New Shadow Priest (Holy/Disc generally) Questions

[Pottsy710]

I've searched this forum a bit as well as the stickied guide, but I still have some questions (apologies in advance if this has been answered ad nauseum)

1. I'm under the impression that our DOTs factor in our current spell power and ES when cast and only when cast, in other words, changes in our spell power/buffs will not affect Dots that are current ticking with the exception of SW:P as it's reapplied constantly via mind flay.

2. If the above is true, is it a DPS increase to reapply VT/DP when popping archangel?

The reason I'm asking, is my dps seems quite low compared to some of our other shadow priests, they said it's mainly because I don't have any T13 set bonuses as shadow (as I'm a Holy/Disc convert out of necessity, all of my tier is of the healing variety).

this is my current shadow setup, I used askmrrobot to do my reforges etc so if anything is off let me know

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...inous/advanced

[Sakamae]

DoTs take a "snapshot" of current stats when they are applied. They should be refreshed when you have intellect procs, i.e. power torrent or lightweave. To answer your question number 2: No, you should not refresh your DoTs right after using Archangel for a few reasons. First, Archangel only affects Mind Flay, Mind Spike, Mind Blast and Shadow Word Death. Second, you consume evangelism when you pop Archangel, so you will not have 5 stacks right after using it, and DoTs reapplied immediately would be ticking with reduced power at zero stacks. You want to refresh DoTs immediately BEFORE popping Archangel so you won't need to refresh them until late in the duration.

Not having any shadow tier bonuses really hurts your DPS. Downgrading to LFR pieces for the set bonuses in this case is well worth it. Try to pick up some offset pieces with haste as a main stat. You lose a lot having to forge it onto a lot of your gear pieces. Pick up the hit-haste Avengers of Hyjal ring instead of using the spirit-mastery one. If you have spare VP, you can buy the hit-haste ring or hit-haste neck also. I don't particularly like the Bottled Wishes trinket unless you are using it with the four set T13 for planned burst. I'd grab the Foul Gift out of Well of Eternity and use that instead.

Make sure you are using a DoT timer. You mention that your DPS is low. Post a log if you can and we can help you a lot more to figure out what you can do differently.

[Pottsy710]

here's a link to our logs from Wednesday (first time really raiding as shadow, I've made a few adjustments since then)

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-xtkl8rgkijmk23an/

Hagara wasn't pretty, as a first timer dpsing it I felt a little lost. I know I failed hard at multidotting the frost pillar things etc...

here are some normal mode logs from Sunday

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/r...?s=1042&e=1357

[Sakamae]

Taking a quick look over some of the logs, I noticed a few things. Make sure you are getting DI over the resto druid in your group. It looked like some of the time you had it and some of the time you didn't. It is a big increase for you with your lower haste gear. It looks like you started using Volcano potions. Make sure to pre-pot and then pot again later in the fight with CDs and/or heroism. Your active time on fights was low, which means you are standing around not casting something. It should always be as close to 100% as possible. Anytime you aren't casting something is a loss in DPS. Your DoT uptime is lower than it should be. Make sure you are refreshing them a tad bit early, don't let them fall off. You don't lose ticks of DoTs refreshing early anymore, so don't be afraid to recast up to a few seconds early. This is sometimes necessary on Ultraxion before an Hour of Twilight or Fading Light. Your Mind Blast casts are a bit low also. Make sure you are clipping Mind Flay for anything else. It is your lowest priority spell. As soon as Mind Blast is off CD, cast it. It is a DPS loss to wait for orbs.

On fights with multiple targets (like Blackhorn and Madness) make sure you are multi-dotting. For Blackhorn we always have ranged on the drakes in my group, so I keep VT and SWP on the Vrykuls while I focus a drake down. You have Mind Sear damage on that log. There aren't enough targets within range to make Mind Sear worthwhile on that fight. I don't use it if there is less than 4 targets. I typically Mind Spike the sapper, since he dies so quickly. You only had 16k damage done to sappers the entire fight. If you have specific people nuking them, then that makes sense. Otherwise, get a nameplate addon like Tidy Plates to help you with target swapping.

Spend some time on the target dummies to help you get familiar with watching DoT timers and CDs. Get used to clipping Mind Flay when Mind Blast is up or DoTs need to be refreshed. There are some good cast bar addons to show you Mind Flay ticks. It takes practice. Even queuing for LFR after you are locked to loot is helpful to get more "raid" practice. I use LFR to test things all the time, it's great. Talizorahh seems to be doing well, so ask them for advice within guild as needed.

[Pottsy710]

the mind sear damage on lootship was to attempt to pull out the sapper, we've had issues before where we won't get him out of his stealth until he's almost by the door. I am getting a DOT addon this evening, I have it showing on my name plates (timers etc) but I've found that I often can't keep all relevant mobs on screen.

DOT uptime on Ultrax I need to get better at, I screwed up on one of the Fading Lights and ended up dying (long story short we were trying something new letting the rogues stay down for every hour of twilight, but one died, I volunteered to stay down with the other rogue so we didn't wipe, and mistook the fading light countdown as the hour of twilight countdown, dispersed and died heh)...

Thanks for all the tips, I've had this priest since BC yet I've ALWAYS healed with it (other than leveling) so I'm looking for pointers.