[Priest] PvE Shadow Guide (by Kilee)

[Deleted]

Since Cata, it seems Blizz modified many things about name plates and so affected tidy plate...
I find it hard to select targets with tidy plate too. The thing is when you use left click to select, is that you can unselect the same way ... by left clicking on the name plate, so the thing to not lose your target by click, is to right click instead. It bugs me since I'm used to left click.

[Deleted]

the mace inte the bis list is heroic with ilvl 397

[Deleted]

Very nice guide! Thanks.
But I think that the third extra tick of DP without DI is at 2583 haste for goblins :s

[Kilee25]

Very nice guide! Thanks.
But I think that the third extra tick of DP without DI is at 2583 haste for goblins :s

Thank you Realities, I will fix that right now. It seems like a lot of these points are -1 under. I wish I had a more reliable algorithm for finding them.

[Solia]

The exact maths were posted on ShadowPriest.com, I just can't seem to find which post had them. It's usually off because of how the game rounds off certain parts of the calculations.

[Brusalk]

The third tick of DP for non-goblins with DI is actually 2284, not 2283. Tested it fairly extensively last night and noticed that the guide is one point under. You don't actually get the tick until you have at least 2284 haste rating.

Just thought you'd like to know

[Kilee25]

The third tick of DP for non-goblins with DI is actually 2284, not 2283. Tested it fairly extensively last night and noticed that the guide is one point under. You don't actually get the tick until you have at least 2284 haste rating.

Just thought you'd like to know

Thanks Brusalk, I have changed all of the references from 2283 to 2284.

[madmonk]

2 useful macros i use all the time:

macro1
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay

macro2
#showtooltip Mind Sear
/cast [nochanneling:Mind Sear] Mind Sear

These macros make MF and MS spammable. what they do is: whenever you're channeling MF, you can spam the MF button without clipping, a new MF willstart when your current one is done. same with MS. they do still clip other spells tho, if you cast MF while still channeling MS you'll stop channeling MS and start MF.

[Arlee]

Are those actually still useful since you can start casting MF and MS before the last tick and it would just get rolled over into the next one?

[Deleted]

Afaik those macros were already dps decrease earlier because no-channel waits for server response before starting next cast ( forced server round-trip before next cast starts). And nowadays as channeled spells carry tick to next channel if clipped just like other dots do, using those is prolly bad idea. Remember that next channeled spell after current one has to same spell, or tick cannot be carried over so clipping can still happen.

So how I try to use it:
- If I know next spell is same channeled spell again (spamming mindsear or mindflay) I refresh it bit too early, trusting game to join spell casts better than I could ever do it manually myself.
- If next spell is not same channeled spell (MB after MF for example), I try to to play "old way" and cast MB very carefully just after MF ends. Too early MB cast causes MF to lose last tick -> bad

[Arlee]

Sahtila, it is actually better to just go ahead and cast the MB after a tick of MF because MB is worth a lot more dpet than MF is. There is a longer thread about that here.

[Deleted]

Hmm yes clipping MF to cast better spells is clearly good. But just gotta clip near enough after MF tick, if its too close to next tick its better let that tick come through before casting other spell. Though this is surely very small difference.

Some oversimplified numbers, could be totally wrong :
dpet values:
MF ~ 10k
MB_0 ~ 20k
MB_3 ~ 30k
Lets say MF whose length is 3sec to simplify. Each tick is 1 sec ->
MB_0: dps increase to clip MF if more than 0.5 sec for next MF tick?
MB_3: dps increase to clip MF if more than 0.3 sec for next MF tick?

Edit: those DPET values are prolly from T11 gear, with T12 gear value of MF goes lower and its even harder to lose dps by clipping.

So, short version:
Always clip, but if clipping happens too close to next MF tick, it can be (very small) dps loss. So try to time clipping happen close after ticks. Get gnosis or some other cast bar to show accurate ticks.

[Kilee25]

Hi Sahtila, thank you for the information and post. I wanted to add to what you are saying with some experience of my own.

In my experience, good clipping can increase dps by about 200. You want to clip just after each tick of Mind Flay in order to see this increase. If you are bad at clipping, generally speaking you will just simply break even (no gain, but no decrease either). Because of this I don't think it hurts to try. The worst that can happen is you get nothing, but with practice you can start to see gains with it, so I think it is worth it.

I generally don't use no-channeling macros because I tend to clip Mind Flay with another Mind Flay when I'm casting them. The spell continues itself when you re-cast it, so there is no time or dps lost. I tend to get better results playing this way especially whenever I get framerate or latency issues in game.

[Violent]

Good job, great guide.

[Raynfal]

Hey there! Great guide! Definitely the type of informative post I like. =)

Quick question though, and sorry if it was already answered. My search skills are a bit lacking, despite my effort.

Anyways, if I put up a non-ES buffed SW: P on a target, gain ES afterwards, and then refresh SW: P via Mind Flay, does the refreshed Pain gain the ES buff? Thanks!

[Deleted]

Hey there! Great guide! Definitely the type of informative post I like. =)

Quick question though, and sorry if it was already answered. My search skills are a bit lacking, despite my effort.

Anyways, if I put up a non-ES buffed SW: P on a target, gain ES afterwards, and then refresh SW: P via Mind Flay, does the refreshed Pain gain the ES buff? Thanks!

Yes it does, it works the same way with heroism, pots, TotT or additional stacks of DI etc.

[Deleted]

i'm not quite sure on haste goals below the ones mentioned in the guide. my priest currently has 1293 haste (10.10% purely from gear, 20.26% after 5% haste, darkness and racial), and simcraft sims my haste EP below my mastery EP. how should i go about this? note that i won't be doing any raids anytime soon apart from the occasional BH. also, for now, i'm still struggling with my rotation (DoTs clipping or even falling off (even my SW:P occasionally falls off), mindblast off CD for too long, even the occasional wrong mind spike). i'm currently using a poweraura's setup i found when googling "shadowpriest power auras" (LUI changed the setup of forteXorcist making it useless for me, and i can't figure out how to put it back the way it was), but it lacks some things and i suck at changing them. they are also not noticable enough. it could also be because i recently (yesterday) changed my keybinds, and i'm not yet that used to them. but enough whining. i'll ask that forte question somewhere else, but now i want to know what haste goal i should attain.

priest armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...lebel/advanced

[Kilee25]

Hi Nzal, thank you for your question.

At your current gear level I would aim for at least 1602 haste. You should get a small bonus to improved devouring plague at this level, and will have a good amount of haste to start getting better shadow orb generation. Simcraft is probably telling you to load on mastery at this point because you aren't near any break points. When you get near 1602, haste will sim well again, and then drop below mastery again after passing it.

The sweet spot for goblin is around 2134 (+2 to VT and +3 to DP with DI), but that's only if you are raiding.

[Deleted]

damn, forum swallowed my message. anyway, 1602 is not reachable according to wowreforge. any other caps?

[Kilee25]

1116 is DP +2. You just passed that which is probably why haste is simming so low for you. But the thing is unless you just stop playing or something, you should hit 1602 pretty fast. There's really no point to "balance" your gear at this level. You should spend such a short amount of time with your current gear that it is hardly even worth reforging it. I'd expect you to replace half of what you are wearing in a single weekend with JP....