Why do I suck with s.priest?

[Ulvhedner]

I recently lvled my priest to 85 and am now doing HCs to gear up. There's just one huge problem, my DPS is terrible! Is it me or is it simply lack of gear?

Currently I'm opening with SW:P>MF till orb, and then put the dots up. I use AA oon CD and I have to admit, I'm a bit bad at using shadowfiend. I have nearly a 100% uptime with my DOTs and the Shadow Orbs seems to be friendly enough to appear frequently so I can keep the Empowered Shadow buff up.

Keep in mind the gear right now is terrible, but I should be able to push it higher than what I am currently doing

So please, I need help! How to improve when you're a noob spriest?

No linking for me D:
eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/grim-batol/Fafner/advanced

[Deleted]

define terrible dps.with you'r gear i think you should do 14-15k max.the rotation it's not bad,all you need is better gear + enchants and gems...

[Ulvhedner]

bad DPS for me is to be constantly struggling getting over 10k DPS

[Primernova]

Needs more haste, gems and for the love of god, a new hat.

[Deleted]

his armory:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...afner/advanced

i'm personally in a similar position to the OP.

what i'd personally recommend is not bothering with 17% hit until you're starting to raid seriously AND have near full 353 (which is not that hard to get, honestly). also, try and get into some FL trash farms. the cape and belt from friendly and honored are rather well itemized (hit/haste and crit/haste).

get darkmoon card: volcano. it's so close to BiS that you probably won't get a replacement anytime soon.

with your current gear, you should go for 6% hit until you're done doing dungeons. reforge to the highest haste breakpoint you can reach with your gear, then the rest into mastery.

and ENCHANT and GEM your gear. you're missing out on 2 items worth of INT without them.

[Myrwyss]

get your gear gemmed and enchanted.try to get jp blue head,always better than what you use now.you don't need 17% hit until you start raiding,and try to reforge for spirit instead of hit.also do you cast mind blast only with 3 orbs or every cd?

[Deleted]

8 unenchanted items and 8 missing gems : /
Any helm with a meta slot (and hopefully a +int socketbonus) will be an incredible upgrade

15k dps with that gear and lack of enchants/gems is a bit much imo... I remember early cata when people were running around in that gear and doig 10k dps was the milestone for *good* dps the first times I entered a heroic dungeon.

But yea, atleast enchant SOME of your gear, like the 378 bracers, it's not like youll get an upgrade anytime soon. Same goes for chest/cloak, they're 359 and 365 respectively.

Also, go ahead and stay at 17% hit if you want to do BWD/BoT which are about the same difficulty as ZA/ZG to be completely honest ^^

[Ulvhedner]

That was more of a reply I was hoping for, thanks nzall

Gear will come, gearing up is what I'm currently working with, just a bit hard when I get kicked due to horrible DPS in ZA/ZG, which I understand, those dungeons are horrible.

Gemming and enchanting have always been something I do when I've completed my gear somewhat (getting rid of blues).

So this is not a skill issue, merely just the lack of gear? Is there any addons or something to help with DPS?

[Primernova]

That was more of a reply I was hoping for, thanks nzall

Gear will come, gearing up is what I'm currently working with, just a bit hard when I get kicked due to horrible DPS in ZA/ZG, which I understand, those dungeons are horrible.

Gemming and enchanting have always been something I do when I've completed my gear somewhat (getting rid of blues).

So this is not a skill issue, merely just the lack of gear? Is there any addons or something to help with DPS?

Everytime you get a new piece of gear, gem and enchant it. When you replace it, gem and enchant it.

DPS is just math, leaving out even the smallest numbers will hurt the sum of the time investment and the overall damage.

My trick is to not even equip the gear unless it's gemed, enchanted and reforged to perfection.

It's not hard.

Let me add this too,

I heal as a main spec and I still use that mantra for my offspec DPS gear on all my chars.

[Ulvhedner]

Oh and I will get them replaced soon. Being carried away in FL in alt runs is amazing. Which is why this is bothering me, kinda annoying showing up with 10k DPS when the tank is doing waaay more

[Demetrion]

Your gear is... bad. Your average item level is 327, not enough for old heroics not to mention ZA ZG (your head is lackluster).

Anyway, as posters above said, get some heat, replace green items, enchant and fully gem your gear and you will see the difference. If you are doing 10-11K now you will do like double when your gear is set.

[Primernova]

Oh and I will get them replaced soon. Being carried away in FL in alt runs is amazing. Which is why this is bothering me, kinda annoying showing up with 10k DPS when the tank is doing waaay more

Tanks pretty much DPS to their gear/skill level anymore so that's a bad comparison. Just think of DPS in terms of simple math, squeeze every upgrade until it's perfect.

[Ulvhedner]

Your gear is... bad. Your average item level is 327, not enough for old heroics not to mention ZA ZG (your head is lackluster).

Anyway, as posters above said, get some heat, replace green items, enchant and fully gem your gear and you will see the difference. If you are doing 10-11K now you will do like double when your gear is set.

Keep in mind that BoAs are meant to be equivalent of blues at your lvl. at 80 BoA are equal to ilvl 200. At 85 I believe they're equal to 333. When armory calculates my average equipped ilvl my BoA which count as ilvl 1 for several sometimes annoying reasons, it will drag my average ilvl down like mad, which is why I keep a 325 head to balance it out

Is it worth giving up a whole secondary stat for the int/haste increase from the 371 PvP head/shoulders, or should I stick to 353 head/shoulders?

[Cerie]

Personally, I'd kick you for not having gems and enchants done on your blue gear, and most definitely for not having done so on the epics.
Pugs are not there to carry you for welfare epics.

I'm pretty sure the PvP shoulders are marginally better than the 353 from memory, but it's a pathetically small increase you might as well stick with the 353 ones. Head I'm not sure about, but if it's got the meta slot then it's going to be better.

As mentioned above, the boots, chest, cloak and bracer should all have the BiS enchants and gems on them.

[Ulvhedner]

Personally, I'd kick you for not having gems and enchants done on your blue gear, and most definitely for not having done so on the epics.
Pugs are not there to carry you for welfare epics.

I'm pretty sure the PvP shoulders are marginally better than the 353 from memory, but it's a pathetically small increase you might as well stick with the 353 ones. Head I'm not sure about, but if it's got the meta slot then it's going to be better.

As mentioned above, the boots, chest, cloak and bracer should all have the BiS enchants and gems on them.

Not raiding before monday, by then I'll be fully enchanted/gemmed. I never join a raid before I'm 100% ready

[Demetrion]

Keep in mind that BoAs are meant to be equivalent of blues at your lvl. at 80 BoA are equal to ilvl 200. At 85 I believe they're equal to 333. When armory calculates my average equipped ilvl my BoA which count as ilvl 1 for several sometimes annoying reasons, it will drag my average ilvl down like mad, which is why I keep a 325 head to balance it out

Is it worth giving up a whole secondary stat for the int/haste increase from the 371 PvP head/shoulders, or should I stick to 353 head/shoulders?

Definitely. ZG head and shoulders have poor secondary stats for spriests. Getting below hit cap for gaining multiple percentages of haste and more intellect is an excellent tradeoff. Make sure to take 2 pieces of t11 set bonus which will help you a lot with Shadowfiend managing (until you get t12).

[mag07]

You already got a bunch of good suggestions regarding your gear. Just to be clear, there is no way in hell you can sustain 15k dps in what you currently have on, even fully raid buffed (not that you could get into a raid with that ilevel to start with ) for the whole duration of a fight.

Sort out your gear first, if you don't want to waste the gold on expensive gems and chants, grab the lower level ones, it will still be a substantial gain. Farm heroics and relax about your dps until you are 346+ in every slot. Reforge appropriately to balance your stats, don't forget about your shadowfiend and you will be fine. Granted, you may get on people's nerves running Trolls as you are "cheating" the ilevel requirement but hell, Blizz is to blame for that so wouldn't worry too much, in a weeks time you'll be sorted. Oh, and level your professions, you are seriously crippling your dps by not doing so

[tabiib]

first of all open with all of your dots...not just swp.

next shadow is extremely gear dependent. u want to stack haste as much as possible (after hit cap of course) at low gear levels and the other stats will eventually build up as ur gear gets better.

[Deleted]

SW:P + MF (to force down Empored shadow) => Vampire Touch / Devouring Plague .. after than MB on cd and refresh dots. Mind Flay as filler.
You have a priority system which is basicly VT and MB on cd if you have 1 globe or more.

Forget 17% spell hit when you are doing heroics and make sure you capped for those heroics and not more. Just a waist of stats and try to itemize haste as much as possible.

Regarding trinket: DarkMoonCard Volcano is pretty damn BiS and you properbly won't replace it ever. Get it as it is mentioned before.

Itemisation: haste is God. You see real progress if you hit that 2180 haste (with Warlock's Dark Intend) or 2580 without it.

Last but not least: you are playing a dotting class. To have the full benefits of your dots they need to run. The moment you use a Global CD for that dot and it dies before it is expired => waiste of dps. There is pretty much notyhing you can do about it besides using your brain when you see a mob is really low and start mind spiking instead of dotting it up again (waisting those GCD when you can hit mindspikes + mindblast) Basicly trash dps sucks. We shine (better) @ bosses (just as affliction warlocks)

Again: it does not have to work for you.. but for me.. it did.

goodluck and have fun,

[Lucetia]

Currently I'm opening with SW:P>MF till orb, and then put the dots up. I use AA oon CD and I have to admit, I'm a bit bad at using shadowfiend. I have nearly a 100% uptime with my DOTs and the Shadow Orbs seems to be friendly enough to appear frequently so I can keep the Empowered Shadow buff up.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you still want to apply all your DoT's before you start MF'ing. Your DoT's are a big portion of your dps. Also, there are times you can go at the start of the fight and not have Shadow Orbs proc. I've gone some fights not seeing it proc for a good 30-45s at the start. Once it procs though you do want to refresh VT and DP.

The other thing is if I know I'm not going to run oom anytime quick I try to use Shadowfiend early on in the fight (within first 15-20s) because if RNG is in your favor you can proc it enough to use it another 1-2 times.

Another note as I saw you mentioned you do ZA/ZG a lot. If that's the case on most trash I found its just easier to go Mind Spike -> Mind Blast instead of dotting up the target, unless you dot up every one of them. Otherwise the trash dies so quick your DoT's don't have enough time to make an impact. If you are referring to low dps on the boss then see above.

Definitely. ZG head and shoulders have poor secondary stats for spriests. Getting below hit cap for gaining multiple percentages of haste and more intellect is an excellent tradeoff. Make sure to take 2 pieces of t11 set bonus which will help you a lot with Shadowfiend managing (until you get t12).

Out of curiosity what exactly is wrong with the ZG helm? Has spirit and a heft amount of haste and lot better than ZA's with crit (which might be the one your thinking of). The shoulders I do agree both ZG's and ZA's are pretty bad with spirit/crit and hit/crit.