, pretty much whatever I felt like sounded good at the time I had a talent point handy.

He's got enough Shadow to get Mind Flay.

He's got three points in Holy for a better Renew.

He's got Discipline for Wand Specialization, and improved Power Word: Shield and Fortitude.

He's geared mostly in the highest level stuff he can craft via Tailoring, with a few AH greens that provide Intellect or Shadow damage.

Not a twink, but also not a first-time toon who has no gold or clue about gear.

Questing in northern Stranglethorn Vale, there's a cave where I had to go in and grab Bookie's stuff.

As I slowly kill my way in there, its not too bad. Guys at or slightly above my level, pretty easy to kill, but they sometimes pull a friend which makes it a bit dicey.

Getting deeper into the cave, two level 39's come running out and there's corpses all over the place.

Cool, I'll zip in there since they just killed everything.

Deeper, deeper, deeper, the corpses thin out, and then I see the sparkly quest objective surrounded by a few lvl 36-37 elites.

what, What, WHAT?

Ok, I've come all this way, lemme try this one guy that's not a caster and is all by himself.

Shield
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Shadow Word: Pain
Wand

Shield
Renew
Wand

Mind Flay

Ok, first guy dead. At the end of the fight, I'm at full health, mana is down but Spirit Tap runs its full course and I'm at full mana.

Are you kidding me? Is this part of the patch 2.3 nerf? The guys show up as Elite, so I suppose not. And even if non-elite, they're still 2 or 3 levels above me. Dead.

I can do this.

Yeah. Next guy, same routine, but he gets a little far away from me and pulls a friend.

Ok, np, mix in a Psychic Scream to buy some time, and two dead elites, both above my level.

Solo.

Now the respawn was crazy. These guys came back so fast, I had to really move.

So I quickly loot the quest item.

Kill a few guys near me.

Then I notice that because of those two departing 39's at the cave's entrance, I had Easy Street on the way in, since they had killed everything. Yeah, not so much on the way out.

Decide to run for it.

Shield & Psychic Scream.

Run run run. Renew. Run Run Run.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I made it all the way through the winding cave like this, to within an inch of being outside and into relative safety.

The good news is that for killing the elites that were three levels above me, I was getting somewhere around 1800 XP per kill, including rested bonus.

Blew through half of level 34 in about 20 minutes. w00t.

I tell ya, Priests are OP

LOL