I tried a couple talent builds on raiders testing dummies. One geared towards mindspike / death / mindblast with psychic link, and the other towards mind sear and spirits.
With my ability to play (preeeeeeetty bad) and a stationary situation, the psychic link build did about 10% more damage over 10 minute tests.
So, with that out of the way, what are either sims or actual good-player testing showing against target dummies re: psychic link vs mindsear builds?
****This is not my work. Is copied and pasted from the Priest Discord.
Thanks Snozay. I’ve never really “gotten” github, and when I’m reading through the “results” links, it’s not immediately obvious how to parse, but I’ll try to put more effort into understanding. Much appreciated 
These are sims not parses. Its showing which talent configurations do more damage in 1/2/4/aoe target scenarios
Psychic link is not a substitute for mind sear. One buffs filler spells, one is a spender. You can argue link paired with the talbs talent that buffs mind blast when DP is active makes it so but then you’re running more bad talents that don’t run into either of the good idols.
Not running mind sear is upwards of a 30% loss in dungeons as long as things are living a decent amount of time.
Psychic link as a talent is “fine” in aoe. You can pick it over one of the other weak aoe options like puppet master, but it’s not build defining. It also loses marks for doing nothing on bosses, which are still relevant in keys.
Blizzard did not design shadows talent tree to have actual playstyle options in aoe, you have a set of core spells the spec needs to function and a few points left to put in random mostly inconsequential passives, psychic link being one of them.
Sweet, thanks much!
I’ve done some testing since I made this thread. Doing a 20-21 with my Psychic Link build was pure embarrassment because I knew straight up Mind Sear build would’ve done X amount more. In AOE, with Lust, doing 80K with Mind Sear is different than doing 30K with Psychic Link. Your Spender damage should be higher than your Builder damage.
As far as M+, the best DF-PP using pretty much a standard Yogg M+ build, but when I switched Dark Evangelism to Psychic Link, I was doing more damage. Very reluctant on this, but I logged damage on my excel sheet.I want to do more testing at 70, by taking both talents versus capstones, etc. etc.
Of course, I review SIMs as well, but part of the SP fun for me is discovery. I think most of my DF-PP is spent on a target dummy, then doing M+ on all DPS casters, discovering those little efficiencies.
Overall Mind Sear does more damage, because it is: (1) tuned strongly, (2) is a free 100 Insanity with Mind Devourer procs = strong spender. (3) Procs Shadow Apparitions (4) buffed by DOT talents - Coalescing Shadow version 1, Dark Evangelism, +more.
The best non-VF, DA build I found I was the one I had assumed. Psychic Link + Mind Melt + Insidious Ire playstyle is passable if you just want to play for fun. I’d consider it like taking a PVP-only player to do a weekly 15. You know those players who just PVP only with full Versatility Gear and Arena build, start their own “Weekly 15” M+ and either smack or do no dam. That’s how I felt.
We’ll see at 70. See you there.
Good informative post.
this guy has a badass name for a spriest
Even at a baseline with how the tree is structured, you may as well take MS in AoE.
Its also a good rapper
From personal play, just don’t play mind sear. like never ever
Please stop giving terrible advice.
Don’t think it’s bad advice at all!
Psychic link insidious ire feels very fluid and mobile, which are highly desirable traits in dungeons. I look forward to experimenting more when keys are released, but channeling mind sears feels awful. Also don’t love that mind sear ropes you into a mind devourer build, and I don’t enjoy playing with yogg-saron. Doesn’t feel like I have agency over the talent.
Then you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
Yep confirmed.
If played properly sear will be your top damage.
I’ll give it a shot
Can you share the priest discord? I am relearning a lot after returning to wow, and I’ve seen a few folks mention this as the place to find the most up-to-date theory crafting.
Edit: nm it was in the GitHub link!
Sure
It lists them by class so just click the priest one. Shadow has really really solid group with Publik and some others that are solid.
I can’t comment on the other priest specs because I haven’t researched them yet.