The State of Shadow 5.4

For anyone who plays a shadow priest, you know that we're going through a rough patch at the moment. Shadow is seeing some of it's lowest numbers in terms of arena rating as well as simple single target damage. Sure we can do nice damage with a full rotation of Insanity but that has become a very rare thing with the amount of interrupts and evade mechanics in the game right now. Shadow Priest has become a battleground class by design. What do I mean by that? Well, as shadow, we can top the damage meters in a battleground rather easily by spreading dots on as many targets as possible. The down side to this is an absurd amount of time standing and casting on different targets. Affliction Warlocks can simply take dots from one target and put them on another which is far more efficient and lets them get back to doing other things. Shadow priests stand and cast our dots over and over while sneaking in the occasional Mind Blast. Doing this ensures that we show good numbers on the chart at the end of the game for damage while Shadow Word: Death makes it seem like we're doing something useful by getting killing blows. So, it seems like I'm just complaining here. I want to take a few minutes and discuss some things we'll see in Warlords of Dreanor (WoD) as well as the current issue plaguing the shadow priests design. Buckle up, we're going on a little rant but I promise it's for a good reason.

First I'd like to start with the flaw in the design. Shadow Priest is in a tricky situation as a spec in general. We are designed to do high damage numbers against multiple targets while our single target dps is very low. Most classes have a choice of how they want to do damage. Take a warlock for example. When they want to spread DoT pressure they can go with Affliction. When they want to do massive single target burst they have Destruction. What option do we have as a priest? Even a Shaman or Druid has choices of how they want to do damage but priests don't, we only have one option. Why are we stuck with only a bad way of doing damage with no options? The answer is that Blizzard doesn't want to balance the game around single target dps. There is a reason why and to me it's not a good one, but we'll get into that later.

I look at WoW from a pvp perspective while most of the game is balanced around the pve. Lets take a moment and look at it a little differently and think about pve. Shadow in it's current state is designed to do high damage when hitting multiple targets. This could be useful for clearing trash or ads on a boss. The down side is that our damage is done over time. How long does a DoT have to sit on a target before we finally achieve "good damage"? Also, what is the most important thing in most raids, the boss? No one cares that you're great at clearing trash, they want to be able to kill a boss. Since we are designed to do damage across multiple targets, our single target damage is very low. Due to this, we don't put up numbers nearly as good other ranged dps on a boss. So, what does that mean for shadow priests? Well usually it means that people would rather take a warlock who can change specs between fights to make himself better suited for each situation while us poor shadow priests are left on the side lines watching.

Since raiding isn't much of an option for shadow, lets talk pvp. That's more exciting anyway! I also want to go back to a topic we talked about briefly above. That is the reason why we're designed with low single target damage. Think about a battleground. We go out there and start throwing our DoT's on targets and trying to put as many numbers on our screen as possible. What if our style didn't change but our single target damage was increased so we matched other ranged dps numbers? Just increasing Mind Blast, Mind Spike and Mind Flay would work perfectly for this. Well the outcome of the game wouldn't be that much different because our dots aren't changing. Even while spreading dots, we still have to focus on single targets. The problem would be in the damage chart at the end of the game. No one would ever have a chance to beat a shadow priest for top damage. Lets face it, we do fairly well as it is now on that chart but does that chart matter? Most people in a battleground base how well they did on how high they are in that chart when in reality, you could be top damage and still have contributed absolutely nothing to your team. Do you ever have that one guy who fights on the road in AB or sits in the middle of WSG and just wont help with an objective? We've all seen them and those are the guys who hit top damage a lot of times but they don't contribute toward the teams victory, only a loss. So, if that's the case, why then are shadow priests balanced around this chart rather than the actual game play? When you figure that one out let me know because I can't come up with a good reason why Blizzard has done that.

I think we've all heard enough ranting about shadow priests now, but all of this has gotten me here. I want to talk about what is coming in WoD and how I think Blizzard has realized what they did was wrong and what they're doing to fix it. We're getting new level 100 talents, that's no secret. These talents are going to be a great thing for shadow priests. There are two in particular that I think will be the best changes and the most used. The first I want to talk about is called (as of now) Divine Clarity.

Divine Clarity will be a large boost to single target damage by increasing the damage of your Mind Spike and Mind Blast by 40%. The catch is that it only works against targets who do not have your shadow dots on them. The reason this could be good is that you can dot other targets while using the proc spec. In the proc spec you get instant cast Mind Spike which already has increased damage of 50%. Stack this 40% on top of that and you've got a heavy hitting nuke. You also get instant cast Mind Blasts which will be hitting 40% harder but that's not it. Your mastery can now also proc from these abilities so you could be hitting twice with each cast and doing amazing damage.

The second new talent that will be great is called (as of now) Spiritual Guidance. I think this will be the more widely used talent. This will allow you to gain a shadow orb each time your shadowy apparitions deal damage. Stacking crit will allow this to work exceptionally well. The increase in orbs will allow you to not only do a massive number of Devouring Plagues but also use Psychic Horror more often without fear of missing out on damage.

These new changes coming in WoD let me know that Blizzard has realized that shadow was in a bad spot and needed to be rescued. Hopefully it's enough and we start to see some positive things coming for the shadow priest in the new expansion. I know I'm looking forward to finding out what Warlords holds for us and I hope you are too.

Shadow Priest Talent Guide - Updated for patch 5.1

I wrote a Shadow Priest Talent guide a couple months ago and I wanted to update it for you guys now. After getting to know Mists of Pandaria a little better and seeing some of the changes that are coming, I have some new opinions on some of the talents. I wont go too in depth with all of them, I'll just share my new thoughts on each tier of abilities.

This first tier is one of debate among the shadow community. There are people that say Psyfiend is a must and people who say Void Tendrils can't be beat. Most people don't bother much with Dominate Mind unless they just want a bit of fun. What ever your opinion, this tier is very much up to you. Play style will dictate what works best for you and that may not be the same as someone else. My initial thought was that Psyfiend was great and Void Tendrils had some bug issues. Over time I've come to really enjoy Void Tendrils though. That's not to say that Psyfiend isn't good, but there are some nerfs coming.

As of now Void Tendrils is my favorite just based on play style. There is nothing better for getting a train of melee off of you in a battleground. Psyfiend is great against a single target or a caster, where Void Tendril is kind of useless against casters. Blizzard is going to be changing Psyfiend in the upcoming patch 5.1. The cast time of the pets fear will become a 2 second cast meaning you get less fears during it's duration. They are also lowering the pets health. Rather than 30% of your max health, the pet now only gets 10% of your max health. This will make it extremely easy to kill and could cause it to be very ineffective.

A common tactic I've seen to combat Psyfiend recently is warriors using mass spell reflect when they see one. This way the pet will fear itself. Once your Psyfiend is feared it's as good as dead. Also, in patch 5.1, warlocks and paladin's will be able to cc your psyfiend. Paladin's can use Turn Evil on them and Warlocks can use Banish. This along with the pets lowered health pool will greatly drop it's effectiveness in the next patch which is why I think I'll be sticking with Void Tendrils.

The second tier is a bit more clear. Once again you have a play style choice to make, but it's an easier one. Some people like to use the speed buffs from the first two talents while most players prefer the trinket like effects of Phantasm. This removes all movement impairing effects and makes you untargetable by ranged attacks.

While the speed can be nice, Phantasm is useful in far too many situations to pass up. It's great against melee who are slowing you and it's great against casters. You can use it as an interrupt to stop casters from being able to hit you. This is far to useful to miss in my opinion so I say use Phantasm hands down.

This tier has uses for different specs and situations in my opinion. For the battlegrounds, "From Darkness, Comes Light" is amazing. The procs you get allow you to deal large amounts of damage. You can also use it in arena but you may not get as many procs. This is dependent on being able to use Vampiric Touch a lot.

Mindbender is great for arena. With a 1 minute cooldown, you get a nice mana regen as well as help with your burst from a pet that does decent damage. This can really help in smaller fights when your not able to get many procs from your Vampiric Touch.

Power Word: Insanity (shadow version) is great in duels. You'll get a guaranteed big hit every time your shdow word pain gets below 5 seconds. This is not good in battlegrounds because you can only use it on the target with the 5 seconds remaining. When you're dotting multiple targets, it can be hard to keep track and find that target again. However, in a duel when there is only one target, this can be great.

From left to right on this tier you're going from large battles to smaller battles, battlegrounds to duels. Keep that in mind when deciding what to use here.

I'll keep this one quick because once again it's a play style choice you have to make. All of these are great abilities and all of them will work in multiple situations. My choice for this is Angelic Bulwark because of it's passive nature. I love anything passive because you don't have to think about it, it just works. Again, any of these will work well so just find what works best for you.

This is also a quick one for a shadow priest. Twist of Fate is too difficult to manage most of the time and Power Infusion can work but is better geared toward healers. As a shadow priest, Divine Insight is the only way to go.

Your most important spell as a shadow priest is Devouring Plague which uses shadow orbs to cast. Mind Blast generates shadow orbs so, the more Mind Blasts you can cast the more Devouring Plague's you can cast. This makes Divine Insight crucial to success as a shadow priest.

This tier is a mix of play style and game type. When in arena, Halo is a great choice for getting rouges out of stealth. This can be game changing by not allowing them to have an opener. Halo also does great damage but only if the target is at max range and at a huge mana cost. This is also what makes it not as useful in my opinion for battlegrounds.

In battlegrounds Cascade is my choice. You get nice damage, a short cooldown and low mana cost. This makes it a great ability to use on cooldown, but it does have a draw back. You can't control where it bounces. This means you could break important cc in a fight and make things far more difficult on yourself.

Divine Star is similar to Cascade but does not do as much damage. That's not to say the damage is bad, it's still decent. This decent damage along with very low mana cost and a super fast cooldown make it great for constant use. Another perk to this is that you control where it goes, meaning you can avoid breaking cc with it.

This is a hard one to call. In the arena, go with Halo. When you're in the battlegrounds either Cascade or Divine Star will work. Just find what works best for you and what you find the most fun. I personally enjoy Cascade but I do change it up from time to time and use Divine Star.

I hope this guide was able to help you make some decisions on what to do with your shadow priest. Please leave a comment with any other suggestions you may have and want to share with everyone. Also, be sure to check out my YouTube channel for more Shadow Priest PvP info.

Elder Scrolls Online Preview

A couple months ago I posted about the announcement of Elder Scrolls Online. Today I have something really exciting for all the fans of this series who are looking forward to this game. Zenimax has posted a 9 minute, documentary style preview for the game. Not only do they talk about some of the amazing features in the game, but they also show you actual in game footage. You'll get to see scenery as well as a massive pvp battle.

Check it out and let me know what you think of this game so far. Are you excited to get your hands on this game or are you worried about the precious Elder Scrolls name? Leave a comment below.

League of Legends Live Piano Music

I just wanted to take a moment to share a video with you guys. I came across this amazing musician the other day and he amazed me so much that I just had to show you. He is a musician and a gamer. Watch this video and please check out his YouTube channel.

Shadow Priest PvP Build Guide patch 5.0.4

Edit: An update to this guide can be found HERE for patch 5.1.

As we get closer to roaming the lands of Pandaria, Blizzard has given us the chance to get familiar with the new talent system we'll be using when we get there. In this guide I'll share my thoughts on each of the talents and also show you what build I'm going to use until the launch of Mists of Pandaria. You can also check out a video I've put together about this. For those of you who don't want to sit and read all of this HERE IT IS. It's not as in depth as this but you'll get the point.

The new talent system is very unique and it forces you to make choices between some very nice abilities. I'm really a fan of the fact that the new talent trees are more ability based rather than passive stat boosts. The old system promoted cookie cutters while this new system promotes diversity. That's not to say that a cookie cutter wont emerge but I think it will honestly come down to personal style. Lets get into the first set of talents.

Void Tendril - Places a tendril on the ground that will root 5 enemies within 8yds for 20 seconds.

Psyfiend - You place a psyfiend at a target location, the fiend then fears targets withing 20yds every 1.5 seconds. Psyfiend lasts 10 seconds.

Dominate Mind - Control a mind up to level 93 for 30 seconds. (replacement for Mind Control)

In this row I had trouble deciding between Pysfiend and Void Tendril. I ended up going with Psyfiend for pvp. I have two main reasons for this. First, Void Tendrils is a bit buggy right now and doesn't work all the time. Second, the tendril seems to only be useful against melee classes. If you root a caster, they can keep casting. Psyfiend is useful against all classes, the only downside is that you can't make it fear who you want. The psyfiend will go after people attacking you first.

Dominate Mind wasn't in the discussion because it has a cast time and while removing an enemy from combat, it also removes you from combat. This is not an effective form of CC unless you're on a bridge or cliff.

 

Body and Soul - When you cast Power Word: Shield of Leap of Faith the targets movement speed is increased by 60% for 4 seconds.

Angelic Feather - You place feathers on the ground. When allies walk over them their movement speed is increased by 60% for 4 seconds.

Phantasm - When you use Fade, you remove all movement impairing effects, become untargetable by ranged attacks and cannot have your movement hindered for 3 seconds.

As a shadow priest, being able to escape when you're in trouble is very important. That is the sole purpose of this level of the tree. Personally I wouldn't use the Feathers because it seems more beneficial for allies than yourself. This would be good if you're discipline but we're talking shadow here. I went with Phantasm because it's similar to what we had in Cataclysm. You could use either Phantasm or Body and Soul equally well to escape so that is up to personal preference. However, Phantasm has a couple of hidden benefits.

First, you can pair it with the Glyph of Fade to gain 10% damage reduction every time you use Fade. That isn't massive but it's a noticeable reduction and you can use it a lot. The second and most important benefit to Phantasm is the fact that you are untargetable by ranged attacks. When fighting a ranged class, you can use Fade to break the enemies attacks. Similar to a Hunter using Feign Death. This is working as of now but I'm not sure if they'll patch that later or if it's working as intended. While we still have this effect, it only last for 3 seconds so make them count.

 

From Darkness, Comes Light - Damage from your Vampiric Touch has a 15% chance to cause your next Mind Spike to not consume your dots, become instant cast, cost no mana and do 50% more damage. Can stack twice. (you can cast 2 instant mind spikes)

Mindbender - Caster receives 1.3% of total mana back when Mindbender attacks. Replaces Shadowfiend.

Power Word: Solace - Consumes your Shadow Word: Pain to cause 27,000 damage instantly. Can only be cast when Shadow Word: Pain has less than 5 seconds remaining on the target.

This was another tricky choice for me. My style of play doesn't make good use of the Mindbender pet so I stayed away from that one. Blizzard says it does more damage and returns more mana than the Shadowfiend pet but I'd rather have something a bit more usable. Power Word: Solace does a massive amount of burst damage, but I found it difficult to use. I like to spread dots and the action bar would show the spell was ready to be used but then you have to find which target has the Shadow Word: Pain under 5 seconds. This would be great for 2v2 or 3v3 arena but not the battlegrounds. I ended up going with From Darkness, Comes Light. I've noticed that when spreading dots, this procs A LOT! Since it wont remove your dots, you can throw them at your target of choice, do 50% additional damage and not worry about anything. When paired with Glyph of Mind Spike, this will also give you instant Mind Blasts each time you use it, assuming the cool down is up.

Desperate Prayer - Instantly heals the caster for 30% of their total health.

Spectral Guise - You blur into darkness leaving your true form behind. As a shadow you are stealthed but remain in combat. Lasts 6 seconds or until your true form is hit 3 times.

Angelic Bulwark - When a damaging attack brings you below 30% health, you gain a protective shield equal to 20% of your total health, lasting 20 seconds. Cannot happen more than once every 90 seconds.

Desperate Prayer is a familiar ability to Discipline priests of Cataclysm. It wasn't changed here, but shadow priests can use it now. Angelic Bulwark is a passive ability that can proc every 90 seconds. While Desperate Prayer gives you 30% health, you have to pay attention and cast it or it's useless. With Angelic Bulwark you get 20% of your health in the form of a shield but you never have to worry about it. I'm a huge fan of passive abilities like this so I went with Angelic Bulwark.

As for Spectral Guise, I don't see it being useful in pvp. It's not an ability that prolongs your life like the others. It's an escape, and a poor one at that. How long does it take for a rouge or warrior to hit you 3 times? A lot less than 6 seconds, probably more like 1 second or less. As soon as that happens you come out of stealth and your getting hit again. You gain no life and only a short distance if you're lucky. Maybe even just enough distance for a warrior to charge you!

 

Twist of Fate - You gain 15% extra damage and healing for 10 seconds, after damaging or healing a target below 20% health.

Power Infusion - You cast 20% faster and the mana costs of your spells are 20% less for 20 seconds.

Divine Insight - Damage from Shadow Word: Pain has a 5% chance to reset the cool down on Mind Blast and make your next Mind Blast in 12 seconds be instant cast and cost no mana.

This is the most difficult level of the tree by far. All of these are designed to increase your damage output and all of them do their job very well. I've had battlegrounds that I was able to keep Twist of Fate up almost the entire time by constantly changing targets, hitting a low health target once and moving back to my primary target. It can be almost a permanent 15% damage increase in some situations. Power Infusion is a great ability if you're able to free cast. You can drop a lot of damage really quickly with this one and for a low mana cost. Divine Insight gives you free Mind Blasts but at a low proc rate. Free mind blasts are great but you have to have a lot of dots out in order for this to work well. 

This is the final tier of talents that we have access to at the moment and I'm still kind of bouncing between them all. I do have to say that I'm a big fan of the passive procs of Divine Insight and the haste of Power Infusion. Is there a right answer to which one is the most efficient, I'm sure there is. I don't have it right now and I'm not really interested. I like to play what fits my style and what I'm comfortable with. If I'm using an ability because it's more efficient but I'm not comfortable with how I have to use it, that kills all the efficiency. Go with your gut and pick what you enjoy.

I hope you found this guide helpful. If you did, look forward to more as we get into Mists of Pandaria. Talk to you guys again later.

World of Warcraft News

Blizzard is getting ready to release their next expansion for World of Warcraft called Mists of Pandaria. If you didn't know that by now you've probably been hiding under a rock. There is a couple bits of news that pertain to this that are a bit more recent. We have a release date now and also a major change for people who either play for free or don't own the latest expansion. We also got to see the new cinematic trailer today.

First of all, Mists of Pandaria is set to launch on September 25th. That's about one month from today! I know I'm excited for this and I'm sure anyone who is a fan of the game is. This expansion has really jump started my excitement to play the game again. I've been a little burned out on he ordinary grind for gear and always running the same spec because it's the only thing that works for your class. That actually brings me to a tiny bit of news that has to do with pvp specs.

In Mists of Pandaria, you can change your abilities on the fly. So far in the beta, when you join an arena match, you can change your selected abilities based on the kind of team you're fighting. You can also do the same in Battle Grounds. The talent system has gone away in this expansion and has been replaced by a two tier system. The first tier is your abilities. At certain levels you gain access to special skills and you have to decide which skill for that level is best for you. This is the part you can change on the fly. The second part cannot be changed on the fly and that is your glyphs. Glyphs now act a little more like the talents did. They give you stat boosts and extra effects on your current abilities.

Enough of that, lets get back on track here. The second bit of news has to do with people who are on the free version of WoW or who continue to play earlier expansions. Previously if you owned up to The Burning Crusade, you could play any of the vanilla races along with Blood Elf and Draenei. Starting with the next patch, you'll have access to every race including Pandaren. This is going to be great news for who ever is still playing in earlier expansions.

Before you go, make sure to check out the new cinematic trailer. Blizzard has become known for making incredible videos and this one is no exception, it's truly breath taking and has me more excited than ever to jump on and play.

September 25th is coming up quick so get ready for the pandas and keep an eye out for my new series of guides for how to level and spec your Shadow Priest in Mists of Pandaria.

MechWarrior Online - Founders Info and More

MechWarrior Online is a game being released soon by Piranha Games. The game is set in the MechWarrior universe and all I have to say about what we've seen so far is, HURRY UP AND RELEASE ALREADY! This game looks amazing and I can't wait to get in there and destroy some giant walking death machines. That brings me to why we're here today, the MWO Founders Program.

What is the Founders Program? Well it's a way for the community to help support the production of this epic free2play title. It also gives you some valuable in game content that will help give you a leg up on your competition. There are three levels of founders packages that you can buy. Let me show them to you now.

As you can see, there are some great perks here. Not only do you get the early access to the game which is coming up VERY soon, but you get the in game currency, premium account and special founders mechs. Let me share the Premium Account and Founders Mech info with you real quick.

The Premium Account is very simple. You gain 50% more xp and cbills (in-game currency) per match for the amount of  time listed for each Package. The founders mechs are fairly self explanatory also. There are four different mechs, one from each weight class. The Veteran package doesn't give you access to any. The Elite package lets you choose one of the four available so make sure you know what you want to play before you make your decision. The Legendary package doesn't make you decide, you just get all of them! Another perk of the Legendary package is that you get your name in the credits of the game!

I'll be posting more info on this game as it becomes available. I'll also be making videos and starting a podcast shortly so stay tuned for that. I hope all of you are as excited about this game as I am. I really look forward to sharing this content. Make sure you head over to MWOmercs.com to get into the beta and to pick up a founders package today.