State of Raiding

My fellow Shadow Priests,

Today is a world of change, today is a world where change in inevitable. Change happens, change will occur and change, like it or not, happened. What am I talking about? I am talking about the patch 3.0.1 and 3.0.2. There is a new way of raiding, a new way of specing and a new way of playing your shadow priest. I hope to impart these in three separate posts for reasons of my own (I need something in the future to write about eh?)

A new way of Raiding is upon us. It is up to us to catch the train and hope we don't get left behind. Allow me to take a few moments here and summarize the state of raiding. Shadow Priests have been a type of caster that has developed over a long period of time. Before the Burning Crusade we rarely, if ever, were allowed to spec shadow to dps in raids. Once we had Vampiric Touch it became easier for us to find raiding spots because everyone could use more mana. Us shadow priests would be placed in groups that either had ranged casters or healers and our job, our only job, was to keep their blue bar full. When I first started raiding all I could do was keep thinking back to Everquest and being an Enchanter. We had our little nitch and I must say, we did it pretty effectivly for the lack of our damage. I would gladly sarcrafice 20% dps for my healers to be able to heal for 10+ minutes in a boss fight.

Now is a time for change though and we have been hit with the "We dont want ultility, we want DPS" bat. This means an adjustment in the way we play our priests. No longer are the healers relying on us being in their group for we have Replenishment which hits ten targets. No longer are ranged dps bitching about us being in the healers group because Replenishment hits ten targets. No longer is Vampiric Touch being up 100% of the time something so important because Replenishment is a 15 second buff while VT is a 12 second DoT.

No longer was Improved Vampiric Embrase a talent that 'could' be taken only when we were hit capped. Now, for raids, its manditory. While people will argue that it isn't needed, I find that I am back to the Old World style of raiding. A voice in my ear goes "Your replenishment is great but your Improved Vampiric Touch is even better. Into the tank group you go" Now I (or possible 2 shadow priests) are stuck in the tank group with our tanks (warrior, warrior, paladin) and we have to make sure our numbers are high enough to keep them 'healed'.

I say 'healed' in quotes because its a matter of ineffectivity. Shadow Priests don't have great heals, we do a little bit more dps (200-400 most tests have shown) and we have lost 85% of our ultility. Blizzard has mentioned that Shadow Priests are going to get buffed, but when?) Now, this isn't a rant against blizzard. This is just me stating that there is a new playstyle out there.

Our play style is just management on our dots. We have to make sure they are up to provide maximal dps but Mind Flay is now something you DO NOT want to cut short. I crit on my Mind Flay for 1800-2000 and I can not complain.

Devoring Plague is also a spell you want to have up whenever it comes off cooldown. It has a 25 second duration and a 24 second cooldown so do not use it during the trash pulls - unless its a single mob that has alot of hp.

Shadow Word: Pain gets refreshed (mandatory talent in my opinion) whenever mind flay ticks and thus you should only have to cast it once at the begining of the fight, the phase, or in my case, when your done with the dragon orbs against KJ.

Mind Blast: Spell is important for it refressed Replenishment whenever VT is also up on the target. Good damage (critting for 5-6k) and should always be on cooldown.

Shadow Word: Death: Not as effective anymore but I still like to have it on cooldown because DP and Imp VE will always keep my health realitivly high. Note: Even on Naj'entus, I was always above 8500 hp and thus never was one to heal. (Crits for 3k every 12 seconds) If it crits for 3k, I get 2 mind blasts (600-1200 hp on every hit) and my dots so it generally gets healed up. I might also get a druid HoT if it is necessary.

Shadow Priests are useful to bring to a raid and I would always bring at least 1 or 2 depending on where your raiding. Black Temple: 1-2 Sunwell: 1-2 (3-4 if you have 0 Holy/Disc Priests - which you shouldn't)

Standard Rotation for me at least stays the same but I will say one thing about talents in this little tiny itty bit of the post. If you have Dispersion, which you should, this little macro brings me from 30% mana to about 95% in 10 seconds.

/cast Shadow Fiend
/cast Dispersion

Shadow Fiend now scales with your damage so I get about 35-40% mana back from him and Dispersion adds another 36% which is great because both are on a 3 minute cooldown. If you are in a bind and both are on Cooldown - pop a potion.

Funny thing about Shadow Priests

There is something funny about being a Shadow Priest in Sunwell. I have alot more responsibility for the raid. I can cause wipes and I can save the day. Well, Priests in general can but I'd rather have our holy priest and disc priest continuing heal while I do the dirty work.

What am I talking about you wonder?

Certain fights require a priest, namely Felmyst and M'uru. Why? Because we have Mass Dispel.

Yes, its a discipline spell but it really is effective. Against Felmyst there is an ability called Gas Nova and it is really necesary to dispell it as fast as possible. It is a castable spell so you will see if it you have Felmyst targeted. It has a 1 second cast timer. Once you see it go up - you start casting Mass Dispell on your group, no questions asked. I dont care if you just poped your trinket, I dont care if you are in the middle of channelling - cast Mass Dispell.

M'uru will cast a spell called Darkness where he will summon 8 Dark Fiends in the center and will attack your allies for a lot of damage. Once you see the dark circle on the ground - cast mass dispell on the center of it. When they spawn up they will die. If one resists it, target it and cast dispell. Dont bother casting Mass Dispell again unless you miss 2 or more of them.

Shadow Priests are very effective in fights like this because we also have a low damage output so when we attack M'uru there isn't much of chance of bringing M'uru into the second phase until we are ready.

On a side note: Sunwell is fun, It is the last challenge left in the Burning Crusade and if Carpe Diem didn't take a 2-3 month break from raiding (before I joined) I felt that it would be completly different. End of Black Temple (Mother - Illidan) and Sunwell (All Bosses) offer challenges that are hard to overcome. They require people who can move at a moments notice.

What is Blizzard Thinking?

I know I haven't posted in a while but I have been busy with Real Life as well as moving into another guild - adapting to their strategies and progressing with them.

Verolia is a level 70 Shadow Priest who raids with Carpe Diem and is 5/6 in Sunwell as well as a Dragon Orb clicker.

I'm not here to talk about Sunwell, I'm not here to talk about Shadow Priests being gimped. I'm here about Blizzards attitude towards change. I feel that what they are doing is completly wrong. Changing all classes so that they can either heal, dps or tank based on their spec and offer no... indivually between the classes. Sure, I'll dps differently as a Shadow Priest then say a Frost Mage but I'm absolutly sure that my ultility has become a joke.

No longer can I provide mana for 15+ minutes without going oom. No longer can I even heal my own Shadow Word: Deaths. No longer can I go about being happy about supporting other people. Now I have to compete for DPS from Mages, Locks, Rogues, and yes, Boomkins. I feel that this is completly unfair because you expect people to all want the same thing - Big Numbers.

Sorry to dissapoint but when I started my Shadow Priest I feel in love with Mind Flay. Then I fell in love with Vampiric Embrase. Then Shadowform. Then Vampiric Touch. Now? I more or less dont care if I make sure my VT is up every possible second because I'm getting only ~25-30 mana per tick. That is crap.

Let me state again: THAT IS CRAP! Where are my 6 second spurts of 200-300 mana? Where are my 12 second bouts of insanity when I cast my own spell to hurt myself while hurting a boss. Sure, great, I do more DPS now... Oh wait, I didnt know you guys considered an increase in 100 dps to be worth anything. Yes, I realize that Blizzard is planning for the future but if my mana regain is based off my base mana, whats the point in me being ultility.

I dont want to DPS. I dont want to Tank. I dont want to Heal. I want to be able to be a provider. I want to help people succede for long periods of time without complaining that they are running out of mana.

Do you know what I provide now? 25% healing. I am in the tank group. I have 2 warriors, 2 shadow priests and 1 hunter/paladin in my group. Yes, damnit, Warriors. My ultility was taken away from me and given to other classes. What do I do now? I turn into a Dark Cloud to avoid being stunned and get some mana back.

Blizzard, This is absulute bull. This needs to be fixed. I dont want to be a healer, a dps'er or a tank. I want to be my ultility spec and I miss it. Please bring it back.

(Note: I'm not expecting Blizzard to do anything)

Passing on Loot...?

Alright, long time no post. I know, I know, but right now Real Life is giving me a kick in the ass.

Anyway a couple of updates:

1. I am in a new guild. Carpe Diem, on the Archimonde server
2. I am raiding sunwell with them.
3. I have downed all the bosses in BT
4. I have my 4 set t6 (Chest, Shoulders, Legs (Yuck), and Hands)

These are important because I want to make a post about passing on loot.

When I joined Carpe Diem, I was put on probation for 3 weeks to gauge if I was worth their investment in me and if my skills were up to par for them. During that time I was able to roll on gear, if I needed it, only for my main set (shadow, obviously) but not for my off set. I only had 1 piece of t6 gear and I was very undergeared for thier guild. They have downed Brutallus before taking a month break from the summer months and just started getting back to raiding. I was, also, the third shadow priest to join them for an application and was the most undergeared.

Last week, we finished up Black Temple, Mother - Illidari Council - Illdan. I was able to get my T6 shoulders and my T6 chest during that run. (I got my legs a week before) During my roll for the chest, a holy priest wanted the chest as well but passed it to me due to me needing the 4 set bonus far, far more badly then he did. I thanked him for passing and got my 4 set.

Fast foward to last night. We downed Kalecgos, and only him, last night. That would be the 2nd time I have ever did it. Two Priest/Lock/Pally bracer tokens droped. The three people that wanted those two tokens were Me, the holy priest, and a warlock.

Here lies the problem. The other shadow priest was in my ear about getting my 5 piece and looking for a replacement for the shitty legs. I knew I couldn't do that if the Holy Priest was still looking for his 4 set. So I did the gracious thing and passed to him. When I did the following type...

"/raid I pass to [The Holy Priest] for his 4 set bonus"

...I must have set off bombs. I had hunters and the other Shadow Priest jump down my throat for turning down such an upgrade. I told them that since I was able to get my 4 set bonus for this fight, he deserves his for the Brutallus attempts tomarrow night. I thought it was only fair in that regards for me to do that, fair to me, fair to him, fair to the raid. At this time both me and the holy priest were Core Raiders and that I had him beat in our DKP system.

I felt I was right about what I did, not that many other people see it that way. I'm wondering what you, readers, is your take on it. Did I do the right thing? or did I gimp the raid? Holy Priest 4 set bonus allows their Greater Heal to heal for 10% more so I think that is more valuable then me getting a 5th piece just to lose a piece of t6.

Back to Black Temple

New guild... again. Carpe Diem is a Sunwell guild on Archimonde. I got recruited there after I couldn't raid any more in Berserk. It's a nice feeling that people in such an advanced guild wanted me so I could help them progress. I'm on probation right now so I'm not really the key shadow priest, but I have the ability to move it up there.

Anyway, we went into Black Temple again and withen 2 and a half hours, we had Bloodboil down. Which was awesome, did it on our 2nd try. I actully did get Fel Raged but surprisingly, the healers were able to keep me up. P.S. when a tank got the Fel Rage - he only had 20k more hp then I did during my fel rage.

Now tonight, hopefully, I'll be able to down the rest of Black Temple. I am really looking foward to doing it. I have read all the strats and I really want to work my way up to Illidan.

I did raid with 2 other Shadow Priests and I managed to do better then them on all the boss fights. Here is a picture with my DPS, Dmg, and the breakdown using Recount. It was a fun fight on Naj'entus but I still can not believe I out damaged , dps'ed and dot'ed 2 other priests who have Sunwell gear while I have only 1 piece of Tier 6.


As a mage said "Wow, your doing very impressive damage for an undergeared priest. Out damaging all the other shadow priests" Which was awesome.

Most Important Macro for a Shadow Priest

How many times have you finished a boss fight without using your trinkets? If your like me, its often. I have a lot of different things to worry about during combat, let alone my trinkets. I have to watch Omen, since once we put threat up on it, it doesn't go away. I have to watch my ClassTimers Mod so I know when to re-establish my debuffs. I have to watch my health so I know when to cast Shadow Word: Death. I have to watch the enemies abilities because I have to know when to cast Shadow Word: Death.

There is a macro that saved my life in regards to trinket usage. I had two trinkets for the first half of my Shadow Priest Career. Icon of the Silver Crescent and Hex Shrunken Head. They are both clickable Trinkets and they both can not be used at the same time. 30 second cooldown on either of them if you click on the other one. Which is fine. Generally you can get a good 40 seconds worth of +200ish spell damage. At the time, in T5 content, I would leave combat without using either of them. Wow, Bad Shadow Priest, bad! I found this macro that makes me even more effective then I was.

#showtooltip Vampiric Touch
/script UIErrorsFrame:Hide()
/use 13
/use 14
/script UIErrorsFrame:Clear(); UIErrorsFrame:Show()
/cast Vampiric Touch

Put this in place of your normal Vampiric Touch spell and you will never have to worry about having the trinkets NOT on cooldown.

What happens is that when you press the button (every 10.5 seconds) it with check to see if your trinkets are off their cooldown. If so, it will cast it and then move onto the next trinket. Since there is a built in 30 second cooldown on the 2nd trinket after using the first one, you never have to worry about having them overlap. After using the trinkets it will automatically go right into casting Vamp Touch. I mean, right into it, you do not have to touch the button again. Y'all know the casting animation for a shadow priest, the hands above the head come down and then the glowy animation starts? Macro does the same thing except your hands will come down twice. Once for the trinket and once for the spell.

There are plenty of other macro's out of there, focus target shackles and whatnot but I dont use that just due to the fact that I wont always have a focus for my shackle target. If I'm doing KZ with 1250 unbuffed Shadow Damage with my t6 raid, we tend to plow through the place like a hot knife through melted butter. Generally we are chain pulling so there is no time for me to set a focus , shackle, clear the focus, and retarget. I just shackle and DPS. I will focus my target for certain bosses (Moroes and Hex Lord namely) just so I can see when my Shackle hits 50% of its duration and I'll recast it.

Note about the Macro: You can use that for any spell you want, any class you desire. I know I have a holy priest in my guild using her trinket on her renew and it works wonders. The reason I have the /use 13 and /use 14 is because I don't want to go back and rename my macros every time I switch my trinkets around.

Note #2: As of now, with my Darkmoon Card: Crusade I only use /14 in my macro and that leaves me room to put my pvp trinket in the top trinket spot without having to worry about it being cast accidentally.

Hope this helps and go melt some faces!

A new defining moment

Verolia and Voodoo have separated. It was nothing personal, I just felt that there was a greener pasture out there for me to take a look at. One of my real life friends is an officer in a guild that raids almost the same thing Voodoo does, so when he asked if I would think about joining him, I said I would consider it. The fact that they have more people, more of a basic need and I felt needed. They need my Shadow Priest to help them progress. I dont think I could have handled raiding 4 days a week for much longer. I feel sort of burnt out.

Don't get me wrong, I love Voodoo. I just feel its time for a change. It's like changing jobs. There are generally the same reasons you leave, such as higher pay (more progressed guild), or problem with management (Drama) but I don't think any of these reasons are why I left. I just wanted to be able to raid with my Real Life friends. I'm actully not expecting to raid with them consistently, I just would like to be in a guild where its more family oriented and willing to help people.

On another note I felt the way I left was important. I talked to Voodoo's Guild Leader a little bit during the day, told him the gist of it and then sent a mail to all the officers/leaders that I felt needed to know the real reason why I left. Once they understood it, I wanted till an off hour time to /gquit because of the position I was in Voodoo was that of Mr. Reliable. We, leaders, felt that it was best for me to /gquit without explaining it to the members other then saying "Personal Reasons" because I would have been a detriment to the guild. I doubt Voodoo would have recovered.

All the good times I had in Voodoo, they made me where I am now. I thank them for opening up the world of raiding to me but I need to slow down. My real life is kicking in and I don't expect to be raiding as consistently, especially once certain other games come out that interest me.

Blog wise: I will always post here. This blog is kind of therapeutic for me and I need that in my WoW life.