1. #1

    Shadow priest dps issues.

    First i would like to start with my armory profile:

    http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...e+Co&n=Wobaroo

    For the record im main spec healer and have pretty much always played a healer. Have just collected dps gear as offspec and with extra badges over time. Problem is my dps for my gear is very very bad. So bad in fact i have been removed from pugs. Even asked if i brought my char

    Im ashamed to say i have always used a macro as shadow dps. I like it simple. I hate having to press 5-7 buttons for a cycle. Macro i have been using:

    /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target devouring plague, vampiric touch, mind blast, mind flay, mind flay, mind blast, mind flay, mind flay, mind blast, mind flay, shadow word: death

    *flame away*

    For the non flamers...is it a macro issue? Should i just stick to healin? On the dummies im just hitting over 2k. I really want to stick to a simple dps macro as shadow if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

  2. #2

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    You can't stick to a macro, won't work, it's not like we have spells that can be chained and then you expect them to work. If you still want to macro it, then you're doomed to doing subpar damage I'm afraid and healing would be your way.

  3. #3

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    I dont know much about spriest other than what my wife tells me but I can tell you this if youre using a macro you wont ever get optimal dps and thats the honest truth about any class so can the macro and get some rotation/situational advice from some of the pro's here.

    That said one thing I did notice is that your crit is stupidly low. A lot of people and apparently you also didnt know that your spell crit rating is affected by weapon skill. So max out all available weapon skills just so you dont have to go do that should you upgrade to a mace or stave. The other thing I noticed is that you have items like embrace of the spider which while a great mage/lock trink is terribad for priests. Spriests have a "sweet spot" for haste which is easily attainable through gear and does not require procs. As a spriest sp>all and where sp isnt available go crit. (once hit capped which you are not).
    I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money; but what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I've acquired over a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now that will be the end of it. I will not look for you, i will not pursue you but if you don't; I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

  4. #4
    Field Marshal Redjack's Avatar
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    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by Munk
    A lot of people and apparently you also didnt know that your spell crit rating is affected by weapon skill.
    WHAT ? i really never heard of that...

  5. #5

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    I'm in a similar position to you and I use a macro to DPS. While I might not get the maximum DPS theoretically possible, I'm pretty damned close with it on the whole (moving etc means I switch to more manual DPS). It's two macros, one for "opening" and one for sustained spammage once a fight is up and running.

    I've tried mods such as MFClip and DoTimer but by using the macros, I take a lot of the risk of forgetting to re-apply dots etc out of it.

    Here's what I use:
    Opening:
    #showtooltip
    /use 13
    /use 14
    /use Potion of Wild Magic
    /castsequence reset=15 Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Death

    Spamming:
    #showtooltip
    /use 13
    /use 14
    /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=5.5 Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Mind Flay


    And here's my armory:
    http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...totem&n=Alexio

    But you need to reach the hit cap with gear - it makes a massive difference

    Edit: And finally, to give you some sort of comparison, I just did 5 mins on the heroic dummy and did 3200 DPS ( I think your gear's slightly better than mine on the whole)

    Edit 2: Forgot to add, I refresh DP manually

  6. #6

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by Munk
    A lot of people and apparently you also didnt know that your spell crit rating is affected by weapon skill.
    lol... What?! Over 4 1/2 years of playing and I never knew this. Im going to have to look into this.

  7. #7

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by Munk
    A lot of people and apparently you also didnt know that your spell crit rating is affected by weapon skill.
    No it isn't...
    It only affects melee (or ranged in case of ranged weapon) crit chance.

  8. #8

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    It's not. Weapon skill is equivilant to "expertise" in terms of stats.

  9. #9

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Not to flame anyone or anything!
    But am i the only one finding it more exciting/funny to play the class without macro's?
    According to blizzard:

    Paladins : Lovedolls

    Priests : Swineflu

  10. #10

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    As I said in my original post, I'm a healer by trade so when I'm asked by my guild to provide DPS I want to do the best I can for them. As I'm not expert in shadow, that means I use a macro to take as much risk out of the situation as I can.

  11. #11
    Deleted

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by robaroo
    Im ashamed to say i have always used a macro as shadow dps. I like it simple. I hate having to press 5-7 buttons for a cycle. Macro i have been using:
    Sorry, but until you learn how to use your skills effectivley without the need for this Macro, then your DPS will always be mediocre.

    My Shadow Priests gear is a mixture of ilevel 200 gear and I can comfterbly pull of 2k DPS on a dummy

  12. #12

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by robaroo
    First i would like to start with my armory profile:

    http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...e+Co&n=Wobaroo

    For the record im main spec healer and have pretty much always played a healer. Have just collected dps gear as offspec and with extra badges over time. Problem is my dps for my gear is very very bad. So bad in fact i have been removed from pugs. Even asked if i brought my char

    Im ashamed to say i have always used a macro as shadow dps. I like it simple. I hate having to press 5-7 buttons for a cycle. Macro i have been using:

    /castsequence [nochanneling] reset=target devouring plague, vampiric touch, mind blast, mind flay, mind flay, mind blast, mind flay, mind flay, mind blast, mind flay, shadow word: death

    *flame away*

    For the non flamers...is it a macro issue? Should i just stick to healin? On the dummies im just hitting over 2k. I really want to stick to a simple dps macro as shadow if possible. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
    LMAO !!!

    Imo not just stick to healing, but rather stick to solo quests... Are you really asking us how to make your dps decent while mashing 1 button ????

    I understand you wanna read a good book while playing while machinally spamming 1 button whitout even looking at the screen... but plz understand we really don'T want to play with you either.

  13. #13

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by Shamb
    LMAO !!!

    Imo not just stick to healing, but rather stick to solo quests... Are you really asking us how to make your dps decent while mashing 1 button ????

    I understand you wanna read a good book while playing while machinally spamming 1 button whitout even looking at the screen... but plz understand we really don'T want to play with you either.
    What's your problem? The guy asked a normal question and explained his situation. Answer is - no, you can't do proper dps with macro and that's it. You don't need to kill him because of it.

  14. #14

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    macros won't do any good for a dps ... nor a tank nor a healer if you try to chain your skills with a macro ...

    spriest "rotation" (in fact there is no rotation) is complicated and situational

    skills (dots) have different durations, haste messes up everything in those sweet reset=5.5 macros ... btw "reset" is counted from the last button press not from the start of the sequence

    if you want to play a class that has less buttons to push play a frostmage ... spam frostbolt

    if you don't want or don't want to afford getting used to playing a spriest ... go ahead stick to healing

    or learn the spriest


    EventHorizon is a sweet addon that helps a lot for playing a spriest
    it has bars for all your "rotation" dots, cooldowns and shows the ticks of each dot ... helps with not clipping ticks etc etc.

    I really hate those ppl that say
    "OH noez ... I do less dps than other ppl ... I use macros for my rotation because I'm too lazy. ... Why is my dps low, guys? Halp me"


    ok ... I'm done ... sry for the rant ...
    Welcome to the Internet, where the men are men, the women are men, the children are police officers, everyone is correct all of the time, even when they're wrong, and where opinions are more valid the more insults and swear words you include with them.

  15. #15

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    In addition to the macro you might want to look at your enchants & gems.

    You have the wrong meta - you want Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. This means you'll need 2 purple gems to activate it - you currently have 4. You do know that you can ignore socket bonuses and just socket red or yellow gems in blue sockets right?

    So dump the extra purple gems and socket +hit till you're capped which is 11% assuming you can get a space goat.

    Your spec is kinda off, most all spriests still get meditation and if you're dps is really so bad you hardly need the threat reduction do you?

    http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuoZZ0xfVRfzffqfkAo

    is the cookie cutter from EJ.

    Even after doing all that though you'll still need to practice doing your rotation, get a dot-timer etc. etc. to do decent dps.

  16. #16

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Before 3.2, there actually was a Shadow Priest macro that did a pretty good job, around 95% of the DPS of a highly skilled Shadow Priest. The thing is, that macro has been broken with the changes to cast random. However, you can still use part of that macro that would pretty much spam Mind Flay and clip it for Mind Blast when it's off cooldown. Then all you'd really have to do is watch for DP and VT, although you might still be able to keep VT in a macro too, I'm not sure. That ought to get you pretty close to max DPS. The important thing is not to fall into a "rotation" since Shadow Priests are priority based, so you will lose a lot of DPS if you do that.

  17. #17

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by Exidius
    Not to flame anyone or anything!
    But am i the only one finding it more exciting/funny to play the class without macro's?
    I'm with you. I was new to Spriest in LK, coming from a raiding mage in BC. I tried macros while leveling past 70 and figured out very quickly that LK is very different than BC in that everything is more of a priority system than a rotation now. Also, it's extremely boring hitting the same button repeatedly and you're not going to top the DPS charts doing it because either your timing or your sequence will be off at some point and you'll either have DoT downtime or waste mana renewing a DoT that hasn't expired yet. Nevermind adding Bloodlust or any other giant raid-wide modifiers. That said, I do have a lot of macros, but they're to use both trinkets and all CD's on every nuke or to /stopcasting before fade, etc., not for my rotation.

    For bosses, it's a priority system. Keep Plague up at all times. When it's up, keep SW:P up (Flay will keep it up if you don't have large gaps in your casting). When it's up, keep Vampiric Touch up. Pop a Mind Blast only when you know the fight will require sustained mana or once after each VT refresh for a chance to proc talents and gear RNG's. Otherwise, spam Flay. When Bloodlust or other modifiers a used, simply fill the time between refreshing DoTs with Flays. If you have to move and your confident that your moving will keep you from taking a huge hit, throw SWeath while moving.

    To recap, keep Plague up, keep SW:P up, keep VT up, Blast only after renewing VT, and spam Flay. This gets me a very consistent 3-4k raid boss DPS. Many people start with VT, then SW:P and Plague, but I've found that having Plague ticking while I stand up SW:P and VT improves my DPS and extends the number of Flays I can throw before renewing VT again. That said, if you want to get a headstart on a mob while the tank is running to him, start casting VT to land it just after he's agro'd the mob, then Plague and SW:P.

    Your gear is significantly better than mine (your 4pc T8, for example) at the moment because I'm a very casual raider, so you should be pumping out a bare minimum of 4k DPS on raid bosses in your current setup. Step up the SP on your weapon to 63 or 81. Swap your meta for a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond (21 crit rating and +3% crit dmg), swap hit gems for SP (Runed Scarlet Ruby or Runed Stormjewel) or SP/spirit if you're a stickler about socket bonuses. I'm easily hitting #1 in every raid I enter and my hit is lower. If you look at some WWS reports or even just watch recount, you'll see you're not missing nearly as much as you think you are and you can back off a bit on the hit. Trinkets: Sundial of the Exiled for 40 heroism and Abyssal Rune from reg ToC. You'll front load all your damage roughly every 50-60 seconds with almost 1200 SP. This usually gets me a very nice lead over the entire raid, and one extremely well-performing person (usually a hunter) will catch up to me toward the end of the internal CD on the trinkets, then they proc again and I gain my lead back. This will likely spike your DPS 1-2k for 20-30 seconds every minute. the only problem with these trinkets is they're on equip and you have no control over when the proc, but at least you don't forget to use them.

    As for your spec, you're not going to get much out of Shadow Affinity unless your tanks really suck. I've never needed it and I go all out on every pull (thank god for Fade! wish my mage had it!), Scream = "meh" and silence, while useful on occasion, isn't worth the points IMO. Same for Psychic Horror; it may save your ass on occasion, but if you're smart and adjust to your tank's abilities you won't need it.I'd move those points to Imp:Fort and Meditation for the mana regen. I found life to be significantly easier on long boss fights with that little bit extra regen, and your raid will love you for the Imp:Fort if you're the only buffing priest.

    On Glyphs, I prefer Sear for the extra radius, since there's SO much AoE in the game now and it's not all that hard to stay in range for Flay, but I can see going with the range on Flay too. Plus, in 3.2.2 the speed reduction part of the glyph will be removed so it only increases range.

    Edit: I forgot to mention the UI. I forget which of my addons does it, probably DoTimers, but it actually dims my DoTs and/or shows a countdown on the button, so it's very easy to tell when something's about to come up for refresh just watching the buttons I know I need to press. I also use Quartz for a heads-up view and because it shows me my lag and lets me more efficiently chain cast.

    Edit: As someone else said, if you want a simple, one-button caster, switch to a mage. I like my mage, and I raided with him in BC, but I've mostly set him aside to play the priest. The versatility of being able to offheal or switch to a healing spec is huge, and great to break the monotany. But the mage can be nicer when I don't feel like actually paying attention to the game and want to spam one button.

    NOTE: Sorry for the wall of text, but I like to be thorough.

  18. #18

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Quote Originally Posted by noggin
    Many people start with VT, then SW:P and Plague, but I've found that having Plague ticking while I stand up SW:P and VT improves my DPS and extends the number of Flays I can throw before renewing VT again. That said, if you want to get a headstart on a mob while the tank is running to him, start casting VT to land it just after he's agro'd the mob, then Plague and SW:P.

    ...

    I'm easily hitting #1 in every raid I enter and my hit is lower.
    Two things here :-
    Your opener is just wrong. If you cast VT, DP, SWP (or even worse VT, SWP, DP) you dont have full Weaving stacks so SWP is missing out on DPS. Chuck in a MB and MF2 between DP and SWP.

    Secondly, if you're easily hitting #1 DPS in raids and you're not hit capped, I have to question the raids that you're in.

  19. #19

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    instead of me trying to write you a guide abotu how to play shadow here, I'll give you this link..

    http://www.ensidia.com/home/guides/p...art-1-general/

    read this.. and please, do not use macro's you dps will always suck
    "Everything always changes. The best plan lasts until the first arrow leaves the bow." - Matrim Cauthon

  20. #20

    Re: Shadow priest dps issues.

    Thanx for the feedback folks. I have just read it all through and written down some obvious needed changes in spec, gear and of course manual rotation.

    Some posts were an eye opener and very helpful.

    Thanx again.

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