Help a returning shadow priest who is struggling

[Mickb]

Guys as someone returning to the game after 8 or so years could you help me with some dps issues? I saw another thread but its not mythic+ or Raiding or absolute dps min/maxing, but just open world and in just basic dungeons. Shadow Priest was always my main but as someone who left in panda time, the class has changed a lot. I'm not finding it fun, I find the mechanics clunky, I can't seem to weave voidform into any sort of rotation.

You can assume I'm familiar with multi dotting etc and I've experimented with various builds (misery vs Sn etc etc) but as an example of the problem.

I did the necrotic wake dungeon yesterday, tank was a lvl 51 Blood DK, I'm a 60 SP ilvl 145. Tank was out dpsing me, and the other DPS were double or triple. There was a few calls of "slacker" etc, a bit light hearted but I felt it.

I was finding I'd start a fight with maybe a main MOB and a few trash, dot up the main mob then try to mind sear and searing nightmare on that but the whole pack is falling so fast before I can get anything rolling. Equally, I try to weave in a void eruption or something and the trash are done before its finished and I've busted a cooldown for the next fight. Single target fights are not so bad I dont think.

As i said, I'm not a hardcore raider so I dont expect to top the meters, just wondering if there is something basic I'm doing wrong? Any SP who found they were struggling this xpac and then had a Eureka moment? Is AOE just a problem at the moment?

Any help gratefully appreciated.

[Valette]

I wouldnt take your experience in normal dungeons too serious. If mobs die too fast to classes with heavy burst aoe, there just wont be anything you as a shadowpriest can do. You wont ever be able to burst aoe like them. This isnt as much of an issue in more "difficult" content, where things dont tend to die in seconds. The base aoe rotation is to keep Vampiric touch on the targets and use sear -> SN -> SN -> sear (Dont try to SN three times. Its a dps loss). Then use mindblast and shadowcrash (if you got this talent, you should) to build insanity for more SN casts. Voidform is a dps cooldown that should more or less be used on cooldown. Your job while this effect is up is to get out as many devouring plagues as possible. Which means casting voidbolt on cooldown (every 3rd gcd). On 4 or more targets you drop devouring plague for SN also in voidform. So in aoe situations and in voidform voidbolt becomes every 4th gcd. Voidbolt -> sear -> SN -> SN -> voidbolt. And keep using mindblast and shadowcrash to build insanity.

You should take a look at the icy-veins guide for spriests. Its written by Publik, one of the admins of the shadow priest discord and one of their main theorycrafters. He also does a few youtube videos where he explains a lot about shadow. He really knows his stuff
Icy-veins: https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/shadow...-pve-dps-guide
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe3...fzMzebcV2HTtuA

Good luck!

[Mickb]

Thanks a million, really appreciate it. Off to research that.

[Valette]

No problem. Shadow isnt the best spec for neither m+ or raiding (we're pretty good for pvp I've heard though), but we're far from bad. But as I mentioned, we really cant compete on short lived small adds that die in seconds. So don't be disheartened if thats the situation in normal dungeons. One small tip to make it feel a little better; try to save some insanity between packs so that you quickly can get up a sear -> sn -> sn before building insanity again. This is often solved by taking the "death and madness" talent and killing off the last add of the pack with shadow word: death

[KTM]

consider that in normal dungeon the damage is scaled. Low level would do more damage than they actually would do.

[Makabreska]

IcyVeins, YouTube channels of Publik and AngeloWoW are your friends.

[Aydinx2]

I did the necrotic wake dungeon yesterday, tank was a lvl 51 Blood DK, I'm a 60 SP ilvl 145. Tank was out dpsing me, and the other DPS were double or triple. There was a few calls of "slacker" etc, a bit light hearted but I felt it.

That's normal though (and I don't mean the difficult of the dungeon).
While leveling, scaling is all kinds of messed up. If you did more dmg than the tank I would be surprised.
If the others were at your level+ilvl then maybe you just need to fix your rotation a little bit:

In big packs you Mindsear -> 2x Searing Nightmare and repeat. Pop Mind Blast only when it procs for the instant cast during Sear.
Obviously use Void Eruption for the extra dmg. I'm not sure when you pop Void Bolt because it varies based on the amount of Mobs, but you dont need to waste time dotting up the "main guy" of a pull.
When the pack is 3 or 4 mobs big it changes a little but you can get away with the above rotation.

If everything really dies before you get to pop some Searing Nightmare, then the content is too easy for the other DPS.
Nothing should be dying that quick.

[Mickb]

Thanks all for the replies. I think things are improving as a result.

[panda040]

No problem. Shadow isnt the best spec for neither m+ or raiding (we're pretty good for pvp I've heard though), but we're far from bad. But as I mentioned, we really cant compete on short lived small adds that die in seconds. So don't be disheartened if thats the situation in normal dungeons. One small tip to make it feel a little better; try to save some insanity between packs so that you quickly can get up a sear -> sn -> sn before building insanity again. This is often solved by taking the "death and madness" talent and killing off the last add of the pack with shadow word: death

Do not listen to this, shadow priest can do well in M+ i on average do 5k ish dps in keys.

Do not VT anything that wont live more than 7 seconds
when a pack is pulled make sure you have enough insanity to do a quick mind sear/searing nightmare to get your SW:P on as many targets as quickly as possible. If 3 mobs or more follow her advice and just use your insanity on searing nightmares. If less than 2 targets, maintain all dots on all targets and follow your single target rotation. Also make sure your taking the talent that reset the SW cool down and gives you extra insanity if the target dies. Helps alot. Good luck out there.

Edit: i see she posted what i said later, and that is correct. You can also get the Hekili addon if you need some help in knowing what to cast and when.

[czarek]

Just take care about rotation. Check icyveins. SP is quite ok but care about rotation. Fault drops dps quite much. The problem is becuase SP depends on resource much (insanity) and ofc DOTS need to some time. I can do with my SP 12k aoe and 5k stable single target so its not that bad. But the problem is when u want to hang out m15+ with pugs. Its just undoable to get invite unless u do group or go with premade/guild grp. For sure ill pick other class for new season because of that reason