Well, I just realized that this little guide has been linked from the sticky at the top of the page so I figured I should put a little note here to those few who might come along to read. This guide hasn't been updated in over 6 months, and likely won't be as I no longer raid on my shadow priest. With that said, as of right now everything is still relevant so I'll leave it as is. With the new site layout the font colors look awful, but I don't have time to fix that sort of thing at the moment.
I still do read the forums though so if anything huge comes up in a future patch that affects this "guide" make a post and I should see it.
Edited, Jun 3rd 2008 12:48am by Khalane
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Lvl 70 PVE Shadow Priest GuideFollow
Preface: This guide is geared towards PVE shadow priests, with an emphasis on raiding. You can apply the same information to our role in 5-man heroics as well for the most part. However, I have VERY little experience playing as a shadow priest in world pvp, battlegrounds or arena. As such, I will leave those topics open for discussion in this thread, but will not address them myself directly.
Also, I have only been raiding as a shadow priest for 3 months so of course I don’t know everything! If you see anything that is questionable, please point it out. If you have any questions, please ask. If I don’t know the answer, I will find it for you somewhere.
What is a Shadow Priest?
Pre-Burning Crusade and patch 2.0 (the introduction of Misery and Vampiric Touch) a shadow priest was more of a novelty in a raid than a staple. Most of the time our shadow priest was in the melee dps group with the rogues and dps warriors so they could get the benefit of Vampiric Embrace. They weren’t near the top of the damage chart, or the healing chart, but were decent at both.
Then came the Burning Crusade and the emergence of the Shadow Priest as a viable 5-man and raid spec. This was all possible because of two talents: Misery (adding 5% to all spell damage in the raid) and Vampiric Touch (returning 5% of damage done as mana to party members). The introduction of epic tailoring pieces also put shadow priests at the top of the damage meters in Karazhan for the first time.
Currently our role in a raid is to return as much mana as possible to our party members by doing as much damage as possible while remaining under our tanks in threat. Health return through Vampiric Embrace is only a side benefit of a Shadow Priest these days. The use of VE is very situational and depends on the fight.
In 5-mans we provide mana/health returns to the group which makes the role of the healer easier. We can also provide crowd control through the use of Mind Control, though its use is situational depending on the instance/mob you are facing.
Gear Discussion
The first thing to consider as a shadow priest is your gear. What stats should you be focusing on as you do 5-mans to gear up for Karazhan?
Spell hit rating. This stat will give you more of a DPS increase than any other stat until you reach the hit cap. Spell hit rating increases your chance to hit with spells. However, there is a base 1% chance to miss that cannot be overcome. Your chance to hit against level 73 mobs (raid bosses) is 83%. Therefore, you need 16% hit rating to become hit capped against raid bosses.
Luckily, shadow priests are one of the easiest classes to reach the hit cap with. By taking 5/5 points into the talent Shadow Focus, you will have an innate +10% to your chance to hit. In other words, you need to obtain 6% more spell hit from your gear, which works out to be +76 spell hit rating. (at level 70, 12.6 spell hit rating is equal to 1% spell hit)
For a discussion of spell hit mechanics you can check out the Spell Hit page at wowwiki.
+shadow damage or +spell damage. All of our abilities scale with +shadow/spell damage. Most of your damage as a shadow priest will come from our two damage over time spells: Shadow Word Pain and Vampiric Touch, as well as our channeled spell Mind Flay. These three spells cannot crit, which is why the shadow priest class favors shadow/spell damage over any other stat once they are hit capped.
Stamina. A dead shadow priest isn’t returning mana to their group. For just starting Karazhan, a nice goal would be between 7.5-8k health once raid buffed. Once you get into Gruul’s Lair and beyond, 8.5k+ health is the target.
Intellect. While having a large mana pool is nice, other stats are much more important to a shadow priest than intellect is. Anywhere over 7k mana unbuffed is perfectly fine. Part of being a shadow priest is learning a shadow fiend/mana pot rotation so that you never run out of mana, but always finish a fight with as little mana as possible. This takes practice.
+Spell crit. This stat only affects two of our spells as a shadow priest: Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death. As such, this stat is nice if you can get it, but not something you should go out of your way to focus on.
Mana per 5 (mp5). One of the challenges of playing a shadow priest is balancing how aggressive your spell cycle is in terms of mana use. You don’t want to run out of mana 2 minutes into a long boss fight, nor do you want to finish with only half of your mana pool depleted. That said, mana per 5 is a stat that is great if you can get it. However, your role is mana return to your whole group so don’t give up much +dmg just to gain a few more mp5.
Spirit. This stat provides very little benefit to a shadow priest as we are always casting spells during battle so cannot benefit from mana regen outside the five second rule. (see here for details on mana regen and the five second rule.) You should never take spirit over any other stat. However, having a little on your gear is always nice so that you get the benefit of the talent Meditation.
In terms of the actual gear itself, please take a look at the gear thread I started in this forum: http://www.thewatchmenguild.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4866
I also posted it in the forums at Allakhazam.com so if you would like to take a look at the discussion there feel free: http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=3;mid=118426558746012720;num=21;page=1
Once you have gear you will not be replacing for awhile, get it enchanted and socketed with good gems. +spell damage enchants and +spell damage gems as much as possible, with the odd +spell hit gem if you need it. Also use your Aldor/Scryer inscription on your shoulders and the +22 spell dmg/+14 spell hit rating enhancement for your head which you get from Lower City rep.
Edited, Sep 11th 2007 9:14pm by Khalane
Also, I have only been raiding as a shadow priest for 3 months so of course I don’t know everything! If you see anything that is questionable, please point it out. If you have any questions, please ask. If I don’t know the answer, I will find it for you somewhere.
What is a Shadow Priest?
Pre-Burning Crusade and patch 2.0 (the introduction of Misery and Vampiric Touch) a shadow priest was more of a novelty in a raid than a staple. Most of the time our shadow priest was in the melee dps group with the rogues and dps warriors so they could get the benefit of Vampiric Embrace. They weren’t near the top of the damage chart, or the healing chart, but were decent at both.
Then came the Burning Crusade and the emergence of the Shadow Priest as a viable 5-man and raid spec. This was all possible because of two talents: Misery (adding 5% to all spell damage in the raid) and Vampiric Touch (returning 5% of damage done as mana to party members). The introduction of epic tailoring pieces also put shadow priests at the top of the damage meters in Karazhan for the first time.
Currently our role in a raid is to return as much mana as possible to our party members by doing as much damage as possible while remaining under our tanks in threat. Health return through Vampiric Embrace is only a side benefit of a Shadow Priest these days. The use of VE is very situational and depends on the fight.
In 5-mans we provide mana/health returns to the group which makes the role of the healer easier. We can also provide crowd control through the use of Mind Control, though its use is situational depending on the instance/mob you are facing.
Gear Discussion
The first thing to consider as a shadow priest is your gear. What stats should you be focusing on as you do 5-mans to gear up for Karazhan?
Spell hit rating. This stat will give you more of a DPS increase than any other stat until you reach the hit cap. Spell hit rating increases your chance to hit with spells. However, there is a base 1% chance to miss that cannot be overcome. Your chance to hit against level 73 mobs (raid bosses) is 83%. Therefore, you need 16% hit rating to become hit capped against raid bosses.
Luckily, shadow priests are one of the easiest classes to reach the hit cap with. By taking 5/5 points into the talent Shadow Focus, you will have an innate +10% to your chance to hit. In other words, you need to obtain 6% more spell hit from your gear, which works out to be +76 spell hit rating. (at level 70, 12.6 spell hit rating is equal to 1% spell hit)
For a discussion of spell hit mechanics you can check out the Spell Hit page at wowwiki.
+shadow damage or +spell damage. All of our abilities scale with +shadow/spell damage. Most of your damage as a shadow priest will come from our two damage over time spells: Shadow Word Pain and Vampiric Touch, as well as our channeled spell Mind Flay. These three spells cannot crit, which is why the shadow priest class favors shadow/spell damage over any other stat once they are hit capped.
Stamina. A dead shadow priest isn’t returning mana to their group. For just starting Karazhan, a nice goal would be between 7.5-8k health once raid buffed. Once you get into Gruul’s Lair and beyond, 8.5k+ health is the target.
Intellect. While having a large mana pool is nice, other stats are much more important to a shadow priest than intellect is. Anywhere over 7k mana unbuffed is perfectly fine. Part of being a shadow priest is learning a shadow fiend/mana pot rotation so that you never run out of mana, but always finish a fight with as little mana as possible. This takes practice.
+Spell crit. This stat only affects two of our spells as a shadow priest: Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death. As such, this stat is nice if you can get it, but not something you should go out of your way to focus on.
Mana per 5 (mp5). One of the challenges of playing a shadow priest is balancing how aggressive your spell cycle is in terms of mana use. You don’t want to run out of mana 2 minutes into a long boss fight, nor do you want to finish with only half of your mana pool depleted. That said, mana per 5 is a stat that is great if you can get it. However, your role is mana return to your whole group so don’t give up much +dmg just to gain a few more mp5.
Spirit. This stat provides very little benefit to a shadow priest as we are always casting spells during battle so cannot benefit from mana regen outside the five second rule. (see here for details on mana regen and the five second rule.) You should never take spirit over any other stat. However, having a little on your gear is always nice so that you get the benefit of the talent Meditation.
In terms of the actual gear itself, please take a look at the gear thread I started in this forum: http://www.thewatchmenguild.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4866
I also posted it in the forums at Allakhazam.com so if you would like to take a look at the discussion there feel free: http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/class.html?wclass=3;mid=118426558746012720;num=21;page=1
Once you have gear you will not be replacing for awhile, get it enchanted and socketed with good gems. +spell damage enchants and +spell damage gems as much as possible, with the odd +spell hit gem if you need it. Also use your Aldor/Scryer inscription on your shoulders and the +22 spell dmg/+14 spell hit rating enhancement for your head which you get from Lower City rep.
Edited, Sep 11th 2007 9:14pm by Khalane
Talents
First I am going to discuss each of the talents in the Shadow Tree, and the relevant talents from the Discipline Tree. Then I will link an example raiding build and discuss the variations you can add to personalize your spec.
Shadow Tree
Tier One
Spirit Tap 5 points
Gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience or honor. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.
This talent is my personal pick for Tier One. Amazing talent while out grinding, making it so that you rarely have to stop and drink. Can also be useful on raid fights with adds where you can snipe the killing blow with Shadow Word: Death.
Blackout 5 points
Gives your shadow spells a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.
This talent is great if you pvp on the side. However, it doesn’t affect any raid bosses, or most trash so it is worthless if you are only worried about a PVE raid spec. As a note, it only has a chance to proc of the first tick of a dot or mindflay, not on any subsequent ticks.
Tier Two
Shadow Affinity 3 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 8/16/25%.
A must have talent for any level 70 shadow priest, even if all you do is 5-man dungeons and heroics. We do not have any way to dump threat like, for example, a hunter can with Feign Death. So, we need to reduce the threat generated by our spells as much as possible.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3/6 seconds.
Another great talent. With two points, this talent increases the duration of SW:P to 24 seconds, giving two more ticks at the same damage as the others with no increased mana cost. It makes our most efficient spell even more efficient.
Shadow Focus 5 points
Reduces your targets chance to resist your shadow spells by 2/4/6/8/10%.
One of the first goals of anyone preparing to raid is to max out their chance to hit. Against raid bosses, the chance to miss with spells is 16%. By maxing out this talent, you only need to obtain 6% from gear (+76 hit rating). Once you get more than 6% spell hit on your gear, you can begin to move points from this talent elsewhere. For a discussion please see: http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?t=3384
Tier Three
Improved Psychic Scream 2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 2/4 seconds.
Most PVE priests only use this spell in emergencies and as such do not need a reduced cooldown. It is nice for pvp though, and is a pre-requisite for Silence which many shadow priests like to take in their talent build.
Improved Mind Blast 5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 0.5/1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5 seconds.
This talent is always under debate. Some say go 5/5 or don’t bother; others say 1/5 is enough. Technically 4/5 would make Mind Blast fit exactly in between two mind flays, but latency and other factors usually prevent this from becoming a reality. My advice would be to leave 5 free points in your build if you really aren’t sure what to do. Then, after each raid add one point if your spell rotation needs tweaking until you find a number that works for you. Any points into this will increase your dps, as long as you are casting Mind Blast every time it is off cooldown.
Mind Flay 1 point
Assault the target's mind with shadow energy, causing 528 shadow damage over 3 seconds and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
One of the signature spells of a shadow priest. This is our most mana efficient direct damage spell. As an added bonus, it is great for slowing people in pvp, or runners in an instance. If you are a shadow priest, you have this spell.
Tier Four
Improved Fade 2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Fade ability by 3/6 seconds.
The most useless talent in the tree. If Fade removed threat permanently instead of only temporarily … but it doesn’t. Enough said.
Shadow Reach 2 points
Increases the range of your offensive shadow spells by 10/20%.
If you are only doing 5-mans then you can get away without taking any points in this talent. If you raid then you will want to put in two points. The range on Mindflay is abysmally short to begin with. Even with this talent, there will be fights in which you need to move a yard or two to avoid AOE spells (the Prince fight and his shadow nova come to mind).
Shadow Weaving 5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 2% and last 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
The warlocks in your raid will love you for this talent as it will increase the damage of their shadow spells in addition to your own. Essential for any shadow priest build. Some advocate taking 4/5 or even 3/5 if there are always two shadow priests in the raid as they contribute to the same Shadow Weaving debuff stack. This would free up a point or two to place elsewhere.
Tier Five
Silence 1 point (requires 2 points in Improved Psychic Scream)
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.
This spell is great to have in pvp, any pvp build would have it. It also has its uses in 5-man dungeons. However, all raid bosses are immune so most pure PVE raiding builds forgo taking this talent due to its high cost of having to place two points into Imp. Psychic Scream, another marginally useful talent in PVE.
Vampiric Embrace 1 point
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 15% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 1 min.
A must-have for the simple fact that it is a pre-requisite for Shadowform. However, it has a lot of use in 5-man content and on many boss fights in raids so people would take it anyway.
Improved Vampiric Embrace 2 points, requires 1 point in Vampiric Embrace.
Increases the percentage healed by Vampiric Embrace by an additional 5/10%.
This is one of those talents you either love or hate. It makes your Vampiric Embrace heal for 25% of your damage done when fully talented. Is the difference between 15% and 25% enough to warrant 2 talent points? After raiding for quite awhile with the extra two points, I am thinking not. VE is mostly overheal anyway, and also adds to our threat management issues. Take if you want it, don’t worry about it if you don’t.
Focused Mind 3 points
Reduces the mana cost of your Mind Blast, Mind Control, and Mind Flay spells by 5/10/15%.
Anything that makes Mind Blast and Mind Flay cost less is full of awesome in my book.
Tier Six
Shadow Resilience 2 points
Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by all spells by 2/4%.
This is the second worst talent in the tree. It could have its place in pvp, but it is a very poor talent choice for pve. We have so many great talents, it would be a waste of two points to use them here.
Darkness 5 points
Increase your shadow spell damage by 2/4/6/8/10%.
This talent is well worth the 5 points, and gets even better as your gear improves because it scales.
Tier Seven
Shadowform 1 point (requires one point in Vampiric Embrace)
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical Damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy Spells while in this form.
THE definitive talent of the tree and one of the best talents of any class. Not only does it increase our shadow damage, but it also reduces physical damage taken which helps while soloing or pvping.
Shadow Power 5 points
Increase the critical strike chance of your Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death spells by 3/6/9/12/15%.
This talent sounds great on paper. However, the actual benefit you get from this talent will depend on how often you use each of the spells. There is a debate over which offers more overall for your dps, Imp Mind Blast or Shadow Power. To help you decide, please see this website: http://wiki.shadowpriest.com/index.php?title=SimulationCraft/ImprovedMindBlast_vs_ShadowPower
Tier Eight
Misery 5 points
Your Shadow Word:Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also cause the target to take an additional 1/2/3/4/5% spell damage.
This is another talent that earns a shadow priest a raid spot. It effectively increases the DPS of every caster by 5%. It’s even worth the 5 points if all you do is solo and run 5-mans.
Tier Ten
Vampiric Touch 1 point (requires 1 point in Vampiric Embrace and 1 point in Shadowform)
Causes 685 to 690 shadow damage over 15 seconds to your target and causes all party members to gain mana equal to 5% of any Shadow spell damage you deal.
This spell will cause people to fight over you. Everyone with a mana bar will love having you in their raid group. It is amazing how much mana you can return over the course of a long boss fight, all while staying near the top of the damage meters.
Discipline Tree
Most shadow priests put at least 14 points into the Discipline Tree for talents that help our mana efficiency.
Tier One
Unbreakable Will 5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by an additional 3/6/9/12/15%.
A great talent for pvp. Also useful in PVE to resist things like Nightbane’s AOE fear. I personally don’t take this talent because the one time I did resist his fear, the tank did not. Needless to say, I died.
Wand Specialization 5 points
Increase your damage with wands by 5/10/15/20/25%
A great talent while leveling, it still helps at level 70 while soloing. Though not a tactic used much in raids anymore, having a high dps wand can help regen mana through Judgement of Wisdom if you are really desperate for mana.
Tier Two
Silent Resolve 5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Holy and Discipline spells by 4/8/12/16/20% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 4/8/12/16/20%.
This talent used be great back when it also affected Shadow spells. Now that it no longer does, the only use for this talent would be in pvp, to prevent dispels.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2 points
Increase the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 15/30%.
As the other talents in this tier are lackluster, be nice and take this talent so you can help the holy priests buff Fortitude in raids. It also help out in 5-man content.
Improved Power Word: Shield 3 points
Increases the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10/15%.
At level 70, at 3/3 this talent makes your shield absorb 1512 damage rather than 1315. Not something that you will need in raids or 5-mans, but it can be nice while solo’ing or in pvp.
Martyrdom 2 points
Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that last for 6 seconds after being the victim of a melee or ranged critical strike. The Focused Casting effect prevents you from loosing casting time when taking damage and increases resistance to interrupt effects by 10/20%
If you pvp a lot, this talent may be more beneficial to you than Imp. Shield.
Tier Three
Absolution 3 points
Reduces the mana cost of your Dispel Magic, Cure Disease, Abolish Disease and Mass Dispel spells by 5/10/15%.
Potentially useful in the arena, but most shadow priests do not have the talent points to spare if they are going for a raiding oriented build.
Inner Focus 1 point
When activated, reduces the mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
This is a great talent for only one point. Use is before casting SW:P in a raid to save the high mana cost, or before Mind Blast to increase its crit chance, save the mana cost and return a nice chunk of mana to your group all at the same time.
Meditation 3 points
Allows 10/20/30% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.
This talent helps our longevity in raid fights quite a bit, even though we are generally lacking in spirit. I think it gives me ~40 mp5 even though I have 0 extra spirit on my gear. Once you get into Tier 5 gear and beyond this talent will give even more mp5.
Talent Spec
So, after all that, where do you spend your 51 talent points? A lot will depend on your style of play. If all you do is raid, this is easy. If you pvp and do 5-mans as well it becomes harder to decide where to put those last few points.
The talents that are “required†for any raiding Shadow Priest are:
Discipline Tree
5/5 Unbreakable Will OR 5/5 Wand Spec (personal preference)
2/2 Imp. Fort
3 points in anything you like as long as it’s not Silent Resolve. This will vary depending on your play style.
1/1 Inner Focus
3/3 Meditation
Shadow Tree
5/5 Spirit Tap OR 5/5 Blackout (play style preference)
3/3 Shadow Affinity
2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
5/5 Shadow Focus
1/1 Mind Flay
2/2 Shadow Reach
5/5 Shadow Weaving
1/1 Vampiric Embrace
3/3 Focused Mind
5/5 Darkness
1/1 Shadowform
5/5 Misery
1/1 Vampiric Touch
This leaves you with 8 talent points left (and also assumes you will be the only shadow priest in the raid and have 76 spell hit). If you do not want/need Silence I would go with 3/5 Improved Mind Blast and 5/5 Shadow Power.
Edited, Sep 11th 2007 9:15pm by Khalane
Edited, Nov 23rd 2007 2:09am by Khalane
Edited, Nov 23rd 2007 2:12am by Khalane
Edited, Nov 23rd 2007 2:13am by Khalane
First I am going to discuss each of the talents in the Shadow Tree, and the relevant talents from the Discipline Tree. Then I will link an example raiding build and discuss the variations you can add to personalize your spec.
Shadow Tree
Tier One
Spirit Tap 5 points
Gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target that yields experience or honor. For the duration, your mana will regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.
This talent is my personal pick for Tier One. Amazing talent while out grinding, making it so that you rarely have to stop and drink. Can also be useful on raid fights with adds where you can snipe the killing blow with Shadow Word: Death.
Blackout 5 points
Gives your shadow spells a 2/4/6/8/10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.
This talent is great if you pvp on the side. However, it doesn’t affect any raid bosses, or most trash so it is worthless if you are only worried about a PVE raid spec. As a note, it only has a chance to proc of the first tick of a dot or mindflay, not on any subsequent ticks.
Tier Two
Shadow Affinity 3 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 8/16/25%.
A must have talent for any level 70 shadow priest, even if all you do is 5-man dungeons and heroics. We do not have any way to dump threat like, for example, a hunter can with Feign Death. So, we need to reduce the threat generated by our spells as much as possible.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain 2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3/6 seconds.
Another great talent. With two points, this talent increases the duration of SW:P to 24 seconds, giving two more ticks at the same damage as the others with no increased mana cost. It makes our most efficient spell even more efficient.
Shadow Focus 5 points
Reduces your targets chance to resist your shadow spells by 2/4/6/8/10%.
One of the first goals of anyone preparing to raid is to max out their chance to hit. Against raid bosses, the chance to miss with spells is 16%. By maxing out this talent, you only need to obtain 6% from gear (+76 hit rating). Once you get more than 6% spell hit on your gear, you can begin to move points from this talent elsewhere. For a discussion please see: http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?t=3384
Tier Three
Improved Psychic Scream 2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream spell by 2/4 seconds.
Most PVE priests only use this spell in emergencies and as such do not need a reduced cooldown. It is nice for pvp though, and is a pre-requisite for Silence which many shadow priests like to take in their talent build.
Improved Mind Blast 5 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast spell by 0.5/1.0/1.5/2.0/2.5 seconds.
This talent is always under debate. Some say go 5/5 or don’t bother; others say 1/5 is enough. Technically 4/5 would make Mind Blast fit exactly in between two mind flays, but latency and other factors usually prevent this from becoming a reality. My advice would be to leave 5 free points in your build if you really aren’t sure what to do. Then, after each raid add one point if your spell rotation needs tweaking until you find a number that works for you. Any points into this will increase your dps, as long as you are casting Mind Blast every time it is off cooldown.
Mind Flay 1 point
Assault the target's mind with shadow energy, causing 528 shadow damage over 3 seconds and slowing their movement speed by 50%.
One of the signature spells of a shadow priest. This is our most mana efficient direct damage spell. As an added bonus, it is great for slowing people in pvp, or runners in an instance. If you are a shadow priest, you have this spell.
Tier Four
Improved Fade 2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Fade ability by 3/6 seconds.
The most useless talent in the tree. If Fade removed threat permanently instead of only temporarily … but it doesn’t. Enough said.
Shadow Reach 2 points
Increases the range of your offensive shadow spells by 10/20%.
If you are only doing 5-mans then you can get away without taking any points in this talent. If you raid then you will want to put in two points. The range on Mindflay is abysmally short to begin with. Even with this talent, there will be fights in which you need to move a yard or two to avoid AOE spells (the Prince fight and his shadow nova come to mind).
Shadow Weaving 5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 2% and last 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
The warlocks in your raid will love you for this talent as it will increase the damage of their shadow spells in addition to your own. Essential for any shadow priest build. Some advocate taking 4/5 or even 3/5 if there are always two shadow priests in the raid as they contribute to the same Shadow Weaving debuff stack. This would free up a point or two to place elsewhere.
Tier Five
Silence 1 point (requires 2 points in Improved Psychic Scream)
Silences the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.
This spell is great to have in pvp, any pvp build would have it. It also has its uses in 5-man dungeons. However, all raid bosses are immune so most pure PVE raiding builds forgo taking this talent due to its high cost of having to place two points into Imp. Psychic Scream, another marginally useful talent in PVE.
Vampiric Embrace 1 point
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 15% of any Shadow spell damage you deal for 1 min.
A must-have for the simple fact that it is a pre-requisite for Shadowform. However, it has a lot of use in 5-man content and on many boss fights in raids so people would take it anyway.
Improved Vampiric Embrace 2 points, requires 1 point in Vampiric Embrace.
Increases the percentage healed by Vampiric Embrace by an additional 5/10%.
This is one of those talents you either love or hate. It makes your Vampiric Embrace heal for 25% of your damage done when fully talented. Is the difference between 15% and 25% enough to warrant 2 talent points? After raiding for quite awhile with the extra two points, I am thinking not. VE is mostly overheal anyway, and also adds to our threat management issues. Take if you want it, don’t worry about it if you don’t.
Focused Mind 3 points
Reduces the mana cost of your Mind Blast, Mind Control, and Mind Flay spells by 5/10/15%.
Anything that makes Mind Blast and Mind Flay cost less is full of awesome in my book.
Tier Six
Shadow Resilience 2 points
Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by all spells by 2/4%.
This is the second worst talent in the tree. It could have its place in pvp, but it is a very poor talent choice for pve. We have so many great talents, it would be a waste of two points to use them here.
Darkness 5 points
Increase your shadow spell damage by 2/4/6/8/10%.
This talent is well worth the 5 points, and gets even better as your gear improves because it scales.
Tier Seven
Shadowform 1 point (requires one point in Vampiric Embrace)
Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical Damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy Spells while in this form.
THE definitive talent of the tree and one of the best talents of any class. Not only does it increase our shadow damage, but it also reduces physical damage taken which helps while soloing or pvping.
Shadow Power 5 points
Increase the critical strike chance of your Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death spells by 3/6/9/12/15%.
This talent sounds great on paper. However, the actual benefit you get from this talent will depend on how often you use each of the spells. There is a debate over which offers more overall for your dps, Imp Mind Blast or Shadow Power. To help you decide, please see this website: http://wiki.shadowpriest.com/index.php?title=SimulationCraft/ImprovedMindBlast_vs_ShadowPower
Tier Eight
Misery 5 points
Your Shadow Word:Pain, Mind Flay and Vampiric Touch spells also cause the target to take an additional 1/2/3/4/5% spell damage.
This is another talent that earns a shadow priest a raid spot. It effectively increases the DPS of every caster by 5%. It’s even worth the 5 points if all you do is solo and run 5-mans.
Tier Ten
Vampiric Touch 1 point (requires 1 point in Vampiric Embrace and 1 point in Shadowform)
Causes 685 to 690 shadow damage over 15 seconds to your target and causes all party members to gain mana equal to 5% of any Shadow spell damage you deal.
This spell will cause people to fight over you. Everyone with a mana bar will love having you in their raid group. It is amazing how much mana you can return over the course of a long boss fight, all while staying near the top of the damage meters.
Discipline Tree
Most shadow priests put at least 14 points into the Discipline Tree for talents that help our mana efficiency.
Tier One
Unbreakable Will 5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by an additional 3/6/9/12/15%.
A great talent for pvp. Also useful in PVE to resist things like Nightbane’s AOE fear. I personally don’t take this talent because the one time I did resist his fear, the tank did not. Needless to say, I died.
Wand Specialization 5 points
Increase your damage with wands by 5/10/15/20/25%
A great talent while leveling, it still helps at level 70 while soloing. Though not a tactic used much in raids anymore, having a high dps wand can help regen mana through Judgement of Wisdom if you are really desperate for mana.
Tier Two
Silent Resolve 5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Holy and Discipline spells by 4/8/12/16/20% and reduces the chance your spells will be dispelled by 4/8/12/16/20%.
This talent used be great back when it also affected Shadow spells. Now that it no longer does, the only use for this talent would be in pvp, to prevent dispels.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude 2 points
Increase the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude and Prayer of Fortitude spells by 15/30%.
As the other talents in this tier are lackluster, be nice and take this talent so you can help the holy priests buff Fortitude in raids. It also help out in 5-man content.
Improved Power Word: Shield 3 points
Increases the damage absorbed by your Power Word: Shield by 5/10/15%.
At level 70, at 3/3 this talent makes your shield absorb 1512 damage rather than 1315. Not something that you will need in raids or 5-mans, but it can be nice while solo’ing or in pvp.
Martyrdom 2 points
Gives you a 50/100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that last for 6 seconds after being the victim of a melee or ranged critical strike. The Focused Casting effect prevents you from loosing casting time when taking damage and increases resistance to interrupt effects by 10/20%
If you pvp a lot, this talent may be more beneficial to you than Imp. Shield.
Tier Three
Absolution 3 points
Reduces the mana cost of your Dispel Magic, Cure Disease, Abolish Disease and Mass Dispel spells by 5/10/15%.
Potentially useful in the arena, but most shadow priests do not have the talent points to spare if they are going for a raiding oriented build.
Inner Focus 1 point
When activated, reduces the mana cost of your next spell by 100% and increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is capable of a critical effect.
This is a great talent for only one point. Use is before casting SW:P in a raid to save the high mana cost, or before Mind Blast to increase its crit chance, save the mana cost and return a nice chunk of mana to your group all at the same time.
Meditation 3 points
Allows 10/20/30% of your mana regeneration to continue while casting.
This talent helps our longevity in raid fights quite a bit, even though we are generally lacking in spirit. I think it gives me ~40 mp5 even though I have 0 extra spirit on my gear. Once you get into Tier 5 gear and beyond this talent will give even more mp5.
Talent Spec
So, after all that, where do you spend your 51 talent points? A lot will depend on your style of play. If all you do is raid, this is easy. If you pvp and do 5-mans as well it becomes harder to decide where to put those last few points.
The talents that are “required†for any raiding Shadow Priest are:
Discipline Tree
5/5 Unbreakable Will OR 5/5 Wand Spec (personal preference)
2/2 Imp. Fort
3 points in anything you like as long as it’s not Silent Resolve. This will vary depending on your play style.
1/1 Inner Focus
3/3 Meditation
Shadow Tree
5/5 Spirit Tap OR 5/5 Blackout (play style preference)
3/3 Shadow Affinity
2/2 Improved Shadow Word: Pain
5/5 Shadow Focus
1/1 Mind Flay
2/2 Shadow Reach
5/5 Shadow Weaving
1/1 Vampiric Embrace
3/3 Focused Mind
5/5 Darkness
1/1 Shadowform
5/5 Misery
1/1 Vampiric Touch
This leaves you with 8 talent points left (and also assumes you will be the only shadow priest in the raid and have 76 spell hit). If you do not want/need Silence I would go with 3/5 Improved Mind Blast and 5/5 Shadow Power.
Edited, Sep 11th 2007 9:15pm by Khalane
Edited, Nov 23rd 2007 2:09am by Khalane
Edited, Nov 23rd 2007 2:12am by Khalane
Edited, Nov 23rd 2007 2:13am by Khalane
Ok, so I have my gear and my spec. What now?
Now, you learn the art of raiding as a shadow priest. It is definitely possible to bring a lot of utility to the raid and still place high on the damage meter but it definitely takes work. No spamming one or two spells over and over again for you.
While browsing various forums, one question I see pop up over and over again is “what is the best spell rotation for a shadow priest?†The answer? There isn’t one. If only life were so simple.
If you take a look at our spells, you will notice that they all have odd cooldown times and our damage over time spells don’t last the same amount of time either. If you tried to plan out an exact order for spells you were going to cast during a fight, it could stretch on for pages, and then be ruined once you had to move to avoid splash damage. So make it easy on yourself and determine a priority list of spells based on each fight.
Let’s take the Shade of Aran fight in Karazhan as the first example. This fight has no aggro list so you don’t have to worry about threat at all. You are free to deal as much damage as you possibly can for as long as your mana pool lasts. In a case like this, my priority looks something like this:
Vampiric Touch
Shadow Word: Pain
Mind Blast
Vampiric Embrace
Mind Flay
I left out Shadow Word: Death as I don’t usually use it on this fight. Using it and then having him cast Arcane Missiles at you twice in a row isn’t fun.
With this priority system, you want to make sure the spell on the top of the list is always on cooldown/ticking away on the raid boss, followed by each of the other spells. You would only use Mind Flay if your DoTs are up and Mind Blast is on cooldown.
Let’s look at the Attumen fight as another example. The start of the fight when you attack Midnight, and the start of Phase 2 would involve a similar priority list:
Vampiric Touch
Shadow Word: Pain
Shadow Word: Death
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Vampiric Embrace
You would start out casting VE/VT/SW:P and go from there. In this case, there is no chance of splash damage so feel free to use SW:D. Having VE on him also negates the worry that healers may waste mana healing you. This priority list is your highest damage one, while also being the least mana efficient.
Now, let’s say that your tank is new and doesn’t have great gear, so their Threat Per Second isn’t as high as you are used to and you notice you start to catch up to them on threat. The first spells you would are probably VE and SW:D because of the healing aggro you generate through VE heals to yourself. Then, if needed you would cut out Mind Blast as well. This leaves you with a VT/SW:P/MF cycle. While very mana efficient and low threat compared to nuking, it is also lower damage. This means less mana returned to your group.
In a perfect situation you would be able to use the highest damage priority list for an entire fight. Most of the time this isn’t possible, due to being limited by threat or by mana so part of the fight is spent in high dps/mana use mode and other parts spent in low mana use mode.
Vampiric Touch is always your #1 priority. We are in the raid to return mana to our party members. Sure, your personal dps numbers might be higher if all you did was cast SW:D, MB and MF, but you would be useless to your group members.
You also need to think about when to use your +dmg trinkets. The best time to use them is once you have a full Shadow Weaving stack on your target, and if you have the Crusade card it is good to get a full stack of it going as well. Then when you pop your trinkets you will get the most benefit out of them possible. Use a trinket right before you refresh VT and SW:P so they benefit from the +dmg. If the trinket lasts long enough, you can even get 2 VTs off while the trinket is active.
How do I manage my threat?
Threat management is the number one problem you will have while raiding, especially if you are better geared than your tank. Even if you are moderately geared and the tank is amazing, you are still going to have problems on some fights.
Wait for the tank to call out for the dps to assist before you start casting spells. Do it. Install a threat meter and use it.
It is very important to know the mechanics of each encounter before you try it for the first time. Sure the raid leader may go over each fight beforehand, but sometimes things slip especially if they assume everyone knows the fight well. It is your job to know if the tank must always be #1 on the threat list, of if you can be 10% above him and still be safe or if you can go all out because there is no threat list. Be on top of the game.
The number one thing you can do to reduce your threat is always get Salvation from a paladin. If there is only one paladin in the raid, priests get Salvation. You can return more mana to the holy priests in your group than they would get from Wisdom, as long as you are free to dps as hard as you can. Salvation is your friend. If you must, get a 5 minute Salvation right as the fight starts, and ask for a refresh if it expires mid fight.
Learn to regulate your threat on long fights, especially fights you are learning. Start out slowly with only DoTs and Mindflay until the tank establishes a comfortable threat lead. Then start to ramp it up and observe your position on the threat meter. Is it rising rapidly? Staying stable? Change your spell priority based on what you see. Sometimes this means stopping all damage for a few seconds to allow to tank to re-establish a lead, or recover from something. No damage for a few seconds is a lot better than no damage for the rest of the fight because you pulled aggro and died. Think of the other people in the raid. One death can sometimes be enough to cause a wipe.
Enchant your cloak with subtlety if you must, you would be surprised at how much that extra 2% threat reduction helps! Even something that may seem small, like not using Vampiric Embrace during a fight like Gruul that has a lot of raid wide damage, can make a huge difference to the amount of threat you generate.
I have mana issues on longer fights, what should I do?
Being an effective shadow priest means always coming to a raid prepared with consumables. At the very least, you need to have a large supply of super mana potions. You WILL be chugging them constantly. Wizard oil, +spell damage food, and +spell damage potions or flasks will all help your mana pool by increasing the damage you deal and the mana returned by Vampiric Touch. On really long fights where both mana and threat are an issue another option is to use Mana oil, mp5 food and mp5 potions or flasks instead.
However, nailing down the right time to use your mana potion cooldown and your shadow fiend is the key to longevity. You want to avoid dropping into the low dps/mana cycle as much as you can. This will become easier as you learn each encounter.
Use your first mana potion once you have used around 3k mana. This gets the 2 minute cooldown timer going. If the fight is a shorter one (around 5 minutes) you may opt to use your shadow fiend when you are around 60% mana instead, to save yourself the potion cost. If the fight is a very long one (around 7-10 minutes) consider using your shadow fiend after ~2 minutes so it is available to use again near the end of the fight. Just be aware of the mechanics of the fight so you don’t get to 50% mana, send your shadow fiend in and have it die in the first second and have mana issues for the rest of the fight.
In fights which have adds, it may be better to send your shadow fiend to attack them rather than the boss. This is because your pet will have a lower miss rate than on the boss, so will return more mana. Also try to send him in during phases where a boss is weakened (such as when Curator evocates, or when Netherspite is banished) and when you have full shadow weaving on your target and use your trinkets. If done right, you can fill up almost your entire mana bar.
If you still have issues, consider farming up some Dark/Demonic Runes. These are on a separate cooldown from your mana potion (though are on the same one as a healthstone) so may be enough to tide you over between mana potions.
How does +spell damage work?
An amount of our +spell damage/+shadow damage will be added to our spells based on their coefficient. The coefficients are as follows (from wowwiki.):
Mind Blast 42.86%
Mind Flay 57.0%
Shadowfiend 65.0%
Shadow Word: Death 42.86%
Shadow Word: Pain 110.0%
Vampiric Touch 100.0%
From this, we can see why Shadow Word: Pain is so efficient. If you have 1000 spell damage, 1100 will be added over the duration of the spell. It is our spell with the highest damage per mana. On the other hand, Mind Blast isn’t as mana efficient because of its high mana cost and lower coefficient, but is high dps because of its short casting time.
What add-ons are useful to a Shadow Priest?
First, there are the add-ons required by all raiding members of The Watchmen, namely CT Raid Assist or ora2, Omen or KLH Threat Meter and BigWigs or Deadly Boss Mods in addition to the Ventrilo client.
The first add-on you want to get after these is some sort of timer so you can see how much time your DoTs and VE have left before you need to recast them. I use DoTimer but I hear Natur Enemy Cast Bar and ClassTimer are nice as well.
Something I don’t have, but might be useful would be something to track how much health/mana VE/VT return in the course of a fight. This should do the trick if you use FuBar.
Another add-on which can help increase your dps significantly is Quartz. This cast bar will show you how much time is added to each spell due to latency. By using /stopcasting macros with each of your spells, you can stop your current spell and begin casting another and still have the first spell land due to the latency. See Amora’s thread for more details on how to do this here.
Are there any useful macros I should know about?
The most important one is your Shackle Macro. It makes your life a lot easier in Karazhan, where priests play a big part in crowd control.
I personally have one macro with /focus on it. I’ve seen macros which incorporate setting your focus and casting shackle at the same time, but I like to have my focus set before the pull.
My actual shackle macro is:
#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/cast [target=focus, exists, nodead] Shackle Undead; [harm] Shackle Undead
This macro allows you to cast shackle on your focus target while still dpsing your main target. It also allows you to cast Shackle on something even if it isn’t your focus, good for unexpected adds, or helping another priest if you see their shackle break and you don’t have one up at the time.
I find I forget to use my trinkets, so I linked them to Vampiric Touch as it’s a spell I always have on a target, and it makes good use of the +damage.
#showtooltip Vampiric Touch
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Vampiric Touch
If you also tend to forget to use Inner Focus, you can link it to Shadow Word: Pain as it is our highest mana cost offensive spell. You can change the spell name if you prefer to use it on something else.
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast [harm] Inner Focus
/stopcasting
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
If you don’t use /stopcasting macros, this one can help prevent you from casting Mind Flay too soon and cutting off the last tick of the previous Mind Flay.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
One that is useful in general, and especially on the Maiden fight is:
/cast [target=mouseover] Dispel Magic
Useful Links
Shadowpriest.com
Priest guide on the Oboards
The Shadow Priest Thread at Elitistjerks.com
General Info about Aggro
Find out how much +dmg your trinket or set bonus is really worth
Edited, Sep 11th 2007 9:17pm by Khalane
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 2:45pm by Khalane
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 3:02pm by Khalane
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 3:03pm by Khalane
Now, you learn the art of raiding as a shadow priest. It is definitely possible to bring a lot of utility to the raid and still place high on the damage meter but it definitely takes work. No spamming one or two spells over and over again for you.
While browsing various forums, one question I see pop up over and over again is “what is the best spell rotation for a shadow priest?†The answer? There isn’t one. If only life were so simple.
If you take a look at our spells, you will notice that they all have odd cooldown times and our damage over time spells don’t last the same amount of time either. If you tried to plan out an exact order for spells you were going to cast during a fight, it could stretch on for pages, and then be ruined once you had to move to avoid splash damage. So make it easy on yourself and determine a priority list of spells based on each fight.
Let’s take the Shade of Aran fight in Karazhan as the first example. This fight has no aggro list so you don’t have to worry about threat at all. You are free to deal as much damage as you possibly can for as long as your mana pool lasts. In a case like this, my priority looks something like this:
Vampiric Touch
Shadow Word: Pain
Mind Blast
Vampiric Embrace
Mind Flay
I left out Shadow Word: Death as I don’t usually use it on this fight. Using it and then having him cast Arcane Missiles at you twice in a row isn’t fun.
With this priority system, you want to make sure the spell on the top of the list is always on cooldown/ticking away on the raid boss, followed by each of the other spells. You would only use Mind Flay if your DoTs are up and Mind Blast is on cooldown.
Let’s look at the Attumen fight as another example. The start of the fight when you attack Midnight, and the start of Phase 2 would involve a similar priority list:
Vampiric Touch
Shadow Word: Pain
Shadow Word: Death
Mind Blast
Mind Flay
Vampiric Embrace
You would start out casting VE/VT/SW:P and go from there. In this case, there is no chance of splash damage so feel free to use SW:D. Having VE on him also negates the worry that healers may waste mana healing you. This priority list is your highest damage one, while also being the least mana efficient.
Now, let’s say that your tank is new and doesn’t have great gear, so their Threat Per Second isn’t as high as you are used to and you notice you start to catch up to them on threat. The first spells you would are probably VE and SW:D because of the healing aggro you generate through VE heals to yourself. Then, if needed you would cut out Mind Blast as well. This leaves you with a VT/SW:P/MF cycle. While very mana efficient and low threat compared to nuking, it is also lower damage. This means less mana returned to your group.
In a perfect situation you would be able to use the highest damage priority list for an entire fight. Most of the time this isn’t possible, due to being limited by threat or by mana so part of the fight is spent in high dps/mana use mode and other parts spent in low mana use mode.
Vampiric Touch is always your #1 priority. We are in the raid to return mana to our party members. Sure, your personal dps numbers might be higher if all you did was cast SW:D, MB and MF, but you would be useless to your group members.
You also need to think about when to use your +dmg trinkets. The best time to use them is once you have a full Shadow Weaving stack on your target, and if you have the Crusade card it is good to get a full stack of it going as well. Then when you pop your trinkets you will get the most benefit out of them possible. Use a trinket right before you refresh VT and SW:P so they benefit from the +dmg. If the trinket lasts long enough, you can even get 2 VTs off while the trinket is active.
How do I manage my threat?
Threat management is the number one problem you will have while raiding, especially if you are better geared than your tank. Even if you are moderately geared and the tank is amazing, you are still going to have problems on some fights.
Wait for the tank to call out for the dps to assist before you start casting spells. Do it. Install a threat meter and use it.
It is very important to know the mechanics of each encounter before you try it for the first time. Sure the raid leader may go over each fight beforehand, but sometimes things slip especially if they assume everyone knows the fight well. It is your job to know if the tank must always be #1 on the threat list, of if you can be 10% above him and still be safe or if you can go all out because there is no threat list. Be on top of the game.
The number one thing you can do to reduce your threat is always get Salvation from a paladin. If there is only one paladin in the raid, priests get Salvation. You can return more mana to the holy priests in your group than they would get from Wisdom, as long as you are free to dps as hard as you can. Salvation is your friend. If you must, get a 5 minute Salvation right as the fight starts, and ask for a refresh if it expires mid fight.
Learn to regulate your threat on long fights, especially fights you are learning. Start out slowly with only DoTs and Mindflay until the tank establishes a comfortable threat lead. Then start to ramp it up and observe your position on the threat meter. Is it rising rapidly? Staying stable? Change your spell priority based on what you see. Sometimes this means stopping all damage for a few seconds to allow to tank to re-establish a lead, or recover from something. No damage for a few seconds is a lot better than no damage for the rest of the fight because you pulled aggro and died. Think of the other people in the raid. One death can sometimes be enough to cause a wipe.
Enchant your cloak with subtlety if you must, you would be surprised at how much that extra 2% threat reduction helps! Even something that may seem small, like not using Vampiric Embrace during a fight like Gruul that has a lot of raid wide damage, can make a huge difference to the amount of threat you generate.
I have mana issues on longer fights, what should I do?
Being an effective shadow priest means always coming to a raid prepared with consumables. At the very least, you need to have a large supply of super mana potions. You WILL be chugging them constantly. Wizard oil, +spell damage food, and +spell damage potions or flasks will all help your mana pool by increasing the damage you deal and the mana returned by Vampiric Touch. On really long fights where both mana and threat are an issue another option is to use Mana oil, mp5 food and mp5 potions or flasks instead.
However, nailing down the right time to use your mana potion cooldown and your shadow fiend is the key to longevity. You want to avoid dropping into the low dps/mana cycle as much as you can. This will become easier as you learn each encounter.
Use your first mana potion once you have used around 3k mana. This gets the 2 minute cooldown timer going. If the fight is a shorter one (around 5 minutes) you may opt to use your shadow fiend when you are around 60% mana instead, to save yourself the potion cost. If the fight is a very long one (around 7-10 minutes) consider using your shadow fiend after ~2 minutes so it is available to use again near the end of the fight. Just be aware of the mechanics of the fight so you don’t get to 50% mana, send your shadow fiend in and have it die in the first second and have mana issues for the rest of the fight.
In fights which have adds, it may be better to send your shadow fiend to attack them rather than the boss. This is because your pet will have a lower miss rate than on the boss, so will return more mana. Also try to send him in during phases where a boss is weakened (such as when Curator evocates, or when Netherspite is banished) and when you have full shadow weaving on your target and use your trinkets. If done right, you can fill up almost your entire mana bar.
If you still have issues, consider farming up some Dark/Demonic Runes. These are on a separate cooldown from your mana potion (though are on the same one as a healthstone) so may be enough to tide you over between mana potions.
How does +spell damage work?
An amount of our +spell damage/+shadow damage will be added to our spells based on their coefficient. The coefficients are as follows (from wowwiki.):
Mind Blast 42.86%
Mind Flay 57.0%
Shadowfiend 65.0%
Shadow Word: Death 42.86%
Shadow Word: Pain 110.0%
Vampiric Touch 100.0%
From this, we can see why Shadow Word: Pain is so efficient. If you have 1000 spell damage, 1100 will be added over the duration of the spell. It is our spell with the highest damage per mana. On the other hand, Mind Blast isn’t as mana efficient because of its high mana cost and lower coefficient, but is high dps because of its short casting time.
What add-ons are useful to a Shadow Priest?
First, there are the add-ons required by all raiding members of The Watchmen, namely CT Raid Assist or ora2, Omen or KLH Threat Meter and BigWigs or Deadly Boss Mods in addition to the Ventrilo client.
The first add-on you want to get after these is some sort of timer so you can see how much time your DoTs and VE have left before you need to recast them. I use DoTimer but I hear Natur Enemy Cast Bar and ClassTimer are nice as well.
Something I don’t have, but might be useful would be something to track how much health/mana VE/VT return in the course of a fight. This should do the trick if you use FuBar.
Another add-on which can help increase your dps significantly is Quartz. This cast bar will show you how much time is added to each spell due to latency. By using /stopcasting macros with each of your spells, you can stop your current spell and begin casting another and still have the first spell land due to the latency. See Amora’s thread for more details on how to do this here.
Are there any useful macros I should know about?
The most important one is your Shackle Macro. It makes your life a lot easier in Karazhan, where priests play a big part in crowd control.
I personally have one macro with /focus on it. I’ve seen macros which incorporate setting your focus and casting shackle at the same time, but I like to have my focus set before the pull.
My actual shackle macro is:
#showtooltip Shackle Undead
/cast [target=focus, exists, nodead] Shackle Undead; [harm] Shackle Undead
This macro allows you to cast shackle on your focus target while still dpsing your main target. It also allows you to cast Shackle on something even if it isn’t your focus, good for unexpected adds, or helping another priest if you see their shackle break and you don’t have one up at the time.
I find I forget to use my trinkets, so I linked them to Vampiric Touch as it’s a spell I always have on a target, and it makes good use of the +damage.
#showtooltip Vampiric Touch
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use 13
/stopcasting
/use 14
/stopcasting
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Vampiric Touch
If you also tend to forget to use Inner Focus, you can link it to Shadow Word: Pain as it is our highest mana cost offensive spell. You can change the spell name if you prefer to use it on something else.
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast [harm] Inner Focus
/stopcasting
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
If you don’t use /stopcasting macros, this one can help prevent you from casting Mind Flay too soon and cutting off the last tick of the previous Mind Flay.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay
One that is useful in general, and especially on the Maiden fight is:
/cast [target=mouseover] Dispel Magic
Useful Links
Shadowpriest.com
Priest guide on the Oboards
The Shadow Priest Thread at Elitistjerks.com
General Info about Aggro
Find out how much +dmg your trinket or set bonus is really worth
Edited, Sep 11th 2007 9:17pm by Khalane
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 2:45pm by Khalane
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 3:02pm by Khalane
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 3:03pm by Khalane
Thats a very nice in depth guide you have there. In fact there are only a couple of things that I can think of that are worth adding.
-The most effective use of trinkets is to use them just before your first shadow word pain is about to expire. Is you pop them at that point, then refresh your dots you are making the best use out of it possible. The reason you don't use them right away is that you want to have a full stack of shadow weaving (and if you have it crusader card aura) before you use it.
-Secondly is the use of the shadowfiend. Since it gains attack power based on our shadow damage bonus, it can restore MASSES of mana, I've had it restore a full mana bar in the past and I have well over a 10k mana pool. The trick then becomes how to maximise the return on it, and there is a definite trick to it. You get the best results from them when you do NOT use them on the boss itself. Admittedly in boss fights this isn't always possible, but a lot of fights in tbc include the use of adds during boss encounters. If you use your shadowfiend on an add instead of a boss, you'll find that you get better returns despite the fact that you probably won't have a full stack of shadow weaving yet. This is because the fiend has a better chance to hit these mobs than the boss mobs, also you're less likely to lose it early due to cleave effects. Two fights where this is particularly relevant that I have seen so far would be lurker, and tidewalker in ssc. Personally I don't use it on the inner demons on leotheras in case the pet gets the killing blow (I understand that this causes the mind control effect by default).
-The most effective use of trinkets is to use them just before your first shadow word pain is about to expire. Is you pop them at that point, then refresh your dots you are making the best use out of it possible. The reason you don't use them right away is that you want to have a full stack of shadow weaving (and if you have it crusader card aura) before you use it.
-Secondly is the use of the shadowfiend. Since it gains attack power based on our shadow damage bonus, it can restore MASSES of mana, I've had it restore a full mana bar in the past and I have well over a 10k mana pool. The trick then becomes how to maximise the return on it, and there is a definite trick to it. You get the best results from them when you do NOT use them on the boss itself. Admittedly in boss fights this isn't always possible, but a lot of fights in tbc include the use of adds during boss encounters. If you use your shadowfiend on an add instead of a boss, you'll find that you get better returns despite the fact that you probably won't have a full stack of shadow weaving yet. This is because the fiend has a better chance to hit these mobs than the boss mobs, also you're less likely to lose it early due to cleave effects. Two fights where this is particularly relevant that I have seen so far would be lurker, and tidewalker in ssc. Personally I don't use it on the inner demons on leotheras in case the pet gets the killing blow (I understand that this causes the mind control effect by default).
Sweet guide, only thing i caught (minor) is you get the glyph of power from sha'tar rep not lower city. Aside from that it's pretty spot on :)
Thanks for the two replies so far! I'll correct the mistake.
Great advice about trinket usage, mine are macro'd to go off when I use VT right now as I tend to forget to use them, but perhaps I should go back to activating them manually. Good point on using the shadowfiend on adds as well. Hadn't given much thought to that yet as we haven't attempted either of those fights you mentioned yet. Hopefully soon though!
Great advice about trinket usage, mine are macro'd to go off when I use VT right now as I tend to forget to use them, but perhaps I should go back to activating them manually. Good point on using the shadowfiend on adds as well. Hadn't given much thought to that yet as we haven't attempted either of those fights you mentioned yet. Hopefully soon though!
Two things:
SWP coefficient is 110%, not 120%. Bliz nerfed it "by 9%," though they didn't specify what exactly that meant; testing has proved it's 110%.
Flay coeffcient is wrong as well. I've heard 59%, 57.2%, and 57%. Just tested and it's 57% (559/tick versus 560/561 and 569/570).
I'm also strongly against binding Inner Focus and trinkets to buttons. First 30 seconds of a fight or so I'll pop trinket, IF+Plague, and refresh all DoT's. The makes sure I have full Crusade and Weaving stacks. Next time my trinket if up, I include Shadowfiend in as well (I tend to delay SF perhaps more than I should). I try and time trinkets/SF along with Bloodlust and/or extra damage (Banish phase Mag, etc) if I can.
SWP coefficient is 110%, not 120%. Bliz nerfed it "by 9%," though they didn't specify what exactly that meant; testing has proved it's 110%.
Flay coeffcient is wrong as well. I've heard 59%, 57.2%, and 57%. Just tested and it's 57% (559/tick versus 560/561 and 569/570).
I'm also strongly against binding Inner Focus and trinkets to buttons. First 30 seconds of a fight or so I'll pop trinket, IF+Plague, and refresh all DoT's. The makes sure I have full Crusade and Weaving stacks. Next time my trinket if up, I include Shadowfiend in as well (I tend to delay SF perhaps more than I should). I try and time trinkets/SF along with Bloodlust and/or extra damage (Banish phase Mag, etc) if I can.
lsfreak wrote:
Two things:
SWP coefficient is 110%, not 120%. Bliz nerfed it "by 9%," though they didn't specify what exactly that meant; testing has proved it's 110%.
Flay coeffcient is wrong as well. I've heard 59%, 57.2%, and 57%. Just tested and it's 57% (559/tick versus 560/561 and 569/570).
I'm also strongly against binding Inner Focus and trinkets to buttons. First 30 seconds of a fight or so I'll pop trinket, IF+Plague, and refresh all DoT's. The makes sure I have full Crusade and Weaving stacks. Next time my trinket if up, I include Shadowfiend in as well (I tend to delay SF perhaps more than I should). I try and time trinkets/SF along with Bloodlust and/or extra damage (Banish phase Mag, etc) if I can.
SWP coefficient is 110%, not 120%. Bliz nerfed it "by 9%," though they didn't specify what exactly that meant; testing has proved it's 110%.
Flay coeffcient is wrong as well. I've heard 59%, 57.2%, and 57%. Just tested and it's 57% (559/tick versus 560/561 and 569/570).
I'm also strongly against binding Inner Focus and trinkets to buttons. First 30 seconds of a fight or so I'll pop trinket, IF+Plague, and refresh all DoT's. The makes sure I have full Crusade and Weaving stacks. Next time my trinket if up, I include Shadowfiend in as well (I tend to delay SF perhaps more than I should). I try and time trinkets/SF along with Bloodlust and/or extra damage (Banish phase Mag, etc) if I can.
Thanks lsfreak. I looked at a few different sites for the coefficient and they all had different things, so I went with what was most prevalent. Obviously it was old info :S I shall fix that.
I love how sometimes we miss even the most obvious things, for some reason I never even thought about the fact I should save my trinkets until I have full Shadow Weaving and Crusade stacks up. I think it was because when I started raiding I rarely remembered to use my trinkets so used the easy way out. Guess I better not teach bad habits to others!
Khalane wrote:
I love how sometimes we miss even the most obvious things, for some reason I never even thought about the fact I should save my trinkets until I have full Shadow Weaving and Crusade stacks up. I think it was because when I started raiding I rarely remembered to use my trinkets so used the easy way out. Guess I better not teach bad habits to others!
I think it's a matter of knowing your playstyle. I am the type that forgets to pop trinkets, so I do have them macro'd. I might miss out on a little bit of damage by doing it this way, but I'm getting more use out of them than trying to remember mid-fight to pop the trinket.
fabulous information. great job! especially on the macros.
i even learned a little something about spell hit :)
you may want to re-title the guide as "level 70 pve shadow priest guide", so people don't read this expecting leveling tips.
once again, fantastic read! thanks for posting it here
/rate up
i even learned a little something about spell hit :)
you may want to re-title the guide as "level 70 pve shadow priest guide", so people don't read this expecting leveling tips.
once again, fantastic read! thanks for posting it here
/rate up
Rate ups to everyone who commented so far, the help is appreciated :)
QFTS = Quote for the Sticky
I think this should be stickied.
*My name is Caeremonia and I have approved this ad.*
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 8:21am by Caeremonia
I think this should be stickied.
*My name is Caeremonia and I have approved this ad.*
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 8:21am by Caeremonia
Quote:
If you also tend to forget to use Inner Focus, you can link it to Shadow Word: Pain as it is our highest mana cost offensive spell. You can change the spell name if you prefer to use it on something else.
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast Inner Focus
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast Inner Focus
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
I started using this macro yesterday, and discovered that if Inner Focus is off cooldown it only activates Inner Focus (doesn't cast the DoT). I have to click it again to cast the SW:pain. If Inner Focus is on cooldown, then the button will cast SW:pain.
Is there a way to modify the macro so that it will use Inner Focus and cast SW:pain?
Edit: Sticky Please!
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 10:10am by ixidoria
ixidoria wrote:
Quote:
If you also tend to forget to use Inner Focus, you can link it to Shadow Word: Pain as it is our highest mana cost offensive spell. You can change the spell name if you prefer to use it on something else.
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast Inner Focus
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast Inner Focus
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
I started using this macro yesterday, and discovered that if Inner Focus is off cooldown it only activates Inner Focus (doesn't cast the DoT). I have to click it again to cast the SW:pain. If Inner Focus is on cooldown, then the button will cast SW:pain.
Is there a way to modify the macro so that it will use Inner Focus and cast SW:pain?
Edit: Sticky Please!
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 10:10am by ixidoria
Hmm I didn't know that happened, because I don't use this macro myself. I just got it from the macro forum at shadowpriest.com :S I'll try to figure out how to fix it though and get back to you!
Edit: Ok, fixed it! Just had to add in a stopcasting line. I also added in the [harm] variable so Inner Focus won't cast by accident if you have a friendly target and you hit SW:P by accident.
#showtooltip Shadow Word: Pain
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/cast [harm] Inner Focus
/stopcasting
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
/script UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
Edited, Sep 14th 2007 2:44pm by Khalane
So my guild just made me the Shadow Priest class adviser .... so expect more posts like this asking for help to edit stuff :D Especially from those of you who have progressed further than my guild has so far, it really does help.
A truely excellent guide - well done. As a long time raiding priest I felt this was mostly all valid - I don't use the macros but think I'll give em a go.
Feedback points I have:
1) In the +spell damage section you stated that most of your damage comes from swp and vt, and qualified it later as being your most *efficient* damage. I would argue that if someone read that word for word they may be tempted never to MB, swd or flay. I am sure that is not the intention, nor do I not disagree that this stat should be #1 on sought after on gear. But it is likely that more of your damage is done using other spells.
2) Spirit tap is good for solo'ing but to raid I would argue Blackout is more worthwhile. Despite you stating that it doesnt work on raid trash I have found it very effective in both Kara and especially Gruuls. Blackout seems to proc a lot against the priests in Gruuls which is exceptionally useful given the heal casts get interrupted. Tanks may argue that they find it annoying though (similar to cheapshot/kidney shot preventing threat generation).
3) Casting sequence. I think everyone will have their own preference. Mine is to kick off with swp, then VE and then VT. The first two are dots and should be done fairly quickly. In a number of fights when you are on the move this sequence opener is quite useful and the first two can be done whilst beginning to get into position. The other advantage is that having VT third means that the time that it is up can be fully utilised. It is an expensive spell to use and doesn't last as nearly long as it should. By putting it third you can then cast MB, swd and flay away until vt needs to be redone.
Feedback points I have:
1) In the +spell damage section you stated that most of your damage comes from swp and vt, and qualified it later as being your most *efficient* damage. I would argue that if someone read that word for word they may be tempted never to MB, swd or flay. I am sure that is not the intention, nor do I not disagree that this stat should be #1 on sought after on gear. But it is likely that more of your damage is done using other spells.
2) Spirit tap is good for solo'ing but to raid I would argue Blackout is more worthwhile. Despite you stating that it doesnt work on raid trash I have found it very effective in both Kara and especially Gruuls. Blackout seems to proc a lot against the priests in Gruuls which is exceptionally useful given the heal casts get interrupted. Tanks may argue that they find it annoying though (similar to cheapshot/kidney shot preventing threat generation).
3) Casting sequence. I think everyone will have their own preference. Mine is to kick off with swp, then VE and then VT. The first two are dots and should be done fairly quickly. In a number of fights when you are on the move this sequence opener is quite useful and the first two can be done whilst beginning to get into position. The other advantage is that having VT third means that the time that it is up can be fully utilised. It is an expensive spell to use and doesn't last as nearly long as it should. By putting it third you can then cast MB, swd and flay away until vt needs to be redone.
Minxete wrote:
A truely excellent guide - well done. As a long time raiding priest I felt this was mostly all valid - I don't use the macros but think I'll give em a go.
Feedback points I have:
1) In the +spell damage section you stated that most of your damage comes from swp and vt, and qualified it later as being your most *efficient* damage. I would argue that if someone read that word for word they may be tempted never to MB, swd or flay. I am sure that is not the intention, nor do I not disagree that this stat should be #1 on sought after on gear. But it is likely that more of your damage is done using other spells.
2) Spirit tap is good for solo'ing but to raid I would argue Blackout is more worthwhile. Despite you stating that it doesnt work on raid trash I have found it very effective in both Kara and especially Gruuls. Blackout seems to proc a lot against the priests in Gruuls which is exceptionally useful given the heal casts get interrupted. Tanks may argue that they find it annoying though (similar to cheapshot/kidney shot preventing threat generation).
3) Casting sequence. I think everyone will have their own preference. Mine is to kick off with swp, then VE and then VT. The first two are dots and should be done fairly quickly. In a number of fights when you are on the move this sequence opener is quite useful and the first two can be done whilst beginning to get into position. The other advantage is that having VT third means that the time that it is up can be fully utilised. It is an expensive spell to use and doesn't last as nearly long as it should. By putting it third you can then cast MB, swd and flay away until vt needs to be redone.
Feedback points I have:
1) In the +spell damage section you stated that most of your damage comes from swp and vt, and qualified it later as being your most *efficient* damage. I would argue that if someone read that word for word they may be tempted never to MB, swd or flay. I am sure that is not the intention, nor do I not disagree that this stat should be #1 on sought after on gear. But it is likely that more of your damage is done using other spells.
2) Spirit tap is good for solo'ing but to raid I would argue Blackout is more worthwhile. Despite you stating that it doesnt work on raid trash I have found it very effective in both Kara and especially Gruuls. Blackout seems to proc a lot against the priests in Gruuls which is exceptionally useful given the heal casts get interrupted. Tanks may argue that they find it annoying though (similar to cheapshot/kidney shot preventing threat generation).
3) Casting sequence. I think everyone will have their own preference. Mine is to kick off with swp, then VE and then VT. The first two are dots and should be done fairly quickly. In a number of fights when you are on the move this sequence opener is quite useful and the first two can be done whilst beginning to get into position. The other advantage is that having VT third means that the time that it is up can be fully utilised. It is an expensive spell to use and doesn't last as nearly long as it should. By putting it third you can then cast MB, swd and flay away until vt needs to be redone.
1) I'll take a look at my wording here again, but as this is directed toward people who have already been accepted to our guild to raid at level 70 I sure hope they don't read that and think they should only cast VT and SW:P :D
All I am trying to say here is that +damage is our most valued stat because it applies to all of our spells, where +crit for example will only benefit Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death. I forget the exact numbers, but you need some silly amount of +crit rating to be worth the same as +1 spell dmg. Perhaps I'll find the math somewhere and link it.
2) Thanks for the info re: Blackout working on some of the trash. I had heard/read many things saying it didn't work on much. Really, the first tier talents in both Shadow and Disc are totally personal preference. It really doesn't matter which you take. I just don't happen to like Blackout as much as Spirit Tap.
3) Good point. I'll probably go back and edit this to word it better. I do the same thing at the start of a fight these days, sticking up VE first if I decide to use it, then SW:P and then VT. I was more concerned about being getting the concept of a priority system down first though, then what they should cast at the very start of the fight. For example, I got one of our new recruits to re-read that part because she was doing a good job keeping SW:P up, but was forgetting to refresh VT about half the time. Not so good.
I usually start off VT->SWP->VE->Blast->Death. Means they all tick within half a second of eachother, and for that half a second or two I a) watch Omen freak out (when that happens it usually lists me at several tens of thousands of tps) and b) feel kinda like a mage for that half a second :d
As for Spirit Tap, it's TONS better than Blackout in 25-mans. The only fight between Gruul and Hyjal that DOESN'T have adds for you to ninja-kill and get spirit tap is Void Reaver. ALL the others have some kind of adds, and ones like Solarian, Morogrim, and Al'ar have tons of adds at very specific and rather short intervals that you can very easily get a killing blow off of. Getting spirit tap followed closely by Innervate is nothing short of win.
Edited, Sep 21st 2007 12:29am by lsfreak
As for Spirit Tap, it's TONS better than Blackout in 25-mans. The only fight between Gruul and Hyjal that DOESN'T have adds for you to ninja-kill and get spirit tap is Void Reaver. ALL the others have some kind of adds, and ones like Solarian, Morogrim, and Al'ar have tons of adds at very specific and rather short intervals that you can very easily get a killing blow off of. Getting spirit tap followed closely by Innervate is nothing short of win.
Edited, Sep 21st 2007 12:29am by lsfreak
Quote:
I usually start off VT->SWP->VE->Blast->Death.
Yep, agree totally on the spirit tap, blackout is really focused more on the pvp side of things. One thing I would note on that spell rotation you gave and that is that you should consider using death before mind blast. That way you get the benefit of the VE proc on both nukes, as opposed to just the one. Other than that, your initial cast sequence is identical to mine.
Yeah SWD should ALWAYS be before MB on rotations (if both are up).
As for spirit tap, in 25 mans, getting the killing blow with 24 other people, good luck to you. I know it can be done, but it is incredibly difficult. I do virtually the same thing but with a trinket (occulus of hidden eye), and find with so many other dps'ers I will get the killing blow 1/5 times.
As for spirit tap, in 25 mans, getting the killing blow with 24 other people, good luck to you. I know it can be done, but it is incredibly difficult. I do virtually the same thing but with a trinket (occulus of hidden eye), and find with so many other dps'ers I will get the killing blow 1/5 times.
actually, the killing blows are easier to come by than you might think, if you take a few ssc fights as examples I could point to getting in a sneaky sw:d on a tidewalker murloc, getting a killing blow on an add at lurker. On karathess you get 4 goes at it (having the instant nuke really helps). I'm sure there are more examples as you go on throught the raiding content.
But aside from this the point is really that after you progress from karazhan the added benefit of blackout is essentially lost, given that so much of the trash is stun immune. Even the stuff which you can stun usually goes down within 20 seconds, meaning that additional stuns merely wind up gimping your tank's rage and threat. Overall I look at it as the lesser of two evils rather than a choice of truly important points to take.
But aside from this the point is really that after you progress from karazhan the added benefit of blackout is essentially lost, given that so much of the trash is stun immune. Even the stuff which you can stun usually goes down within 20 seconds, meaning that additional stuns merely wind up gimping your tank's rage and threat. Overall I look at it as the lesser of two evils rather than a choice of truly important points to take.
Rate ups to everyone who has contributed since the last time I rated everyone up :)
Not sure it entirely fits here, but here's an ideal group for a shadow priest:
Shadow priest (for mana return)
Doomkin (crit aura)
Elemental shammy (Crit + hit totem, wrath of air, mana spring)
AM/AB or fire mage
With the last spot being open to either a fight-specific class (CoH melee-healing priest on Void Reaver), a destruction lock, another mage, or a resto shammy (tranquility + mana tide).
Everyone benefits from the shadow priest's presence, while the doomkin aura and shammy boost each others' and the mage's damage. If a healer is present, they get infinite mana, and if specifically a resto shammy is present, mana becomes even less of an issue and pretty much any threat issues go away. Bonus points if a few of the DPS are willing to carry around Chains of the Twilight Owl (2% crit aura necklace).
Some rough numbers. With 10%CoS and 40% ISB uptime, and 80mp5 (Meditation + BoW):
VT/SWP/Flay rotation can be cast indefinitely for all practical purposes with +700dmg, mana pots, and shadowfiend (+850 with no ISB)
VT/SWP/Flay rotations with shadowfiend result in net mana gain at +1500dmg (20 minute oom time with +1300dmg)
VT/SWP/SWD/Flay has a 20-minute oom time at +1050dmg with mana pots and fiend, and results in net mana gain by +1225.
Two shadow priests with no mana pots can do full rotations (VT/SWP/SWD/MB/Flay) with net mana gain at +950dmg (+1100 with no ISB).
With 60% ISB uptime, talented CoS, and the ideal group setup I listed, a full rotation with fiend and pots is infinitely sustainable for all practical purposes with +1200dmg (>30 minute oom time).
I think I pointed this out in another thread, but here's a detailed explanation of Shadowfiend, not specific to shadow priests.
- Melee shadow damage.
- Gets a 6.5% coefficient for your shadow damage each attack (65% over entire fight). Pop trinkets before activating for more return.
- Increased damage from Shadowform, Misery, Shadow Weaving, Curse of Shadows, and so on. Try and get full Weaving debuffs before popping.
- Increased damage from Strength of Earth totem, Battle Shout, Sunder Armor, and so on, due to being melee damage. Some of these may double-dip in damage (Strength of Earth increases directly, and through pet scaling by increasing your strength).
- Benefits from Bloodlust if Bloodlust is casted after the Shadowfiend (fiend is there to receive the buff). This sends mana regen through the roof.
- Since it is a melee attack, it benefits from being behind the target, to negate parry chance.
- Fiends have a *very* high dodge rating (think rogue with evasion) and significant resists to at least fire and shadow, if not all schools.
Last I checked, due to the nature of how the mod works, Dotdotdot and ClassTimer are superior to other DoT timers. This is due to the way the information is gathered. Other DoT timers sometimes track other peoples' dots as your own, do not count resists or the dots being pushed off, and have small discrepancies when used in combintion with /stopcasting macros. Personally, I don't know how exactly this works, but I know it does (other DoT timers still showing uptime after the mob's dead, not refreshing Weaving timers, etc).
... I think that's enough rambling for now :d
Shadow priest (for mana return)
Doomkin (crit aura)
Elemental shammy (Crit + hit totem, wrath of air, mana spring)
AM/AB or fire mage
With the last spot being open to either a fight-specific class (CoH melee-healing priest on Void Reaver), a destruction lock, another mage, or a resto shammy (tranquility + mana tide).
Everyone benefits from the shadow priest's presence, while the doomkin aura and shammy boost each others' and the mage's damage. If a healer is present, they get infinite mana, and if specifically a resto shammy is present, mana becomes even less of an issue and pretty much any threat issues go away. Bonus points if a few of the DPS are willing to carry around Chains of the Twilight Owl (2% crit aura necklace).
Some rough numbers. With 10%CoS and 40% ISB uptime, and 80mp5 (Meditation + BoW):
VT/SWP/Flay rotation can be cast indefinitely for all practical purposes with +700dmg, mana pots, and shadowfiend (+850 with no ISB)
VT/SWP/Flay rotations with shadowfiend result in net mana gain at +1500dmg (20 minute oom time with +1300dmg)
VT/SWP/SWD/Flay has a 20-minute oom time at +1050dmg with mana pots and fiend, and results in net mana gain by +1225.
Two shadow priests with no mana pots can do full rotations (VT/SWP/SWD/MB/Flay) with net mana gain at +950dmg (+1100 with no ISB).
With 60% ISB uptime, talented CoS, and the ideal group setup I listed, a full rotation with fiend and pots is infinitely sustainable for all practical purposes with +1200dmg (>30 minute oom time).
I think I pointed this out in another thread, but here's a detailed explanation of Shadowfiend, not specific to shadow priests.
- Melee shadow damage.
- Gets a 6.5% coefficient for your shadow damage each attack (65% over entire fight). Pop trinkets before activating for more return.
- Increased damage from Shadowform, Misery, Shadow Weaving, Curse of Shadows, and so on. Try and get full Weaving debuffs before popping.
- Increased damage from Strength of Earth totem, Battle Shout, Sunder Armor, and so on, due to being melee damage. Some of these may double-dip in damage (Strength of Earth increases directly, and through pet scaling by increasing your strength).
- Benefits from Bloodlust if Bloodlust is casted after the Shadowfiend (fiend is there to receive the buff). This sends mana regen through the roof.
- Since it is a melee attack, it benefits from being behind the target, to negate parry chance.
- Fiends have a *very* high dodge rating (think rogue with evasion) and significant resists to at least fire and shadow, if not all schools.
Last I checked, due to the nature of how the mod works, Dotdotdot and ClassTimer are superior to other DoT timers. This is due to the way the information is gathered. Other DoT timers sometimes track other peoples' dots as your own, do not count resists or the dots being pushed off, and have small discrepancies when used in combintion with /stopcasting macros. Personally, I don't know how exactly this works, but I know it does (other DoT timers still showing uptime after the mob's dead, not refreshing Weaving timers, etc).
... I think that's enough rambling for now :d
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