SW:Death? Question about use in party?Follow

this is an interesting little spell. Usually i save this spell for use in pvp/arena settings because from what i can see it generates a decent amount of threat and the obvious kickback it gives you if you fail to kill the enemy. Although i have used it like you are talking about in instances from time to time. If you are in a group that you know well and understand then it can be a great way to increase dps. Although before using it in that way you need to make sure that your tank can hold aggro with you using it and also make sure you healer knows that you will be going it. From my exerience though it is not a common practice to use sw:death on a regular basis in instances because of the extra threat it generates and also the extra work it creats for the healer.

That clears that up, thanks. Its just I kept wondering why the priests health kept going up/down and wasn't till I looked at the hot on the mob and later asked. At least I now know and dont have to bite my nails off worrying.

If you want to push out the max. dps you can, you have to use sw:d and mindblast everytime they are up.

With 0/5 imp. mindblast, if you can stand still for the first few seconds of the fight, I'd suggest going:
Vamp. Touch -> Sw:P -> Vamp. Embrace -> Sw:D -> Mindblast -> Mindflay -> Vamp. Touch -> Mindblast (cause Sw:D is still on cooldown) -> Sw:D -> Mindflay -> Sw:P

From there on you have to figure it out yourself :P However this cycle to start with should work out perfectly fine. Having both your DoTs up should be your #1 priority. I usually cast Sw:D -> Mindblast right after every Vampiric Touch refresh (Sw:D first to regen some of the hp of Mindblast, which doesn't work out without waiting on the starting cycle).
Also remember to begin casting Vamp. Touch 1.5 seconds before it runs out ;)

^- That's concerning raids (and 5-man bosses I guess) btw




I doubt that really helped but.. I hope you enjoyed the read anyways xD^^

Edited, Nov 26th 2007 10:40am by schweizi

As a warlock's PoV in pvp against SW:D users I just love using my healthstone a second before the priest uses it, thus causing a lot of damage to him and (in a LOT of cases) killing him instead of me.

Again, thanks all. Great info for when my priest gets SW:D and usefull to know now when I main heal on my paladin & druid.

It's nice to warn people before you use it in parties. When I run with none-guild healers, I always warn them that I use it, and am especially careful about using it if I know they'll be focused on something else. In raids, it's much easier to use it, because raid healers will generally throw me a HoT or a FoL, and even if they don't the VE healing I'm putting out will more than make up the difference.
Only place so far I don't cast it is threat-capped fights (anything in the first half of Kara, ZA and Gruul if I don't have Salv, Void Reaver) and on certain fights during certain times due to mechanics (Netherspite blue portal, Prince near Enfeeble, Mag banish).

Ok, no one has mentioned this yet so I thought I should. There's a nice little trick I like to call: Death Mending Bounce. It's a thing for healer priests. You cast prayer of mending on the tank, then stay within 20 yards. Hopefully once he takes damage it'll jump to you, then select his target and cast SW:D. The damage you take will cause mending to bounce back to him (usually). For me, rank 2 SW:D costs 290 mana, and while re-casting mending costs 327.

Sometimes you get the full use out of it, as in mending bounces to you, you use SW:D to bounce it back, it goes to you again, bounce it back, then on the last heal on the tank it disappears, and you can immediately cast another mending. Of course, you are doing damage on the mob, causing threat, and getting healed by mending, causing global threat, but by the time you get to high enough level to use these spells threat control becomes second nature.

This doesn't always work, of course. As a healer, sometimes (think: raids and heroic bosses) every global cooldown is far too precious, and often there's a warlock life tapping and mending bounces to him rather than the tank (also, unlike SW:D, life tap doesn't cause PoM to bounce). But it is a fun way to liven up the healing experience.

Use SW:D on Curator's evo...it pwns!