[6.0] Shadow Priest Discussion

[Trathos77]

Hi everyone,

I've read the forums and I respect many of the posts I've come across. These forums alone have great information as do other sites. Anyhow, I'm trying to find up-to-date and respected information about advice on using a Shadow Priest in PvP. I've gathered they struggle dueling and to an extent in arenas. I've read they thrive in team settings.

If they suck in 1v1, is it safe to assume WPvP is dangerous?

Can any of you Shadow Priests vets provide focus or direction as to where I could read up on the Shadow Priest for PvP? There is so much info out there. Thank you!

[Deleted]

Hi everyone,

I've read the forums and I respect many of the posts I've come across. These forums alone have great information as do other sites. Anyhow, I'm trying to find up-to-date and respected information about advice on using a Shadow Priest in PvP. I've gathered they struggle dueling and to an extent in arenas. I've read they thrive in team settings.

If they suck in 1v1, is it safe to assume WPvP is dangerous?

Can any of you Shadow Priests vets provide focus or direction as to where I could read up on the Shadow Priest for PvP? There is so much info out there. Thank you!

arenajunkies.com is about the only PvP site left. There are sites that you pay money to learn, skill-capped.com is the most famous one I think. It's a good site I think but it's up to you if you want to pay or not. The site has a lot of rank 1 players contributing. Most people just watch streams and learn from there though. Talbadar, although he doesn't stream much WoW anymore, is one I can suggest.

[Sxq]

I think it would go a long way if AS and VE were given the instant cast mind blast. I really like the CoP playstyle personally, and I'm not excited to go back to terrible direct damage and long cast times even if it's a damage increase overall (with AS). I love how mobile we can be with a lot of instant casts.

[Bullettime]

I think it would go a long way if AS and VE were given the instant cast mind blast. I really like the CoP playstyle personally, and I'm not excited to go back to terrible direct damage and long cast times even if it's a damage increase overall (with AS). I love how mobile we can be with a lot of instant casts.

It's the one thing with CoP that bothers me. The Mind Blast cooldown reduction is fine and such but there's no reason for it not be instant baseline.

[Deleted]

Was wondering... why is everyone so excited about mindsear insanity? From the numbers i see with mindsear now, even a 100% buff doesnt make it that great at all... considering it also costs an orb and lasts for 2 seconds if i recall.
So why's everyone so happy about it?

[Sxq]

Was wondering... why is everyone so excited about mindsear insanity? From the numbers i see with mindsear now, even a 100% buff doesnt make it that great at all... considering it also costs an orb and lasts for 2 seconds if i recall.
So why's everyone so happy about it?

? It doesn't cost orbs, it's triggered the same way regular insanity is. You cast DP and then get to use searing insanity for a while. It'll mean that it's viable to use mindsear on like ~3 mobs instead of 5+, and for anything more than ~3 it'll be a sizeable damage increase over what was previously possible.

[Bullettime]

Was wondering... why is everyone so excited about mindsear insanity? From the numbers i see with mindsear now, even a 100% buff doesnt make it that great at all... considering it also costs an orb and lasts for 2 seconds if i recall.
So why's everyone so happy about it?

It's an option for burstier AoE clusters that we otherwise have no tools to handle.

[Yvaelle]

It's the one thing with CoP that bothers me. The Mind Blast cooldown reduction is fine and such but there's no reason for it not be instant baseline.

I wrote up a Shadow Redesign dream thread mid-Pandaria, and one of the big changes I wanted was to make orb generation instant and uncontrollable (to enemy players), the ability to interrupt Mind Blast casts, both in PvP with interrupt/ccs, and in PvE by forcing us to constantly move on heavy movement fights, is unlike the effect it has on other classes - not only does it prevent us from using our most damaging abilities, but it delays the cooldown on those abilities - it would be like if Recklessness or Killing Spree or Dark Soul would only recharge while standing still: that is how cast-time Mind Blast do.

Instead, orb generation should rely on instant casts, Death already is - but Mind Blast should be instant too - while our biggest burst moves should instead require our undivided attention (not our orb gen). So rather than an instant cast Devouring Plague DoT, I proposed our most efficient Orb->Damage conversion would be a spell called Mind War - a 5 second channeled spell that wrecks people. Think of it as Insanity but way stronger (DP damage + Insanity damage rolled together): a spell like this would scale off all our secondary stats simultaneously - so it's good regardless of your build/itemization/talents.

Additionally, Mind War would have significant self-healing, something like 5% per second channeled (25% max) - so the emphasis is on predicting movement in PvE fights to ensure full casts everytime, and lining up peels during your burst cycles in PvP to ensure your Mind War isn't interrupted or pushed back. I pictured it with the Penance graphic, but a shadow-purple, with hot pink / magenta arcing out of it

You can't always channel though, and we really should have other ways to spend orbs meaningfully - so I also proposed Despair - an instant empowered DoT that would last 12 seconds, and apply similar damage to Mind War, but less bursty (and without the DPET of the channeled GCDs), during which movement speed would slow by 10% per second up to a maximum of 99% after 10 seconds. So this gives Shadow a few things, the ability to instantly get damage out when orb-capped, when moving, when multi-dotting, and the ability to snare without rooting ourselves in place (channeling Mind Flay), but only by consuming Orbs (not like all those spam-snare classes).

There was also a Black Shield suggestion, that consumed orbs to provide ourselves or an ally with an extremely high damage absorption shield, at the cost of 3 orbs, which would do 100% reflective damage against attackers, and prevent CC (with a 60 second cooldown). So in PvE we could throw this on a tank before a big boss hit, potentially saving their life while also reflecting a huge chunk of damage back on the boss - or we could use it on ourselves to block a mechanic (like Cloak of Shadows / Sacrificial Pact / Ice Block).

In PvP we could expend our orbs to deny an enemy kill cycle on ourselves or our teammates, but at the cost of our own orbs, preventing us from bursting in return: this would encourage us to spend from the top in PvP (like floating energy on a rogue), wanting to ensure we're always close enough to 3 orbs if we need that shield, but never capping/wasting orbs. This suggestion was also tied to the removal of Flash Heal / Renew / ProM from Shadow.

It looks like they took a lot of those suggestions to heart in WoD - with the notable exception that my opening essay on why Mind Blast should be instant baseline was only applied to one of our L100 talents.

[Dawnrage]

Isn't it higher chance for Insanity to crit and multstrike though?

What makes you say that? I don't think I have seen anything that increases the chance for it to crit/multi-strike.

[Deleted]

What makes you say that? I don't think I have seen anything that increases the chance for it to crit/multi-strike.

Nothing, was tired when I wrote that.

[methz]

The 4 set restores the orbs you used on PH and PH gives Insanity buff. Dispersion and versatility have nothing to do with the 4 set PvP.

Except for one of the bonuses being increased versatility when you use dispersion?

[Poltr]

How much dps is the pvp 2 set even worth roughly?

[Relapses]

It's 2k Versatility, or about a flat 15% damage increase while it's up. Personally, I only use it on the pull by using a gear swap / cancelaura Dispersion macro. I've actually managed to get some pretty decent burst on pull (especially if I start w/ 4/5 Orbs). If you're at a point where the 660+ PvP-gear is better than your raid gear then I'd just use it on CD (or line it up with a DP/MF:I combo), again with a cancelaura Dispersion macro.

[Deleted]

Except for one of the bonuses being increased versatility when you use dispersion?

What? Read the question you responded to again. He said 2 set was clearly good and he was asking about 4 set. And he even mentioned PH so I don't know why you talked about Dispersion or Versatiilty.

[methz]

What? Read the question you responded to again. He said 2 set was clearly good and he was asking about 4 set. And he even mentioned PH so I don't know why you talked about Dispersion or Versatiilty.

...Only I was responding to you, who said that the versatility buff had nothing to do with the set bonus.

I misunderstood his original question, to which he should've been told that in PVE there's no advantage over using PH over DP to trigger insanity, but that wasn't what I responded to when you quoted me just now.

[Deleted]

...Only I was responding to you, who said that the versatility buff had nothing to do with the set bonus.

I misunderstood his original question, to which he should've been told that in PVE there's no advantage over using PH over DP to trigger insanity, but that wasn't what I responded to when you quoted me just now.

Obviously there is something called context and you can't just look at my post in vacuum but also take into consideration what I quote in my post. When I write 4 set I mean 4 set bonus. That should be obvious. Especially when I explain what it does the sentence before that.

[methz]

Obviously there is something called context and you can't just look at my post in vacuum but also take into consideration what I quote in my post. When I write 4 set I mean 4 set bonus. That should be obvious. Especially when I explain what it does the sentence before that.

So instead of answering the original question, we've branched off to how I should have my mind reading powers on when you post. At least you're being constructive, I guess.

It's 2k Versatility, or about a flat 15% damage increase while it's up. Personally, I only use it on the pull by using a gear swap / cancelaura Dispersion macro. I've actually managed to get some pretty decent burst on pull (especially if I start w/ 4/5 Orbs). If you're at a point where the 660+ PvP-gear is better than your raid gear then I'd just use it on CD (or line it up with a DP/MF:I combo), again with a cancelaura Dispersion macro.

Any chance you're using a macro to swap items out because the gear set panel doesn't work for it? For some reason I can't save some item slots in my sets, wondering if it's just me

[BobAwesome]

Any chance you're using a macro to swap items out because the gear set panel doesn't work for it? For some reason I can't save some item slots in my sets, wondering if it's just me

Do you have them set to exclude that slot?

[methz]

Do you have them set to exclude that slot?

I didn't even see that it was an option.
Brb, going to put more forehead against a wall.

Also thank you

[supersnap]

Was wondering... why is everyone so excited about mindsear insanity? From the numbers i see with mindsear now, even a 100% buff doesnt make it that great at all... considering it also costs an orb and lasts for 2 seconds if i recall.
So why's everyone so happy about it?

On Beastlord Darmac really shows how good Searing Insanity is now. Makes us one of the best AoE on the pack beasts.

Anyone else that did testing noticed AS being bugged and causing SA to not do damage still?