Shadow Priest: Worth the effort?

[Essix 0]

I'm currently leveling a shadow priest and I think it's reasonably fun. However, I have some concerns.

 

I've heard that Shadow Priests are completely, utterly useless in DPS at endgame. Noxxic lists them at the very bottom in nearly every DPS ranking bracket (I've heard Noxxic is unreliable and I'm keeping that in mind, but their information must have come from somewhere), several tens of thousands below the top specs.

 

What's the situation? I have massive self esteem issues and I'm worried that lack of performance (percieved or real) as DPS at level 90 because of factors outside of my control will cause me to panic as similar situations have caused me to do in the past. I'm also wondering how good or bad max-level Shadow Priests are at soloing, specifically dailies and Timeless Isle stuff.

 

Thanks in advance!

[penance 0]

shadow priest are amazing. DO NOT GO BY NOXXICS DPS METERS! i have one and can pll top 5 dps in most LFRs. they have several raid CDs as well. HOH, halo etc. they can also off heal if need be. 

[Astynax 24]

DO NOT GO BY NOXXICS DPS METERS!

 

 

So much this. I just learned how to simucraft in the past two days, and I'm already amazed at how stupid noxxic and mrrobot are. Shad priests offer immense utility, and great damage in fights without ridiculous movement.

[Kulia 39]

Shadow priests are actually really good, I raid with one and he plays his class so well and pulls top DPS on nearly every fight, even those with large amounts of movement and ones that are considered "bad" for shadow priests.

They are however, a hybrid class, so don't always expect to top the meters when raiding with a bunch of pure-DPS classes and people who *really* know their class and can squeeze every bit of DPS out of it.

They definitely offer a good CD for your healers, hymn of hope is amazing. 

Shadow priests are also able to off-heal if they need to, plus they offer healing whilst DPSing (PoM only takes one GCD to send out, Halo DPS + healing, void shift, etc).

Definitely don't underestimate them :D

[MoacaBogdan 23]

While it is true that lined up against a similarly geared pure DPS class played by someone who knows it well, it is hard to keep up in the meters, you would be hard pressed to find a pure DPS class to offer as much raid utility as a spriest. Preety much what has been said above, the offfhealing is fantastic, HoH is a lifesaver for healers, and do not underestimate Vampiric Embrace (even more so glyphed), which, if lined up properly with a 3orb DP and SW:I, can outperform almost any healing cd out there.

[Essix 0]

Allright, thanks for the feedback and support! I'll get on leveling my shadow priest to 90. Thanks!

[Wetty 6]

Definitely agree with everyone here! In my old 25 man guild, we had 3 shadow priests, all were top DPS on every fight - take full advantage of multidotting if you're feeling a little low on single target though! And don't be disheartened by crap dps until you get into 520+ iLvls!

[Tarazet 144]

Definitely, it's worth the effort. Healer hybrids sometimes do lower DPS than the pure nukers, but they make up for it by bringing the spell haste buff, extra raid healing, and in SPriest's case, the ability to use any cloth that drops regardless of what stats are on it.

[Brown 14]

Kind of depends on tier, this tier has so many multidot-effective DPS fights that using WoL/raidbots gives a better estimation.

 

Not as great pure ST or on fights with low HP adds.

[Silverman 0]

SPs are not bad and far away from useless, but overall they can't compete with almost all other dds. If you expect to top the meters against people, who know how to play(well except you are overgeared), then you will be very frustrated in most of the encounters, except Paragons, Shamans, Galakras, Spoils and Klaxxi ...or LFR...but in lfr you can be the best dd with pretty much everything, because  after the introduction of flex, most lfrs are consisting of braindead players.

If you like the class and want to be an awesome healer as your second spec, play it.

If your self esteem is linked to be the top dd, then don't. You will be happier with pretty much every other class.

Edited October 30, 2013 by Silverman

[kitsu 55]

With Blizz's current mindset, no multispec class is ever going to be top like the pures, but on a lot of fights support classes like multispec casters are nice to have. the best thing about being a shadow priest is that you barely need heals, so its easier for a group to decide to push content with as few healers as possible.

 

if you want to be a pure dps and have a chance at topping meters with people who are playing their class near maximum potential, then roll lock or rogue. if you want to be a part of a team and like the option of healing sometimes, there's nothing wrong with multispec classes, your group might just need more gear to clear heroics than a team that's designed around pure dps.

 

if you have self esteem issues and want everyone to always love you no matter what, roll brewmaster. most fights only the rogues and really good warlocks will have a chance to top your dps.

[Tarazet 144]

With Blizz's current mindset, no multispec class is ever going to be top like the pures, but on a lot of fights support classes like multispec casters are nice to have. the best thing about being a shadow priest is that you barely need heals, so its easier for a group to decide to push content with as few healers as possible.

 

if you want to be a pure dps and have a chance at topping meters with people who are playing their class near maximum potential, then roll lock or rogue. if you want to be a part of a team and like the option of healing sometimes, there's nothing wrong with multispec classes, your group might just need more gear to clear heroics than a team that's designed around pure dps.

 

if you have self esteem issues and want everyone to always love you no matter what, roll brewmaster. most fights only the rogues and really good warlocks will have a chance to top your dps.

 

Guardian Druid works as well. I usually gained DPS in lock-step with everyone else, rivaling the top 2-3, and occasionally blew them out of the water. At the same time I would counter spike with massive FR bombs for 400k+ so that I only needed basic maintenance healing and therefore didn't need a dedicated healer 95% of the time. Also, easiest rotation in the game.

[Scook999 8]

It comes down to who is playing the character along with the gear. Some Spriest I know can top the dps charts convincingly, but they will do it only if people are bragging about dps, as they have to pad their scores, and that isn't the most efficient way to perform boss fights.

 

As long as you know your priest well, you will do fine. My scale on boss fights is did the boss die, and did we (the raid) take minimal casualties? Outside of that, not much counts in my book.