01-23-2006, 03:39 PM
This is inspired by the PvP 'how to kill me' thread. This is 'how to play me'.
A little background on my history as a priest, to give you an idea. I played a Shadow Priest before I came to stormrage, and gave up on the game. Once my wife started playing again, I made a priest, and took the shadow back up. Once I hit about 40 or so, I respec'd to Disc/Holy to compliment the holy/disc that she'd been playing since level 10. We were instancing a LOT, and we had a high amount of DPS anyway, so the extra healing really just kept our pace solid those last levels. I capped as a Disc/Holy, having refined from a 30/21 to a 26/25 disc/holy spec, since getting to 30 points in discipline is costly and Divine Spirit isn't all that hot.
So, I've had a lot of 'endgame' experience as a Disc/Holy priest, and I was pretty good at it (if I say so, myself). I really missed Shadow Priesting. So, for one afternoon, I spec'd back to a 15/0/36 Shadow Priest build. I missed it, a lot, and my gameplay style had only improved because of what I had learned while raiding as a disc/holy. I went back to disc/holy after that afternoon, but I would lament, and whine, and eventually the guild leaders and raid leaders I sometimes get the chance to run with basically said, "We have a ton of healing, but no raiding shadow priests. Respec. Do it."
And so I did.
This is my current build, for reference:
15/0/36
There are a few changes I may make, but it will stick close to this. The reason we have one point in SWP is just to keep shadow weaving up as long as SWP is ticking -- it actually gets one tick after shadow weaving drops, but it ensures that it's always getting some advantage.
The two points in Improved Mind Blast is because, well, Mind Blast is a HUGE aggro magnet, especially after the 1.9 'readjustment'. You really want to force yourself to space it out. This also makes it almost exactly the same amount of time as two mind flays. So, you end up in a rhythm of mind flay, mind flay, mind blast. You definitly want to also make sure you only start using it around the 70% mark unless it's a tank you can really trust to have a huge aggro lead on you, and even then I'd avoid using it in the first 5-10% if you can. Of note: mind flay has a VERY final tick at the last piece of its channelling, you'll want to make sure the casting bar goes away to get the full motion out of it. I often interrupt it with a mind blast if we're getting close to finishing the bastard, but it should be fine, otherwise.
Vampiric Embrace is BEAUTIFUL for handling incidental damage that's spread out amongst a group. For instance: the Ragnaros fight, where the rogues can often take subtle AoE damage -- this won't QUITE keep up with all of it, but it keeps them above -200 or so. This is also good for being in the 'ranged DPS' group of something like a Strat or Scholo raid, just because you can offheal all the little things. A word of warning, though. Since it's a heal like any other, it's VERY easy to pull healing aggro. This is like throwing out a rank 1 PoH about every 6s or so. Any situation where you're not sure of aggro, don't use this spell.
Silent Resolve / Shadow Affinity: Reportedly, these stack. 45% aggro reduction on all damage. Yet, you can still pull with a Mind Blast if you do it above 90% or so before the Warrior has 2 sunders on. (or has gotten a good revenge in or something like that) That's how insane the aggro on MB is now. However, if you only use SWP and Mind Flay? You'll never pull aggro and you'll still be doing about 200 DPS without a lot of +dmg items.
Fade: Beautiful for use in conjuction with VE. This is not as important with your actual damage spells, because of the Silent Resolve / Shadow Affinity combo in talents, but if you go without silent resolve, you might get more use out of it. I use it if I'm doing a lot of healing around once every third mind blast, since that just popped a large amount of healing to the group.
Now, one of the more important things about a full spec'd shadow priest, the 31 point talent of 'shadowform'. Accordingly, shadowform does not affect the base damage, it affects all damage. This means your regular spells as they are affected by +dmg gear. Effectively, find out what the base spell and then add your +dmg (times the coefficient of the spell, of which we get boned as shadow priests, but more on that in a sec), then take all that and multiply it by 1.15 -- that's your final number.
Spell coefficients. This is what your +dmg gear gets modified by for the final addition. Normally, it's a formule that involves the cast time of the spell, any debuffs it has, and the number of targets. Since Shadow Priests are all Single Target, we can ignore that last part. That means it's the length of the caster and the debuff. Both of Mind Blast and Mind Flay enjoy something roughly along the 43% because of their time (instant and channelling spells get the same bonus as 1.5s spells), but Mind Flay has a slow debuff, so multiply the 43% by 95% and you come out with 40%. Ish. That means that with close to +300 damage, your Shadow Word Pain is doing a LOT more, but it can be fairly unnoticable overall jumping from 200-300 spell damage. Yeah, we kinda get boned. It's a 3s channelled spell, but still only counts as an instant. And, we only really have one damage spell that crits -- mind blast. So, +crit doesn't do you much good, either.
In gear, I prefer a mix of good stats and +dmg, and I've been favoring the +dmg just to see how it goes. So far, the only people that really rival me -- given that my mana lasts the fight -- are rogues. Watching things like damage meters isn't all that fun, and I've disabled all those mods once I found out where I sat, but it was nice seeing 4 rogues then me, then everyone else. I've also always been a fan of mana every 5. As soon as I get my hands on an Ace of Beasts, though, we're going Blue Dragon and Shard of the Scale for my two trinkets. I rival executing warriors when I get an innervate (some kind druid on the last MC run tossed one my way), so I can only hope to see it proccing often ;)
That's about all I can figure. It gives a bit of insight into how I see my shadow priesting. And, hey, I haven't wiped a raid yet, ya know?
A little background on my history as a priest, to give you an idea. I played a Shadow Priest before I came to stormrage, and gave up on the game. Once my wife started playing again, I made a priest, and took the shadow back up. Once I hit about 40 or so, I respec'd to Disc/Holy to compliment the holy/disc that she'd been playing since level 10. We were instancing a LOT, and we had a high amount of DPS anyway, so the extra healing really just kept our pace solid those last levels. I capped as a Disc/Holy, having refined from a 30/21 to a 26/25 disc/holy spec, since getting to 30 points in discipline is costly and Divine Spirit isn't all that hot.
So, I've had a lot of 'endgame' experience as a Disc/Holy priest, and I was pretty good at it (if I say so, myself). I really missed Shadow Priesting. So, for one afternoon, I spec'd back to a 15/0/36 Shadow Priest build. I missed it, a lot, and my gameplay style had only improved because of what I had learned while raiding as a disc/holy. I went back to disc/holy after that afternoon, but I would lament, and whine, and eventually the guild leaders and raid leaders I sometimes get the chance to run with basically said, "We have a ton of healing, but no raiding shadow priests. Respec. Do it."
And so I did.
This is my current build, for reference:
15/0/36
There are a few changes I may make, but it will stick close to this. The reason we have one point in SWP is just to keep shadow weaving up as long as SWP is ticking -- it actually gets one tick after shadow weaving drops, but it ensures that it's always getting some advantage.
The two points in Improved Mind Blast is because, well, Mind Blast is a HUGE aggro magnet, especially after the 1.9 'readjustment'. You really want to force yourself to space it out. This also makes it almost exactly the same amount of time as two mind flays. So, you end up in a rhythm of mind flay, mind flay, mind blast. You definitly want to also make sure you only start using it around the 70% mark unless it's a tank you can really trust to have a huge aggro lead on you, and even then I'd avoid using it in the first 5-10% if you can. Of note: mind flay has a VERY final tick at the last piece of its channelling, you'll want to make sure the casting bar goes away to get the full motion out of it. I often interrupt it with a mind blast if we're getting close to finishing the bastard, but it should be fine, otherwise.
Vampiric Embrace is BEAUTIFUL for handling incidental damage that's spread out amongst a group. For instance: the Ragnaros fight, where the rogues can often take subtle AoE damage -- this won't QUITE keep up with all of it, but it keeps them above -200 or so. This is also good for being in the 'ranged DPS' group of something like a Strat or Scholo raid, just because you can offheal all the little things. A word of warning, though. Since it's a heal like any other, it's VERY easy to pull healing aggro. This is like throwing out a rank 1 PoH about every 6s or so. Any situation where you're not sure of aggro, don't use this spell.
Silent Resolve / Shadow Affinity: Reportedly, these stack. 45% aggro reduction on all damage. Yet, you can still pull with a Mind Blast if you do it above 90% or so before the Warrior has 2 sunders on. (or has gotten a good revenge in or something like that) That's how insane the aggro on MB is now. However, if you only use SWP and Mind Flay? You'll never pull aggro and you'll still be doing about 200 DPS without a lot of +dmg items.
Fade: Beautiful for use in conjuction with VE. This is not as important with your actual damage spells, because of the Silent Resolve / Shadow Affinity combo in talents, but if you go without silent resolve, you might get more use out of it. I use it if I'm doing a lot of healing around once every third mind blast, since that just popped a large amount of healing to the group.
Now, one of the more important things about a full spec'd shadow priest, the 31 point talent of 'shadowform'. Accordingly, shadowform does not affect the base damage, it affects all damage. This means your regular spells as they are affected by +dmg gear. Effectively, find out what the base spell and then add your +dmg (times the coefficient of the spell, of which we get boned as shadow priests, but more on that in a sec), then take all that and multiply it by 1.15 -- that's your final number.
Spell coefficients. This is what your +dmg gear gets modified by for the final addition. Normally, it's a formule that involves the cast time of the spell, any debuffs it has, and the number of targets. Since Shadow Priests are all Single Target, we can ignore that last part. That means it's the length of the caster and the debuff. Both of Mind Blast and Mind Flay enjoy something roughly along the 43% because of their time (instant and channelling spells get the same bonus as 1.5s spells), but Mind Flay has a slow debuff, so multiply the 43% by 95% and you come out with 40%. Ish. That means that with close to +300 damage, your Shadow Word Pain is doing a LOT more, but it can be fairly unnoticable overall jumping from 200-300 spell damage. Yeah, we kinda get boned. It's a 3s channelled spell, but still only counts as an instant. And, we only really have one damage spell that crits -- mind blast. So, +crit doesn't do you much good, either.
In gear, I prefer a mix of good stats and +dmg, and I've been favoring the +dmg just to see how it goes. So far, the only people that really rival me -- given that my mana lasts the fight -- are rogues. Watching things like damage meters isn't all that fun, and I've disabled all those mods once I found out where I sat, but it was nice seeing 4 rogues then me, then everyone else. I've also always been a fan of mana every 5. As soon as I get my hands on an Ace of Beasts, though, we're going Blue Dragon and Shard of the Scale for my two trinkets. I rival executing warriors when I get an innervate (some kind druid on the last MC run tossed one my way), so I can only hope to see it proccing often ;)
That's about all I can figure. It gives a bit of insight into how I see my shadow priesting. And, hey, I haven't wiped a raid yet, ya know?