So lately i've been seeing some very misleading Shadow Priest PVE guides.
I am taking it upon myself to help clear the mist a little bit because shadow priest is definitely the underdog of the dps world and needs to be very specific
Here i will explain:
1. Talents (and why i chose the ones i did)
2. Rotation (more of a priority list)
3. Glyphs
4. Stats
5. A walk through of the ICC fights in the eyes of a spriest
1.Talents
http://armory.molten-wow.com/calcula...12323152301351
This is the talent build i use. Now i understand that a lot of guides tell you to spec into Inner Focus, personally i believe inner focus kinda adds an unnecessary spell to your rotation. As long as you have the proper raid buffs you shouldnt need the 25% crit for just 1 spell and don't go crazy with your spells you shouldnt need the free mana. I spec into shadow affinity because even though i shouldnt be pulling aggro from the boss, you still have a high probability of pulling adds that the boss spawns randomly IE: LK/VDW fights.
2. Rotation.
Ok so heres where the spriest arguments run ablaze, it seems to me that no one can agree on a proper spriest rotation, and heres why, there isnt one. Everyone will argue that its about priority, wrong again. its not about a set rotation or mainly priority, its about comfort, a spot in between cd's where you as the player feels comfortable with the decisions you make and what needs to be done and when.
The biggest argument is never use SW: P before you have 5 stacks of shadow weaving, that you should VT/DP/MF before applying SW: P. The thing is if you glyph properly your mindflay (1 of your top dps spells with 4 piece set bonus) will hit harder with SW: P already applied to your target, and with enough haste your dots will tick fast enough to where you have 5 stacks of weaving in no time.
So here it goes... Your "Rotation"
With all boss fights i find my comfort zone in this initial starting rotation. i say starting because thanks to non syncing cooldowns your rotation will never be the same twice.
Vampiric Touch/ Shadow Word: Pain/ Devouring Plague/ Mindblast/ Mindflay x3
then switch to VT/DP/MB/SW: D/ MFx3 ( you may need to adjust the amount of mindflays you can get in before you need to refresh VT according to how much haste you have, i have 1288 haste so i can get in 3 mindflays before i need to refresh VT)
from there on out you just need to maintain VT and DP and SW: D off cd.
heres a video of what it should look like outside of ICC with only priest buffs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQid...CT47DNoqbiH-i5
notice my my dps never went below 7k until my charred twilight scale and DFO were on ICD (internal cooldown) and i started running out of mana. With raid buffs/dispersion/shadowfiend/mana pots, you should never run out of mana during a boss fight. on average i get to about 50% before the boss is dead.
3. Glyphs
Major
1st: Glyph of Shadow ( i have 550 spirit so thats 165 extra spell power when it procs)
2nd: Glyph of Shadow Word: Death ( turns your SW: D into a killshot for spriests)
3rd: Glyph of Mindflay ( as stated above makes your MF hit like a tank when SW: P is on the target)
Minor
1. Glyph of Fading ( incase you do pull an add it helps to get rid of it)
2. Glyph of Shadowfiend (cus we all know how much AOE is done in ICC)
3. Glyph of Levitate ( no real use just fun to mess with people trying to get rid of CB after VDW and BQL)
Stats.
Now we all know that you need SP as a caster. Whats uncommonly known is that the most important stat besides SP is haste. Haste is almost as important if not equal to spell power, it increase the amount of times your dots tick per second before they expire. As an end game geared spriest you should have about 1200+ haste and as a beginning spriest at least 900+ haste if you want to make it into most 25's. Only gem for hit if your under the cap (about 12% with spriest talents) otherwise it should be pure haste/sp, you dont rely as much on crit as others might think
As far as professions tailoring is a must, lightweave embroidery really goes a long way with the extra SP enchant for your cloak, along with not having to pay 4k to get your legs enchanted. Other than that you can go with JC for the JC only gems, Enchant for the ring enchants, BS for the extra sockets, or Eng for the haste on your gloves.
5. Walk through of each ICC fight 10/25 as a spriest and what your responsibilities are.
Marrow: Easy enough fight, usually my best dps besides DBS, always try to stay a max range and keep an eye on the spikes, spriests have enough instant spells to bring them down quickly.
LDW: Keep your bubble up to help out the healers and on 25 it helps keeping you from getting killed by your own team when you get MC'ed, don't bother with mind searing the adds, youll only end up hurting your own MC'ed members if the adds arent tanked in the right spot.
DBS: standard fight, only problem here is pulling the shadowfiends DBS spawns with your dot heals. just keep fade at the ready, mindsear is ok here.
Fester: Same tactics for every other class, shouldnt need to worry about stacks of inoc too much as long as you disperse at the proper time.
Rotface: most people tell casters to stay behind at all times, but i feel that if you dont want to lose dps by moving, just throw on a shield and let your Vamp Embrace heal you through the rest, you really shouldnt have a problem as long as you disperse through angry poo poo
Professor: This guy is a bit of a tuffy for spriests because if you get hit by maleable goo there goes all the dps youve been building because it will also slow down the dots you have on the boss already, just spam dev plague until the debuff is gone if you get hit. Not to mention if you have a great set of gear you can accidentally push the boss too soon if you dont keep track of your dots IE: the raid leader tells you to stop dps and your dots are still ticking.
BPC: thanks to IMP DP and SW: D spriests are great to have on this fight, make it your job to take down the kinetic bombs and also multi dot the boss with presence and the kele boss so the kele tank gets some extra heals.
BQL: Since youre a shadow priest and dont have a lot of initial burst you might not get the bite, but make sure to discuss with the raids highest dps about getting you the second bite, because with the right timing your DOTS with Vamp Embrace can do up to 5k HPS with BQL's bite buff on you.
VDW: Another fade favorite is this boss, a lot of adds and only 2 tanks. so you really gotta be careful and keep an eye on what youre pulling, have fade on the ready and be sure to get a mind sear on those rot worms. i always keep levitate on my bar for this fight incase i get stuck in one of the mage jumper thingy's.
Sindy: Possibly the best fight for a spriest since unchained magic only procs off of 2 spells in your rotation, mindblast and SW: D which both have decent CD's that shouldnt bother you too much. From my experience dispersion has no effect on mitigating blistering cold so dont bother using it as a defensive CD during.
LK: For the first 2 minutes of this fight you be topping the dps charts, here you should be multi dotting every target possible and focusing on LK at the same time, this means make sure when your in phase transition on the edge of the platform put VT and SW: P on as many targets as possible cus those are the only multi target dots.
Also for the doubters that refuse to use Mindblast with 4pc's t10 check this out http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=24328
Well there it is, i know its long and lengthy but as stated spriest isnt something that can be shortened and briefly explained, its something that has to be learned and loved.
any comments and criticisms are more than welcome, please no harshness is necessary and all input is greatly appreciated. Also any in depth questions about ui's and or specific addons please feel free to private message me and ill see about adding some links later on
