Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. For the next few weeks (unless it's something game breaking), Matt will do his best to guide you through the Priest leveling process!

By now, you'll have learned most of the spells you'll be using at end game. If you've been crafty, you might have been able to land instance runs to hone your abilities as a healer (or DPS if you're of the Shadow sort). I won't focus as much on spells here on out although I will list anything significant on the way to 60. Instead, I'll explore the various zones and instances that you can (and should) do.

Dave wrote in suggesting this topic, and, so, let's have it! What one (or two, or three...) piece of gear have you had for the longest time, but not been able to replace? Did your warlock hit level 60 wearing those same enchanted gold bloodrobes? I know my warlock was using a hypnotic blade well into level 60 - and before you say anything, I must point out that there were, at the time, a lack of one-handed caster weapons of quality. So, do you have any gear on you that you're embarrassed to be seen with, but can't find a replacement for?

Overheard in Orgrimmar: "Welcome to the endgame, noob."

Not the warmest welcome a new level 60 might get, but perhaps an appropriate one. Upon hitting 60 (or perhaps even 55+), and encountering endgame content, one is in an interesting position. The content is new, but so many players are familiar with it that there's often little tolerance for those who are learning.

This seems to be a particular problem within the PuGs I've encountered. Usually, the players within them assume you've done everything to death before -- that you understand the abbreviations and common tactics. This isn't always the case; from battlegrounds to instances, everyone's new at some point. If grouped with someone who doesn't know what they're doing, here's a plea on behalf of the anonymous noob: bear in mind it might be their first time.

So, you've finally gotten to level 60.  Now what?  Well, there are some resources to guide you along, but whatever your direction, be prepared for a grind.  Rewards for gaining reputation with the game's factions can be high, but the process for getting them tends to involve the tedium of killing the same monsters or doing the same repeatable quest for days or weeks on end.  Collecting a new piece of powerful gear is always a thrill, but you may find yourself running through Upper Blackrock Spire a hundred times without winning a roll on the item you seek.  Even if you're in an end-game raiding guild, the game can be a grind - running through Molten Core again and again for the low chance of a specific item drop.  And I can certainly say that after defeating Ragnaros a few dozen times it becomes less of an epic struggle and more of an issue of "Drop my Choker of the Fire Lord already!"  Have you reached the point where the game is nothing but a grind yet, or do you still feel the magic?

With Blizzard's big push over the holidays, reducing the price of WoW and the free 10-day accounts, there have got to be plenty of new players getting close to 60. A guide to 60 was posted a few days ago, but Gamespy's new guide for people who are reaching 60 for the first time is great. It has detailed breakdowns of all the major instances, all the major quest chains, some of which start at level 52, and is generally a good guide to the PvE endgame.

I missed the Linken's Secret chain the first time around and kicked myself when I found out about it. This comprehensive guide, though helpful for experienced players too, is especially nice for first-timers.