I remember when retribution paladins got a nerf because we got kill peoples in one stuns, now shadow priest need a nerf as they are able to kill anyone with just one fear which does not break from their damage. I’m getting hit over 50K per dot tick, there’s something really wrong with their damage.
You got smacked because at some point he hit Desperate Prayer, raising his max HP for 10s, increasing the soak from Catharsis and he used it on YOU. He probably dumped 2 points into Desperate Prayer raising the HP cap, as well, to get that much damage.
It’s not ticking for 50k. You got caught in a very high-risk burst setup and it paid off. You’re not blowing Desperate Prayer unless you need that HP boost, otherwise you waste the healing from the CD.
Popping all Burst CDs with full 411 and Trinket SWP does about 45k over 20s.
The “unbreakable” fear is trinketable and requires a 4 point dump in the tree (to a capstone that is arguably incredibly niche). YOU have a stun that is unbreakable on damage, by default - same rule applies - I can trinket. Torrent is still the fastest burst window in 3s we can do outside of trick setups that are high-risk for just 50k worth of damage.
Good job you found one of the 3 priests that can pull the DesP/Catharsis setup off because he just happened to take a boatload of damage in that 10s DesP was up.
It takes 10 full seconds of multiple abilities to do our highest sustained throughput and requires the target to have trinkets and defensives on CD to pull off, not to mention we can’t be touched in that 10s and if we are - the chain is broken. Not to mention it requires 2 globals BEFORE the first fear goes out and we must dump every cooldown to do it - including both Fear and Horror, leaving us with nothing unless we take Tendrils as a snare or are fighting a caster then we have a Silence in our pocket.