No Escaping!Follow

I respecced to a Shadow Priest after getting tired of being blamed for any wipes by idiots who had no idea what they were doing, and standing on the sidelines while everyone bragged about their damage and the size of their swords. I now like being able to dps and solo and hold my own in one on one battles, but the moment I get double (or triple) teamed, I'm toast. I can use my little shadow friend that dies within 30 seconds, or use fear, which only buys me a few seconds and the mobs come back madder than ever, but other than that there doesn't seem to be an escape route for a priest. I can't vanish, sap, or dump aggro (feint does nothing when soloing). I just hit lvl 70 and have the appropriate gear, but what can you do when your outnumbered? Any tricks of the trade that you can share?

What Synn said. Running is mostly the thing to do when you can't take on something. We don't get vanish.

If you are properly Shadowspecced, you will also be using Fade to remove movement impairing effects. Also, get a trinket for those nasty mobs that somehow CC you. Dispersion is another "ohnoz i r been gankd by mobz0rs" button. Buys you six seconds of mobility when running.

Sometimes MC'ing one of the mobs helps - let him take the beating for you. PW:S should stay up in the time it takes for your minion to pull aggro off you. Let them weaken each other for you a little bit :)

One thing you might try - instead of just SWP and DP on that "off" mob, drop VT on it as well. After 3.0.2 it with it's MASSIVE changes to the spell coefficient for VT, it's easily our hardest hitting DoT. By the time I VT+VE+SWP+DP one mob and start my full rotation on the second (VT+SWP+VE+MB+MF(x2 if need be)), the DoTs have wiped out the first one. They're quite likely to die at the same time. If they don't, that's just more Spirit Tap goodness to deal with the second mob.

The spellpower coefficient (aka how much of our bonus spellpower a particular spell receives) for VT is 200%. When sitting on about 1000 spellpower (low 70's junk quest gear and self buffed), each tick of VT was doing as much as the base spell did - total. With my gear (level 78, ~1200 spellpower with Imp Inner Fire up in mid-70's blues), each tick of VT is pushing almost 900 damage while each tick of SW:P isw only good for about 650 - 700.

Don't forget, once you hit level 75, if you've got multiple mobs, shield up, put up your DoTs (VT+VE+SPW+DP) on one of them and Mind Sear him. The others will be close enough together to get multiple hits. By the time the guy dies from your DoTs, the others will be dying from Mind Sear. Mine's ticking for about 800/pulse and crits for ~1150 or so. With the Lightning Capacitor (love that), the 4 charges QUICKLY fill up and that's another 800 - 1000 damage from the Lightning Bolt.

[edit - added the Mind Sear and spell coefficients stuff)

Edited, Dec 19th 2008 1:13pm by Shamandin

You should be able to take on 3 even con npcs without a problem unless your SP is absurdly low. Make sure you use keep all the npcs dotted and that you are using VT and VE. My spell rotation (before changing to Holy at 80) was:

VT > MB > VE > DP > SW:P > Wand

Use VT to pull because of the cast time, and cast MB immediately to start the mana regen. Then drop VE to start your health regen, and put up your instant dots. Put DP up first because it has the longest cooldown.

Then either wand the first guy down if he is solo, or dot up the other npcs using VE > DP (if up) > SW:P.

When your health gets down to 80 or 90%, cast PW:S and your health will come back up on it's own because of VE. If you have to, throw a renew on yourself while shielded and go back to shadowform.

Cast shadowfiend when your mana gets to 50%, but pick an NPC that is going to live long enough for you to get full mana regen from it.

It is important to use your wand because you want the benefit of Spirit Tap and to stay out of the FSR.

As a shadow priest you can farm and rarely need to stop to eat or drink.

Not to mention DP.