I’ve been playing shadow priest as my main since Wrath and I’m still not any good at it. I know its probably something mechanical I am doing but I don’t know what it is. I’ve watched the guides and I feel like all of them are repetitions of South Park’s underpants gnomes theory.
Step 1 - Start the fight
Step 2 - ???
Step 3 - Bask in the glory
Can anyone recommend a non-toxic place to figure out what I’m doing wrong, or perhaps a DPS guide that doesn’t skip step 2?
I love my shadow priest and I hate healing, I just want to be decent at it.
Shadow really has 3 resources;
- DOTs on your targets
- Uses on your mind flay insanity, mind blasts, and void bolt
- Insanity to spend on plague
At the very least your want vampiric touch and sw:p on every reasonable target you’re fighting, this gives you insanity and works with your mastery. Usually this is done by using shadow crash and vampiric touch. You don’t want to spam VT that much though, and never spam it into a target that already has a lot of uptime left.
You want devouring plague on your main target ideally at all times. So you would spend uses of mindblast or use mindflay to generate insanity so you can cast plague.
Normally you don’t want to spam plague on longer fights because you really want to maximize its duration.
Once VT,swp, and plague are on your target then you are juggling mindblast uses, mindflay:insanity, and insanity for plague. You want to not cap on the 2 uses of mindblast, and don’t cap insanity, and don’t cap the 4 uses of mfi. In execute phase you also juggle SW: Death uses.
You should also be looking for an opportunity in between mechanics to fully channel void torrent while all 3 DOTs are active
Follow icy veins guide, and the main spriest theory crafter on the discord has a YouTube channel, Publik.
Also haste until 20%> mastery > haste above 20%> crit > verse. You are missing so much damage. You’re trying to shoot for 14k haste, and 14k mastery.
If it’s off cool down, slam it.
IcyVeins, Warcraft Priests Discord, WoWhead. All of the knowledge you require is there - you simply need to read it.
Shadow is a clunky mess. Equipment matters more on Shadow than any class/spec imo.
Here’s some tips, which works for me in most cases:
- Reserve Shadow Crash for the beginning of a pull that has more than 5 mobs
- 4 or less targets, try to keep up with the tank. Utilize your extra range and manually DoT your targets before the rest of the DPS start pumping, and prioritize damage on the most dangerous. Refresh DoTs if they’ll live long enough to benefit from it.
- Reserve Halo for larger pulls, to get more Procs and benefits from MF:Insanity
- Keep Mind Blast on 1 or less charges - Use it as soon as it Procs or hits 2 charges from CD - use the last charge as a filler if you have nothing else to cast.
- Use Devouring Plague as often as possible, it deals heavy direct damage, dramatically increases damage based on mastery, and has a stacking buff from Teir Set. Never sit on DP unless theres a good reason, like a burst window, or Trinkets and CDs are only a few seconds away
- Get into the habit of repositioning often, and using your instant cast abilities while you move - Its a really good habit to train yourself on. Having the muscle memory set in stone will help a lot in Raid, or M+ that require a lot of movement.
- Use SW: Death when you have to reposition, so you’re always casting. Use it as a filler if you got nothing else
- Shadowfiend/Mindbender is your friend, use it on CD. It keeps your insanity flowing well, and deals decent damage.
- Never use baseline Mind Flay unless literally everything else is on CD - Cancel the cast and use whatever comes off CD first.
- Pay $60 and boost a Shaman just kidding…
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