I have finally powered my male Tauren priest to 85.
I levelled as disc, and will continue to play as disc once I have gathered some more 346 gear - I am quite new to healing and normal HoO with similar geared tanks made me decide this.
So I am trundelling along as Shadow, I am queuing as dps so as not to annoy any randoms that I meet.
My main is a lock (see signature) and I am applying a similar logic to try and maximise my AoE dps - ie dot up targets (SW:Pain, sometimes Vampiric Embrace if mobs have high hp) then pop Mind Sear (on my lock I would dot Corr, CoA then Hellfire as Demonology or RoF as Destruction).
I even shimmy around a bit to get some extra clones to attack the enemies from SW:Pain procs.
Maybe it's my gear (low ilvl and lots of spirit) but the dps seems quite lacklustre...
Having not played much Shadow as I levelled, I was wondering if I am doing something inherently wrong? Or will simply better gear fix™ it?
Constructive posts will be well received and appreciated
Our AoE isn't the greatest right now, but in most cases you'll encounter (3-4 mobs in dungeon packs with higher HP), your best best will be juggling multi-dots.
SWPain, Vampiric Touch on each (barring CC) and one Devouring Plague on anything but the kill target to let it tick. I fill in with MF on the kill target, MB when you have a Shadow Orb, and keep dots rolling on as many mobs as you can. If a mob gets close to death and your dots are ending, switch to MSpike+MB to finish or switch to the next kill target. Snipe kills with SWeath for a nice mana return too, since multi-dotting can be mana-expensive.
Once MSear gets buffed up in 4.1, I'd probably suggest the same multi-dotting but using MSear as your filler and still using MB.
Echo the above really. Depends on health of the mobs and how long they're likely to be alive. SW:P and rotating MF is adequate for most trash groups and boss adds, using MB with an orb. If they last long enough to justify it, use VT on all in addition to SW:P, then refresh SW:P with MF and let VT tick off. In my opinion MSear is truly only worth it if they're going to die within 1 to 2 casts of it.
Maloriak heroic is a good example of how you need to mix it up depending on the situation. The Vile Swill adds last long enough to justify using VT and SW:P on all, then filling/refreshing with MB/orb and MF, but the Aberrations don't need anything other than MSear. It'll come with experience really, and until your gear improves whatever AoE you put out will probably look crap, especially if you're grouping with others who out-gear those heroics.
Spriests have adequate AoE if there's time for it to ramp up, but very lacklustre short-term AoE. To be honest both could do with a buff.
multidot everything. ms is useless unless you're killing maloriak, cho'gall or some other "many many adds" boss. while nuking boss before the adds, make sure you get 5xEvangelism and ES or at least 1 orb. ES and dark evangelism buffs mind sear, and makes you hit like 50% more with it.
Sadly enough, the only time I get to use MS in a raid is Maloriak during green phase. For both Cho'gall and Magmaw, the raid leader just harps at me to stay on the boss the entire time. We've usually got a fire mage and a lock that switches to demo for both bosses, so they just laugh when I offer MS to help with the AOE.
And if you just dinged as a priest, here's a little short term history on MS:
Back just before 4.0, MS was awesome on LK, regardless of 10/25 and normal or heroic, because it was the cheapest AOE, had no CD, and followed the vile spirits. One spriest (decently geared, nearly full 264 if in a 25man) spamming MS could get the spirits down to less than 25% health, and one other aoe plus the spriest would kill them easy.
4.0 hit and it turned to total fail. 2 spriests coudn't get them down to 75%, both spamming MS. They were practically useless on the vile spirits, but you need all the help you can get by that phase so someone doesn't get owned by 2 of them.
MS hasn't changed much since then. It's ultra expensive compared to the damage it does (lawl, 4k crit compared to a 30k crit off of improved DP), so it's generally not used unless you have a high number of mobs. In Wrath, it was worth using with about 5 mobs (since 1 wouldn't be damaged with the old mechanic), but now I rarely use it unless it's around 8 mobs or more with a tank around for me to cast it on. Multi-dotting tends to work as well, cost just as much mana, and allows you to keep up stuff on the boss anyway.
It's supposedly going to get buffed come 4.1, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Considering the sheer amount of hotfixing done since Cata hit, I fully expect it to get nerfed within a week of going live, if it doesn't get changed in patch notes before then.
All 3 dots on one target, VT + SW:P on every other target, refresh SW:P with mf if enough time remains (after tabbing around). If you have enough time on your dots remaining (on all targets) you can sear... but this is a rare occurance.
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eath for a nice mana return too, since multi-dotting can be mana-expensive.
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