Spiritual Guidance: How to get your shadow priest started with the Raid Finder
by Fox Van Allen 
Dec 7th 2011 at 8:00PM
There's a lot of great content stuffed into the recent patch 4.3, but let's face it -- we're always going to be drawn to the content that has the best gear available. We can't help it. It's programmed in our shadow priest DNA. So while patch 4.3 has some sweet new 5-man instances with it, the real lure seems to be the new Raid Finder tool. What was once reserved for the hardest-core of players is now accessible by just about anyone with an hour and a half to spare. We can all, with the help of 24 complete strangers, defeat Deathwing. (Yes, that's a good thing.)
Before you try queueing up for the Raid Finder, though, you need to know some basics. A new level 85 player will still need to navigate the gear ladder. More importantly, though, all players need to know what the hell they're doing during the fights. Let's talk strategy, shadow priest style.
To use the Raid Finder tool to attempt the new-for-patch 4.3 Dragon Soul content, you're going to need a minimum average item level of 372. Like previous ilevel gates, you don't actually need to be equipped past an item level of 372; you merely need to have that gear in your bags or bank. This is good to know (considering how, for example, the i359 Darkmoon Card: Volcano remains a better trinket than the i365 Moonwell Chalice or i378 Rune of Zeth).
For a newly minted level 85 player, though, getting past that i372 hurdle is easier said than done. You may have to follow the standard Cataclysm gear progression, to some extent:
- Run random non-heroics and quest in the Twilight Highlands to acquire i333s.
- Then run regular heroics to acquire i346s.
- Then run ZA and ZG to acquire i353s.
- Then run End Time, Hour of Twilight, and Well of Eternity to acquire i378s.
Learn the fights (sorta)
Any idiot can queue up for the Raid Finder. But we're not idiots -- we're shadow priests. We want to know at least something about the individual fights before we jump into the deep end of the pool.
Now, you may have heard the Raid Finder fights are dumbed-down versions of the regular Dragon Soul raid. To some extent, that's true. There are fewer mechanics to know. But it's definitely not a faceroll -- for some groups, the Raid Finder is a nightmare. You still have to be able to grasp the basics of the fights you're about to face.
The first boss you'll face off against in Siege of Wrymrest is Morchok, a good starter-level encounter (and boring reskin). It's no more difficult than a run-of-the-mill heroic battle in terms of mechanics, though Morchok does have a lot more health than a heroic 5-man boss.
You do need to be on the lookout for crystals the boss drops. A good seven people per raid will need to stack immediately on top of the dropped crystals to soak damage. As a spec with passive damage reduction (thanks to Shadowform and Inner Sanctum), we're best suited for the task. Stacking on these is a priority. Use the time while running to refresh any instant-cast spells you may have available for use or fire off a quick Shadow Word: Death.
After dropping about three crystals or so, Morchok will suck in the raid group and paralyze it briefly. During this time, he'll drops giant stones from the sky at random and bleed out some bad. Do not stand in the bad. If you forget to not get out of the bad, use Dispersion to buy yourself some time and get the hell out of the bad. The only safe place from the bad will be immediately behind the dropped stones. Normally, this might cause some line-of-sight issues, but you can peek out from just over the stone's edge and DPS safely while he's still bleeding. Just watch your health bar to verify you're not standing in poison.
Otherwise, the fight is simple. There are no adds. Just DPS the hell out of Morchok per usual and collect your loot!
Warlord Zon'ozz
Often the second boss encountered in Siege of Wyrmrest, Warlord Zon'ozz is easy -- provided you know what to do to beat him. Thankfully, like Morchok, the mechanics involved are somewhat simple.
The main gimmick here is the bouncing ball. Each time it hits a player, it does about 180k damage divided among all those nearby then reverses direction. The general idea here is to bounce the ball between the ranged and the melee players about five times total, and then have the ball hit Zon'ozz. Each bounce will apply another stack of a debuff to Zon'ozz that increases the damage he takes.
Make sure you stay tightly grouped as ranged DPSers to better spread the damage from ball collisions. If you can, save your cooldowns for immediately after Zon'ozz is hit by the ball, to maximize their effect. Again, there are no adds here -- focus on keeping the boss loaded with DoTs.
The third boss is one of the most challenging of the Raid Finder fights, mainly because it includes adds. Yor'sahj will periodically summon three slimes, but your raid is only allowed to kill one. Yor'sahj absorbs the other two.
Priority is important: Purple, if present, is the most important to kill. Then yellow. Then red/black. Single-target the slimes -- you might not have time to run a full complement of DoTs, so Mind Spike works well here.
Depending on what slimes Yor'sahj summons, your raid may have to deal with extra adds after the absorption. The blue slime will summon a Mana Void that will temporarily reduce your mana to next to nothing. Defeating a Mana Void is a priority; your leeched mana will be refunded when it dies, provided you're standing within 100 yards. A black slime will summon many tiny Forgotten One adds -- stay targeted on the boss and Mind Sear them down.
In between dealing with adds, keep up the pressure on Yor'sahj with DoTs. It may take a few attempts, but once everyone is on the same page regarding adds, the fight should go smoothly.
Hagara the Stormbinder
Hagara the Stormbinder, the final boss in Wyrmrest, goes through a handful of different phases. The most basic of these for shadow priests is when Hagara is unprotected by a shield. If you can attack her, that's what you should be doing.
Otherwise, there are two different shield phases. The first, Frozen Tempest, is ice-themed. This phase is somewhat simple. Run to the outer ring and DPS the four crystals with your burst spells (Mind Spike, Mind Blast). Avoid the rotating ice wall at all costs. It's easiest to be the one right near the ice wall chasing it, rather than be immediately in front of the ice wall with it chasing you.
The second shield phase is called Lightning Storm. During this phase, Hagara will summon Bound Lightning Elemental adds. They will be tanked to one of the four crystal conductors around the room and DPSed down. When they die, they'll short-circuit the nearest crystal, destroying it. After this short-circuit, nearby players will find themselves bouncing lightning back and forth between them. This does very little damage. Players who are charged with lightning should circle the room, using their own lightning to short-circuit crystals. There's not a lot of DPS involved in that, so it's a great time to pop Dispersion.
When Hagara loses her Lightning Storm shield, she'll take 100% extra damage for 15 seconds. This is the perfect time to unleash all your cooldowns you've been saving (like your Shadowfiend) to maximize their effect.
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, Raiding, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Randomize Dec 7th 2011 8:05PM
i365? Don't you mean i372?
Neil Dec 7th 2011 8:08PM
Pretty sure the minimum iLevel for the Raid Finder is 372, not 365. That was a change on patch day as the 365 requirement was on the PTR, but never live.
AFAIK.
Just pretty sure it's 372 to use LFR for Dragon Soul.
Samuel Dec 7th 2011 8:12PM
It's definately 372. I've run 5 toons through the new heroics trying to get to that point.
Necromann Dec 7th 2011 8:13PM
Is it just me or does normal mode seem to be easier than LFR because of the kinds of people who queue for the LFR? I was a pug in another guild's alt run and we got 4 bosses down on week one. We wiped less than I usually do on those same four in the LFR.
Caylynn Dec 7th 2011 8:37PM
I only had one wipe in look for raid on each of the two characters I ran through it last week (my main and my primary alt). With my main, we wiped on the last of the first four bosses, when people didn't know to move from the moving ice spikes. With my alt, we wiped on the "ping pong" boss because people were attacking the ball and then not letting it hit the boss.
So I've found LFR to be very pain-free so far! Haven't tried normal yet - we didn't have enough guildies on last week to do our normal raiding (university finals and family commitments resulted in us not having enough raiders available last week).
Joe Dec 8th 2011 9:54AM
Yeah, I think it's more a matter of LFR groups just being significantly more variable than your regular raid group; rather than difficulty mode balancing.
Sometimes you'll get into an LFR group that can't even get through the first trash, and then other times your LFR group will cut through all the bosses like a chainsaw through butter, and all points in between.
In a way, this is one of the things that I kind of like about LFR. With your regular raid group on normal/heroic mode, you know what to expect. But with LFR it's always a surprise.
Samuel Dec 7th 2011 8:18PM
The reality is that it is highly unlikely that the first boss you will see will be Morchok. You may NEVER see him through raid finder. I've done like 10 raid finder raids and always started on Yorshaj or Hagara. The good news is that you get your valors faster. The bad news is you'll only get loot from one or two bosses, and will have to try to find some other way to unlock the achievement to be able to go on to the second part.
Caylynn Dec 7th 2011 8:34PM
My limited experience indicates otherwise. Both myself, and most of my guild mates, managed to get into fresh runs of LFR last week that started at the first boss and proceeded to all the rest of the bosses without any major difficulties.
Haven't run it yet this week (I'm a grad student and I've been busy with my university studies) but last week I didn't have any problems getting a fresh run on my main or my primary alt. My guild mates reported similar experiences to mine.
Jeff (Not that one ^ ) Dec 7th 2011 9:06PM
5 minutes of join queue, abandon queue (when not 0/4) showed me that 2/4 is most common, followed by 3/4, then 1/4. I never got 0/4.
Bril Dec 7th 2011 11:06PM
ZA and ZG are part of the regular heroic queue now, and you'll be horrified at how often they pop up.
Stancha Dec 8th 2011 6:58AM
I bought my Firesoul Wristguards today for only 230g :)
Thx for the tip ;)
Aldric Dec 8th 2011 10:18AM
Sadly for Warlord Zon'ozz in Raid Finder, you can just ignore the ball, have everyone stand behind him and just DPS. In fact that's what I've seen the 4 times I've done it now, no one even bothers with the mechanic.
Blessthemartyrguild Dec 8th 2011 1:45PM
That's because it wont hit him until it reaches 10 stacks let's be honest this boss would be damn near unkillable if the coordination was required.
Aaron Jan 4th 2012 6:36PM
A note about Yor'sahj: Slime-killing priority is important, but it's even more important that everybody focuses on the same color. If the raid splits its damage between two or three slimes, there's a good chance you won't kill any of them, and that makes the fight a heckuva lot harder. Ideally, the raid leader should provide a priority list before the fight, then call out a color when the slimes appear so everybody knows where to focus their fire.
Aaron Jan 4th 2012 8:54PM
A few other things re: gearing up -
1) If you're going to spend all that time in dungeons, you may as well get some reputation for it. Fox wrote a great column on pre-Heroic gearing, so I'll spare you the details; the point is that each faction offers a useful level 359 item at Exalted; use these to fill the gaps in your Justice and Valor gear.
2) Patch 4.2 added two reasonably short questlines that unlock level 365 items. The "Call of the Earth-Shaman" chain takes about an hour, is reasonably easy for a new 85, and rewards you with the Mantle of Desire, a 365 cloak. The "Firelands Invasion" chain leads you to the Molten Front daily quest hub, and you'll have an opportunity to buy a 365 necklace, the Nightweaver's Amulet. You can get both quests from the Hero's Call / Warchief's Command board once you're 85 and have completed about half of Hyjal.
3a) Random and holiday battlegrounds provide another avenue for gearing up.
Honor and Conquest points are reasonably easy to earn, and can be exchanged for Justice at a 33% penalty. 375 Honor buys 250 Justice, or 375 Justice buy 250 Honor.
3b) If you plan on PvP'ing, you'll need to buy or craft some PvP gear, and it's probably going to be a heck of a lot stronger than your leveling gear. If you're mostly outfitted for the next level of content, but one or two slots are lagging behind, use the PvP gear -- sparingly and temporarily -- to fill the gaps. Just don't abuse it; PvP gear doesn't need nearly as much hit as PvE gear, and resilience is worthless in dungeons, so running Heroics in full PvP gear is not a good way to make friends.