[Priest] State of Shadow - 4.1.0

[HeatM1ser]

I'm not so sure that dark intent was that big of a nerf for us. Last week I did 63k on heroic 25m Halfus, which topped my previous high by almost 9k DPS---and that was before the changes to dark intent. Last night in the same fight I beat last weeks DPS output and did over 69k DPS. Maybe RNG has worked to my benefit each of the last 2 weeks, maybe its because I'm with a better guild than I was with before, or maybe I am getting better at being a shadow priest....but the damage loss seemed very insignificant. I did almost 6k more DPS on valion, but suffered about a 1500 DPS loss on Twilight Counsil, and stayed about the same on Cho'Gall.

So I'm not so sure we were hurt that badly by the changes to dark intent

[Shartadin]

I'm not so sure that dark intent was that big of a nerf for us. Last week I did 63k on heroic 25m Halfus, which topped my previous high by almost 9k DPS---and that was before the changes to dark intent. Last night in the same fight I beat last weeks DPS output and did over 69k DPS. Maybe RNG has worked to my benefit each of the last 2 weeks, maybe its because I'm with a better guild than I was with before, or maybe I am getting better at being a shadow priest....but the damage loss seemed very insignificant. I did almost 6k more DPS on valion, but suffered about a 1500 DPS loss on Twilight Counsil, and stayed about the same on Cho'Gall.

So I'm not so sure we were hurt that badly by the changes to dark intent

Yeah, I am surprised that with the DI nerf + the stealth buttf*cking that Shadowfiend took, I still did pretty well. I threw down 60k on H25 Halfus (I'm still learning the class, only been playing a couple months now on my spriest so my dot uptime when there is that many targets still suffers a bit), and clearly dominated still on Magmaw + Omnotron. The new Mind Sear damage is nice enough to make it not a waste of time on parasites, for example, so that's nice.

One thing to keep in mind is that some of our top competitors (boomkins/fire mages) also took a hit if they were receiving DI. We have 2-4 DIs in my guild at all time. I am the only spriest, so I get one, then usually a boomkin then a fire mage get the others. I think Starsurge also got nerfed, or something. Not too familiar with boomkins, but they took a pretty decent hit as well, I believe.

Only fight we did Tuesday that I really noticed an appreciable relative drop on was H Chimaeron. The nature of the fight (specifically single target) made it so I was lagging further behind than last week one or two of our hunters, but still competing easily in the top 3-4 on every attempt.

[Arlee]

Idk, my numbers were also higher than they had been... but it is sort of hard for me to accurately judge because I completely overhauled my ui to being something that works better. So I could have just been performing better than previously.

Mind Sear buff is certainly awesome though.

[spiralout]

I'm not so sure that dark intent was that big of a nerf for us. Last week I did 63k on heroic 25m Halfus, which topped my previous high by almost 9k DPS---and that was before the changes to dark intent. Last night in the same fight I beat last weeks DPS output and did over 69k DPS. Maybe RNG has worked to my benefit each of the last 2 weeks, maybe its because I'm with a better guild than I was with before, or maybe I am getting better at being a shadow priest....but the damage loss seemed very insignificant. I did almost 6k more DPS on valion, but suffered about a 1500 DPS loss on Twilight Counsil, and stayed about the same on Cho'Gall.

So I'm not so sure we were hurt that badly by the changes to dark intent

It's not that shadow wasn't hurt by the changes to Dark Intent, it's that you're getting better as a spriest!
You had no logs posted for this weeks Council nor Cho'gall, so I couldn't compare those, but for your 16.7k V&T kill last week, your uptimes were horrible, and the same with last week's Halfus. This week, your DoT and Emp Shadows uptimes were a lot better. There was a time on last weeks Halfus that you let DP fall off for almost 30 seconds and stretches where you had 3 orbs for over 1 minute, never spending them, even though your Mirror proc came and went, and let Emp Shadows fall off that whole time.
I only looked at the last two weeks logs, and not your old guild's, but your Dark Intent uptime from the afflict lock was pretty consistent, so were your buffs and the length of the fights, so you can rule that out. Looks to me like you're getting better at the art of shadow priesting =)

I've been doing these fights in the same gear, with the same people, with the same close to 100% uptime afflict lock's Dark Intent for months and I saw around 3-4k dps loss on two target fights last night, and around 2.5k on single targets. I don't know how much of that was the change to Dark Intent and how much from the fiend, though. Also, I might be affected by dark intent change more than some, because I've always received it from a bad ass affliction lock and have never had less than 96% uptime. Those that have always gotten it from a destro or demo lock probably won't see as big of a loss because they weren't receiving as big of a benefit from it as those that got used to having it from an afflict.

[Grubbsable]

Okay, I am still relatively nooby towards WoW, and the priest class. But correct me if I'm wrong, can't you create a macro to drop Shadow, Dispel, then pick up Shadow again?

[HDPriest]

It's not Shadowform that's causing the inability to Dispel our friends. It's the Shadow tree, and no, u cannot change specs in the middle of a fight...and why would you when it would take 20 secs and leave u with no mana or selfbuffs? We can still cure disease, costing us Shadowform and Dispel ourselves. There's also MassDispel, if we really need to help our healers.

[Keosen]

MS although it got buffed it still seems very weak compared to everybody else AoE.
All our DPS are blowing me out on trash/boss AoE fights, feral cats,mages and hunters doing some crazy numbers in some cases >100k DPS

[Arlee]

Okay, I am still relatively nooby towards WoW, and the priest class. But correct me if I'm wrong, can't you create a macro to drop Shadow, Dispel, then pick up Shadow again?

As a shadow priest you can't dispel friendlies at all... so shadow form is moot. However, you can only make a macro like what you suggest if it is a cast something that doesn't invoke the gcd and drops us out of shadowform, cast shadowform. It's been a change they made awhile back but macro'ing spells that invoke the gcd together do not work.

[Abandon]

Okay, I am still relatively nooby towards WoW, and the priest class. But correct me if I'm wrong, can't you create a macro to drop Shadow, Dispel, then pick up Shadow again?

You only gain the ability to Dispel other targets when you choose a healing talent spec, Holy or Discipline. In Shadow spec, either in or out of Shadowform, you can't Dispel others using Dispel Magic. You can use Mass Dispel in any talent spec though.

[Kelesti]

So with the Mind Sear buff firmly in place, the Mind Flay "fix" taking effect, Shadow's damage hasn't really gone down that much.

Is it true that Shadowfiend's "nerf" may have actually be having it apply to resilience, and not an actual "nerf" to the fiend itself, so to speak?

If so, Shadow seems to have come out of 4.1 looking pretty decent, despite the nerf to Dark Intent. Well, for PvE anyways, I can't speak on the PvP front.

[Kayona]

So with the Mind Sear buff firmly in place, the Mind Flay "fix" taking effect, Shadow's damage hasn't really gone down that much.

Is it true that Shadowfiend's "nerf" may have actually be having it apply to resilience, and not an actual "nerf" to the fiend itself, so to speak?

If so, Shadow seems to have come out of 4.1 looking pretty decent, despite the nerf to Dark Intent. Well, for PvE anyways, I can't speak on the PvP front.

I haven't noticed a big change to the fiend. If I compare my logs, the critical damage went down a little, but the normal damage went up. Overall it should be pretty even to 4.0.6.

I can't speak for the arena players due to the lack of time for me to play it, but in BGs I feel pretty comfortable against most players except those, who dispell my DoTs immediatly or have better equipment then I have.
The only thing that should be changed in my opinion is our dispell protection. I don't play a class to use only five spells or so in PvP (I haven't counted the PvP casts if you use Mind Spike and no DoTs). That is boring and without a big challenge.

[Deleted]

As a shadow priest you can't dispel friendlies at all... so shadow form is moot. However, you can only make a macro like what you suggest if it is a cast something that doesn't invoke the gcd and drops us out of shadowform, cast shadowform. It's been a change they made awhile back but macro'ing spells that invoke the gcd together do not work.

Incorrect. Shadow priests can still dispel friendly targets with Mass Dispel.

Also, Mind Sear is pretty OK and well enough boosted for us to do competitive AoE DPS if we combine it with our dotting. Had it been any stronger we would surpass all classes by miles on bosses like Maloriak, Halfus etc.

[Arlee]

Incorrect. Shadow priests can still dispel friendly targets with Mass Dispel.

Also, Mind Sear is pretty OK and well enough boosted for us to do competitive AoE DPS if we combine it with our dotting. Had it been any stronger we would surpass all classes by miles on bosses like Maloriak, Halfus etc.

ok maybe I shouldn't have said the "at all" part... but I thought it was pretty obvious I was talking specifically about dispel magic and not mass dispel. My fault for not realizing that wouldn't be obvious to you.

[Deleted]

I know that Mind Sear now damages its target but can't find the corresponding patchnote (4.1 only says its damage has been doubled). Anyone can help?

[Aica]

It happened in 4.1, and was an undocumented change.

[Kelesti]

If your target's still likely to die before Mind Sear expires, you should probably still be tossing it on the tank/melee, right?

I mean, sure you're losing the "bonus damage" on the main target, but making it up by not having to recast and lose it a second time?

[Violent]

If your target's still likely to die before Mind Sear expires, you should probably still be tossing it on the tank/melee, right?

I mean, sure you're losing the "bonus damage" on the main target, but making it up by not having to recast and lose it a second time?

Tiz what I do.. No point in DoTin up a group with 3+ mobs when 1 dies within the first seconds, Mana killer IMO. Target the tank, and MS til your eyes bleed, people always have something to say about Spriest dps no matter where, what fight and, who. So no need to even listen to any of that... Obv. you're not gunna want to MS the tank while single boss fight. But, I've found add control to be up with it, such as; If you have to catch them b4 they get to a certain place, or what have you. Grab their attention, which in-turn grabs the tanks attention to the fact they're coming at you, Fade! they go to tank, e-Z.

[Deleted]

Was asking because I had to switch dps on omnitron-hc yesterday and was told to MS toxitron. Which was a bad call it seems.

PS: why this huge white unused space after my posts?

[Zuziza]

Was asking because I had to switch dps on omnitron-hc yesterday and was told to MS toxitron. Which was a bad call it seems.

The adds come out staggered (one at a time), so MS would be a bad choice for that anyway. Mind Spike+MB is best for those adds because they have low health and it'd be a waste of mana/time to really DoT them up. Whoever in your raid told you to do that doesn't know your class well enough to give you advice, and if it's your raid leader, you may want to diplomatically redirect them to priest forums so they can learn a thing or two if they want to know how spriests can/should tackle certain fights.

PS: why this huge white unused space after my posts?

Your signature will show up in the post just below the end of your info in the left column. =) It's why I have a small icon and no sig.

[Kelesti]

S: why this huge white unused space after my posts?

MMO just got a huge upgrade, and we're working on some of the bugs. By "We" I mean people at Curse, seeing as I'm completely useless.