WoW newbie looking for advice

[Kevin]

Case in point, what happens when he uses one of these so call Alpha Strikes of dropping a Mind Blast first when he's nearing 70 and the damage the MB does after +shadow/+spell damage only takes the mob down 10% to 15% at most? How about the push back he gets from being hit while casting Mind Flay because Shadow Priests don't have an anti-push back talent thus making PW:S so valuable and why you cast it?

You adjust. It takes about one mob to realize that you need to either fear or PW:S to avoid push back. And as Xarhud said you know the mob you are fighting. Many of them attack slow enough that even without shield you can get 2 ticks of MF off no problem. The guy has a mind he has the ability to experiment and adjust. And has been mentioned there is no difference in the damage you get from SW:P if you cast it first or if you cast MB first because it takes 3s for the first damage to tick so the first tick will have 2 applications up, either way. There are also plenty of places where fearing the mob works just as well if not better than shielding you can play a shadow priest similar to certain lock specs as well even if the toolset is more limited.

And again as Klaus said

I do a lot of farming these days with VT->SWP->VE->Flay->wand. The VE keeps the health level up without having to worry about it very often.

Which is better than casting SW:P first yet again because VT applies shadow weaving, pain applies weaving and VE applies weaving all before pain ticks. You cast pain first and with the way GCD and timing works you may or not not have the 3rd application up before pain ticks.

There is 1 place where casting SW:P first may be better. In a group. That is it. That is the only place. There is NO solo situation where it is better. It can be better to start with some of the instant cast DoTs but VT or VE is better to start with than pain.


Of course the biggest reason that I brought up holy fire is simply because very few people would even consider it at that stage of the game because it isn't a shadow spell. But as mentioned at that stage of the game there is very little gear that has just +shadow and with it's huge wind up and part of it's damage being spread out to a DoT it's even safe to use in groups if the tank has any skill at all. You ditch it when you get shadow form or slightly before if you get a lot of +shadow gear. But it's fun. It's unexpected and it also works out to be higher DPS and higher mana efficiency. Why not point it out.

It doesn't take long to learn a new rotation or change habits for most people. We aren't programming robots here, we are giving advice to people who can think and adapt. I'm attacking your advice because I simply see no situation where casting SW:P first other than in some group situations (where it could be argued that VE or VT is still better) is the best way to go. I also don't see how our advice gets him in trouble as the first basic advice for groups is don't even start to cast a spell until the tank has hit the mob in melee range. That is where you should always start in group play and then work up fro that till you know what the tank is like. Any tank that has any skill can deal with a MB that comes 1.5s after he is at melee range. If you start the MB BEFORE the tank is engaged then your actually looking at a different issue with the play style in my book.