[7.2] Legion Shadow Priest Guide and Discussion

[BobAwesome]

I can't stand ToS as Spriest. Waaaaay too much movement. Every fight, constantly moving. So much less stress when I'm on my warrior.

[Deleted]

i just wanted to vent a bit: i am so freaking annoyed by that Voidbolt bug ... holy shit it is happening so often lately.

[Onyd]

Is there such a thing as an int-equivalent value for the t20 bonuses? Like how if you have 100 haste on a piece you know it's 1.8 times better than the piece with 100 int.

The reason I ask is that I am in the oddly lucky state of being able to equip a T19 heroic 4piece, and have just acquired a T20 normal 2piece that I could equip alongside it, but would need to drop 4% haste and some critical strike.

[Sangomah]

Is there such a thing as an int-equivalent value for the t20 bonuses? Like how if you have 100 haste on a piece you know it's 1.8 times better than the piece with 100 int.

The reason I ask is that I am in the oddly lucky state of being able to equip a T19 heroic 4piece, and have just acquired a T20 normal 2piece that I could equip alongside it, but would need to drop 4% haste and some critical strike.

In general, I dont think the t20 2 piece is worth downgrading for, but someone else might have a more definitive answer.

[Deleted]

One of the ways that gear increases your DPS is by making your Voidforms longer. This changes the timing window of when you hit your peak damage. Other classes largely do not have that issue. Shit, if you lust at the start, the peak of your Voidform won't even be inside Bloodlust any more because of this.

It's just another manifestation of how Shadow is a weird, over-wrought, over-designed spec. Blizzard needs to burn the thing to the ground and start from scratch to make a straight-forward, sensible DoT spec that doesn't have so many design pitfalls (like, say, S2M).

Our peak DPS isn't even within our Prolonged power prepot.

[Sangomah]

Our peak DPS isn't even within our Prolonged power prepot.

What? We get at least 5 seconds on a decent void form level. No reason to complain

[Deleted]

So with getting closer to the 930 mark shadow feels more and more weird to me.

I have played priest as my main since TBC, but have had my tiers of healing in between when it was needed, but the one thing with shadow this expansion is that it seems we are scaling backwards.

The more gear we get, the longer void forms we get and with t20, even more so. That means that the build up time gets longer. While every other class, apart from possibly affliction, goes straight out at the start, but for me personally it seems that it takes longer and longer to reach that point for every gear piece there is.

With the shadow orb system with Devouring plague, at least we had a fixed set of globals before we got to the "real" dps phase, but this expansion it seems to go later and later into the fight.

This is the one major gripe i have with this spec and why i am currently looking to reroll.
The more gear we get the longer it takes to our damage going, the longer everything needs to go right to get that nice high stack voidform going. You get targeted by something and have to move without dispersion on cd? Well too bad, have fun taking upwards of a full minute to get back into your dps.

[Onyd]

I recall previously stacking mastery led to shorter void forms and more damage (for me at least). Has anybody tried that?

[Fleckens]

I recall previously stacking mastery led to shorter void forms and more damage (for me at least). Has anybody tried that?

It's not really viable due to the way the new set bonus and mindbender works. Mastery is not a bad stat but you need enough haste and crit to make the 1 min rotations.

[Poopymonster]

It's not really viable due to the way the new set bonus and mindbender works. Mastery is not a bad stat but you need enough haste and crit to make the 1 min rotations.

What numbers should we be shooting for before stacking Mastery? I know they recommend 13 or 14K haste then crit but is there a cap on it, or do we want HUGE CRITTIES? I'm at 12939 haste plus Sephuz, makes 39% haste, 34% crit, 32% mastery, 3% vershitility.

[KablenTom]

From the HowToPriest stat weight post:

If you have Sephuz/Mangaza:
- At least 10,000 and no more than 14,000 haste is required for using AS competitively.
- Between 11,000 and 13,000 haste is good. 12,000 haste is ideal.
- Try to have twice as much Critical Strike rating as Mastery rating.
- Avoid having less Crit than Mastery, or having no Mastery at all.

[Poopymonster]

From the HowToPriest stat weight post:

If you have Sephuz/Mangaza:
- At least 10,000 and no more than 14,000 haste is required for using AS competitively.
- Between 11,000 and 13,000 haste is good. 12,000 haste is ideal.
- Try to have twice as much Critical Strike rating as Mastery rating.
- Avoid having less Crit than Mastery, or having no Mastery at all.

Thank you, I need to hit up the H2P discord more often for updated stats.

Now to regem and reenchant, mastery time.

[Swisted]

Im slowly gearing up, only at 873 Ilvl right now. If i have 3.8k Crit and 3.8k Mastery, Should I use San'layn instead of Asupicious Spirits?

[Deleted]

looking at my armory. should i get more crit or mastery and give up some haste. ?

armory: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/ch...ane/shandarina

[ThrashMetalFtw]

From the HowToPriest stat weight post:

If you have Sephuz/Mangaza:
- At least 10,000 and no more than 14,000 haste is required for using AS competitively.
- Between 11,000 and 13,000 haste is good. 12,000 haste is ideal.
- Try to have twice as much Critical Strike rating as Mastery rating.
- Avoid having less Crit than Mastery, or having no Mastery at all.

14k Haste is not a cap. 12 And 14k were simply numbers used to demonstrate that Haste starts dropping value around there. Haste is the by far best stat for keeping up with Insanity decay above 40 stacks, and the difference between 14k and 10k Haste is HUGE (playstylewise, not just numbers).

As for Crit and Mastery, the rule of thumb is to keep your Crit 2-3 times higher, but it doesn't really matter. Making even a single mistake during a fight, will have a MUCH bigger effect on your performance, than a few % of misplaced stats.

Now to regem and reenchant, mastery time.

Don't do that. Your gems and enchants should always be max Haste, no exceptions. Mastery is a nice dmg boost if you can get it (and you will get it here and there on some items without trying), but Haste and Crit are what makes the spec work.

Just follow a prio list of Haste > Crit > Mastery > Versa when gearing, and you will naturally get a collection of stats looking like the one in the first post I quoted.

looking at my armory. should i get more crit or mastery and give up some haste. ?

armory: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-gb/ch...ane/shandarina

For a "perfect" setup, you would drop 2kish Crit for Mastery, but no offense, if you have to ask that question, you are probably still learning the spec, and working on playing it perfectly will have 50 times more effect on your performance, than changing those stats around. Your Crit RNG variance between each fight will also have a much bigger effect than the difference between those stats.

These are the kind of gearchanges that ppl make because some guy simmed it, the Dps difference is never big enough to actually notice it. It's more about mentally being "optimized", the feeling of "being as good as you can be". The actual effect is minimum at best.

[Deleted]

Hi thanks for the info. am quite new as SP so thats correct. i do find the stats to be bit confusing though. i know we want as much haste as possible then crit. but i had heard you could totaly ignore mastery which from i understand now is not the case. i have the sentinel trinket with mastery(815). would that be prefered over my haste statstick?

[Clrg]

Hi thanks for the info. am quite new as SP so thats correct. i do find the stats to be bit confusing though. i know we want as much haste as possible then crit. but i had heard you could totaly ignore mastery which from i understand now is not the case. i have the sentinel trinket with mastery(815). would that be prefered over my haste statstick?

Is the owl trinket 915? use it over your 890 statstick.

[Deleted]

yea it is and okay ah noticed i writen wrong 915 idd.

[RsinRC]

So.. I unsubbed. Had fun conversing with ya and getting knee deep into the spec. Still love Shadow but damn I cant with legion any longer. 'Till next time, folks.

[Kilee25]

High five.