Mastering the PvE Shadow Priest!

[Slarviz]

All right. Since I have noticed that most shadow priests that joins our guild perform bad in the beginning and I have to hand out alot of tips I thought: Why not post a guide here so too help some people that need it

Playing the shadow priest isn't about following a rotation, it is about following a prio order for which spell to cast. The order goes like this:

1. Vampiric touch - this is the dot with the highest damage and it also regnerates mana to 10 raid members. How great isn't that?

2. Shadow word: pain - Just a normal dot with some nice dmg

3. Devouring plague - this dot is pretty mana expensive and can be left out at some points when it is really tough with the mana but really, it is a great dot since it also heals you.

4. Mind blast - a plain damage spell which should be cast whenever it is off cd.

5. Shadow word: death - You should also keep this one on cd BUT you have to be careful and observe your health before casting this one.

6. Mind flay - This is the spell you cast when everything else is done!

Making a long story short: Keep the dots up, keep MB and SW: D on cd and then, Melt some brains with your mind flay

This is the max damage "rotation" or whatever you want to call it but it is not very mana effecient and you may have to keep that in mind some times but usually it will be all right with your fiend and dispersion.

Besides casting theese spells you should also keep up vampiric embrace. It is a spell that heals whenever you do damage.


AoE: Since WotLK arrived shadow priests can put out massive aoe damage if played correctly. In Naxxramas for example, most groups can be aoe'd since they are pretty big. My thumb rule is that if you have 4 mobs in a group - AOE and keep the dots up on at least one of them!

If there are alot of low health mobs, for example the small spiders in Naxxramas, just spam the mindsear and you will crush all the others in dmg done

Also use haste trinkets or similar things at aoe since they really boost your damage with mind sear.

I will link the most common and in my opinion the best shadow priest specc in this moment.

Talent Calculator - World of Warcraft

the 13/0/57.

You get all the most neccesary things. Some people wonder "Why don't you specc Shadow affinity for reduced threat?"
The simple answer to that is that most shadow priests dont build that much threat, it is only in some extreme cases and therefore it isn't neccesary.


Theese are all the things that I can think off right now. I truely hope that you have enjoyed reading my guide and that you have learned something from it.
Thank you for your time.

Best regards

Slarviz

[chad4]

I would agree with spec. Pretty standard, The one I use.

It seems every shadow priest has their own rotation. I havent seen anyone ever use my rotation but I found it is the highest damage. You should come up with your own rotation or find one that works for you. Dont just faceroll. We are more complicated than pallies.

[Kretenoid]

The rotation for highest DPS clearly is:

1.Your 1st job is to get 5/5 Shadow Weaving before you put up SW:P as you won't cast it again the whole fight and that's 10% more damage from it.

I personally prefer putting VT + DP and doing a MB + SW combo and a Mind Flay if needed to get 5/5 faster.

I also recommend waiting for the 13% (or sth like it) debuff on the boss b4 putting up SW:P (if you have balance druids on the raid ofc).

2.Your main job is to have VT and DP up all the time.

3.Spam Mind Blast on CD and while it's on CD spam Mind Flay.

4.Don't cast SW unless you have to move (Thaddius for example) and you are unsure if Shadow Weaving might expire (or when Malygos gets you up in the air).

5.Once you get used to that "rotation" you will see how much your DPS will jump and will be rly amazed that your toon can be so badass on the damage meters.

[nitrous]

It seems that you've never really played shadow priest. First of all - SWD is useless. If you don't think so - check the spreadsheets and simcraft results and after that stfu. Also VT and DP should always be up. With this talent spec mana shouldn't be an issue - use shadowfiend everytime it's off cooldown and dispersion if you REALLY need mana.
Optimal rotation:
-VE
-SWP -> 1x weaving + Twisted Faith proc +
-VT (at 1x weaving) -> 2x weavings
-DP (at 2x) -> 3x weavings
-MB -> 4x weavings
-MF -> 5x weavings + glyph of shadow proc
-reapply SWP
ALWAYS keep dots up, cast MB whenever it's off cooldown and spam Mind Flay whenever MB is on cooldown. Also on Malygos reapply all dots when you stand on a spark, they doesn't update themselves.

About your gear: you should first focus on getting hit capped (289 hit), after that stack around 300-350 haste and keep on stocking up crit and spellpower.

[Cerberon]

I thought there wa a gotcha with SW:P with regards to shadow weaving. Is it true that when you mind flay and it resets the SW:P counter, it doesn't recalculate the number of Shadow weaves (say, if you were at 3x when you cast SW:P) unless you RECAST SW:P? I've heard, but I cant confirm, that is the case. The mind flay will refresh SW:P but not give you the added damage from Shadow weave multiplier added after SW:P is originally cast. ... I hope this makes sense Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks,

Cerb

[evilgoat]

Just a note. Not trying to advertise but a GREAT site for spriests is Shadowpriest.com i used this all the time - the place has EVERYTHING for a shadowpriest ever needed for more info

[sgtjimmy]

i have been trying to lvl a shadow priest and shadow priest lvling guides??

[darkblood14]

5. Shadow word: death - You should also keep this one on cd BUT you have to be careful and observe your health before casting this one.

Errr... nope... this one will be redered as useless(mind flay tick will hit harder then sw: d) as u get spell dmg and u should cast it while u are move or to fix a short cd... 1.5 sec cd left on mind blast... go go sw: d so the GC match the cd on your mind blast.

3. Devouring plague - this dot is pretty mana expensive and can be left out at some points when it is really tough with the mana but really, it is a great dot since it also heals you.

eeeeeeez with this... srly... u don't want to ignore this spell or u will lose tons of dmg.

I usualy start the fight with vt/mb/sw: d and a mind flay so i can have 5/5 after that sw: p (casting sw: p prior to this will make u lose some dps after some time... ofc if u reaply sw: p u should be ok... but since mind flay reset the duration u don't want to reaply)... also it is nice to reaply dots when u have trikets/buff up so they can benefit from them, keep in mind that dots are affected at the cast time not while they are dmg-ing your target.

[track3r]

Shadow word Death using is usselles except when there's such a little CD on MB that u cant lay a full Mind Flay there, what happens when u have to reapply a dot.
Anyway, I find 13/0/58 a better spec, +25% crit on a spell every 3 min doesnt seem to be any real dps increase for me.

[djCorrupT]

there is no set rotation for a spriest.. for bosses use VT then PW:P > Plague > VT > MD > PW > MF after that make sure that there are no cooldowns up, so do Plague MB and Death

for trash with more then 3 mobs hit mindsear..

[Firebrand]

Since your crit % increases your dot dmg by the same amount, will Inner Focus increase your dot dmg by 25%?

[Sublimino]

Personally on my lvl 63 spriest so far i use
VT
SW:P
Mind Flay
Mind Blast
SW: D
this is just the general one i use on mobs....
for PvP i use everything i got =D

[west45]

I thought there wa a gotcha with SW:P with regards to shadow weaving. Is it true that when you mind flay and it resets the SW:P counter, it doesn't recalculate the number of Shadow weaves (say, if you were at 3x when you cast SW:P) unless you RECAST SW:P? I've heard, but I cant confirm, that is the case. The mind flay will refresh SW:P but not give you the added damage from Shadow weave multiplier added after SW:P is originally cast. ... I hope this makes sense Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks,

Cerb

It is true, if you cast SWP early without waiting for shadow weaving and debuffs on a boss it will keep the same crit% and %damage as long as it's up. It is a big DPS boost if you wait for the debuffs and shadow weaving.

Also, SWD is decent as a "filler" spell, ex; if you have <1sec on MB CD, <1.5s on DP, <2.5s on VT. Using SWD over MF at those times is made up for by the higher DOT uptime, and more mind blasts.

Just a note. Not trying to advertise but a GREAT site for spriests is Shadowpriest.com i used this all the time - the place has EVERYTHING for a shadowpriest ever needed for more info

Yep, this site and EJ have all the info you will ever need on playing a SP :P.