Shadow DPS and gamestyle in 3.2

[Sarkli]

Maserman, basically to give you a straight answer Spriest dps is good. Its my main spec currently and i thoroughly enjoy playing one. The rotation of spells and priority of what to use when really makes it fun and you have to have some skill to play one well.. opposed to a warrior who has a whopping 3 button rotation or a paladin who can macro <next available spell /cast> to his mouse wheel and scroll back and forth and put out 4500dps doing so.
If you put forth some effort into getting yourself some good gear then youll go a long way. 2 piece 8.5 tier(tier 7 gear is ok.. but easily replaced), 15% more to DP (now rediculously easy to attain and a must) make sure your hit capped (290), get the bis belt and boots made for you (ran me about 1200g each) and go find a bis list somewhere (shadowpriest.com i know has one for 3.0) and work towards getting as many pieces as your hit cap will allow. Gem for spellpower ALWAYS, cept i use 21crit 3%crit dmg increase meta.
A Spriest's dps is largely based on his gear since we dont have out right burst like most classes and takes some time to get rolling. Do some research on a proper spec, which really isnt that hard to do on your own if you read, and find a good rotation.
Rotation is always up for debate at what works best. My rotation is this: VT>DP>MB>MF>MF clip last tick of MF for SW has added dps>MB>SW:P>MF>VT>MF>MF and so forth.. i put up SW:P late, but it gets the full benefit of Shadow Weaving and is actually our least powerful dot, so it priority can be put off a tad. Make sure VT and DP are ALWAYS on target since they are your strongest dots. Add VE on boss fights.

Its always situational in a boss fight of how much dps your actually going to do.. whether you have to do alot of running around or there are buffs given to you will depend on how low or high it may be. I average around 4500-5000dps in Ulduar25.. thats an average between all encounters. Some i hit only 4k and on fights like Hodir i sustain over 7k even w/ the running around.

So in conclusion.. is it worth it to go shadow? yes, but it does take some work on getting geared up enough to really make an impact.

[Direshadow]

If you know your rotation well and you're geared enough with balanced stats, Shadow DPS is fine.

Just.... FINE. Not great, not amazing, just.... FINE... as in... passable...

Being a troll shadow priest is niiiiiiice now that we have our mini bloodlust (20% casting speed beserking!)


There are very few legit situations where you'll find yourself number 1 on dps. If you are number 1, chances are you're just THAT good... or... there was alot of AOE going on. There are some fights that are amazing for Mind Sear, like Freyan and those damned flowers.

[Sazabius]

Good spriests were pulling 5.5-6k on patch with mostly BiS or close to BiS gear nearing the end of the the initial WotlK instances.

I dunno where people get 3-4k but they are some scrubs ;p

Spriests are fine, and have been for quite some time. No we don't scale quite as well as most other classes, and probably never will. The problem is (just like any class, but it seems to be very prevalent with shadow) there are a lot of baddies that give the rest of us who can play the spec a bad name ;p Spriests are op, never die, and do very good dps, and EXCEPTIONAL dps on multi-target fights or movement fights.

[Requu]

Shadow DPS is fine, but very situational and dependant on the encounter-design.
For example take Ignis, a really shitty boss for shadow. I usually get to about 4,5k there. Then look at Mimiron or Yogg. You will propably top the meters there.
On top of that, as shadow, when you're lucky, your DPS will be very good, but as consequence, you're always on the edge to drop your DPS completely. At Vezax for example. Having to run 2 or 3 times in a row because of mark will drop you're damage entirely and heavily.
Or Hodir. I'm usually at 8 to 9k there, but seem to have been lucky yesterday and pulled 12k.
So Shadow DPS is very dependant on many various factors, but, overall, fine

[Worshaka]

Tell your mages to spec frost, and watch them beat you merciless.

I'd like a bit higher single-target dps, it's bugging me not being able to break 5k on Algalon, even with 99% DoT uptime. On Mimiron, due to the nerfs, the single-target dps classes win again, specially with the stategy my guild uses, where it's impossible to multi-dot before P4, and not allowed in P4 due to controlled dps is required.

On Freya we do pretty good, and due to heavy survivability, is the only class besides warlocks, that my guild brought 3 of to a single-fight. The extraordinary AoE damage, and abilities like Fade (removing roots), and PW:S, makes us brilliant there.

I think our position as a support class remains, but they should buff single-target dps (read: Mind Flay, and Mind Blast), more. Specially Mind Blast, as it does way to low damage considering it's long and annoying cooldown.

Considering i'm just behind the mages and even ahead on occasion I actually doubt this to be true and it's a very subjective statement. For me I don't mind not being the number 1 damage dealer in the raid but the raid sure notices that i'm always the last person left standing. To me, the playstyle and the survivability aspects of a spriest is what's attractive, if you think numbers are the be all and end all then spriest is perhaps not your cup of tea.

[Nezoia]

Worshaka:

I don't see your Vezax-HM achievement for 25man, so I'm not sure how we could even compare the damage dealers between our guilds. Mages can with frost, reach much higher level of damage on Vezax-HM than any shadowpriest, simply due to mechanics.

It's quite a nod different from 10man. I 10man I can do borderline equal dps to any other caster, where as in 25man the difference becomes much much greater. On any non-aoe encounter that is.

[Worshaka]

I think our wires are crossed... you may have been commenting on frost mages beating us in that particular encounter... I read it as frost mages beating us on the average non-specific encounter. In any case, frost mages are always going to beat shadow priests in HM Vexax due to the haste buff and the fact a majority of their damage comes from spell nukes. Having said that, spriest damage in that encounter is hardly poor.

[Nezoia]

I was specific about the Vezax encounter yes, as Fire (Living Bomb) is obviously better for any other fight.

I think our damage is poor compared to Direct Casters, as with our general gear setup, we benefit much less from the haste, compared to mages, warlocks and shamans. Having a Mind Flay faster than the GCD, and that being the primary attack, is just annoying.

[Tasmen]

I easily do 6k+ on most fights that arent "gimmicks" in 25s...I dont come close to the top 5 either.