Quick shadow priest question

[Kevin]

This seems like a good thread for this.

I'm working on a young (27? 28?) shadow priest and I'm having a hard time finding a casting rhythm I like with him. When you folks are grinding mobs, what is your "in your sleep" casting routine, pull to kill? What I am currently doing doesn't matter as I am trying to see what others do so I can bend and merge them to something I can work with.

My shadow priest is only L38 so I don't have shadow form yet either. Sure a lot of the time he is paired with a warrior, but due to the tons of warrior only quests, I've had to solo about a level and half just to keep up in exp with the warrior. :)

After the 1.10 patch since I don't have shadow from I open with Holy Fire as it is a better damage/mana ratio then mind blast. I then SW:P as the mob is coming in, it is then usually in flay range so I flay it which will get the whole flay off, then I mind blast, which will sometimes leave me dealing with a stutter but won't waste mana like a stuttered flay will and since pain is still ticking I actually make the pain more efficient that way too. If the mob is still alive at that point, depending on health I'll just wand it down or I'll deal with a stuttered flay, or I'll fear if there is room and then flay.

If I know the mob will hurt me, I'll get the VE and the SW:P up after the holy fire and before the first flay. I'll back-out or strafe out to keep distance while doing this to help insure that I get the whole flay going, much like after the 2 or 3 frostbolts with my frost mage I start to strafe or back while casting the fireblast and frost nova to insure they don't have a chance to hit me as I'm staying at range.

Some casters I won't bother to silence as a lot of them have a 1.5 or 2 second cast time and with the missile in air time I can get most of a flay off or a mind blast off unstuttered and while I'll take one or two more hits than I would have if I had silenced them I get high mana efficiency and a renew or a VE on the next mob will take care of it.

Now keep in mind this will all change in two levels when I get shadow from and have the extra mana cost that form switching adds if I want to heal, and I'll lose the ability to holy fire pull in shadow form as well. But of course with shadow from mind blast will have a better damage to mana ratio than holy fire. But like Mongo I worry more about mana efficiency since I hate drinking if I can help it. So I use wands on mobs that are less than 20% life (they are likely about to run and not hurt me anyway with a SW:P ticking and the wand hitting them) so that I can start the regen cycle earlier. I hate stutters on flay more than mind blast becuase the longer time in combat is usually less annoying than knowing I'm going to run out of mana faster.

But since I figured some of these 60's may have forgotten what it was like without shadow form that I would chime in. :) But they covered it for after shadowform. :)

I will say again though, don't be afraid of fear. Get practice in when you are at high life and mana so you can get a better feel for how far mobs will run, but it's a great combat tool for offense too. Especially since you'll be flaying them right away after they go and slowing them down. The worst part for me is when they run through me and I'm not fast on turning and getting the spell off and they get out of range to hit again. But eh. SW:P is still ticking and I'm not getting hurt and I'll get to flay them a couple of times on the way back in.:)