Low Shadow DPS

[phyrix]

Hello fellow priests!

Recently I've picked up my priest again, and decided to go shadow, since I haven't played a caster dps in a while.

I seem to have some trouble doing decent dps though, and since I've been told shadow priests are the highest dps at the moment, I'm a bit worried I'm doing something wrong.

This is my armory: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...ilarato/simple

I know I'm far from hitcapped, but since I'm still gearing in 5-man heroics, I thought I'd focus on getting as much haste as possible while having at least the hit needed not to miss in 5-mans

Now I'm not very geared at all, but on singletarget I have trouble even reaching 11k dps (on a target dummy).

I really don't know what I'm doing wrong, I've read the shadowpriest guide on this forum, and I think my spec and glyphs are in order.

On singletarget what I do is this:

1) Cast Vampiric Touch
2) Cast Devouring Plague
3) Cast Shadow Word: Pain
4) Mind Blast on Cooldown
5) Mind Flay

Other then that, I use Archangel and Shadowfiend on cooldown, and use Shadow Word: Death on cooldown below 25%. I also clip Mind Flay to cast Mind Blast, and try to keep my dots up at all times.

Anybody got any pointers as to what I might be doing wrong?

[Backreaper]

Are you hitting the right dummy?
If you hit a boss dummy that hit will take bites out of your dps.
also try taking a look at http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...%28by-Kilee%29

[Mithy]

Could be wrong, but im sure i read that you should not use mind blast until you have 3 orbs.

[Rhey]

Anybody got any pointers as to what I might be doing wrong?

Shadow Priests use spirit to cap hit rating, many pieces of spirit gear are best item slot for shadow priests. Don't avoid spirit.

[Deleted]

Could be wrong, but im sure i read that you should not use mind blast until you have 3 orbs.

You are wrong.


11k on dummy isn't that bad for your gear, with raid buffs it should raise to like 17k.

Enchant your weapon with power torrent.

Use 40 int gems in every socket, don't match colors until you get ~5500 intellect.

Buy Darkmoon Card: Volcano - it's one of best trinkets for us shadow priests.

Someone already linked Kilee's guide - read it, it's really useful

For reforging, use wowreforge.com. If it tells you to reforge something to hit, reforge to spirit instead.

[Backreaper]

Could be wrong, but im sure i read that you should not use mind blast until you have 3 orbs.

Best dps is using MB every CD regardless of orbs but it may fuck you over with empowered shadows.

Took a look at your gear and i noticed you mainly reforged your gear to haste, you generally want the gear that already has haste on it, the reason your dps is low is because you have a small amount of haste,

Can you give us an example of your rotation or a WoL link?
edit: nvm i'm bieng blind

[Katelina]

Could be wrong, but im sure i read that you should not use mind blast until you have 3 orbs.

Nah, you're wrong, you should use MB on CD.

Besides that, I go with a stat priority of int > haste > hit > mastery > crit, so you could start reforging away all possible crit that's left (gloves, belt). It would also be a bit better to go +40 intellect gems in both your legs and belt again, only time it's worth gemming for the socket bonus is when the bonus is +20 intellect (like your chest). Like a poster above me already pointed out, if you're hitting the raiding dummy, not being hit capped willlower your dps with quite a bit. You could already try to instead of reforging to mastery, reforge to hit/spirit (I prefer spirit for dual spec reasons) where you can.

Specwise and glyphwise looks fine, no comments on that. Rotation looks fine for the most part, however, are you also using Archangel when your dots are expiring? If so, don't, refresh your dots first and then pop Archangel. Personally I also wouldn't clip Mind Flay to cast Mind Blast, but I'm not sure whether I'm doing that wrong.

[Rhey]

The excuse to don't cap hit rating is pointless. Your chest is epic, why did you reforge it to "mastery"?, you must reforge all to spirit until you get the hit cap.
The enchant on the epic legs with int + stamina"? going for pvp?

[phyrix]

Nah, you're wrong, you should use MB on CD.

Besides that, I go with a stat priority of int > haste > hit > mastery > crit, so you could start reforging away all possible crit that's left (gloves, belt). It would also be a bit better to go +40 intellect gems in both your legs and belt again, only time it's worth gemming for the socket bonus is when the bonus is +20 intellect (like your chest). Like a poster above me already pointed out, if you're hitting the raiding dummy, not being hit capped willlower your dps with quite a bit. You could already try to instead of reforging to mastery, reforge to hit/spirit (I prefer spirit for dual spec reasons) where you can.

Specwise and glyphwise looks fine, no comments on that. Rotation looks fine for the most part, however, are you also using Archangel when your dots are expiring? If so, don't, refresh your dots first and then pop Archangel. Personally I also wouldn't clip Mind Flay to cast Mind Blast, but I'm not sure whether I'm doing that wrong.

Thanks for the advice.
However I don't see how reforging from mastery into spirit or hit will increase my dps in 5-mans, since I'm already hitcapped for that. Once I enter raids, I'll have to re-asses that though.

About clipping Mind Flay, the guide in these forums said I should do it, so that's what I'm doing.

About the enchant on my weapon, I won't enchant Power Torrent on a blue weapon, I'm saving that for an epic, even though my warlock has enchanting and could do it relatively cheaply, I think it's a waste.

Oh, and I just did a ZA run, and I averaged around 14-15k on bosses, with a peak of 15.7 on the lynx. Now that is with the LFD buff at 15%, but still, it shows more promise.

Edit:

If I were to buy the Darkmoon Card: Volcano, what should I replace for it? The alchemy trinket or the one from brewfest? It seems like the alchemy trinket would be pretty good since it has a nice chunk of intellect and a good amount of haste.

[Katelina]

Of course reforging for the hit cap won't increase your dps for 5-mans, but the raiding dummy is the same level as a raid boss which means you will miss quite some spells, resulting in a bit less dps.

Overall I think you're doing pretty good for your gear. Just change those 2 gems, reforge for hit if you want to, if not still reforge the crit to mastery and change the enchant on your legs to intellect+spirit instead of stamina. I'm not sure about which trinket to replace the card with tho, I would say the alchemy trinket 'cause the brewfest one compares to the Bell trinket from Atramedes and I think that one simmed higher than the alchemy trinket... If you want to be sure, just simcraft it yourself, but either one will be very close.

[Lezarin]

also when your empored shadow procs reapply your dots sw.p not so much but get hit capped then haste int shadow dps is also very dependant on gear .
also someone stated spirit gear is better for a shadow priest because a lot of spirit gear has haste as its secondary stat which si great.

The waiting for mind blast for the orbs works out as a dps loss as by the time you get the 3 orbs you could of had 2 mindblasts off by then and kept your empored shadow proc recurring . about 6 seconds before it runs out btw reapply your dots just incase it doesnt proc off your next mindblast you still ahve 20 odd seconds while your palgue and vt burn down for it to proc again .

Personnally dont look at ehroics or dummys for dps pullnig 15k single target in your gear on a heroics about right you will pull more as you get more gear and int.the dmc is still bis and easy to get worth the 4 to 7 k you,ll spend on ti as its replacement is firelands boss drop .

[Mithy]

Glad to see i was corrected (several times). Might even help my own dps
Good luck to you tho.

[Deleted]

For reforging, use wowreforge.com. If it tells you to reforge something to hit, reforge to spirit instead.

I agree about using wowreforge.com but the latter part is wrong, sometimes it tells you to reforge MST/CRT/HST into hit while the item has spirit for example, that way you get double hit on a single item.

My helm (spirit/hst) got reforged into (spirit, hst->hit) when I tried the 2144HST+DI reforge so I could not change it to spirit nor could I ignore it since hit cap is important with 4T12.

[Deleted]

I agree about using wowreforge.com but the latter part is wrong, sometimes it tells you to reforge MST/CRT/HST into hit while the item has spirit for example, that way you get double hit on a single item.

Yes, that's what I meant, just forgot to write about that, thanks for clarifying