I was asked by my guild to reroll as a Holy Priest in Cataclysm and after switching server/guild I've been asked to run Shadow as my main spec.
It's been around 3-4 weeks now all together since this happened and I'm wondering if there's something I can do better.
I've been running with an opening sequence like this;
Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Fiend, Mind Blast, Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague
Then just refreshing dots when needed (preferably <1s) and Mind Flaying, using Mind Blast on cooldown, weaving SW: Death while moving and when the boss is <25%.
Here are some of our latest wol parses;
reports/rt-1w1is1w3gjfp9zc0/ (Shannox Heroic/Normal & Occu'thar)
reports/gi6xc5np2kdggdvz/ (Lord Rhyolith, Alysrazor, Baleroc, Majordomo)
reports/rt-tbvx7h3bx4b0sc6b/ (Ragnaros)
(Can't post links yet)
I'm mainly asking because I'm being reminded all the time that I suck and because I think I can do better.
Any ideas?
Right off the bat I can tell you that your rotation is wrong. It should be something like VT > DP > SW:P > MF until one orb > MB > VT > DP > MF filler until you need to refresh ES when you have an orb > SW: D at less 25% when it's off cooldown. You can change the opening DoT rotation based on whether or not you can stand still in the beginning.
Keeping your DoTs up and keeping Empowered Shadow up are the two most important things you can do. Throw in your Shadow Fiend whenever you want a DPS boost or need mana but it's not essential to your rotation.
Last edited by Anthonian; 2011-07-26 at 02:22 PM.
Reason: Stupid smiley
There is alot of different ways to start.
I am using SW: P and mind flaying till 5 stacks of evangelism before casting dots, RNG sometimes gives me a shadoworb and then it shows some profit.
Ah, alrighty. I just thought it was beneficient to use SW: Death while moving, refreshing dots as close to them running out as possible while using Mind Blast on cooldown (and Shadow Word: Death if the boss is at 25% or lower) and Mind Flaying in between all of that.
Your armory looks good. The one thing I would suggest though is moving one point out of mental agility and putting that point into Inner Sanctum to give you 2/3 in that. A lot of the fights have a burn phase at the end which also is when the most raid damage happens. Having an extra point there will help ease that a bit and will probably give you more opportunity to use sw: d without killing yourself.
As far as the opening goes... it honestly doesn't matter all that much because the opening is what you do before your first orb proc, and the majority of the time that isn't very long in comparison to the rest of the fight. If you want to get really detailed on the opening though Kilee has a great one in his shadow guide stickied in these forums.
@Arlee: Alright, I'll have a look at the guide for an opening and such.
I haven't really had the time to read up on many guides as I've been tossed into this so I've been going with what I felt was right.
Using SW: D while moving isn't a bad thing. Just make sure you're spamming it under 25% every time its off cooldown. Refreshing DoTs doesn't have to be as close to when they expire as they used to be. I generally start to recast VT when it's sub 3 seconds. Make sure you're also not wasting a MB cooldown by casting it with no orbs when your ES has less time on it then your MB cooldown. You want to keep ES up as much as possible without having to reapply DoTs.
Aryzrazor, the issue you're going to have by doing that is that not only do you run the risk of losing DPS by not having VT and DP up but if you pop Dark Archangel before you apply your DoTs then you're wasting time on DA while you're casting the other spells. You should not be popping DA until after a fresh cast of VT so as to maximize the benefit from it.
You're doing fine. The opening rotation is up for grabs and there is no best choice since procs are random. It really doesn't matter anyway for a 10 minute fight what you do for the first 10 seconds, so just stick with whatever feels comfortable. I re-dot anywhere from 1-3 seconds early depending on upcoming movement, etc...but I always make sure to never let dots fall off. My goal on every boss is to come as close to 100% uptime as possible. Cast mind blast on CD. Always pop archangel on CD, but you may need to wait a few seconds if needed so you can Mind Blast immediately after. Also use Shadow Fiend as a DPS cooldown, not for mana regen (that's just a bonus). SW:death can be used any time during the fight if you need some mana. I tend to use it during movement portions of the fight when DP doesn't need recasting. Be careful under 25% that you don't kill yourself with SD:death, but in general it's safe to use. For most fights with lower HP adds you'll want to get used to using Mind Spike/Mind blast. Majordomo is a great example. Dotting the cats is a waste of time since they'll be dead within 5-10 seconds. You'll get much more damage output by getting 3-4 mindspikes and a mind blast off on them in that amount of time (while doing your best to keep the 3 dots rolling on Majordomo).
Anthonian obviously you shouldnt use DA before casting dots.
Point is with that opener that you get the 10% from evangelism, you cast vt+dp after 5 stacks, then everything is procced for you and you can use your DA if a dps burst isnt needed before 2 minutes again. And actually I have found a quite big chance on getting that random shadoworb when stacking to 5. Cooldown management means alot for a shadow priests dps. But as Arlee says doesnt matter much.
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