1. #1

    Few questions about Shadow Priests.

    Hello MMO'ers.

    Just a few questions regarding Shadow DPS, i am currently playing a Wlock and have done for a while, but im seriously considering creating a shadow priest as ive seen a few videos and love the look of the playstlye! so here are my questions.

    1) How does shadow perform in raids? (Yes ive seen the shadow dps section, but i want answers from people who have experienced raiding)
    2) How is shadow on movement and pathwerk-style fights?
    3) Do the DoT's do more damage than the Mind blasts ect, or is it the other way round?
    4) What alliance class would be considered the best for a spriest (Also consider look-wise)

    Thank you for taking the time to read these questions, some of them may seem obvious to you but as i said i haven't studied priests at all. If i have anymore questions ill post below!

  2. #2
    Hello and welcome! I should start off that I've only been recently playing Shadow more seriously and have been relieved of my Disc healing role since another member of my guild could not handle the DPS role that is Shadow.

    Shadow does very well as far as DPS goes, among the top of the tiers when played right, usually. That said, it seems as if Blizzard kind of built our DPS around the Dark Intent buff from a raiding Warlock. That part tends to be a debate, but DI, for me, usually affects my DPS by 2-2.5k, so there is a a significant hit without a lock in the group.

    On high-movement fights, I don't get to Mind Flay as much and that will be my highest source of damage. Your best bet is to just keep your dots up on whatever you can to mitigate the loss of MF in your priority list. On Morchok, because there are no adds or anything like that, I am absorbing crystals with the other ranged DPS and I can lose a lot of DPS because I'm busy running and can't MF or multi-dot. On patchwork-style, you should be at the top or very close to it if you keep your dots up and play well.

    Your DOTs will do more overall damage than MB because of their uptime. The priority list goes Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague, and Shadow Word: Pain in order of greatest to least amount of damage.

    I chose Human because I enjoyed the higher Spirit racial passive for healing, but if I were to roll again today, I would do either Worgen for the extra 1% crit or Draenai for the 1% hit. That allows you to reforge your spirit/hit into other useful secondary stats. (more haste or crit)
    Disc/Shadow Priest

  3. #3
    1) Shadow is pretty dependant on what other buffs/casters your raid will be bringing. It is still sadly all about getting DI if you want to rival your mages and rogues, but it is alot of fun in every tier fo raiding I have experienced.
    2) On patchwerk fights you should not be near the top assuming equal gear/skill amongst your raid, but as soon as there is even a 2nd mob to be dpsed at the same time you will shoot to the top of the standings np.
    3) On single target fights usually MF does 25-30% oif your dmg, MB 20-25, then VT and other dots to follow, obviously set bonuses move it all around by a few % here and there and once there are multiple mobs running around VT will prolly be first.
    4) ALLIANCE !!!! gah had I seen this I would never have helped you, FOR THE HORDE !!
    Last edited by jobbly; 2011-12-22 at 07:38 PM.

  4. #4
    1. With DI, we are top material, without it, neh.

    4. Human got the better racial of them all. A free trinket for gimmicks and roughly .5% hit cuppeled with the fact that they match in every gear now known to priests.
    If not, gnome female priest looks awesome to!
    Worgens crit is rather bad compared to draenai and human but the sprint may come in handly. Looks crap in the gear though

  5. #5
    Shadow is a lot of fun, and takes skill to play well. You have been playing a lock, so I'm sure you are familiar with DoT timers, so it shouldn't been too much of a change for you. You want to strive for the highest DoT uptime you can get, they are your highest damage and top priority.

    1.) Shadow can be competitive in raids. As others have said, we absolutely excel when we can multi DoT targets. I do not have a lock in my raid group, and thus do not have the benefit of DI. It is a significant increase in dps, so make sure you are getting it if you run with a lock.

    2.) You will be out dps'd on patchwerk-style fights by a lot of classes, but you should be able to keep up just fine. On movement fights, it really depends. Make sure you are refreshing your DoTs ahead of time, so they don't drop off before you can recast them. You will lose dps by not being able to channel Mind Flay. The only thing we can really do on the move is spam Devouring Plague or cast a Shadow Word Death, unlike Ele Shamans that can spam Lightning Bolt. I've always been annoyed that we don't have much to do while moving.

    3.) DoTs are your top damaging abilities, and thus have highest priority. Mind Flay is your filler, and Mind Blast should be cast on CD. Shadow Word Death comes in when the target is below 25%.

    4.) Worgen is the ally class of choice for caster DPS for the crit bonus. If you plan to do any PvP, then you want to go with Human for the racial ability, and the spirit bonus is nice if you plan to OS heal at any point. Look-wise, it's all personal opinion, lol. I personally think the worgens look ridiculous, and gear doesn't seem to fit their models well. I have 2 Drenei toons (Pally and Shaman) and my Priest is Human (first toon I ever made). Play around with them and see what you like.

  6. #6
    Shadow does pretty well in raids, especially if there are several adds. Madness of Deathwing is a good example, me and our other shadow priest are normally in the top 5 for DPS/Damage done. True, shadow does heavily depend on DI, but it's honestly not a game changer. Our top shadowpriest normally gets it, and he has Dragonwrath as well, and I'm not too far behind him in damage. Mind Blast normally does more damage than your dots, especially if you have orbs up. You always, ALWAYS want to cast it on CD, regardless if you have orbs or not. On Movement style fights, shadow is..meh. Even with our dots rolling, we're still meh. Not bad, but not the best. On Patchwerk style fights, it honestly depends. For some reason, I'm pretty low on those fights. As for which race on alliance, I'd say Draenei. They look cool and have a prettydecent racial.

  7. #7
    What these ^ guys have said, mostly. Don't expect to be top DPS on anything patchwerk-style, but with even a single extra add you can be top 3 easy or straight up #1 (by a lot in some cases) if you're good and have decent gear.

    On movement-heavy fights I feel like it's kind of funny how we and other dot classes excelled at movement compared to other classes, 90% or more of whose dps was casted, and then those classes were compensated with the ability to cast while running which ended up far surpassing the dot classes. Ele shamans specifically can do a good 80% of their dps while on the move, quite a bit more than our 50-60%.

    For the breakdown, it's roughly 40-50% from dots, 15-20% from Blast, and the rest is Flay and others (SWD, trinket procs, etc). Blast damage is going way down once people break their 4t12 bonus.

    If you care about looks EVEN A LITTLE BIT go night elf female. Sweet animations and overall a great visual experience (slutty dancing always nice heh heh). Shadowmeld prevents death after a wipe maybe once in 50 wipes and Worgens/gnomes/humans have some clear but relatively minor mathematical advantages, but I wouldn't not be a nelf female if someone paid me.

  8. #8
    Are priests really that dependant in DI? Wow.

  9. #9
    wow? been main target for DI for a time now.

  10. #10
    To expand on the answers a bit...

    - What classes can we expect to see beating Shadow Priests on Patchwerk (single target) fights?

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Skygoneblue View Post
    To expand on the answers a bit...

    IIRC, arcane mage or marksmanship hunter, usually.
    Disc/Shadow Priest

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Aceso Jenkins View Post
    IIRC, arcane mage or marksmanship hunter, usually.
    Interesting. Most of the hunter forum (or at least, everyone who has contributed to the Hunter Issues thread) seems to think they're ridiculously undertuned and need buffs badly. Big surprise.

    World of Logs is showing Fire Mages absolutely rocking Ultraxion for 25 normal, with only one Unholy DK and one Ret Paladin in the top 10.

  13. #13
    Poke around http://raidbots.com/dpsbot/ will tell you a lot more about shadow dps than we can tell you on this forum in terms of how it is performing overall.

    Assuming equal gear and skill shadow is doing middle-of-the-pack on single target fights (take a look at Ultraxion), but is very competitive for top dps/dmg done when you can multi-dot, or AOE.

    Imo Draenei is the best alliance race, 1% hit, Gift of Naruu(but have to leave shadow form to use it)... arguably Worgen crit is *slightly slightly* better but Worgen are all horrendously and disgustingly ugly, especially in cloth, and should probably all be shot on sight

  14. #14
    Moderator Yvaelle's Avatar
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    The most important question of yours is clearly the last, and the only respectable choices are Draenei or Night Elf: I'm both! ^^

    Draenei have 1% hit which is the best dps racial on alliance (because alliance racials aren't even remotely comparable to horde). Night elves however do flips - constantly - and we're the prettiest, draenei have the sexiest bodies, but night elves are too beautiful to sleep with. <Front flip> you see right there when we were talking about who was sexiest? I just did a very nonchalant front flip during that. So another big consideration is the secondary racials - Shadowmeld is invaluable for pvp and escaping combat, which isn't as good as a dps boost but nothing to scoff at - and especcially when compared to Gift of the Naaru which isn't usable in Shadowfo-<sideflip> - oh were you saying something, I didn't notice because I just sideflipped while wearing a night gown - do you have any idea how much grace that takes? No, you don't.

    To be fair to my very conflicted Draenei side though, Draenei do have The Waggle(tm), and that's the only other racial comparable to Night Elf flips.
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