We don’t OOM, though. We die when the green mana bar runs out.
Things that hit both mana bars are quite deadly, and that spriest ability can take away like 1200 of our resources.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to kill spriests, but Graff is correct. They’re one of the toughest opponents for sure. Saying you win when you have the felhunter out and spellstone equipped doesn’t mean much when you often don’t have both of those things. I use the AV offhand, and often run SM/DS or SM/Ruin with the succubus out or voidwalker sacrificed.
Especially the undead shadow priests. Devouring Plague is really nasty and they get Will of the Forsaken to boot. Not to mention a bonus shadow resist.
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Fortunately, I don’t have to face undead opponents unless I’m dueling. 
Seriously, it’s a very good thing for you!
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DP is nasty. Just have to eat that. Honestly I dont even bother fearing most undead except as a ghetto spell interrupt. That’s a global that can be used for something that will actually stick instead.
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That’s when I usually shadow ward. At least it mitigates a little bit of their healing.
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Personally, in PVP I only roll SL/Nightfall or SL/Shadowburn. Usually Nightfall so I spend less time shard farming.
Everything else feels too squishy for my taste.
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I’m almost always running either DS/Ruin for raid or SM/DS for farming. The latter is OK-ish for PvP, but now that I’m AV exalted, I don’t care to PvP very much.
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Funny story I use to rock 5/5 necro set just to not die in one death coil but since locks have way more health and mana now I just end up going oom fighting. My gambit to that is just go full glass cannon and equip 500 shadow dmg set and it works very well. I normally open with SW:P, VE then silence, dispell into MB-MF, dot the pet then fear if possible into MB. Most locks will not live that onslaught. It’s still a toss up if I win the fight or lose but even then the amount of health and resources they spend leaves them wide open to be finished.
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Yeah while I was doing AV I was Nightfall/SL. I got exalted, got my tome, and went back to DS/Ruin for raiding.
You can PVP as a DS/Ruin but the main issue is melee. Shadowbolt is your top damage with that spec and when they can just run through you while you’re casting it’s tough to get those off. It still works decently against most casters.
Yeah I end up usually just rolling SM/Ruin. Not quite as much raid DPS, but It’s also a decent enough PVP and Farming spec also so I feel I get the “jack of all trades” out of it and am less tempted to blow gold on respecs all the time.
So I’m a big fan of drain tanking with succ. Grab fel stam and imp HS and then go all they way up affliction to dark pact. Turn off lash of pain and the succ is mana battery who’s auto attack serves an an additional dot. DL doesn’t really take off till 30+ so you’re better off dotting/wanding until rank 4 DL iirc.
As far as gear goes you should be heavy Stam, and get some int where you can. Remember HP=Mana. The most important thing early on is keeping your wand up to date as it’s your main source of damage. It actually does more dps than DL or SB until 30+ especially if you get the quest wand from BFD. Once you hit the early 40s I’d look at getting some shadoweave gear off the AH if it’s cheap. I still used a few pieces of it when I hit 60.
For a drain tank spec +shadow damage isn’t all that important because it doesn’t benefit your dots as much as SB. You’ll rarely have all your dots run full duration while leveling and in dungeons effectively negating alot of your gear. Once you’re 60 go DS/ruin or SM/ruin, stack +shadow damage and spam that SB. But for leveling being able to kill an extra mob or 2 before drinking will save alot more time than an extra 2 dps.
I’ve found the dps difference between SM vs DS very negligible over all considering everything else you get in affliction vs the almost nothing you get the demo if you are sacing your demon.
Spell hit% > Spell crit% > S.P > Stam=Int
Stam > Int when you have 5/5 demo for +15%
Spell hit and spell Crit = roughly 15 S.P
But goes up and down depending on how much you have at any given point
Spell power is god while leveling.
I would prioritize Hit(Leveling you wont find much of it)>SP>Stam>Int>Crit (if leveling as drain tank)
if you are a masochist and are leveling as destro - Hit>SP>Crit>Int>Stamm