Bored Druid Thread: The Next GenerationFollow

Shadow Priest rotation is pretty simple, but I like it compared to, say, the Warlock. The lack of complexity enables me to pay attention to other things, such as health bars, which in turn makes me more awesome, because I can prevent a wipe in case someone dies or stands in fire.

• Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch durations line up nicely for a twin reapplication.
• Mind Blast and Mind Spike* procs (if you get the talents) mix in a bit of RNG and allows you to maintain damage output while moving (sort of).
• Shadow Orbs (or Ravens in my case) give you a secondary resource to manage, even if you can only spend the resource on one ability (two in PvP).
• Shadow Word: Death makes for an interesting accelerator after the 20% mark, and having an execute ability is pretty neat.
• Mind Flay gives you a channeled filler, which is my favorite kind of filler, because you can cancel it at will without losing DPS.

* I know Insanity is the way to go for single target fights, but I'm running From Darkness because 5-mans where I throw Vampiric Touch everywhere, giving me an almost unlimited supply of instant cast +50% damage Mind Spikes that don't clear debuffs. Win. Also a more interesting mechanic than "Your filler now does more damage". I rarely stand around channeling Mind Flay for more than a few ticks at a time.

Gonna agree to disagree on this one. You say more to calculate to find the best spec, I say more crap "reduce cooldown on fear by 2 seconds per rank" that you dropped points into just to have access to higher tier talents that didn't really add anything of value. The end result is the same, just less bullsh*t. Theorycrafting is ongoing with the new talents - less so with the old.



It's not about the proc, it's about the amplification. The amplification effect is a game changer, to the point where HowToPriest reccomends different gearing strategies/spell priorities based on weather you have that trinket, Unerring Vision of Lei Shen, neither, or both. It can't be overstated just how much these two ***** stuff up from a theorycrafting perspective. Hell, just check out this gemming flowchart from the previous tier.



Except when you do gain DPS. Like I said, it's very debatable, and not "more Mind Blasts = more damage". Mind Blast generates Shadow Orbs, which I spend to use Devouring Plague. I can get either +15% damage during the last 35% of a boss's health (more if I can game the system through healing or attacking low health adds) or I can gain a chance to get a free high-damage nuke that allows me to do other high-cost nukes more often. Whether or not you are able to optimally use the procs, whether or not you are specced into Insanity, whether or not mechanics favor moving Mind Blasts, whether or not the boss has more than one target - there's too many moving parts in play to make a flat "take this 100% of the time." They've done the math, even on a Patchwerk-style "just stand and dps" fight the difference is ~1%. And a Patchwerk fight does not exist any more, nor has it for some time now.



I'd say it's very complex, you say it's simple. I could nitpick what you posted, but I won't because we're both right. What I like about Shadow is that the person playing it at an average skilllevel (not saying you, just an arbitrary person) will do close to, but not as much, as the person playing the spec computationally perfectly considering equal gear. It's Blizzard's easy to learn, hard to master paradigm. Especially for DoT classes, they like to reward the higher skilled players without making the class completely broken at either end, and I think they've pulled it off well here.

Edit: and I have a 90 warlock as well, I'd say it's about the same as Shadow for Affliction, simpler for Destruction, and a little bit more complex for Demonology.

Edited, Nov 22nd 2013 7:39pm by IDrownFish

i think im going to switch back to baby wipes

they are just that much better

I'd say Destruction is more complex than Shadow, simply because Destruction has a lot of "if" factors. Shadow really isn't that complex, and the rotation doesn't change depending on cooldowns.

1. Cast Devouring Plague with 3 Shadow Orbs.
2. Cast Mind Blast if you have fewer than 3 Shadow Orbs.
3. Cast Shadow Word: Death if you have fewer than 3 Shadow Orbs.
     - Shadow Word: Death can be cast twice before triggering its cooldown, and you should always do so.
     - Shadow Word: Death is only usable on targets who are below 20% health.
4. Cast Mind Flay on the target when Devouring Plague is up.
5. Apply and maintain Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch.
6. Cast Mind Flay as your filler spell.
7. Cast the second cast of Shadow Word: Death (which does not generate a Shadow Orb) if you are moving and cannot cast Mind Flay.

Compared to Destruction:

1. Cast Shadowburn if the target is below 20% health and if
     - you have more than 3.5 Burning Embers or
     - Dark Soul: Instability is up or
     - you have a large Intellect trinket proc or
     - you are out of mana or
     - the target is about to die.
3. Apply Immolate and keep it up.
4. Cast Conflagrate if you have two charges.
5. Cast Chaos Bolt if
     - you have more than 3.5 Burning Embers or
     - Skull Banner (from a Warrior) is up or
     - you have a large Intellect or Crit trinket proc or
     - Dark Soul: Instability is up.
6. Cast Conflagrate if you have one charge.
7. Cast Incinerate.
8. Cast Fel Flame as a filler, when moving.


Source: Icy-Veins.com

Edit: Not that the Shadow Priest is in any way boring. I enjoy how much the talents affect the playstyle, and having played a Feral Druid for some time now (still not sure why), it's nice, for a change, to not have my eyes glued to my action bars.

Edited, Nov 23rd 2013 1:14pm by Mazra

Yeah, it really hasn't made sense. The most confusing part, though, is that no one seems to want it to remain the way it is. Blizz has been unhappy with it just as long as the players, from what I can tell.

Yet Arcane Mage has gotten more attention, and it was fine in the first place...

rake, rip, mangle, shred where the main attacks. but you wanted a mangle bot

but there was power shifting. so if you were at low energy you shifted in and out of cat form really fast to gain free energy cause of how enrage, the talent, worked at the time.

So, change SR to a short AoE fear that grounds the targets in place and just boost all damage slightly less than what SR gives. Druids lose a minimal amount of single target dps in optimal conditions but gain an anti ****** button for dealing with lots of adds and their dps becomes more manageable. BAM! Easy fix.

That would mean I'd have to move to Paris.

Not really. Paris is full of French people, ridiculously expensive and a desert as far as beer goes.

Kitties shouldn't have burst, they should just be nigh impossible to shake off. Like real cats, the kill isn't quick but it's inevitable. Let ferals be the terror of all that casts because they can't get the bloody cat out of their face.

I think Blizzard needs to give up o e-sports already. WoW will never be a good e-sport.

I remember the first time you visited me you took out dome cheap sunglasses, the glass was like an inch thick. Just crazy.


Also, I'd exoect the food in Pari to be good and I'd love to be able to get proper French croissants each morning (still warm and then with butter amd good jam... Nomnomnom) but I don't speak any French and the French don't speak anything but French.

Rotation/priority is a terrible, terrible measurement of skill. Maximizing dps should be about stacking buffs and playing the boss, maximizing the time you do dps and making the most out of your procs and buffs.