Shadow... Worth it?

[Pontificate]

More to the point, breaking 34,000 DPS in Naxxramas is even more win.

Conclusion, Shadow Priests are awesome. Join our dark side. We have imaginary cookies and facemelting rays.

lol nice, I haven't been in Naxx in ages, no reason to really...

[AetherMcLoud]

lol nice, I haven't been in Naxx in ages, no reason to really...

You could break 34k with mindsear spam in naxx when it was the highest tear content...

[Abandon]

That was also before they added an AoE cap to Mind Sear.

[Sneakysnado@Gmail.com]

I love shadow, and it's actually very powerful once you have gear. It's my first alt with disc as an offspec and this week I did icc25 as usual (it's a pug/alts/friends group, most of the people are pretty good) and got 2nd on saurfang with 9.5k dps, so it's actually a very good spec if you know how to play it well.

Oh yeah http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...cn=shadowdeity is my armory if you care (and logs if you care that much)

[Weena2]

While its not the highest dps spec, its very decent. You will more often than not be topping meters on things that matter (trash doesn't matter) but you can be competitive if you play well. Other good aspects of the class bringing 3% hit to the raid through misery, VE and most importantly the survivability you have with your damage reduction, VE healing to self and dispersion.

All up one of the best all round classes to play with in my opinion, but if dps is the only thing you want you'll be better off with a rogue.

[Direshadow]

Of course it's worth it. You do some very high damage and healers love you because they don't have to worry about you as much. 99.9% of the time, i'm one of the few people left standing in a tough boss encounter. In addition, we are able to throw out our divine hymn, which helps healing out a lot, and boss mechanics that require other people to be aware, you will most likely get to slack off in due to Dispersion.

I'm also not sure where you heard that there were barely any shadow priests. If anything, since we've become raid viable (the haste change) there are MORE shadow priests then ever. I was shadow priesting before it became cool... and even before that.

In fact, Blizzard, could I have my old mind flay graphic back? I'm also still bitter about the VT change from the beginning of wrath.

Jerks.

[AetherMcLoud]

That was also before they added an AoE cap to Mind Sear.

With enough mobs in the pack I could do 30k in Naxx.
With enough mobs in the pack I can do 30k in ICC.

*shrugs*

[Quibble]

With enough mobs in the pack I could do 30k in Naxx.
With enough mobs in the pack I can do 30k in ICC.

Only place where I Could feel the aoe cap is in ony doing the whelp achi, I didn't hit the mobs for more than 1000 in the starts. On the aoe packs in ICC. lets say the mobs after first boss and before 2nd, I can easily hit 38k, mid combat, the dps always drop heavily doing the end with less mobs alive, and I never come out with more than 22k as max.

Anyway, MS is still the best aoe and we are atm the class that will always top aoe. Problem comes when mobs are no longer together but split up. We can't just place a aoe mark on the ground but have to find a new target and prefferable not a one on low HP.

Also, doing naxx and ulduar I always listened to people saying "rogues aoe is OP", "rogues top aoe" lol fail people, either other people failed bad at aoe or idk, On aoe I've always topped meters even back when I first hit 80 ( I was a few months late due to not being able to play at the release) in naxx I managed to out dps rogues and other class's on aoe, where I was stil hiding in my pretty tier 6 when they were in naxx10-25man gear

[Caeadas]

Lets say a mage and spriest are aoeing 3 mobs. The mage uses blizzard, and hits all 3 mobs. The spriest hits mind sear, and hits 2 mobs because his target doesnt take damage from mind sear. The spriest is losing 33% of his effective aoe dps, compared to a normal aoe for that pack. Thats when mind sear sucks, and multidotting wins.

Now say we have a pack of 6 mobs. The mage hits all 6, but the spriest hits 5, now its around 17% effective dps lost. This is where i believ the game has the dps balanced, since i start to keep up with other players here with mind sear. maybe more maybe less, IDK really, just my experience. Mind sears base dps is maybe 17% higher than normal aoe's since that one target isn't affected, and they have to scale mind sear halfway decently with a normal aoe.

Now say we have 11 mobs, blizzard hits all eleven, sear hits 10, 9% effective dps lost. that 8% more damage hitting those mobs relative to a group of six. Mind sear starts massively outrunning everyone's dps now. 20 pack mob, both aoe's hit the damage cap, but since mind sear's damage cap is 8% higher, it still destroys the meters.

The only way they could ever make it balanced at the damage cap is to either just balance it there, which would gimp the dps anytime theres <10 mobs, or add the target into the damage, which would make dot+sear even more powerful in that situation. Moral of the story kiddies, Mind sear is the most powerful aoe at the damage cap, and probably always will be, but it sacrifices its damage at lower numbers of targets, which we make up for with multidotting. Bow before your dark shadow lords.

[luthe]

Shadow is definitely worth it!

I'm far from BiS gear (950 haste, 26% crit, 3300 sp self buffed, 4t10) and i'm pushing 8500-9k on single target fights.

It's definitely a spec you have to know your shit to play though, you can't roll your face through it like you can with arcane mages or ret paladins (I have both >_>)

[harky]

The only way they could ever make it balanced at the damage cap is to either just balance it there, which would gimp the dps anytime theres <10 mobs, or add the target into the damage, which would make dot+sear even more powerful in that situation. Moral of the story kiddies, Mind sear is the most powerful aoe at the damage cap, and probably always will be, but it sacrifices its damage at lower numbers of targets, which we make up for with multidotting. Bow before your dark shadow lords.

Say hi to Seed of Corruption + Immolation and Flame Strike + Blizzard. Mind Sear doesn't come close. Best part is Seed beats multi-dotting with as few as 3 targets. What you're missing is that damage caps on different AOE spells aren't universal. Some are substantially higher. Your AOE on 11 might be nice, but you have to remember that your DPS on 11 is only equal to a Warlock on 6. Same issue when you look at extremely large pulls. Since you only have one go-to AOE you'll be beat nearly by default by a good Mage, Unholy DK, or Demo Lock. Simple reason for Mage/Lock is AOE DoTs that allow them to back door AOE caps by having two capped spells hitting at the same time. DKs just plain cheat by completely ignoring AOE caps with the ultimate multi-DoT. :P The 3.3 change to how damage caps actually screwed over Priests since having a low damage quick ticking AOE means once you cap out your DPS flattens out.

[Authun]

I played a paly for since BC launch, i've done it all; tanking, healing, retribution. Second toon to 80 was a mage, i liked arcane because, even tho it's simple to play, you need to manage and think ahead of time in order to maximise your dps. I went from 4-5 buttons to push, to almost 12 buttons with my shadowpriest and i ball hard in icc. Multi dotting is so much fun, it brings up the game to a whole other level. Shadow isn't easy mode, you'll need practice and good gear, but it's worth investing the time and effort. Best caster class imo.

Once you go shadow, you never go back.

[Schalde]

http://www.youtube.com/user/EnsidiaTV

Yes they can dps, if played well

[angael]

VERY WORTH IT

I like shadow, I'm currently using it for pvp. I don't know much about pve wise though...