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ShadowPriest: low DPSFollow
I'm normally a Disc Priest.
In preparation of the upcoming dual-spec feature, I thought I'd explore my darker side, and specc'd Shadowpriest for the first time.
And oh, did I stink up the place.
We ran a couple of instances, but the one I had hard numbers due to the foresight of someone else in the party was Regular CoT: Durnholde. Top DPS was the Paladin (tank), followed by Boomkin (off-healer), followed by Me. Ouch. Granted the Paladin and Boomkin were 70, but I don't think 2 levels would really make so much difference?
I'd done a bit of research beforehand, mainly following advice from: http://dwarfpriest.com/2008/02/21/priest-dps/
Only time I really strayed, was when I'd finished chewing up one mob to see another in the cluster almost dead, usually foregoing the VT and skipping right to SW:D or MF to finish them off (and keep them from running). And on boss fights or particularly large clusters of trash mobs, throwing VE and PoM on at the start just to give the healer a little boost. By and large, however, I think I was sticking to the flowchart.
Here's my Armory:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Cenarion+Circle&n=Zemzelett
I ding'd 68 during this whole adventure, so I've yet to get into WotLK goodies.
I'd even had a Superior Wizard Oil (+42 Spellpower) on as well.
I'm kind of at a loss as to why I was doing so horribly. Maybe there's something obvious I've neglected to do?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
#2REDACTED,
Posted: Jan 30 2009 at 1:54 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Two level can mean 2 more talent points (depending on where they're going). Being level 68, you do not have access to level 70 gears which can make that much of a difference. Just to give you 1 example, your mace has 85 spellpower while you could have gotten the S2 mace (at the time) which had 225 spellpower. If you're planning on going higher, stay away from those pre-LK instances and head to Northrend. You'll pick up a bunch of goodies there.
It was probably gear.
If you want to top dps as a shadow priest in instances, the best way is to dot all the mobs, and then nuke them down one by one. So you go SWP, DP, VT, tab, SWP, VT, tab, SWP, VT, tab, and then MB and MF, etc... It's not the safest way to dps, since you might get aggro, but it's the best way to be near the top of the dps chart. When you get MS later on, it's even better for packs. DOT them all, and then use MS on the one with the highest health. It can get pretty impressive.
If you want to top dps as a shadow priest in instances, the best way is to dot all the mobs, and then nuke them down one by one. So you go SWP, DP, VT, tab, SWP, VT, tab, SWP, VT, tab, and then MB and MF, etc... It's not the safest way to dps, since you might get aggro, but it's the best way to be near the top of the dps chart. When you get MS later on, it's even better for packs. DOT them all, and then use MS on the one with the highest health. It can get pretty impressive.
There are a couple reasons why a spriest falls behind in most instances.
Shadowweaving and the need to build (and maintain) a full stack is probably the biggest dps killer. A tank having to make up his mind before every pull, lots of mana breaks for healer and dps, and everything else that makes you build a fresh stack of SW on every pull costs you big time.
Mind Sear and it's (I think idiotic) way of excluding your target just plain sucks in comparison to Multi-shot, Volley, Blizzard, or any other AOE that's not burdened by this limitation.
DoTs make up a large part of spriest dps. Unfortunately if a trash pack is to small to efficiently use Mind Sear, mobs are usually dead before your DoTs can do full damage. Only workaround is to immediately switch to the next mob after getting off your MB, VT, and SW:P and DOT it up while waiting for your MB cooldown to expire. Fade if necessary.
Spriests don't do burst damage. Your only spammable spell is MF, and even though it can crit now, it's rather weak in comparison to something like Wrath.
Look at boss fights for comparisons. Only thing that truly matters anyway, and your only true chance to keep up with everyone else.
Shadowweaving and the need to build (and maintain) a full stack is probably the biggest dps killer. A tank having to make up his mind before every pull, lots of mana breaks for healer and dps, and everything else that makes you build a fresh stack of SW on every pull costs you big time.
Mind Sear and it's (I think idiotic) way of excluding your target just plain sucks in comparison to Multi-shot, Volley, Blizzard, or any other AOE that's not burdened by this limitation.
DoTs make up a large part of spriest dps. Unfortunately if a trash pack is to small to efficiently use Mind Sear, mobs are usually dead before your DoTs can do full damage. Only workaround is to immediately switch to the next mob after getting off your MB, VT, and SW:P and DOT it up while waiting for your MB cooldown to expire. Fade if necessary.
Spriests don't do burst damage. Your only spammable spell is MF, and even though it can crit now, it's rather weak in comparison to something like Wrath.
Look at boss fights for comparisons. Only thing that truly matters anyway, and your only true chance to keep up with everyone else.
Also, are you looking at DPS, or total damage done? With the advent of the AoE tank and AoE spank mechanics that Wrath has introduced, even though I was usually top DPS in my groups as shadow, I was not top damage done. As Kann said, this is really what is most important, as the AoE stuff is typically not what downs bosses.
Thank you for the responses folks. :3
Actually, it was total damage.
I'm going to download a add-on and keep tabs on this myself. Any recommendations for keeping track of DPS (versus Damage total)?
Just so I have some measuring stick to go by, what's considered "good" DPS for a shadowpriest?
I'm sure it differs by level, but I am nearing what was the previous levelcap, so I figure an oldbie can probably give me a good benchmark?
Recount.. shows you both at once, as well as every other stat you could imagine, along with nice pie charts.
Quote:
I'm going to download a add-on and keep tabs on this myself. Any recommendations for keeping track of DPS (versus Damage total)?
Look at the "current fight" damage and DPS, then look at "over all" at the end. Watch for the current fight DPS to change, depending on your rotations, then develop a good rotation based on what seems to work best.
Quote:
If you want to top dps as a shadow priest in instances, the best way is to dot all the mobs, and then nuke them down one by one.
This is a crappy idea. All you are doing is spreading the damage you do, so it takes longer to down one target. Also, no one can crowd control if you do that.
Use Mind Sear when Mind Blast is on cool-down, if you're really interested in doing damage that matters. Your DPS will substantially increase, and you can stop doing it whenever you need to, unlike a DOT. Your DOT each have lower DPS than Mind Sear or Mind Flay.
To the OP: you may also like an add-on called Drdamage. It basically calculates all the damage of each spell, and displays it as a tool-tip. Calculation even accounts for things like hit, critical change and buffs.
My problem with this, is that I cant disable specific sources like critical chance, so the display is not always consistent with Recount. BUT, this is a very good way to see which abilities do the most damage or healing.
Edited, Jan 31st 2009 10:34pm by sederix
Sed, you forget that the dps of MS and MF is higher on single targets than SW:P. With a tabdot macro (means you can just spam the macro and it'll put SW:P on all targets in range) used when you know there'll be no CC, you will dot all targets as fast as the GCD will allow. If done on more than three targets, this will increase your dps heavily if you immediately go back to burning down singletargets.
This has been tested repeatedly, and unless it's so low HP trash that they'll all die by being sneezed on, three or more will be enough to increase your overall dps by DoTing all targets. On five or more targets, it will significantly increase your dps.
This has been tested repeatedly, and unless it's so low HP trash that they'll all die by being sneezed on, three or more will be enough to increase your overall dps by DoTing all targets. On five or more targets, it will significantly increase your dps.
Quote:
This has been tested repeatedly, and unless it's so low HP trash that they'll all die by being sneezed on, three or more will be enough to increase your overall dps by DoTing all targets. On five or more targets, it will significantly increase your dps.
I agree with the first example. But, Mind Sear still seems to be my highest DPS spell.
Do you stack haste or critical change? I typically go for haste (my critical chance is less than 10% all the time), and that could be why I am seeing the higher numbers with Mind Sear than SWP.
11 posts
I find that I have the same problem. My DPS is consistently only 800-900. It's really embarrassing especially when I have additional adds to my spell power.
i am a little confused by what a lot of people stated above, but i was told that it's really all about rotation and gear.
Here is me:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonblight&n=Tristania
My basic spell rotation is:
VT > SW:P > MB > SW:D > MF
I sometimes throw in MS while MB is on cool down.
I just added the SW:D into my rotation and while it has improved a little bit, I really don't see much of a difference.
I use Recount to calculate my DPS by the way.
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated
i am a little confused by what a lot of people stated above, but i was told that it's really all about rotation and gear.
Here is me:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonblight&n=Tristania
My basic spell rotation is:
VT > SW:P > MB > SW:D > MF
I sometimes throw in MS while MB is on cool down.
I just added the SW:D into my rotation and while it has improved a little bit, I really don't see much of a difference.
I use Recount to calculate my DPS by the way.
Any other suggestions would be much appreciated
Quote:
i was told that it's really all about rotation and gear.
It's the gear part where you're severely lacking. I actually had to double-check whether I was actually looking at a level 80 toon.
Seriously, your collection of quest greens won't get you anywhere. You're missing essential quest blues - like the mace from the amphitheater quests. You didn't do a single instance other than Nexus, and it shows - not only in the lack of loot in your gear, but also the absence of the freebies you get for completing the quests related to the dungeons.
By all means, go back and do those quests, and level your tailoring as you go. I don't want to sound to harsh or anything, but you could essentially go back to doing -normal- Gun'Drak or Violet Hold without ever having to worry about pulling aggro off a tank of adequate level and STILL find plenty of upgrades.
Edited, Feb 6th 2009 8:47pm by Kanngarnix
11 posts
Quote:
It's the gear part where you're severely lacking. I actually had to double-check whether I was actually looking at a level 80 toon.
Seriously, your collection of quest greens won't get you anywhere. You're missing essential quest blues - like the mace from the amphitheater quests. You didn't do a single instance other than Nexus, and it shows - not only in the lack of loot in your gear, but also the absence of the freebies you get for completing the quests related to the dungeons.
By all means, go back and do those quests, and level your tailoring as you go. I don't want to sound to harsh or anything, but you could essentially go back to doing -normal- Gun'Drak or Violet Hold without ever having to worry about pulling aggro off a tank of adequate level and STILL find plenty of upgrades.
Seriously, your collection of quest greens won't get you anywhere. You're missing essential quest blues - like the mace from the amphitheater quests. You didn't do a single instance other than Nexus, and it shows - not only in the lack of loot in your gear, but also the absence of the freebies you get for completing the quests related to the dungeons.
By all means, go back and do those quests, and level your tailoring as you go. I don't want to sound to harsh or anything, but you could essentially go back to doing -normal- Gun'Drak or Violet Hold without ever having to worry about pulling aggro off a tank of adequate level and STILL find plenty of upgrades.
Wow you are absolutely right. Not harsh at all - just trying to help.
All I did this weekend was heroics. Every instance I could get into, I did. I received some small upgrades, but it was enough to boost my spell power, and along with buffs, flasks, and some spell food, my DPS was around 1200. Might not seem a lot, but it was so much better than the 700-800 that I was doing before.
Thank you so much!
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