Shadow Priest Weirdness - CoP
Shadow Priests
So I've been periodically researching various specs/classes since WoD came out. I sometimes do it just out of curiosity. I sometimes do it to see which spec seems so epically awesome that it helps me finally decide which toon to level next. I sometimes do it because a friend that plays that class asks for help getting their numbers up, and I want to be knowledgeable.
Out of all ot the specs I have researched so far, Shadow Priests are hands down the most complex/interesting. Can't wait to level mine, even though I'll prob mostly disc anyways.
As it turns out, shadow sort of has two mini specs:
1) Single Target Spec using CoP talent and stacking mastery.
2) Multi Target Spec using AS talent and stacking crit.
Spec #2 is way more commonly used, since Foundry only has a couple of fights that are strictly single target. Spec #2 is also much easier to use. It's essentially spriest just as it was in MoP, except with crazy fun amounts of orb generation!
This post is about spec #1, which - even after the AS buffs - is still the best choice in a pure single target fight. It is based on the lvl 100 talent Clarity of Power. CoP, at first glance, looks like it turns shadow into a dotless spec that can be accomplished with two buttons. This is so far from how it really works. It's beast mode. But it's hard.
Shadow Priests - Single Target
So, here goes...
Major Glyphs:
REQUIRED: Glyph of Reflective Shield. Big DPS increase if you use it properly (more on this later).
REQUIRED: Glyph of Fade. During progression, everything hurts. Use this to live.
Recommended: Glyph of Silence. Good for interrupt duty. Recommended: Glyph of Mind Flay. Good for movement assistance during the mini-burst part of your rotation.
Not Recommended: Glyph of Mind Harvest. Lots of mixed feelings about this one on various sites, but the overall opinion is... don't do it. It is a HUGE DPS loss in a single target situation (like, a good 20% of your total output), and only a very slight gain in fights where adds spawn constantly. Even in such add fights, it's only a gain if you use it *flawlessly* which is unlikely.
Talents:
Tiers 1, 2, 4 --> Your choice. Typical choices for most high-ranking spriests are prayer, B&S/feather, and tendrils.
Tier 3 --> Insanity for most fights. Swap to Surge for fights with multiple targets and/or a lot of movement, if you want.
Tier 5 --> Twist of Fate always. Be sure to snipe executes on any available adds to increase the uptime.
Tier 6 --> Halo, unless positioning for it is terrible, in which case Cascade.
Tier 7 --> Clarity of Power.
Stat:
You want mastery. Aim for mastery gear, enchants, and gems.
Rotation:
Unlike most other classes in WoW, which currently DPS using a "priority system," spriests literally have to follow a rotation for good output. It sounds simple, but it's a lot to remember, as you have to execute these buttons in this exact order every time, except you have to know which steps are skippable/replaceable during movement, which requires a deep understanding of the timing, or "skeleton" of the spriest rotation, which is all about Mind Blast. I'm going to try to explain this skeleton concept first, then I'll get to the optimal rotation. Please don't skip this part; it really is important to understand.
With CoP, your rotation is ALL about your Mind Blast being used on cooldown. The rotation essentially boils down to this:
Mind Blast, filler, filler, filler, Mind Blast, filler, filler, filler, Mind Blast, filler, filler, filler...
Each "filler" is something that needs to use up 1 global cd (about 1 second). In general, this will be Mind Spike, which is 1.5 second cast before haste is applied, and will be close to 1 second once you hit about 660 ilvl.
One thing to note, and this is a huge change from MoP: you should NEVER use mind flay as a filler. No really. NEVER. With CoP talent selected, Mind Spike does more damage than Mind Flay, and it's not close. The only time you will press the Mind Flay button is when it's actually Insanity instead. Therefore "Mind Flay" shouldn't appear on your logs and dps meters.
So again, the "skeleton," or basic structure for the rotation, is
MB, ___, ___, ___, MB, ___, ___, ___, MB, ___, ___, ___, MB...
and so on. That's important.
Another important thing to understand before I post the rotation in its entirety is that there are two parts to your rotation now. There is the build-up part, where you use a very simple version of the skeleton, and a mini-burst part. The mini-burst part is referred to as the Dotweave or Dotweaving part of your rotation by most of the spriest community, because it is the only part of the CoP rotation where you go ahead and weave in your two dots for maximum burst.
So, without further ado, here is the actual rotation to follow. Don't be overwhelmed, I'll explain it below. I'm going to mark each MB in red so you can see the skeleton within the complexity.
MB (1 orb)
MS
MS
MS
MB (2 orbs)
MS
MS
MS
MB (3 orbs)
MS
MS
MS
MB (4 orbs)
MS
MS
SW:P
MB (5 orbs) VT
DP (2 orbs)
Insanity (for one second, then clip to do next step)
MB (3 orbs)
Insanity (full 2 seconds)
DP (0 orbs)
MB (1 orb)
Insanity (full 2 seconds)
Insanity (clip after 1 second to do next step)
MB (2 orbs)
At this point, you start again at the step I've colored yellow. And you repeat until the boss hits 20%, at which point your rotation changes, but I'll get into that later. (Don't worry, the execute rotation is very easy compared to this.)
Quick key: MB=Mind Blast, MS=Mind Spike, SW:P=Shadow Word: Pain, VT=Vampiric Touch, DP=Devouring Plague
Okay, so the first thing you might have noticed, if you were following the Mind Blast skeleton through that, is that sometimes, there appear to be only 2 fillers happening instead of 3. Bear in mind that each "filler" represents about 1 second (1 gcd), so towards the end of the dotweaving portion of the rotation, where you're using insanity (by default a 2 second channel), those two seconds of insanity take the place of two fillers rather than just one. In other places, since you only have room for 1 filler, you actually clip Insanity, and use only the first half of it, to be sure you don't miss an incoming MB. Go back and study the rotation again, and note that it's 3 globals/seconds worth of filler each time, not always necessarily 3 distinct filler spellcasts.
Build-Up Rotation vs. Dotweave Rotation
So the basic idea with the rotation is that you spam Mind Spike and Mind Blast until you reach your fourth orb. That phase is the build-up phase of the rotation. Nice and simple, spam those two buttons and save up the orbs.
Then, once you achieve your fourth orb, you go ahead and do two more mind spikes, but not a third.
It is at this moment: where you are one filler away from your 5th Mind Blast, that you begin the "Dotweave" portion of the rotation, and this is where you really massacre things, if you can do it properly.
With that last filler before your 5th orb, you put up your SW:P dot, then hit that 5th MB. You are now full on orbs, and ready to destroy something.
In this exact order, you...
-Apply your other dot, Vampiric Touch.
-Use your Devouring Plague to spend three orbs.
-Channel Insanity for one second, or until you see your MB come off cooldown.
-Mind Blast
-Channel Insanity again, this time for the full two seconds.
-Devouring Plague again, as the most recent MB brought you to 3 orbs.
-Mind Blast
-Channel Insanity for the full duration.
-Channel Insanity again, but this time, cut it short as soon as it's time to...
-Mind Blast
Then you re-enter build-up mode, spamming MB/MS until you hit a 4th orb again, at which point you prepare for your next dotweave phase.
It is very important that you do not cast a single Mind Spike during the dotweave portion of your rotation, as Mind Spike will remove your dots. A big part of the dotweave/mini-burst portion of the rotation is that, once you've built up to full orbs, you have some time built in where it's advantageous to spend them and spam Insanity, so since, during this time, you don't need any Mind Spikes (since you have enough other stuff to do), you go ahead and put your dots up for free damage. When timed properly, the dots will fall off right as the dotweave part of the rotation ends, so that as you go back into build-up mode, you're free to Mind Spike again.
Intelligent Fillers
The last thing that's important to understand is what you should really be using as a filler during the build-up phase. In the rotation I posted, I've listed Mind Spike as every filler during build-up, but it's not always quite that simple. You'll have to make some intelligent calls with your fillers based on what is happening in the fight at any given time.
Here are some examples of when you should use something other than MS as a filler during the build-up phase.
-If Shadowfiend is off CD, use it instead of MS as a filler.
-If Halo is off CD and you're not saving it for a soon-to-come group of adds, use Halo instead of MS as a filler.
-If you're on the move and cannot stop to cast Mind Spike in time, use Power Word: Shield as your filler (hence the glyph).
Again, note that this only changes which fillers you choose to use during the build-up ohase. During the dotweave phase, you abandon all other options and execute the dotweave burst. Don't halo. Don't shield. Just burst.
Execute Priority System
Finally, we come to the execute rotation. And here's the good news. It's not a rotation. It's a priority system now!
The execute phase for spriests is fun, proccy, mobile, simple... and powerful.
Once the boss hits 20% health, you no longer use your dots on him. Starting at 20%, you follow this priority system until he dies:
1) Use Devouring Plague every time you hit 3 orbs.
2) Use Shadow Word: Death every time it's up.
3) Use Mind Blast every time it's up.
4) Fillers like Halo, PW:S, Mind Spike.
You will be getting orbs so quickly you wll hardly ever use step 4. Enjoy!
