Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Heroic Malygos Down; Anon's Spirits Up

Our guild took down Heroic Obsidian Sanctum (granted, we killed all the drakes) and Heroic Eye of Eternity. It took a billion hours, but we finally watched Malygos fall into the abyss. I came away from the whole experience with a few Emblems of Valor, and the Staff of Restraint. Honestly, it was more a side grade. I finally got the Handbook of Obscure Remedies. If I somehow manage to procure a Hammer of the Astral Plane, I will be the happiest lady around. To do that, however, I must first find a group that will go all the way through Naxx 10. ::GLARE::

So last night was the first time I got to see myself as compared to another Shadow Priest. Looking at the WWS for the fight, I could see that he was sitting at 6 while I was sitting at 12. It may partially be due to deaths, but for the most part, I stayed alive. I think it has more to do with gear. He's actually missing talent points, which is rather odd. His spellpower is at 1819, though, while mine is sitting at 1406, so apparently gear IS more important than spec. I'm not sure, but here's a comparison of the damage output by spell (click for bigger):

In conclusion, I think as soon as I get the 10 man runs going with some consistency, I'll be kicking butt and taking names in no time at all.

Thanks for reading, and keep on melting those faces!

Monday, December 29, 2008

An Open Letter

This angry post has been removed in light of the fact that WoW is just a game, and I started this blog more to post successes and theorycraft than to express displeasure. I didn't delete the post in its entirety, because I do love Mr. Angry. Don't you?

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Training Dummy Tested, Malygos Approved

So last night our guild did its first official Malygos Heroic run. Talk about the worst DPS benchmark ever. Fortunately, it is a very good test of a Shadow Priest's mettle as a raider. It's also a great chance to show your guild that you're ready for anything, especially if they pull you in as an "oh I GUESS we can take you since our warlock had to leave" substitute. *cough*notbitter*cough*

Phase 1 is simple enough, but you'll have to be on the ball. I started the fight mostly the same, except I popped IF - trinkets -MB immediately after I got 5 stacks of Shadow Weaving (SW). Since phase 1 involves parts where you can only cast instant spells, I tried to stretch out my DoT timers so that they would be just fading by the time I got launched into the air. I also cast VE, PW:S and Dispersion (when possible) to soften the damage from the vortex and help the healers out.

Phase 2 is tricky, because you have to do a lot of running around. We had 4 melee dps on the discs first (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, go here), and after that it was a free for all. I snagged one and managed to hit number 5 on my recount for that fight. Normally I hovered around 7 or 8. TIP: Get on a flying disc as soon as you are permitted, IF you are permitted.

Phase 3...boy, you don't even know. Neither do I. I'm pretty sure your stats won't matter at ALL. We only survived this part for about 30 seconds, so I have no tips at all.

One of the officers posted a WWS sheet for the attempts, but for some reason I'm number 10 overall on his list. Clearly I don't have it down quite yet, but by golly, I was better than the mages, and that makes me smile. See you after the holidays.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Shadow Priests and Endgame Preparedness

I mentioned yesterday that I had doubts about shadow priest raid utility these days. Our guild went to Heroic Naxxramus last night and my damage was actually not too shabby considering I'm still in mostly blues (still carrying green trinkets, ew). Basically I've come to the conclusion that a shadow priest's ability to hold his or her own in a raid is dependent FIRST on spec, SECOND on spell rotation, and THIRD on gear.
  1. The spec is easy. There are tons of theorycrafting sites out there that tell you the why, but generally speaking this is the WotLK raid spec of choice.
  2. Spell rotation is hotly debated and depends quite a bit on gear and on the kind of fight you're in.
    • For soloing, I like to use Vampiric Touch (VT) - Mind Blast (MB) - Devouring Plague (DP) - Mind Flay (MF) or Mind Sear (MS) x 2 - MB if needed, or repeat previous sequence - Shadow Word: Death (SWD) to finish.
    • For 5-man heroics, I use MB - DP - SWD - VT - Shadow Word: Pain (SWP) - MF or MS - repeat. I drop Vampiric Embrace (VE) in there if the healing is shoddy.
    • For most boss fights, I use VT - MB - DP - SWD - SWP - MF - VT - trinkets - Inner Focus (IF) - MB - SWD - DP - SWP

  3. Gear is where the fun starts, because it is all about what your goal is. If you're going for a coveted raid spot, my impression is that +spellpower and +hit are tops, followed by +crit and +haste, though the topic is debated. The hit cap is 290, and to be honest, I'm having a hell of a time gearing for that and not losing too many points in other places. I find a +hit weapon, but I lose other stats in the process. Still working out the details on the gear issue. Ugh.
So you can see wherein the problem lies. Next time, I'll go into more detail about exactly why you should put a shadow priest in your raid.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A Shadow Priest's Manifesto

I am not evil; I do not serve the Lich King. I am not a warlock; I do not play with demons. I simply choose to follow the darker mental disciplines. The Shadow cannot exist without the light, nor can light exist without casting a shadow. I know how to heal, I just choose to not. Shadow is not an extension of my soul, but of my mind. I am a utility and a boon to groups large and small, and alone I am a formidable opponent. My talents are most destructive in long fights, but if you think you can burn me down quickly, you are wrong.

With the "lore" stuff out of the way, here's the skinny. Shadow Priests have gone from DPS class to Utility class and back again with disturbing regularity. We've been almost forced out of raids entirely, and sought after mere patches later.

For WotLK, however, our role is a bit ambiguous. I was informed by some nerds on the Instance forums that my low DPS is entirely my fault and my spec's. I'm not doing a service to my raid by being a mana battery anymore because Ret. Pallies and I think Huntards(?) do the same thing. My utility in raids is, right now, fairly low. I've got to up the DPS output or risk losing my spot. Already I'm interchangeable with poorly-geared warlocks and mages. So over the next few posts, I'm going to explore just why a Shadow Priest needs to be in your raids. Feel free to comment if you've got some theories of your own. /cuddle