[7.2] Legion Shadow Priest Guide and Discussion

[Djriff]

You should probably level as Discipline, yeah. You will kill each individual mob a little slower (maybe), but you're going to be chain-pulling any number of enemies without fear of death so you'll make it up in efficiency.

Or just spec masochism and live through everything.

[davesignal]

Never was a talent more aptly named for the spec it inhabited.

[spiritsurge]

is shadow a really weak spec to level as, i'm level 104 and really finding it a grind to level this class the aoe is terrible(mind sear crits for 15k), I mostly have to pull only one or 2 mobs, pulling like 4 or 5 can mean death basically because of how terrible the cleave is. doing 30k dps single target outside of voidform. Leveling my affliction warlock was far easier, multi dot multiple mobs and just drain life them all while your void tanked them and walk away with full health.

i don't see the point, I can spec disc. to level and do the same dps but have a heap more survivability

I agree with Gorsameth, Shadow gets a lot easier to do world content as once you get decent gear but even with a high ilvl I still tend to do world quests as Disc

[Yvaelle]

I agree with Gorsameth, Shadow gets a lot easier to do world content as once you get decent gear but even with a high ilvl I still tend to do world quests as Disc

After 860 it's kind of a joke compared to before - now I just run around putting dots on everything and they die before they catch up to me

[Thaylen]

is shadow a really weak spec to level as

You just need to change talents and weave PW:S into your rotation. If you talent into Masochism, between your PW:S and Shadow Mend you will have all the survivability you want. Consider mind bomb and shadow crash if you are planning to pull multiple mobs. Mindbender for the rares so you can Fade off to it when you need to.

[Zoopercat]

@N1gh7h4wk - I'm not sure I follow. If you ran a 0.1% margin of error gearing strat on our site to get stat weights, it would take a few hours (maybe even more). If you change that to 0.25% it would take less than 2 hours, etc. Maybe I'm missing what you consider fast? Sorry, trying to follow. It's not like we're running an entire gearing strat in 5 minutes. Regular simulations run in seconds, but a gearing strat, which generates stat weights, takes 30 min + (depending on your magin of error).

While the simulator has a very nice and easy to use UI, it's much more than that. The stat weights use more data points and apply a linear regression to find a best fitting line, so it's more statistically sound as well.

[Gorsameth]

I agree with Gorsameth, Shadow gets a lot easier to do world content as once you get decent gear but even with a high ilvl I still tend to do world quests as Disc

I wouldn't rather do WQ's as Disc at high ilvl.

I meant that another class of equal ilvl will do better (because they 2 shot mobs while we dot and wait).

[davesignal]

Mangaza's Madness is so nice for that. I can roll up on a quest mob, drop three Mind Blasts and a Soul Reaper SW: Death and almost feel like a real boy.

[SafariDiscoLion]

I wouldn't rather do WQ's as Disc at high ilvl.

I meant that another class of equal ilvl will do better (because they 2 shot mobs while we dot and wait).

I get a little jealous when I see a mage walk up to a quest mob and two shot it, though after getting my mage alt to 110 and some decent gear, I also appreciate how tanky Spriests can be. I can grab a bunch of mobs and dot them down without really losing much if any HP, whereas the Mage has to take things one or two at a time.

GETTING to that point as Shadow is a total bitch though.

[Deleted]

I got 12k haste but still finding it hard to hit my third Void Torrent. Should i keep go crit after haste or should i switch to mastery? Im on 38% haste, 46% mastery and 14% crit. And should i still eat haste food or switch?

[Zephirdd]

I got 12k haste but still finding it hard to hit my third Void Torrent. Should i keep go crit after haste or should i switch to mastery? Im on 38% haste, 46% mastery and 14% crit. And should i still eat haste food or switch?

your crit is very very low I think, you could try to up it a bit. Auspicious Spirits provide a pretty big insanity generation. Which legendary do you have?

[N1gh7h4wk]

@N1gh7h4wk - I'm not sure I follow. If you ran a 0.1% margin of error gearing strat on our site to get stat weights, it would take a few hours (maybe even more). If you change that to 0.25% it would take less than 2 hours, etc. Maybe I'm missing what you consider fast? Sorry, trying to follow. It's not like we're running an entire gearing strat in 5 minutes. Regular simulations run in seconds, but a gearing strat, which generates stat weights, takes 30 min + (depending on your magin of error).

While the simulator has a very nice and easy to use UI, it's much more than that. The stat weights use more data points and apply a linear regression to find a best fitting line, so it's more statistically sound as well.

The thing is that you need to include multiple fight setups etc. to gain a better balanced statweight/gearing strat. If you only build your toon for one fight type, you will be kinda lackluster for all other fights. So it's not the accuracy of the actual sim data, but the overall utility of the weights you gain from that. A more balanced build is likely to be performing better than one that does only, say Single Target simulations. I think this needs to be emphasized for lots of gearing advice.

[Gorsameth]

The thing is that you need to include multiple fight setups etc. to gain a better balanced statweight/gearing strat. If you only build your toon for one fight type, you will be kinda lackluster for all other fights. So it's not the accuracy of the actual sim data, but the overall utility of the weights you gain from that. A more balanced build is likely to be performing better than one that does only, say Single Target simulations. I think this needs to be emphasized for lots of gearing advice.

So do 2 runs with different fights and average out the weights?

[Deleted]

your crit is very very low I think, you could try to up it a bit. Auspicious Spirits provide a pretty big insanity generation. Which legendary do you have?

Yeah, i feel you on the low crit part. I've been reading those statweight-thingy with mastery being best stat after 'haste-cap' so i've swithced haste/crit for haste/mastery gear. Could be a bad call i guess. Especially when i feel like im doing worse DPS. (i think. Bugbear)

e; Since i'm playing a lot of M+ i guess it's even worse with Mastery over Critical Strike. Mostly going LoTV over S2M. Should i eat Crit food for Mythics or stay on haste?

[Caladia]

Even though you may start to see more out of Mastery after you've reached 11-12k Haste rating, you still can't sacrifice Crit. You'll still want to maintain 20%+ Crit, I'd even say to aim for 25% Crit.

[DeltrusDisc]

I'm in a predicament and I am hoping you all can help me, at least to some degree. My guild is on loot council and they've been pretty damn conservative about giving me loot, even though I am a full-rank raider and thus I'm not always getting the absolute best gear for my needs. At my ilevel I know I can be haste-capped, but thanks to them not tracking the fact that they've hardly given me anymore than two pieces of loot from heroic EN since the beginning, (all my other gear is from dungeons, WQs, or personal Seal rolls) I'm not geared well. Does being close, but not quite haste-capped affect our dps so much that we won't rank well at all? I am seriously getting disheartened because of raiding this expac and I really hate doubting myself, I strive to do the best, so I am humbling myself and coming to ask you guys to look at what I can improve, maybe in casting and such, idk...

Here's my armory and a parse link where you can mull through other boss pulls on other nights too.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...eltress/simple

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...nkings&fight=5

[Ocedic]

I'm in a predicament and I am hoping you all can help me, at least to some degree. My guild is on loot council and they've been pretty damn conservative about giving me loot, even though I am a full-rank raider and thus I'm not always getting the absolute best gear for my needs. At my ilevel I know I can be haste-capped, but thanks to them not tracking the fact that they've hardly given me anymore than two pieces of loot from heroic EN since the beginning, (all my other gear is from dungeons, WQs, or personal Seal rolls) I'm not geared well. Does being close, but not quite haste-capped affect our dps so much that we won't rank well at all? I am seriously getting disheartened because of raiding this expac and I really hate doubting myself, I strive to do the best, so I am humbling myself and coming to ask you guys to look at what I can improve, maybe in casting and such, idk...

Here's my armory and a parse link where you can mull through other boss pulls on other nights too.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...eltress/simple

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/reports...nkings&fight=5

Your gear is equal or better to mine, so gear is not the issue. Not trying to insult you - that's a good thing and means that you can improve and do more damage. You have enough haste to 3 Vtor - learn how to do that. Make sure your rotations are optimized, there's definitely a hole somewhere because your numbers are lower than my out-of-voidform DPS. Have you read the guide in this thread as well as the guide on How To Priest?

The biggest, number 1 issue I see is not enough Void Bolts. Other than Void Torrent, Void Bolts should basically be taking priority above all else. Unless the logs are bugged, I'm seeing you getting 2-4 void bolts on some voidforms.

First, fix your non-S2M damage by getting your voidform rotation down. Open with Mind Blast, not SWP. Then, start working on S2M rotation. Again, you have enough haste to 3 Vtor. Work on getting to 60 stacks of S2M with no Pi after opening with a Vtor. If you get to the your second Vtor, slowly work toward getting higher and higher stacks before you pop PI. There's many other guides on this so I won't go too indepth on it.

[Deleted]

Even though you may start to see more out of Mastery after you've reached 11-12k Haste rating, you still can't sacrifice Crit. You'll still want to maintain 20%+ Crit, I'd even say to aim for 25% Crit.

Such a miss from me. I will start chasing back som crit i guess.

[Deleted]

Your gear is equal or better to mine, so gear is not the issue. Not trying to insult you - that's a good thing and means that you can improve and do more damage. You have enough haste to 3 Vtor - learn how to do that. Make sure your rotations are optimized, there's definitely a hole somewhere because your numbers are lower than my out-of-voidform DPS. Have you read the guide in this thread as well as the guide on How To Priest?

The biggest, number 1 issue I see is not enough Void Bolts. Other than Void Torrent, Void Bolts should basically be taking priority above all else. Unless the logs are bugged, I'm seeing you getting 2-4 void bolts on some voidforms.

First, fix your non-S2M damage by getting your voidform rotation down. Open with Mind Blast, not SWP. Then, start working on S2M rotation. Again, you have enough haste to 3 Vtor. Work on getting to 60 stacks of S2M with no Pi after opening with a Vtor. If you get to the your second Vtor, slowly work toward getting higher and higher stacks before you pop PI. There's many other guides on this so I won't go too indepth on it.

If you could produce a video of you reaching 3 vtor on a dummy without a bloodlust with 10500 haste, I'd like to see it. I can't reach it with 11000 haste (I suppose I use my PI too early).

Nevertheless, even with only 2 vtor he should be able to squeeze at least 50k more dps without too much effort.

[Clrg]

If you could produce a video of you reaching 3 vtor on a dummy without a bloodlust with 10500 haste, I'd like to see it. I can't reach it with 11000 haste (I suppose I use my PI too early).

Nevertheless, even with only 2 vtor he should be able to squeeze at least 50k more dps without too much effort.

Here is one with 7600
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uwmvc-bA-Y