Shadow priest needs advice & guidance.

[Rasa]

Hello there.

I have been having some issues with my Shadow priest's dps in the PVE raiding environment. I have read a lot of forums and geared and gemmed accordingly. I follow the prescribed spell rotation, but for some reason I just can't seem to go above 700 dps, except on the teron gorefiend fight where i hit 1200. I have been thinking deeply and evaluating everything I can identify but cannot seem to find out the problem.


Shadow Priests job is to be a mana battery. I cannot do that on most trash mobs because by the time i hit a 2.5 second cast vampiric touch by the time my mind blast is out the mob in most cases is dead. So I just dps without any of the VT or VE to boost my numbers because my guild officers seem to put an emphasis on that.


What I cannot understand is that on bosses I am chain blasting spells like crazy and yet my dps is under 700 when all sites and gear checks say it should be 1100. My raid buffed ( flasked ) spell damage is 1302.

My spell cycle is as recommended VT > SW:P > MB > SW:D > MF > MF > and refresh VT and VE everytime. I mana pot when my mana's 2500 lower than max and then every 2 mins thereafter. I still can't figure out why my dps is under 700 :(

Any advice and evaluation by the wise will be appreciated. Specific forums or sites I can learn more from than EJ and SP.


Here is my armory link :-

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Drenden&n=Rasa


On Illidari Council I run out of mana. My shadowfiend isn't of much use there because it dies right off the bat on any one of those. Is there anyone specific among those 4 i can target ?

Many Thanks,

Rasa

[BigGann]

Wow, I don't even know what to tell you, if you are doing everything right your dps should be higher.

You don't mana battery on trash though, MB Flay SWD on trash, you are just wasting mana other wise.

[Imposter]

First of all i would go to shadowpriest.com and read the collected theorycrafting there. you wont find a better resource for shadowpriests. You can also check "#shadowpriests" at Quakenet. Fair chance to have someone there to help you.




When my guild was at your progression, i was averaging 1000 dps on most encounters and about 1,5k on gorefiend.


Your Equipment isnt bad but you could improve some parts of it.

- You should asap get Revered with Sha'tar for http://www.wowhead.com/?item=29191.

- You should try to get Waistwrap of Infinity from Supremus. And your gemchoice for your belt isnt really good. I would gem it with 2x 12 Damage.

- If you still got your Spellstrike Pants, use them. T6 Pants are bad, especially if you dont use them to get the 4 T6 bonus.

- There are many options to get a better ring than the karazhan one.

- Armor isnt exactly the right enchant for a shadowpriests cloak - use Subtlety.

- Vitality on chest isnt optimal as well. Go for 15 Spirit if you got a priest in your raid buffing impr. Divine Spirit, otherwise go with +6 stats.


Your Spell Priority seems to be right. Some things to remember:

- Try not to cut your dot tick while refreshing. You will need a good Dot addon for this. Try "Dotimer" from wowace.com.

- If Mind Blast or SW:D are ready, cancel mindflay directly after a tick to use them. It will be a dps gain.

- Even if it sounds ridicoulus. Check your Actionbars - are you using the max rank of your spells?



Regarding your shadowfiend issue. I used to cast shadowfiend on the paladin directly after the tank has pulled him out of a consecration. Works well for me.

[Rasa]

Thanks :)

Yes i have belt of blasting with the +12 spell hit gems the reason i have the stam on cord of screaming terrors is to keep it as a stam piece for some bosses who may need me to have it.
I also have trousers of the astromancer which I shall equip. This being an alt initially, I didnt have much time to grind rep, because I have 4 lvl 70s but I will try get some heroics in to get her to revered for the head enchant. I usually never pull aggro and a raid leader of a previous guild i was in said subtlety is useless but well, i'll do it anyways :)

I have just downloaded facemelter, I'll try it out. Will download the dotimer also to try it out :)

Once again, thanks much!

[Rasa]

ok i equipped the trousers but my spell dmg with cord of screaming terrors is 1207 and with belt of blasting is 1219 so its only 12 difference. but my health goes up over 500+. i'd rather keep on the cord. no point of a facepalmed priest lying on the floor, wont be any dps then lol.

also just in case, it shows one of my trinkets as medallion of the alliance, its not that 1, i have darkmoon card crusade ( blessings deck ) as my first trinket which i switch for pvp ( helped me own a rogue yesterday ) lol.

[Deamonic]

As a Shadow Priest, your single reason to be in the raid is as a mana battery.

As such, your primary stat of any import in PVE is shadow damage. If you have the Frozen Shadowweave Shoulders, you'd be better served wearing them over those terrible haste ones. Seriously, those shoulders are bad. Terribly bad. the haste doesn't make up for the lose in pure damage, and the additional damage gained from the sockets. Belt of Blasting, FSW set, and Spellstrike set are the best in slot items until (and even above some of) Sunwell for a Shadow Priest.

If you are having to worry about STAM/HP, then you are either letting VE fall off, or your healers are bad and can't keep you topped up.

[ChristianZoom]

Regarding using shadowfiend on council... Wait until the tank has moved the boss out of concecration, unleash it and slap a power word shield on it.also if u use it when u hit 60 % mana then you can use it atleast once more during the fight. =)

[Datadog13]

Sounds like you might be in need of quartz. Or at the very least spam the button of the next spell you cast until it fires off. Know where your mind Flay's 2nd tick is on your cast bar, wait till this tick and then use MB/SW:D if the CD is up or refresh dots. Don't use your mouse to cast your spells, use your keybinds. Don't tap your keybinds when the previous spell is done, pound the next spell like your life depends on it as soon as the current spell starts casting.

Keep in mind you can start refreshing VT with about 1.3 seconds left before the last tick if you have a "normal" amount of haste.

For Trash, tab/dot. For most of the BT trash try to keep both dots up on everything, using MB/SW:D once stuff is dotted, by then your first target could probably use a VT refresh or is about to die.

For Hyjal, don't VT trash, just SW:P everything, the duration is longer, and most waves have enough mobs that if you were to try to VT everything too, you'd not get enough mobs dotted or those dots wouldn't run their full course.

For Gear, Najentus is the only fight you can justify extra HP on, and really that's only if you get BR'd without Kings/Fort. Otherwise

We'd be able to give you better advice if we could see a WWS Report from a full clear of BT or Hyjal.

Oh and last but not least don't VE on trash... or really any fight that the tanks don't have incredibly more threat than you. Its a waste of threat and a GCD for all but a few encounters.