How are Shadow Priests in TBC?
I main Shadow in retail, and was thinking of maining one for TBC
However, I only played a warlock back then, and have no clue what shadow priest was like.
Are they good in PvP? Are they viable for raiding/PvE?
Good in PvP. Utility class w/ low DPS in PvE.
2 Likes
I played a shadow priest in the original TBC. I DISTINCTLY remember complaining about rogues constantly. You can literally do nothing against a rogue in pvp as a SP due to cloak of shadows. In PvE you’ll be used for healing/mana if you’re lucky and actually get taken to raids.
Wouldn’t recommend.
Yes, but with caveats. They are strong 1vs1 against many specs and later in the expansion can be decent as Double DPS in 2vs2. My TBC 3vs3 comp has a Spriest, also (Spriest/Warlock/Rdruid). In Battlegrounds they are very strong due to be rather tanky, having tab-DoT pressure and the utility they bring.
Raids are another story. In the first Phase of TBC, Spriest DPS is extremely high. Like “1000 DPS or more” high when most specs will be struggling to hit 800 or 900. With Spellstrike and some other tailored goodies you could potentially be one of the higher DPS in P1 raid groups. The problem is that Spriest damage doesn’t scale into the expansion. DoTs and Channeled Spells CANNOT CRIT. This is vital to understand. Most of your damage on Spriest comes from VT, SW:P and Mindflay and literally none of those can crit. Spell haste exists but it’s rare. TBC is a crit expansion. So your Spriest damage will barely budge between Phase-1 and Phase-3 while a lot of other DPS specs will double if not triple their damage in the same time. By Black Temple you’re only bringing a Shadow Priest as a mana bettery and Shadow Weaving*. Furthermore, threat can be a big problem in a Spriest too. You have no threat dump. The old TBC joke of “A Spriest Threat Dump Is A Soulstone!” is just as relevant today as back then.
2 Likes
Overrated.
You only bring them because of shadow weaving. Any good raid doesn’t really need the mana battery nonsense.
Easily exploited in pvp against knowledgeable players. They’ll likely end up being very bad in arena in general by the time they get to season 3-4. So many people coming back to play TBC don’t know what they’re in for. They think it’s 2007 still.
All the amazing players from retail are going to jump into arena. And old comps utilizing shadow priests are going to fall really far behind. Rogues/mages will be all over the place at extraordinarily high levels of play.
Shadow priest are in a good spot in both aspects. The biggest thing for spriest in pvp is understanding you have a dispell and to use it injunction with dot dmg and manaburn.
I wrote this for another thread, but here it is again. This is PVE specific.
"A well played shadow priest not only brings utility with mana return but can be fairly close to top dps in most fights. A poorly played shadow priest is a waste of space. It’s one of the few specs that have more then a two button rotation and you also have to watch threat and your own mana.
In dungeons with a pally tank mind control is a very desired form of CC. Consecrate does not break it. Again the priest has to know how to use it for it to be reliable."
This is not classic, with classic issues. I have no idea what pserver nonsense has changed the outlook on shadow priests but when I played one in TBC we were very desirable.
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I’ve played this exact priest since vanilla but I’m rolling a lock for TBC classic. For PvE, Spriests will be guaranteed a spot in the healers party for the mana battery. PvP is okay but just like always, the moment you get a melee sat on you, specially a rogue, you’re gonna be struggling. Mana Burn is wicked and will make healers cry.
Roll warlock.
PvP fine, but has weakness vs Rogue and will likely be 1st focused target in 3’s and 5’s.
PvE - near top DPS in P1 and P2, mid P3-4, bottom by P5 - basically we get front loaded with craftable gear that’ll make up 75-80% of our DPS for the whole TBC expansion due to little scaling with Crit, Haste or hit gear (again).
Going from about 1200 DPS in P1 to 1600(?) DPS by SWP.
My dps started leveling out by the end of Black Temple, when others got T6, but there were still fights that we were good on, just not like the Kara/t4/t5…my memory might be off but I was doing around 2k dps by the time we got to SWP. I pretty much had BIS at that time too.
Edit to add, that I also was part of our guild group that did most of the timed ZA runs for the War Bears. We had a pally tank and a ret pally with a shadow priest it kept them going mana wise. Back then I guess we made our own metas.
Idk, I just don’t remember ever doing as poorly as people imply on these message boards, and for the record my guild ran 25 mans with 2 shadow priests the entire expansion.
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I am surprised how few belf warlocks there were during the first week. Lots of pallys.
Will add in here that we also ran 3 Spriest for all of SWP progression - having the mana batteries were almost needed for any guilds pushing progression since you won’t have enough gear to power you through the content yet.
So don’t be discouraged by those saying 1 SPrs is all guilds are expected to bring for 25 mans.
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pretty good
people will always want at least 1 on raids
a little overrated tho for they fall behind as gear progreesses for they dont scale as hard as other dps
The main strength of a Shadow Priest in PvP is the ability to go to the Priest trainer and respec to Disc.
2 Likes
They are mediocre to bad at every aspect of the game. The single worst part is how poorly they scale as the game goes along. Do yourself a huge favor and roll another class or put that priest to good use as pvp disc, pve holy.
plugs ears
LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA CANT HEAR YOU
Imagine thinking spriest is bad in pvp. Big yikes.
You’ll have a secure spot as a one of for shadow debuff and giving your pally healers mana. You do a lot for the raid, but none of it is damage or healing.
Pvp you’ll need constant peels. I think the strongest comp is shadowcleave for the dispell protection? Can confirm you will get trained all game in 2s, 3s. You do too much for your team otherwise.
Never play a shadow priest before and planning to roll an alt on the horde side. Is the playstyle very different compared to warlocks?