Spiritual Guidance: Shadow priest tier 13
by Fox Van Allen 
Sep 28th 2011 at 5:00PM
I'm not a fan of dancing. I'm just not coordinated to the point of memorizing complicated stepping patterns. And even if I was, do you think I need to go through such complicated mating rituals to impress? Please. I'm Fox Van Allen.
That said, I was a bit distressed to learn about the new tier 13 bonuses and what they mean for shadow priests. Apparently, Blizzard wants us shadow priests to learn how to dance to maximize our DPS for the next raiding tier. No, seriously.
Two-piece tier 13
The two-piece tier 13 bonus appears, at first blush, to be pretty good. It's a pretty strong buff to Shadow Word: Death, and ... well, I'll just let Blizzard tell you:
Patch 4.3: Tier 13 Set Bonuses
Shadow, 2P -- Shadow Word: Death deals an additional 55% damage, and you no longer take damage from your own Shadow Word: Death when the target fails to die.
At first blush, this is pretty cool. After all, we learned last week that one of the biggest complaints shadow priests have about their spec is the damage they take from using Shadow Word: Death. This bonus would eliminate it entirely -- and buff damage, to boot! No more worrying that those choice SW:D crits will wind up killing you.
Should this bonus go live, shadow priests everywhere will get a lot more mileage out of their SW:D casts. Already, most priests use the spell whenever it's off cooldown, provided the target is below 25% health (and provided, of course, it's safe to do so). This bonus just makes it that much more of a slam dunk to do so, making it totally safe.
Immediately, though, this bonus got a lot of shadow priests thinking, "Wait, what impact will this have on Shadow Word: Death's mana return?" We don't know 100% for sure, but the preliminary answer probably isn't what you're hoping for.
The mechanism by which Shadow Word: Death returns mana is called Masochism. The tooltip says, and I quote:
The wording "or damage yourself with Shadow Word: Death" suggests that the two-piece tier 13 bonus will eliminate Shadow Word: Death's ability to return mana. For a lot of you, that's a deal breaker -- there are certainly fights in tier 12 where the ability to get mana back is invaluable. (Specifically, I'll highlight the Shannox fight -- a shadow priest can easily go OOM by multi-DOTing without occasional use of SW:D.) Others of you will point out that there are plenty of fights in Firelands where mana isn't an issue, even without using SW:D. That's a fair point, too, and certainly accurate.When you take a damaging attack equal to or greater than 10% of your total health or damage yourself with your Shadow Word: Death, you instantly gain 10% of your total mana.
It's hard to tell how much of a negative the removal of SW:D's mana refund mechanism will be without knowing whether or not said mechanism is going to be needed in tier 13. New gear means higher intellect stat, and a higher intellect stat means shadow priests will be enjoying large mana pools. Infinitely large? Maybe.
Bottom line: Blizzard is aware that having to stand around and attack the bad guys with wands isn't a fun way to play. If this particular tier 13 bonus goes live, you should expect that the developers have decided that the mana return mechanism of SW:D isn't going to be needed in this tier of raiding. Honestly, I might miss it -- I liked the idea that mana pools weren't infinite but that we were simultaneously given a tool to manage the amount of mana regen we enjoy.
Four-piece tier 13
The four-piece tier bonus for shadow priests is a game changer too, though it may not seem that way at first.
Patch 4.3: Tier 13 Set Bonuses
Shadow, 4P -- Your Shadowfiend and Shadowy Apparitions have a 100% chance to grant you 3 Shadow Orbs each time they deal damage.
It's almost like they used our list of things we don't like about shadow priesting to build our tier 13 list, isn't it? After all, the RNG involved in generating Shadow Orbs is absolutely despised by shadow priests. (Every shadow priest but me, but whatever.)
Of course, this doesn't do away with RNG entirely. Shadow priests need Orbs the most at the beginning of fights, and unless you pop your Shadowfiend as move #1 (you shouldn't -- wait for those intellect procs), this won't help the earliest moments of RNG struggling. Sure, you'll have more Orbs, and you'll have them more often, but the tier 13 bonus isn't a magic bullet to cure all our RNG woes. Still, I can't object to that half of the bonus -- it'll be nice to have every Mind Blast cast while my Shadowfiend is out hit for 75% bonus damage or more (depending on your mastery stat; individual mileage may vary).
What worries me about the four-piece tier 13 bonus is what it will mean for the shadow priest playstyle. As you know, movement increases the odds of generating Shadowy Apparations dramatically -- from 6% per tick of Shadow Word: Pain all the way up to 60%. Now, in theory, you could "game" your shadow priests to generate more Apparitions by making small, deliberate movements in between casting your instant-cast spells (like SW:D, DP, Shadowfiend, etc.). In most (current) situations, the DPS increase for doing so just isn't worth the effort -- Apparitions deal very little damage each. But with 3 Shadow Orbs on the line with every tick (representing maybe 50,000 to 100,000 worth of bonus damage), all of a sudden, gaming Shadowy Apparitions becomes 10 or 20 times more lucrative.
I don't want to be tempted to have to stutter-step during boss fights to try and increase my DPS, and I don't want other shadow priests feeling like they need to do it too. It's not a natural way to play the game. It's not "fun."
Are you more interested in watching health bars go down than watching them bounce back up? We've got more for shadow priests, from Shadow Priest 101 to a list of every monster worth mind controlling and strategies for raiding Blackwing Descent.Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Katherine Sep 28th 2011 5:07PM
But I see LOADS of dps (not necessarily priests) running around while dpsing. Jumping, stutterstepping, you name it. For some people I don't think it will be an issue.
jlhealy Sep 28th 2011 5:09PM
I usually heal, so I've only done a few stand-in fights as shadow, but aren't we usually constantly at 2-3 orbs once the fight gets going, just from mind flaying?
Homeschool Sep 28th 2011 5:21PM
We've already seen hints that the final raid will take a fair amount of movement, so I don't expect it'll be a stutter-stepping issue. I imagine it's intended more to compensate for the amount of movement, as we'll have less time to channel or cast (lowered DPS), but each time we pause we'll pop a big cast.
That said, if we can't spend time channeling, we might also be limited on when we get Archangel, which is another mana source. When you add in that we'll be going from a 'fiend-heavy playstyle, to one where Replenishment and Dispersion (and Hymn of Hope?) might be much more significant than they were, it supports the question of whether mana will be a concern here.
Matthew Rossi Sep 28th 2011 5:22PM
The problem with Masochism is, it's mana return similar to how Life Tap is mana return: it returns mana by trading life, and then someone else has to heal you. So you're effectively (and clumsily) taking THEIR mana.
IMHO Masochism should become Sadomasochism and just give you mana based on how much damage your SWD does to the target.
Killik Sep 28th 2011 5:32PM
I guess the priest's Vampiric Embrace self-healing is supposed to counter the damage, but you're right - healers don't like to see a health bar with empty space.
Pyromelter Sep 28th 2011 5:59PM
On the flipside, with current raid nerfs, I bet many healers are happy to stack some shadow priests so they actually have something to heal O.o
Artificial Sep 28th 2011 6:04PM
"...and then someone else has to heal you."
If someone else has to heal you, you're doing it wrong. Both of the classes that can do this have abundant self-healing skills and talents.
Matthew Rossi Sep 28th 2011 6:10PM
I played as a healer long enough to know that if we're in a raid and someone's health drops precipitously, I don't stand around and say "Wait, is that a shadow priest? Can I trust him to self heal to full during this execute range phase"?" especially on fights like heroic Beth, heroic Alys or heroic Rhyo.
h3lladvocate Sep 28th 2011 7:39PM
Except during non-execute, i.e just using to gain mana mid fight, which is the point of the talent, SW:D does about 4k-6k damage to you, hardly anything to be deadly... so yes, Vamp Embrace should heal it back up...
During execute phases, it is up to you to heal them, and the s. priest not to be dumb. I've never had a problem healing our 2 s. pirest in 10 man through H Beth, H Alyz, etc. just got to be smart with the death spams, just as you don't hit SW:D on Baleroc with tormented.
Zenotho Sep 28th 2011 5:34PM
Is it just me, or does the 4-pc bonus seem to suggest that we will have burst phases, during which time for the life of our shadowfiend we'll be dropping an AA, trinking, and then spamming MS->MB to take advantage of the three orbs, and to hell with our dots during this phase? Seems to me that we will be doing insane amounts of damage during this phase, followed by our regular rotation in between shadowfiends. Arcane mages in shadow form.
muffin_of_chaos Sep 28th 2011 5:51PM
This. Someone do the math?
Pyromelter Sep 28th 2011 5:58PM
Could be, but would you really be going so far as to let SW:P drop and not use MF at all? Like... wouldn't you at the very least use MF for one tick and then go spamming MS->MB?
I think the math geeks at EJ are going to have a field day with this.
Matrillik Sep 29th 2011 12:59AM
I thought about this too. I'm not completely certain on a Shadowfiend's attack speed, but if it's below 1.5s, you can pop Archangel and triple spike blast combo with every spike getting triple orbs and the blast getting triple orbs as well. I'm pretty sure that's comparable to arcane blast spam for mages, if not better. Just a rough guess, but with AA, a trinket usage, maybe a proc, shadowfiend up, giving orbs for every cast, you would probably see something like 40k - 40k - 40k - 100k (depending on crits) in 4.5 seconds. (6 if you want to include mind blast global). This comes out to be 48k ish dps in burn phase. (36k alternate) You'll have time for another rotation as well, spiking 4 more times and another blast all over a total of 9 globals (13.5s), comes out to be around 36k dps. This seems pretty awesome to me in burns phases, especially in fights like alysrazor where ramp up time after spike spam is negligible.
DISCLAIMER: This is all napkin math and just theories, so don't tear my head off.
Amak Sep 29th 2011 7:59AM
@Pyromelter
Why? MS removes SW:P along with the other dots.
Pyromelter Sep 28th 2011 5:42PM
Do quick strafing movements that make your character kind of look like he's spazzing out count as movement?
Because in that case, you wouldn't dance... just wiggle!
Also, doesn't replenishment cover enough mana regen at the end of the expansion because of the inflated mana pools with the amount of +INT you're carrying? Your shadowfiend would help you get topped off, but since replenishment scales with your mana pool, I could theoretically see that mana regen as a completely non-issue - but then again I've never played a priest past level 6, so I wouldn't be up on that specific issue.
Either way, if mana did become an issue because of the 2-piece bonus, blizz would do something to buff spriest mana regen, they don't want dps'ers worrying about mana (stated goals).
Shade Sep 28th 2011 6:21PM
Tier 13, 13
Shadow priest in tier 13!
Run around to proc an apparition, 'rition!
13, 13
4-piece from tier 13!
Runnin' round tryin' to proc an apparition!
Vestments of Dying Light (Yeah!)
Vestments of Dying Light (Yeah!)
DoT, run, DoT, run,
Tryin' to spawn an apparition!
Tchai Sep 28th 2011 6:21PM
seeing as we're going to lose the 2 minute 45s shadowfiend cooldown next tier, i don't think they can make this set bonus completely negate a core staple of the shadow priest talent tree, unless they're trying to force us all to go pick up silence. A lot of people have been suggesting that rather than remove the recoil effect, it will make the recoil effect "hit" for 0. Assuming that the proc is based not on whether you take the damage, but if the effect goes through (ie, you don't kill the mob), the set piece shouldn't effect the mana return.
Of course it's all just assumptions atm >.>
Andrew Sep 28th 2011 6:40PM
Now we know what you think about what the tier does, but what do you think about how the tier LOOKS?
Hogleg Sep 28th 2011 7:12PM
I am afraid to see how my battle cow will look in this.
Will Sep 28th 2011 7:40PM
Someone said something about this yesterday, so:
The female mask cuts off just below the nose, so no, you won't be a bearded lady.
That said, this set looks amazing on both genders.