While I flex my fingers and prepare to launch into an epic wail about how inexplicably painful priest levelling is now, I thought it was worth a quick detour back to the post about shadow's floating talent points.
After much gnashing of teeth, I dropped two points into improved shadow form and one in veiled shadows.
I was a little concerned about dropping shadow affinity altogether, but threat has not been a problem. Threat, in fact, is a non-issue. I used fade maybe twice a raid before the respec, and that's still true today. I am blessed with good tanks to be fair, who are generally better geared, but I doubt skill or gear alone could compensate for such a big chunk of threat. I can happily wail on a mis-marked off-tank target and still not pull agro.
I keep Omen switched on for the sake of the tanks, but I don't need it anymore. I don't even know if it's working.
I see melee taking hateful strikes on patch and guess that extra 30 per cent still counts for something, but for me, threat is no longer a consideration.
That point in veiled shadows is a complete waste, by the way. I'm certainly glad I didn't spec out of inner focus to max it out. To be fair, I'm not raiding Ulduar yet. Honestly, I'm not that motivated, and anyway I'm failing to put out the kind of dps my guild is looking for. But as far as pre-Ulduar raid content goes, I don't need a reduced cooldown on my shadowfiend. I've only ever had mana issues once, and that was from a really unlucky string of detonate mana targetting on Kel'Thuzad.
Now the question is, can I find a better home for that lone point?
Avowing my price sensitivity
2 days ago
10 comments:
As sad is it is, Shadowfiend is as close as we get to a "DPS Cooldown". It does a large chunk of DPS now for that GCD (your fiend can net around 20k damage, a bit more if timed with heroism). I use it on every cooldown, whether I need mana or not - since dispersion is usually available for desperation mana anyway.
So, ya, Veiled Shadows isn't wasted. SF on cooldown is a DPS increase.
Threat is a non-issue in most fights. Though on bosses like General or Hodir threat will be a huge issue.
tangental thought - if you're getting Hurtful Strikes in Patchwork, your off tanks are not building enough threat. My understanding is that Patchwork hits at melee range with the most health who is in the top 2 or 3 on his threat meter in 10/25s.
Keep all the tanks in the top of threat, and you've no trouble unless one of them drops. If a tank drops its like watching a samurai in a sausage factory. Choppy chop chop.
Which I suppose means that as a range dps you don't need to stress about threat on Patchwork, and probably not many other fights still have threat-caps due to tanks. But I liked the threat-cap as a limiting factor. It meant that tanks needed to really keep going hard, so that the mages and warlocks could kill the bosses. Keeping 2nd on threat as a OT in Moroes in Kara was hard, and fun. And Prince was always a thrill as I rode the threat-wave on my warlock.
I just can't think of the shadowfiend as dps. It's a mental block :(
"My understanding is that Patchwork hits at melee range with the most health who is in the top 2 or 3 on his threat meter in 10/25s."
Not quiet. Assuming the MT hits first and is on top of the threat list, the next person to be hit by the Hurtful Strike is whoever is in melee range and has the most health. Agro has *nothing* to do with it.
More on-topic, I completely agree - threat has been a non-issue since LK has been released. The only exception I can think of is running 5-man PuGs where you may vastly out-gear the random tank you found. But for raiding? No need for a threat reduction talent.
That should be "quite", not "quiet". Oops :)
I'm only after downing the 7th boss in Ulda 25 man and so far no mana problems. Have done all the bosses so far as shadow and Disc and on both occasions i have only used my shadowfiend once in a fight....if even that. Dispersion is only there to avoid big incoming damage and help the healers out (slag pot or Kologoran's right arm crush). Next time i am back as shadow i will probably take the point or two out of it and put it into imp shadowform...makes boosting in instances easier :D
I'm not using any threat reducing talent points or the threat reducing Cloak chant I've seen on some Shadow priests. I was accused of being an argo magnet in in a Naxx run last week but I blame the mages for dumping it on me (:P) The only place I have reeal problems is when using Mindsear on mass packs, Ulduar doesnt have too many so far ( except Freyas pet flowers.. Grrrrr ) but I always faded when I used mindsear in Naxx at least once during each pack
> "Agro has *nothing* to do with it."
AGH! People, stop spreading this misinformation. Worse, SolidState is "correcting" someone who described the mechanic correctly.
This was true in old level 60 Naxx. It is no longer true.
In the current level 80 Naxx Patch will never ever ever ever hit anyone who is not in the top 3 of threat, top 2 in 10 man. Ever. He selects his hateful strike target based on health, but his choice is restricted by threat.
Use the fiend on cooldown as dps. One global cooldown for 16-20k dps, yes please. You can use the fiend every 3 minutes with talents. It's a significant dps boost.
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