Shadow Priest - T13 4-piece set bonus & how to use it

[TeaLeaf]

In making this post I feel both sad & happy.  Happy that I finally got my head around this issue and sad that it has taken me so long to get my head around this issue and thus miss out on a lot of lost dps.

The T13 4-piece set bonus for shadow priests is:

Your shadowfiend and shadowy apparitions have 100% chance to grant you 3 shadow orbs each time they deak damage

Now on the face of it this is a pretty poor 4-piece set bonus as "shadow priests rarely use mind spike" and shadowy apparitions are a passive ability and just happen when they happen.  However, if you're prepared to dig deeper for the extra burst dps then this set bonus can rock *if* you can handle the rotation.

I'm approaching the stage where I might use this in a raid, but for starters it should be a good dps boost on the Buring Tendon in the Heroic Spine encounter.   In this encounter you have an 18 second window to dps the Tendon and shadow priests might not be seen as the best as they have to load up their dots and stack their debuffs to the maximum before reaching their peak dps.  However, this rotation allows burst dps:

-on a raid dummy in Ironforge and from a standing start (no debuffs already up) I hit just over 45k dps for an 18 second burst (and that's with only self-buffs).

There's a number of ways this can work, but the one I am settling on is:

• {skip this if already got 5 stacks e.g. mid-fight} Mind Flay x 2 (clip at 2 ticks each time to get 5 stacks of Evangalism)
• Archangel
• Mind Blast
• Shadowfiend
• Mind Spike x2
• DPS Trinket
• Mind Spike x3
• Macro to cancel Mind Melt aura & cast Mind Blast
• Mind Spike x3
• Mind Flay (full channel)
• Macro to cancel aura & cast Mind Blast
• ...return to normal dps rotation and wait for Archangel & Shadowfiend to both become available again

The point of the macro is to remove the instant cast from the mind blast so that the MB gets the orbs from the shadowfiend (otherwise the previous MS will have used them).  The macro gives MB a cast time again so the shadowfiend has a chance to hit the target again and thus create a fresh 3 orbs for the MB to use.  So theoretically all the MS & MB should get 3 orbs.

It's not straight forward, but there is a definite dps increase with this rotation if you can handle the complexity and if it fits with a VP trinket and the fight.

[Switchback]

Havent played my SP for a while but did wonder about this 4set bonus...

So im guessing this is more for when burst is needed, say the tendon as you point out or last 10% of a boss....as obviously using MS cancels your dots...

Will look into it as gona start playing the priest again in preparation for mists

[TeaLeaf]

It's actually more complicated below 25% as SW:D still needs to be weaved in as it is too powerful to skip.   It certainly produces burst damage, but I tried it with the VP trinket in LFR today and peaked at 100k dps on Madness (over 73k dps overall), so it certainly works on other fights too.  I have yet to experiment with it using my normal trinkets, but that's next on my list.  I am expecting (from everything I have read) that it should return an additional level of dps but be far less bursty (as the on use trinket boosts the VP results).

It's actually an overall dps gain to do this, even if you need to reapply dots.

[Switchback]

Nice...and ofc...its been that long totally forgot about SW:d :S

Gona give it a try though once ive got the set from lfr,cheers for the info

[Switchback]

Loving the 4 set....I dont have the dps trinket but following that order even w/o the trinket my dps goes through the roof. Ran a 10 man tonight and ended up top on every fight and i was the lowest geared dps there. But that rotation pwns.
Cant wait to get a new belt and the trinket to work with it.

It does depend alot on the fight but found in certain fights its great....

Ball boss black phase,you can hit him for more so win
Hagara after a ice/lightning phase
Burning tendon on Spine.
All other fights when they are off CD