Vampire Touch?Follow

Vampiric Touch isn't the main reason for Shadow Priests drinking rarely. It's a combination of several mana efficiency talents. Spirit Tap will increase your Mana Regen after every kill, Mind Blast crits increases this further. Start the attack with Vampiric Touch, and your MB will give you a buff that gives you a decent mana regen in combat. Wanding the last few seconds of a fight will allow Spirit Tap to work outside of the Five Second Rule, giving your Spirit Tap 100% efficiency right off the bat. Dispersion will be a free Mana Pot on a CD. Later, you'll get Shadowfiend as another free Mana Pot.

You just have to gain a killcycle that combines killspeed with mana efficiency, and a spellrotation which allows you to regain mana at a high rate as soon as the kill hits. Other Shadow talents reduce the mana cost of most of your spells, and thus increase mana efficiency further. On my 70 Shadowpriest, I never sit and drink unless I've taken down a rather large group in one go, and then I usually have to eat as well...

You'll find your mana efficiency to be slightly lower at 60 than later on. You'll have better gear which means every spell you cast will be that much more powerful, while your Spirit will shoot through the roof granting you much more mana regen out of combat. Less mana spent on a kill + more mana regained when the kill is done = enormous mana efficiency.

Go through your spell rotation and find out what's basically just wasted mana compared to the damage done.

For me SW:P comes immediately after VT to get the most DoT ticks for my mana. Using Two MBs will cost more mana than it's worth, when one extra Flay (which costs much less mana) will do almost the same amount of damage. Finishing with MB isn't a good idea either, since it will cost you some MP5 from Spirit Tap.

You should always finish a mob with Mind Flay and then two seconds of wanding to make sure Spirit Tap goes outside of the five second rule. It won't lower your killspeed, but will decrease your downtime.

It's not based on damage at all. If you MB an enemy that's already got VT on it, the Replenishment effect occurs. No matter your Shadow damage, it will only give 1% mana every four seconds until it expires. Then you must reapply it. Bonus effect: Our itemization can no longer be sub-par for damage citing "But then VT will be overpowered". Flip side of the medallion: Our role as a mana battery has been nerfed a little bit. Fortunately, it's percentage based so the amount of mana recovered is dependant on the gear of the other raid members.

You do not set off the replenishment effect from MB alone. You can not set it off with any other spells either. Only a MB on a target with an applied VT will set it off.

Vampiric Embrace comes into play if you get low on health, as in below 60% or so. Then you toss in Devouring Plague and Vampiric Embrace into your rotation until you are at full health. After that, resume normal rotation. Personally, I kill mobs so fast that Devouring Plague and Vampiric Embrace would be nothing but mana sinks until I actually need them.

VE doesn't do any damage either, so unless you are low on health it's a pointless waste of mana. Never set yourself into the routine of casting something unless it's going to have an effect. Every other pull? That usually means you are doing something wrong, because normally you shouldn't have taken much if any damage on the other pulls.