Why Shadow?Follow

Now when I first started Priest, I picked all out Shadow and mowed things down. However, after the patch I began putting more and more into Holy with a few in Disc.
The way I seem to kill things:

Holy Fire
Devouring Plague
Power Word: Pain
Mind Blast
Holy Fire
Wand 3-4x until dead.

I'm level 48 and this kills anything up to level 51 pretty swiftly. Sometimes a few extra wand shots, but that's it. I've not once gone OOM while questing, and I don't bother with Mana pots or drinks.

So far my build is this here.
As you can see, 8/17/14.

I realize a lot of people love Shadowform and Mind Flay, but my curiosity is piqued based on the massive power of Holy Fire. My Mind Blast, Rank7 does 350-371 for 199mana. Holy Fire, Rank6 does 473-601+98-105 over 7sec for 145mana... way less mp, WAY more damage.

The Disc is for survivability, the +def. If that's worthless, please let me know. With it up, I gain 1370 armor putting me at 2132.

Here's my gear.


I'm stuck. EVERYONE keeps telling me Shadow ftw! But Holy Fire, especially at down to 1.5sec casting is doing such obscene damage, with the DoT adding more.

And last question, would Shadowform boost DoT damage?(PW:P, DP)


*edit*
Added build. lol.

Edited, Nov 5th 2008 2:04pm by Belaneau

Well, actually I don't use Smite as Mind Blast does more. I simply toss Holy Fire -> DoT's -> Mind Blast.
Though I do greatly desire Vampiric spells... it's tough on leveling just because Holy Fire is so massive right now lol.

Actually, there is no DPS specc with healing capability. Shockadin and Smite builds aren't dps builds. They are group support builds, really. Pure DPS builds will never be able to heal anything past normals, unless they outgear it so hard it's not even funny.

Checked the build and got a bit head-turned. Maxed Blackout (or Blackout at all) is a PvP talent. Improved Inner Fire is either for PvP (negligible effect really) or for past 70 when IF provides Spellpower. Here's a tip for leveling any class: Focus on one single talent tree until you've maxed it. All the really juicy stuff is in the higher tiers of the talent tree, and won't be accessible with a three tree specc.

Focusing on Shadow should look something like this. Some talents are interchangeable, but that's how my 60 build would look like. Once past 60, I'd respecc a little to remove Imp VE (almost never use this anymore) to get Veiled Shadows (Shadowfiend ftw).

There's only one solo encounter in Outlands where I went out of Shadowform, and that's the Dragon thingies south of Toshley's station. They've got some insane Shadow Resist. I hardly ever need to bubble before anything, so Imp Shadowform is nice for faster casting when dealing with multiple enemies.

Well, there's so much more I could have written about the Shadow tree. But you'll have to figure some things out yourself. If you don't want to level as Shadow, go for a full Disc or Holy specc. This jack of all trades crap just means you suck at everything instead of being damn good at one thing.

58 at the moment, just jumped back on the Spriest after a long hiatus.

I know as a general rule you should cap out your primary tree before going into another, I do usually do this. But on the Priest when I go into an instance 90% of the time I am healer so for 60 I am targeting this, then filling out Shadow from there (though I may sink the point in Desp Prayer).

Obviously my endgame build will be Shadow/Disc rather than Shadow/Holy but for now the reduced cast time on heals seems too good to pass up since I am stuck healing so often.

Thoughts?

Never had to even consider healing talents pre-70, and I really don't need them pre-80 either. I healed pretty much every instance I was in as full Shadow/Disc, and I never had any trouble. You have to remember that these instances are tuned for leveling people in offspeccs and quest greenies that's outdated.

Eh, I use Gheal pretty much exclusively on the tank. Got a stopcasting macro set and just stand there keeping the cast going until I can get the full benefit of it. If the DPS takes damage, I'll toss them a renew and go back to the endless Gheal cast. Takes a really bad pull for me to have healing issues, and as a Night Elf I never really have aggro problems (Shadowmeld ftw...).

Sometimes I'll get too bored though, and that's when the Flash Heals are broken out of the box. When I get tired watching the tank's healthbar waiting for a feasible Gheal I just might start popping FHeals just to have something to do. Well, if someone is taking enormous amounts of damage, I might bubble + Flash Heal + Renew him again just to buy time for more Gheal spams.

Healing in normals... Anyone taking Holy/Disc talents solely for Normal Healing capability should really reroll to another class, because a healer they ain't and they never will be.

/stopcasting macro. There's a thread somewhere on this frontpage with the Gheal one. It rocks so hard there's no decent metaphor for it. It basically allows you to keep casting that Gheal indefinitely. Just start casting it, and if the tank hasn't taken enough damage yet to get a decent effect out of it, just hit the Gheal button again and the cast starts again with no delay! It's **** in macro format.

You won't be waiting for the healthbar to show "Oh, it's Gheal time" and then spend the next three seconds praying that the boss won't crit. Instead, you'll watch the healthbar until you decide you can stop hitting Gheal. For tankhealing, that macro is pretty much a must. Combine it with a semi-decent unitframe addon (I personally have a major hardon for Pitbull) that shows overhealing/how much you will heal and you can wave bye bye to Gheal problems.

You know, just in case you decide on healing something that can't be solved by FHeal spamming.