Priest (any spec) on PVE

[GoMati]

Hi guys!

This is not meant to be a hate thread, I just wanted to present some of my observations even though there are negative points to my thoughts.

So basically all my life I've been playing either as DK or from Legion start as DH (ilvl 890). I had pretty much all the means needed to safely play either solo or with my friends - of course since those two are one of the best solo classes I could also pick rare mobs pretty freely and do my thing. All easy peasy.

About 3-4 weeks ago I thought about rolling priest just so I could support my teammates as healer plus do some nice dps as shadow. There was the leveling process, which was pretty painful but since there was this endgame vision where I basically can do all worldquests pretty easily - it went just fine. Problems started here, when I'm sittin around gear lv. 840 and I REALLY STRUGGLE with ALMOST ANY quest/mob-pack. I tend to play as holy during our mythics, so beside being 2-shotted there I have no complaints. It's cloth class right? I shouldn't expect any super-survivability.

But when I become shadow and just want to do my world quests at the end of the day alone, without any of my friends - there it's messed up. I mean - I'm trying to gear as SimBot says, Pawn is my friend, I pretty much know the drill about insanity and clinging onto voidform as much as I can plus shielding myself in the meantime but HOLY S**T WHY IS IT SO HARD TO KILL ANYTHING HERE (without dying 2-3 times during those quests not counting enemy fraction messing me up sometimes too).

I mean - is it supposed to be that way? I'm not experienced in game design but isn't it a flaw? Of course I should be worse at solo PvE stuff that DH/DK etc. but here I'm basically tagging shadow word pain on someone else's mobs and trying to get anywhere solo.

Please, understand that this thread is not for rant (okay, maybe juuuuust a little, seriously) but I seriously wonder whether it's me doing someting completely wrong or this is how it's supposed to be? And if that's how it should be then why?

Thanks for every constructive answer, I really apprciate it!

[Heathy]

I haven't bothered playing as shadow that much this expansion, I quest as disc because it does more damage than holy but has the same damage mitigation, use a combat pet like the light spawn and you have 2 atonement targets you and your pet. then just by casually doing damage you probably won't die that often, aoe is better as holy, you can just spam holy nova, where as disc just does more single target dps.

if you want to aoe pull as holy you have to just stand there spamming holy nova, use your holy words and try to proc the little naruu pet.

so it goes like this, pull pack of mobs, use chastise on one of them, spam holy nova, at 50% hp, serenity yourself, then keep spamming holy nova, then if you dip again, light of t'urre and sanctify. one of those holy words will either proc the pet or it won't, obviously there is a limit to how many mobs you can pull without dying too quickly.

[Fleckens]

Until you get gear shadow is pretty shit for soloing, yeah. It gets a lot better once just applying dots is enough to kill mobs, can just run misery and dot everything and not even worry about voidform outside of large health mobs.

[Rogalicus]

Dunno, I hadn't much trouble questing on lower gear, Disperse with artifact trait, Vampiric Embrace and Mind Bomb are really strong. Though it was much easier on my warlock, I won't deny that.

[Deleted]

If you're willing to invest some AP into disc, do quests as disc. I leveled as disc and do all world quests as disc and if you're doing things half right you're basically invincible even when pulling many mobs and also at lower gear levels. Yes, AOE is bad but that's the trade-off I guess.

[starji]

Some zones have harder baselines than others. Roughly, Broken Shore is harder than Suramar which is harder than the rest. It might be different in 7.2, but before that patch, at 840 Suramar could still be rough for some specs, and Shadow Priest is one of the fragile ones.

Some tips:
Tag other people's mobs when you can with Shadow Word Pain (assuming you're the same faction of course). If you're alone though, don't pull more than you can take (which on Broken Shore is just one at a time I bet).
Run San'layn for extra heals. That's your only self heal that you don't have to stop and cast.
You need higher ilevel. If you're rich, crafted gear is an option, plus WQ rewards, plus dauntless pieces from broken shore (855). Things will smooth out as you get higher.
AP Helps. At AK26+ it wouldn't take too long to bring your shadow weapon up to 36 and get the extra damage and stamina. That also makes a big difference.

Another option would be to run disc; I'm not a fan because the damage is a lot lower, but you'll be harder to kill.

TL;DR: Get gear and don't pull more than you can handle.

[Rici]

You can't compare questing as a tank class to questing as a priest. There are worlds between those game styles.

I still remember questing in Suramar when gear was around 840, I guess.

Priest => pulled more than 3 mobs? Take your legs and run as fast as you can.
Tank => get on your mount, pull as much mobs as you can find around, dismount, bomb, quest done...