Stacking Spirit as a Shadow Priest?

[lollerlaban]

You don't need to use DoTs as feral to do good DPS.

You're right. You just need to farm gnomeregan for the rest of your life

[Onikaroshi]

It's clear to me that you never played vanilla.

I mean, they don't even give "infinite mana pool paladins" credit, didn't matter if they were topping meters, they were able to keep people alive indefinitely because the NEVER ran out if played and geared properly.

[Nasuuna]

It's clear to me that you never played vanilla.

frost bolt spam doesn't does as much as shadow bolt spam.

[Necromantic]

You're right. You just need to farm gnomeregan for the rest of your life

Can you think of anything else more fun?

[anon5123]

You're right. You just need to farm gnomeregan for the rest of your life

I mean it's not hard. 5 clears takes maybe 25 minutes tops, and you get on average 2-3 pummelers from that. 3 hours of actual farming time will get you enough pummelers for like 2 weeks of raids. Compared to other DPS where 3 hours of farming will get you like 1 raid's worth of consumes.

And it's inside an instance, so you don't have to compete with other players or worry about wpvp.

[Coldfrostzero]

As it has been stated, Spirit is pretty meh as far as a dps stat. However, I would say if you're going to stack spirit, an often overlooked trinket is the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon. I played a Disc Priest and used this trinket in Vanilla. I was able to continue healing fights that lasted longer while others were on fumes since it has no internal cool down, it was possible to have back to back proc. You would probably be better off finding a few combinations of gear for each fight and see what helps though. You're going to drink the occasional mana potion regardless of the caster you are playing (not so much warlock though).

Hardcore raiding guilds will probably not take a shadow priest, but they were becoming more prevalent towards the end of vanilla's life cycle. Were they the best? No. Utility was decent though. Less hardcore guilds will most likely take you just to fill space. If you're concern is dungeons, don't even worry about it. In beta so far, I've not seen anyone turn down a class or spec for a dungeon because it doesn't really matter. Did a group last night in SM Cath with a mage/warlock/boomkin and me as a paladin tank. The mage was AFK almost the entire time and didn't know how to watch his threat and instead of dying he either would kite mobs around like a chicken with his head cut off or run out of the instance if we wiped causing us to wait for mobs to reset. Once we talked to him, things went super smooth. He waited a second or two to go HAM on AOE so I could position (frostbite is a terrible talent for dungeons btw). The Boomkin and especially the warlock were great at waiting on AOE and were active the entire time. The mage being AFK almost the entire time, while being one of the "best" classes doesn't matter if they aren't even playing or know what they are doing.

As for damage taking a hit "upfront" most of the time being able to do damage is the important part. Are you doing mechanics? Are you managing your resources well (as any spec)?

[miltonic]

If you want to raid as a priest you will be healing.
Get over it

Nothing to get over, OP stated they weren't interested in raiding. Simply wanted to know if SP spec could be built to play without having to pause between fights constantly due to OOM. Love how people have derailed the OP's thread into what they personally deem allowable to play, and what is not lol.

[Moonsorrow]

Quick question: Is shadow really the best specc to level a priest? Prior to level 40 when you can have shadowform, disc / holy seems better especially if you want to heal a dungeon from time to time.

Is this correct or do I miss something important in the shadow tree?

Thanks in advance.

[ifrah]

Quick question: Is shadow really the best specc to level a priest? Prior to level 40 when you can have shadowform, disc / holy seems better especially if you want to heal a dungeon from time to time.

Is this correct or do I miss something important in the shadow tree?

Thanks in advance.

Pre-shadowform talents that are quite awesome:
Spirit tap. This is the boss talent.
Shadow focus. Less resists, i.e. less wasted mana
Mind flay.. d'uh. obviously
Shadow weaving. Although not going to stack full per mob, but it's still a decent boost.

Disc and holy don't really give that much. Low level dungeons are healable with any spec or no spec. You will need to drink more, but you will manage just fine.

[Necromantic]

Pre-shadowform talents that are quite awesome:
Spirit tap. This is the boss talent.
Shadow focus. Less resists, i.e. less wasted mana
Mind flay.. d'uh. obviously
Shadow weaving. Although not going to stack full per mob, but it's still a decent boost.

Disc and holy don't really give that much. Low level dungeons are healable with any spec or no spec. You will need to drink more, but you will manage just fine.

Those are awesome talents, but one talent for leveling Priest (regardless of spec) that gets overlooked is Wand Specialization in the Disc tree.

[Moonsorrow]

Thanks for the feedback. Wand specialisation seems definetly a good talent.

But for further clarification, prior to shadowform you still use smite and holy fire or do you solely use mind blast / sw / mindflay and wanding as a filler? Because thats what made me think going disc / holy until lvl 40 to get those damage increasing talent for the holy spells, 15% passive mana reg, better shield and a few healing talents. Something along the lines like this https://classicdb.ch/?talent#bVMhcZbxxh0b

My problem is I'll be leveling with my wife that's why I think Spirit Tap will be lackluster but at the same time she'll play a lock which make Shadow Weaving very powerful as we both would benefit from it.

[Laurathansal]

OP, play the class you like, don't let any idiot tell you it's not viable. What's not viable is the masses of idiots playing mages warriors and rogues that will suck big time in Classic, while hybrids and lesser player classes are played by great players.

Keep at it. From my perspective I will invite 1, maybe 2 SP's to my raids.

[ifrah]

Thanks for the feedback. Wand specialisation seems definetly a good talent.

But for further clarification, prior to shadowform you still use smite and holy fire or do you solely use mind blast / sw / mindflay and wanding as a filler? Because thats what made me think going disc / holy until lvl 40 to get those damage increasing talent for the holy spells, 15% passive mana reg, better shield and a few healing talents. Something along the lines like this https://classicdb.ch/?talent#bVMhcZbxxh0b

My problem is I'll be leveling with my wife that's why I think Spirit Tap will be lackluster but at the same time she'll play a lock which make Shadow Weaving very powerful as we both would benefit from it.

How come leveling with a lock makes spirit tap lackluster? Anything that reduces your downtime is a plus for both. If you or your wife needs to sit down for a drink, the other can keep going. Fortunately for you, both lock and priest are quite strong on the longevity side.

Standard solo leveling rotation would be something in the lines of: Refresh PW:s before pull, SW:P (strafe away from the mob during the GCD), mind flay, wand... Add in mind blast(s) depending on your mana and/or the mob difficulty. Ideally the mobs don't live too long after your PW:S fades, allowing you to skip self healing for most parts.
I can't be arsed to do the maths between meditation and spirit tap, but I'd be quite surprised if the former outperforms in leveling. You will be after all spending quite minimal time inside the 5 second rule, as a good chunk of your dps comes from the wand. And as the tooltip says, outside the 5sec rule, meditation gives you zero benefit. If/when doing raids, meditation obviously is infinitely stronger.

When leveling with a warlock, you could either go shadow and just melt the mobs together or stand back healing. Warlock isn't really that of a meat grinder as warrior is when paired with healer. Tab+dotting everything in the zip code surely sounds like fun, but is it faster than both of you going for damage oriented specs? Hardly. Then again, go with whatever combination you find the most fun.

[Moonsorrow]

Thanks again for the detailed reply. I meant it to be lacklust due to me getting the killing blow to trigger it.
But your reply definitely clarifrified that I won't be using the holy damage spells even prior to shadow form.

I think I'll go with the 5 points in wand specialisation see where I get from there

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

Shadow priests also heal the raid from the damage they do if they spec for it so there is that too. honestly the lazy roles are fun in raiding too because you can smoke weed or drink while the work is done for you.

Iirc Vampiric Embrace only healed players in your own group, not the entire raid, and it took up a debuff slot- which is a big no no.

- - - Updated - - -

You don't need to use DoTs as feral to do good DPS.

If you go powershiftibg and use mana pots and mana runes and int flask for higher max mana and all other int/mana consumables then cat dps is viable. Hell it’s even fun in my experience... but you could make life cheaper, better and a lot more efficient if you go rogue. Just saying.

[anon5123]

but you could make life cheaper, better and a lot more efficient if you go rogue. Just saying.

Why play a rogue when you could just play a warrior and do more DPS + be able to offtank? Just saying.

....or maybe just let people play the class they want to play and stop being a minmaxer.

[Unholyground]

Iirc Vampiric Embrace only healed players in your own group, not the entire raid, and it took up a debuff slot- which is a big no no.

Still good for trash and what not though.

[OriginalName]

Hey guys! With Classic fast approaching, I've finally narrowed down my class choice to either Shadow Priest or Feral Druid. However, while I like the concept of a Shadow Priest more, my main concern about maining one comes from all the rumors I hear about their horrible mana efficiency.

Has anyone here had any experience with Shadow Priests back in Vanilla WoW? If so, what do you think of a DPS talent build that takes Meditation from the Discipline tree and Spirit Tap in Shadow, then stacks Spirit either through gear, enchants, or both? I get that upfront damage would suffer, but if it helps to stay active throughout a longer fight, could that increase overall DPS? Also, how would recovery after a fight be affected by stacking Spirit with this build?

The idea of having to drink and be OOM all the time doesn't sound appealing to me which is one of the reasons why I'm also looking at Feral as my second choice, but if it's possible to alleviate that through talents and gear I'd be willing to give Shadow a chance.

You honestly don't have to worry too much about mana efficiency, one thing we'll see in classic this time around is that boss fights are going to be remarkably faster on classic vs priv servers/original 1.12, because on release we'll have 1.12 itemization which makes a lot of dungeon items outright better or competitive with endgame molten core, onyxia gear.

That way, if fights are shorter then your needs for overall mana will be shorter.

For pvp, your abilities are very efficient in mana to damage ratios, you should be pretty ok in just going by guides if you're unsure.

[ZazuuPriest]

what do you want to do?
cause 1. spirit is a horrible combat stat
2. if your planning to raid, you will not be allowed ot raid as shadow priest
3. on longer fights.... like what? hwat fight would be long enough that you having tons of spirits would make it worth while?

1. Spirit is number 1 for leveling
2. Wrong but if youre not going to commit to actual raiding (like showing up all the time) your single SP raid spot will be given to someone better/better suited for guild progress
3. Probably boss fight but the problem is spirit isnt strong enough to do what he wants it to do for a SP and if he could get enough hed sacrifice other stats and his dps would be worse

Dont sit here and act like people dont bring SP to raids. Its just that you have to be THAT dude or someone who is willing to be that dude will take your spot

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

Why play a rogue when you could just play a warrior and do more DPS + be able to offtank? Just saying.

....or maybe just let people play the class they want to play and stop being a minmaxer.

I’m not telling people what to play or what not to play. I’m simply stating the drawbacks of playing these hybrids. All raids will have a few hybrids for buffs and utility... but not for dps, if you’re fine being a support in raids (which hybrids are) then you’ll be fine. But if you want to dps as Owl/Spriest/Ret/Shaman then you’ll struggle, a lot.

The point of having/playing Rogue and Warrior is to make use of gear as much as possible. It’s the same for healers, why have druids, shamans or paladin healers when Priest is so good? Because there’s items that not everyone can use.

Plate STR goes to Warriors > Paladins
Leather STR items goes to Rogues=Warriors > Druids=Paladins=Shamans
Leather Agi gear goes to Rogues > Hunters > Warriors > Paladins = Shamans.

Obviously if you’re not in a min/max guild or you don’t care about it yourself then this doesn’t matter. But a lot of people do care about this because Vanilla is so unbalanced, gearing a Warrior instead of a Ret is a huge difference in your raid output. Especially early on there’s going to be tight with dps and all gear counts.