Shadow Priest questions.

[pattaz123]

Hi, I’m only level 84 but I’m about to hit 85 and was wondering if the idea I have as a rotation is optimal.

My opening rotation would be: Shadow Fiend, SW:P, DP, VT, MF for one shadow orb, MB.

The continuing rotation from then on: Moving as much as possible to get the SW:P talent proc, then MF until you have three orbs and hit MB. Also making sure that ES is up as much as possible. Refreshing dots on the target before hitting archangel, making sure the dots have as close to 100% up time as possible. Also hitting Shadow fiend on every CD and hitting SW: D when needed for the mana regeneration.

Is there anything I’m missing or getting wrong? Also I’ve seen a lot of people stacking haste once they are hit capped going in the stat priority of: Hit > Int > Haste > Mastery > Crit > Spirit. With ES scaling with your mastery rating, considering the main source of DPS is from our dots, would it not make more sense to stack mastery alongside haste to gain a higher % increase on ES whilst gaining more ticks? Or am I just being plain dumb?

I’ve played SP for 6 years now, and tbh I love the way they have changed them so far, the highest DPS in my guild right now is a SP so I don’t really understand why everyone is QQ’ing so much about them being a poor source of DPS.

Cheers

[Catbert]

Actually, Shadow Priests don't have a rotation... we have a spell priority list.. meaning certain spells = more dps so you want to priorities them over other spells.

The best priority I have found is:

1) VT
2) DP
3) Mind Blast
4) Mind Flay
5) SW:P

I also use shadow fiend and Arch Angel everytime there up and off cooldown.

Also as you know... SW:P is refreshed by mind flay... BUT!... SW:P when refreshed by mind flay wont take into account any damage increasing effects you may have proc'd so when you have a 5 stack of evangelism and the shadow orb effect that comes after you mind blast. It is best to reapply SW:P.

as far as stat priority... I think crit is one of the most important stats and should be higher in your list. Haste is really hard to get and take WAY to much rating to = 1%.... I also find mastery to be a very hit or miss stat... because its based on how often you can proc 3 shadow orbs... which may or may not happen before your mind blast comes off cooldown. Also with the 100% increased crit damage being passive from shadow spec... and haste being so hard to get to a point where it matters... I think Crit really is the way to go right now.

[Abandon]

Actually, Shadow Priests don't have a rotation... we have a spell priority list.. meaning certain spells = more dps so you want to priorities them over other spells.

The best priority I have found is:

1) VT
2) DP
3) Mind Blast
4) Mind Flay
5) SW:P

I also use shadow fiend and Arch Angel everytime there up and off cooldown.

Also as you know... SW:P is refreshed by mind flay... BUT!... SW:P when refreshed by mind flay wont take into account any damage increasing effects you may have proc'd so when you have a 5 stack of evangelism and the shadow orb effect that comes after you mind blast. It is best to reapply SW:P.

as far as stat priority... I think crit is one of the most important stats and should be higher in your list. Haste is really hard to get and take WAY to much rating to = 1%.... I also find mastery to be a very hit or miss stat... because its based on how often you can proc 3 shadow orbs... which may or may not happen before your mind blast comes off cooldown. Also with the 100% increased crit damage being passive from shadow spec... and haste being so hard to get to a point where it matters... I think Crit really is the way to go right now.

Most of this is incorrect.

Shadow Word: Pain has a 60% chance to be refreshed by Mind Flay, and when it is refreshed this way it will automatically update with any new damage bonuses or modifiers on your character. It used to only automatically update to your current spellpower, but that was fixed in 4.0.1.

Crit is definately not the highest damage secondary stat. This post over at Shadowpriest.com has a listing of each stat and the DPS increase behind it:
http://www.shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=30018

Basically, this shows that the stat priority list is: Int > SP > Haste > Crit > Mastery > Hit/Spirit (while hit capped)

Also, the opening priority listed seems wrong, since it has you applying Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch before having any Shadow Orbs/Empowered Shadows and without Dark Evangelism, which means they are hitting for roughly 20-25% less damage based on your Mastery. Unfortunately I am not entirely sure about this, the damage from the first tick you get may outweigh the lower overall damage on the spell, but I doubt it, I'll need to test it when I get home though.

[New]

You should chose to ignore a large portion of Catberts post, as Abandon has stated, most of it is incorrect. If you're confused about how much Shadow Priests have changed, I recommend reading my Shadow Priest guide here on the MMO-Champion forums. It should have all the information you need to catch up to date:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...uide-version-1

Also, the opening priority listed seems wrong, since it has you applying Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch before having any Shadow Orbs/Empowered Shadows and without Dark Evangelism, which means they are hitting for roughly 20-25% less damage based on your Mastery. Unfortunately I am not entirely sure about this, the damage from the first tick you get may outweigh the lower overall damage on the spell, but I doubt it, I'll need to test it when I get home though.

I believe it is better to cast your higher DPET DOTs early, rather than hold off for Dark Evangelism and Empowered Shadows. I don't have raw data to back this claim up, but I feel the logic behind it is solid. Also, that is how simcraft models it, so I usually defer to their judgment. If you can prove otherwise, I'd be very interested in that information.

[Abandon]

Indeed, I am not entirely sure about the math behind it, I imagine it would depend on your Mastery bonus for Empowered Shadow though. Unfortunately it's rather difficult to work out which is technically better due to the random nature of Shadow Orbs, the longer you need to keep Mind Flaying to get an orb proc, the more damage you are losing because of not having your DoTs on the target. Since Vampiric Touch has such a short duration applying it without Evangelism and Empowered Shadows will probably be a DPS increase over waiting, but I m honestly not sure about Devouring Plague, considering the mana cost and longer duration.
As I said, I'll do some tests on the target dummy when I get home tonight and post some more concrete results.

[Catbert]

Wow... Spriest has changed that much for PvE huh?... jeezus... guess I better do my research next time I try to give PvE advise hahaha... I am a PvP Spriest :-(... Listen to these guys for sure... I am still living pre-cata in my information hahaha :-P

[Halloseve]

Hit > Int > Haste > Mastery > Crit > Spirit

with twisted faith, hit = spirit (obviously until hit cap), and haste is still our best stat because of all of our dots. mastery and crit are about equal, with crit just a little bit farther ahead.

although, getting your stats perfect is not exactly necessary. some priests have tried to stack crit/mastery over haste and still pull fine dps.

so therefore:

Hit = Spirit > Int > Haste > Crit > Mastery

[allaiva]

Many of your questions can be answered from reading the sticky above and as such, this thread is sorta redundant. Regardless, the information given by Abandon is pretty good. His thoughts on mastery have been mirrored by myself, but through my own experiences, it seems that the sims on haste being the best stat after intellect is most true. I'm adding my own post because many people seem to have a tendency to avoid stickies and look below so here's to hoping others find this useful if they don't want to browse those useful threads above =p

As far as burning cooldowns, It's best that you don't burn your fiend right at the start of a fight imo. The mana regen is wasted at that point and the dps increase is moderate and could be used at another time with no real loss, and sometimes is more beneficial. Examples would be popping it out just prior to bloodlust/heroism/time warp/hysteria to benefit from the haste or after a hymn of hope has gone out to most benefit the regen component of that tool.

On the topic of the opening that others have put thoughts out on, my personal prefrence (not sure if it's the best choice) is to throw up my dots and just mind flay til I get an orb up. By that time evangelism has usually stacked to 5 so I cast MB and immediately recast VT and DP for them to benefit from the Empowered Shadow buff. There I burn Archangel as I'll get full use of that 25% mana and then mind flay to bring stacks up which is plenty of time before another dot has to be recast.

Since I hold dispersion as more of a defensive CD as opposed to an active mana regen tool it can be rough to keep myself powered with mana so I tend to throw SW: D out to benefit from the 10% mana returns as often as I need which is why I choose not to burn my fiend on the start. Using dispersion on CD, while it keeps mana high, can leave it down when you need it as a survivability option. The other night on omnitron i was targetted by Lightning Conductor and while out on my own to dump that was targetted by Aquiring Target which ended up going off at the same time. By making sure Dispersion was usable at a time like that I was able to keep well away from everyone and have no fears that I was going to drop dead by accident of the situation presented.