Question about attacking critters to get a holy buff then going shadow for the boss

[HeatM1ser]

I heard that priest can get a buff from their holy tree by killing a critter, then switching to shadowform right before the boss pull. Is there any truth to this, and how is it done?

[Pieterman]

The only holy buff I can think of is blessed resilience, and this is kind of useless. Or perhaps you mean the tactic I always use when playing shadow priest; prayer of mending yourself pre combat. Not sure what you're on about here.

[Kelesti]

Uh... Chakra?

[HeatM1ser]

Uh... Chakra?

So, if I cast chakra, then smite a critter, switch to shadow and drink up right before the pull...will I get a 15% damage bonus? Is this practical?

[oatmealpoet]

I'm going to guess he's talking about Evangelism in the Disc tree. You would have to Mind Flay 5 critters in a row to stack it up, then pull the boss within 20 seconds so you don't lose the buff.

[Kelesti]

So, if I cast chakra, then smite a critter, switch to shadow and drink up right before the pull...will I get a 15% damage bonus? Is this practical?

It's not practical, because Chakra cannot be refreshed, and you're losing your ability to do the damage while trying to gain mana back.

Plus, if I remember correctly, you can't do this anymore.

[Arlee]

So, if I cast chakra, then smite a critter, switch to shadow and drink up right before the pull...will I get a 15% damage bonus? Is this practical?

Well... it "should" not work because if you spec out of Holy you lose any affect from chakra since you would no longer have that buff. If you can do this right now it is likely a bug that would be fixed (similar to the warlock bug they had awhile back if you respeced with the demon dude you still had him even though you didn't have the required talents anymore).

[Anninikia]

The only buff of sorts you would get in shadow spec from using offensive holy spells (ie smite) in a typical shadow spec would be from Archangel and Evangelism if you are spec that way and both give buffs to healing if you use smite, not to damage done so it seems pointless to me.

[Aica]

Activating Smite Chakra then switching to Shadow spec does work.

It's not viable because there are so few 'critters' in front of bosses, and zero in front of raid bosses. Unless your raid is very fast to start on a boss after the last add is killed, you're not going to get very much out of the chakra buff.

Besides, with the switch to indefinite duration chakra in 4.1, I fully expect this to disappear.

[TofuBeast]

wat

You're talking about being in Holy spec, going into Chastise Chakra, and then switching to Shadow spec?

Don't you lose all of your buffs and your mana when you change specs?


I'm pretty sure the guy's talking about evangelism/archangel

[Aica]

wat

You're talking about being in Holy spec, going into Chastise Chakra, and then switching to Shadow spec?

Don't you lose all of your buffs and your mana when you change specs?


I'm pretty sure the guy's talking about evangelism/archangel

You lose all your mana, and all of your personal buffs (except Chakra: Chastise, apparently). It takes very little time to switch specs -> Dispersion -> drink -> rebuff -> pull. Maybe 20 seconds at most. Shadow doesn't even need to start the fight with full mana, since it generally casts Shadowfiend and Archangel as soon as possible.

The larger issue is that it generally takes a raid group more than a minute to pull the boss after the last trash pack is killed.

[Theleklol]

I'm going to guess he's talking about Evangelism in the Disc tree. You would have to Mind Flay 5 critters in a row to stack it up, then pull the boss within 20 seconds so you don't lose the buff.

Evangelism stacks when Mind Flay hits, so you can cancel it before it does damage. Unconscious Dig Rats are great for this. Tap Mind Flay, cancel the cast, repeat.

[Aica]

Where do you find Unconscious Dig Rats nowadays?