tera's guide on shadow priest

C

chunstergp

New Member
since silly's guide on holy pally got so much response, i want to write one for shadow priest

this is not to say i know everything about shadow priest.
in fact i am not anywhere close to that.
espically since there are priests like Indy out there.

this is more of a way for me to check if i am doing is on the right track.

one thing i do find about s-priest is that it's very rare to see one topping the dps meter.

in the last kara run i had almost 1k +shadow damage (unbuffed) and i was still like 4th on the dps list.

so here is what i think s-priest rotation should be:
1. Pain
2. VE
3. VT
4. flay
4a. fade (if needed)
5. bubble
6. trinket
7. death
8. MB
9. flay
10. flay
11. MB
12. flay
13. flay
14. bubble
15. VT
16. trinket
17. death
18. MB
 
Here are some very very helpful s-priest links, Tera:

There is no BINGO ! aka what is the best spell rotation ?
http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7758

How to fix your DPS - Maximising DPS 101
http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?t=5209

and to answer your other question, your main role is a mana battery, you are a utility position not a main dps. That being said, you give off the most mana by doing the most dps you can, so in turn maximum dps is your goal. In the very end game, a strong shadow priest can hang around 1400 dps on Brutallus where as hunters and pure dps classes can go over 3000.


here is a link to the best guild in the game fighting Brutallus
http://wowwebstats.com/1aixkzoeg2j3i?s=5234-5500

notice the top Shadowpriests in the game at the bottom of dps. But at the same time notice out of 25 men they took 3x S-priests because our utility is much needed!
 
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actually here are more thoughts
i don't like VE, it's just more aggro for me most of the time (yaaaa more aggro)
i usually use it only if someone in my party is below 50%

indy, from that site, it said to keep VT up all the time.
even to the point of interrupting other spells.

well here is my "beef" with VT:
it costs 425 mana
party gains 5% of my damage in mana.
it's pretty hard to make that back.
should i just can the rank 1?

i know that rank 3 will have a higher damage/mana ratio than rank 1
but it's still not as good as flay

what do you think?
 
(disclaimer: I hero-worship the elitestjerks at Shadowpriest.com, if you want to hear from the best SP's in the game, that's where you should read)

Rank3 VP up at all times is what I think.
That is your role in a group. That is why you will get return invites and why you are allowed on raids. It is the #1 reason you are picked over another class.
Never cut off the end of Vp (there is a tick at the end) and never let it be down.

VE is not as important, but if it is a long fight and you have a good threat producing tank then keep it up to help out the healers.
 
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Also you need to learn the skill of "clipping" MF. There are 3 ticks to MF and often MB cd comes up in the middle, but learning to clip MF right after the 2nd tick to recast MB you will see massive DPS increase.

that being said:

Clipping Mind Flay’s last tick
While intentionally clipping Mind Flay after the second tick can increase DPS, accidentally clipping the last tick can lower DPS. Make sure you are watching the channeling carefully so you are not clipping the last tick unintentionally.
 
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for the record, i do keep VT up in boss fights
i have been slacking on the trash and not putting them up
i will keep it up in trash too from now on :P
 
nah, most of this info is really regarding boss fights. Trash is a different thing, there is time to drink and mana return is not as important as is burning down the trash fast.

On some trash VT would be a total waste as it wont even tick enough to count.

When reading the post on maxing your DPS that is most always referring to boss fights where it counts, being #1 on dps meters for trash = whoopdidoo
 
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A typical spell rotation for me looks like, VE, VT, Pain, Death, MB(big damage recovers health), MF, keep VT up at all times and cast MB & Death on ever CD. Shadowpriest.com has been one of my favorite hangouts for quite some time now.

I recently switched to this spell rotation for maximizing my DPS, I've really noticed a huge difference in DPS by about 150 dps over my previous spell rotation.
 
Karazhan is not a good measure as I can keep up with the other DPSers up to Attumen and even on bosses but once you get to the group packs, the other DPSers with AOE abilities really take off on the damage done. The last run I was on had two warlocks and two mages. I was second at the end of Attumen and by time we got through Illhoof, I was 5th with one of the mages doubling the amount of damage I did.

You have to remember you are enabling other DPS classes to DPS harder. If they have more mana, they can use their high mana high DPS abilities more frequently.

If you use recount, switch it to monitor the last fight and not the overall view. It is not so bleak that way. ;)
 
Oh, and my horde shadowpriest is undead so you have to throw devouring plague in there too when it is up.

My current build has inner focus but outside of the mana I find the crit bonus to be really lackluster compared to the pallies guaranteed crit ability.

You have bubble in your list which I find kind of curious. Do you bubble during karazhan boss and trash fights too?
 
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I personally rarely use Shield unless I'm taking damage but generally it just sits on my bar. However I do have a habit of bubbling others when I see them taking damage...call it the healer in me. I know it lowers my dps but I look at it this way, if I can save a healer or another dps which is more beneficial, me full out dpsing and letting someone die so my dps is higher or saving a dps 3-4 secs of life which allows a healer time to heal them.

Also on spell rotation, casting VT immediately after I cast VE allows it to tick once before Pain is cast also if you cast Pain before VT, eventually the timers cross and you lose 1-3 seconds recasting VT depending on the fight, lag, situation...etc..

Also on Trash mobs VE, VT, and Pain to some extent are useless on them because they don't stay alive long enough to do morethen 4-5 ticks max, yes it lowers your dps but as Indy said Trash mobs are a mute point, leave it to the AoE damagers to dispatch the Trash quickly, SPriests are not real trash mob fighters especially on multiple targets.

Our dps really shines on Boss or long fights where we are able to maintain a consistent spell rotation and target. A common mistake many Shadow Priests make is failure to utilize SW:Death, you can almost always use it on fights but be careful on fights like Prince(or stupid mistakes ask Sandric, I killeds myself in one of our Arenas) where a miscast of it at the wrong time = death 4 u :(

Also I enjoy a good tank especially concerning aggro maintaining, VE is you're best friend if you plan on using Death each Cooldown, because you can follow up Death with MB for a quick health regen especially if you Crit, I think on Alhana I have about a 25% crit rate so 1 in 4 casts crit for extra life regen...also I have Inner Focus macroed into my MB macro so it always attempts to activate it before I cast MB therefore raising the possibility of a crit.

The biggest thing is find a spell rotation which is smooth for you, where you're not slowed by trying to remember what to cast, also macros are your friend.


I'll add more later time is up 4 now...
 
Plankeye said:
Oh, and my horde shadowpriest is undead so you have to throw devouring plague in there too when it is up.

My current build has inner focus but outside of the mana I find the crit bonus to be really lackluster compared to the pallies guaranteed crit ability.

You have bubble in your list which I find kind of curious. Do you bubble during karazhan boss and trash fights too?
Click to expand...


yes i bubble before death
sometimes during trash... it all depends on how i feel at the moment
 
bubble on yourself burns a global cool down = less dps.
Let your healers know you will be using SW: D and let them worry about your health. (don't use it when <50% health, obviously)
 
a word on SW: D (for new or sub 70 s-priests)
don't use it:
if you are enfeebled during prince fight
if you are in the blue beam in the netherspite fight
if you don't have full health when curator does his evocate
 
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