Patch Day woes and wins, and MMMM green bean casserole!

Today is "office holiday lunch" day, where the boss provides the meat (turkey and ham) and the rest of us bring side dishes and desserts. I brought my superdelicious green bean casserole of win. I know there are different ways of making it, but they all suck hardcore unless they are the exact recipe on the back of a Campbell's French Fried Onions can. Don't do your family and friends a disservice by messing around with that!

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So yesterday, I find out that my stupid computer did not download the patch. Background downloader was fail. I had to download the entire patch from a mirror site.

After 78924871 hours later, I was in business - I made sure to turn on my "out of date" addons and logged in to find my minimap was the default one (can't remember which addon I use, but it makes it square and small and moveable, that I guess that addon was out of service completely or something). Other than that, I was okay - UI was fine, Recount was fine, Omen was fine, and Fortexorcist was fine. That's really all I needed to raid.

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23 guildies online for D's first raid day of the week. Guild leader decided right away that we would just go knock out ToC 25 since some guild members were still MIA and general chat was saying that ICC was down.

In we go, buffed and ready. A little laggy, but not too bad.

And my super-buffed new shadow priest dps? 5.1k. On Northrend Beasts. You know how many times I've hit over 5k on that fight? Yeah .. never. Too much movement and switching targets. But I went over that 5k mark and rejoiced. Oh, and instead of being like 7-8th on the meters, I finished in 3rd. 3RD!! I haven't even fixed my action bars and gotten comfortable with my new "rotation" yet, either.

My same gear had me at 800 haste, exactly. Crit with raid buffs was around 20%, spellpower just over 3k. It was magnificent. I think I died and went to Heaven, sang praises to the Lord, and came back down to finish the fight.

So in short, WHOOOO SHADOW PRIEST BUFFS!!!!!

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We kill Northrend Beasts in short order and rezzed the dead and rebuffed, then the GM/RL said, "uh, Officer A, come and see what this guy is saying," this guy referring to the dude you talk to to start the Lord Jarraxus fight.

Of course, everyone went and took a look.

"Come back next week for a shot at Jarraxus, for you are not ready and the fight isn't available, scrubs," though of course not word for word. The place was bugged, and we were stuck. BOOOO!!

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Icecrown Citadel it was. We flew over. Got stuck on the instance portal. More than once. I flew down to check Vault of Archavon, someone else flew down to Naxx (Instructor Razuvious was the weekly raid boss), and a mage ported to Theramore to check Onyxia's Lair. Naxx and Ony were down, but VoA was up, so we knocked that out. We're one of those guilds that usually just downs Koralon then goes to do something else, but since they now all drop Triumph emblems, we stayed and killed everything. There's a new "wing" open in the place as you are walking to where Archavon used to be, but no new boss. I suppose they could make the place as large with as many bosses as they wanted to, but I'm sure there will only be one more "element" boss and that will be the end. Someone said they might be timing it for Season 8? I haven't heard.

And yes, my damage was super dope.

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So we called it quits after that, so folks could go try the new five-mans. I put a group together and after much wrangling and getting stuck on the instance portals, we finally got ourselves into Heroic Forge of Souls. It wasn't too bad - only two bosses in there, with the second one casting this "mirror" ability where you have to stop attacking it, only our mage seemed incapable of doing so. We wiped twice on him.

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And I have to say - WTF Blizzard? If you die on Devourer of Souls (last boss), be prepared to spend 89721364891 hours trying to get back to him - the walk through the instance is most likely the longest I've ever, ever had to do. Asshole Jaina Proudmoore is at the beginning of the instance, but could she give us a teleport to the end? NOOO. But who magically pops on in beside us after we down the last boss?

No repair person around, either - I suspect there will be one when the Ashen Verdict folks show up (I didn't see them), but for now, you have to fly to Crusader's Pinnacle or something. I hope there's a repair guy inside ICC like in Ulduar, though I have a bad feeling ...

Anyhoo, the portal to Pit of Saron was borked and we couldn't get in, so the others called it a night. I said "eff that" and put myself into LFG for a random daily for my two Frost Emblems.

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Old Kingdom! Me and the randoms get to the third trash pack, get "frozen", finally get disconnected, and I sign back in to find myself in Dalaran without a group. *sigh*

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So I do a few crafty things - sent the Saronite Ore I've been saving up on my bank alt to S to smelt into bars, then sent the bars to K to transmute into Titanium Bars. Sent those back to S and got my blacksmithing to 440. Seriously, I was about to cry. That was a LOT of stacks of Saronite, and still not enough for 450 blacksmithing.

Did my JC daily on E, no biggie.

Got a guildie to craft Heavy Borean Leather for me out of the stacks and stacks of Borean Leather I had saved up. Took those to the dwarf outside of the Leatherworking shop in Dalaran and got myself 6 pieces of Arctic Fur. Stashed those away for later.

Got back on S to start farming for more Titanium and Saronite, and put myself in LFG.

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Oculus! I'm tanking, awesome. Group is okay, the random dk doesn't seem to know what to do with the drakes, but we're off and things are going pretty smoothly. They really did nerf the place, but it still seems to take forever.

We get to Eregos, pull .. AND THE INSTANCE FREEZES. AND WE GET DISCONNECTED. AND ZOMG I SIGNED BACK IN TO FIND MYSELF IN DALARAN WITH NO GROUP!!!!!

Really? I had to go all the way through effing Oculus for NOTHING?!

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Put myself back into LFG. Culling of Stratholme this time, me tanking again.

There's a little gnome mage named "Pocketmerlin", which I thought was the cutest name ever.

We proceed through the place in record time, getting to Drake boss with 7 minutes to spare.

I had somehow missed going through the regular version on my way to 80, so I got the achievement for regular and heroic, and my two Frost Emblems. Hurrah!

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Then I got on D again, put myself in LFG. Halls of Stone. I hate Halls of Stone almost as much as I hate Old Kingdom, and definitely as much as I hate Oculus. Grr. But I have a solid, solid group. Tank is rawrbear with 57k health. We tear through the place with ease. I get disconnected right after Brann's "event" and feared the group would kick me to look for another. I finally got back online to find the group at the entrance to the last boss chamber. Yay! I was going to go kick some puppies if I had to do yet another heroic on D.

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Got my emblems, and then got on K. LFG, Culling of Stratholme again, and I'm the healer. Easy peasy, it was a quick run, no incidents, despite the slightly-squishy dk tank.

I was finally done with my first day of the "heroic dailies" circuit, after many problems and bugs.

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NEW LFG FEATURES

Overall impression? The new LFG feature is super fast, super easy, and super great, when it's not buggy.

You pick the roles you want to do, and a little box pops up almost immediately showing the tank, healer, and dps getting a checkmark when LFG has found one of each role. Then another box pops up after that one shows that all five group positions have been filled, and tells you which role you are. You hit "enter instance" or whatever, and you teleport there.

If something happens (like the bugs), you can still teleport to the instance if that initial box doesn't do it. There is a little icon on your minimap that you can right-click on to select an option "Teleport to Instance".

I think this will be great when they work out the kinks - I already think it is way, way superior to the old system.

I did also check it out on E. Apparently, under-80 (or at least 71 or over) will award 2 Triumph Emblems, some xp (it tells you how much), and some gold for doing a random instance. I was not able to get a group together yesterday (everyone was most likely on their 80 mains instead of their alts) but I'll have to check it out in the future.

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Bind on Account Goodness

I was able to buy the healer and tank shoulder enchants from Sons of Hodir QM and the tanking head arcanum from the Argent Crusade QM on D, and then mail them to S. No more rep grinding for S, though he still wears a tabard.

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So all in all, it was a good, though sometimes frustrating, night. My lag and the unfamiliarity of the "new" keybindings and "rotation" on D didn't hurt the fact that my dps most definitely increased from pre-patch, and once I get the "new" way down and get used to my new keybinds (I removed VE from the middle of my keys, so I decided to just rearrange them all) I suspect that my dps will jump even more. I'm in that "golden" ranged of 800-900 haste, so I think I'm good for now - I did not regem or reenchant anything (Black Magic enchant is only a few points higher than the highest spellpower one, so I decided that it wasn't worth the cost - once I get a new weapon, it will get Black Magic).

Oh, and the new corehound pet? Very cute - he rolls over, he wags his tail, he throws a bone up into the air and catches it, and he digs a little hole. Thanks, Blizzard!

Call of the Crusade Report Card, and PATCH DAY!!!

I'm sure we've heard of the exciting news - IT'S PATCH DAY! Icecrown Citadel, shadow priest buffs, battle rez cooldown reduced, shadow priest buffs, cross-server LFG feature, three new instances, shadow priest buffs, fire nova WHOOO, increased Northrend reputation gains, shadow priest buffs, BoA head and shoulder enchants, new crafting patterns that can be bought instead of relying on RNG to drop them in 25-man raids only, shadow priest buffs, new hunter doucheknight and warrior and paladin dps Legendary weapon, shadow priest buffs, reduced cooldown on Fire and Earth Elemental totems, a cool ass new mount to hope for, shadow priest buffs, quest tracking, new fishing tournament, shadow priest buffs, cross-faction BoA items mailed, nerfed Oculus, and ZOMG THE SHADOW PRIEST BUFFS!!!!! *CRIES IN JOY*

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Vess over at The Wanted Priest asks the following:

How would you score your performance in Call of the Crusade?

Broken down into sections, my grades are:

Content Grade - A-

According to PuG Checker, I have completed the following on D:

-Trial of the Crusader 10 man normal - 13 full clears
-Trial of the Crusader 25 man normal - 13 full clears
-Trial of the Crusader 10 man heroic - 4 bosses (have gotten to anub, never downed him)
-Trial of the Crusader 25 man heroic - 0 bosses

So I have not gotten even past one boss in 25 man heroic mode (though I have certainly wiped a lot, hehe) and I've only done a partial clear of 10 man heroic (I have been switching out D and K in the same run, actually, considering we usually never have a shaman with us). I think I am in a good place for ICC - no hard mode clears means we probably won't be clearing General Saurfang on hard mode any time soon, but regular mode is definitely the next step, progression-wise, and D's guild is in a good place.

Gear Grade - A-

My current "gear score" according to WoW-Heroes is 2846, which consists of 1 ilvl 219 item (Eye of the Broodmother), 3 ilvl 232 items, 13 ilvl 245 items, and 0 ilvl 258 items. I feel that I'm pretty set for ICC 25-man, which is exactly where D's progression guild will be heading when the patch hits (and the servers stabilize, heh).

Peer Group Grade - A

Among shadow priests on the Silvermoon Alliance side, according to WoW-Heroes, D is number 2. On the server as a whole, she is the 3rd ranked shadow priest, while coming in at number 18 for priests over all. I'm not in a ToGC 25-clearing guild, while there are several on my server on both factions, so I do feel that I am in a good place among my peer group. Unlike some folks on my server that have specifically spent all of their emblems to get less useful items (Mark of Supremacy, anyone?) for the higher ilvl, I choose to hold on to my Eye of the Broodmother for the dps gain. Luckily for me, aside from the gloves, the T10 tier set looks to be amazing for shadow priests (unlike the poorly itemized T9 set which allowed shadow priests to do more damage in the healing set than in the shadow set) and almost all of it is BiS at the top (T10.5) level. I will be actively working to gather up at least four pieces of that set as soon as possible.

Overall Combined Grade - A-

Not too shabby, in my opinion. What about you guys, how would you grade your Patch 3.2 activities, especially when considering where you'll be when you can log into the newly patched servers?

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Last night, I considered doing a lot of things - WoW.com had posted the official word that the patch would drop today, so I considered farming, getting enchanting mats and gems ready, go run some heroics on S, go do VoA 10 on K, and all kinds of other things.

I saw someone advertising that they were looking for more for a Naxx 10 Undying run. I have been once with D's guild, but that was a long time ago and we had a death on Instructor Asshole when one of the orbs bugged out. But I thought, "why not" and whispered him on D, since he needed a ranged dps and a healer.

After some shuffling around after he filled the group, I was asked to heal. We didn't have a shaman, so I volunteered to come on K instead of D to heal. I'd like the achievement for D, but it might be beneficial to have a shaman along.

And we did it! A complete pug group - I recognized a couple of the names, but I didn't really know them. A few of the guild names I recognized as raiding guilds on the server, but none of the top-end ones. A few folks got hit by the green lava on The Dance, and a mage (slow fall?) failed the jump to the ledge on Thaddius, but no deaths. KT was a breeze. I was quite amazed, seeing as how we got to the third wing and started to have some lag (pre-patch lag, I suppose).

So I proudly present a screenshot of K with her new title. And I'm too lazy to block out her name, so you get the honor of knowing the name of one of my toons. Look her up and laugh if you'd like. :-D



Huzzah!

Bad player is bad! (And some other stuff and patch-y things.)

So over the weekend, I worked on S the druid's gear (he's now in mostly 200-219 ilvl epics from ToC, along with the Crusader Orb-crafted chestpiece for his tank set and green idols on both specs). I also worked on leveling E - after hitting 70, doesn't every level seem to take forEVER?

I think tanking on a druid is easysauce. Sometimes I have threat issues due to running with ToC 25-geared dps, but most of the time, I throw a Faerie Fire, charge in, swipe and grab all the mobs, then tab through them and apply Mangle, Maul, and throw some Lacerates in between one or two Swipes. I'm now tanking heroics with ease, or so it seems.

Same with healing - I was having some mana issues, but not so much anymore. Regrowth and Rejuv on the tank, Rejuv on the melee, Rejuv on any ranged taking damage, Wild Growth when it's off cooldown, and on heavy hitting bosses I'll roll Lifebloom stacks on the tank as well. Swiftmend if someone takes a good amount of damage, Nourish if that doesn't do the trick or it's off cooldown, and that's it. I used to use Tranquillity, but I've cut back on it lately due to not needing it. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but druid healing is FUN.

I now have a very easy time healing or dpsing on D or K - I've talked in the past about how gear can overcompensate for lack of skill sometimes when it comes to healing, and it's so true.

But then there's E the paladin, a couple of bars short of level 72. What a nightmare.

I've decided that I'm not as good of a player as I was deluding myself into thinking I was.

Paladins are hard to play, or at least I'm finding them hard. I've seen other people say that paladins are easy, especially ret paladins with their "hit whatever's off cooldown in the priority list" method of dpsing.

My dps, at level 71, is right around 700. Now, I know that's bad. Really bad. I think I'm doing everything right, but I'm not quite sure what's going on. My gear is pretty good for the level, no level 40 greens or anything.

And my tanking? Abysmal. I can't hold threat for anything. Yes, I have Righteous Fury up. (And speaking of, paladins have so many self-buff things to remember. A seal. An aura. A blessing. BLEH! Plus, all those "Hand of" spells that I haven't learned the differences between yet by looking at the icons. They're all arranged on a sidebar for me, but I have no idea which one to use at a glance.) My gear is the entire Cobalt tanking set plus some recent quest rewards for the other pieces, aside from my level 62 libram from Blood Furnace. So it's not a gear issue.

I'm failing miserably on the paladin, in other words. I think I might try holy at some point, but I read up a "beginner's guide" yesterday and balked. Holy paladins have to still worry about hitting a Judgement?!

I'm at a loss as to what to do, because I like the paladin class a lot. I just find it difficult to play. Or else I'm just a terribad player. How is playing a druid so easy and playing a paladin so hard?

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If the patch hits tomorrow, I will be a happy camper. I'm SO sick of Trial of the Crusader. Someone actually asked me if I'd come heal ToC 10 yesterday while I was on my druid, but I told them I wouldn't do that to them (I'm still way undergeared - healing set is worse than tank set, it's mostly heroics gear). As much as I'd love to get the druid geared up, I was tired and the thought of being in ToC for the SEVENTH time this week (ToC 10 and 25 on D and K, ToC 10 heroic on D, ToC 25 heroic on D) was enough to put me off. Who's bright idea was it to have FOUR separate raid ID's for the same boring instance, anyway?

I hear ya, Tarsus.

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Speaking of the patch and the upcoming heroics grind, I'm not even going to bother on D and K. I've gotten everything I want for both specs on both toons with Triumph emblems, including T9 gear, and I see no reason why I should have to torture myself. Heroic daily for the Frost emblems, and that's it for those two. I might go back and try for the Perky Pug on D at some point, but not at first.

S will be the toon used for heroics grinding. Lots of K's guildmates still need gear upgrades (even Conquest), so I'll be using S to heal or tank anything they need.

I'm not looking forward to it.

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Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

THANK YOU BLIZZARD!!! D is Exalted with every faction and S was still working on Argent Crusade for the helm enchant for his tanking set (Sons of Hodir is open but not even Honored yet). No more rep grinding!

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New Weekly Raid Quests(Npc who did heroic daily quests)

New weekly raid quests have been added to the game! These quests will give you a good reason to run the old raid instances for 5 emblems of Frost and 5 emblems of Triumph each week. Here’s the list for the bosses tnat have a weekly quest kill. One is picked each week for the quest.

The Obsidian Sanctum/Eye of the Eternity-Sartharion and Malygos
Naxxramas: Anub’rekhan, Noth the Plaguebringer, Instructor Razuvious and Patchwork.
Ulduar: Flame Leviathan,Ignis the Furnace Master,Razorscale,and XT-002 Deconstructor
Crusaders’ Coliseum/Trial of the Crusader: Lord Jaraxxus
Icecrown Citadel: Lord Marrowgar

OH NOES! I MIGHT HAVE TO GO DO EYE OF ETERNITY AGAIN!? *stabs eyes*

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Black Magic enchant being changed on the PTR.

Now: Suckage.
After patch: 250 haste for 10 seconds, procs approximately every 35 seconds.

Get those mats ready if this is good for you! According to mathy people, this enchant will be best for shadowpriests who use 1h weapons (the max spellpower enchant is still best for staves). It also looks to be best for enhancement shamans. Holy jeebus, I'll need to start saving up some mats - I haven't even started and I'm constantly running low on mats (I fear it will get worse, not better, after the patch.)

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Erika at Bible of Dreams started this WoW-themed "meme" and although I wasn't tagged, I thought I'd fill it out anyway since I am selfish and want people to notice me.

My Warcraft Year in Review Meme

Please leave a link to your meme post in the comments here. Please tag 5 other folks to complete the meme and copy these instructions and the questions into your blog with your answers.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
What was your biggest failure?
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
What do you wish you'd done less of?
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

1. What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you'd never done before?

Raided highest-level content! I started this game in 2008, so I didn't really get a chance to be part of a progression guild and raid the highest-level raids for BC. I honestly never even thought this game would get to this place for me, either. Now, I'm fortunate enough to play with very skilled players that are willing to carry me through the top content, even hard modes, and I am very, very grateful for it.

2. What was your favorite new place that you visited?

Well, in terms of Northrend? I love love love and still love Grizzly Hills. I think the questing is terrific. I love the music. I love the scenery. Who can forget the seeds "quest" at Amber Pine Lodge? The Ursoc Bear God quest chain is fun. Killing those Dark Iron Dwarves up on the northeast corner of the zone is fun, and the hills behind those ruins where all of those giants are? Awesome. I play through the zone on every toon, and I have not gotten tired of it yet.

3. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Urg, probably to play a "pet" class to level cap, possibly before Cataclysm. I really would like to test myself on pet management. I think it will most likely be a hunter or warlock, but I suppose a deathknight would do (urg). Probably the hunter, though - they're easier to gear up than a warlock due to the classes that can wear the same items. And yes, it's all about the gear. :-)

4. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Ooh, most likely leveling blacksmithing to cap. Seriously! What a pain - I will never, ever level blacksmithing on another toon again. I was about ready to shoot myself.

5. What was your biggest failure?

Learning to work addons, particularly the ones that affect your UI. I really have no idea how to set up Grid - I meant to figure it out, but the latest version came prepackaged exactly the way I wanted it, so there was no need for me to bother. I have to rearrange some things, though - currently, I can't see boss debuffs or buffs, like the charges of Fel whatever on Jaraxxus or stacks of the Rift thingy on Eregos in Oculus. I need to fix that mess.

6. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The arrival of WotLK, of course. I was excited about the Ulduar and upcoming ICC patches, of course, but that excitement is not even close to what I felt right before the new expansion. I'm sure I'll get that feeling again when Cataclysm is about to be released.

7. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Ha, wasting time! I waste a LOT of game time doing stupid things, like running Naxx on my shaman when I was way overgeared, or heroics farming on D even though I needed nothing from emblems. I also waste a lot of time volunteering and running low level guildie alts through low level instances. I need to cut back on that ...

8. What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

I do not listen to podcasts, to be honest. I can't listen at work, and that's the only time I'd be interested - my home time is my game time. But blogs? I have a lot of "favorites", and I know that's the cop-out answer, but it's true. To name a few, though - Big Bear Butt Blogger, Casual Hardcore, Darraxus the Warrior (lol at today's post), Forbearance, Nerf This Druid, Kungaloosh/Owlkin Frenzy <3, Misery, Pugnacious Priest, Righteous Orbs, Shaman on Ramen, and of course the entertaining and informative WTFspaghetti. I highly, highly recommend these blogs if you don't already read them, regardless of your class, spec, or interest.

9. Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

That you have to remember that it's just a game. Seriously, people get so worked up over stuff, myself included. I can't remember the countless of nights spent feeling like I had to stay online for one more hour because I just HAD to do the heroic daily, still. I mean, really? I've learned in just the past month that I've got to chill out. I have one more 80 now, I need to ease off of obsessing about gearing my shaman. Focus on D, then just do whatever for K and now S.

Now, if I listed your blog in question number 8, I tag you!

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Secret Santa for your guild - we're doing it! Everyone in K's guild who is interested in participating will need to let her (me) know before December 17th. By December 20th, I will randomly assign a Secret Santa to everyone else who wanted to do it, and I will send an in-game mail to each person letting them know who their recipient is. Rules for the present are to keep the present at around 200g. Each Secret Santa will gift-wrap the present and in-game mail it to their recipient on December 24th or 25th.

Even if one doesn't celebrate Christmas, it's still a nice thing to get a present from a guildmate, right? Thought it'd be a fun idea, and everyone seems keen to do it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Any reader(s) have guild holiday celebration ideas?

I can haz ansers?! - 10 Basic Shadowpriesting Tips for the Nub Shadowpriest

So I got this comment on a recent post:

Sad day! I just finally started building a shadow off-spec for my priest. It's disappointing to know that class scaling combined with my inexperience and second-round gear will make it pretty much pointless.

That said, I imagine there will still be times when I'll have to dps, so, if you don't mind my asking, do you have any basic pointers for shadow spec dps? I'm doing alright, but I know I could be doing better with the gear I have (3-4k depending on boss in ~Ulduar10 with some ToC10 gear). I haven't really messed with it since level 59 three years ago... Any particular must-have mods or easy to convey spell priority clues?

Someone actually asking me for tips! I also got an email asking for basic tips, maybe from the same person. I will now attempt to make myself sound smart/knowledgeable about shadow priesting.

Tip #1: Get a DoT-tracking addon.

I highly, highly, highly recommend getting something to track your DoT's. One I've found absolutely invaluable is one called Fortexorcst. I'm sure there are other DoT-tracking addons like this one, but make sure that it is one that tracks not only the DoTs on your target, but the ones you've put on OTHER TARGETS. I cannot stress this enough - it WILL up your dps if you keep Shadow Word: Pain from falling off of your targets after applying it.



This is what the timer bars look like in action. You can change the size and scale of them and whatnot to suit your needs, but mine are pretty small. The red bars are for spells that are about to end due to the target being almost dead. The solid bars are for the spells on the current target, and the more translucent bars are for spells on other targets.

As mentioned before, I find this almost invaluable for making sure that the souped up, Shadow Weaving x 5 stacked, Potion of Wild Magic-buffed SW:P never falls off of the mob or mobs that I put it on while souped up.

Take Gormak the Impaler. I ramp up my spells on him, stack SW to 5, pop any trinkets (I have no on-use trinkets, but here is where you would do it yourself if you did have some), chug a PoWM, and apply SW:P. Mind Flay/refresh DoTs until Snobold comes out.

Now I have to switch to the Snobold. But I just applied that super version of SW:P up with my only PoWM for the entire encounter! I do not, under any circumstances, want that to go to waste.

So I attack the Snobold until SW:P has about three seconds left on Gormak, which I can see due to ForteXorcist bars. I clip a MF to refresh that super SW:P, then get back on the Snobolds.

Viola! That SW:P never falls off of Gormak, ticking for the maximum damage until he is DEADED!

Now ForteXorcist left me a little confuzzled the first time I tried to edit it, so here are the basics.

a. Download it.

b. Open game. Get on your super shadow priest and do the following:



Yup, that's how you open the configuration menu - a simple /fx. You'll see this gobbledegook pop up:



Before you have a heartattack, ignore all the "soulstone tracker" and "summon assistant" stuff and go straight to Spell Timers, which is circled in the photo. Scroll down to "coloring/filtering" subheading, and you'll see a line that says "Customize enter ability/spell/item name." Click it.



Yup, enter all of your spells and such into this. Make sure the boxes I have clicked in the photo are clicked, including "normal", "cooldowns", and especially "unique". For some reason, Devouring Plague falls under the "unique" category while everything else should be under "normal". To cover them all, just click everything I did. :-D

On a side note, I also clicked "heal". When I'm on S and I'm throwing HoTs around, I get Rejuvs and Regrowths and stuff to show up. Handy! Renew will show up here when you are healing, as well.

You can add more stuff (trinket procs like Elusive Power [from Abyssal Rune, the ToC 5-man normal trinket, etc.]) to it, as well, under the same "Customize" bar. If you add something and then don't see it show up, you can play around with the settings (clicking more of the "type" boxes - maybe it's a "friendly buff" instead of a "powerup buff" or whatever).

Which leads me to:

Tip #2: Make sure five stacks of Shadow Weaving are applied before doing SW:P

The way you apply the five stacks may vary, of course, depending on the situation. When running in, you'll be using your DoTs more since they are instant cast (you can use SW:P as one of your SW stack applications, then reapply it once five are up).

When standing in place (let's say on a boss, not on trash mobs that die too quickly), I like the following "opening":

Vampiric Touch > Devouring Plague > Mind Blast > Shadow Word: Death > Vampiric Embrace > (Potion of Wild Magic, trinket pop) > Shadow Word: Pain

If you have a "proc" trinket instead of an "on use" trinket (like Abyssal Rune or Dying Curse), you may want to skip out on the potion and trinket popping until your proc hits, then immediately pop your other trinket/chug your potion and reapply SW:P. SW:P will continue to tick with whatever buffs and stuff you apply to it before you actually put it on the target, as long as you don't let it fall off and continue to reapply it via Mind Flay (hence tip #1, important when you have to temporarily switch targets).

When running in to a boss (Anub'arak comes to mind), I like to do the following "opening":

Shadow Word: Pain > Devouring Plague > Shadow Word: Death (and by this time you should be in place) > Vampiric Touch > Vampiric Embrace > (PoWM/trinket) > Shadow Word: Pain

Multiple mobs, Mind Sear to oblivion. Especially if other dpsers are doing aoe abilities as well!

In regards to the use of Shadow Word: Death, there's been some going back and forth on the efficiency of this spell since I first started raiding. The latest thing I read about it recommended that you use it in your opening right behind Mind Blast.

After you ramp up SW:P and everything is up on your target, you're ready for the meat and potatoes of your dps. Keep SW:P up - it's not in your list because it will always be ticking, right?

Priority is something like so:

Vampiric Touch refreshed > Devouring Plague refreshed > Mind Blast > Mind Flay

Most of the time, you will have time after the initial ramp-up and the application of SW:P, to start in with Mind Flay x 2, Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, Devouring Plague, Mind Flay, Mind Blast, repeat sequence again starting with Mind Flay x 2.

Mind Flay is always, always your filler spell, in between making sure your DoTs are refreshed and Mind Blast is cast every time it's available. SW:D is for your opener, don't cast it during your "rotation". At least, I don't.

Tip #3: Be in shadow form

No, really. Sometimes, after I rez someone while group is running to the next mob or group, I'll run up to start dpsing and wonder why the heck I'm casting Greater Heal. Oops!

Tip #4: Account for lag

Addon called Quartz. Simple and shows a red bar to account for latency and stuff. Invaluable, yo. And to go along with that:

Tip #5: Don't clip Mind Flay or reapply VT or DP before the last tick of damage

This is a common problem with a lot of shadow priests, and especially if you lag a lot. That last tick of damage is important! Unless you are purposely using a clipped Mind Flay for refreshing SW:P quickly, you should wait until the channel is complete before starting again. But of course, the longer you wait, the less dps you are doing. Just pay close attention - shadow priesting isn't all "auto attack" and "jam your buttons" like ret paladins - we have to watch for beginnings and ends to spells.

Tip #6: Be hit capped!!!!!!!!!

No matter what, make sure you are hit capped. This is more important than anything else! Draenei (or almost always group with one) - 262. All other shadow priests - 289. Learn the number and love it.

Tip #7: Use Nigel every cooldown

Shadow priests typically don't run out of mana, so your trusty shadowfiend is mainly there to provide you a little extra dps boost. Use it! After you apply your bigtime SW:P, release the hound fiend! Make sure the boss you're releasing it on is not about to do some big aoe raid damage, or he'll be crushed and you will have wasted him.

Tip #8: Don't be afraid to multi-dot

I don't do this enough myself, honestly, but whenever there are more than multiple mobs that are NOT going to die in 0.2 seconds, go ahead and dot them all up with a little SW:P. If there are more than three, the focus on one and go to town with Mind Sear, but if not, then ramp some VT/Mind Flay action on each target one at a time until squashed.

Tip #9: Trash that "rotation" macro

Don't use a "rotation" macro. There are some out there, but shadowpriesting is more about reapplication of dots and finding the right time (you'll eventually get a feel for it) to recast Mind Flay as close to after the last tick of damage as possible. Also, situations change and the spells you use need to be available for those situations. I do believe there's a "no clip Mind Flay" macro but I have no idea if this works - I've never tried it. Who knows, maybe I've clipped my Mind Flay more often than not and a macro like that would serve me well? But I'd rather rely on my own eyes and fingers as to when exactly to hit my number 5 button (where Mind Flay is keybound to).

Tip #10: Practice!

It does make perfect - don't go into raids with this information without first testing it out on test dummies and heroics. Go with pugs, too. Make sure you visit several heroics. Also try to go out and kill big trash packs. A good test for me used to be those traveling groups of mammoths running around near Hibernal Cave in that valley between Dun Niffelum and the big Amazon lady place in Storm Peaks. Bubble, target the one that's up front and farthest away from you, and Mind Sear. Bring them all close to you. Practice multidotting. Practice Mind Searing while keeping yourself alive (bubble ftw). Get used to seeing all those timer bars on your screen and what they are telling you. Move around, try to give challenges to yourself by killing a stray worm outside of the mammoth pack with the "opening" sequence. Practice that opening sequence on everything - heroics bosses, test dummies, the neutral bucks roaming around Crystalsong Forest beneath Dalaran.

Don't get discouraged - shadow priests have had scaling problems with gear for ages, and you will most likely not outdps similarly-geared dpsers of other classes. Rogues will pwn you, hunters will squash you, and warlocks will make you want to cry. Bad advice coming from me, I know, but shadow priests CAN do extremely awesome dps when the player sets his or her mind to it and has the gear to pull it off.

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So there's my two cents. I have explained on this very blog before about how I get outdpsed by boomkins in lesser gear than me, so my word is obviously not gospel and these tips are all from my own personal experiences and trials and errors. Shadowpriest.com (excellent source for information about all things spriest) may say differently. People may have other suggestions about addons. These are what I've found to work for me.

How about you other great shadow priests out there - any helpful tips to add?