A day in the life of ..

[castille]

This is inspired by the PvP 'how to kill me' thread. This is 'how to play me'.

A little background on my history as a priest, to give you an idea. I played a Shadow Priest before I came to stormrage, and gave up on the game. Once my wife started playing again, I made a priest, and took the shadow back up. Once I hit about 40 or so, I respec'd to Disc/Holy to compliment the holy/disc that she'd been playing since level 10. We were instancing a LOT, and we had a high amount of DPS anyway, so the extra healing really just kept our pace solid those last levels. I capped as a Disc/Holy, having refined from a 30/21 to a 26/25 disc/holy spec, since getting to 30 points in discipline is costly and Divine Spirit isn't all that hot.

So, I've had a lot of 'endgame' experience as a Disc/Holy priest, and I was pretty good at it (if I say so, myself). I really missed Shadow Priesting. So, for one afternoon, I spec'd back to a 15/0/36 Shadow Priest build. I missed it, a lot, and my gameplay style had only improved because of what I had learned while raiding as a disc/holy. I went back to disc/holy after that afternoon, but I would lament, and whine, and eventually the guild leaders and raid leaders I sometimes get the chance to run with basically said, "We have a ton of healing, but no raiding shadow priests. Respec. Do it."

And so I did.

This is my current build, for reference:
15/0/36

There are a few changes I may make, but it will stick close to this. The reason we have one point in SWP is just to keep shadow weaving up as long as SWP is ticking -- it actually gets one tick after shadow weaving drops, but it ensures that it's always getting some advantage.

The two points in Improved Mind Blast is because, well, Mind Blast is a HUGE aggro magnet, especially after the 1.9 'readjustment'. You really want to force yourself to space it out. This also makes it almost exactly the same amount of time as two mind flays. So, you end up in a rhythm of mind flay, mind flay, mind blast. You definitly want to also make sure you only start using it around the 70% mark unless it's a tank you can really trust to have a huge aggro lead on you, and even then I'd avoid using it in the first 5-10% if you can. Of note: mind flay has a VERY final tick at the last piece of its channelling, you'll want to make sure the casting bar goes away to get the full motion out of it. I often interrupt it with a mind blast if we're getting close to finishing the bastard, but it should be fine, otherwise.

Vampiric Embrace is BEAUTIFUL for handling incidental damage that's spread out amongst a group. For instance: the Ragnaros fight, where the rogues can often take subtle AoE damage -- this won't QUITE keep up with all of it, but it keeps them above -200 or so. This is also good for being in the 'ranged DPS' group of something like a Strat or Scholo raid, just because you can offheal all the little things. A word of warning, though. Since it's a heal like any other, it's VERY easy to pull healing aggro. This is like throwing out a rank 1 PoH about every 6s or so. Any situation where you're not sure of aggro, don't use this spell.

Silent Resolve / Shadow Affinity: Reportedly, these stack. 45% aggro reduction on all damage. Yet, you can still pull with a Mind Blast if you do it above 90% or so before the Warrior has 2 sunders on. (or has gotten a good revenge in or something like that) That's how insane the aggro on MB is now. However, if you only use SWP and Mind Flay? You'll never pull aggro and you'll still be doing about 200 DPS without a lot of +dmg items.

Fade: Beautiful for use in conjuction with VE. This is not as important with your actual damage spells, because of the Silent Resolve / Shadow Affinity combo in talents, but if you go without silent resolve, you might get more use out of it. I use it if I'm doing a lot of healing around once every third mind blast, since that just popped a large amount of healing to the group.

Now, one of the more important things about a full spec'd shadow priest, the 31 point talent of 'shadowform'. Accordingly, shadowform does not affect the base damage, it affects all damage. This means your regular spells as they are affected by +dmg gear. Effectively, find out what the base spell and then add your +dmg (times the coefficient of the spell, of which we get boned as shadow priests, but more on that in a sec), then take all that and multiply it by 1.15 -- that's your final number.

Spell coefficients. This is what your +dmg gear gets modified by for the final addition. Normally, it's a formule that involves the cast time of the spell, any debuffs it has, and the number of targets. Since Shadow Priests are all Single Target, we can ignore that last part. That means it's the length of the caster and the debuff. Both of Mind Blast and Mind Flay enjoy something roughly along the 43% because of their time (instant and channelling spells get the same bonus as 1.5s spells), but Mind Flay has a slow debuff, so multiply the 43% by 95% and you come out with 40%. Ish. That means that with close to +300 damage, your Shadow Word Pain is doing a LOT more, but it can be fairly unnoticable overall jumping from 200-300 spell damage. Yeah, we kinda get boned. It's a 3s channelled spell, but still only counts as an instant. And, we only really have one damage spell that crits -- mind blast. So, +crit doesn't do you much good, either.

In gear, I prefer a mix of good stats and +dmg, and I've been favoring the +dmg just to see how it goes. So far, the only people that really rival me -- given that my mana lasts the fight -- are rogues. Watching things like damage meters isn't all that fun, and I've disabled all those mods once I found out where I sat, but it was nice seeing 4 rogues then me, then everyone else. I've also always been a fan of mana every 5. As soon as I get my hands on an Ace of Beasts, though, we're going Blue Dragon and Shard of the Scale for my two trinkets. I rival executing warriors when I get an innervate (some kind druid on the last MC run tossed one my way), so I can only hope to see it proccing often ;)

That's about all I can figure. It gives a bit of insight into how I see my shadow priesting. And, hey, I haven't wiped a raid yet, ya know?

[Treesh]

That's about all I can figure. It gives a bit of insight into how I see my shadow priesting. And, hey, I haven't wiped a raid yet, ya know?
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You do a damned fine job playing your shadow priest. You DPS well and yet are smart enough to know when to drop out of shadowform and heal if necessary. I'm glad we "convinced" you to respec back to shadow (it's never fun being forced into a playstyle you don't enjoy), but it is good to see just how the other half lives. I specced Aleri as shadow on the test realm once. It was such a completely different style of play that it just threw me for a loop, having all these new toys all of a sudden at level 60 instead of growing up with them so Aleri will remain holy/disc. I do have a budding shadow priest coming up through the ranks on Terenas though and I'm enjoying her quite a bit. Just need to find time to play her more. :) Thanks for the tips Genkar.

[Pesmerga]

Very nice insight, especially considering I have Emjly at 57, closing in on 60 fast.

[castille]

I should note -- the idea behind my spec is that I balance PvP and PvE -- sure, I don't resist stuns as often, but you never really do, anyway, and I don't do OMG HOLY CRAP mind blast outputs, but I mix it well. I still have no problem carving through individual people. But, at the end of the day, the green fades from my name and I can still go into MC and ZG and BWL and not worry that I'm comprising the people I'm playing with. I don't have to force the tanks to keep up with me, but keep them up, myself

Also, I was intending this thread to be a place that people should feel free to post their own builds and ideas behind them. I have a budding BM/Marks hunter (might respec in the end game, but she's designed to be a self-sustaining character who can solo everything but instances), and a Combat Sword/Dagger hybrid rogue (17/34/0 build, improved backstab, sword/dagger/offhand spec). I'd be interested in seeing other builds -- especially horde builds, if we can get a few of those, just so I can know how to kill the.. I mean, play them better.

[castille]

You do a damned fine job playing your shadow priest.  You DPS well and yet are smart enough to know when to drop out of shadowform and heal if necessary.  I'm glad we "convinced" you to respec back to shadow (it's never fun being forced into a playstyle you don't enjoy), but it is good to see just how the other half lives.  I specced Aleri as shadow on the test realm once.  It was such a completely different style of play that it just threw me for a loop, having all these new toys all of a sudden at level 60 instead of growing up with them so Aleri will remain holy/disc.  I do have a budding shadow priest coming up through the ranks on Terenas though and I'm enjoying her quite a bit.  Just need to find time to play her more.  :)  Thanks for the tips Genkar.
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And, see, the funny thing is is that I really did enjoy disc/holy, and by far and large, gear wise, it's so much easier to outfit a healing priest. But as much as I looooooved priesting, I looooove shadow priesting that much more ;)

[Treesh]

Combat Sword/Dagger hybrid rogue (17/34/0 build, improved backstab, sword/dagger/offhand spec).
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Eth has an odd little version of Combat Dagger/sword hybrid, but without the improved backstab, she may as well just drop daggers and just blast the hell out of things with her swords. Growing up, she was mostly ambush/backstab for damage (yeah, back when people poo-poo'd backstab as a main attack), but now her ambush and backstabs (unless they crit) are far less damage than just having slice and dice up and blasting away. She does do surprisingly well off-tanking critters though thanks to Riposte. I try to not give my healers too many fits when playing her, but if there's something loose among the squishies, it's better that they're on me than on the squishies. Now, if only I would remember to click off salvation when offtanking, it'd probably be easier. ;)

Phooey. Gotta go to work. Will finish this up later.

[Mavfin]

And, see, the funny thing is is that I really did enjoy disc/holy, and by far and large, gear wise, it's so much easier to outfit a healing priest. But as much as I looooooved priesting, I looooove shadow priesting that much more ;)
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I had a holy/disc priest to 45, got to heal in instances, and loved it! But I love to tank even more. If shadow priesting fits you, (and you are one helluva shadow priest), then more power to you!

[castille]

And I hate to say it this way, but I think the experience of being a healing priest is really important to being a good endgame shadow priest. You have to know when to start getting out of tunnel vision DPS mode (where you watch every cooldown, and get your button rhythm going) to healing mode (whack-a-mole is very apt). I still keep my resurrection monitor and emergency monitor up, but I often toggle off my CTRA windows when I'm in DPS mode, for instance. Maybe not having to spec out of shadow, but at least playing an FFA healer in MC a few times, or being that only healer in a strat or scholo run -- not a lot of pressure, because there's a lot of overlap to make up for it, but still the ability to get the feel of healing in the instance to know exactly when your help will be needed. . .

[Quark]

I still keep my resurrection monitor and emergency monitor up, but I often toggle off my CTRA windows when I'm in DPS mode, for instance.[right][snapback]99934[/snapback][/right]

Since I like to keep a status of the raid handy, Ramala has all the Group windows up, but they're reduced in size. Chani has them at a bigger size (and with HP numbers). You might want to try something similar.

Also, do you use different sets of options for DPS and healing modes? I certainly do for Chani/Ramala :P

And if you like the full/small window size changes, please bug CT to get the Option Sets to remember scaling size. I don't want to harp on them in their suggestion forums, but as someone who's constantly changing sizes it's getting annoying :/

[castille]

Since I like to keep a status of the raid handy, Ramala has all the Group windows up, but they're reduced in size.  Chani has them at a bigger size (and with HP numbers).  You might want to try something similar.

Also, do you use different sets of options for DPS and healing modes?  I certainly do for Chani/Ramala :P

And if you like the full/small window size changes, please bug CT to get the Option Sets to remember scaling size.  I don't want to harp on them in their suggestion forums, but as someone who's constantly changing sizes it's getting annoying :/
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Since it's all on the same character, I haven't played with the option sets -- I basically watch the emergency monitor for a LOT of things going on -- if nothing except a few tanks is popping up, we're in good shape, and I don't have to worry about it. . . Otherwise, I just hit ctrl-z and bring them back up. I'll have to play with Option Sets -- I hadn't, really, even thought about doing that.

[Klaus]

Thanks for the interesting read. I'm bringing up a shadow priest on Terenas (currently lvl 50) and I'm greatly enjoying it. Your build is very similar to what I'm looking at for endgame.

I have one question:

The reason we have one point in SWP is just to keep shadow weaving up as long as SWP is ticking -- it actually gets one tick after shadow weaving drops, but it ensures that it's always getting some advantage.

Can you clarify this? It looks to me like shadow weaving runs 15 seconds, and the SW:P runs 18 without the talent. So what is your intent with 1 point in SW:P?

Thanks.

[castille]

Thanks for the interesting read.  I'm bringing up a shadow priest on Terenas (currently lvl 50) and I'm greatly enjoying it.  Your build is very similar to what I'm looking at for endgame.

I have one question:
Can you clarify this?  It looks to me like shadow weaving runs 15 seconds, and the SW:P runs 18 without the talent.  So what is your intent with 1 point in SW:P?

Thanks.
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Shadow weaving is refreshed every time you use a power on it -- add 3s from a mind flay, and maybe another mind blast, and you come out to having shadow weaving last the whole time that shadow word: pain, does. The important thing is to make sure SWP outlasts shadow weaving, to ensure you get the maximum out of it -- plus, hey, another .. 300ish points of damage in my current +dmg gear for a talent point. I've thought about dropping mental agility and maxxing swp, shadow reach and mind blast, and still spacing them out with two mind flays -- simply because as shadow, there are only a few instant spells that benefit from this ..

[Klaus]

Shadow weaving is refreshed every time you use a power on it -- add 3s from a mind flay, and maybe another mind blast, and you come out to having shadow weaving last the whole time that shadow word: pain, does. The important thing is to make sure SWP outlasts shadow weaving, to ensure you get the maximum out of it -- plus, hey, another .. 300ish points of damage in my current +dmg gear for a talent point. I've thought about dropping mental agility and maxxing swp, shadow reach and mind blast, and still spacing them out with two mind flays -- simply because as shadow, there are only a few instant spells that benefit from this ..
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But weaving stacks 5 times - every time you add a flay or a blast, you'll get another 3% from weaving, and I was under the impression that each one lasts 15 second (i.e., they unstack sequentially instead of all at once). So as long as you're hitting with shadow spells, some amount of weaving should be active at all times. So, either your SW:P runs out or the target dies before weaving fully expires (unless you quit hitting it with spells, of course). So I guess I was unclear on why you would put 1 point in SW:P and not 2. The only reason I could see was if you expected the target to die in less than 18 seconds, in which case the extra two ticks never come up (and the talent points are therefore wasted).

I might be leaning towards agreeing with you on the Mental Agility. Instant cast spells that come to mind are: SW:P, Devouring Plague (I'm undead), Shield, Fear, PW:F, Inner Fire, Shadowform, Fade, Renew, Dispell, Cure Disease, Vampiric Embrace, Silence. Some are obviously not usable in shadowform, and others (VE) have such a low mana cost to begin with that Agilty doesn't make any difference. Of the ones I would use in shadowform (SW:P, Plague, Shield, Fear), the savings would be about 100-200 mana per fight (SW:P being the only one in that bunch that I use on a regular, every-fight basis, and savings there is only 47 mana). However, the reduced cost for Renew and Dispell would be very nice in some fights, especially with the increased cost of dispell/cure in the latest patch. I remember some fights where I feel like I'm casting dispell constantly.

Another option would be to spend 3 points to get focused casting, leaving you with 2 points more in shadow - one for SW:P and another for shadow focus? Focused casting would be handy for solo work, but I'm not sure how much it would help in group situations.

[MongoJerry]

But weaving stacks 5 times - every time you add a flay or a blast, you'll get another 3% from weaving, and I was under the impression that each one lasts 15 second (i.e., they unstack sequentially instead of all at once).  So as long as you're hitting with shadow spells, some amount of weaving should be active at all times.

They unstack all at once, but every time you hit a mob with a shadow spell, you reset the 15 second timer, so that's to your benefit. Sometimes in raids, I'll "pump" shadow weaving by casting four level 1 SW:Pains and then a full rank SW:Pain to get Shadow Weaving up to 5 times to benefit the warlocks and other priests in the raid. Then, I heal for a little, cast another SW:Pain, heal a little, etc.

For my part, I haven't seen much benefit from Improved Mind Blast, because Mind Flay is so good. With two points in Improved Mind Blast, I can perfectly fit in two Mind Flays in between each Mind Blast. When I had more points in it, I always had to stop mid Mind Flay to take advantage of the faster cooldown. It didn't seem worth it, and I've liked spending the saved points in Shadow Focus.

My current shadow priest build, which is heavily PvP-centered but also is used in large raids is as follows:

Neriad's shadow priest build

The main problem with this build is the reduced mana supply and efficiency when healing. I make up for it with good gear and lots of mana pots and nightdragon's breath.

[Hedon]

Main Problem with Shadow Priests in raids imho is the lack of epic itemization for this spec.

Look at the Prophecy (T1) and Trancendency (T2) Sets. They all have +healing insted of generic spellpower on them. This puts you in an awkward situation: since collecting the priest specific set items isn't worthwhile, you have to resort to collecting some generic not classbound spell power or shadow power gear. Unfortunatley these items are rather limited in supply and you have to compete with Mages and Warlocks for these. Though I've always dreamed of playing a shadow priests capable of raiding, I wouldn't want to spec back from holy now, because of all the +healing gear I have accumulated over time.

This is going to change with AQ drops though where you will find several items specifically tailored for shadow priests.

Regarding the talent discussion, I would sugguest to wait for patch 1.10 anyway when we get our big priest revamp ;)

[Professor Frink]

Main Problem with Shadow Priests in raids imho is the lack of epic itemization for this spec.

Look at the Prophecy (T1) and Trancendency (T2) Sets. They all have +healing insted of generic spellpower on them. This puts you in an awkward situation: since collecting the priest specific set items isn't worthwhile, you have to resort to collecting some generic not classbound spell power or shadow power gear. Unfortunatley these items are rather limited in supply and you have to compete with Mages and Warlocks for these. Though I've always dreamed of playing a shadow priests capable of raiding, I wouldn't want to spec back from holy now, because of all the +healing gear I have accumulated over time.

This is going to change with AQ drops though  where you will find several items specifically tailored for shadow priests.

Regarding the talent discussion, I would sugguest to wait for patch 1.10 anyway when we get our big priest revamp  ;)
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Yes, the lack of equipment hurts, I don't feel I have nearly the motivation to start raiding as other classes/builds. Right now I would say PvP is by far the easiest path to equipment advancement for the shadowpriest, both the rank rewards and the battleground rep rewards have some nice gear.

As for priests in 1.10: my money's on a big nerf, at least on the pvp side. Well-geared holy priests punch way above their weight in group encounters, and shadow wrath greens are easy enough to farm from the AH to make the shadow priest the easiest class to equip to end-game dps levels.

-- frink

[TheLuminaire]

I've got another really heavy shadow build that I use to PvP for most of the week, but it's a bad raiding spec if you get trigger happy on the Mind Blasts.

Lum's PvP build

There's no threat reduction here, since players asses threat like monsters do. =)

The two keys here are are the short MB cooldown, and Spirit Tap. Since I tend to cherry-pick a lot of kills around the 30-40% mark, I proc Spirit Tap off of almost every kill. Since us shadow priests tend to have such low mana pools(especially when loaded up on +dmg gear), I can't tell you what a life saver this is. It increased my survivability by leaps and bounds, especially if I get stuck with low mana after dumping a whole mana bar a big warrior or druid. Inevitably, there's a rogue waiting for me, and having the extra mana regen usually results in living another few seconds.

I've stuck with the longer SWP mostly for runners. I tend to get a lot of players that just run off after a big MB hit, and a Mind Flay or two. Since I can't really chase them down with any efficiency, this helps seal their fates, as long as they can't dispel. Best hope for a runner is either SWP, or a lucky Blackout proc.

The one big drawback to this build is the lack of Shadow Focus, which can be a real drag, if you get an unlucky streak, or if opposing team gets shadow buffs from other priests. Especially if you get Silence resisted on Mages and Warlocks; that's a real bad sign. If you drain your mana bar without killing your target(Holy/Disc Priests, Resto/Bear Druids), you're pretty much defenseless. I'm very tempted to dump Focused Casting, SPW, and Fade, and fill up on Shadow Focus.

Like I said at the top, this build I've found is great for killing things, both PvE, and PvP, but it's not a very controlled build.

[MongoJerry]

As for priests in 1.10: my money's on a big nerf, at least on the pvp side.  Well-geared holy priests punch way above their weight in group encounters, and shadow wrath greens are easy enough to farm from the AH to make the shadow priest the easiest class to equip to end-game dps levels.

You can't heal or punch much when you're dead in under five seconds and are stunned or silenced the entire time. Priests are usually the first to die in any group PvP encounter, and it's not fun. Holy priests can't survive very long in group encounters, and if a shadow priest uses shadow wrath greens, that priest will have no stamina and will drop nearly instantly. Plus, shadow priest damage spells only get 42% benefit from +damage gear and the only spell that can crit is Mind Blast. In the damage dealing department, they get left in the dust by both mages and warlocks who can get +damage items with other useful stats on them. The new AQ priest set looks nice, though, so that should help at least on the equipment side.

Personally, I'm expecting a holy tree revamp with not much change to the shadow or discipline trees. I just hope the holy tree revamp is more than just improving Greater Heal. I also hope that Mind Flay will be changed to give 82% (= 3 second cast spell) of the benefit of +damage gear rather than 42% (= instant cast spell).

[castille]

Personally, I'm expecting a holy tree revamp with not much change to the shadow or discipline trees.  I just hope the holy tree revamp is more than just improving Greater Heal.  I also hope that Mind Flay will be changed to give 82% (= 3 second cast spell) of the benefit of +damage gear rather than 42% (= instant cast spell).
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I would even be okay with 42% spell coefficient if it could crit like Arcane Missile. I could live with that.

[oldmandennis]

<complete speculation>

They will make GHeal channeled

</complete speculation>