Audience

Priests and casters of classes who might wish to migrate to a shadow priest. We were buffed nicely in 3.3 so our single target DPS is comparable, or greater, that other casters.

Guide

Introduction

My name is Hugginss from < The Church > on Darkspear, US server.

I raid as a shadow priest primarily, with a discipline offspec and am comfortable as holy. Any priest worth his/her salt should be competent in all three classes. I believe that shadow is the hardest of the three specs to master due to the complexity of the prioritization and multiple mob dot tracking. I'm not taking anything away from the other 2 specs, shadow is very tricky to maximize dps.

Class Strengths

• Survivability

Shadow priests, since 3.3, can now run Vampiric Embrace throughout encounters without having to apply the debuff to targets. All single target DPS will then heal us. On top of that, we can still cast PW:S in a pinch and *can* (but not recommended) break shadow form to throw a Prayer of Mending *if the situation is dire enough*. This gives shadow priests by far the most survivability of all the cloth caster classes. I suppose Locks are a close 2nd. Remember, dead DPS is 0 DPS.

Our single target DPS is good now, not great, but way better than 3.2. This is 100% because our dot ticks are affected by Haste. (VT and DP anyway)

Probably the optimal DPS for shadow priests, rolling three full dot stacks on three targets is where we shine the most.

Weaknesses

• No Nuke
Arcane Mages, Huntards, elemental Shamans go from 0 to max dps right nearly right away. Spriests have a ramp-up time that makes quick target switching undesirable (portals on Jaraxxus, adds on Deathwhisper, less-so Blood Beasts and Oozes on Putricide)

Although, with the 4-piece tier 10, Mind Flay may become a viable nuke.

• Hard to keep track of DOTs on three or more targets
Unless you have a beautiful mind, you'll probably have your VT drop off that 5th trash mob. Mobs help with this, but if there are enough mobs and activity, you’re going to forget something

However, there really aren’t that many weaknesses to being a shadow priest.

Spell Prioritization For Single Target

>> >> >> >>

VT > DP > SW:P > MB > MF

VT should be reapplied within as little time as it falls off as is humanly possible within the context of server lag, etc. VT, with haste, is about 1.2 second cast. In a lagless world, you should be casting VT with 1.10 seconds left on VT. Overwriting VT (not letting it fall off) is VERY BAD!!!

SW:P should never fall off a single-target, and does less DMG than DP by a wide margin now which is why I put it less of a priority than DP... but it should have very high uptime.

DP follows the same rules as VT, but prioritize VT over DP when refreshing.

Mind Blast should be used on every cooldown, but prioritize VT and DP before Mind blast if all three are off CD

Mind Flay is the filler when VT, SW:P and DP all are applied and when MB is on cool down.

Shadow Word: Death should be used when moving, along with Shadowfiend, or DP re-applications

Disperse only when you are not DPS-ing (end of scarab phase in Anub, no real good options in ICC) or if you are going to take an inordinate amount of dmg (Big flying orb on Princes, the brown ooze maybe on Putricide)

Opening Rotation

There are several opening rotations, all are viable, but I’ll give you mine:

>> >> >> >>
VT > DP > MB > MF3 > SW:P. (MF3 = Mind Flay, 3 ticks… or full duration)

Elitist jerks suggests a different opening, the only important point is that you apply SW:P with 5 stacks of shadow weaving and the highest crit rate you can get. The reason for this is that while your Mind Flay refreshes the dot, the SW:P spell remembers how many stacks of shadoweaving you had when you applied it, as well as your crit rate. If you apply it at 4 stacks versus 5, you will do 2% less damage with SW:P than with 5 stacks...

If you have to run in, you could alter the opener. Just make sure there you are full stacks of Shadow Weaving before you apply SW:P.

If you have the Nevermelting Ice Crystal I suggest hitting that before you apply SW:P and after MF3.

Another tip would be to pop a Wild Magic Potion 2 seconds or so before combat so that you get the +200 crit rate on the SW:P for the entirety of the duration of the DOT. Then again during Heroism/Bloodlust

Fights like Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Saurfang, Rotface, Festergut, you should never lose your SW:P. With the trinket and the pot, that’s +1100 crit rate for your SW:P. Raid buffed, for me that’s about 60% crit. Not bad.

Multiple targets

>>

For fights where you have to switch targets a lot (Putricide, Saurfang, Deathwhisper, Jaraxxus, etc) it should be your goal to run perfect dot stacks on each of the targets.

I often will put my primary target on focus so that I can visually track the dot ticks of that target, then I will apply VT>DP>SW:P to the secondary target (ooze on Putricide, Portals on Jaraxxus, Blood beasts on Sauerfang). And VT>SW:P on each other mob that I can.

If you use forte Excorcist you should be able to see the time left on the dots on each of your targets. Refresh VT as necessary and cast MF1 to keep SW:P up on them. I’m sure there are other DOT timers out there that are as effective, or more effective.

For 4 or more mobs:

>>
VT as many as you can, then Mind Sear. Rotate your Mind Sear targets.

Stats

Elitist Jerks has a wealth of knowledge about what stats you should optimize and shadowpriest.com has the BIS gear broken down, glyphs, theorycraft, etc.

http://elitistjerks.com/f77/t84746-shadowpriest_theorycraft_3_3_edition_i_get_little_help_my_friends/

I’m not going to go into those.

However, since 3.3 HASTE is king for multi target fights. Soft haste Cap is about 800... but I would consider getting as much haste on your gear as is humanly possible without neglecting spell power.

MODS

To be an effective shadow priest, you are going to need a few mods to help you micro-manage your DOTs.

• Unit Frames:

The stock UI is weak, but lots of good raiders use it... but they're probably not shadow priests. I use PitBull Unit Frames as it lets me specify which debuffs I can see on the boss, which size they are and the seconds and milliseconds that are left on my debuffs. If you can't see your debuff timers clearly, you will never be a good shadow priest.

• Dot Timer:

Forte excorcist is what I use, there are others. If you can count down from 16, 18 and 19 in your head, simultaneously, three times over, you probably don’t need a dot timer.

• Threat Meter:

Omen gold standard, I guess. Shadow priest threat in 3.3 is actually very high, so this is a must.

• Cast Bar:

Quartz. Shows you your latency, well a good estimate anyway. Good for calculating when you need to refresh VT.

• Raid Frames:

Grid. Grid is the best, uses range well, can be configure with mouse-over macros to abolish disease, cast PW:S, etc. A little tough to configure at first, but very good once you get it dialed.

Grid requires extensions to be really effective: GridStatusRaidBuffs, Raid Icons, etc. There's a bunch in there on Curse.

• A boss Mod:

A good boss mod can help remind you of important boss mechanics. The Post-it notes on your monitor are probably not bad, but I would highly recomment the Deus Vox Boss mod . It is the Cadillac of boss mods, imo. Deadly Boss Mods is an option, as are others.

Rogues and melee, but especially rogues, should always have a boss mod that moves their characters out of fire for them, because they seem to be incapable of moving themselves out of it :P

Optional Mods:

Power Auras: Show’s you various procs, debuffs, buffs, etc… It’s on Kyth’s UI page

That’s all that you really need. There are other kind of stylistist mods, such as Bartender, Parrot, Tidy Plates, etc

Tips and Tricks

Movement

Try and move as little as possible when you are DPSing the boss. This seems pretty straightforward, but you’re going to have to move a lot in the new/harder encounters. When you do move, you should be casting SW:D, DP, ShadowFiend, or some other instant cast that does dmg.

Maintain a perfect cast sequence

A *perfect* cast sequence will have you constantly casting, with very little clipping of mind flay (clipping = not letting the cast run to the completion) and no wasted GCDs.

As mentioned elsewhere, never, never, never overwrite your Vampiric Touch spells. You have to time your cast so that you are reapplying VT within 0.5 seconds of it falling off. As close to zero as you can get it.

I always let my mind flays run to completion *except* to refresh VT. Make sure you have the nochannel macro bound to your mind flay so that you aren’t clipping your mind flays.

Helpful Macros:

1. Macro #1:

#showtooltip Mind Flay
/cast [noChanneling:Mind Flay] Mind Flay

2. Macro #2:

#showtooltip Mind Sear
/cast [noChanneling:Mind Sear] Mind Sear

and the Shadowfiend one:


3. Macro #3:

#showtooltip Shadowfiend
/cast Shadowfiend
/cast [pet, nomodifier] Shadowcrawl

Bind your abilities to keys

Mouse-click casting is completely fail. You should be using your mouse to move around. Unless you have 10 buttons on your mouse that you can bind your casts to, which is perfectly acceptable too, then you should have your abilities bound to your keys.

For me, Mind Flay is bound to the “F” key, which centers my fingers and, since there’s a little raised thing on most keyboards on the “F” key, I don’t have to look down at my fingers. Then bind other abilities close to your base… Don’t bind mind blast to the “O” key, or the “9” because you’re going to have to move your hand around, which is sub-optimal.

Try binding all your abilities to about 4 or 5 keys.. remember you can use modifiers like Control, Shift and Alt for your basic binds.

Shadowfiend

Your pet is no longer really needed to regenerate mana (If you are at the t10 level), so you should use it as a DPS boost. The cooldown is 3 minutes and most fights run longer than that. I cast it as soon as I have my full dot stack on the boss, probably within 25 seconds of the pull. Cast immediately when it comes off cooldown. It will give you an extra 50-70k damage over the course of a fight.

Of course, Anub Hard mode is probably the only fight where mana is an issue at present, and you'll need to manage your fiend a little better in that one. (Immediately after first burrow and right before P3).

Make sure to spam Shadowcrawl so that you get the DPS boost.