SP offspec, help? Low dps. Whats the best rotation?

[Wuteverdude]

Hey everyone, sorry if this is been posted else where, but i wanted to ask.

I am a holy healing priest, but i have an off-spec of shadow for when the group/guild already has a healer, (this being orientated towards 5man heroics atm).
The problem is, when i am shadow i am doing very poor DPS, i have only Gone shadow in Cata, so i have little experience with it (leveled holy even back in the day lol).
I basically want to run down some rotations with you guys, since i see that as my primary problem. Heres what i do:

Open up with 3 mind spikes
Use VT
Use MB before crit buff from MS goes away
Use SW: P & DP
SW: D
Mindflay untill i have 3 orbs up
Then mind blast
then its basically repeating of MB & SW: D when they are up, and useing mind flay as a filler
I do reapply dots as need as well

am i doing something wrong? Is it horribly out of rotation? Please let me know what you think, and post your rotations as well. Id like to be able to pull decent DPS, so thank you for any help given.

[Cerunnir]

Shadow does not have a rotation per say, but a priority system.

First priority is to keep your DoT's up 100% of the time. This means you have to recart VT and DP right before they run out on your target. There are several tools out there to keep track of DoT durations on a target.

Second you should use Mind Blast whenever its off CD and you have a minimum of 1 orb. There is no need to wait for 3 orbs.

Pop archangel on every CD, but make certain that VT and DP is running solid so you will have 5 stacks of evangelism before you need to reapply DoT's.

Double tap shadow word death on every CD when the mob is under 25% health. Using SW before 25% is a straight up DPS loss and should be avoided.

Ignore Mind spike unless its low health mobs like.. for example.. spikes on marrowgar. In similar situations as that you can use 2xmind spike then mindblast.

So..

Priority 1: Keep all Dots up 100% of the time.
Priority 2: Shadow word death when under 25%.
Priority 3: Mindblast with 1 or more orbs.
Priority 4: Mindflay

Using archangel and shadowfiend to keep your mana up. Shadowfiend should be popped first when you got like 80% mana left. Then on every CD from there on out.

Edit: Shadow is best if you are able to keep DPS'ing 1 target. On trash generally speaking shadow priests will lose to more "bursty" classes.

[Tryinmilkme]

I am currently lvl 84 ilvl 306 and did 10k on the first boss in Pinacle by putting dots up, MF twice, MB (if you have an orb otherwise anoter MF)and any trinkets you can re-apply VT and DP(yes clip them), then shadow fiend, then hit Archangel, MF until you need to MB to re apply dots, SWD at 25% and below on cd.

[Alexieel]

reapply DoTs after cast a Orbed MB, because you want there 18% more damage (with my mastery) if they ticked without it before

[Deleted]

reapply DoTs after cast a Orbed MB, because you want there 18% more damage (with my mastery) if they ticked without it before

I thought the system recalculated the DoTs when you gain other benefits? (like Orbs) Much like the diseases of DKs

Have I got this wrong?

[wakeskater]

dude ive been doing decent dmg but i DO NOT keep dots up 100% (when i switch to MS burst)... honestly i VT->SWP->DP->Mindflay->MB with 1 orb and i repeat this then when we get to a nuking phase or if lust is popped i go -> Trinket, Archangel -> MS,MS,MS,MB,MS,MS,MS,MS,MB,MS,MS,SWD,SWD this is my finisher combo, i get up to around 9k spell power with my trinkets and if the first mind spike crits it does around 50k dmg, this rotation usually brings my dps from 8-9k up to around 11k, so it's doing probably 15-18k dps burst... use it to finish fights when lust is up, its fun too

and if the burst doesnt kill hte boss start rotation 1 again, and reapply dots (my spec is pvp too so its not a max dmg spec)


(on trash - just MC a dmg dealing target and do like 13k dps - SPRIEST DO GREAT DPS ON TRASH XD esp in VP with the ministers of air)

[Monsterdrink]

I use SW Death every time I can because it does give 25% of my mana back

[Deleted]

I use SW Death every time I can because it does give 25% of my mana back

10%.

25% is archangel.

[Monsterdrink]

Same difference. The point is it gives you mana back