Shadow Priest PVE help

[Ødïñ]

Ok so i am having problems as shadow. I am only pulling about 4.5k dps in 25s and am near the bottom on the damage charts. I am wondering if my rotation is wrong which is VT-DP-MB-MF-MF-SW:P-MB-MF-MF rinse repeat.

Also i have been shadow my entire priest career. I am atm building a holy set for healing. I am wondering what most priests use as a healing rotation. I have healed on a paladin for a long time but im not sure what priests do and most priests ive seen have always been at the bottom of the healing charts.

Im just lost i guess any help will be appreciated.

If someone would like to aim me my aim is thoraxus1337

Here is my toons armory - http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...8d%C3%AF%C3%B1

[ElAmigo]

first off i owuld suggest dropping ur hit to about 11% and if you feel like you always have a dranei with you then drop it to 10%

you are also missing an important enchant on ur pants.

my rotation would be more like VT-MB-MF-DP-SW:P and then VT and DP when ever they come off and MB when it comes of CD(but dont interrupt a MF channel for it) and of course MF when you dont need to do any of the previous.

[MushroomBomb]

Hi! Your gear/spec looks decent, although you have too much hit. Regarding the opening rotation/priority, take a look at the Shadow sticky at the top of this forum. It's extremely useful, and will provide you with answers to almost any questions imaginable.

Also, I'd suggest investing in epic gems. It's not much, but it's something

[Zoulis]

Just a suggestion --> Use MB-VT-DP-MF-MB- SW:P etc etc ... the reason for the first skill to be MB is that if u use that roration your MB and VT cooldowns will colide less. Btw Epic gems is a big improvement :P

Cheers
Zoulis

[kayakgirl21]

Lose the hit gem in your boots, the meta you want to use is Chaotic Skyflare, you need spell power gems in your chest piece and shoulder piece, and you also need to get the shoulder enchant from Sons of Hodir, and as the above poster mentioned, you really need to enchant your leg piece.

Your spec looks awesome, nothing wrong there

My shadow priest : http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...ng&n=amelianna

[jrojason]

Hey there.
First of all, you NEED your leg enchant. 50 Spell power is a big deal.
Next, you have to get rid of one of your trinkets. I believe they share the same internet cooldown, so having two of the same trinkets is pointless.

I think you're close on your "rotation", however I'd slightly modify it to
VT-DP-MB-MF-SW:P

You were throwing in one too many mind flays, as you should already have 5 stacks at this point.


If you have problems with clipping your mind flay, you might want to consider using this macro which will stop you from cutting it off early:
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay


you should also be running with some sort of dot timer to make sure you refresh everything at the perfect time and not early. I am personally using Dominos as my action bars right now with Dominos buff timers, which make it extremely easy to track my dots on each target. Fortexorcist is another great addon if you don't use action bar addons.


Just remember not to refresh your Dots too early or too late. If a dot has around 1.5~ left or so, throwing in a sw:d is a good idea.

[elbo]

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...of&n=Mailmaria

im way over the hit cap myself

the 21 crit rating and 3% crit is nice, 12 sp and 10 spiritx2 is what i use to unlock the meta
rotation is vt-mb-dp-sw:d-mindflay(1 tick)-sw-mb-mindflay-mindflay-and refresh dots and mindblast and death when off cd and u should do fine

[jrojason]

Also to start you off with some Holy tips.. we don't have a rotation. More like a priority list or a 'reactive' list.
I don't know what kind of priests you have seen, but I can easily usually top people on meters, depending on how much damage goes out. I've gone between 6.5-9k HPS or so in some fights that have a lot of raid damage.

But basically you want to keep your PoM (prayer of mending) on cooldown and bouncing constantly. CoH should also always be on cooldown if there is more than 3 people that have taken damage in the same vicinity. I always also keep renews up on the tanks. Depending on your gear/spec/glyphs you might want to be using renews a lot on the raid as well. Prayer of healing is a group wide very powerful (and very expensive) heal. You should only use this if 4 or 5 people in a single group have taken a good amount of damage (over 5k or so I'd say). Flash heal is just for any extra time.

Prayer of healing and Greater heal both use Serendipity, which reduces the cast time. Try to have this at 3 stacks before you cast either of these moves. You gain serendipity through casting Flash Heals.

Don't know if I'm missing anything but that should help you get started at least

[talrob]

(but dont interrupt a MF channel for it)

Really? I am a dedicated insanitist and I have always cliped just after the next tick if mind blast is off cooldown. This is not the right thing to do?

[Shad47]

I'm in the top 5 dps with this rotation : (while moving to my place) Sw : D => MB => MF => VT => DP => Sw: P
Then MF => MB => MF ==> MF redot => MB etc etc

[c4tuna]

I'm in the top 5 dps with this rotation : (while moving to my place) Sw : D => MB => MF => VT => DP => Sw: P
Then MF => MB => MF ==> MF redot => MB etc etc

Sounds like your raiders suck if you're in the top 5 DPS as shadow. We're talking about ToC right?

Anyway, forget all this anecdotal shit, this is the real best opening rotation:

Fade (before the pull) => DP => VT => MB => MF (clip after 2nd tick, use QuartzLatencyMF2) => SW:P (delay this if Imp Scorch and similar debuffs are not up yet)

Simple as that. DP before VT because that way their durations end simultaneously (assuming t9 2pc), you have Misery up for the very first spells everyone casts, and you aren't colliding Misery on the first cast (i.e. if you go VT=>DP you're running 3% hit low on both casts instead of just the first).

YES, you should clip MF at the second tick if it's proper to recast VT or DP, or MB comes off cooldown. The aforementioned Quartz addon puts a handy latencybar where it's safe to clip MF, and I have personally seen a 100-200 DPS increase in raid scenarios (with no increase in gear) when I clip to increase uptime of MB, DP, and VT. Simcraft confirms a similar dps increase in using the practice.

[Worshaka]

Sounds like your raiders suck if you're in the top 5 DPS as shadow. We're talking about ToC right?

Anyway, forget all this anecdotal shit, this is the real best opening rotation:

Fade (before the pull) => DP => VT => MB => MF (clip after 2nd tick, use QuartzLatencyMF2) => SW:P (delay this if Imp Scorch and similar debuffs are not up yet)

Simple as that. DP before VT because that way their durations end simultaneously (assuming t9 2pc), you have Misery up for the very first spells everyone casts, and you aren't colliding Misery on the first cast (i.e. if you go VT=>DP you're running 3% hit low on both casts instead of just the first).

This is some bad advice.

First you should read the misery talent again, DP does not cause the 3% hit buff to apply, thus casting DP first doesnt not guarantee your VT to hit, however casting VT first does guarantee your DP to hit (were you to switch them).

Next, this claim that you have both DoTs ending their duration at the same time isn't a good thing. If they both end simultaneously then you cannot keep up a 100% uptime of either, one gets delayed by a GCD, you want to avoid simultaneous dot refreshes at all times.

Also, in terms of DPE (Damage per execution) VT is off the scale in terms of DP, delaying VT at all is just bad practice... sure the opening selection of spells isn't going to impact in terms you care about but if you want to talk about the best opening spell rotation, delaying VT is bad.

Delaying MB is bad too, it should be the 2nd spell cast to get it on CD and trigger replenishment. If you do cast it 2nd you will find by the time you go through your other spells you can get a full MF duration in and MB comes perfectly off CD.

VT > MB > DP > MF > SW:P is what you should be using and like I said, after SW:P is cast your MB has just come off CD, there is no need to try to clip MF, clipping MF while necessary should be avoided where possible.

[Rtwo]

i can only help you on the holy part.

i would go for this spec:
http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?prie...T,-btROe,10747

Holy Reach, Healing Prayers and Blessed Resillience will improve your healing and mana efficiency more then improved healing, Empowered Healing and test of faith.
depending on your healing style or needs you can drop 3/5 empowered healing and put it in test of faith.

some talents are aguable, but this is they way i find that i use my talent points the most.

[Kirkis]

Woah, so many different ways people play their priest. And many so far off from the real truth! (or something hurr duurrr).

Didn't look at your armory, but the other comments suggests that you optimize your gear properly. If you need help optimizing your gear, then try and lurk around on www.shadowpriest.com.

As for rotation: shadowpriests use the so-called priority rotation. This means, that we have priorities on our spells (duhh). This is best seen in what I believe is the best opener.

VT. Vampiric Touch is the spell that we get the most out from. It is our highest priority, thus it is the first thing to be cast on a target, and refreshed with utmost accuracy to achieve the highest uptime. I suggest you install fortexsorcist to time this. There is a little spark on your dots with a cast-time, and when the little spark hit the end of the bar you recast your dot. This allows for highest uptime on the dot.

MB. Mind Blast is next on the opener. You now recieve your second Shadow Weaving buff, and you set MB on a cooldown so it may be used again very soon!

DP. Devouring Plague is allowing for the third Shadow Weaving buff. And you also have your second dot running on your target.

MFx3. My personal preference is now to use an MFx3. This means I let my mind flay have all it's 3 ticks. I could use an MFx2 instead, since I would be on a 5 stacked Shadow Weaving now, but I feel more comfortable not clipping my Mind Flay in the opener. Especially since VT is still up and running and doesn't need to be refreshed, and MB is still on a cool down.

SW:P. With the 5 stacked Shadow Weaving, you can now cast Shadow Word: Pain. Your SW:P is affected by %crit multiplier debuffs and %more damage taken debuffs. Such as Scorch from mages and various other stuff from other classes that can debuff the target. Try looking up SGL (ShadowGreenLight) on curse. It will show you when it will be most beneficient to cast SW:P. When you are used to the people you raid with, you get an automatic feeling of when all these debuffs should be applied, thus you no longer need an addon to help you out.

You have now hit the priority rotation. At all costs should VT be on the target. Use the before mentioned addon to help you with that. Always keep Mind Blast on a Cooldown, but prioritise VT over MB if your recasting time collides with the MB cooldown.

In many cases you will find that chugging a Mind Flay before MB comes off CD, or before you are to recast VT, that it will not be as beneficial. You can then use Shadow Word: Death as a filler. In many cases you will have around 1.xxx seconds CD left on MB, and throwing in a Mind Flay would be pretty useless. Shadow Word: Death, with its 1.5 sec GCD fits almost perfectly in here, and thus is prefered.

I hope this gave you a little help.

My armory if you are wondering about gemming and stuff: http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sh...=Kazzak&n=Mynd

*DISCLAIMER*

Yes, I have alot of +hit, but such is the way of the toc gear!

[Worshaka]

The above poster basically says VT is your highest priority and he/she is correct from the perspective that VT is the highest DPE (damage per exectue time) spell we have.

However... If you do cast VT followed by MB you guarantee a VT/MB conflict 15 seconds later, what this means is that you have to delay the cast of either VT or MB every 15 seconds, which is a huge loss in DPS.

Another way to look at this is that VT is on a 15 sec cycle and MB is on a 7 sec cycle, If during a VT/MB conflict you delay MB you are delaying a greater proportion of the dps cycle when compared to delaying VT, this also results in a greater loss of DPS.

You should be using the priority MB > VT > DP > MF

However, if you possess 2pc T9 you extend the VT duration by 6 seconds thus creating a situation where VT and MB will never conflict. In this case VT > MB > DP > MF... which is a bit silly because VT and MB will never collide and thus there is no real priority to speak of (for those 2 spells).

I suggest you read the shadow priest 101 sticky, all this information is in there and far more comprehensivly than this thread.

[Kalakukko]

First you should read the misery talent again, DP does not cause the 3% hit buff to apply, thus casting DP first doesnt not guarantee your VT to hit, however casting VT first does guarantee your DP to hit (were you to switch them).

I can't agree with this fully. I do use VT before DP, but I've seen countless DP misses due to Misery not applying itself like it should when VT hits. It's quite obvious that it's about lagg as Misery hasn't had time to land on the target.

Might be just me, but with a certain latency(other factors? Maybe, I don't know) this can happen. I do agree that VT is higher priority and that it should be the first of our starting rotation, but I'm just pointing this out. :P

[Shad47]

Sounds like your raiders suck if you're in the top 5 DPS as shadow.

Sounds like I have a better rotation than you....
A SP can easily reach the top 5.

I'll make a screen with my recount, you'll see that my raiders don't fuck at all.
My guild is the 3rd guild of Hyjal (french server)

[greysin]

Sounds like I have a better rotation than you....
A SP can easily reach the top 5.

I'll make a screen with my recount, you'll see that my raiders don't fuck at all.
My guild is the 3rd guild of Hyjal (french server)

you're clearly the best spriest in the world then because since ulduar, spriests have not been in the top 2/3 of overall damage or dps in any raid

you must press VT harder than the rest of us

i bet you know the secret to submitting fedor also

[Worshaka]

I can't agree with this fully. I do use VT before DP, but I've seen countless DP misses due to Misery not applying itself like it should when VT hits. It's quite obvious that it's about lagg as Misery hasn't had time to land on the target.

Might be just me, but with a certain latency(other factors? Maybe, I don't know) this can happen. I do agree that VT is higher priority and that it should be the first of our starting rotation, but I'm just pointing this out. :P

Its one of two things...

1. Your VT missed and thus misery wasn't applied, considering most people spell queue you don't really register that your VT mised because you are casting DP the moment the VT cast bar finishes. However I don't think this is it.

2. There was a bug with the Imp DP talent in that even while hit capped the Imp DP portion of the spell was missing. It was theorised that for some reason the old innate 1% chance to miss was still applied to imp DP, I believe this has been rectified. This is what you were seeing i'm pretty sure.

DP does not apply misery, read the talent yet again. Casting DP first does not guarantee a VT hit, by casting DP first you are applying a 3% chance to miss on 2 spells instead of just 1 spell, it makes 0 sense to do it that way.

I also forgot to point out that by casting DP first you are dealing instant imp DP damage which will generate more threat than a VT debuff. All you need is for a tank to lag a bit, miss their opening threat move and you are a likely canditate to pull aggro. Granted the tank can probably taunt and save it but now his/her taunt is on CD and there was some time spent with the tank not building threat. Now a lock or feral druid get a string of crits, they pull aggro and probably get killed.

Imp DP is just a bad opening spell for a variety of reasons and your reasoning as to why you should lead with it is simply incorrect.

[Worshaka]

you're clearly the best spriest in the world then because since ulduar, spriests have not been in the top 2/3 of overall damage or dps in any raid

you must press VT harder than the rest of us

i bet you know the secret to submitting fedor also

This is all highly subjective....

I agree with the 2 of you... I believe that a majority of spriest dps is low because of a lack of skill. Spriest dps is one of the more complex, it's far more susceptible to lag and mistakes than a lot of other classes so perfecting or executing spriest dps is a reasonably difficult thing to achieve. You only need to see some of the questions etc posted on these forums to get an idea of the sorts of bad spriest habits, gear choices, talent choices etc that take place. Spriest DPS while low isn't at these alarming levels the general community say they are. This is because the gap between the mediocre output and the somewhat skilled output is quite large. Unlike say a Paladin where the gap between being medicore and skilled is probably the closest out of any class.

Where people get annoyed is that on melee friendly encounters we can't keep up with melee, it's just that people convienently forget that our damage doesnt look too bad on the melee unfriendly encounters. Perhaps there isn't enough of those, Jaraxxus for example will see melee streak a head due to splash damage and the ability to stand in one spot and do nothing but dps. Casters on the other hand can be spell locked, have to target switch and have limited dps ability while moving.

In any case our dps might be low but its not as low as people think. The changes that are comming are only worth about 10% so if you were doing 4K dps now you'll only do something around 4.4k after 3.3... for those of use that are getting over 6K we might see 7K, I for one with full raid buffs have achieved 6.4 to 6.5k on a single target encounter (Koralon), and that figure was according to recount.