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Comment by 32348

This is a perfect replacement for a Mind Blast opener when soloing in PVE. It might do some little damage less, but it scales so much more effectively than MB that with good itemization it leaves MB in the dust, and that is even without the mana regen. The mana regen is really best viewed as a means of making our already mana efficient spammable spell even more mana efficient, and the best part transforms our +spell gear into some bit of mana efficiency gear.

In a party setting, this spell really shines.

There seems to be no good reason to go Shadow and not grab this.

Comment by 9761

Vampiric Touch is an amazing skill for lvl50 and well worth the wait, like previous comments before me have stated it regenerates 5% of shadow damage you deal with your spells in mana, so not only does it basically cost less to cast spells in the end, I find it to be a great replacement to Shadow Word: Pain. I found using SW:P along with Vampiric Touch, Mind Blast and Mind Flay to get me a bit low on mana, so i decided to switch it up. Now i just shield, Vamp Touch, MB, Mind Flay, Mind Flay and by that time the mob is usually low enough to finish off with a wand. Not only do you recieve mana back for casting your spells but with this reduction in spell casting after Spirit Tap of course I had basically full mana again ready to take on the next mob (without drinking).

Comment by 103926

The dot effect of Vampiric Touch now deals 495 shadow damage at level 50, not 450. Just a little extra to make it even more worthwhile getting.

Comment by 138496

4 shad priests + pally tank... heroic?

Comment by 138496

its only ,what, 5% you wont notice a big difference unless your mana pool sucks, or you're doing the curator fight in kara and hes evocating.

BUT, it has a great effect although some people wont notice it at all. on my mage(50/11/0 arcane/fire) i ask to be in the shadow priest's group or a shaman's group during any raid for all the nice little buffs and boosts i get. It gives you more damage output AND makes you more group friendly as a class

Comment by greekryan

It says "...gain 0.25% of their maximum mana per second when you deal damage from Mind Blast." I don't get that. Mind Blast is a cast, not a DoT, so how is it mana per second when dealing damage with Mind Blast?

Comment by 319936

each tick of Vampiric Touch energize the Priest for 2% of maximum mana. multiple Vampiric Touches (on separate targets) WILL each restore mana.
when Vampiric Touch ticks on a target which has shield/absorb on him, Priest will NOT get any mana back.

enter Shadowform increase Vampiric Touch's damage by 25%.
Vampiric Touch affected by Mastery: Madness

From Darkness, Comes Light give each tick of Vampiric Touch a 20% chance (diminish on multiple targets) to trigger Surge of Darkness, make next Mind Spike within 10 sec:

not consume Shadow Word: Pain, Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague (thus worth casting in DPS rotation)
damage increased by 50%
instant
free

limit 2 charges.

Priest PvP Shadow 4P Bonus Sin and Punishment cause Vampiric Touch when dispelled to trigger Sin and Punishment, fear the dispeller and targets within 6 yards for 3 sec.
Item - Priest T15 Shadow 4P Bonus give Vampiric Touch a 10% chance per tick to summon 1 Shadowy Apparitions.
Item - Priest T15 Shadow 2P Bonus give each Shadowy Apparitions (when damage their target) a 65% chance to extend the duration of Vampiric Touch by 1 additional tick.
Item - Priest T14 Shadow 4P Bonus increase duration of Vampiric Touch by 3 sec.

Comment by taohinton

* There appears to be no limit to how many Vampiric Touches you can have ticking, and regenerating mana for you.
* After the first two ticks, any VT will have generated more mana than it cost to cast.
* If a warrior or hunter reflects your VT back onto yourself, the ticks will still regenerate mana.
* For anyone wondering where Sin and Punishment went, it's now the PvP 4-piece set bonus from Dreadful Gladiator's Raiment and Malevolent Gladiator's Raiment Satin Gladiator gear.

Comment by perculia

Some information on why Balance Druid and Shadow Priest dots function differently, from Ghostcrawler:

We decided to dig into all of the dots and found they worked pretty inconsistently. (Consistency isn't always critical because it does lead to a certain amount of homogeneity, but too little consistency can just be confusing too.) We made a pass at all of the class dots and made them snapshot crit chance. This will have implications in any simulations out there.

However, this has some implications on the Unerring Vision of Lei Shen trinket. We’re tentatively fine with the idea of you seeing that proc go off, and reapplying DoTs which crit for their whole duration, in most cases. There’s a couple cases where those periodic crits cause other effects, which end up being very powerful. For example, a Balance Druid can now apply Moonfire and Sunfire, and pretty much chain instant Starsurges for 15 sec, many of which are extending that Moonfire and Sunfire, probably out to 20-25 sec. That’s extremely strong, but we’re going to try leaving it alone for now.

The one which is simply too strong to leave is for Shadow. For Shadow having Unerring Vision of Lei Shen and the PvE set bonuses would mean that every Shadow Word: Pain tick guaranteed crits, so spawns a Shadowy Apparitions, which has a 65% chance of extending Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch. And the Vampiric Touch ticks have a 10% chance of spawning a Shadowy Apparitions as well. And both can trigger a mastery tick, both of which can also spawn another Shadowy Apparitions. The net result is that the feedback loop is so strong that in attainable gear, it’s net positive, resulting in Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch lasting forever (or at least until you get very unlucky and get a long string of failed procs, which will probably take several minutes to happen).

Since 100% crit Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch that never need to be refreshed is a wee bit too strong, we’re building in a failsafe. We’re fine with you getting a normal Shadow Word: Pain/Vampiric Touch duration of all crits, but not forever. When Shadowy Apparitions extends Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch, and that DoT has already lasted longer than its normal duration, it will recalculate its crit chance. The result should be that the trinket procs, you reapply Shadow Word: Pain/Vampiric Touch, and get 18/15 sec of crits, then they drop to your normal crit chance.

Comment by herumor

After casting Vampiric Touch, you can cast several other things without waiting for the global cooldown of VT to finish. So far I've noticed it works for VT>SW:P, VT>Silence, VT>Dispel Magic, and VT>SW:P>Silence (or VT>Silence>SW:P). There could be others, I will keep looking.

This makes VT the best thing to open with. If you open with SW:P you will have to wait out a global cooldown before casting VT, but if you cast VT and spam SW:P as soon as it finishes you can get them both to land at the exact same moment.

Comment by Gabeluq

No longer really 'vampiric', since it doesn't restore any type of resource in its current form.

- Update: Thankfully in Legion, this spell is back to being Vampiric. Healing the priest for 50% of the damage it deals :).

Comment by Kanariya

For Patch 10.0, the spellpower co-efficient is 128.52% (or 18.36% per tick). The hidden aura for shadow priests also increases the damage done by 50%.

Links WeakAuras Export

Vampiric Touch

Vampiric Touch
40 yd range
1.5 sec cast

A touch of darkness that causes 49 Shadow damage over 21 sec, and heals you for 30% of damage dealt. If Vampiric Touch is dispelled, the dispeller flees in Horror for 3 sec.

Generates 4 Insanity.

Buff

Vampiric Touch	Magic

Suffering 0 Shadow damage every 3 sec.
21 seconds remaining

Spell Details

Duration

21 seconds

School

Shadow

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

Magic

GCD category

Normal

Cost

None

Range

40 yards (Long)

Cast time

1.5 seconds

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

Apply Aura: Dummy
Value: 2
PVP Multiplier: 1
Server-side script

Effect #2

Apply Aura: Periodically Leech Health
Interval: 3 seconds (SP mod: 0.222156)
PVP Multiplier: 0.95

Effect #3

Give Power (Insanity)
Value: 4
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #4

School Damage (Shadow) (SP mod: 1.1594)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted
Include in Advanced Combat Log
Does not require shapeshift
Can Proc From Procs
Spell Haste Affects Periodic
Taps immediately
Periodic Can Crit
Aura Points On Client
Do Not Log Full Overheal

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Vampiric Touch

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