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.

World of Warcraft Battle Ground Strategies for Solo Players

I often play battle grounds as a solo player as I'm sure most people do. In battle grounds there is always an objective of some kind that your team needs to control in order to win. This can sometimes be difficult when there is no verbal communication or teamwork on your side. I'd like to talk about a few tips that can help you be a key contributor to your teams victory even when you're playing solo.

The first thing to keep in mind is true no matter what you're doing. Always remember that you're never actually playing solo. Even when you que up and join alone, once you get into the battle ground you're part of a team. This is something so simple and yet so many people play as if no one else was around. When you're in a battle ground make sure to keep an eye on the objectives and where your team is. When you see a weak spot go check it out. Please don't mindlessly run around just focusing on killing everything you see. Lets talk about some more specific things you can do to help your team to victory.

The two main mechanics for objective based battle grounds are capture the flag and a sort of king of the hill. Capture the flag refers to Warsong Gultch and Twin Peaks while king of the hill refers to Arathi Basin and Battle for Gilneas. When doing either one, always be mindful of what the objective is. With capture the flag, you always want to be doing one of two things. Make sure you're either supporting your flag carrier or attacking the enemy teams flag carrier. People who run around in the middle in of the field don't typically help the team in any way, however that is not always true. There are times when you can hold an enemy team in their spawn, not allowing them to assist their objectives. This is a truly rare thing so don't attempt to do it, just take advantage when the opportunity arises. Also, you never want to attack the enemy flag carrier alone. They will usually have other people in the room helping them and you don't stand a very good chance trying to fight 3v1. Don't be afraid to call for help and just wait a minute for your team to come assist you. If played correctly you can get the upper hand on the enemy by going in as a group.

Now on to king of the hill. In this game type you're fighting over key points on the map. Your team gains points by controlling these areas. The key to these is very similar to capture the flag. Always make sure you understand what the objective is. The goal is to always control more points on the map than the enemy team does. Once you've accomplished this, stay put. The reason most teams fail to win is because they get greedy and try to capture everything. Don't make this mistake. When you're team controls the majority of the points you should go into defensive mode. Stay near a flag and make sure the enemy team doesn't take control of it. If you see that the other team is sending more people at you than you can handle, just call for help and hold them away from the flag as long as you can.

There is also one last game type that is a combination of both capture the flag and king of the hill. This game type refers to Eye of the Storm. In here you want to make sure that your team is in control of the majority of the points once again. You can do this by either holding more bases than the other team or by holding the bases on your side of the map and controlling the center flag that you need to capture. You can use the tips from the previous game types to help in this battle ground so I wont get into any more detail.

I hope that this quick guide is able to help you. Make sure you keep an eye out for some upcoming videos that will show the different battle grounds and how to be effective using the tips provided here. Please let me know in the comments if there is anything that I may have missed or anything you liked about this. Again, I hope this guide helps you win more games when playing solo.