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| Muqq's shadowpriest guide for maximum laser damage upon the eyes of your enemies |
by muqq @ 1 Nov 2007, 10:51 PM
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 INDEXA well played shadow priest is a great addition to any serious raiding guild, and more priests have found the shadow tree to be a very viable alternative to the holy tree since the release of The Burning Crusade. This will be a guide which won’t focus on starting up a shadowpriest, but rather show you how to better utilize its strengths, and manage to work around its weaknesses in high end PvE content. I will not go into PvP much, as this guide is purely for PvE, so if that's something you're looking for, sorry to disappoint you. I will include some suggestions as to what stats you'd want to look for in your gear, how to plan for certain PvE encounters and just some general tips that'll make playing a shadowpriest a whole lot easier in the long run. If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this guide, our forums are the best place to share them with us. There's probably a lot more to be said when it comes to playing a shadowpriest, but I'll only cover the main things, and also some other general things, which are not exclusive to shadowpriests, but to any class and player who is raiding. Aside from that, I'll talk about the placement of talent points, different strategies for different encounters, and what you can do to improve your own efficiency as a shadowpriest, even without upgrading your gear or making radical changes to your current playing style. A lot of the information provided here is based on personal experience, so always take that into account. While all of the information provided might not be relevant to everyone, you might at least get a few good suggestions from this guide.  I'll assume the average person who's reading this guide to have set foot in Karazhan and have played shadowpriest for some time since reaching level 70. Two of the biggest issues most shadowpriests will run into are threat management and having enough mana to last through the longer PvE encounters. I'll explain the circumstances around these, and will give some good hints on how to best work around them. 2.1 Monitoring Threat In regards to threat issues, there are many ways you can improve and do more DPS, and still stay below the maintank on aggro. The easiest way, and also probably the most straightforward one, is to install an addon that monitors threat, such as KTM. This will give you a visual indicator of how close you are to pulling threat off of the main tank, and allows you to maximize your DPS while not pulling aggro. 2.2 Vampiric Embrace Something else you can do is either refrain from using vampiric embrace, or simply skip placing points in the Improved Vampiric Embrace talent. While this might not seem to be such a big deal, it's usually all the little things that add up, and anything you can do to lower your threat generation is a good thing. As always, use your own judgement when you choose not to utilize Vampiric Embrace, as it provides a lot of healing for your group, even though it generates quite a lot of threat. On some fights, it's almost required, so just adapt to that and lower your DPS a bit to make up for the additional threat you generate.  Shadowpriests are probably one of the worst classes when it comes to retaining mana in longer fights, but there are many things you can do to alleviate this. Mages and warlocks do not have anywhere near as much problems as us regarding mana conservation, and without good support from the guild or friends that you play with, it's hard to perform well. 3.1 Consumables I'll assume people do the more obvious things, such as making good use of mana potions and consumables. Having lots of Super Mana Potions, Elixirs of Major Shadow Power and Major Mageblood or just regular Flasks of Supreme Power for that matter is a must in high end raiding. Aside from that, there are many other things you can do to last longer in PvE encounters. 3.2 Group Setup The first thing you should do is to make your raid leader understand that shadowpriests need support to perform well in PvE, so don't be afraid to ask to be put into a group together with a shaman. 3.3 Shaman & Manatide Having Wrath of Air totem, as well as the Manaspring and Manatide totems goes a long way in improving your sustainability. If you already get placed in groups with a shaman for the most part, open a dialogue with said shaman. Have them plan the manatide usage around your mana, and not their own. It's in the interest of every caster in your group to have you good on mana, so you can keep DPS:ing, and thereby returning mana back to the them. Make a macro that notifies the shaman when you want the manatide. It's important to also keep track of the other casters in your own group, so you don't ask for the manatide when you're the only one in need of it. 3.4 Druids & Innervate One more thing you should do is to open up a dialogue with any feral druid you might have on the raids. For the most part, they won't be using innervates at all during the PvE encounters, so this is often another resource that is unused. Talk to them, and ask them if they can spare you their innervates during fights. You might not think it'll make a big difference, as shadowpriests generally don't have a whole lot of spirit, but then again, it's better than nothing, and it fits well into the strategy of sustaining your mana while using mana-intensive spell rotations. 3.5 Shadowfiend A new thing that arrived with The Burning Crusade was our very own pet, known as the Shadowfiend. The pet itself is very weak, and will die easily to AoE affects if you're not careful. Therefore, only use it if you are certain it'll stay alive for the full duration, otherwise you'll end up with a whole lot less mana. 3.6 Combining Your Resources Weaving all of these resources into your strategy is a must if you want to keep using mana intensive spell rotations and still be good on mana. You will also need to plan ahead! If you're at 70% mana, ask for that innervate, so that its 6 minute cooldown can start, and the same goes for Manatide. Ask for them as soon as you know none of that mana will go to waste, as it's good to have them being used early, and ticking away on their cooldowns so they might get used again in the very same fight. Planning the usage of Innervate, Manatide, mana potions and your Shadowfiend will not only improve your DPS and efficiency, but also generate more mana for your own group.  4.1 Important Stats The two main things you should look for in the gear that you acquire are spelldamage and spell hit rating. The current spell hit rating cap is at 16%, so you'll get 10% from talents, and you'll have to make up for the remaining 6% from gear. Aside from that, work on getting as much spelldamage as possible. A quick and easy way to improve your gear is to choose tailoring as a profession, and make the Spellstrike and the Frozen Shadoweave set. They are a lot better than the Tier 4 armor set, and probably equal to the Tier 5 set in regards to DPS. I'd still use the Tier 5 set over the tailoring items though, as it provides better sustainability and survivability. 4.2 Sockets As for gem choices, I suggest most people should stick with the 9/12 spelldamage gems (Living Rubies & Crimson Spinels), as they provide the biggest improvement to us shadowpriests. As for the metagem, there are two options you have here. One option is to use a Mystical Skyfire Diamond, which occasionally lowers the casting time of your next spell in half or the Swift Starfire Diamond, which provides 12 spelldamage and minor run speed. This is really a matter of preference, so if you feel that the Skyfire suits your playing style better, use that one. If you'd rather use the Starfire metagem, it works just as well. There's a 14 spelldamage metagem from the Ogri'la faction as well, but it's time consuming to get, so I won't recommend it.  5.1 Shadowpriest Builds While there are many variations in the builds you use as a holy priest, you have a lot less options when choosing to play as a shadowpriest. Generally, you spend around 47-48 points in the shadow tree, and the remaining points in the discipline tree. I'd say what differs from shadowpriest to shadowpriest are how many points they choose to spend in Improved Mind Blast, Improved Vampiric Embrace and whether they choose to go with Spirit Tap or Blackout. Also, the amount of points they decide to put into the discipline differ, and ranges from 10 points to even 14. I'll supply a good basic talent build at the end of this section, which you can use as a template. 5.2 Shadowtree Talents Many of the talents in the shadow tree are a must for any shadowpriest, so there's not really much you can do to differentiate around here. Depending on your playing style, you might want to put a few more points into Improved Mind Blast if you feel you need to have it cooldown faster than it currently does. As for Spirit Tap vs. Blackout, I'd say if you PvP a lot, use Blackout, as it's always a welcome addition to have it proc on your opponents. If you farm a lot with your shadowpriest, having Spirit Tap is nice. 5.3 Adapting Talents Against Gear As your gear improves, you can even respec and lower the amount of points you have in Shadow Focus and apply them elsewhere, such as getting silence or just more points into meditation. While meditation doesn't do a whole lot for us shadowpriests, if you find yourself having extra points to spare, it will still improve your sustainability a bit so it's worth it. Remember to choose talent points in regards to your own playing style. If you have good gear, and find that you can afford to keep Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death on their cooldowns, then having 4-5 points in Mind Blast and 5 in Shadow Power is a must. For lower threat generation, you can skip the 2 points in Vampiric Embrace, and place them into meditation or one point more in Mind Blast or wherever you decide. In the end, it all comes down to adapting your talents to how you play yourself, and whether or not you do some occasional PvP or not. 5.4 Shadowpriest Build Template The basic raiding shadowpriest build  A common question I get asked a lot is, which spell rotation is the best? Truth to be told, there is no one rotation that fits all encounters. On some fights you might have to move around a lot, which makes using Mind Flay harder, as its range is limited to 24 yards. Other times, you might be fighting a stationary target, which will allow you to use Mind Flay with ease. So really, it all comes down to adapting your playing style for different types of encounters. 6.1 Basic Rotation The basic rotation that most shadowpriests probably use is the Vampiric Touch > Shadow Word: Pain > Vampiric Embrace > Mind Flay variation. This is the most mana-efficient rotation, as it really lets you DPS for a long time before you run out of mana. This is the rotation most of the newer shadowpriests will stick with until they get better gear. As your gear improves, you can manage to weave in Mind Blast, effectively making it Vampiric Touch > Shadow Word: Pain > Vampiric Embrace > Mind Blast > Mind Flay > Mind Flay. Keep using Mind Blast as soon as its cooldown is over. 6.2 Vampiric Embrace in Spell Rotations As for Vampiric Embrace, you could skip it in your rotation if you find that you’re generating too much threat, or just choose not to take the improved talents for it, and lower your threat generation that way. As always, it’s just a personal preference that you'll have to decide upon, taking the benefits vs. the downsides into account. 6.3 Mana-intensive Rotation Our most mana-intensive spell rotation includes adding Shadow Word: Death into it, making the rotation Vampiric Touch > Shadow Word: Pain > Vampiric Embrace > Mind Blast > Shadow Word: Death > Mind Flay. This will burn through your mana very quickly if you are not careful, and you should only be using this rotation if you are really good on mana, or have lots of consumables, innervates and mana tide at your disposal. This rotation will also generate huge amounts of threat, so if you don't have a good enough tank that is able to hold aggro against you, there's little point in using it. 6.4 Shadow Word: Death On another note here, Shadow Word: Death, is a double-edged sword. While it will increase your DPS, it will also damage you for the same amount that it inflicts upon your target. If you're not careful, you might actually kill yourself with it by lowering your own health, and getting hit by an AoE effect during an encounter. Always consider the time and place when you use this spell, as you could end up dead instead of increasing your DPS. 6.5 Spell Prioritization Another important thing to consider while playing a shadowpriest is prioritizing between spells. As most of you probably have experienced, the cooldowns of our abilities often come unsynced, forcing us to decide what spells to cast and in what order to cast them. A good example of this would be having Vampiric Touch expire on the target, and at the same time having Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death available to cast. In those events it's important to take the whole situation into account, and estimating if you could manage the mana-loss of not having Vampiric Touch on while casting Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death before reapplying it. It all comes down to judging the situation and acting accordingly. On the same subject, it's also important to look at the remaining time left on your dots and reapplying them at good times. For example, having 1 second left on Vampiric Touch is a good time to start reapplying it again, as the casting time of 1.5 seconds would result in having it being applied less than half a second after it's expired. Casting it too early will only result in not getting the last tick of your previous Vampiric Touch, and will subsequently result in less DPS. Another judgement call you might have to make is in the situations where you start channeling Mind Flay with less than 2 second left on your Mind Blast. Do you interrupt the Mind Flay after the second tick and start casting Mind Blast, or do you let it channel for the full duration? My advice on that matter is to interrupt it if you are good on mana, and think you'll be able to last the whole fight, and if not, just let it channel all the way, and then cast Mind Blast.  There are two addons that any shadowpriest should have. 7.1 Dot Tracking Addons The first and probably the most important addon is one that tracks the timers of your dots. Not re-applying dots when they run out is a huge loss of DPS, and they can be very hard to keep track of without an addon that helps you with this. Which addon you choose is really just a personal preference, but a few examples of these kinds of addons would be Chronometer, DoTTimer and Nature Enemy Cast Bar. 7.2 Threat-monitoring Addons The second addon you should get is one that monitors threat. There’s really only two options here, KTM and Omen. Both work pretty much the same, although KTM is a lot heavier on the resource usage than Omen. Which one you choose to use is pretty much up to personal preference, as they both perform their task equally well. 7.3 Stop-casting Macro As for macros, there's not really much to say here. Shadowpriests don't benefit much from stopcasting macros, as we don't have long casting time on our spells. If you wanted to, you could use it in conjunction with Mind Flay, depending on your latency. If you have high latency, a stopcasting macro is great to improve the DPS you inflict with it. It will allow you to cast your next Mind Flay before the current one has finished casting as it probably already stopped channeling server-side.  An example of a stopcasting macro:
"/stopcasting"
"/cast Mind Flay"
7.4 No-channeling Macro Another one you might want to consider is the noChanneling macro. This macro essentially allows you to spam the mindflay button without fear of interrupting the current channeling of your Mind Flay, which I guess most people do every once in a while. This macro is better suited for people with lower latency than those with high, as you might actually lose DPS if you use this macro if you tend to have a high ping. The reason for this is that you’d probably want to start casting your next spell before the current cast is complete, as your latency adds a bit of a downtime between your spell casts. This isn’t that big of an issue for shadowpriests, as we mostly have instant spells or spells with 1.5 second casting times. An example of a noChanneling macro: "/cast [noChanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay"  The most important part in improving your efficiency and DPS as a shadowpriest is to plan ahead, as well as adapting your strategy to fit the encounter. While Karazhan is rather straight forward as far as the encounters go, things pick up a bit after that. Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep will offer a few diverse encounters, and Black Temple even more. What you need to do is come up with different strategies for each encounter, which will improve your performance in them. 8.1 Learn the Encounters The first few times you do an encounter and beat it, you will most likely stick to your basic spell rotation. This applies to almost any fight. After that, you’ll want to look into improving your performance on said encounters. A good example of this would be a fight such as Shadow of Akama in Black Temple. The first few times, as a shadowpriest you might be assigned to killing the channelers in the middle. You start DPS:ing one target and stick with single target DPS:ing for your first few kills of the boss. Later you might realize, well, why not just dot all of them? You end up trying that, and discover that your DPS goes up by quite a huge amount. That's one example of how learning a fight will allow you to properly maximize your efficiency. Another thing you have to consider is that priorities of the spells you use sometimes differ from encounter to encounter. Supremus in Black Temple is a boss that is constantly moving around in his second phase. This doesn't fit very well into using a Mind Flay-heavy spell rotation, so you need to adapt and just keep dots on and sticking to Mind Blast and Shadow Word: Death a lot. 8.2 Aggro Resets Some fights have aggro-resets included in them, and you need to take that into account as well. Fights such as Hydross and Leotheras the Blind in Serpentshrine Cavern can be very unforgiving if you DPS a lot during transitions. Just pay attention and adapt to whatever encounter you are doing. 8.3 Multi-target DPS Another thing many people fail to do is to properly dot up targets if you have the mana for it. Kael'Thas in Tempest Keep is an example of an encounter which has multiple targets available for DPS during one of his phases. Take that into account and keep all targets dotted up if your mana allows it, it'll increase your DPS. The same strategy can be used on many other encounters, as well as when you're clearing trashmobs, if you have several mobs being tanked at once.  |
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