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Anathema: The complete Shadow Priest guide. v1.3

Post by Sinespe

I have about as much spirit as is possible on my toon at all times and I can chain kill like 10-15 mobs no problem without having to drink.

I'm going to have to say "Fraps or it didn't happen". I quite simply don't believe you.

Post by 282517

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Primar

Well of course he is; Valandilv and Primar are probably the 2 most knowledgeable spriests that frequent the priestly wowhead forums.

Not any more! I quit WoW a couple months back in order to get out and do fun things IRL, although I still lurk round here every so often. Val was probably better than me anyway. :P

Even if he did steal my avatar, the swine.

Post by 356533

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Sinespe

Fraps is generally considered the recording programme of choice.

Additionally, you're using SW: P alongside VT. That'll be why VT isn't yielding good uptime for you -- you don't need to use SW: P. The fact that you are using SW: P at all makes me even more skeptical of your longevity claim, since it is such a huge mana drain. Unless you're in full level 40+ instance blues with two Heirloom trinkets, which I would consider atypical of a levelling environment, I don't see how it is at all possible to go for so long with such a mana-inefficient class without stopping to drink.

Post by Whybag

For example, a hitcapped-without-needing-hit-gems shadow priest, with his Chaotic Skyflare Diamond already activated by other, better blue gems, finds himself with Heigan's Putrid Vestments
Socket Bonus: 7PP.
Number of non-optimal gems required: 2.
Each gem gains 7/2 = 3.5 PP to its standard value
14.31 PP + 3.5 PP = 17.81 PP
10.60 PP + 3.5 PP = 14.10 PP
Total = 31.91 PP < 38 PP; so, unless you have Runed Dragon's Eyes, you're better off with Runed Living Rubies.

I think you mean Runed Scarlet Ruby, Living is not such a hot item. Small I know, I'm sure people already could figure that out too.

Post by Sinespe

Hah, thanks for that. My age is showing.

Post by Sinespe

Tier 8 Set Bonus theorycraft has been added to the "General Advanced PvE" section of the guide. Enjoy your numbers.

Additionally, new information! Trial of the Crusader has been updated with specific information pertaining to Lord Jaraxxus.

Post by CaseyTheRetard

Great guide, Val. I'll throw out some thoughts I had while reading through your strategy advice.

Heigan:
You suggest Abolish Poison to remove the disease that Heigan applies when you run near him getting back on the platform after the dance phase. That disease is easily avoided simply by not getting within 20 yards of Heigan, either by circling out around him to the right while running back on the platform, or simply waiting for your tank to drag him away from the platform before you run on. I also suggest dropping form to heal if all the healers are idiots and die to the dance, his damage output on a tank is so low (in 10-man) that it is easily healed even by a shadow priest. There's nothing like spending 20 minutes duoing Heigan with a tank in a pug ;)

Grobbulus:
It's easy to maintain DoTs on slimes while you DPS Grob, and looks good on the meter. If your strategy calls for you to run off to the side of the room somewhere away from the boss - although it's usually better to simply drop clouds 15-20 yards behind the boss in the tank path - dispel Mutating Injection as soon as your in position so you can get back to DPSing that much sooner.

Laugh at the pug hunter who stands in the last cloud while looking at the loot on the boss and dies (I've seen as many as 6 people die in one heroic pug).

Thaddius:
Sneak in SW:D while switching sides after Polarity Shift, it's safe since a) the damage buffs are down, b) healing load is incredibly light for this fight, and c) you'll heal the damage up with VE in no time once the damage buffs come back up.

Don't run to the wrong side and hit Dispersion so you can kill half the raid. Yes, it's hilarious, but not entertaining enough to be worth the run back.

Sapphiron:
Stand next to the ice cube and keep DPSing until the deep breath is about halfway to the ground. You want to make sure Shadow Weaving, trinket stacks, and DoTs stay up the whole time.

If I was helping heal while running to iceblocks - which I would only do in a pug with incredibly poor healers - I'd spam some Renews out between ProM cooldowns.

Ulduar:
I recommend what you call the "Vezax" build for general use in all of Ulduar. Threat reduction is important for Hodir and Vezax, and convenient for some AoE trash. Improved VE is very handy for most Ulduar fights - even more so for hard modes - and contributes to us being the most survivable caster class. By the time a shadow priest is moving into Ulduar, mana longevity should be a non-issue to the point that sacrificing Spirit Tap is not a significant loss.

Flame Leviathan:
Our ability to dot multiple turrets makes us especially effective in the "Launchee" role if your strategy calls for it.

Ignis:
Use SW:D when launched into the air by Flame Jets. Be ready to hit Mind Flay IMMEDIATELY after being ejected from the Slag Pot, even if it means you stand in Scorch for a tick or two - you don't want to lose SW:P and Shadow Weaving. Note that Dispersion does not reduce the Slag Pot damage.

Razorscale:
Sear, Sear, Sear - complain to the tanks that they need to drag multiple spawns of adds together - Sear, Sear, loot.

XT-002:
Note that Dispersion does not/ reduce Tympanic Tantrum damage. If there's no healing priest in the raid, and someone has Gravity Bomb during Tantrum, try to hit them with a PW:S immediately before Gravity Bomb goes off.

Hard mode: Be sure to use a Wild Magic/Speed potion and sic your Shadowfiend on the heart.

For 25-man-hard, convince your Raid Leader to assign someone else to Life Spark duty: Shadow Priests have the lowest burst damage of any DPS spec, and it's critical that Sparks die as quickly as possible. Leave this job to Destro Locks, Mages, and Boomkin, who can do 2-3 times as much damage as we can in 6 seconds.

Assembly of Iron:
Be sure to recast SW:P when you first get Rune of Power.

Hard mode: You should be one of the "Soakers" who stands 15 yards from the rest of the raid in P2/P3 (1 required in 10-man, 3 in 25-man). 15% damage reduction from Shadowform and high self-healing through Imp VE makes us the best choice for this role.

Kologarn:
Dotting all 3 parts works well, but will cause mana issues if you aren't religious about maintaining SW:P with MF and you are constantly having to recast it. Use Dispersion when you get eye beams, it does not reduce Stone Grip damage. It's safe now to Shadowfiend any of the parts, the problem you reference in your discussion was a bug with pets refusing to attack that was patched a while back. If the Rubble are tanked properly - within melee range of Kologarn to avoid the Rubble tank being eye beamed - Mind Sear will hit all of Kologarn's parts as well.

Mimiron:
It's important to get dots up before the first core is used, since you want them already up and ticking when the head drops. If you have 3/3 Shadow Affinity, you can generally keep the head dotted the entire fight with no danger of pulling aggro from the tank. I might add an "if your strategy calls for ranged to kill the Bomb Bots" disclaimer to the statement about saving MB/SWD for Bombs.

P4:
VE all 3 parts, stack Shadow Weaving and take a Wild Magic potion, then SW:P all 3 parts. Enter the multidot rotation: cast VT+MF on each part, you should have one spare GCD on each pass through the 3 parts to alternate casting DP or MB on the one with the most health. If you have to move for a Laser Barrage, try to use the "pause/MF/run" trick to keep SW:P up.

Hodir:
Scorched does not trigger from periodic damage. It is nevertheless a good idea to stand in a Moonbeam near a fire when possible. Your priority for the damage buffs is Storm Power >>> Moonbeam >> Toasty Fire. Do anything possible to get Storm Power, even if that means running out of a Moonbeam next to a Toasty Fire to run 20 yards into melee range. Storm Power is that much better than any combination of the other buffs.

Again, due to our terrible burst damage, convince the Raid Leader to put someone else on ice block killing duty when possible.

Thorim:
It's very dangerous to Mind Control during Phase 1, I wouldn't recommend it. If you want to Mind Control, have someone in the tunnel group call health on the second miniboss and grab a Warbringer when it's around 33%. (I don't know how much detail you want here, but I wrote a guide on Warbringer Mind Controlling for my guild forums, feel free to reference/incorporate/repost any of it.)

General Vezax:
Note: Dispersion does not reduce damage taken from Saronite Vapors. If you're going to dual-spec for this fight, you may as well use the Hard Mode Vezax spec. The haste buff from Shadow Crash will bring your Mind Blast cast time below the 1-second minimum GCD; Flay doesn't suffer from this issue, and will do as much or more DPS than Mind Blast on this fight. If you have Spark of Hope, use it: never having to stop DPS and run to the green puddle is a substantial overall damage boost.

Yogg-Saron:
Again, miserable burst makes us a terrible choice for Brain Room duty, but ability to dot EVERYTHING in P2/P3 means only Warlocks can compete with us for overall damage.
Our ability to channel casts through Lunatic Gaze means that Shadow Priests, like Affliction Warlocks, should always be assigned Yogg duty in P3. Try to throw a VT at each Immortal Guardian as it spawns.

Post by Sinespe

Casey -- thank you very much for all those pointers, especially the bit about my Vezax build. I have been considering, myself, dropping my "non-Vezax" build altogether so that I can open up my Dual Spec again for a Discipline off-spec. I will edit in your information in a way that flows well. Do stick around, and feel free to chip in with bits about Crusader's Coliseum when you get a chance to try that content!

EDIT: Information is now added as I felt appropriate.

Post by Sinespe

New information on the Tier 9 four-piece set bonus has been provided on this page. A link to said page has also been added to the very top of the guide for fast access.

Short version is: Don't get four pieces. Get non-set, better-itemised gear instead. (Helm and chest, chiefly)

Post by Sinespe

Algalon? More like "Algalol" amirite?

Post by 179128

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Sinespe

I've updated the PvP section to include answers to those questions.

Post by 349749

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Post by Sinespe

Post by cloudp

Post by Paolo

For that same build, let's discuss the importance of Shadow Affinity. Let me get this straight: the 30% threat reduction from Shadowform alone isn't enough? If that's the case, how can other DPS classes get away with not needing that much threat reduction? ... Considering that Shadow Priests aren't the highest DPS dishers to begin with ...
DPS isn't everything. We're talking about TPS here (threat), and the ability to control it while under the effect of Shadow Crash. A dot-based class like a shadow priest can't slam on the brakes the way a direct-damage-based class like a destro-lock can. If your threat is racing past the tank's (and let's say Fade is on CD), you won't be able to stop its forward momentum. You've accelerated a moving truck to high speed, and it's not going to slow down so easily. A destro lock, on the other hand, can just stop casting Incinerate (or whatever) and have a much faster threat "deceleration." So even if our DPS isn't #1, our ability to control threat is definitely an issue. (We're talking about Vezax here...on normal fights threat management should be simple. Shadow affinity is largely acknowledged to be useless in most other situations.)

Post by Sinespe

5/5 MB is mandatory. What else were you hoping to pick up?

Warlocks and Mages have Soulshatter and Invisibility respectively to drop their aggro levels. We have no such aggro dump. Trust me, the extra threat reduction is very necessary.

The benefit of the non-hard-mode Ulduar build is pretty small, really.

Well... There is Fade. A much weaker version of those, but it is something...

It's not something at all. You lose all your aggro and then get it back 10 seconds later. Invis and Soulshatter remove the aggro permanently. Fade does not.

(We're talking about Vezax here...on normal fights threat management should be simple. Shadow affinity is largely acknowledged to be useless in most other situations.)

It's useful in all situations where you get a damage boost -- which in WotLK seems to be an increasing number of places. Aside from Hodir and Vezax, we need it on Algalon because if we sit outside to eat the Big Bangs, we keep our threat and the tanks lose theirs. To an extent we also need it on fights like Auriaya where threat is very sensitive. Moving away from Ulduar and into the new instance, we have Icehowl in which we get a boost to damage (Thus a boost to VE healing, thus more threat); Jaraxxus where the adds jump all over the place and thus halt the tank's ability to generate threat on them; the Faction Champions where we actually get to use the PvP part of Shadow Affinity (!); and the Val'kyr where we have a constant damage boost, which increases to, for me, doing 24k Mind Blast crits when everything aligns.

So, yeah -- it's not useful on fights which aren't particularly threat-sensitive, but it's still a pretty nice buffer to have. It's nice to know you'll hardly ever pull aggro for any reason other than a tank outright dying, and Spirit Tap really is so lacklustre in terms of DPS and superfluous regen that SA is a better option once you get into and beyond the Tier 8 content, I think.

Post by OscarDivine

We aren't the only DPS class to lack a good threat-dumping ability.

Shamans have Windshock, which is garbage
Warriors have... ? nothing? I don't play one, only class I don't know.
Paladins have... nothing, Bubble doesn't count...
Druids have .... nothing I can think of.
DK's have... nothing?

We have it better than most, at least we can AVOID a threat spike. The other guys just have to stop attacking all together and wait for the threat to slowly overtake them.

I don't think priests have it as bad as we think re: our threat.

btw, Valan, I've left my hulk behind me.

Anathema: The complete Shadow Priest guide. v1.3

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