Should I play shadow priest?

[theurgus 0]

Hello, this is my first post here. Nice to meet you!

I need some help. I try to find my "main" class and it's quite important for me. Lately I was thinking about a shadow priest. I will explain you what my desires are and maybe you can give me an advice.

1. I'm looking for something with magic flavour. So I thought about:
- mage (have 90 lvl)
- warlock (90)
- dk (90)
- priest (90)
- druid (~52)
- paladin
- shaman

{Here I explained how I eventually came to mage/warlock, but I cut this part as even without it the post is too long}

2. I find warlock to be the most powerful. He has great dmg (I also found out frost DK to be very high dps when I switched from blood) and sustain. Even when I sacrifice demon and don't have my personal tank, dealing dmg gives me passively a) shield b) health, and in case I can always heal myself using ember. Shadow priest has much worse sustain:

- shield late game is quite weak, devouring plague is good, but it isn't always on
- ember heals for % (which raises with mastery). It gives so much better burst heal. It doesn't have a cooldown so I can always trade dmg with healing.

Also, warlock is much more mobile (especially with talents).

Do you agree with me that warlock is "better" than priest? I find him to be better dps, more mobile and with better sustain.

He is from all above reasons better in random global pvp (he really dishes much more dmg + he has some good abilities outside of normal rotation with longer cooldowns)

I enjoy playing priest, except of fights with greater number of enemies - I need to dot everyone for best DPS and it just takes too much time and micromanagment for me. Especially since I want to use my procs, but yet I need to land these damn dots. And enemies are sometimes low HP, so DOTs don't take full effect. But all of it may vanish with the new expansion, which will give a new talent, making burst shadow priest viable. I can wait.

Don't get me wrong - I don't need to have the "best" class (for example "highest dps", especially since it's changes with updates and especially expansions). But I find shadow priest to be really quite low comparing to other classes. And his DPS seems to be totally not on par. Why is that so?
 

[kitsu 55]

blizzards current view is that support classes, classes capable of multiple roles, should not be as high on damage as pure dps classes. they fear that everyone will abandon pure dps classes if all dps is equal.

 

spreist is a support class. they can swap to heals if the group needs to heal, someone needs to bring spell haste, and vamp embrace is just as strong as most healing cds when used properly.

 

if you like to heal sometimes and dps sometimes, preist might be the way to go. if you want to focus on dps warlock is a fine choice.

 

i have a spriest and an ele shaman because i like healing sometimes and ranged magic dps. in current content the only thing my shaman has over my priest is wind shear. all shaman have a 20 yard interrupt with a 15 sec cd. this ability is priceless.

[theurgus 0]

Ok, but I still feel ele shaman or boomkin can play as pure dps. With much better dps than shadow priests.

 

I will write more but now I'm raiding :D

[kitsu 55]

http://www.worldoflogs.com/reports/l075elgxa5gge2q5/sum/damageDone/?s=2877&e=3082

They seem fine to me. Full BiS a great rogue or lock aren't going to get beaten by a support class on any fight. I haven't checked recently but locks were on the top of every SoO fight. Probly why I stopped looking at the top charts.

[Omnae 8]

SImple answer play the class you have the most fun on regardless of how well their damage is. I've always played a boomkin even during the times they were shit tier dps.

[Silverman 0]

If you don't like micromanaging, then the warlock isn't for you, since even the simplest of the 3 speccs requires multidotting, embermanagement, shadowburning and havoc.

[theurgus 0]

Well, actually, I find warlock not that hard to manage.

 

I used to play an affliction warlock many years ago, then I had a break with WoW. It has changed much - I believe skills and classes are much more dynamic right now. Anyway, now I play destruction warlock.

 

And it's easy. Very easy. 

- single target rotation is easier than priest's - my priest with talents has to change his standard rotation accordingly to procs of mind blast and mind spike. Warlock just start's with immolate, conflagrate, then spam Incinerate using conflagrate's buff and occasionally chaos bolt. Nothing complicated. Finish with shadowburn, which for me is the same as word of death

- multi target rotation is also easier for me - fire and brimstone + immolate + conflagrate, spam till they die. Priest's mind sear is IMHO pathethic skill. So I find it better to try to dot everyone and just use procs.

If there is greater number of enemies one could think about mind sear using it's ability to damage multiple enemies, but with greater number of enemies, I tend to have tons of procs keeping single target rotation on multiple enemies, which eventually leads to greater dps.

 

Anyway, it's not the complexity that I am unsatisfied about. Having more or less complex mechanics is for me just a personal flavour. I am just a bit angry about priest being "low" both in DPS and self sustain.

 

Why do I compare warlock and priest? Because I find them to be quite similiar. For example - I find mage to be very powerful but totally different to those classes and challenging in the very different way. Mages IMHO trade sustain for mobility (which, eventually, also gives sustain - so it's a fair deal). But warlock and shadow priest are for me like two brothers with one being innately more talented.

 

Omnae - I agree with you. It's not that i seek for the best DPS (it changes with updates and expansions anyway) but fun. But still, when I play warlock on Timeless Isle, I just feel I can do much more than priest, same with raiding. 

 

----

Kitsu - IMHO priest, shadow priest, shouldn't be considered support character, but DPS. Other DPS's (without healer specialization) can also bring much utility, just different and less obvious than for example healing with halo. And back to boomkins - they IMHO can be considered adequate to other DPS's, while priest can't be. 

 

http://www.noxxic.com/wow/dps-rankings/realistic - it don't know if I should believe it, but in these rankings shadow priests are always the last. And priest, if wants to be DPS, has only one choice. 

 

---

Anyway, here comes a question - do you think that it's just the nature of shadow priest that he is "weaker" than other classes (you know what I mean)? 

Was it always like that? If so, I guess that it won't change that much and that I should simply force myself to think about shadow priest being "support dps"...

 

I know that other classes were considered weaker/more powerful in every expansion. It simply changes. I just wonder if the priest's "weakness" is just his current status or his core. 

[kitsu 55]

shadow priests got nerfed because of pvp. at the beginning of the xpac you could glyph spike to reduce blast cast time by 50%, so 2 spikes and you got an instant blast. they severed the glyph from fdcl procs so now you have to hardcast spikes that remove all your dots to get instant blasts. it was a way to "balance" shadow priests because spectral guise was very op, so they reduced spreist heals by 50%, ruined their only dps glyph, and gimped spectral guise.

 

the spec has recieved no attention since this because on fights with multidotting spriests can do very good dps and almost rival pure dps classes. a reasonable person might ask, why dont they just have shadow priests do extremely high dps on protectors, dark shaman, and paragons, and then do good dps on all other fights? there may not be an answer to taht question. its just how things are.

 

and the whole support class thing is how blizzard sees them. they have a huge list of pros and cons about why to bring each class to a raid and they claim dps min/max balance is based on how "desirable" a class is for a raid. pure dps have slightly higher damage potential and any caster class with a heal offspec has a legit healing cd and whatever boomkins do. i guess HotW bear form even gets vengeance, so that might come in handy somehow? cause boomkin tranq isnt even close to ancestral guidance or vamp embrace.

[theurgus 0]

About boomkims:

 

Yes, but at the same time they may pick talents which will make them more useful off-healers. Nature's Vigil is a bit like vampiric embrace, don't you think? I just believe that diversity is something desired and I have noticed developers and players think the same.

 

And so, as the game has changed through years, so has changed the mechanic. More talent's are viable, more glyphs, there are less obvious paths. It's good.

 

I really have some hopes about new expansion. 

 

/I will write some more here : )

[kitsu 55]

i dont really know how hopes and dreams for the new expansion fit under the post "should i spreist?" so please keep things organized.

 

i do agree that spec/talents/glyphs are becoming more competitive and i also think that all classes and specs are viable if you like them, get to know them, and play them well. some fights are tough for some classes and some fights let a class shine, and its different for every fight.

 

there probably is someone out there who can say definitively that right now certain specs have the edge over others if you look at SoO as a whole, but that is a very fluid situation. even if you could level a toon in a matter of hours it could all change overnight.

[Obas 0]

If you look at raidbots.com you can see shadow when played correctly can yield some very nice results. There is a shadow priest in my guild who is usually in the top 5.

[Tarazet 144]

The hybrid capability of Shadow Priests is a little overstated when it comes to PvP. They don't heal, they prevent players from attacking them. Your best situation is in groups where you can just dot everything and they don't notice you, puts a lot of pressure on the other team. If someone is really determined to kill you out in the world, they will do so, but it will take them a good couple of minutes with all of the fears you've got. Psyfiend in particular puts a hard stop on random ganking.

[Silverman 0]

Well, actually, I find warlock not that hard to manage.

 

I used to play an affliction warlock many years ago, then I had a break with WoW. It has changed much - I believe skills and classes are much more dynamic right now. Anyway, now I play destruction warlock.

 

And it's easy. Very easy. 

- single target rotation is easier than priest's - my priest with talents has to change his standard rotation accordingly to procs of mind blast and mind spike. Warlock just start's with immolate, conflagrate, then spam Incinerate using conflagrate's buff and occasionally chaos bolt. Nothing complicated. Finish with shadowburn, which for me is the same as word of death

- multi target rotation is also easier for me - fire and brimstone + immolate + conflagrate, spam till they die. Priest's mind sear is IMHO pathethic skill. So I find it better to try to dot everyone and just use procs.

If there is greater number of enemies one could think about mind sear using it's ability to damage multiple enemies, but with greater number of enemies, I tend to have tons of procs keeping single target rotation on multiple enemies, which eventually leads to greater dps.

 

Anyway, it's not the complexity that I am unsatisfied about. Having more or less complex mechanics is for me just a personal flavour. I am just a bit angry about priest being "low" both in DPS and self sustain.

 

Why do I compare warlock and priest? Because I find them to be quite similiar. For example - I find mage to be very powerful but totally different to those classes and challenging in the very different way. Mages IMHO trade sustain for mobility (which, eventually, also gives sustain - so it's a fair deal). But warlock and shadow priest are for me like two brothers with one being innately more talented.

 

Omnae - I agree with you. It's not that i seek for the best DPS (it changes with updates and expansions anyway) but fun. But still, when I play warlock on Timeless Isle, I just feel I can do much more than priest, same with raiding. 

 

----

Kitsu - IMHO priest, shadow priest, shouldn't be considered support character, but DPS. Other DPS's (without healer specialization) can also bring much utility, just different and less obvious than for example healing with halo. And back to boomkins - they IMHO can be considered adequate to other DPS's, while priest can't be. 

 

http://www.noxxic.com/wow/dps-rankings/realistic - it don't know if I should believe it, but in these rankings shadow priests are always the last. And priest, if wants to be DPS, has only one choice. 

 

---

Anyway, here comes a question - do you think that it's just the nature of shadow priest that he is "weaker" than other classes (you know what I mean)? 

Was it always like that? If so, I guess that it won't change that much and that I should simply force myself to think about shadow priest being "support dps"...

 

I know that other classes were considered weaker/more powerful in every expansion. It simply changes. I just wonder if the priest's "weakness" is just his current status or his core. 

The OP said that he doesn't like micromanaging(mm). Destruction isn't hard to play, but it needs a certain amount of mm. About affliction and demo we don*t even need to start talking. The class with the lowest amount of mm is ele shaman. But honestly its also the most boring specc ingame. 

[kitsu 55]

druid tank?

[Tarazet 144]

druid tank?

 

Unusable in PvP. Death Knights are the only ones self-sufficient enough to do well at endgame.

[kitsu 55]

i meant for the most boring endgame spec.