Shadow Priest, help needed

[Nezoia]

They got Shadow Affinity for General Vezax, and I've talked to a lot over time who used it for Hodir Hardmode as well. Progress you know, can involve different builds, depending on your guild/raid composition/skills.

Many shadowpriests run with dual PvE builds, like me.

[Darkspectre]

i guess i could see shadow affinity being useful on vezax, especially if you aren't using a DK tank that can just pop cd's during the surges and keep building threat. However, if you have a decent tank, it's still unnecessary since you aren't dps'n 100% of the time. Between dodging shadow crashes, killing vapors, moving out when you get marked, or if vezax just decides not to throw a shadow crash for a good while. And if you're talking about the hardmode, well, thats a completely different spec than what you'd normally run in pve, since you're going for mana efficiency over all else.

On hodir it's about the tanks ability and also getting him some of the buffs to increase his threat. If you make sure your tank gets stormpower as soon as possible you're dps will never have issues with threat (unless they're pulling above 15k dps, in which case most classes have threat dumps and those that don't can be salved. and it's very unlikely an spriest will break 15k on that fight at this point in time.)

[Nezoia]

I can easily pull aggro on the little time I dps. It's not hard at all with a 0.7 second Mind Flay.
Replacing Meditation with Shadow Affinity, and job's done.

On hodir it's about the tanks ability and also getting him some of the buffs to increase his threat. If you make sure your tank gets stormpower as soon as possible you're dps will never have issues with threat

IF is the keyword. IF IF IF and more IF. You're relying 100% on RNG being perfect for you that day, and that your guild play to perfection.

Shadow Affinity is not more wrong than thinking your guild will ensure to carry you though the encounters by doing their job right. Only the individual player can calculate what build is best for his performance that day, granted his experience is high enough to do so.

You should read some of Buzzkill's comments about theorycraft

[Worshaka]

OK, i guess all the spriests in all the top guilds in the world are completely wrong about shadow affinity and you're right. Oh wait, they're not. go armory any of the guilds rated in top 100 on wowprogress and check their spriests specs. I guarantee you, every PvE spriest spec in those guilds have imp Spirit tap, and 0 pts in shadow affinity. and if you're gonna sacrifice pts out of anything for imp VE, you should lose 2 pts out of focused mind for it.

Thats fine, keep spending your 5 points for 7 to 8 spell power that is probably only up for about 80% of the time.

[Zoulis]

So...for the MF / MB matter.... imo u should never stop MF before it's over... as u should never stop any DoT's ticks... better let the dot run out and then redot than cut off it's ticks... though the best thing is to cast u'r VT dot at 1sec before it expires and DP on CD.... MF shouldn't be cut because the last tick..for me at least...is 3k normal dmg and 5.5k crit more or less which crits all the time... and it's really not worth and making no difference in dps using MB 0.4 sec quicker.

Now about the Shadow Affinity / IF / spirit tap and imp VE matter :P....
I never overaggro in any fights...not Hodir not Vezax.... ( and i am not using SA ).... my highest aggro is 70%..... it might be we got really good tanks... but also with the movement u need to do in these fights it's really difficult and actually if u do that u should start looking for answers...
I was using IF til recently , but as crit started to stack it really made no differance.... my MB is a crit no matter what...and my MF is 2/3 crits.... and the mana it saves isn't worth spending u'r talent there.
I am using spirit tap , because it really helps not going oom in fights like ignis that u don't stop dps except from flame jets that is 1sec to stop casting and then go on again... and with meditation i have a nice mana regen....and i see the extra SP as a bonus...which with raid buffs is bigger than 7-8...but even 7-8 is a bonus i'd like
Imp VE matter alot in HModes with contant raid dmg... or burst raid dmg in a small window of time.... but in a crysis moment...locks healthstone and our own shield is more than enough to be honest to survive...and u got VE (non-improved) on the boss for some extra healing...

This is my point of view of things other's may think otherwise and know perhaps better just wanted to state my opinion

Cheers

Zoulis

[Nezoia]

imo u should never stop MF before it's over.

I disagree.

Also you shouldn't simplify things like that. If the fight permits it, they'll be clipping MF early 1-2 times during a encounter, but in other encounters, you might want to refresh DoTs as you have to move for a long time, or something similar. (General Vezax is a good example).

I never overaggro in any fights...not Hodir not Vezax.... ( and i am not using SA ).... my highest aggro is 70%..... it might be we got really good tanks... but also with the movement u need to do in these fights it's really difficult and actually if u do that u should start looking for answers..

Or you might do terribad damage, not getting Storm Clouds, dpsing outside Shadow Crashes, or what do I know. Plenty of options, again, you're pretending all players and raid setups are the same, and nobody suffer from RNG.

because it really helps not going oom in fights like ignis

Of all possible fights to have mana issues on, you pick Ignis?!?

[Zoulis]

I disagree.

Also you shouldn't simplify things like that. If the fight permits it, they'll be clipping MF early 1-2 times during a encounter, but in other encounters, you might want to refresh DoTs as you have to move for a long time, or something similar. (General Vezax is a good example).
Or you might do terribad damage, not getting Storm Clouds, dpsing outside Shadow Crashes, or what do I know. Plenty of options, again, you're pretending all players and raid setups are the same, and nobody suffer from RNG.
Of all possible fights to have mana issues on, you pick Ignis?!?

so :P yeh i know i simplifide things too much but i just did that to give a guideline ofc in fight's that u have to move for a period of time u stop MF to refresh dot's etc :P i just wanted to give a general guideline for static fights....
my dps is more or less at 8.8-9k at hodir and at like 7k at vezax.... that is recount dmg so my pure dps is more i think.... :P stormbuff i get only if it is at a range dps/healer cause when a melee get's it we're leaving it for melee to get it so my dps may vary at hodir.... and i never dps out of shadow crashes at vezax.... not stupid to waste my mana :P when i'm not in a shadow crash i wand him down :P
and i chose ignis cause he is actually the only boss that i have mana problems in between shadow fiends...some times i even need to use dispersion

Cheers

Zoulis