The guide hasnt gone anywhere! Its still being whipped into shape. Updating the talents and their explainations is taking longer than expected with alot of stuff only now starting to shake out a few weeks after 4.0.1 and Cataclysm is only a few weeks away!
So stay tuned or send me an email to get involved!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Priest PvP Tips vs. Other Classes
Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1
STILL UPDATING
Lots of hotfixes and talent changes+glyphs to account for
When facing off against other classes in PvP, it is important to understand how they can shut you down. Here are some tips for fighting against different classes as a priest.
These aren’t step-by-step strategies, just general tips and advice focused on a 1v1 setting. These tips may wildly fluctuate based on balancing issues but the general information about how to deal with the particular class should not vary too widely even with balancing changes.
Warriors
General Strategy:
Keep Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire, Prayer of Mending, and Renew up at all times. Time your Psychic Screams for when the warrior’s anti-fear abilities are on cooldown. Draw out spell interruption from casting Mind Control or faking a heal in order to be able to get a real heal off on yourself. Limit the amount of time you spent stunned.
What to Watch for:
Charge
15 second cooldown
Stuns you for 1.5 second, gives the warrior rage.
Can only be used out of combat.
Pummel
10 second cooldown
5 yard range
Will interrupt spell casting, and prevent spells from that school for being cast for 4 seconds.
Intercept
20-30 second cooldown8-25 yard range
Warrior charges at you, stuns you for 3 seconds.
Intimidating Shout
2 min cooldown
8 yard range
Fears enemies for 8 seconds.
Execute
5 yard range
Does hefty damage to enemies under 20% health.
Berserker Rage
30 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Warrior becomes immune to fear effects.
Death Wish
3 min cooldown
Lasts 30 seconds
Warrior becomes immune to fear effects.
Requires Arms talents.
Mortal Strike
5-6 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
5 yard range
Debuff that decreases healing done on you by 50%.
Requires Arms talents.
Tips:
- Warriors need rage to do damage and special moves. They do not get rage their attacks are being absorbed by your Power Word: Shield.
- The damage prevented by Power Word: Shield is not lessened if you are under the effects of Mortal Strike. With Mortal Strike upon you, Power Word: Shield is effectively your most mana-efficient single-target “heal.”
- Use an instant cast offensive spell, like Shadow Word: Pain, to quickly put (and keep) warriors in combat to avoid being Charged (as Charge is a decent rage bump for them).
- If a warrior gets a Charge off on you, you can try to Psychic Scream right away. With some luck, you could catch him/her in Battle Stance (and with Death Wish on cooldown).
- Try to save Psychic Scream for when the warrior has all anti-fear abilities on cooldown (Death Wish, etc.).
- Control is key. Draw out a Pummel when you want it by faking a large heal or casting Mind Control first. If the warrior doesn’t interrupt Mind Control, use it to get some distance or cause mass confusion.
- Healing against a warrior can be a challenge. Keep Renew and Prayer of Mending up on you at all times for heals, and keep Power Word: Shield and Inner Fire up to prevent damage.
- Don’t spend a lot of effort running away from a warrior. Distance on a warrior only allows him/her to use Intercept for a free stun. If you see a warrior running the opposite direction, run the same way. S/he is likely just trying to get distance on you to Intercept.
- Trinket out of Intercept.
- If you have a Battlemaster’s trinket, use the health gain from it to stay out of Execute range (stay over 20% health).
- Stoneform (if you are a dwarf) after a warrior gets a large crit on you to avoid taking heavy damage from bleeds (if the warrior has the Deep Wounds talent; many do).
Rogues
Stuns target. Must be used from stealth.
• Blind
3 min cooldown
10 yard range
Lasts 10 seconds
Disorients the target. Broken with damage.
• Gouge
10 second cooldown
Lasts 4-5.5 seconds
Stuns target. Broken with damage.
• Sap
Lasts 10 seconds
5 yard range
Incapacitates the target. Must be used from stealth. Broken with damage.
• Kick
10 second cooldown
5 yard range
Interrupts spell casting and prevent any spells fromt hat school from being cast for 5 seconds (can also silence all magic for 2 seconds, with Combat talents).
• Sprint
3 min cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Increases movement speed by 70% (at max rank).
• Cloak of Shadows
1.5 min cooldown
Lasts 5 seconds
Removes harmful magic effects and makes 90% resistant to spells.
• Deadly Throw
Lasts 6 seconds
30 yard range
Reduces movement speed by 50%.
• Wound Poison
Can reduce the healing done to you by 10%-50%.
• Mind-Numbing Poison
Can increase casting times by 60%.
• Crippling Poison
Chance to reduce your movement speed by 70%.
• Vanish
3 min cooldown
Lets the rogue stealth mid-combat.
• Dirty Deeds
Rogue causes up to 20% more damage against enemies under 35% health.
Requires Subtlety talents.
Tips:
• Mind Vision a rogue if you know s/he is about to stealth as you will then be able to see him/her. Most rogues will not notice. The ones who do notice may waste Vanish on it.
• If you are looking for a stealthed rogue, use Holy Nova.
• If you are near a rogue that has activated spirit, Psychic Scream if you can to get some distance.
• Don’t use Psychic Scream with the rogue has Cloak of Shadows up.
• Cloak of Shadows will not reduce the damage done by your Shadowfiend.
• Keep your back away from the rogue if they’re carrying daggers,
• If you want to get a heal off, draw out a Kick by faking a large heal or casting Mind Control first. If the rogue doesn’t interrupt Mind Control, use it to get distance on the rogue so that you can heal.
• Try to adapt to the poisons being used on you. If you have Crippling Poison on you, focus more on DPS or healing than running around (and rely on Psychic Scream or Mind Control to get some distance). If you have Mind-Numbing Poison on you then be mobile and focus on instant cast heals and DPS. If you have Wound Poison on you, play defensively, keeping Power Word: Shield up.
• Keep Inner Fire and Power Word: Shield up for damage reduction.
• It can get real tough to get long casts off against rogues; be sure to keep Renew and Prayer of Mending up at all times.
• Don’t just trinket out of any stun and don’t waste it on an opener (Cheap Shot) when you are prebuffed with protective goodness. It is best to save your trinket for Kidney Shot when the rogue has 4-5 combo points on you.
• Use Psychic Scream immediately after using your trinket. Make a macro if you must:
/use 13
/cast Psychic Scream
This will let you get some distance (and/or line of sight) on the rogue and be able to get some healing.
• In terms of stacking debuffs/DoTs on the rogue, try to save long cooldown spells like Devouring Plague for after s/he uses Cloak of Shadows.
• If you are a dwarf, save Stoneform for remove crippling effects (such as Wound Poison) after using your trinket in order to get some distance on the rogue to heal, etc.
• If you have a Battlemaster’s trinket, use the health gain from it to stay out of the Dirty Deeds range (stay over 35% health).
General Strategy:
• Frost Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Will slow hostile players in a 10 yard radius by 60%.
• Snake Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
6-8 snakes will attack nearby players, sometimes poisoning them.
• Viper Sting
15 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Affects you with a poison that drains 4% mana from you (at max rank, more with the Improved Stings talent).
• Concussive Shot
12 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Dazes you, reducing movement speed by 50%.
• Scatter Shot
30 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Disorients you (unable to cast or take action).
Requires Marksmanship talents.
• Silencing Shot
20 second cooldown
Lasts 3 seconds
Silences you (unable to cast any spell).
Requires Marksmanship talents.
• Bestial Wrath / Beast Within
2 minute cooldown
Lasts 18 seconds
Pet / player immune to fear and deals extra damage.
Requires Beast Mastery talents.
Tips:
• A hunter without mana can’t trap or do hefty damage. Mana Burn is very effective against them.
• Try to keep yourself positioned in a place where the hunter will have to stay in the open, within line of sight of you at all times. Do not let yourself get kited (if you can) and do not let the hunter pull a shoot-and-hide routine. This kind of duck-and-cover just lets Viper Sting tick down your health and mana while you cannot damage the hunter. Or, alternately, make a hunter chase you into an enclosed space making it easy to keep him/her in melee range.
• Holy Nova is perfect to kill snakes from a Snake Trap.
• Fade, being the buggy thing that it is, will sometimes cause a pet to stop attacking you.
• Tough to pull off, but if you can, use your Psychic Scream for when a hunter is casting Aimed Shot.
• Use whatever means you have to cure to the poison from Viper Sting (Stoneform, etc.).
• Stay on a hunter (melee range) to reduce damage done to you, but be careful of traps.
• Be watchful for traps. Look for the animation of a hunter placing the trap, and avoid that area. If a hunter seems tied to a spot and willing to let you just run up to him/her, then there is likely a trap nearby.
• Dispel Hunter’s Mark and Concussive Shot off of you.
• Some hunters, when at less than 75% health, will Feign Death to try to trick you into thinking that they are dead. Don’t be fooled.
• If a pet / player have turned bright red, it means that they are under the effects of Bestial Wrath / Beast Within. They cannot be feared, and deal extra damage. This can be used to break fear effects.
Mages
General Strategy:
• Frost Mages: Be offensive and force the mage to use cooldowns. Use burst damage to keep the pressure on. Dispel Frost Nova right away. Heal early. Be mindful of their Counterspell cooldown.
• Fire/Arcane Mages: If you can survive their burst, you have a good shot against them. Heal early and often. Be mindful of their Counterspell cooldown.
General Strategy:
Keep Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire, Prayer of Mending, and Renew up at all times. Draw out spell interruption from casting Mind Control or faking a heal in order to be able to get a real heal off on yourself. Adapt to the type of poison being used on you.
What to watch for:
• Kidney Shot
20 second cooldown
Lasts 2-6 seconds
5 yard range
Stuns the target.
• Cheap Shot
Lasts 4 seconds
5 yard rangeStuns target. Must be used from stealth.
• Blind
3 min cooldown
10 yard range
Lasts 10 seconds
Disorients the target. Broken with damage.
• Gouge
10 second cooldown
Lasts 4-5.5 seconds
Stuns target. Broken with damage.
• Sap
Lasts 10 seconds
5 yard range
Incapacitates the target. Must be used from stealth. Broken with damage.
• Kick
10 second cooldown
5 yard range
Interrupts spell casting and prevent any spells fromt hat school from being cast for 5 seconds (can also silence all magic for 2 seconds, with Combat talents).
• Sprint
3 min cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Increases movement speed by 70% (at max rank).
• Cloak of Shadows
1.5 min cooldown
Lasts 5 seconds
Removes harmful magic effects and makes 90% resistant to spells.
• Deadly Throw
Lasts 6 seconds
30 yard range
Reduces movement speed by 50%.
• Wound Poison
Can reduce the healing done to you by 10%-50%.
• Mind-Numbing Poison
Can increase casting times by 60%.
• Crippling Poison
Chance to reduce your movement speed by 70%.
• Vanish
3 min cooldown
Lets the rogue stealth mid-combat.
• Dirty Deeds
Rogue causes up to 20% more damage against enemies under 35% health.
Requires Subtlety talents.
Tips:
• Mind Vision a rogue if you know s/he is about to stealth as you will then be able to see him/her. Most rogues will not notice. The ones who do notice may waste Vanish on it.
• If you are looking for a stealthed rogue, use Holy Nova.
• If you are near a rogue that has activated spirit, Psychic Scream if you can to get some distance.
• Don’t use Psychic Scream with the rogue has Cloak of Shadows up.
• Cloak of Shadows will not reduce the damage done by your Shadowfiend.
• Keep your back away from the rogue if they’re carrying daggers,
• If you want to get a heal off, draw out a Kick by faking a large heal or casting Mind Control first. If the rogue doesn’t interrupt Mind Control, use it to get distance on the rogue so that you can heal.
• Try to adapt to the poisons being used on you. If you have Crippling Poison on you, focus more on DPS or healing than running around (and rely on Psychic Scream or Mind Control to get some distance). If you have Mind-Numbing Poison on you then be mobile and focus on instant cast heals and DPS. If you have Wound Poison on you, play defensively, keeping Power Word: Shield up.
• Keep Inner Fire and Power Word: Shield up for damage reduction.
• It can get real tough to get long casts off against rogues; be sure to keep Renew and Prayer of Mending up at all times.
• Don’t just trinket out of any stun and don’t waste it on an opener (Cheap Shot) when you are prebuffed with protective goodness. It is best to save your trinket for Kidney Shot when the rogue has 4-5 combo points on you.
• Use Psychic Scream immediately after using your trinket. Make a macro if you must:
/use 13
/cast Psychic Scream
This will let you get some distance (and/or line of sight) on the rogue and be able to get some healing.
• In terms of stacking debuffs/DoTs on the rogue, try to save long cooldown spells like Devouring Plague for after s/he uses Cloak of Shadows.
• If you are a dwarf, save Stoneform for remove crippling effects (such as Wound Poison) after using your trinket in order to get some distance on the rogue to heal, etc.
• If you have a Battlemaster’s trinket, use the health gain from it to stay out of the Dirty Deeds range (stay over 35% health).
Hunters
General Strategy:
Positioning is everything. Use Psychic Scream whenever you have the opportunity. Be offensive. Watch for traps. You’ll generally want to ignore the pet and just go straight for the hunter. Self dispel.
What to watch for:
• Freezing Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Freezes you in place, disallowing any action (will break on damage).
• Frost Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Will slow hostile players in a 10 yard radius by 60%.
• Snake Trap
30 second cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
6-8 snakes will attack nearby players, sometimes poisoning them.
• Viper Sting
15 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Affects you with a poison that drains 4% mana from you (at max rank, more with the Improved Stings talent).
• Concussive Shot
12 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Dazes you, reducing movement speed by 50%.
• Scatter Shot
30 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Disorients you (unable to cast or take action).
Requires Marksmanship talents.
• Silencing Shot
20 second cooldown
Lasts 3 seconds
Silences you (unable to cast any spell).
Requires Marksmanship talents.
• Bestial Wrath / Beast Within
2 minute cooldown
Lasts 18 seconds
Pet / player immune to fear and deals extra damage.
Requires Beast Mastery talents.
Tips:
• A hunter without mana can’t trap or do hefty damage. Mana Burn is very effective against them.
• Try to keep yourself positioned in a place where the hunter will have to stay in the open, within line of sight of you at all times. Do not let yourself get kited (if you can) and do not let the hunter pull a shoot-and-hide routine. This kind of duck-and-cover just lets Viper Sting tick down your health and mana while you cannot damage the hunter. Or, alternately, make a hunter chase you into an enclosed space making it easy to keep him/her in melee range.
• Holy Nova is perfect to kill snakes from a Snake Trap.
• Fade, being the buggy thing that it is, will sometimes cause a pet to stop attacking you.
• Tough to pull off, but if you can, use your Psychic Scream for when a hunter is casting Aimed Shot.
• Use whatever means you have to cure to the poison from Viper Sting (Stoneform, etc.).
• Stay on a hunter (melee range) to reduce damage done to you, but be careful of traps.
• Be watchful for traps. Look for the animation of a hunter placing the trap, and avoid that area. If a hunter seems tied to a spot and willing to let you just run up to him/her, then there is likely a trap nearby.
• Dispel Hunter’s Mark and Concussive Shot off of you.
• Some hunters, when at less than 75% health, will Feign Death to try to trick you into thinking that they are dead. Don’t be fooled.
• If a pet / player have turned bright red, it means that they are under the effects of Bestial Wrath / Beast Within. They cannot be feared, and deal extra damage. This can be used to break fear effects.
Mages
General Strategy:
• Frost Mages: Be offensive and force the mage to use cooldowns. Use burst damage to keep the pressure on. Dispel Frost Nova right away. Heal early. Be mindful of their Counterspell cooldown.
• Fire/Arcane Mages: If you can survive their burst, you have a good shot against them. Heal early and often. Be mindful of their Counterspell cooldown.
What to watch for:
Mage gains mana back (60% if channeled the full duration). Breaks on damage.
• Spellsteal
Lasts up to 2 minutes
Steals a random buff from a target player.
• Presence of Mind
2 minute cooldown
Next spell cast with casting time less than 10 seconds will be instant cast.
Requires Arcane talents.
• Shatter
Increases spell damage done to targets frozen (by Frost Nova, Freezing Trap, etc.) by 10-50% (depends on talents).
Requires Frost talents.
• Summon Water Elemental
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
A Water Elemental combat pet is summoned to the aide of the mage.
Requires Frost talents.
• Ice Block
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Protects the mage from all damage for 10 seconds, but the mage cannot take any action. This will also clear many debuffs and damage over time spells that were on the mage.
Requires Frost talents.
• Cold Snap
8 minute cooldown
Ends the remaining cooldowns on all the mage’s recently cast spells.\
Requires Frost talents.
Tips:
• Against arcane/fire mages, spam Dispel Magic if you think they are about to try to burst you down. If you can manage to remove Presence of Mind, then you saved yourself from eating an instant-cast Pyroblast.
• Arcane/fire mages have nasty “burst” damage when popping all their cooldowns. Some will Polymorph you first to set up their burst. Trinket out of the Polymorph if you expect this is the case.
• When fighting frost mages, be sure to keep the debuffs dispelled off of you. Frost mages do a small amount of burst damage if you are snared with Frost Nova (this is called a “Shatter Combo”). If you keep everything dispelled off of you, you should have no trouble dispelling Frost Nova fast to avoid that burst.
• A frost mage will likely Iceblock if his/her health gets too low. Be ready will a Mass Dispel to strip the mage of it. Be aware that most frost mages will be able to Iceblock again 30 seconds later (due to Cold Snap).
• A Water Elemental can be annoying, and frost mages can use it to get you frozen for a Shatter combo. It is a caster pet, so it should be pretty easy to get out of its line of sight. It will follow you, but the AI on it makes it think before chasing you. It should be easy to get some distance on it. Alternately, if line of sight is not available to you, then if you can burn it down fast, go for it.
• Keep a mage clear of buffs.
• Watch the Counterspell cooldown, and when the mage can cast it rely on instant cast spells. You can bait its use with fake-casting to force the mage to waste it.
• If you see a Polymorph incoming, cast Shadow Word: Death a fraction of a second before the Polymorph lands. The backlash damage from Shadow Word: Death will knock you out of the Polymorph.
• Be wary of using certain self-buffs that a mage can Spellsteal (such as Shadow Protection, if you are a shadow priest).
Warlocks
General Strategy:
Ignore the pet (unless it can be taken out with a DoT or two). Stay mobile. Save your interrupts for fear effects and Unstable Affliction. Offensively and defensively dispel.
• Counterspell
24 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Interruptsspell casting, and stops you from casting spells from the interrupted school.
• Polymorph
Lasts 10 seconds
The mage changes you into a harmless critter, preventing you from taking any action. Heals any damage previously done to you. Breaks on damage.
• Evocation
4 minute cooldown
Lasts 8 secondsMage gains mana back (60% if channeled the full duration). Breaks on damage.
• Spellsteal
Lasts up to 2 minutes
Steals a random buff from a target player.
• Presence of Mind
2 minute cooldown
Next spell cast with casting time less than 10 seconds will be instant cast.
Requires Arcane talents.
• Shatter
Increases spell damage done to targets frozen (by Frost Nova, Freezing Trap, etc.) by 10-50% (depends on talents).
Requires Frost talents.
• Summon Water Elemental
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
A Water Elemental combat pet is summoned to the aide of the mage.
Requires Frost talents.
• Ice Block
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Protects the mage from all damage for 10 seconds, but the mage cannot take any action. This will also clear many debuffs and damage over time spells that were on the mage.
Requires Frost talents.
• Cold Snap
8 minute cooldown
Ends the remaining cooldowns on all the mage’s recently cast spells.\
Requires Frost talents.
Tips:
• Against arcane/fire mages, spam Dispel Magic if you think they are about to try to burst you down. If you can manage to remove Presence of Mind, then you saved yourself from eating an instant-cast Pyroblast.
• Arcane/fire mages have nasty “burst” damage when popping all their cooldowns. Some will Polymorph you first to set up their burst. Trinket out of the Polymorph if you expect this is the case.
• When fighting frost mages, be sure to keep the debuffs dispelled off of you. Frost mages do a small amount of burst damage if you are snared with Frost Nova (this is called a “Shatter Combo”). If you keep everything dispelled off of you, you should have no trouble dispelling Frost Nova fast to avoid that burst.
• A frost mage will likely Iceblock if his/her health gets too low. Be ready will a Mass Dispel to strip the mage of it. Be aware that most frost mages will be able to Iceblock again 30 seconds later (due to Cold Snap).
• A Water Elemental can be annoying, and frost mages can use it to get you frozen for a Shatter combo. It is a caster pet, so it should be pretty easy to get out of its line of sight. It will follow you, but the AI on it makes it think before chasing you. It should be easy to get some distance on it. Alternately, if line of sight is not available to you, then if you can burn it down fast, go for it.
• Keep a mage clear of buffs.
• Watch the Counterspell cooldown, and when the mage can cast it rely on instant cast spells. You can bait its use with fake-casting to force the mage to waste it.
• If you see a Polymorph incoming, cast Shadow Word: Death a fraction of a second before the Polymorph lands. The backlash damage from Shadow Word: Death will knock you out of the Polymorph.
• Be wary of using certain self-buffs that a mage can Spellsteal (such as Shadow Protection, if you are a shadow priest).
Warlocks
General Strategy:
Ignore the pet (unless it can be taken out with a DoT or two). Stay mobile. Save your interrupts for fear effects and Unstable Affliction. Offensively and defensively dispel.
What to watch for:
• Shadow Ward
30 second cooldown
Lasts 30 seconds
Prevents 900+ shadow damage (at max rank).
• Curse of Tongues
Lasts 30 seconds
Increases your casting times by 30%.
• Fear
Lasts 10 seconds
Casues you to flee in fear, unable to take any other action.
• Deathcoil
Lasts 3 seconds
Causes you to flee in horror, unable to take other action. Deals damage to you, and heals the warlock for that damage.
• Howl of Terror
Lasts 8 seconds
Causes up to 5 enemies to flee in fear, unable to take other action.
• Spell Lock
24 second cooldown
Silences you for 3 seconds (prevents all spell casting) and interrupts you, preventing any spell from being cast from that school for 6 seconds.
Felhunter ability.
• Devour Magic
8 second cooldown
Removes a harmful debuff from a friend, or a helpful buff from an enemy. Heals the Felhunter.
Felhunter ability.
• Seduction
Lasts 10 seconds
Prevents you from taking any action. Breaks on damage.
Succubus ability.
• Unstable Affliction
Lasts 18 seconds
Deals damage over time. If dispelled, it will do 2k+ shadow damage to you and will silence you for 5 seconds.
Requires Affliction talents.
• Soul Link
Warlock shares damage taken with its pet (up to 20%).
Requires Demonology talents.
Tips:
• When you see the Warlock casting Fear at you, buff yourself with Fear Ward right before their spell ends. (You don’t want to leave Fear Ward up on yourself as they warlock will likely have their Felhunter devour it before it can be used; only cast Fear Ward right before it is needed).
• Many affliction warlocks will open with casting Unstable Affliction against you. Interrupt Unstable Affliction every chance you get, and keep the warlock moving (and casting instant cast spells). A warlock’s DoTs are easily dispelled by you (without Unstable Affliction on you).
• If you see a warlock casting Shadow Ward, dispel it right away (if you rely on doing shadow damage).
• Fade will sometimes cause a pet to stop attacking you. It is also useful as dispel-fodder for a felhunter that may be munching on you (you can use rank 1).
• Psychic Scream, if it lasts the full time, can yield the opportunity to get a Mana Burn off. If you can wear a warlock’s mana down, s/he will likely have to Lifetap to get some back.
• Don’t use your trinket on Deathcoil. Save it for longer-lasting fears (Fear, Howl of Terror).
• Be very careful with dispels if you are up against an Affliction lock. If you cast Mass Dispel and it removes multiple instances of Unstable Affliction, you could easily blow yourself up. Even the silence effect from an accidental dispel of Unstable Affliction can mean your demise.
Druids
General Strategy:
• Balance: (mostly Moonkin form) Mana Burn. Dispel offensively. Be ready to interrupt a large heal if the druid changes form. Be quick to dispel Innervate. Heal early.
• Feral: (mostly Cat or Bear form) Save your interrupts and burst for when druid changes form to heal. Keep Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire, Renew, and Prayer of Mending up at all times.
• Resto: (mostly Tree and humanoid form) Be very careful with your mana use. Dispel Innervate right away. Interrupt large heals.
What to watch for:• Travel Form
Druid changes form; movement speed is increased by 40%. Only usable outdoors.
• Cyclone
Lasts 6 seconds
Banishes you. You take no damage, but can take no action. Has diminishing returns.
Requires humanoid or Moonkin form.
• Entangling Roots
Lasts 10 seconds
Deals damage and holds you in place. Breaks on damage. Also has diminishing returns.
Requires humanoid or Moonkin form.
• Innervate
6 minute cooldown
Lasts 20 seconds
Regenerates mana equal to 450% of the Druid’s base mana pool.
Requires humanoid, Moonkin, or Tree form.
• Pounce
Lasts 3-4 seconds.
Stuns you and deals damage over time.
Requires Cat form.
• Rip
Lasts 12 seconds
Finishing move that causes bleed damage over time.
Finishing move that causes bleed damage over time.
Requires Cat form.
• Maim
Lasts 2-6 seconds.
Finishing move that does damage and stuns you. Breaks on damage.
Requires Cat form.
• Mangle
Lasts 12 seconds
Damages you and gives you a debuff that makes you take extra damage from bleeds.
Requires Cat or Bear form.
Requires Feral talents.
• Bash
1 minute cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Stuns you, preventing you from taking any action. Also used as an interrupt for spell casting.
Requires Bear form.
• Feral Charge
15 second cooldown
Lasts 4 seconds
Requires 8-15 yard range
Interrupts your spell casting for the duration.
Requires Bear form.
Requires Feral talents.
• Force of Nature
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 30 seconds
Summons 3 treants to attack the druid’s enemies.
Requires humanoid or Moonkin form.
Requires Balance talents.
• Nature’s Swiftness
3 minute cooldown
Druid’s next nature spell cast is instant cast.
Requires humanoid or Tree form.
Requires Restoration talents.
Tips:
• Mind Vision druids if you know they are about to stealth as you will then be able to still see them when they do.
• If a druid drops to humanoid form (from cat / bear / moonkin), it is likely to heal. Keep Psychic Scream or, better yet, Silence, for this. The druid will likely try to Cyclone you first.
• You can Psychic Scream or Silence a druid if s/he is about to Cyclone. Cyclone is used to get distance and/or time for the druid to drink or heal (or escape altogether). Cyclone has diminishing returns (first time cast on you it lasts 6 seconds, the second time is 3 seconds, the third is 1.5 seconds, the fourth and subsequent times you are immune) which gets reset after 15 seconds.
• Proactively dispel heals and buffs the druid has on him/her. Quickly dispel Innervate and HoTs when cast. It is generally considered better to dispel Lifebloom than to leave it up, unless you are in a battle against a Resto druid.
• A mana burned druid cannot shapeshift, but the only times a druid isn’t immune to Mana Burn is in humanoid, Moonkin, and Tree forms.
• Mind Control will only work against a druid in humanoid form and Moonkin form. You can fake casting it against druids in one of these two forms to force them to shapechange (to avoid the effect). All that shapechanging kills their mana pool.
• When you are up against only a Feral druid, trinket out of the opening stun from Pounce.
• You can trinket out of Cyclone as well.
• If you see a druid in bear form running the opposite direction, run the same way. S/he is likely trying to get distance on you to Feral Charge.
• If you are a dwarf up against a feral druid, save Stoneform for the bleed damage from Rip (finishing move), not Pounce (opener). Rip does almost twice the bleed damage that Pounce does.
• Balance druids will usually save their summoned treants (from their Force of Nature spell) for when they are trying to burst you down. Save Psychic Scream for them.
• Be very stingy with your mana use against a Resto druid. Most can heal a lot longer than you can DPS.
Shaman
General Strategy:
• Elemental: Be sure to keep Silence or an interrupt handy for heals. Knock out Tremor Totem before you fear and Grounding Totem before going on offense. Mana Burn is a good way to shut them down, though be very careful with Earth Shock’s interrupt. Offensively dispel.
• Enhancement: Kite away from totems. Stay out of melee range as much as possible. Dispel Frost Shock’s snare right away. Have an interrupt handy for when the shaman tries to heal.
• Resto: Give yourself a buffer for dispels (with Fade, etc.). Knock out mana gain totems right away. Keep shutting down healing spells with interrupts. Mana Burn is a good offensive spell against them, but be careful of Earth Shock’s interrupt.
What to watch for:
• Ghost Wolf
Shaman changes form; increases movement speed by 40%. Only usable outdoors.
5-6 second cooldown
Lasts 2 seconds
Interrupts your spell casting and prevents any spell from that interrupted school from being cast for the duration.
• Frost Shock
5-6 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Deals damage and reduces your movement speed by 50% for the duration.
• Purge
Removes 1-2 buffs from the shaman’s target enemy.
• Bloodlust / Heroism
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 40 seconds
Increases melee, ranged, and casting speed by 30% for all the shaman’s party members.
• Grounding Totem
15 second cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
Will absorb one harmful damage spell directed at the shaman, destroying the totem.
• Mana Tide Totem
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 12 seconds
Restores 6% of total mana every 3 seconds for every in shaman’s party.
Requires Restoration talents.
• Mana Spring Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
Restores 41 mp5 to the shaman’s party members.
• Tremor Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
Removes fear, charm, and sleep effects from the shaman’s party members.
• Earthbind Totem
15 second cooldown
Lasts 45 seconds
Slows the movement speed of enemies by 50%.
• Windfury Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
The totem provides 16% melee haste to all party and raid members within 30 yards.
• Healing Stream Totem
Lasts 2 minutes
Heals the shaman’s group member for a very small amount every 2 seconds.
• Searing Totem
Lasts 1 minute
Deals ranged fire damage to the shaman’s enemies.
• Fire Elemental Totem
20 minute cooldown
Lasts 2 minutes
A Fire Elemental is called to aide the shaman, and will shoot fire at enemies. It can be destroyed by killing the totem; the totem has well over 1k health.
• Earth Elemental Totem
20 minute cooldown
Lasts 2 minutes
A Earth Elemental is called to the aide of the shaman, and will melee enemies that come near it. It can be destroyed by killing the totem; the totem has well over 1k health.
Tips:
• Ghost Wolf form can be dispelled.
• Heroism/Bloodlust can also be dispelled.
• If a shaman is spamming Purge at you, you can use silly things like Fade to give yourself some Purge protection.
• A fast wand it great for taking out totems.
• Quickly take out Tremor Totem and follow with Psychic Scream before the shaman has a chance to recast it.
• Kill the Grounding Totem before offensively casting.
• You can get a Mana Burn off if Psychic Scream lasts the full 8 seconds.
• If you are up against an Enhancement shaman, take out the Earthbind totems right away. If there are other enemy melee classes nearby, be sure to take out the shaman’s Windfury totem, too.
• A shaman’s healing spells all have cast times. Interrupt what you can (with Silence, Psychic Scream, Chastise, etc.).
• If a shaman is quick to recast totems, start kiting the shaman instead of trying to take the totems out. Most totems have a 20-30 yard range.
• Be careful with your use of spells with cast times. A shaman can keep shutting them down with rank 1 Earth Shock every few seconds. Be mindful of its cooldown. Also, you can bait Earth Shock by feign-casting healing spells or with Mind Control.
• A Searing Totem has a ranged fire attack (20 yards), and can cause a lot of annoying spell pushback for you unless you take it out.
• You can use Fade, etc. to see if the shaman will waste mana purging it from you. If the shaman uses Purge on it, then you can keep using spells to force the shaman to waste mana purging.
Paladins
General Strategy:
Keep the pressure on to force the paladin to cast Divine Shield, and be ready to Mass Dispel it right away. Save interrupts for Holy Light. Offensively and defensively dispel. Be careful with your mana use.
What to watch for:
• Hand of Freedom
25 second cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Grants immunity to movement impairing effects. • Hand of Protection
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 10 seconds
Protects the paladin from physical attacks. Paladin cannot make any attacks during that time (but can heal, etc.).
• Divine Shield
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 12 seconds
Protects the paladin from all attacks. Increases time between the paladin’s attacks by 100%.
• Divine Protection
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Protects the paladin from all attacks. Paladin cannot make any attacks during that time (but can heal, etc.).
• Avenging Wrath
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 20 seconds
Increases damage done by 20%.
• Lay on Hands
20 min cooldown
Paladin heals a friendly target to an amount equal to the paladin’s maximum health. Changes how much mana the paladin has (typically depletes all but a little bit).
• Hammer of Justice
45 second – 1 minute cooldown
Lasts 6 seconds
Stuns you.
• Hammer of Wrath
6 second cooldown
Ranged attack that deals a moderate amount of damage. Only usable on enemies under 20% health.
• Cleanse
Removes 1 poison, 1 disease, and 1 magic effect from a friendly target.
Tips:
• When paladins get down to about 1/3 health, most will use Divine Shield followed by Holy Light (a large heal). Be ready with a Mass Dispel followed by a Silence (or Psychic Scream).
• Divine Shield cannot be dispelled with regular old Dispel Magic. Mass Dispel will let you remove immunities (like Divine Shield), so you have to use that instead.
• Psychic Scream, if it lasts the full time, can yield the opportunity to get a Mana Burn off.
• Save Silence (and Psychic Scream) to be your interrupts of healing spells.
• The lack of ranged spells on a paladin means that you are at the advantage if you are at a distance from him/her.
• Dispel Blessings from the paladin.
• Dispel Judgement of Seals from you.
• When used, Hand of Protection, Divine Shield, Divine Protection, and Avenging Wrath all cause the “Forbearance” effect, preventing the paladin from using any of those abilities for a minute. It is useful to track the cooldown on Forbearance. All those effects can be dispelled.
Priests
General Strategy:
The first priest who runs out of mana loses; use Mana Burn liberally. Be quick with offensive dispelling.
What to watch for:
• Mass Dispel
High mana cost spell that removes 1 magic debuff from up to 10 friendly targets and 1 magic buff from up to 10 enemies in a 15 yard radius. It select a random thing to dispel in each case, with the exception of targeting immunities (Blessing of Protection, Ice Block, etc.) first.
• Dispel Magic
Removes up to 2 debuffs from a friendly target or up to 2 buffs from an enemy target.
• Mana Burn
Drains a good chunk of mana from the target. Deals 0.5 points of shadow damage for each point of mana drained. Does not scale with gear, etc.
• Psychic Scream
30 second cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Causes up to 5 enemies within 8 yards to flee in fear for the duration.
• Power Word: Shield
4 second cooldown
Lasts 30 seconds
Absorbs a moderate amount of damage. Prevents spell pushback until the damage absorption run out or the buff ends. Targets buffed with Power Word: Shield cannot be buffed by it again for 15 seconds.
• Shadowfiend
5 minute cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Summons a shadow pet that will aide the priest. The priest gains mana equal to amount of melee swings the pet lands.
• Silence
45 second cooldown
Lasts 5 seconds
Silences the target, preventing all spell casting from him / her.
Requires Shadow talents.
• Power Infusion
2 minute cooldown
Lasts 15 seconds
Increases spell casting speed by 20%.
Requires Discipline talents.
• Pain Suppression
3 minute cooldown
Lasts 8 seconds
Reduces all damage taken by target by 40%. Increases target’s resistance to being dispelled by 65%.
Requires Discipline talents.
• Devouring Plague
24 second cooldown
Lasts 24 seconds
Disease effect that deals a moderate amount of shadow damage and heals the caster for the same amount.
Tips:
• Much of a priest’s defenses are magically-based buffs (Power Word: Shield, Shadow Protection, Renew, Prayer of Mending, Blessed Resilience, etc.). Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel are key to shutting down their defenses.
• Fade will sometimes cause an opposing player’s shadowfiend to stop attacking you. It is also useful as dispel-fodder for when you are being spam-dispelled.
• Use line of sight whenever you can to block Mana Burn.
• If a priest runs in close to you, it is likely to cast Psychic Scream. Try to beat him/her to the punch by spamming your hotkey for it when the other priest moves in towards you.
• Psychic Scream, if it lasts the full time, can yield the opportunity to get a Mana Burn off or to get some much needed healing.
• The best time to use your shadowfiend is in a Mana Burn race. The spell pushback that it causes can tip the scales in your favor.
• If another priest puts their shadowfiend on you, then shield yourself. It will prevent them from getting mana back and will help your avoid spell pushback.
• Don’t bother wasting the mana on Mass Dispel if the enemy has Pain Suppression up, as Pain Suppression will give your opponent an extra 65% chance to resist dispels. Use regular Dispel Magic instead (if you must); it’s cheaper.
• Remember that priests of other races will have have race-specific spells different than your own and you may need to be prepared for their use.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Priest DPS
Last updated: 10/26/2010, patch 4.0.1
This focus of this page is predominantly on what spells to cast and in which order (when in instances/raids).
• Information on talent builds can be found here.
• Information on gear can be found here and here.
For information on DPSing while soloing or leveling, check out the leveling guide instead.
What is “DPS?” What is “Utility?”
The prominent priest DPS talent builds are shadow-tree focused (31+ talent points); this is for good reason. Shadow talent builds provide solid DPS with fantastic utility.
DPS, or “damage per second,” describes the units in which we measure the damage we dish out to mobs over time. The term “DPS” is also used to describe the act of actively dealing damage.
Utility refers to additional benefits above and beyond the DPS you are providing. A shadowpriest’s major utility strengths are being able to provide strong health regeneration and/or mana regeneration for themselves and their party members as well as some spell haste.
Mastery
Patch 4.0.1 that brought us the talent revamping also brought us Shadow Power for setting the Shadow tree as our primary specialization, which used to be rolled into the old Shadowform talent and was not available until level 40. Now Shadow priests can enjoy the increased spell damage across all their school as well as double damage from Shadow spell criticals. One of the largest introductions of the 4.0.1 was the Mastery system which provided an exclusive ability based on the selected tree. Shadow priests have access to Mastery: Shadow Orbs . Shadow orbs is a stacking buff that increases the damage of your next Mind Blast or Mind Spike by 34% per a stack up to a maximum of 3 stacks. Shadow Orbs have a 10% chance to generate from damage ticks of SW:Pain and Mind Flay, which when generated will orbit around your avatar as well as appear in your buff monitor with the current number of stacks. By finding gear with the Mastery stat on it you can increase the damage modifier by 4.3% per a point of Mastery. Currently it is not known exactly how and when the Mastery point effects are included in the damage increase calculation(or if the Mastery damage modifer if any good currently) so may priests are waiting on seeking out this stat until more information is known about it.
Since this was changed to being a constant self-buff like Inner Fire a while ago, you’ll want to make sure to have Vampiric Embrace (VE) up whenever you have access to it. It will be a nice help to your healers and also give you a steady source of self healing taking a bit of the pressure away from the healers.
Welcome to Spell Juggling 101…
Playing as a shadow priest in a raid or group environment largely depends on keeping your damage over time (DoT) spells up on mobs while minding the cooldowns of some of your direct damage spells. This is called spell juggling.
Your DoT spells are Vampiric Touch (VT) , Devouring Plague (DP) and Shadow Word: Pain (SW:P) .
• VT lasts 15 seconds
• SW:P lasts 15 seconds (Longer with endgame tier gear)
• Devouring Plague lasts 24 second.
Your direct damage spells are Shadow Word: Death (SW:D) , Mind Blast (MB) , and Mind Flay (MF) . Mind Spike will be added with the release of Cataclysm.
• SW:D has a 10 second cooldown but can be instantly reset when glyphed. The glyphed version trigger does have an internal cooldown of 6 seconds
• Mind Blast has a 6.5-8 second cooldown (depending on talents)
• Mind Flay has no cooldown (but is a 3 second channeled spell)
Given the varied lengths of our spells’ cooldowns and up times, shadow priests do not have a “cast sequence” like some of the other DPS casters. What we have is more of a “casting priority,” meaning that when multiple spells are available to us, certain things are more beneficial to cast first.
Generally speaking, our casting priority up to the 4.0.1 changes(the eggheads are still working on the theorycrafting) looks something like this:
VT > SW:Pain > DP > MB or SW:D > MF
Or, in a little more detail:
Starting DPS
To start off, you would likely want to open with:
VT > DP > SW:P > SW:D > MB > MF
Then start juggling as above. You may want to give your tank 1-3 seconds to establish aggro lead depending on their spec and playstyle to avoid peeling off any mobs.
SW:D, since it causes backlash damage to you equal to the damage you deal, has its own caveats. You never want to use it when you are in danger of taking enough damage from other sources to kill yourself after it bumps down your health, or when the backlash damage itself can kill you (unless, of course, you are trying to avoid taking durability loss from an incoming wipe).
Shadow Word: Death is higher DPM (damage per mana) than Mind Blast, meaning it gives gives you a little more bang for your buck. Also, having Mind Blast after SW:D will help heal the backlash damage up quickly. This is why SW:D is prioritized before Mind Blast. If mana and health return are not an issue, Mind Blast does deal more damage than SW:Death and should be given higher priority.
Additionally, as you are causing damage to yourself with Shadow Word: Death, be careful of threat if you have Vampiric Embrace up. A heal over time (HoT) or small heal from another healer is enough to cover the damage, but most healers will quickly become annoyed with having to heal you every 12-15 seconds.
It is very important to understand how your damage over time spells work.
Every three seconds after the spell is cast, it will deal an amount of periodic damage until it expires. That means that right as the spell is expiring, it will be dealing its last tick of damage.
If you refresh your DoTs too early, you will be cutting off that last tick of damage.
If you do it only a fraction of a second too soon, then that is practically 6 full seconds without that DoT having dealt damage. It is better to wait for the spell to have ended before reapplying.
Try to reapply it as close as possible to the end of the expired DoT as you can.
You want to get as close as you can without it going over! (Yes, like the Price is Right…) This is better for both your mana and your DPS.
If you have to reapply a DoT before it is over, try to do so right after it has ticked for damage (3 second mark, 6 second mark, etc.). Use a DoT timer add-on (like Quartz) to know how long your DoT has been up.
Shadowy Apparition DPS Boost
Patch 4.0.1 added the new Shadowy Apparition http://cata.wowhead.com/spell=78204 talent to the Shadow tree that adds a 12% chance on each SW:Pain tick to summon a walking speed homing bomb shadow clone at your current location that will zero in on the mob that triggered it. The damage your Shadowy Apparition deals does scale with your spellpower and they can critical for 50% extra damage. While this may not seem like much the benefit of these clones is in that last line of the tool tip. When you are forced to stop casting and move out of the way of incoming damage or run from a damage source, your chance to create a mindless hollow shell of yourself jumps up to 60% of your DoT tick. This gives shadow priests a nice chance to continue to dish out a fair amount of damage even if on the move. How the apparitions interact with Vampiric Embrace is currently unknown.
Trash and AoE
If you are fighting trash mobs who die quickly and/or are in an “AoE” situation, your casting priorities are completely different.
On trash mobs with low health, you do not have to put up all your DoTs, as the mob(s) will likely be dead before the DoTs come anywhere near doing all their damage. “VT-> MB -> MF until dead” is a good option on trash mobs (add SW:D if needed).
In situations where AoE is needed, you can SW:P every mob you can while tossing out MB and SW:D when they are off cooldown. You will run out of mana quickly casting a lot of SW:P, so be careful about using this method in places where you will need to keep DPSing right after without a break to drink.
In all other AoE situations, Mind Sear should do the trick. Simply spam this spell to quickly and effectively DPS down multiple mobs.
Which spell to use Inner Focus with is debatable. For maximum mana efficiency, use it with Shadow Word: Pain (highest mana cost spell). For maximum damage, use it with Mind Blast (highest damage potential from a crit).
The trick is to use it reliably. Some raid boss battles can go on a long time, easily giving you the chance to use this spell more than once. If you are bad at remembering to use this, then make a macro to attempt to use it whenever you cast your spell of choice.
If you have trinkets that increase your spell damage on use, be sure to use them to their maximum potential! If you cast DoTs with such a trinket activated, then the DoT will receive the benefit for its entire uptime, even when the trinket’s effects wear off you. Your shadowfiend also benefits as well.
If you have trouble remembering to use them, make a macro to use them whenever you cast a DoT.
You can do something as simple as:
/use 13
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
That will try to use the trinket in your top trinket slot before casting Shadow Word: Pain.
The Blessing of Utility
Vampiric Touch is the defining utility spell of shadow priests. If you can keep the spell up 100% of the time, then you will be regenerating 25% of your shadow DPS (not damage, but your DPS) as mp5 for your whole party (example: a priest doing 800 DPS, or “damage per second,” of shadow damage would be giving 200 mp5, or “mana per five seconds,” to his or her party if Vampiric Touch is kept up the whole time). This spell historically was one of the main reason why shadow priests were brought to raids prior to the Dev team’s “bring the player not the class” stance. Keeping this spell up all the time is your #1 priority. Don’t leave home without it.
Vampiric Embrace will regenerate 15% of the shadow damage you deal as health for yourself and passing on 3% of that to your party (depending on your talents). It is quite handy on fights that have high amounts of environmental damage (situations where many people are taking damage). It is also useful if you use Shadow Word: Death a lot. And since it’s been changed to a self buff, you can set it and forget it. Score!
Shadow priests have other utility, such as being able to fear and stun mobs from talents, being able to change form to toss heals (if necessary), and being able to cast Dispel Magic or toss Power Word: Shield (as needed). Crowd control in the form of Shackle Undead or Mind Control could count as utility, too.
The Curse of Threat
Shadow priests get threat from the damage they deal, the healing from VE (if applicable), and the mana regen from VT (if applicable). Even with every threat reduction effect possible, shadow priests can easily out-threat an undergeared or underskilled tank. Priests have no permanent way to shed threat, besides death.
A shadow priest has what is called “backloaded threat.” While your threat may ramp up slowly at first, once you get going, even if you stop casting, you can still be generating threat. Think of your threat generation as a very large truck with bad brakes. It takes a bit of effort to get going, but once you are you are difficult to stop. You need to be able to hit the brakes a good number of seconds before you really need to be stopped.
You live and die by your threat. Install a threat meter (I really cannot recommend the add-on Omen or Skada enough!).
You can drop spells from your casting priority if threat is an issue.
Which order to drop them in while stuck in an encounter?
- Shadow Word: Death should probably be looked at first, since it is causing you to also take damage.
- Drop Devouring Plague, if applicable. Devouring Plague causes healing generating additional threat.
- The next thing on the priority list that you can drop is Mind Blast.
- If you really must, after dropping Mind Blast out of your rotation, you can drop Shadow Word: Pain.
- That leaves you with Vampiric Touch and Mind Flay. You really shouldn’t drop either of those. If you are having threat issues with a tank while only casting those two spells, then you really need to find a different tank.
Increasing Your DPS
First, fix any bad habits:
• Don’t cut of your DoTs when reapplying them.
• Make sure you keep your DoTs up as best your can.
• Don’t cut off the end of Mind Flay with another Mind Flay. Mind Flay, like a DoT, has a tick of damage at the end.
• Keep casting! Don’t spend time looking around or thinking about what to do next instead of acting.
• Don’t wait for a spell to finish casting before starting the next one. Use the spell queue system; start trying to cast the next spell while your previous is still casting. Just mash the hotkey for the next spell toward the end of the previous spell’s cast. It will be put in the queue to start casting right as the other one is done. (Be careful when using this at the end of Mind Flay.)
Second, examine your stats:
• Are you hit capped with spell hit (446 is the cap for lv 80 non draeni) for what you are attacking?
• Are you running out of mana and having to wand? Are you keeping Vampiric Touch up all the time? Are you using your potions and shadowfiend early enough? Do you have enough DPS for your encounter? Because of VT, your mana regen is largely a function of your DPS.
• Are you focusing on ideal stats? (For example: spell damage / spell hit / spell haste are all much better than spell crit for increasing DPS).
Third, if still having trouble, examine your environment:
• Is your latency bad? Do you have a lot of video lag? Shadow priesting is very unforgiving to those who “play in the red.” Do what you can to reduce it.
• Are you having to shift out of shadow form to heal? That really kills your DPS (and your mana pool). Similarly, are you having to Dispel Magic or Power Word: Shield others a lot?
• Are you threat capped with your current tank, meaning can you continually use your spells without stealing aggro?
Fourth, run some tests:
• Find a mob that you can attack without it attacking back. You want to choose something that doesn’t die (quickly). Dr. Boom (level 68 mob in Netherstorm with over 400k health) or one of the “Servant” mobs in the Blasted Lands (mid-50s in level, have another player kite them away from their stone and tank them and they won’t die, though threat may become an issue). Attack at length to test your longevity, DPS, casting priority, talent spec, etc.
• You can analyze your DPS and longevity using a combat parser mod like Skada Damage Meters or Recount. For better, more in depth information, you can set WoW to save your combat log and can have Wow Web Stats process it (this is your best option) [instructions for Wow Web Stats here]. Things to look for are the uptime of your DoTs (check the DoTs column for the number of ticks, multiply by 3; that number should be close to the number of seconds you were in battle), your average DPS, and your spell hit rate.
First, fix any bad habits:
• Don’t cut of your DoTs when reapplying them.
• Make sure you keep your DoTs up as best your can.
• Don’t cut off the end of Mind Flay with another Mind Flay. Mind Flay, like a DoT, has a tick of damage at the end.
• Keep casting! Don’t spend time looking around or thinking about what to do next instead of acting.
• Don’t wait for a spell to finish casting before starting the next one. Use the spell queue system; start trying to cast the next spell while your previous is still casting. Just mash the hotkey for the next spell toward the end of the previous spell’s cast. It will be put in the queue to start casting right as the other one is done. (Be careful when using this at the end of Mind Flay.)
Second, examine your stats:
• Are you hit capped with spell hit (446 is the cap for lv 80 non draeni) for what you are attacking?
• Are you running out of mana and having to wand? Are you keeping Vampiric Touch up all the time? Are you using your potions and shadowfiend early enough? Do you have enough DPS for your encounter? Because of VT, your mana regen is largely a function of your DPS.
• Are you focusing on ideal stats? (For example: spell damage / spell hit / spell haste are all much better than spell crit for increasing DPS).
Third, if still having trouble, examine your environment:
• Is your latency bad? Do you have a lot of video lag? Shadow priesting is very unforgiving to those who “play in the red.” Do what you can to reduce it.
• Are you having to shift out of shadow form to heal? That really kills your DPS (and your mana pool). Similarly, are you having to Dispel Magic or Power Word: Shield others a lot?
• Are you threat capped with your current tank, meaning can you continually use your spells without stealing aggro?
Fourth, run some tests:
• Find a mob that you can attack without it attacking back. You want to choose something that doesn’t die (quickly). Dr. Boom (level 68 mob in Netherstorm with over 400k health) or one of the “Servant” mobs in the Blasted Lands (mid-50s in level, have another player kite them away from their stone and tank them and they won’t die, though threat may become an issue). Attack at length to test your longevity, DPS, casting priority, talent spec, etc.
• You can analyze your DPS and longevity using a combat parser mod like Skada Damage Meters or Recount. For better, more in depth information, you can set WoW to save your combat log and can have Wow Web Stats process it (this is your best option) [instructions for Wow Web Stats here]. Things to look for are the uptime of your DoTs (check the DoTs column for the number of ticks, multiply by 3; that number should be close to the number of seconds you were in battle), your average DPS, and your spell hit rate.
Advanced Tactics
Despite what was just stated above, there may be times when you might want to cut off Mind Flay early on purpose. If your DPS is high enough, mana should not be too much of an issue with you, so you can afford to possibly spend the mana cost of Mind Flay but only use one or two of its ticks.
You would want to do this when a DoT ends or a spell comes off cooldown while you are in the middle of Mind Flay. You would make the conscious decision to forgo the last part(s) of Mind Flay’s damage in exchange for something “better.” This becomes more of a concern when you start to accumulate gear with spell haste and your spell casts in between DoT applications become a bit irregular. Again, you would only want to do this if you are in a place where mana efficiency isn’t much of a concern for you.
The trick is, you have to cut it off right after it ticks for damage! If you cut it off too soon or too late, you would be effectively losing DPS. Mind Flay lasts for 3 seconds and it ticks at the end of every second that it is channeled, but if you have spell haste you have to recalculate and figure out how long you Mind Flays are lasting to find the ticks (1/3 the casting time, 2/3 the casting time, and at the end of the channel).
The easiest way to do this is to install a casting bar add-on that clearly shows you the spell’s intended length and how many seconds into the cast you are, and can account for your latency. Quartz does this very well. Use a “/stopcasting” macro bound to a hotkey to cut the spell off. You have to be ready with the next spell right away, or use it as a part of the /stopcasting macro.
Example:
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
Mind Flay clipping is a difficult skill to master, especially at high latency. It takes a lot of practice to really get this down. Luckily there is an add-on out there to help out in the form of MFClip, which shows you when your DoTs will tick and alot more items beneficial to spreading the power of the Shadows.
… but what about holy DPS?
As previously stated, speccing at least 31 points into the shadow tree is the way to go for great DPS and utility as a priest in raiding. People have tried holy/disc DPS builds, and have had mixed success. If you wanted to try it, you would probably want to go with some variant of an updated old 43/28/0 build which hasn’t been quite worked out yet but will be posted as soon as a decent Hybrid raider build crops up. I’ve left the old information here in the meantime in case you are feel adventrous and want to try to apply it to figuring out the Holy DPS raider puzzle.
For optimal sustainability and success, you would want to be put into a group with a retribution paladin, a balance druid, an elemental shaman, and one or more shadow priests. Group choice can really make a difference for you.
The utility you provide is poor in comparison to that of a shadow priest. You have the potential to provide Improved Divine Spirit and Improved Fortitude if no one else has it, possibly Power Infusion, and the ability to heal without switching form. However, a shadow priest can spit back mana and health to their party while being competitive on a damage meter and not ever breaking a sweat.
The #1 reason why holy DPS isn’t seen is mana efficiency. As a shadow priest, you are a mana-regenerating machine. As a holy priest, well, you sure do burn through that mana pool quickly. You are the mana suck. :) You just don’t have the longevity or efficiency that a shadow priest does.
Spell Choice
DPSing as a holy priest? Yawn.
Your casting sequence: Smite -> Smite -> Smite -> Smite … etc.
Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast are too high in mana cost and will run you out of mana quickly. Holy Fire, while more mana efficient, will not do the damage you need. The best optimization of damage and mana for holy DPS is Smite. Smite is also affected by certain talents (such as Surge of Light) making it a good choice.
Downranking is your crutch on long fights. You may have to use rank 9 of Smite instead of rank 10 if you are having mana issues. You will be able to do more sustained damage that way.
Starting DPS
Open with Holy Fire. Then proceed to start smiting.
Gearing
Spell hit is a major concern; you can only get 4% from talents. You’ll rely on spell crit for mana efficiency (from Surge of Light). Also, if you are looking for +holy damage items in the game, there are only two.
Be Prepared
… to be laughed at. People laugh at the unexpected, and a priest doing holy damage is sure to catch them off guard.
However, if you can competitively pull it off, you will sure be turning some heads, embarrassing some lazy DPSers, and making yourself a legend in your own right.
Despite what was just stated above, there may be times when you might want to cut off Mind Flay early on purpose. If your DPS is high enough, mana should not be too much of an issue with you, so you can afford to possibly spend the mana cost of Mind Flay but only use one or two of its ticks.
You would want to do this when a DoT ends or a spell comes off cooldown while you are in the middle of Mind Flay. You would make the conscious decision to forgo the last part(s) of Mind Flay’s damage in exchange for something “better.” This becomes more of a concern when you start to accumulate gear with spell haste and your spell casts in between DoT applications become a bit irregular. Again, you would only want to do this if you are in a place where mana efficiency isn’t much of a concern for you.
The trick is, you have to cut it off right after it ticks for damage! If you cut it off too soon or too late, you would be effectively losing DPS. Mind Flay lasts for 3 seconds and it ticks at the end of every second that it is channeled, but if you have spell haste you have to recalculate and figure out how long you Mind Flays are lasting to find the ticks (1/3 the casting time, 2/3 the casting time, and at the end of the channel).
The easiest way to do this is to install a casting bar add-on that clearly shows you the spell’s intended length and how many seconds into the cast you are, and can account for your latency. Quartz does this very well. Use a “/stopcasting” macro bound to a hotkey to cut the spell off. You have to be ready with the next spell right away, or use it as a part of the /stopcasting macro.
Example:
/stopcasting
/cast Shadow Word: Pain
Mind Flay clipping is a difficult skill to master, especially at high latency. It takes a lot of practice to really get this down. Luckily there is an add-on out there to help out in the form of MFClip, which shows you when your DoTs will tick and alot more items beneficial to spreading the power of the Shadows.
… but what about holy DPS?
As previously stated, speccing at least 31 points into the shadow tree is the way to go for great DPS and utility as a priest in raiding. People have tried holy/disc DPS builds, and have had mixed success. If you wanted to try it, you would probably want to go with some variant of an updated old 43/28/0 build which hasn’t been quite worked out yet but will be posted as soon as a decent Hybrid raider build crops up. I’ve left the old information here in the meantime in case you are feel adventrous and want to try to apply it to figuring out the Holy DPS raider puzzle.
For optimal sustainability and success, you would want to be put into a group with a retribution paladin, a balance druid, an elemental shaman, and one or more shadow priests. Group choice can really make a difference for you.
The utility you provide is poor in comparison to that of a shadow priest. You have the potential to provide Improved Divine Spirit and Improved Fortitude if no one else has it, possibly Power Infusion, and the ability to heal without switching form. However, a shadow priest can spit back mana and health to their party while being competitive on a damage meter and not ever breaking a sweat.
The #1 reason why holy DPS isn’t seen is mana efficiency. As a shadow priest, you are a mana-regenerating machine. As a holy priest, well, you sure do burn through that mana pool quickly. You are the mana suck. :) You just don’t have the longevity or efficiency that a shadow priest does.
Spell Choice
DPSing as a holy priest? Yawn.
Your casting sequence: Smite -> Smite -> Smite -> Smite … etc.
Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Blast are too high in mana cost and will run you out of mana quickly. Holy Fire, while more mana efficient, will not do the damage you need. The best optimization of damage and mana for holy DPS is Smite. Smite is also affected by certain talents (such as Surge of Light) making it a good choice.
Downranking is your crutch on long fights. You may have to use rank 9 of Smite instead of rank 10 if you are having mana issues. You will be able to do more sustained damage that way.
Starting DPS
Open with Holy Fire. Then proceed to start smiting.
Gearing
Spell hit is a major concern; you can only get 4% from talents. You’ll rely on spell crit for mana efficiency (from Surge of Light). Also, if you are looking for +holy damage items in the game, there are only two.
Be Prepared
… to be laughed at. People laugh at the unexpected, and a priest doing holy damage is sure to catch them off guard.
However, if you can competitively pull it off, you will sure be turning some heads, embarrassing some lazy DPSers, and making yourself a legend in your own right.
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