[5.0.5] Shadow Priest

Ok, so I've been reading up on shadow priests to make sure I haven't been completely off the mark in my gearing/talents/glyphs/"rotation." All in all I'd have to say I've been keeping with the times. Here are a few things that my research has found for me:

**Most of this information comes from http://www.icy-veins.com. If anyone has a "better" guide, please feel free to share.

Stat Priority
1. Intellect
2. Hit, Spirit, or Expertise (until 15%)
3. Haste (until soft cap [8085 for non-goblins, 7584 for goblins])
4. Critical Strike
5. Mastery

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Talents
Tier 1
Pick your favorite, as they're all CC abilities and won't affect dps.

Tier 2
Angel Feathers has the most versatility and isn't limited by a long cooldown (or restricted by Weakened Soul.) That being said, Body and Soul is viable. The only one you should probably avoid (outside of extreme gimmick fights) is Phantasm (as it's more of a PvP talent.)

Tier 3
From Darkness, Comes Light and Mindbender seem to be the top picks here, with most of the discussions I've seen leaning toward the former. Shadow Word: Insanity is an option, but it causes you to have to time eating your Shadow Word: Pain to just before it falls off. To me, it just seems like a lot more upkeep. Mindbender (much like Shadowfiend) should be cast on cooldown (except when saving for burn phases, like with Hagara or Madness) so likely won't cause you any more headaches than Shadowfiend normally does (though it has a shorter cooldown.) From Darkness, Comes Light allows you up to 2 stacks of a free, instant Mind Spike that won't eat your DoTs. It combos great with Glyph of Mind Spike, giving you an instant cast (or sped up, with one stack) Mind Blast.

Tier 4
Desperate Prayer and Angelic Bulwark are the top two choices here. Both are pretty good for survivability. Desperate Prayer gives you a 30% heal on a 2 minute (?) cooldown, which lets you time it for when you need it most. Angelic Bulwark is a passive ability that auto-procs a bubble if you get below 30% hp (with a 90 sec internal cooldown.) Spectral Guise is a pseudo-vanish (it doesn't remove you from combat) for priests and seems to be geared more towards PvP.

Tier 5
There are still some discussions as to which is "best" for dps, but I don't think you'd go wrong with any of them in this tier. Twisted Fate gives you increased damage after you've hit/healed something that is below 20% hp. In boss fights with adds, I could easily see procing this off the killing of adds to get the damage boost, or combo it with Glyph of Dark Binding to get the healing proc off of raid members. Power Infusion is the same thing Disc Priests were providing before and makes for a nice, controllable dps boost. However, everything I've read suggests to avoid using it during Heroism/Bloodlust. Divine Insight has a chance to proc off of Shadow Word: Pain (so really shines in multi-dot scenarios) to reset the cooldown of Mind Blast and make it instant/mana free. This will allow you to build up Devouring Plague more often (which is a pretty high damage spell.)

I personally like Divine Insight, but again, I don't think you'd be wrong in selecting any of them at this point.

Tier 6
These three talents all have their uses and should ideally be selected based on the type of encounter. If everyone is stacking/lining up (raid members and/or enemies), Divine Star can put out some pretty good numbers. In a spread out scenario, you might be better off with Cascade or Halo since Cascade attempts to target those farther away and Halo increases damage/healing up to the 25 yard mark.

Personally, I love Halo (largely in part due to the graphic) but will probably keep a stack of Tomes on me to be able to switch out for various boss fights. Also, for those who have problems with Halo positioning, you might try this add-on.

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Glyphs
Major
Glyph of Mind Spike - Required. Great synergy with From Darkness, Comes Light.
Glyph of Dark Binding - Recommended. Great boost to utility and survivability.
Glyph of Fade - Optional. Small boost to survivability.
Glyph of Dispersion - Optional. Shorter cd on Dispersion allows more usage for survivability/mana returns.
Glyph of Inner Sanctum - Optional. Provides an all around utility boost.
Glyph of Levitate - Optional. Good for high movement fights.
Glyph of Mind Flay - Optional. Small boost to mobility.
Glyph of Reflective Shield - Optional. Minor boost to dps when you take damage (works great for soloing.)

Minor
Pick whichever you like, as these are all cosmetic in nature.

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Rotation
Single Target
1. Devouring Plague (3 Orbs)
2. Mind Blast
3. Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch
4. Shadow Word: Death
5. Mind Flay

2-4 adds that take 15+ seconds to kill
Keep Vampiric Touch/Shadow Word: Pain on as many targets as possible. Enjoy Mind Spike/Mind Blast procs (with appropriate talents.) Devouring Plague when possible. Use Mind Sear instead of Mind Flay.

Adds that die quickly
Mind Blast/Mind Spike

5+ adds
Mind Sear (ideally targeting the tank or melee dps that is in the middle of them all.)

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Gems
Meta
Burning Primal Diamond

Red - Primoridal Ruby/Perfect Pandarian Garnet
If you're having trouble getting hit cap use Precise, otherwise Brilliant.

Yellow - Vermilion Onyx/Perfect Tiger Opal
If the socket bonus is anything except +60 int use Brilliant, otherwise use Reckless. It would seem Quick Sun's Radiance/Perfect Sunstone may also be viable in belt buckles.

Blue - Wild Jade/Perfect Forceful Alexandrite, Imperial Amethyst/Perfect Veiled Roguestone
If you're having trouble getting hit cap use Sparkling/Rigid, otherwise use Purified/Energized.*

*Gear levels will effect these. Icy-veins suggests Purified, whereas AskMrRobot is showing me that Energized is better for my set up.

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Enchants
Head
These don't exist anymore, quit looking for them.

Shoulder
Greater Crane Wing Inscription
Secret Crane Wing Inscription (scribes only)

Cloak
Superior Intellect
Lightweave Embroidery (tailors only)

Chest
Glorious Stats
Mighty Spirit (if still struggling to reach hit cap)

Bracers
Super Intellect
Fur Lining - Intellect (leatherworkers only)
Socket Bracer** (blacksmiths only)

Gloves
Greater Haste
Socket Gloves** (blacksmiths only)
Synapse Springs** (engineers only)

Belt
Living Steel Belt Buckle

Legs
Greater Cerulean Spellthread
Greater Pearlescent Spellthread
Master's Spellthread (tailoring only)
Sanctified Spellthread (tailoring only)

Boots
Pandaren's Step
Greater Haste

Rings
Greater Intellect (enchanter only)

**Stacks with normal enchant

I'll finish this later.

Feel free to discuss or point out errors. I'll update the Glyphs/Gems/Enchants sections when I get the chance. Might add a gear section, but I like the gear section on icy-veins, so will probably just put a link to that.

Skye1013 wrote:Stat Priority
Single Target: Int > Hit/Spir/Exp (to 15%) > Crit > Haste > Mastery
AoE: Int > Hit (to 15%) > Haste > Crit >= Mastery

AFAIK, it should be:

Pre-softcap: Int > Hit/Spi/Exp (to 15%) > Haste > Crit > Mastery
Post-softcap: Int > Hit/Spi/Exp (to 15%) > Crit > Haste > Mastery

The softcap is 8085 haste rating for non-Goblins and 7584 haste rating for Goblins.

Skye1013 wrote:Rotation
Single Target
1. Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch
2. Devouring Plague (3 Orbs)
3. Mind Blast
4. Shadow Word: Death
5. Mind Flay

I'd prioritize Mind Blast and SW:D (below 20%, of course) over both SW:P and VT.

Devouring Plague is a tricky one. If you don't have MB/SWD coming up within the next few seconds, it's better to delay it if you need to recast SW:P or VT right now. Otherwise, you should cast it right away. It gets more complicated if you picked Divine Insight, because you don't know whether an MB proc will happen.

Looks like they've updated icy-veins, I'll revise the stat priorities.

They're still showing SW:P and VT above the others, though there is the same discussion on there. I'll keep researching it and update when it looks like more of a consensus has been reached.

Looking at it, here is what Icy Veins says:

You should apply and refresh your DoTs on the target, based on the above guidelines (essentially, just as they are about to expire). Then, if both your DoTs are ticking, you should use Mind Blast as soon as it is available. The situation will rarely occur when a DoT will need refreshing just as Mind Blast comes off cooldown, but if it does happen, we recommend casting Mind Blast first.

So initially, you'll want to use what I have listed, but on the off chance they line up, hit Mind Blast.

I'd think Talent choice would influence it somewhat as well. Divine insight can proc off the first tick of sw:p, which occurs when you apply it, so I'd want mb on cd as much as possible to avoid wasting procs. So with divine insight I'd prio mb over sw:p over vt at all times (including on the pull). FDCL is harder to waste due to being able to store charges.

Should be obvious enough but now that devo plague spam/sw:d throughout the fight doesn't exist, spam sw:p if you don't have any other instants to hit during movement.

I'm finding I like Mastery more than crit (still, haste first), and thinking about it, I am wondering why crit should be above mastery.
Crit affects all spells with a chnace to double the damage.
Mastery affects 3 spells (VT, DP, SW:P) with a chance to double damage on any proc (and from what I'm seeing it can proc off a proc - at least I get 3 DP ticks at the same time once in a while (best seen by the healr tripling up)).

The question left is the conversion to mastery, which I haven't seen (its harder now that "Mastery" is gone and its just rating and percent).
600 Rating is 1 Mastery (invisible) and 1 Mastery is.. how much mastery%?

There's an interesting theory (not yet backed by numbers) that covers speccing FDCL + DI and going mastery heavy.

I've tried that myself, but I don't really like the proc based playstyle, too much RNG. Still valid though.

I have to double check on my numbers, but askmrrobot is capping haste at just under 25% (for 2nd extra DP tick.) I think the one I have listed above is for 19%. I'll look when I get home (also going to look into the crit vs mastery thing, but iirc, they come out pretty even once you've achieved the hit/haste caps.)

Skye1013 wrote:I have to double check on my numbers, but askmrrobot is capping haste at just under 25% (for 2nd extra DP tick.) I think the one I have listed above is for 19%.

Nevermind, not sure where I got the 19% from, but the values I have listed are correct to achieve 24.97% haste.

Worldie wrote:There's an interesting theory (not yet backed by numbers) that covers speccing FDCL + DI and going mastery heavy.

I've tried that myself, but I don't really like the proc based playstyle, too much RNG. Still valid though.

It looks like even with FDCL + DI, crit sims higher than mastery.
http://simulationcraft.org/505/Priest_S ... 90_di_fdcl

Not sure if that changes with lower ilvls of gear. With my current gear setup, I haven't even reached the haste cap, so it's just a matter of do I reforge out of mastery or crit (with AMR having me pull from mastery.)

Edit: Just ran sims for me and I still come out with crit ahead of mastery.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/s ... e/advanced

Code: Select all

                Int    Spi    SP     Hit    Crit   Haste  Mastery
Scale Factors   3.12   1.54   2.54   1.48   1.04   1.10   0.85
Normalized      1.00   0.49   0.81   0.47   0.33   0.35   0.27
Error           0.06   0.06   0.06   0.06   0.06   0.06   0.06

AMR has apparently decided that I MUST use the Revitalizing meta instead of Burning. Not sure if this is because of my Human racial giving me better gains from spirit or not.

No that's AMR being retarded. It also tells me to reforge out of haste and into mastery on Ilayne in spite of the stat weights it's apparently using. There should be absolutely no reason that I can think of for a shadow priest to gem for spirit after being able to reforge pieces to double hit if required.

Levantine wrote:No that's AMR being retarded. It also tells me to reforge out of haste and into mastery on Ilayne in spite of the stat weights it's apparently using. There should be absolutely no reason that I can think of for a shadow priest to gem for spirit after being able to reforge pieces to double hit if required.

I've just taken to locking in the Burning meta.

I do have one spirit/haste gem (or at least it's suggested on AMR... I forget if I actually put it in), but that's mostly because there really aren't any other options for blue gem slots without forgoing the socket bonuses. And since Int isn't worth 3x the next highest stat (or whatever ridiculous amount it was during Cata) the socket bonuses are generally worth picking up.

Purified/Veiled.

Aye, that's what I'm saying, Spirit/Hit (usually Spirit) is best used in blue sockets, but even then, you shouldn't be using pure blues.

Your Energized gem makes me sad then.

I wouldn't look into my gems too much. They are largely based on AH pricing or what my JC can make. And what AMR suggests (cause I'm lazy.) For whatever reason it has me putting haste in over int in most sockets, though according to icy-veins, that's actually correct with their stat weights. Running the sims with my gear (see stat weights I posted earlier today) has me mostly in Brilliant, so I'll be looking at them later.

You telling me Purified gems on your realm go for less than 500g each? :<

Like, 60 last time I checked. It's great, the gem market on SC is completely tanked.

One would expect Silvermoon market to be perfect (7k population 99% alliance), but Veiled gems are so absent.

Either ways, I don't like FDCL + DI gameplay. Too many procs, when you got more than 1 target often you end up wasting procs due to too many of them at same time. I'm playing Mindbender + DI right now (istant MB still very cool when moving). Surprised by the amount of damage Mindbender does.

I was kinda "meh" about Mindbender. If I got rid of either proc, it'd be DI for TF, or even PI to go with my on use trinket. Without DI, it makes the Glyph of Mind Spike feel less wasted, since I'd have to get 3 MS procs within a single MB cd for it to lose out on one (and even then, the MS proc lasts long enough, I can probably just save it until after.)

On the subject of talents, L90 talents, what are people using, and why?

Personally I'm using Divine Star, as I find Halo too uncontrollable, and Cascade, while I haven't tried it, seem like its a bad damage cooldown on a singletarget (nothing to bounce off).

I'm using Halo, because it's pretty and really not as hard to control as one would think (also, there's an add-on for that.) For single target... I can't really say that any one is better than another, since they're all pretty much designed for multi-targets. That being said, you'd ideally swap it based on the fight type. If everyone is spread out, Cascade would shine. For stacked/lined up fights, Divine Star. Halo could be used for spread out as well, but would probably work best if there were two groups (within 30 yds of each other) kind of like how most people did Zonozz.

Of course, that's largely based on the healing sides of them, but still holds true for dps.

Worldie wrote:Afraid I'm a facemelting priest.

Wait a minute... we need to compare notes... I'm a purplecloudpriest, and I'm awesome at single target, but terrible at the multiples...