Shadow mana problems

[regnireht]

Hey if this has been posted before I'm sorry but I was just wondering if any other Spriests have had mana problems in vp. In Pve I never have issues but in pvp spec and gear it seems like I'm contantly drinking or needing to drink. I'm not one to spam DP; in fact I've gotten to where I rarely use it to conserve mana. My pvp set has 19k mana (full relentless/wrathful satin) and I'm currently using the Insightful meta (21int. chance to restore mana on spellcast). Thank you for any feedback.

[Fenixdown]

Everyone has mana problems in PvP. Except mages. But we hate mages.

Death to mages! Nerf! NERF!

[Deleted]

Shadowpriests have forever been plagued by mana-problems. It was utterly terrible during BC and has only got better around 3.2. It's just something about the class mechanics that totally screws them over in PvP.

Most Dots are quite mana-intense and compared to PvE, you have to recast them quite often in PvP. Shield is also pretty expensive for Shadow, just like the occasional shifting in and out of Shadowform (not nearly as bad as it used to be).

The upside is that both Shadowfiend and Dispersion are on relatively short cooldowns and are fairly reliable, compared to Evocation f.e. The only problem is that both those cooldowns also serve other purposes. Shadowfiend can be considered our DPS cooldown in PvP and Dispersion is our "survival" cooldown. So use them with care.

If you pot to go with the Mooncloth set, rather than the Satin set, these short mana cooldowns and Shadow Affinity can actually make you a very long-lasting caster.


Still, overall Shdowpriests just simply burn through their mana too fast. Something Blizz should have addressed ages ago.

[regnireht]

Ty for advice. Guess I should switch to mooncloth.

[escobar]

Definitely go mooncloth the extra mana regen far outpasses the lil crit especially if u gem for haste. The crit from satin gets cancelled out by wrathful pvp gear. Mooncloth + Mediatiton

[BloodVengeance]

Shadow Priests are not mana efficent? LOL That is the sadest thing iv ever heard, in arena on my shadow priest i never go below 90-100% mana, shadow has such good mana gen.

[Ananan]

Then you have clearly taken too many mana regen/cost reduction talents and too much spirit gear.

[gaymer77]

Shadow Priests are not mana efficent? LOL That is the sadest thing iv ever heard, in arena on my shadow priest i never go below 90-100% mana, shadow has such good mana gen.

I have to agree with him here on this & I'm running relentless satin 4p with my pve build (allows for silence & psychic horror because I'm not 5/5 imp mind blast because of 4p t10 in pve gear so I picked up utility talents) which has no mana reduction talents either. I never have mana issues in pvp unless I'm mindsear spamming but then again when I'm mindsear spamming in pve I have mana issues too.

[Kaiu]

Shadow pvp does have mana issues but thats one of the weaknesses of the class. The best ways to handle this is to do short bursts rather than consistant damage.

You can't turret mode players in arena for 3minutes and expect to be ok for mana as a shadow priest. Quick sharp switches, bursting players down inbetween fears/silences and playing defensive
for the rest of the time is the best way to conserve mana.

Also I think mooncloth is alot better, not only with the mana regen but the extra spellpower it gives, you don't really lose any dps.

Also observe the mana cost of your spells, Dot's cost an awful lot like SWP for very little damage, so unless your going to drop a target, avoid using all 3 dots. Mind flay is quite a cheap
nuke so its good to still keep up some pressure and keep the enemy on their toes. Shadow affinity is also a really good talent to take as alot of teams have a dispeller who will run you oom
very quickly without this talent.

The key is to keep on top of your mana so you can use Shadow Fiend as a damage cooldown like someone else said, and dispersion as a survival cooldown.

[Direshadow]

I found that taking Mental Agility and Pain and Suffering really helped my mana situation in PVP. Since you'll be relying on instant dot casts more then channeled or cast time spells, Mental Agility will help quite a bit.

Also, keeping a pain refreshed on your target is pretty nice as well.


With resilience being so high, it's also better to go with raw spell power and haste.


Don't get to attached to this idea though, since in Cata, Resilience only reduces how much you are crit for, and now how often you are crit for.

---------- Post added 2010-07-20 at 03:49 PM ----------

Er, isn't there also that trinket from one of the ICC five mans that converts healing into mana, and works with VE?

I heard that is pretty godlike in PVP.

Edit - Nevermind about the trinket. It has since been nerfed.

[Goliethlol]

Try playing shadow with full mooncloth and stack haste and spellpower as your damage stats. If you can do that, and also pick up a solace, you should never go oom between good Dispersions and Shadow Fiends, vs any comp. With that type of gear setup, and an adjusted talent spec for mooncloth, you can basically play the class like an affliction lock, and just multi-dot everything, and even off-heal quite a bit, and never have mana issues.

Basically you'd want to spec something like this with mooncloth gear:
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bxI0uhbZZ0efdRfkfcofkAo

[Calsong]

Mana is a real resource in PvP and trying to sap someone of it or outlast is a part of the game. A lot of spriests for full mooncloth, spec for a bit more efficiency, and play the longer game. Against high resil teams at top levels of gear, this plus the glyph of Dispersion gives you a significant edge up.

[Goliethlol]

Everyone has mana problems in PvP. Except mages. But we hate mages.

Death to mages! Nerf! NERF!

This is actually very much dependent on what comp the mage is playing. At higher level play, in Wizard Cleave mirrors, it is very easy to go oom as a mage. There is a reason why mages on the TR were using Solace and speccing Frost Channeling.

[Unferth]

Dispersion and Shadow Fiend, that's why Spriest use allot of mana, its PvE and PvP colliding with each other.

[Annesh]

don't listen to these casualgoons preaching the glories of mooncloth. go satin and don't regret it, it's the shpriest way.

armory me, i've been 2300+, and while i realize that doesn't make me a badass pvper or some kind of guru, it does give me more credibility than these pve healtards who throw on some healing garbage and spec shadow to casualnoob it up in bgs for fun between raids

so my super effective informed opinion is that mana issues are the tradeoff for being an unstoppable pvp juggernaut. sure, you can use a PLD and/or mooncloth and thereby ruin your ability to burst people down in seconds, or you can suck it up, visit the regen hut a few times per match, and have a ton of fun making people look awful

mana management becomes a skill of good spriests. bad spriests bypass that skill by gearing for regen, and then wonder why they can't kill anything

if you can wear satin and a DFO/PNL/CTS and get good at managing your mana regardless of your super high pvp mana consumption, then you can not worry all that much about mana, AND send people often to the forums to qq about shadow.

personally i do run oom in pvp now and then, but i just look at the scoreboard, see that i'm top kills and damage by miles, and i smile and drink for a few seconds until disperse comes back off cd, then i mount up and disperse on the way to my next slaughterfest