WoW - Shadow Priests in here please

regulus

regulus

regulus

Soldato
Joined
18 Aug 2006
Posts
10,053
Location
ChCh, NZ
After play testing all the DPS disciplines available, I've decided to settle on a Shadow Priest for my main in Lich King. Currently I'm level 74 and should be 80 by other the weekend or next week. I fully realise that they are perhaps not the top DPS class there is, but it's a challenge to find a way to take it all the way to the top. Anyway, a few questions if I may.

On single targets I don't have a problem, I just follow the VT-SWP-DP-MB-MF and refresh VT and DP whenever I have to. The real challenge comes when you have a tank wading into 5 mobs and having to compete with the AoE DPS classes. I'm sorry for giving the impression that DPS numbers is everything, but in the guilds I'm looking to get into, they ARE everything. I have to get those numbers as high as possible. What I've been doing is dotting the first mob with SWP, Dev Plague, Vamp Touch, then tab through the other mobs dotting SWP and Vamp Touch (Dev Plague is obviously on CD then). Once all is dotted, I rejoin the other DPS on the initial skull target and MB and MF until everything is dead. I've found that I don't have enough time for a second round of dotting through for when the initial dots run out.

I've only started doing this today, and my DPS jumped up to 1.3k, up from 800 the previous day. Both this numbers were done at lv74. Obviously, this seems to be the way forward, but it gets tedious as hell having to tab through every 10 seconds or so, that's talking in raiding terms now, for when mobs takes longer to die. I know I get Mind Sear at lv75 which will make AoE damage a helluva lot easier to put out.

As a raiding Spriest, do you use any macros or employ any tricks to make this class easier to play? What is your dotting cycle? Any addons that is a must have for a raiding Spriest?

thanks for any opinions.
 
DPS only matters on bosses. You're never going to get great dps on trash so don't worry about it. However don't forget you also bring excellent buffs to raids - Divine Spirit, Power word: Fortitude, shadow protection etc, plus the "mana battery" function.

Shadow priests are usually welcome in any raid - go for it.
 
Moley is right, bosses are the important mofos. For a multitarget fight before lvl75 just forget about it and go through each target one at a time, dont bother using DP on each mob either. Otherwise on bosses it's just prioritising dots then MB then filling with MF or SWd.

You should be able to sustain 1000dps+ on mob packs after lvl70 hitting single targets each time. Just a trawl to get to 80 where it all starts to matter. Currently the only macro worth the time is having your shadowfiend's shadowcrawl attack happen as often as possible (every 5seconds CD) because it does help dps a fair amount. But what moley said about what priest bring to raids isn't quite true, many specs now bring mana, aoe healing and those buffs dont stack with other priests.
 
Moley said:
DPS only matters on bosses. You're never going to get great dps on trash so don't worry about it. However don't forget you also bring excellent buffs to raids - Divine Spirit, Power word: Fortitude, shadow protection etc, plus the "mana battery" function.
Click to expand...
On the contrary, Shadowpriest dps on trash is excellent, thanks to Mind Sear.
 
regulus said:
As a raiding Spriest, do you use any macros or employ any tricks to make this class easier to play? What is your dotting cycle? Any addons that is a must have for a raiding Spriest?

thanks for any opinions.
Click to expand...
Your cycle is slightly wrong, as you're losing DPS on SW:P. Add SW:P last. My rotation is: VT-MB-DP-MF-MF-SW:P.

The only add-on I've really found useful is Inner-Fire Helper, because I always forget to rebuff it otherwise. Other then that, X-Perl unit frames are great for keeping track of dots, so I run a lightweight as possible client, other then the standard raiding mods (DBM, Omen).

As for raiding gear, depending on your spec, get your hit to 290 then prioritise everything else for spell power, then crit.
 
Platypus, why do you put SWP last in your cycle? Once casted you never have to cast it again until the mob is dead seeing that it auto refreshes thanks to MF.
 
As stated any guild who look at your stats based on trash aren't worth joining, unless you are on follow untill boss fights :D

KaHn
 
regulus said:
Platypus, why do you put SWP last in your cycle? Once casted you never have to cast it again until the mob is dead seeing that it auto refreshes thanks to MF.
Click to expand...

As Dark Angel said. My initial rotation includes two clipped mindflays and then SW:P so that SW:P is cast with a full 5/5 Shadow Weaving stack. It also means that raid wide crit/spell buffs are more likely to have procced, buffing your spell damage further.

My normal rotation is then: VT-MB-DP-MF-MF (clipped)-[MF]*-MB.

(*[MF]= Extra mindflay with Bloodlust).
 
Last edited:
Ah right. I was under the impression that SWP would up it's damage values as Shadow Weaving stacks increase. Gotcha, will try your rotation.
 
No, a dot retains the damage bonuses with when it is first applied and doesn't increase. Raid buffs and a few other things are exceptions to the rule however.
 
platypus said:
As Dark Angel said. My initial rotation includes two clipped mindflays and then SW:P so that SW:P is cast with a full 5/5 Shadow Weaving stack. It also means that raid wide crit/spell buffs are more likely to have procced, buffing your spell damage further.

My normal rotation is then: VT-MB-DP-MF-MF (clipped)-[MF]*-MB.

(*[MF]= Extra mindflay with Bloodlust).
Click to expand...

That's actually a really interesting point, well worth knowing for those of use who are trying to maximise dps output - thanks!

:D
 
i've got a lvl 80 lock and a lvl 80 paly but i think i'm going to make my shadow priest my main...... at lvl 71 atm.
i'll have a look for the Inner-Fire Helper as i'm also always forgetting to rebuff :D
 
Dark_Angel said:
No, a dot retains the damage bonuses with when it is first applied and doesn't increase. Raid buffs and a few other things are exceptions to the rule however.
Click to expand...

Been a while since I played my Spriest, do on-use +spellpower trinket buffs still carry over for the whole duration of the SW:P?
 
platypus said:
As Dark Angel said. My initial rotation includes two clipped mindflays and then SW:P so that SW:P is cast with a full 5/5 Shadow Weaving stack. It also means that raid wide crit/spell buffs are more likely to have procced, buffing your spell damage further.

My normal rotation is then: VT-MB-DP-MF-MF (clipped)-[MF]*-MB.

(*[MF]= Extra mindflay with Bloodlust).
Click to expand...

You know that mindflay ticks give shadow weaving? This means a mindflay gives three. My starting rotation as a result is VT-DP-MF-SWP.
Another useful tidbit to know is that Inner Focus applies to Devouring Plague's initial damage on cast as well as the ticks.
 
Another quick question I was wondering about. You need to apply SW:P with Shadow Weaving a 5x right? I was wondering, I have the Lightweave on my cloak, would reapplying SW:P when Lightweave procs and take my spellpower to around 3k, increase my SW:P damage and calculate the damage done on 3k even when the proc wears off?

Hope this question makes sense. Thanks
 
It used to but not sure if thats since been "fixed" - I know there was some mumbling on shadowpriest.com forums about it a while back.
I've been disc on my priest for a few months now so not really done much as shadow of late.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom