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The latest patch 5.4 newsSpiritual Guidance: Spring cleaning your talent tree
by Fox Van Allen 
May 19th 2010 at 8:00PM
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. Electric word, life. It means forever and that's a mighty long time. But I'm here to tell you -- there's something else. The World of Warcraft. A world of never-ending gnome corpses. You can always see the shadows, day or night. So when you call up that Spiritual Guidance columnist in Beverly Hills -- you know the one, Dr. Fox Van Allen -- instead of asking him how much of your time is left, ask him how much of your mind, baby. Cause he's going to flay it into effing oblivion every Wednesday.
Ladies and gentlemen, my first car ever was my grandmother's old 1986 Ford Taurus. It had a digital speedometer and a pretty kicking tape deck. I even got the sample cassette tape that came with the car. I spent some of the best years of my life cruising the Garden State while listening to Neil Diamond's Heartlight and the theme to Cats. (Before you judge, most of you were listening to Sugar Ray and the theme to Friends instead at the time.)
What in the hell does that have to deal with shadow priesting? The car was the right fit for me a decade ago, but it's just not right for me anymore. In Warcraft, just as in life, the right choices change over time. I mean, what the hell am I going to do without an iPod connection in my car? And Ford Tauruses -- do they still even make those?
When I applied for a new raid team a few months ago, I went to my class trainer and put together a pretty good build for my shadow priest. It worked great then for the content I was working on. After re-examining my build, I realize that times have changed, and so should my talent tree.
Psychic Horror was a great ability during Trial of the Grand Crusader progression. It's useless in Icecrown. And it's not the only talent that has outlived its usefulness. Shifting around a few points can have a very noticeable effect on your DPS, mana regen, and survivability.
The price to respec varies -- it could cost you as much as 50 gold depending on how many times you've done it recently. Still, when you compare that to the amount you spend twice that on a single epic gem and even more on high-end enchants, respecing gives you one of the best returns on investment in the game.
Ladies and gentlemen, my first car ever was my grandmother's old 1986 Ford Taurus. It had a digital speedometer and a pretty kicking tape deck. I even got the sample cassette tape that came with the car. I spent some of the best years of my life cruising the Garden State while listening to Neil Diamond's Heartlight and the theme to Cats. (Before you judge, most of you were listening to Sugar Ray and the theme to Friends instead at the time.)
What in the hell does that have to deal with shadow priesting? The car was the right fit for me a decade ago, but it's just not right for me anymore. In Warcraft, just as in life, the right choices change over time. I mean, what the hell am I going to do without an iPod connection in my car? And Ford Tauruses -- do they still even make those?
When I applied for a new raid team a few months ago, I went to my class trainer and put together a pretty good build for my shadow priest. It worked great then for the content I was working on. After re-examining my build, I realize that times have changed, and so should my talent tree.
Psychic Horror was a great ability during Trial of the Grand Crusader progression. It's useless in Icecrown. And it's not the only talent that has outlived its usefulness. Shifting around a few points can have a very noticeable effect on your DPS, mana regen, and survivability.
The price to respec varies -- it could cost you as much as 50 gold depending on how many times you've done it recently. Still, when you compare that to the amount you spend twice that on a single epic gem and even more on high-end enchants, respecing gives you one of the best returns on investment in the game.
Taking my own advice to heart, I took a portal to Ironforge last night and wiped my talents clean so I could rebuild from scratch. (Don't be afraid to do the same!) After pondering my build for a good while, I came up with some advice for the rest of you.
Let's get the easy part out of the way -- there are a bunch of talents that you don't have any business missing out on.
That which makes us shadow priests
You are not a valid shadow priest if you do not spend the talent points to grab Mind Flay, Vampiric Touch, and Shadowform, and Vampiric Embrace. You should also be going 2/2 in Improved Vampiric Embrace. In ICC fights of consequence, your raid will be taking periodic ticks of atmospheric damage. Every little bit of healing helps, especially against the Lich King's Infest attack and during Putricide's third phase. There's simply no better place for those talent points.
Moar Dee-pee-ess
Moar Dee-pee-ess
We're not running as shadow priests because we want to hug gnomes and plant flowers. We're running as shadow priests because we want to melt dudes' faces off. As such, the next priority in your talent build should be including the talents that result in the most noticeable DPS increases. Darkness, Shadow Focus, Improved Shadow Word: Pain, Shadow Weaving, Veiled Shadows, Mind Melt, Improved Devouring Plague, Shadow Power, Misery, and Twisted Faith, along with Twin Disciplines and Improved Inner Fire in the Discipline tree, are all primarily about boosting the amount of damage you deal. Max out each and every one when you're at level 80, no matter how you play. Throw Shadow Reach in there too as an indirect boost to your DPS.
Now, from here on out, the choices get a bit more optional. There are no absolute right or wrong answer that works for everybody -- different goals; different talent builds.
Improved Mind Blast
Now, from here on out, the choices get a bit more optional. There are no absolute right or wrong answer that works for everybody -- different goals; different talent builds.
Improved Mind Blast
I got an e-mail this week from a reader who was grouped up with another shadow priest in a heroic. The reader paid attention to the other shadow priest's play style, and noticed that he wasn't using Mind Blast in his rotation.
You see, Mind Blast is a great spell, and it does more damage per second cast than Mind Flay in most situations. When you get your four-piece tier 10 bonus, they wind up being near equal in terms of DPS -- at least to the point where theory crafting is within the margin of error. Because of this, a lot of people just drop Mind Blast entirely.
If you like numbers (and I know you do), Dusknoir has an excellent post this week about Mind Blast and whether or not you should keep it in your rotation once you get the four-piece bonus. The most important takeaway from the article is how little impact the decision on whether to keep Mind Blast has on your DPS -- we're talking fractions of a fraction.
What does this mean for your talent tree? If you're leveling or raiding without the full four-piece tier 10, Mind Blast is definitely stronger than Mind Flay, so you'll want to stay 5/5 in Improved Mind Blast. If you're enjoying the shorter Mind Flay channel from a four-piece tier 10 bonus, you're probably not going to miss dropping down to 0/5 in Improved Mind Blast.
If you're planning on dropping Mind Blast in its entirety, though, consider this: Replenishment is likely a large reason why you were invited to your raid. Every time you hit an enemy with Mind Blast (provided they're already inflicted with Vampiric Touch), you're giving your team a valuable 15 second mana regen boost. Don't be a jerk for the sake of padding the meters. Make sure to cast a Mind Blast at least once every fourteen seconds.
Spirit Taps
You see, Mind Blast is a great spell, and it does more damage per second cast than Mind Flay in most situations. When you get your four-piece tier 10 bonus, they wind up being near equal in terms of DPS -- at least to the point where theory crafting is within the margin of error. Because of this, a lot of people just drop Mind Blast entirely.
If you like numbers (and I know you do), Dusknoir has an excellent post this week about Mind Blast and whether or not you should keep it in your rotation once you get the four-piece bonus. The most important takeaway from the article is how little impact the decision on whether to keep Mind Blast has on your DPS -- we're talking fractions of a fraction.
What does this mean for your talent tree? If you're leveling or raiding without the full four-piece tier 10, Mind Blast is definitely stronger than Mind Flay, so you'll want to stay 5/5 in Improved Mind Blast. If you're enjoying the shorter Mind Flay channel from a four-piece tier 10 bonus, you're probably not going to miss dropping down to 0/5 in Improved Mind Blast.
If you're planning on dropping Mind Blast in its entirety, though, consider this: Replenishment is likely a large reason why you were invited to your raid. Every time you hit an enemy with Mind Blast (provided they're already inflicted with Vampiric Touch), you're giving your team a valuable 15 second mana regen boost. Don't be a jerk for the sake of padding the meters. Make sure to cast a Mind Blast at least once every fourteen seconds.
Spirit Taps
The way our talent tree is set up, if you don't take Improved Mind Blast, you're going to need to pick a replacement from the earlier talent tiers. Spirit Tap and Improved Spirit Tap are the way to go. Spirit Tap is pretty useless in raiding, but it does provide access to Improved Spirit Tap. The latter provides a small increase to your DPS (not much, but at least as much as you'd get from Improved Mind Blast) and helps with mana regen as well.
Improved Shadow Form
Improved Shadow FormIn my old ICC builds, I passed on taking Improved Shadow Form -- it was the right choice for me at the time. You suffer constant raid-wide damage during Putricide and Festergut, but they're not accompanied by push back effects. For the most part, the only fights in Icecrown where push back is a problem are trash pulls.
The only fights, that is, until you reach the Lich King. There are repeated push back effects during the phase transitions due to his Pain and Suffering attack. Since churning out DPS is your top priority during the phase transition, Improved Shadow Form will prove to be a great benefit in the fight.
It's not the right talent for everyone, but if you're taking on the Lich King -- or even if you just spend a lot of time doing dailies -- the two points you put here will provide you with some great returns.
Shadow Affinity
The threat-reducing Shadow Affinity talent is another great example of a talent that's useful to some, but worthless to others. If you run a lot of heroics or raid with newer or undergeared tanks, this will hold a lot more value for you. If you're part of a hardcore raid team, it's an awful lot harder to grab aggro.
You should know better than anyone else whether you need to put a point or two here. If you ever find yourself having to slow down DPS to keep from building too much threat, you will definitely want to take a good look at this one as a DPS-boosting (and survival-boosting) talent.
Mana regen
The only fights, that is, until you reach the Lich King. There are repeated push back effects during the phase transitions due to his Pain and Suffering attack. Since churning out DPS is your top priority during the phase transition, Improved Shadow Form will prove to be a great benefit in the fight.
It's not the right talent for everyone, but if you're taking on the Lich King -- or even if you just spend a lot of time doing dailies -- the two points you put here will provide you with some great returns.
Shadow Affinity
The threat-reducing Shadow Affinity talent is another great example of a talent that's useful to some, but worthless to others. If you run a lot of heroics or raid with newer or undergeared tanks, this will hold a lot more value for you. If you're part of a hardcore raid team, it's an awful lot harder to grab aggro.
You should know better than anyone else whether you need to put a point or two here. If you ever find yourself having to slow down DPS to keep from building too much threat, you will definitely want to take a good look at this one as a DPS-boosting (and survival-boosting) talent.
Mana regen
Repeat after me: Dispersion is a survivability talent, not a mana regen talent.
Here's my issue with Dispersion: A lot of people use it primarily to restore their blue mana bar. While it's effective at doing that, each second you stay dispersed is a second you're not actually DPSing your target. If our goal is maximize our DPS, then we want to get our mana regen elsewhere.
Ideally, you want to have just enough mana regen so you have just enough to last through the lengthiest, mana intensive fight without having to resort to Dispersion. When evaluating your new talent build, ask yourself the following questions:
Here's my issue with Dispersion: A lot of people use it primarily to restore their blue mana bar. While it's effective at doing that, each second you stay dispersed is a second you're not actually DPSing your target. If our goal is maximize our DPS, then we want to get our mana regen elsewhere.
Ideally, you want to have just enough mana regen so you have just enough to last through the lengthiest, mana intensive fight without having to resort to Dispersion. When evaluating your new talent build, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I ever go out of mana (or have to rely on Dispersion) during prolonged raid fights? If so, you need to readjust your tree to include more mana-saving talents.
- Do you have too much mana regen? If you still have a sizable portion of your mana left after the most grueling raid fight (for me, that's Putricide hard mode), then you may be able to use one of those mana regen talent points elsewhere.
Be sure to grab Dispersion for your build, of course. Just don't use it as your mana regen crutch.
Pain and Suffering: Two or three?
Pain and Suffering is a required talent, hands down. But can you get away with putting only two of three points here? Is it okay to settle for a 67% chance to refresh Shadow Word: Pain on a successful Mind Flay hit, especially if you're casting Mind Flay to the exclusion of Mind Blast?
Personally, I recommend maxing this out at 3/3. There are plenty of fights where you'll be able to get away with 2/3. But to keep our maximum DPS, we need to make sure that our initial blast of Shadow Word: Pain (ideally done under the effect of a Wild Magic Potion at the start of the fight) never drops off. In a fights involving target switching, such as Saurfang or Putricide, I frequently find myself refreshing SW:P at the last possible second after spending a solid chunk of time on an add.
Without maxing the talent out, I'd be rolling the dice. No thanks.
Rolling out the new build
So, what did I come up with in the end for my new heroic ICC build? I jettisoned Improved Mind Blast for to take more mana cost reducing talents (even delving into Mental Agility), which will allow me to be more aggressive in spamming Devouring Plague when a fight calls for a lot of movement. And I put Improved Shadowform back into the mix after a long hiatus, so I can boost my DPS on the Lich King fight. In the end, I wound up with this 16/0/55 build.
Is it the right build for me? Time will tell as I put it into action this week. But if it doesn't work out, that's cool -- I love playing around with talent points. And I love taking a look at other people's talent trees and seeing if I can't gather some new ideas or strategies from them.
I'll close out this column with few questions to the audience: Aside from the obvious, where do you invest your more marginal talent points? How does your talent build reflect your individual play style?
And, of course, if you've got a great spriest talent build to show off, I'd love to see it. (And so would the rest of the class.)
Hunger for more information about bending the light to your advantage? More interested in watching health bars go down than watching them bounce back up? Think it's neat to dissolve into a ball of pure shadow every few minutes? Hate gnomes? The darker, shadowy side of Spiritual Guidance has you covered. Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Robin Torres May 20th 2010 12:22AM
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!
(love your avatar)
Oh, on topic. Ummmm Yay Shadowpriests!
PXP May 20th 2010 12:31AM
not an insult here, but im guessing you arent car people lol
you probably see more of the taurus than you think, but they are completely redesigned for 2010, and were renamed the ford 500 for the last 4 or 5 years or so. why ford decided to axe the most well known car name for a random number? who knows. poor marketing decision i guess, or needed to ditch the crappy car stigma, but they realized it and fixed it. and at the same time made the taurus totally badass. http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/taurus/
i would actually really like to have one, and that would be switching from an 06 mustang gt so i think that says something about the car. especially the taurus SHO, those are pretty awesome. though priced a bit high, and a good new v8 would do about the same mpg and power, so the turbo 6 deal really isnt as sensible as it first seems. just my opinion.
but crappy cars? definitely not anymore. its not the 80's anymore, time to dump the ignorant "american cars suck, foreign cars are king!" stereotype, domestics are back at the top and are great cars again. and if you think a camry or accord could even pump the gas for a taurus, or new chevy malibu for that matter, youre a fool!
just sayin, theyre out there, you probably just dont realize what they are when you see them because they are much different now than they were.
also, the picture for the article was pretty funny stuff. some wicked good paint skills there.
Spazmoose May 19th 2010 9:16PM
I will have to admit that I have been looking into changing up my cookie-cutter spec to pick up some other useful talents, but I can honestly say that I have been reluctant to do so, for a number of reasons.
The biggest talent that I have been looking into is Improved Vampiric Embrace, so that many of the fights we have 3 healed (just to get over the hump) could be 2 healed, however, while I would like that one, I have had troubles with choosing talents to drop.
I have thought about dropping Improved Mind Blast due to having the 4-piece T10 bonus, but one thing that many people don't realize about this talent is that it does apply a Mortal Strike debuff to the target, which can be incredibly helpful on some fights. Even while Mind Flay may match the DPS of Mind Blast at T10 levels, you could possibly lose out on the additional debuff, if you need it. So, keep in mind that you will probably want to analyze your group's available debuffs before you blindly drop this talent.
Improved Spirit Tap is another one that I have looked into dropping, but don't forget to look a little further into your other talents, specifically Twisted Faith, which turns 20% of your total spirit into spell power. While this will result in something less than 50 spell power from the additional spirit, you also get the benefit of 33% of your out of combat mana regen, which allows you to kill for longer. However, if you find that you really don't need the mana regen, this is an easy way to free up 5 extra talent points (because, like you said, Spirit Tap itself is pretty useless for raiding).
Another talent you may want to look into, if you are just looking to free up a couple points is Improved Fade. While this ability does allow you to use Fade more often, resulting in fewer threat issues, relatively few shadow priests use the benefit of the reduced cooldown on their shadowfiend. If you don't use your shadowfiend that often (which you should, because it can improve your overall DPS), you can easily drop Imp. Fade, to pick up something else.
One last thing to keep in mind that I have been thinking about is a problem caused by Improved Vampiric Embrace itself. It creates a lot of threat, because not only are you pushing out damage, you are also now healing for a ton more, creating additional threat. So, you may end up having to do something to get rid of that threat.
Dharmabhum May 20th 2010 9:35AM
Shadowfiend is a dps cooldown, not a mana regen talent. If you think of it like this, you better set up your Power Aura to let you know when its ready and use it early and often, and you better take those points in Imp Fade. Yea it gets you mana, so using it the second time in an encounter will be helpful since you'll probably be at less-than-full mana, but you will waste the first fiend's mana regen mostly and that's why a lot of people don't use it so often... or they're coming from healy priest land like me and just forget its a dps cooldown and not for mana :D
Naphomci May 20th 2010 12:47PM
Imp spirit tap is not really that good. Done right mana regen shouldn't be an issue. The effect of the bonus is vanishingly small. Two examples:
The BiS set over on shadowpriest.com has an astounding 328 spirit. Raid buffed we have
328+52+80=460*1.1=504.
So, improved spirit tap adds 50 spirit, or 25 spell power. That would be assuming it has a 100% up time. While it will likely have a very high uptime, it will not have a 100% uptime. Say it's 90% uptime, then that's 22.5 spell power average. The more you target switch (and thus the less you flay because you are dotting) the lower the uptime. If you drop mind blast, the uptime can also take a blow.
As for the other example, my priest (I'm the only Naphomci in the US or EU) has 461 spirit.
(461+52+80)*1.1=652
So, I would have an average 29.25 spell power gain from it. For 5 talent points you gain 5-7 spell power per, I'd much rather have the fun of say Silence (and usefulness).
Spazmoose May 20th 2010 1:33PM
@Dharmabhum nowhere in my post did I mention using Shadowfiend as a mana regen talent. My point was, which I mentioned in my post, that if you don't use Shadowfiend as a DPS cooldown, you should probably drop Improved Fade, because you aren't using the benefits of the talent. Personally, I would miss the lower cooldown on my Shadowfiend if it were gone, because I use my fiend at about 20 seconds into a fight (after getting all of my DoTs, debuffs, etc. on the target), so I often get more than one use of my fiend during longer fights (as an added benefit, the initial set of casts takes a good amount of mana before replenishment is up, so you get a little mana back right away).
Really, we aren't disagreeing on the proper usage of Shadowfiend, simply that if you don't use your fiend, either start using it, or drop the talent.
@Naphomci
I never said that Imp Spirit Tap was that good, but I do think that your math is a bit off.
Using your example of 328 spirit, you should end up with something similar to:
328+52+80=460*0.1 = 50.4 Additional Spirit that you wouldn't have without the talent.
Assuming you have Twisted Faith, which turns 20% of your Spirit, you would gain:
50.4 * 0.2 = 10.08 Additional Spell Power at 100% up-time, simply by putting talent points into Imp. Spirit Tap.
The math you stated was a bit misleading, because you were including the total benefit of Twisted Faith instead of the benefit you actually receive by picking up the additional talent points. You said 5-7 spell power per talent point, where it would realistically be 1-2 spell power per talent point.
However, I am just splitting hairs here, and would have to say once again, that we are not disagreeing with each other. My point was that Improved Spirit Tap should never be looked at as a DPS talent, even when coupled with Twisted Faith, because the spell power gains are so minimal that they are inconsequential.
The problem that I have (which is more of the issue) is that, while I may not need that additional regen if I am simply doing straight DPS, I often find myself throwing out a few heals once in a while, which eats up mana significantly when in a shadow spec. On the flip side, I could probably drop the 5 talent points in Spirit Tap, and pick up Vampiric Embrace (as well as other talents like Silence), and end up helping with heals that way instead.
After all that math and rambling, it really makes me think that I should indeed switch up my spec, and instead of keeping Spirit Tap, I will probably switch to a combination of Imp VE + PS + Silence or Imp VE + Shadow Affinity (probably the former, because I don't anticipate too many threat issues, and it gives more options for PvP).
Fox Van Allen May 20th 2010 2:22PM
"Two examples:
The BiS set over on shadowpriest.com has an astounding 328 spirit. Raid buffed we have
328+52+80=460*1.1=504."
Yeah, the BIS is pretty light on spirit because it's itemized SP/Crit/Haste. When you get to the upper echelon of raid gear, Improved Spirit Tap gets more and more worthless. Still, it's worth remembering that a lot of our patch-3.2-era gear had spirit loaded on it, and less than 1% of spriests will ever have (or even approach) a full BiS set.
You don't get much of a spell power boost out of IST, granted. I generally wouldn't recommend it if it didn't also have a mana-regen component. After all, if you're going to take some mana-regen talents, you may as well take one that (slightly) boosts your DPS.
Tethra May 19th 2010 9:24PM
I'm a hunter, not a priest, but the intro pic caught my eye, so I had to stop in and say that I LOL'd.
Has any Shadow Priest really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Adeany May 19th 2010 11:27PM
I already answered this before but I'll say it again, you've got to be kidding me. I've been further even more decided to use even go need to do look more as anyone can. Can you really be far even as decided half as much to use go wish for that? My guess is that when one really been far even as decided once to use even go want, it is then that he has really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like. It's just common sense.
Guttsu May 20th 2010 12:59PM
Oh man, Huntards make my day!
deathpool1984 May 20th 2010 1:06PM
@Adeany
LOL...I think you just crit English for over 9000! That was an epic response!
Nonette May 19th 2010 9:38PM
ARGH NOW I HAVE SUGAR RAY STUCK IN MY HEAD AND THE ONLY THING THAT DRIVES THEM OUT IS THE FRIENDS THEME
Fox Van Allen May 20th 2010 9:55AM
SHUT THE DOOR BABY
DON'T SAY A WORD
Nonette May 20th 2010 10:07AM
JUST FOR THAT MY GNOME PRIEST WON'T BE SHADOW
(I lie, she totally will be. ;) )
JoeHelfrich May 19th 2010 9:59PM
On my Shadow Priest, I treat Dispersion as a mana bandage (same with my Ret Pally and Divine Plea.) Fight over, mana bar not at full? As long as we're not chain pulling, it's a great time to use it.
Gothia May 20th 2010 4:05AM
Dispersion is the perfect oh shit button that shadow has available to them. Don't feel like running to spores during Fester and could care less about Pugent Blight - Disperse. Green or Red Slime attach a tether to you - Disperse. Get stuck in slime, blown up in a pop up, helpless in a vortex, pissed off a meany with sears - so what just disperse.
Must have glyph!
jp May 20th 2010 5:05AM
For Benediktus:
You don't even go OOM at the trash pulls before reaching Marrowgar? I normally have 0 mana issues but that is the exception... Mind Sear spamming!
LeX May 20th 2010 6:14AM
Uses for Dispersion:
Heroic:
Marrowgar : When your in a bonespike and he whirlwinds on top of you pop it
Saurfang: When you have a mark on you and in the final % want to give the healers some breathing room pop it
Festergut: No need for spores on SP's just pop Dispersion
Putricide: No need to bundle up for the green add targeting you pop it
Princes: Vortex blown away pop it
Sindragosa: nuke away and let the stack go boom while popping it
Lich King: Picked up? Pop it In the spirit room, pop it when you get too much dmg or are in a bad place
Love this talent!
Also id go with the threat reduction. Then you can have yourself tricked with no problems!
ps. It was also superpro on Algalon ofcourse!
hdinter May 20th 2010 9:43AM
My friend had a ford Taurus we called it the clit-Taurus.
On the whole shadow priest thing. I had a shadow priest for 2 years and played him off and on. A few weeks ago I decided to make him top dps well that was a joke because I was always at the bottom of the barrel. I had perfect spec, best glyphs, best gems, not clipping dots.
I was dead last.
I gave up and started a Shaman and have never looked back.
crschmidt May 20th 2010 10:13AM
... So, you played as a shadow priest for a couple weeks, after playing for a couple years off and on, and expected to do better than other people who have been playing their DPS specs for a while? You didn't mention gear, so I'm assuming your gear isn't top tier either (if this isn't your main, hardly surprising).
What exactly did you expect?
Good players push 10k+ DPS as shadow priests in 25s. In heroic ICC runs, Shadow Priests fit right in the middle of the road, along with most other hybrids. In fact, World of Logs shows that an average of the top DPS on Heroic Festergut shows Shadow Priests as ahead of both Enhance *and* Elemental shamans for average DPS.
If you want to QQ, fine, but don't act like this is inherent to the class. It may be a slight problem with gear, but more likely? The problem is just your playing. A player's performance makes more difference -- with a few exceptions like Frost mages or Subtlety rogues -- than any other factor in DPS.