Inner Fire: What's that, in the Shadows?
WoW Blogs - Inner Fire Priest Blog
It’s the 2nd coming of ‘Inner Fire’; your local WoW Priest Blog, hooray! Many thanks to all those who came by last week and gave the introduction a read, hope you enjoyed it! For those who haven’t yet got round to viewing, follow the link and let me know what you think!
http://www.crusaderscoliseum.com/inner-fire-priest-blog/2838-inner-fire-an-introduction-to-priests
So, last week we brushed over the general outline of Priests and what they do. Now, reflecting the Focus Magic articles, we will be, to begin with, look at and analyse each Priest spec. I left you guys hanging last week, and didn’t give you an actual spec I would go over this week, however, based on the image featured at the top of this article, if you haven’t already guessed, this week will be all about… Penguins! That’s right, everything you wanted to know about penguins! Habitat, diet, variations of the species, and related in-game achievements. Wait… no, no that’s not right at all! I beg your pardon, this article is all about Shadow Priests!
Note: This article only analyses the PvE aspects of a Shadow Priest. The PvP aspects of a Priest will be in a separate article and will refer to all 3 specs in a player-slaying dedicated article for all those who love to Mind Control those Gnomes anywhere they please.
My favourite spec of all 3 Priest specs, Shadow is the only spec a Priest can deal sufficient DPS to keep up with a raid environment’s needs and expectations. A very fun and different way of DPS’ing, Shadow Priest’s main form of dealing damage to an opponent are through Damage over Time (DoT) effects. Whilst having access to powerful DoT’s, Shadow Priests also have burst damage abilities at their fingertips. Combining these two elements, if played correctly, Shadow Priests can not only be an incredibly powerful Damage Dealer, but they can also be extremely fun to play.
Shadow Priests have the ability to immerse themselves in, and become, pure shadow. With talents and spells such as the likes of Shadowform, Shadow Priests commit themselves to becoming one with the darkness, and from this, Shadow Priests are widely feared in many situations. While this sounds all dandy and awesome, there are a few drawbacks to being a Shadow Priest.
You are unable to cast any Holy spell whilst in Shadowform, and doing so will break you out of Shadowform. Due to this, you are restricted from your healing and preservation abilities, which can flaw your survivability.
But! Just because you’re unable to heal yourself with direct healing spells, that doesn’t necessarily mean Shadow Priests are squishy. With talents such as Vampiric Embrace and Dispersion, Shadow Priests can do decent self (and raid) healing due to the amount of damage they do, and Dispersion can give a Shadow Priest the few seconds of near damage invulnerability to plan their next move, depending on the situation. It is also important to note, that Shadowform doesn’t restrict the use of Discipline spells, so you can still use abilities such as Fear Ward and Power Word: Shield, without breaking out of Shadowform. Who needs healing!
Raiding
Diving into the world of PvE, provides Shadow Priests with an important role of dealing as much damage in as little time as possible to enemy units. To do this effectively, you’ll need the correct spec, gems, enchants and the most important part: A basic knowledge of how to faceroll with all your key bindings assigned to Mind Flay.
Let’s begin with the spec. Shadow Priest specs are pretty cookie cutter, and the most raid efficient spec is: 13/0/58 (http://www.wowhead.com/talent#bVcbhZZGxfVRfzdfqfzAo). You may notice that there is only 1/3 points in Focused Mind, but the 2 points in Improved Vamparic Embrace or Improved Shadowform can be used to fill this talent out if you find you’re having issues with mana management. However, this spec should be the best all-round Shadow Priest PvE spec, and although it isn’t very widely used, you should find that it will bring you the most raid DPS and utility.
Your stats as a Shadow Priest should follow the priority of Hit Rating (Until capped at 289) > Spell Power > Haste Rating > Crit Rating. The Hit cap for a Shadow Priest is nice and low, giving you more ways to increase your other stats and deal out more DPS.
For the rotation, Shadow Priests tend to follow an Algorithm of priorities, rather than an actual rotation. The general rule for Shadow Priests is:
- Ensure that Misery is up.
* Recast Shadow Word: Pain at 5x Shadow Weaving.
* Vampiric Touch
* Devouring Plague
* Mind Blast
* Mind Flay
1. Mind Blast on cooldown.
2. Cast Mind Flay when everything else is up or on cooldown.
3. Use Shadow Word Death to deal damage while moving.
To begin your rotation, cast a Vamparic Touch and chain cast a Devouring Plague with it. Follow this closely with a full-duration Mind Flay, then apply Shadow Word: Pain. From then, make sure you always use Mind Blast when it’s off cooldown, keep your DoT’s up, and use Mind Flay when nothing else is available. It’s all up there in the algorithm-type-thingy…
Before we move on to Glyphs, Gems and what not, check out this rather amusing video which pretty much describes Shadow Priests. Nostalgia AND Humour. And Education. Awesome.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5wtjt_mana-mana-shadow-priest-pve-s-song_videogames
Glyphs
Glyphs are heavily debated within the world of Shadow Priests. However, after analysing and comparing different combinations, it has become clear that the 3 most beneficial major glyphs to a shadow Priest are:
1 – Glyph of Mind Flay – Since Shadow Word: Pain is almost always up, a 10% Damage increase to one of your main spells used in your DPS rotation is a really good boost to your damage.
2 – Glyph of Dispersion – Massively reducing the cooldown on one of your mana-regenerating abilities is a great way to keep on track of your mana management and usage within combat. Especially useful when you find yourself having to cast your DoT’s on multiple targets, as your DoT’s can drain your mana unnoticeably when used in abundance. Glyph of Dispersion solvs all this.
3 – Glyph of Shadow – Every now and then, your spell power will ultimately be increased by the use of this Glyph. And more Spell Power means more damage.
Any other major glyph just doesn’t cut the chase enough to overwrite one of these 3. Regardless of what people may tell you, if you’re still unsure of this combination, do your research, and clarify online and you should find out that this combination is the only way to go.
Minor Glyphs aren’t really an issue, so use which glyphs you feel would be most suited to you and your playstyle.
Gems
Gems for a Shadow Priest are similar to the gems mentioned in the Focus Magic articles. However if you missed them, here’s what you should be aiming for.
For your Meta Gem, take a Chaotic Skyflare Diamond. 21 Critical Strike Rating and + 3% Critical Damage is an incredible boost to your damage and with only 2 blue sockets required for it to work, it’s not too hard to get the required gems needed.
Your red gem should always be Runed Cardinal Ruby, 23 Spell Power is awesome, and it really stacks up after a few of them.
Blue gems are always quite hard to fulfil as a caster, but Purified Dreadstone is really the only choice for PvE as Shadow (And Holy/Disc, for that matter)!
Yellow gems will bring a Reckless Ametrine. Haste and Spell Power will bring the best of both worlds to one gem.
Enchants
Regarding Enchants, use your initiative here. If you aren’t hit capped, research some enchants that will be best suitable, otherwise, aim for Spell Power enchants. If you would like extra information on this, or can’t decide between a certain Enchant, Glyph or Gem, don’t hesitate to contact me via the Kuurg contact page or mail me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
I suppose that does it for this week’s Inner Fire. Tune in next week, where we explore the world of healing as a Priest! Until then… have as much fun as possible with Mind Control! See you next week!
P.S. Message to readers: Of Both Inner Fire and Focus Magic, I would like to genuinely thank you all for the amount of support and feedback you have given me. It really spurs me on to continue writing for you guys and I hope you continue to enjoy the articles!Last Updated on Sunday, 22 August 2010 12:00 Written by Thaesha Saturday, 21 August 2010 18:50