Shadow Solo Levelling

[Deleted]

On shadow priest solo levelling, am I right in assuming in most regular player-to-mob situations two orbs (before DP) are more convenient than three? Please let me know if I miss something. Also, I'm a bit confused about 3 or 4 mobs AOE, because it's supposed to be the 2 dots and then regularly a management of orbs with DP and MF/SW:death but it appears to feel a bit slow.

[Wheetos]

doesnt really matter, shadow levelling absolutely sucks and always has done. it will be slow, you just gotta deal with it sadly

[Zych]

Yeah don't ask me, last time I leveled a spriest my rotation was MB > SWP > Wand

[Deleted]

I noticed there's a special scenario it can accelerate damage on 2 or 3 targets if the cooldowns are properly used exactly on cooldown reset. In general though it feels clunky. It can feel a bit nuke-y if orbs are lined up but even that may mess up easily.

And it gets really annoying and dysfunctional if you agro mobs you didn't anticipate. Other classes, even hybrid ones, can just nuke them without much issue.

I was playing a feral druid casually months ago and while it's not a "real dps class", the spec is perfectly capable of nuking stuff that came unexpectedly.

[Minoan]

if heirlooms:
Before 45-SWP/MF/melee attack and MB DP on 1-2 orbs
after 45 MB DP with 1-2 orbs then SWD, repeat
after 75 SWP MB DP/MB proc, then as usual
else if no heirlooms
suffer.
Because this is annoying and at some points, especially for first 30 levels, a single penance of disc will do more damage than your whole SPriest rotation
I remember leveling my priest as Holy dps till level 45 on 2.5.3 back in BC(till shadowform via level 40 talents and something else). Who knew that almost 5 year after I'd keep healing DPS till level 65 on my PVP-oriented alt...And even after if you want to cheese the mechanics and tank-spank something that cannot be soloed without a tank, aka group quests in BC, WOTLK

[Dierdre]

I just leveled a new spriest a few months ago. Sure I had full heirlooms, but it's one of the easiest specs to level with imo.

[Daez]

doesnt really matter, shadow levelling absolutely sucks and always has done. it will be slow, you just gotta deal with it sadly

There is nothing wrong with leveling shadow. Its more about keeping dots up and yourself from dying. Then just pull as much as you can while keeping this system. Although, for priest leveling the real way to go (even solo) is discipline.

[Laqweeta]

I just leveled a new spriest a few months ago. Sure I had full heirlooms, but it's one of the easiest specs to level with imo.

I leveled an SPriest from 1 to 85 on Cata launch and I had no problems leveling, I had NO heirlooms either.. Wait, I lied. I had the 2 trinkets. That's it. I found it pretty fun o.o..

I also did level a Priest from 1 to 65 back in 2.3 ish. Jesus Christ that leveling........ Mind Blast, Shadow Word: P > Mind Flay WandWandWandWand

[Succath]

Leveling as shadow now is much easier than how it used to be back in TBC or vanilla.
Now you just dot up everything and keep moving, especially with Heirlooms.

Depending on your gear level you might not be able to do this in WoD, but playing on beta with my current gear has given me no issues so far to dot up at least 4-5 mobs.
In all fairness i have leveled another priest as disc and had immense fun with leveling that. so it all depends on what you want but its certainly viable now in comparison to a few years ago.

[Melancolie]

I find you can easily do 3 mobs at a time with practically no downtime..

Dotting 6-7 mobs, void tendrils and mind sear, then use dispersion for full mana, do it Again and use shadowfiend for full mana. Then you can do it about twice before oom and dispersion should just about be ready again.

I didnt find lvling my shadowpriest from 85-90 particularly hard compared to the other classes. If you compare it to paladin or monk with Spear of Xuen, everything will be horribly slow, but i felt the pace was fine.

Pre 80 i dont remember

[Deleted]

I just leveled a new spriest a few months ago. Sure I had full heirlooms, but it's one of the easiest specs to level with imo.

everyone feels diffrent, but i guess you havent leveled a lot of alts

[Dierdre]

everyone feels diffrent, but i guess you havent leveled a lot of alts

At least one of each class. Two of several.

[Succath]

everyone feels diffrent, but i guess you havent leveled a lot of alts

TBH i find leveling as shadow quite easy as well. the only class if find more easy are either warlock or hunter due to pets.

[Zych]

Mage is the worst. Such cast time. So slow. Wow.

[Deleted]

The most fun dps spec ever in the history of the universe both in raiding and in solo is the cat, the feral druid, so simple yet so complex if you don't set it up well and it can handle any amount of mobs in a very short time. But, but, but, but, but, nobody wants a melee in the raid, and it seems that role is given either by pity or as a necessity of a mechanic. As a result, I think I'll never play another melee again as a main char, let alone the druid is generally a class that has no spec that is exceptional, all of them are either "just ok", or "ok, in this tier" or just bad while other classes that specialize will have at least one spec that is exceptional for what you picked it up for (though shadow I doubt is one of them).

[Dierdre]

But, but, but, but, but, nobody wants a melee in the raid, and it seems that role is given either by pity or as a necessity of a mechanic. As a result, I think I'll never play another melee again as a main char, let alone the druid is generally a class that has no spec that is exceptional, all of them are either "just ok", or "ok, in this tier" or just bad while other classes that specialize will have at least one spec that is exceptional for what you picked it up for (though shadow I doubt is one of them).

Dunno about that, I really OWN on my kitty and I've never had a problem for being melee. Seriously, I even feel bad about pulling such retarded numbers while bypassing 90% of all raid mechanics and not even being good at playing feral.

[Deleted]

Dunno about that, I really OWN on my kitty and I've never had a problem for being melee. Seriously, I even feel bad about pulling such retarded numbers while bypassing 90% of all raid mechanics and not even being good at playing feral.

I know, but I guess you're in some kind of established guild. If things shake, any melee in the game is some kind of replaceable replacement. Well, there are some rare occasions they might be specifically required on hard core raiding, e.g. more ressurects or rogue's cleaves.

[Stormspark]

I have only played shadow for levelling in MOP. I have not done any dungeons or any group content with it (I use holy because I prefer to heal in group environments). I'm not familiar with the WOD changes.

Now that that's out of the way...shadow does good damage, *eventually*. It has a HUGE rampup time, and if you're in a group situation where mobs are dying quickly, you'll look really bad because your damage never gets a chance to ramp up. If you keep 3 shadow orbs, you can unload a decent amount up front, but still not as much as a lot of other classes can do, unless you have REALLY good gear.

With mediocre gear (especially a mix of MOP levelling greens and timeless gear like my priest has), shadow seems to really struggle, especially soloing old content. Anzu took me over 4x longer to kill on my 463-ish shadow priest as he did on my 463-ish frost DK. My DK could consistently burn him down before he does his banish, often with kill times of just a few seconds. My priest of about the same item level could never even get him to 50% before his banish. I usually had to go through 2 banish phases to kill him. And this is starting with 3 shadow orbs.

Now, on a long boss fight in current content with good gear, shadow will do just as much damage over the fight as anyone else. But it's *extremely* gear/haste dependent, and the damage still has a very long ramp up time. I'm hoping that WOD changes this.

[Dierdre]

Now, on a long boss fight in current content with good gear, shadow will do just as much damage over the fight as anyone else.

For the nth time, no.

[TwoTapTimmy]

I love shadow, hope its easy to level with in wod