To Mind flay or to not?(Shadow Priest starting rotation)

[Tehterokkar]

Hello!

My priest is currently level 84, soon 85, I've got her a few BoEs(Boots, Belt and Helmet, all Spirit/haste itemized) and DMC: Volcano.

Now I read the guide made by Kilee25, it explained that I should not Mind flay any more than 5 ticks of it for Evangelism stacks, but I thought that if Orb doesn't proc on those 5 MF ticks, should I continue to MF until I get 1 orb and then proceed with Mind Blast to get Empowered Shadow buff up before applying DoTs?

Opinions please

[Zuziza]

There's a spectrum of things that could happen.

Best Case: You procced an orb while getting 5 stacks, MB, put up your DoTs, continue as normal.
Worst Case: You don't proc an orb for more than 15 seconds (5 or 6 MFs), and an entire duration of VT, your highest ranking DoT for damage, is wasted. You've also lost more than half the time of DP.

Worst Case would suck. Until you have a high amount of haste (meaning more MF and SW: P ticks to proc orbs in the same amount of time), you may be better off putting up the DoTs and refreshing them when your procs trigger and get used. It would also suck if you do that and get an orb immediately, but it's likely to be less wasted DPS in that regard.

The proc chance is only 18% for an orb off any tick of SW: P and MF. The only way to make this "better" is with haste. So as your gear improves, you get more haste, and you'll get those orbs sooner in your opening.

Keep in mind that opening rotation is only as important as your opening procs. Power Torrent and Volcano come off as the most important ones if you're just maxxing and have BoE's, but that gives you about 10 seconds to pop an orb and put up your DoTs. You're never going to get a perfect opening every time though; don't sweat it too much. Managing your procs and CD's later in a fight are much more relevant to your DPS.