The best time to be a Shadow Priest

[Cerbz]

Cata in t11 and t12, nothing comes close.

Nothing.

Couldn't stand the RNG of Shadow Orbs, T13 made it go away. The Shadowspike rotation was garbage, but the set bonuses were still delicious.

[Alexieel]

TBC for me, loved to be a pure castersupport with all this Mana I had to spend, even if I only did like 50-60% of a WLs DPS.

PvPwise I liked classic (cause ... vanilla PvP), TBC since s3 (loved 2s as Affli/SP) and whole WotLK (Always 2s as Frostmage/SP)

[kail]

tBC, nothing else compares.

Why? Spriests were more than just ranged dps, we allowed healers to not having to worry about ooms. We buffed others caster's dmg. We healed as well, all while trying to dish out as much dmg as possible.

TL;DR we were unique. But it seems blizz has a thing against uniqueness. Now my priest is shelved since I already have a caster dps (my lock). Don't see a point in gearing up 2 caster dps when they provide the same thing for the raid: dmg.

[Dakara]

TBC was my favorite time as a Priest, both Shadow and Holy (yes, I miss downranking). That being said, I preferred *most* (not all) classes that I played in TBC.

TL;DR we were unique. But it seems blizz has a thing against uniqueness. Now my priest is shelved since I already have a caster dps (my lock). Don't see a point in gearing up 2 caster dps when they provide the same thing for the raid: dmg.

Yep, because unique got translated into "QQ we raid 10 mans and we need X cos of Y and that's not fair". 40 mans you could say "suck it up and find that class/spec". Even in 25 mans you can get away with it, but 10 man raids was the nail in the coffin for unique class/spec flavor.

[Niyari]

i think it was best in wotlk. that was when they first started scaling like a real spellcaster and there were no silly shadow orbs.

[Drye]

The two day period our mastery was buffed during t11

[Asrialol]

Being able to dish out 1800 DPS on Brutallus while the other classes went well above 2000 was quite fun indeed. Wasn't really that exiting.

[mindp]

Best times? How about not the best times, because I'm a uper negativity Nancy and a Debby downer. I'd say ToGC H 25 man, and I never found a more wretched hive of scum and villainy in that crap instance. Only being a troll on the first encounter was worth it. Although padding on Anub was ok.

[Yvaelle]

Best times? How about not the best times, because I'm a uper negativity Nancy and a Debby downer. I'd say ToGC H 25 man, and I never found a more wretched hive of scum and villainy in that crap instance. Only being a troll on the first encounter was worth it. Although padding on Anub was ok.

As a PvP Spriest, I could pretty much carry the Arena fight too

[mindp]

As a PvP Spriest, I could pretty much carry the Arena fight too

Lies and slander, and I'm sicking the IRS on you now!

[Yvaelle]

Lies and slander, and I'm sicking the IRS on you now!

Certainly not if it existed now - but back in WotLK? Hell yes, Shadow was great on that fight

[mindp]

I never considered that a real fight!

[Deleted]

Cata was without a doubt the best time to play sp. Especially in ds with what was probably the best tier bonus ever. And pretty much all fights had special thimgs sps could do. Such as provide mana lifegrip people, taking impales on madness hc, or just plain raping shit. For me this is what i miss about playing sp, the actual ability to top and the burst dmg we had then. Orb generation at the start of the fight was clearly an afterthought. On a sidenote they should give us shadow orb generation at a low rate such as soul share generation so we start with full orbs always.

[Deleted]

I loved ICC-era shadowpriest. The most fun I ever had in the game.

[Kanariya]

What? Only one fight Shadow was even taken for in Classic and that was with 2.0 talents only I believe (Loatheb). In TBC Spriests were realistically hard-capped on DPS around 1600 when Warlocks were spamming Shadowbolt for twice that in bis.

This is very wrong. All serious 40-man guilds had at least one shadow priest in Vanilla because of their amazing synergy with Warlocks and Vampiric Embrace. Shadow Weaving was a debuff that gave 15% increased shadow damage taken by all players, and VE was a Curse that healed the group for 20% (30% talented) of shadow spell damage dealt, which was incredible for your Warlock group or your main tank group, depending on who needed the healing. Plus, out of all hybrid casters, they had the best dps, even if it was lower than mages and warlocks.

[Akshak]

The only real time I loved my shadow priest was during the KZ days when I was the designated Bolt Tank on the Curator.

[dwightyo39]

Vanilla for pvp. Stack spell/shadow power and then vaporize people. Tbc came out and cloak of shadows and eventually epic shadow resist gear from BT made me a sad panda.

[Lovestar]

Vanilla for pvp. Stack spell/shadow power and then vaporize people. Tbc came out and cloak of shadows and eventually epic shadow resist gear from BT made me a sad panda.

Ah ha ha, I remember that now. Scouring the AH for +Shadow Power gear, then laughing as Mind Flay alone made people just disintegrate in BGs, to the point the entire other team turned on me the second I respawned.

Activate Shadowform > 50 spells immediately fly directly at me. "KILL THAT @#$%! PRIEST!!!"

[Deleted]

Vanilla for pvp. Stack spell/shadow power and then vaporize people. Tbc came out and cloak of shadows and eventually epic shadow resist gear from BT made me a sad panda.

Ah ha ha, I remember that now. Scouring the AH for +Shadow Power gear, then laughing as Mind Flay alone made people just disintegrate in BGs, to the point the entire other team turned on me the second I respawned.

Activate Shadowform > 50 spells immediately fly directly at me. "KILL THAT @#$%! PRIEST!!!"

I played a human mage in vanilla, undead shadowpriests were the bane of my life in pvp. Devouring plague hurt.

[Toffie]

Icecrown spriest was the best ever.