Please help my bad shadow raid dps!

[Gooblin]

Hey guys! I just returned to the game and discovered that my dps is now terrible. I feel like I have rez sickness all the time. Can someone please look into my gear and see if anything is wrong? Thank you!

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Kaziko/simple

NOTE: I removed all my reforge stats last night to test my dps. I normally transform most into spirit/hit to be hit capped. Is that okay?

I have had two friends and myself test my rotation without buffs on a dummy. All of us have pulled between 10k - 13k dps. I know I need better enchants, but I do not think they would boost me much higher. My rotation is the cookie cutter SW:P > VT > DP > Mind Blast (if orb for empowered shadow) > Mind Flays > refresh / mind blast on cooldown. I am using my trinket and archangel and shadowfiend when appropriate for more dps.

What is wrong with me? Enchants? Rotation? Gear? Reforges? Gems? I know I shouldn't be pulling 30k+ but I don't think I should be pulling 12k average...

Please help! Be critical! Any recommendations will help! Thank you

[lwalker8]

The guide has the answers to all of these questions. It's stickied at the top of the priest forums.

What is wrong with me? Enchants? Rotation? Gear? Reforges? Gems?

Enchants? You already said you are missing these....

Rotation? Wrong. Read the guide.

Gear? It's pretty low ilvl gear ... can't expect much from that.

Reforging? You took all the reforges off.... how could they be right? Get 17% hit, then just go for haste.

Gems? What's in your head piece?

[Deleted]

First of Shadow dps on a dummy is always lets say not so great ( due to shadow beeing REALY dependend of buffs ) second you are missing alot of enchants and you don´t have any set bonuses at all . I would say get the missing enchants and try to get to the 3202 hate breakpoint or drop back to the 2589 bp and put the rest in spirit to be hitcapped + mastery . P.s.: What the hell is up with the gem in your head ....

[Deleted]

First off, get rid of the +8 Int/+12 Stam Gem. You'll be better off once you put in +20 Int/+20 Hit (or spirit, either works).

Secondly, as has been mentioned (by yourself, too), get some enchants on your gear. Power Torrent (if managed correctly) is a decent DPS boost and you're still missing out on (at least) 100 Intellect from not enchanting your shoulders, chest and wrists.

Replace the yellow gems in your Belt and Shoulders with Pure intellect. You're not over 6K intellect yet so it's only safe to match yellow sockets if the bonus is 20 (or more) Intellect.

Reforge correctly. It's a DPS increase to reforge to hit cap, so you may as well do that. Try to reforge out of as little Haste as possible in doing so. Any excess crit should be going onto Mastery, especially once you get your T13 4pc set. You *could* (although I don't fully recommend this) even reforge out of haste down to 2589 haste rating (although you'll be above this) and put it into Mastery where possible. I personally prefer Haste over everything, even with set bonuses and so forth.


If you're going to start off by putting DoTs up, start with Vampiric Touch. Starting with SW: P means you have to wait a global before THEN applying VT, which is your highest Damage per Execute spell.
Alternatively, try just using SW: P and Mind Flay to force the orb, then Mind Blast, put all DoTs up, and continue as normal from there.
When you say you are using your Bottled Wishes, Archangel and Shadowfiend 'when appropriate' what do you mean? If you're testing your DPS on a dummy, they should be used on CD and Bottled Wishes should be used in conjunction with Archangel as they're on the same cooldown.
Try not to refresh DoTs without 5 stacks of Evangelism/Empowered Shadow up, it's a DPS loss. If your ES is about to run out, refresh as many DoTs as you can so that you don't lose the DPS.

While your DPS does seem a little low (even for a dummy session), it's still only on dummies. Were you flasked? Were you fed? What buffs did you have? If you were nothing but self buffed (ie Inner Fire) then your DPS on the dummy is going to be next to useless anyway.

Don't use dummies as a benchmark for your DPS, use them to get used to your rotation and so that you can do your rotation without thinking about it. Then, once you've done that, get a raid with as many possible buffs as you can and see what happens. Shadow Priests are probably the most buff-dependant class out of the casters, as every other caster has much better self-buffs than us, so don't read into your dummy DPS too much. Just ensure you're doing your rotation correctly and the DPS will come in time.

[Deleted]

WorldOfLogs.com is your friend, next time you raid run a log and upload it... It will probably show you are not as true to the proper rotation as you believe you are.

You have a belt buckle for 40 extra intellect, but not the shoulder enchant and not the 50 intellect enchant on your wrists and not the power torrent enchant.
You are not even trying to max out your stats, yet come here for advice on how to increase your dps? Well guess what? Enchant away.

Not to mention, though the Intellect is a decent boost, your pvp shoulders contain a bunch of useless stats. And your proffesions are not helping you either, least of all Herbalism.

[Fumu]

First off, as others have said you'll see at least 5k less on a target dummy than you would in a real raid situation just because of how the class works. One of our heaviest hitters is SW: Death, and we also have the ability to multi DoT - neither of those can be factored in on dummies.

Now looking at your gear:

1) Get hit capped. 17%. Reforge into spirit if you care about 5 man/offspec healing at all, because the spirit will convert to hit thanks to our talents.

2) Unless the set bonus will offset the intellect loss a pure gem would give you or provides you another stat you're sorely lacking (IE +20 hit, +20 int while you're under hit cap and you'll get a 10 int socket bonus), always ignore set bonuses and gem for int. Pure stats are generally just way overpowered compared to everything else.

3) Gem and Enchant everything. Remember that int thing. For items under 384 it's really not worth it to splurge on stuff like Power Torrent unless, again, you're rich so get a next best thing that gives you SOME sort of bonus.

4) Cap your Inscription for the profession bonus and drop Herbalism for another profession that would be beneficial. Raise Herbalism on an alt unless you're rich/your AH is flooded. (BIS for raid dps is Blacksmithing, but it's only a TINY bit ahead of others.) I'd recommend Alch/Inscription, as they both require herbs anyway.

5) Long term goal should be 4pc t13.

Everything else, such as rotation timing and such, can be gathered from the guide thread.