Starting a Shadow Priest Alt

[Bilbobubblin]

I'd like to start playing my Shadow Priest alt more, but I am having trouble knowing where to start. Up until now I have dabbled with different talent choices but have not gotten much experience with any one set in particular. I am currently at 699 ilvl (no tier) with only one item upgraded, so I am sure I can get to 710-715 within a few weeks without much effort.

I know there are many Shadow Priest guides out there and am not expecting anybody to write a new one just for me. The question is, with my current ilvl and lack of experience, which guide / talent choice / stat priority would be a good place to start? I've read Kilee's "Old Man" Guide to CoP and Yva's Shadow PvE Guide on these forums as well as guides on HowToPriest, Icy Veins, and Noxxic. These guides have differences of opinion on stat priority and CoP rotations - I get that which is best can vary with stats, fights, and experience / expertise, so again I am just wondering where is best to start.

Bonus question: how viable is AS? Most of my Shadow Priest experience (has often been my main) has come before CoP, so it does feel much more familiar to me (plus I like DoTs), though I am up for learning something quite different as well.

[Djriff]

Well that's a pretty loaded question. Honestly shadow boils down to 2 main playstyles. AS is more of the traditional playstyle focusing on dots and filling with mind flay. AS Is extremely reliant on crit, so unless you have 25%+ and some crit trinkets I wouldn't even bother with AS. CoP on the other hand has several different playstyles within the spec. I'll break these down for you and basically when you would use these play styles.

CoP with Surge of Darkness
2 Target fight, you basically put VT and SW: P on the other target along with your DP's and just Mind Spike your primary target.

CoP with Mindbender
Ideally you want to use this with t18 2pc at minimum, otherwise I wouldn't bother. Kilee covers this pretty good in his guide.

CoP with Insanity
Here the sub spec splits into 2 distinct playstyles.

First is Dotweaving. Now until you get t182pc you'll want to dotweave, but only on single target fights. Dot weaving is covered in kilee's guide, however it's a high risk low gain situation, but it is a DPS increase.

Second is using Insanity with the class trinket. Now you do this as the DPET of Insanity with 5 stacks of RoW's debuff is higher than Mindbender with t182pc.

So basically it boils down to this as you get gear.

AS: 25%+ crit with crit trinkets (min 1)
CoP SoD: 2 target fight (twin orgons)
CoP MB: T182pc
CoP Ins Dotweave: No tier rotation
CoP Ins RoW: You can dotweave if you don't have tier, otherwise just follow basic insanity rotation in kilee's guide.


Hope this helps!

[Deleted]

AS: 25%+ crit with crit trinkets (min 1)
CoP SoD: 2 target fight (twin orgons)
CoP MB: T182pc
CoP Ins Dotweave: No tier rotation
CoP Ins RoW: You can dotweave if you don't have tier, otherwise just follow basic insanity rotation in kilee's guide.


Hope this helps!

IIRC
without tier mindbender>dotweave
with t17 4p dotweave>mindbender

[Djriff]

If that was true, dotweaving would have never existed. On a multi target fight, sure.

[Deleted]

If that was true, dotweaving would have never existed. On a multi target fight, sure.

Mindbender lasts for 20 seconds (up from 15 seconds).
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/...-6-1-PTR-Notes
This is what made mindbender useful without tier, im fully aware that dotweaving was the thing in 6.0

[Djriff]

but do 5 seconds of mindbender outweigh the DPS of dotweaving? I think it's close to breaking even. Dependent on your haste.

[Deleted]

but do 5 seconds of mindbender outweigh the DPS of dotweaving? I think it's close to breaking even. Dependent on your haste.

Thats 33% buff to mb, its kinda alot

From Kilee's guide;

Soul Priest's Raiment - This set drops out of normal BRF and higher.

2-piece - 90 PP
4-piece - 105/230 PP*

*Note: Insanity as a single target talent doesn't start to pull ahead of Mindbender until you get the 4-piece set bonus. This is due to dotweaving causing a longer uptime on the set bonus buff Mental Instincts. The larger number above represents the value of the 4-piece set bonus with Insanity, while the lower number represents its value without Insanity. You can still use the 4p set bonus without Insanity. You just need to be more diligent about using a non-Mind Spike filler after casting DP.

link


e: But this thread was about how to play as starting SP. My honest suggestion is to start collecting mastery/haste gear with 4set and RoW/dsi and PoF/seithe and get used to CoP, it being superior on almost every encounter on HFC.

[Djriff]

that makes sense then. I would def advise MB over Insanity until class trinket then.