Shadow Priest raiding

Umbralpuff · August 04, 2008, 01:40 PM

I've read the info by the lovely folks at shadowpriest.com, but quite frankly, I prefer the people at the Den more. Shadowpriest.com is a wonderful forum packed with the great info, but the people there are just a wee bit more...abrasive, for lack of a better word. So, I thought I'd post my question, if I even have a definable question, here.

I was unable to get into a friend's casual raiding guild on my warlock because they have tons at the moment, but they were low on Spriests, which I happened to have. I thought that grouping and raiding as a shadowpriest would be quite similar to grouping as an affliction lock. And while the two are similar, the differences are jarring me a slightly...to the point that I'm nerfing my own dps on bosses out of sheer terror of pulling aggro. No one, my class leader or otherwise, has approached me about a lack of dps. On the contrary, most people cheer when they get to be in the mana battery group. However, *I* think I should be doing more dps and returning more mana for my gear level. My question (to follow) is more general, but if anyone's interested in seeing my stats..they are below. I'm not really looking for talent or gear advice (though I won't turn it away either); shadowpriest.com has gobs of ideas for me. For those interested:

Stats:
Spell Hit: 92 (over capped as i have 5 in shadow focus)
Shadow damage: 1278 (raid buffed)
Spell crit: 10.88%
armory: Telvakus of Garona

On trash I think I do fairly ok, but bosses scare the heck out of me. We'll take hydross as an example. During transitions, the raid leader calls out for all dps to stop, which makes sense. On the other hand, my elder spriest in the guild (and shadowpriest.com) tells me to keep dots up and just wait a few seconds to go all out of on dps, but I don't want to pull aggro..and I haven't yet. This is not the only time I see a contradiction in what the raid leader says and what I, as a spriest, should be doing.

My question/problem is that on bosses my dps drops to about 750, if I'm lucky, and I'm just not sure who to listen to. I'm so terrified of puling aggro or wiping the raid (i.e.becoming the bomb during solarian) that my wonderful spell rotation priority list that serve me so well on trash means nothing. I'm torn between strictly adhering to the raid leader or listening to the other shadowpriests in the raid, who seem to be performing well, but not significantly better than I. There just seems to be so many particulars about being an Spriest that don't apply to other dps casters. Have other people had this experience? I don't have access to the wws reports yet so i can't post those for specific conversations.

Malevevely · August 04, 2008, 02:05 PM

You can keep dots up on hydross just make sure you are on the proper side for the transition so that he will not do a double phase change. As for who to listen to it is always better to talk to someone who is more experienced in the specific class/on the specific fight. The beauty of CL is that they are able to have a very specific knowledge base with respect to each fight from your POV. The raid leader needs to have a broad general knowledge about the over class synergy and fight mechanics but I have yet to meet a raid leader who knows more about every class then the CLs or even sometimes the players of that class in the raid. There is no substitute for specific class knowledge and experience. Make a separate class channel and chat early and often with your SPriest buddies they are the ones that have done it all before, they are the ones who have read the patch notes and know the theory behind your class. That being said troll some forums and make sure you get your own theory base as well, sometimes experience isn't all its cracked up to be.

A side note: Still listen to the raid leader with respect to fight mechanics etc. They are the leaders who are meant to coordinate the fights and they need to know what everyone is doing to fix certain problems. They will talk about the fight in general terms and global mechanics while your CLs can give you tips and tweaks to your POV.

levinho · August 04, 2008, 09:06 PM

Being a shadow priest is a little different from being a lock because you have to manage spells with cool downs as apposed to just ticking etc. . . Not that hard and can be fun. However, malevevely is correct dots on hydross are fine but you must be on the proper side. All that said it may be easier to stop dots and not worry about pulling. I agree also that feedback from other shadow priests is very helpful and should give you a better perspective on the fight then the raid leader (unless they are a shadow priest).

Also, remember at 30yds or so (max range) you can go over the tank without pulling till 130% of aggro. Take full advantage of that. Our best shadowpriest can almost do as much damage as I can (#1 in last few raids for me #2 sometimes for him.) He is basically a robot about hitting his rotation. He never skips a beat. It takes that kind of performance to really excel at that particular play style. He rides the aggro mark pretty close sometimes as well.

Dommiel · September 26, 2008, 10:33 AM

My main is a sp, and I've always timed my dots so that they run out for the phase switch and hit fade as well. However last time we went I noticed that our most experienced sp didn't worry about that as on each change they were wiped with the aggro reset. This sp will happily out dps the destrolocks on a lot of raids

Just remember that fade is total rubbish compared with soulshatter so avoid overaggroing. There is no set rotation for a sp - just keep vt,sw:p, ve (if no threat issues) and mb on cd with mf filling in. At least with the new glyphs we get a better max range than our current 24 yards.

Don't know if you've found it but there is a second gear list for stuff after the patch is applied - may want to look at that before spending your badges on upgrades. I've just regemmed everything for max damage and then spotted that after the patch they are raising the hit cap to 139.

August 04, 2008, 01:40 PM	#1 (permalink)
Umbralpuff Member Character Info Crocus 70 Gnome Warlock Garona US PvE Guild: Prismatic Order Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 7/43/11	Shadow Priest raiding I've read the info by the lovely folks at shadowpriest.com, but quite frankly, I prefer the people at the Den more. Shadowpriest.com is a wonderful forum packed with the great info, but the people there are just a wee bit more...abrasive, for lack of a better word. So, I thought I'd post my question, if I even have a definable question, here. I was unable to get into a friend's casual raiding guild on my warlock because they have tons at the moment, but they were low on Spriests, which I happened to have. I thought that grouping and raiding as a shadowpriest would be quite similar to grouping as an affliction lock. And while the two are similar, the differences are jarring me a slightly...to the point that I'm nerfing my own dps on bosses out of sheer terror of pulling aggro. No one, my class leader or otherwise, has approached me about a lack of dps. On the contrary, most people cheer when they get to be in the mana battery group. However, I think I should be doing more dps and returning more mana for my gear level. My question (to follow) is more general, but if anyone's interested in seeing my stats..they are below. I'm not really looking for talent or gear advice (though I won't turn it away either); shadowpriest.com has gobs of ideas for me. For those interested: Stats: Spell Hit: 92 (over capped as i have 5 in shadow focus) Shadow damage: 1278 (raid buffed) Spell crit: 10.88% armory: Telvakus of Garona On trash I think I do fairly ok, but bosses scare the heck out of me. We'll take hydross as an example. During transitions, the raid leader calls out for all dps to stop, which makes sense. On the other hand, my elder spriest in the guild (and shadowpriest.com) tells me to keep dots up and just wait a few seconds to go all out of on dps, but I don't want to pull aggro..and I haven't yet. This is not the only time I see a contradiction in what the raid leader says and what I, as a spriest, should be doing. My question/problem is that on bosses my dps drops to about 750, if I'm lucky, and I'm just not sure who to listen to. I'm so terrified of puling aggro or wiping the raid (i.e.becoming the bomb during solarian) that my wonderful spell rotation priority list that serve me so well on trash means nothing. I'm torn between strictly adhering to the raid leader or listening to the other shadowpriests in the raid, who seem to be performing well, but not significantly better than I. There just seems to be so many particulars about being an Spriest that don't apply to other dps casters. Have other people had this experience? I don't have access to the wws reports yet so i can't post those for specific conversations.

August 04, 2008, 02:05 PM	#2 (permalink)
Malevevely Member Character Info Malevevely 70 Undead Warlock KJ US PvP	Re: Shadow Priest raiding You can keep dots up on hydross just make sure you are on the proper side for the transition so that he will not do a double phase change. As for who to listen to it is always better to talk to someone who is more experienced in the specific class/on the specific fight. The beauty of CL is that they are able to have a very specific knowledge base with respect to each fight from your POV. The raid leader needs to have a broad general knowledge about the over class synergy and fight mechanics but I have yet to meet a raid leader who knows more about every class then the CLs or even sometimes the players of that class in the raid. There is no substitute for specific class knowledge and experience. Make a separate class channel and chat early and often with your SPriest buddies they are the ones that have done it all before, they are the ones who have read the patch notes and know the theory behind your class. That being said troll some forums and make sure you get your own theory base as well, sometimes experience isn't all its cracked up to be. A side note: Still listen to the raid leader with respect to fight mechanics etc. They are the leaders who are meant to coordinate the fights and they need to know what everyone is doing to fix certain problems. They will talk about the fight in general terms and global mechanics while your CLs can give you tips and tweaks to your POV.

August 04, 2008, 09:06 PM	#3 (permalink)
levinho Member Character Info Ceausescu 70 Blood Elf Warlock mug'thol US PvP Guild: Defiant Profile: Blizzard Armory Talent Spec: 0/21/40	Re: Shadow Priest raiding Being a shadow priest is a little different from being a lock because you have to manage spells with cool downs as apposed to just ticking etc. . . Not that hard and can be fun. However, malevevely is correct dots on hydross are fine but you must be on the proper side. All that said it may be easier to stop dots and not worry about pulling. I agree also that feedback from other shadow priests is very helpful and should give you a better perspective on the fight then the raid leader (unless they are a shadow priest). Also, remember at 30yds or so (max range) you can go over the tank without pulling till 130% of aggro. Take full advantage of that. Our best shadowpriest can almost do as much damage as I can (#1 in last few raids for me #2 sometimes for him.) He is basically a robot about hitting his rotation. He never skips a beat. It takes that kind of performance to really excel at that particular play style. He rides the aggro mark pretty close sometimes as well.

September 26, 2008, 10:33 AM	#4 (permalink)
Dommiel Registered Character Info Dommiel 70 Human Warlock bronze Dragonflight Euro PvE Guild: Epoch	Re: Shadow Priest raiding My main is a sp, and I've always timed my dots so that they run out for the phase switch and hit fade as well. However last time we went I noticed that our most experienced sp didn't worry about that as on each change they were wiped with the aggro reset. This sp will happily out dps the destrolocks on a lot of raids Just remember that fade is total rubbish compared with soulshatter so avoid overaggroing. There is no set rotation for a sp - just keep vt,sw:p, ve (if no threat issues) and mb on cd with mf filling in. At least with the new glyphs we get a better max range than our current 24 yards. Don't know if you've found it but there is a second gear list for stuff after the patch is applied - may want to look at that before spending your badges on upgrades. I've just regemmed everything for max damage and then spotted that after the patch they are raising the hit cap to 139.