MoP - Shadowpriest Guide & Talent Build

[TeaLeaf]

Talents
Expect to debate this one with yourself real hard as Live theory crafting is non-existent at the moment and Beta/PTR TC is obviously unproven on Live until we get real data to work with and see what else Blizz has hit with a nerf bat, changed totally, added or removed from the game.   Unfortunately the talent tree has been dummed down to an infantile level so that Blizzard can help us "avoid cookie cutter" builds.   How on earth they will do this by making the tree have even less choice is totally beyond everyone bar the pyschosis-inducing drug-taking Blizz Dev team.    So here goes:

Tier 1 (L15):  
Void Tendrils, Psyfiend, Dominate Mind
This level is all about CC and it's not entirely exciting.  I'll be trying Void Tendrils first purely for levelling.

Tier 2 (L30):
Body & Soul, Angelic Feather, Phantasm
This is the raid utility tier.   B&S has some raid utility as does Angelic Feather, but AF needs placing rather than the easily macro'd B&S.   Phantasm, meh.   B&S gets my vote at the moment, but I can imagine a respec might be needed if AF has specific raid encounter mitigation potential.

Tier 3 (L45) - see below

Tier 4: (L60)
Desperate Prayer, Spectral Guise, Angelic Bulwark
DP seems pretty meh.   SG looks good for levelling & PVP.  AB is a 'get out of jail free' card for raiding, although whether a shadow priest needs another one (dispersion) is debatable..  I'll be going SG initially as it will allow dots to run without me being the target of aggro.

Tier 5 (L75) - see below

Tier 6 (L90)
Cascade, Divine Star, Halo
Another DPS tier.  Halo looks like it could be awesome, but it's easily avoidable & you just know some noob shadow priest is going to use it at the wrong time and pull half the dungeon with it.  Cascade could provide some burst healing for specific raid encounters, but Divine Star should do best where there are multiple targets (although poor damage against single target).   I'll be going DS initially as we get lots of adds in DS and levelling will see lots of mobs.

Tier 3 & Tier 5
These tiers need to be looked at together as they have an element of symbiosis between some of the talents.

Tier 3: From Darkness Comes Light, Mindbender, Power Word: Solace
Tier 4: Twist of Fate, Power Infusion, Divine Insight

FDCL looks awesome if you can dot up and maintain those dots on multiple targets.  FDCL procs happen a lot in those circumstances and your dps can soar.  
Mindbender replaces your Shadowfiend and does more regular damage (lower CD) and gives back a little more mana.  As mana has never been an issue for shadow priests I'm skipping this one.  
PW:S becomes SW:Insanity for shadow priests.  SW:I means you get extra dps if you cast it within the last 6 seconds of your SW:P.
FDCL wins out here imo.

ToF is a nice buff, but only active for the final 20% of a fight.  As SW:D procs shadow orbs then we'll get extra 3 orb DPs to cast in that period too.
PI is a nice, regular boost dps, but it might end up being cast on someone else.
DI allows instant MBs, which proc shadow orbs, which allow us more DPs.

Summary of Tier 3 & 4:  If you can manage the procs, it looks like FDCL & DI work well together.   If you want a simpler, less spiky rotation, then try Mindbender & PI.

General Spell Prios: ignoring damn obvious CDs
3 orb DP
SW:P
VT
SW:D
MB
SW:I (last tick cast)
FDCL MS
SW:I (penultimate tick cast)
Mind FLay

Full list of abilities are here

DYOR and remember it's not gone Live yet, it will no doubt change a bit once we find out the reality!

[Jesung]

Nice little guide there, I would like to do a warlock one but I would feel like I am talking to myself in that regard

[hubbah]

you got yarill to read it

[TeaLeaf]

Nice little guide there, I would like to do a warlock one but I would feel like I am talking to myself in that regard

Yaril & I both need to know what to do with our warlocks, so write one up please!   Also, a side effect of more guides on our website is that we get more traffic, which ultimately helps us grow the community, so the more the merrier.

OT:  you seen how warlock dps has simmed?   Destro is average, Meta, is good, Affliction is off the charts!   Looks like aff locks will be the new shadow priests for MoP!

[Jesung]

Yaril & I both need to know what to do with our warlocks, so write one up please!   Also, a side effect of more guides on our website is that we get more traffic, which ultimately helps us grow the community, so the more the merrier.

OT:  you seen how warlock dps has simmed?   Destro is average, Meta, is good, Affliction is off the charts!   Looks like aff locks will be the new shadow priests for MoP!

Well with that said then I think I will go and make one up. And yeh the sims for Aff are looking pretty gooood, I was wary that demo was gonna be top, and I am glad to see affliction finally beating out you pesky Spriests Now I just have to live up to the meters

[TeaLeaf]

Been on the dummies in IF for last hour.   Overall DPS has gone up.

FDCL & DI proc rates are awesome.  It's a damn busy talent build with all the proc management you have to do, but it does rock.


TOP TIP:   Go to Ironforge to use the dummies, the Stormwind ones are so overcrowded you can hardly hear yourself think.

[TeaLeaf]

Re FDCL & DI build:

Always prio an instant MB proc over an instant MS proc or you waste the MB cast time buff that the instant MS gives you (i.e. you cannot reduce by 50% the cast speed of an already instant cast spell!)

[TeaLeaf]

When dealing with more than one target, make sure you get VT up on each of them if you have FDCL.    Remember the FDCL procs from VT ticks and with several VT ticks going you end up with a sick number of free non-dot removing MS procs.  

DI procs from SW:P, so the same reasons apply, you get lots of free instant MB procs.

Example, I spent one trash pack in a heroic yesterday doing nothing but hitting instant cast procs from FDCL or DI and ended up with over 120k dps.  I had no GCD left for normal casts after I had loaded dots, I just got full on instant procs :)

[TeaLeaf]

Just a quick update on things to look out for:

One of the benefits of an FDCL/DI build is the amazing number of procs that come up giving you either an instant Mind Blast (which leads to more shadow orbs) or a Mind Spike which causes extra damage and does not cancel your DOTs.   The latter one has been bugging me (pun intended) as I have regularly been inadvertently cancelling my DOTs and trying to figure out how I was managing to do something so stupid.

The answer is simple:   FDCL (which gives the Mind Spike proc) & Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest combine in a nasty way:

1 - FDCL procs so you cast Mind Spike which does NOT cancel the DOTs
2 - But, if Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest procs Wrath of Tarecgosa then this will duplicate the Mind Spike (which no longer has the FDCL 'no cancel' buff) and this duplicated Mind Spike then cancels your DOTs.

So that's where my DOTs have been going!  Bugger! :angry:

The solution:
1 - Wait until L86 when the Wrath of Tarecgosa proc will no longer work
or
2 - Wait until you have 2 stacks of Surge of Darkness and then cast your Mind Spike.  At this point if WoT procs then it casts another Mind Spike which then uses the 2nd stack of SoD meaning it also does not cancel DOTs.

The problem with the second route is that the SoD buff has a duration of 10 seconds, so unless you get another buff within 10 seconds you lose & waste the original SoD buff.      

This all makes for a somewhat chaotic rotation, but at least I have found out why my DOTs are being cancelled  :doh:

[Treach]

This is great info, increased my farming dps with it. Here's my feedback on the talents:

T1 The Void Tendrils are AMAZING! Great farming and I can see a lot of use for them controlling wild adds in raids.
T2 Really enjoying Angelic Feathers, think that the multi speed boosts > the shield/leap speeed boost as you can set them down in advance and so people can use them when needed plus not sure speed boost on top of LoF is that useful.
T3, agree, procs are great.
T4, I think I prefer AB. You fade after all.
T5 Agree, more dps from procs
T6 Think Halo is the best choice (not tried yet) As the aoe does more damage (you;re probably going to be standing 20 yards or more from boss) as well as healing the entire raid.

Macro's:

I have found that SF and VE work very well together, both shar ethe same CD and it means when your SF is out you will be getting a ton of healing at the same time.

Also think that Shield and Fade works well, they don;t share gcd but share cd's. Just make sure that you only cast fade when targeting yourself.

/cast: Power Word: Shield;
/cast [@target, player][@target, enemy] Fade;

(don't quote me on that, I need to work on the macro, since I'm farming I only shield myself so don't need to make the macro, could be [target=player][target=enemy] instead)

[Switchback]

Halo is epic! Dangerous but epic!

As you say it damages and heals more the further away you are. So it's gona be nice on boss fights imo as it heals everyone in the radius and I've had some really high heals and also the damage.
Every 45 secs is nice so can be brought
in fairly easy to a rotation or saved for high raid damage moments


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[TeaLeaf]

Halo is excellent for the spirit realm in the Gara'jal encounter.   Enter & kaboom!

[TeaLeaf]

I've been predominantly using FDCL & DI in my shadow build but increasingly I am seeing wasted DI procs when trying to dot multiple targets.  I am therefore experimenting with ToF instead of DI as most encounters either have adds that will help keep the ToF proc up (10 sec damage buff),or have low HP phases where a well-timed Halo can proc the ToF buff.  I'll report back when i see how it goes.

[Switchback]

Aye I was advised by a priesty friend to change to this for the Dmg buff.

Your right when multi dotting you can lose a few procs. I haven't tried it yet but think will give it a blast in lfr later


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[TeaLeaf]

Patch 5.1 brings shadowpriests some much needed AOE love:

-mind sear damage has been increased
-Halo appears to have been made slightly more powerful and faster in operation
-Cascade buffed slightly

Looking forward to trying it out!

As an aside, atonement disc priests are being shown some huge love - the range has been increased from 15yds for the atonement healing to 40yds!