Shadow Priest playstyle similar to Affliction Warlock?

[Takutal]

Hello everyone,

I raided through WotLK on my Lock (Got 25LK and many heroics down) and have had experience as all 3 specs. By far though my favorite spec was Affliction. As Cata rolled up i decided to level my Shaman (was 60 from RAF) as my new main, mainly to avoid those nasty DPS queues and the fight to get any raid slots in PuG's. I am currently Ele/Resto. however i have been dissatisfied with ele play style and will never be enhance. So i am now leveling a priest to shadow dps with the hope that it will be similar enough to Aff lock to keep me happy but i can still Dual Spec to a heals spec for randoms etc. So my question is: Is Spriest very similar to affliction? or am i wasting my time and just keep on throwing those lightning bolts. I like to tinker in PvP but it will not factor into the equation. So anyone with shadow priest and also Aff lock endgame play style experience please post to help me avoid wasting my time or to encourage me to continue with my priest. Comments more in depth then "they both use Dots and a filler rotation" would be greatly appreciated

Thank you for your time.
Don't flame 2 hard 1st ever post on these forums

[DrasticSapTactics]

They're similar, but shadow is a lot more about picking when to cast or recast dots based on procs. Shadow has better synergy between fillers (Mind Flay, Mind Blast) and Dots than UA locks have. I love my ua lock, but honestly shadow is a more engaging priority system - I think you'll enjoy it.

[oatmealpoet]

Shadow Bolt/Drain Life = Mind Flay
Haunt = Mind Blast
Unstable Affliction = Vampiric Touch
Corruption = SW:Pain
Bane of Agony = Devouring Plague
Drain Soul/Life Tap = SW: Death

Those will be your main priority spells...which are all very similar in behavior (cast time, cooldown, priority, duration). Everything else is quite different, which makes each class unique. I tend to prefer my Shadow Priest because of the healing I can do when needed. Also because I hate managing a pet.

[Hellfury]

I have both at 85, with my Warlock as raiding main. I had alot of fun with Shadow priest when for warlock destruction was the spec of choise pre 4.1 patch. When 4.1 patch and affliction became slightly better than destro, I totaly stoped playing Shadowpriest as my alt since the playstile is so similar with aff lock I felt playing SP as a alt was a waste of time since it seemed I play same classes just with diferent spells icons.

the specs aren't totally similar there is nuances like evangelism, dynamic cooldown shadowfiend, the aoe(wich imo its boring). But the core with 3 dots, 1 filler and a CD nuke is very very close.

Its not criticism about the specs infact I love the "dot, low damge but in high frequency" playstile I just think that both specs are so similar a person just should focus on one spec.

This in PVE! In PVP infact I think both specs are just totaly diferent, a aff lock is more of a defensive playstile with CC, slow damage but high presure on alot of targets vs3 vs5 and RGBs, fear annoyance and COT debuffing, a SP is more of a offensive nuker in most pvp settings.