Sorry for any issues that have been brought to my attention as far as not being able to leave comments. Now they are just pop up windows. LAME i know but it resolved the issue. Thank you
Recently I’ve been examining different talent builds of PVP and PVE and reg raiding and instance lvling shadow priest. Over that time I’ve been playing around with different specs that normally are not looked at as “valuable” talents for a mostly Shadow based priest. Well, then I started thinking about Improved power word Shield. With the new expansion coming up we will hopefully all get 5 more talents to spend toward whatever. And with plenty of priest Buffs coming our way……Putting those into shield might be a nice survivability option. If anyone reading this has thoughts about that leave a comment as I would like to have a debate on the issue….
I've noticed that some of my blogs are alittle long winded. Sorry I'll work on that in the future for easier reading
If you read other Shadow Priest Blogs you will often come across the terms “Fear Flay” and/or “Scream Spam”. But, I haven’t really found a blog that really talks about these basic mechanics very much. So that’s what this is. Its basic, they both involve using Psychic Scream, you need to know it, you need to use it and most of all you need to abuse it!
Fear Flay made simple:
Okay you have a Spell called Psychic Scream. It’s a AOE spell that fears everyone around you and makes them run around like an idiot for a few seconds. Then you have a spell called Mind Flay, its your purple laser beam of death that slows an enemy for 50% and does some DOT. Here is the trick…..I like to SW:P an enemy…if they are a caster I like to cast silence on them to make them run up to you, or atleast make them stand in a confused state for a sec or two…..Then I Psychic Scream and as the DOT starts ticking with them running around like a chicken with their head cut off, I Mind Flay over and over again. Here is another trick….if you cut off a tick of your Mind Flay, by recasting it you can them make them change directions…….Its a sick ability and its always fun to do. Fear Flay….
Scream Spam:
Okay now we know what Psychic Scream does, but I haven’t heard anyone really tell how to use it wisely, especially in pvp. I’m the poor sap that’s always getting jumped by rogues or warriors in Battlegrounds. Even a cocky death knight might grab you in close and start the pain on you….But you have a trick.. Psychic Scream…use it when they try to get behind you or bring you in close, then while they run away apply your dots and a shield….then mind flay mind flay. As a clothie in wow in battlegrounds you should probably not ever run around by yourself much. Stay in a group of 2 or 3 other people. Then when those sneaky bastards shake loose the Fear, they will 90% of the time think you are the least threatening and attack the other people first….its a curse we are blessed with….anyway, you will have your dots on ticking and ticking…eats up their life real fast. I love Psychic Scream for that reason alone.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#bVcbuZZG0fwRfkffqfzAo
This is a link to what is probably one of the more used Builds for Shadow Priest. I’ll got through it and I will talk little bit about when you grabs these.
Spirit Tap: This gives you a little bump in spirit after killing something that gives xp. Starting out you might as well get this. Not a super great Talent now, but you will use it later.
Darkness: You know what you’re a Shadow priest, SO I actually like this talent and I use this talent. I say Max it out for 10% uptick in DPS
Shadow Affinity: Pass!!! Not a talent I think should be taken. Sounds great, but if your going to be grouping with a tank..you really don’t need the reduced threat. And once you get shadowform your already going to get your threat reduced. Pas Pas and pas
ISW:P: you will use this so you might as well get it
Shadow Focus: I like to put in around 2 in here and then come back and fill it out. Helps other classes too. Win win
IMP Psychic Scream: Its all about reducing time that you can use fear and if your interested in getting silence. I think its worth it, but make sure you have Mind Flay first
IMP Mind Blast: I put these points in slowly, starting out it will eat up you mana to just use it once, in most battles your not going to be using it again anyway. Put in 1 or 2 up to a max of 3 or 4. Not worth getting it completely maxed out. Just my thoughts
Mind Flay: yes a good talent finally. Get it use it abuse it! A great trick with mind flay is to psychic scream, then as they are running away in fear mind flay mind flay mind flay.
Veiled Shadow: not something you need right away. Shadow Reach and Shadow Weaving are both way better at eailer lvls.
Shadow Reach: Get it, basically it makes us use 2 talent points to do what it should to anyway….but you need it
Shadow weaving: I like this talent, adds to the DPS so max this as soon as you can
Silence: Mostly a situational spell, but it does make lvling easier and I love putting this on mages in battlegrounds. Get it if you want it
VE: Again I like this ability but it starts out lame. Passively heals based off your damage. For you its great for everyone else its just a tease. But over longer fights the damage can add up. I like it so get it!
IMP VE: Read above…just make the spell way more useful
Focused mind: I like to put in 2 and then come back later and fill it out. Reduces mana cost of your main damage spells. Win win
Mind Melt: Get it later, doesn’t do much at early lvls, increases crit. More useful when battles get longer.
IMP DP: Finally we have damage on arrival spells. I like this because I use the hell out of DP. Get it but if you can try to get shadow form first before maxing this out.
ShadowForm: makes us a purple killing machine. Get it enjoy it abuse it
Shadow Power: get it later as its not that useful now. Get improved shadowform
IMP ShadowForm: Get it might as well.
Psychic Horror: I’m on the fence with this one. I say you already have psychic scream so this is just another version of it. Personally I would rather use it somewhere else than put anymore talents on a revamped psychic scream. Pas
VT: you know when I first got this I hated it. The mana regen on it is way lame. But then you look at the damage it does, the damage it does if dispelled it’s a great spell. Plus if you have other people in your group they will love getting back any mana…even if the amount is only like 5% of their mana. In long fights that number may jump up to 20% of mana rejuv. Get it use it abuse it
Pain and suffering: I like this spell prevents us from having to cast the same spell twice or more. Just be aware that it only refreshes based on when you used it the first time. So try to make sure that you have your shadow weaving at atleast 3 or 4 when you cast SW:P for max DPS.
Twisted Faith: I like this. It passively stacks with your bumps from your mind flay and mind blast benefits.
Dispersion: again when I got this I though it sucked. Really only 6 seconds!?!?!? I don’t use this so much as a “oh Shit” button but more just to get back 33% of my mana if I’m low…I like it and it’s the bottom of the tree get it use it abuse it….YOUR SHADOW BBBEEEAAATCH!!
Talents to get in the Discipline Tree
Unbreakable will: Really its not a bad talent, but you would be better off using them other places. And since we only have 14 talents to spare here Pass it…Pas
Twin Disciplines: I like this, to be real you will be using holy spells from time to time, at least on yourself a bit. So get this and max it
Silent Resolve: Not using holy and not using a lot of Discipline spells, Pass this…Pas
IMP Inner Fire: increases your inner fire buffs. At first it doesn’t seem like much but the 45% in effectiveness is great. Max this….remember your inner fire also increases your spell power!
Improved PW: Fortitude: lame talent but the other choices are lamer
Martyrdom: good if we were more of a healer…which we aren’t so pass this…Pas
Meditation: Max this, this makes us have the sprit what we should have started the game with…Try to get here as soon as you can but I mean I didn’t even start putting in talents into dis until I was around 40-45. You’ll like this, but get shadowform first
Inner Focus: This is a great ability. Gives us a free spell every 3 mins. I use this on casting Mind Blast or SW:P after shadow weaving stacks. This is as far as you need or should get in this tree.
This is my thought on talents for a great Shadow Priest experience. If you want more detail on the builds just visit the wowwiki webside. I’m not board nuff to type it out again for you.
So, your interested in Rolling with a priest…Way to go! Here is some information you may find helpful starting out:
Basically Rolling a priest is a lot like a little kid in a ice cream shop. All day you have been excited to go get your favorite scoop of ice cream. You talk about it to everyone you see and you know exactly what you want. You arrive with your parents, look over the counter and order your ice cream….Then you eagerly dig in. But, upon your first bite you look around and you see what other people ordered, and you think to yourself, “Damn I should have added that”, and “God that looks really good over there!” then you look down at yours and think to yourself….”SHiT I though I knew what I wanted, God damn it MOM! Give me some more of your pain medications!!!!”
Namely I think this comes from the fact that as “Priest” we can do a lot, but we don’t do one thing super-duper well. As a priest I feel you should know walking in what you need to expect. As a Priest we don’t expect to be racking super high on the DPS, we lack good burst damage, we take damage badly, most of our damage is done slowly over time, our glyphs are lame, talents much need of updating, and our base stats are on the weak-end of poor.
That said there are real reasons it’s fun to play a priest.
Because we don’t do 1 thing really well, we also don’t suck at everything else we do, which is quite a lot. This give us amazing flexibility that make other classes often look at us with envy. As Shadow, our damage is done over time. Sure you may die from time to time…but so will your foe and as you get higher lvl’d they will die fast in while shitting their pants. We have decent passive abilities that restore both mana, and life to whole parties. We have good crowd control abilities and good buffs and debuffs. In the middle of a battle if the main healer dies, we can make fast switch into holy, that can often save the raid from a wipeout. I’ve often read about other shadow priest feeling gimped, by having to sometimes heal and how they shouldn’t have too. You know, I think that limits some people from being great priest. If you want to do purely DPS and want to take less damage, and want to kill people faster…then go be a rogue or a warrior or something else that there are 10000s of other people choosing and only require hitting only one button over and over. But the fact is that priest are a rare breed in WoW, no one can heal as good as us, no one has better party buffs and debuffs like we have, and the versatility we offer to raids make us superstars…….even as shadow… especially as shadow…
In the following days I’ll add information about races, talents and spells. I’m not a theorycrafter so don’t expect a bunch of number crunching mumbo jumbo here. I use what works and field experience is way better than what “should work on paper”. Peace out!...arg I mean KIL KIL KIL shadow priest!!!
Hello, I'm just here to blog about rolling a Priest in World of Warcraft, mainly about being Shadow Spec'd and the joys and pains of doing so. Feel free to give me your input or suggestions about anything, but please be constructive and nice. If you don't like something I say....Then I’m sorry go read a different blog. If you here to decry me an Uber NOOooob, then let me tell you now...I am a Noob, so piss off.
Now that that’s out of the way let me tell you about myself. In game I'm an Undead Shadow Priest in a US server know as Eitrigg playing for the Horde under the name Danvangogh. I've only been playing for awhile now. I've been browsing several other "sites/blogs" about the same subject, but excuse me for saying none of them really talk about playing as a priest below level 80 or do a lot of explaining about why they do one thing and not the other....I'm going to write this like someone that hasn't played 5+ years of WOW and might try to break things down to the unfamiliar person level. Enjoy!
