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10.2.7
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10.2.6
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A variety of SP Questions
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Post by
Amry
Hello wowhead,
I've been playing a Troll Moonkin lately, but yesterday for some strange reason I have an itching to revisit my neglected Forsaken Shadow Priest. However, with the recent patch and whatnot, I do have a few questions which I hope you guys will lend me your expertise in answering:
a) in contrast with some ages ago, SPs of all levels will benefit from Shadow Orbs, and not just those at level 80+, correct?
b) assuming a "yes" to question (a), does this mean
Harnessed Shadows
is now worth taking?
c) assume I use SW:P and DP on a mob. Later on, SO procs, I MB the said mob, and I gain the buff. I assume it is not applied retroactively, but if I refresh my SW:P with
PS
, will it benefit from the buff?
d) in regards to Mind Blast, what is the correct usage for it?
- spam it at every available opportunity
- use it only when SO procs to buff your DOTs, or
- use it only when you have 3 SO?
Finally, I love my Shadow Priest, but I wonder if we're Blizzard's red-headed stepchild. This is because everything my SP can do, a Druid can do better.
Rez
? Druids get a
Rez
and
Battle Rez
. They have DoTs too, and their DoTs can benefit if they move around. And mana efficiency - I have no problems Moon/Sunfiring + Insect Swarm everything in my path, but if I try to do the same with SW:P and DP, my mana will take a steep nosedive. And our AOE is pathetic compared to Starfall and Typhoon.
On the off-chance that a RL (or a snarky Druid) asks, "why should I choose you over a Moonkin" (skill level and gear being equal), what will your answer be?
Post by
653466
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
BrigKline
I'm a bit behind on my theory so I'll refrain from answering your more technical q's. Theres lots of ways a good spriest can be a raid asset above and beyond simple numbers tho'.
-Being able to 'tank' the boss with dispersion, bying time for a brez to get the tank back up with minimal raid damage is something no other class can really do. Just make sure you jam that fade button so you don't get one shot after dispersion expires :3
-Fade yo-yo-ing in concert with dispersion in the hands of a good spriest and combined with LoF can EASILY make the difference in a close wipe and a boss kill. Fade kiting in general is a good boon.
-Speaking of LoF, learn it and use it well and raid leaders will love you. Whether its getting people away from nasty stuff like Poison Protocol, or simply giving a kiter a head start, its a phenomenal tool.
-Fear, and Horror (properly glyphed) give us competitive add control versus a Booms roots, master when and where to apply Horrors disarm (and who is immune to the disarm effect), for added utility.
-We can support heal without breaking our DPS form with PW:S, something a Boomkin cannot do without wasting an extra GDC. Also due to how Shadowy Apparitions work, we often have free GCD's to PW:S on movement heavy fights (DP spam is simply too expensive to constantly use for optimal movement dps)
-Our Support CD's are just as good as a Booms too. Our Hymn brings in about 24k ish mana before the 15% mana buff benefits, whereas a Boom's Innervate only brings in around 18-19K on a single target. Over time with multiple uses, innervate can surpass HoH however.
-Divine Hymn and Tranq in the hands of DPS users are both comprable, but Hymn has the added effect of providing your healers with a +10% healing effect on targets,. Hymn ekes out ahead in this way when you consider 2-3 healers rolling full blast on dying targets.
-Dispel magic, and the changes done to hybrids make us the ONLY hybrid able to dispel both buffs and debuffs with the added benefit of removing two at once (or more with mass dispel). If heals have their hands full, spriests are now the best support dispellers in the game (in terms of magic buff/debuffs)
Post by
karlusdavius
in contrast with some ages ago, SPs of all levels will benefit from Shadow Orbs, and not just those at level 80+, correct?
correct
use it only when SO procs to buff your DOTs, or
Correct, the idea behind it is to keep up the % increase on DoT damage you gain after using it. You cannot let this fall off.
Dispersion allows you to cheat game mechanics. It is best used with a macro
/cancelaura Dispersion
/cast Dispersion
this allows you to disperse as long as you need to and then get back to doing damage.
Mind Sear is decent on a group of mobs in excess for 6 targets. A good idea is to get another macro that allows MS to be cast on your focus target. That focus target should be your tank
/cast Mind Sear
The healing you do in a raid is incredible. Literally. You are a constant hot on the raid that people forget about. You can potentially buy that one second a healer needs to save a guy. You also have your full healing arsenal at hand if a heal goes down or goes OOM. You both provide a haste buff. You can provide mitigation without breaking form that is now potent (and can also be macro'd to your focus target)
and most importantly, you look cooler.
Post by
Zhivago
Way cooler
Post by
Tayuu
You are going to struggle to top the meters with a single target fight. In a multiple target fight try keeping VT and SW:P on everything.
Post by
karlusdavius
You are going to struggle to top the meters with a single target fight. In a multiple target fight try keeping VT and SW:P on everything.
Not true. We're very decent on single target fights. Timing cooldowns correctly and you can very competitive. If anything, it's the AoE of multi target fights that we struggle.
Post by
BrigKline
You are going to struggle to top the meters with a single target fight. In a multiple target fight try keeping VT and SW:P on everything.
Not true. We're very decent on single target fights. Timing cooldowns correctly and you can very competitive. If anything, it's the AoE of multi target fights that we struggle.
Clarifying for OP's sake, I know full well Karlus knows the distinction I'm mentioning here.
By AoE, he most likely means more of the 'many whelps' variety, in which we need to use Mind Sear (even buffed it is lagging a bit). As opposed to multi target bosses, in which we can roll pain and VT on two or more targets for a substantial dps boost. I agree that tho we're not masters of single target dps, proper management of CD's and mastering DoT uptime (use of MF1/2, etc) still makes up quite competitive.
Post by
Amry
Thank you for your replies guys.
First of all, I'm quite surprised to see Shadow Priests topping the charts in stateofdps.com.
Second, in regards to people recommending that I DoT multiple targets with SW:P and VT. My question is, why VT though? Compared to DP, VT deals inferior amount of damage, cannot be further improved with talents,
and
has a cast time.
I'm guessing that the main reason is for recovering your mana... but is that it? Or am I missing something else?
Post by
BrigKline
Thank you for your replies guys.
First of all, I'm quite surprised to see Shadow Priests topping the charts in stateofdps.com.
Second, in regards to people recommending that I DoT multiple targets with SW:P and VT. My question is, why VT though? Compared to DP, VT deals inferior amount of damage, cannot be further improved with talents,
and
has a cast time.
I'm guessing that the main reason is for recovering your mana... but is that it? Or am I missing something else?
There are several reasons for VT over DP, Mana cost (DP is quite expensive), and the target limitations of DP are chief among them.
Depending on mastery/haste levels, haste levels and such the raw numbers can fluxuate, and I'm terrible at applying the mathematics of Shadow, so don't take this info as gospel. However, it comes to effective casting, and VT is very high on this priority list for a reason. MY GS is around 350 atm and my VT is ticking for around 5.3K (w/emp shadow, and Dark Evangilism), wheras DP only ticks for 2600 or so. VT clearly is far more powerful, even when you consider that extra cast time.
Post by
karlusdavius
Ah apologies, i misread the aoe bit, you are right. VT ticks more than SW:P and VT. It is usually always 2nd on my list depending on boss mechanics. It's potent!
Again, macro's can be used for a second add, allowing you to cast dot's, see them on your focus target, without switching from your main target.
I might do a UI guide...
Post by
700229
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
564336
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
karlusdavius
Please do a shadow UI guide :)
Nearly done. Maybe 2 days or so
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