A Question for higher level Shadow Priests

[vonkaar]

That went REALLY fast.

[Freon]

Hopefully I can help shine some light on the priest class. I don't claim to be an expert but for those who don't know me I am a lvl 58.5 Undead Priest (3rd highest priest on whisperwind I believe).

Anyhow... Let's get something straight, the priest class is a very important class in this game as healers are in most MMORPG. In this game they did not only make them the best healers in the game (as they shuold have)but they made them a very powerful class PERIOD. With or without talents the priest class has it all, nukes, dots, heals, renews, fear, undead mes etc etc.. Very few classes in this game have as many tools and weapons.

When I started my healer in WoW, I didn't really understand how the talent tree and spell gathering worked. So out of pure naivity and wanting to be a good "healer" I went the way of holy talents and discipline thinking that it would make me a better "healer". Around lvl 30 I realised that there were not many talents in holy and disc that excited me much, and the lure of shadow talents kept on teasing me. I did very well for about 40 levels splitting my talent points between all three talent trees in groups and solo, but somewhere in my late 40's I gave in and went full out shadow priest.

This was the best decision I have ever made in WoW... I had to tune it twice to get it right but now I feel I will stick with what I have. Everyone has to remember that the majority of us will spend our time soloing (at least during the journey to get to 60). Thus focusing on increasing your solo ability is very important and the shadow tree will help you out drastically. I have about 32 points in shadow at this time, 10 in disc and 6 holy. It is essential for priests to get the basics IE: Improved PWF and PWS, and I got improved renew and heals.

With this combination I am a formidable force soloing/pvp and I am still VERY efficient as a healer. I can heal effectively in some of the top dungeons in the game ATM. I also play a very different role as a healer in instances. My vapiric embrace spell allows me to be a DPS/Healer which seems like an oxy moron, but vampiric emprace converts 20% of my damage into healing and I can hit 300DPS, so I can keep my group healed with my damage most of the time. This help my group mow down stuff and complete instances much faster.

WoW has redefined the role of healers, well has at least allowed the healer to take different paths, all of them being usefull. The shadow priest is for the advanced healer, the one that wants to do more than just heal, the days of the useless EQ cleric are gone. My DPS is often an important part of doing high level encounters. The game will allow you to be just a sit back cleric if you want, but why be only that if you can help the group do the DPS? I guess that's for all you priests to decide.

Hope this helps.

Freon

[Savanna]

Copied from the talent builder but here's what mine currently looks like. I'll respec here in a little while at 60 for mainly raids and some pvp.
Mainly it's set up for being on a pvp server where I just duo with Vene (mage) or sometimes we have a warrior questing with us and then we spend almost every nite in instances and a lot of times as only healer.

In beta I was full holy / disc spec but I just can't stand most of holy line. Disc. seems the way to go but I still like some of the shadow talents for pvp situations. Even though some argue blackout, we notice in our group it's going off a lot and in pvp it's been a fun thing to have. I like spirit tap and will probably end up with 5 there instead of blackout but really even then, i'm not sure because Ven usually has the killing blow with his mage unless I tell him to back off and let me get it. I wouldn't mind having up to silence but just figure Ven can already counterspell and silence so it seems like too many points in shadow and sacrificing some of my disc. I'm just setting myself up to heal and add things here n there rather then concentrating on adding the extra dps. Our normal group for instances is Priest, Mage, Warrior, Hunter & fill in blank for last one so we aren't lacking dps.

Discipline Talents (20 points)

# Unbreakable Will - 5/5 points
Increases your chance to resist Stun, Fear, and Silence effects by 15%.

# Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.

# Improved Power Word: Fortitude - 2/2 points
Increases the effect of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 30%.

# Mental Agility - 5/5 points
Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast spells by 10%.

# Mental Strength - 5/5 points
Increases your maximum Mana by 10%.

Holy Talents (10 points)

# Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%.

# Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.

Shadow Talents (11 points)

# Blackout - 5/5 points
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

# Spirit Tap - 3/5 points
Gives you a 60% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your Spirit after killing a target. For the duration, your Mana may regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.

# Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds.

# Mind Flay - 1/1 point
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.


Sav aka

[font=Times New Roman, serif]Heavann ~Team Ice ~ Illidan
http://www.teamice.org[/font]

[Arlos]

Vonkaar, or one of the shadow priests here, maybe you can answer a different question I had.

Do you think Shadow Priests are going to be viable healers for the Big Raid stuff, like Onyxia and up? I know things like Vampiric Embrace, and the innate healing of the base priest are fine for keeping people alive even in instances, (though I'd like to see how well it works in, say, Scholomance), but how about when mobs are hitting for 1500-2000+ per hit?

I have the sneaking suspicion that when you get to that level of the game, Holy spec is going to be somewhat required, assuming that that's stuff you'll have any interest in doing. If PVP Battlegrounds are done right and have loot ultimately balanced with at least some of the raid targets, then staying Shadow will work great. But I just dunno how well shadow will work for Onyxia, Ragnaros, etc.

-Arlos

[Freon]

Arlos those are some great points, and you are probably right, Shadow "may" not cut it for "some" high end game content. I can tell you that I completed BRS last night being the only priest and being fully shadow spec'ed. I haven't tried Strath or Scholo yet, however my shadow spec is in no way permanent it's just the best option for me now. If I feel that i am dissadvantaged in any way when I do those instances or Onyxia I will certainly change my spec. In fact I hit 60 last week and now that I have nothing to solo and I only wait to do raids and instances I will very likely switch anyways seing as there are only 4 lvl 60 priests, so healing is quite an important job on our server. It will be tough to change because Shadow is a "fun" spec and losing mind flay, silence, vampiric embrace etc etc.. will be tough.

Freon

[Jangos]

im 52 priest atm and did 32 points in shadow the rest is going in disc.

upsides to shadow specced priests is you can level faster, you can go shadow form and kick in damage mode. you are still the best healer in the game.

the downsides is, in a group you try pulling your shadow stuff out, your going to be an agro magnet. holy priest can heal a lil better, not much imho, the big thing is they get less agro. so in essence they spend there mana healing tanks not themselves.

[Arra]

You guys do to much planning... I'm just going to pick shit as I go and hope it works out for the best... WUWU!!!!!!!!! <Rolls Dice>

Arra

[Tacks]

When you actually get higher and realize you wasted points then you'll go back and say "I shoulda thought of that sooner!" trust me