On normal Toc 25 Champs I don’t have a problem they die a lot quicker, but on the Heroic one I am certainly feeling the pain. Cheers @ Everyone for your information, feeling a lot less frustrated – I should be asking if the hunters have nature resist up – and use a magic resistance flask – I can’t see the runs willing to try the tanks at half health strat, and even the mass dispel calls to dispel the heroism is pretty hard to ignore so I won’t be able to wait and not dispel straight up.

Before the nerf to FCs damage, my eventual counter was to simply switch to an all-out PvP mode, strap on my PvP gear and change to my frost pvp dual-spec. This nerfed my damage considerably, but I was almost never targeted.

After a bit of experimentation and reading, I eventually came up with the idea of using my PvE gear and spec as usual, but using Ice Armor as I had been doing in my PvP set-up. This worked perfectly, and I was mostly unmolested by mobs leaving me free to dps and sheep my little magical heart out.

In short, what I’m trying to suggest is that the smallest modification to your usual setup is probably the one that will make the most difference. Inner Fire is crucial, beyond a doubt, but I’d also look into dpsing out of Shadowform to allow you to quickly eliminate any health deficits that might lead you to be focused early or by multiple mobs.

Also, your raid could protect the lower HP members of the raid by having high HP classes and roles (like melee, hunters or warlocks) cancel HP buffs like Fort before the pull. This will help equalize the attention of the mobs across the entire raid somewhat. You can do something similar with resistances (to guard against caster dps mobs) as well, although in my experience being focused by multiple enemy casters is not only rare, but not nearly as dangerous as having physical mobs, say the DK, warrior and hunter focus you simultaneously.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Rohan is correct, here’s the thread which explains it in more detail.

http://criticalqq.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/playing-against-the-game/

In it there’s a link to a very well crafted forum thread:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=20677866659

The short version is:

Move away from stuff.
Keep your health topped off.
Get your armor and resistances as high as possible.

Remember that as a Shadow Priest you have increased magical resistance, especially for shadow school spells. It’s very rare that the Mage or the Warlock comes gunning for me. And the Shadow Priest leaves me alone.

Now the hunter… perhaps because other players have inbuilt nature resistance or something… idk but usually what brings me down is *a combination* of a couple of the melee chasing after me (eg the Rogue) + the steady painful damage of the Hunter is very difficult to survive.

The best thing to do is have whoever is trying to keep the melee enemies under control watching who is the target of target. Once fear is on cooldown, and so is dispersion, I usually call over vent “i have nothing” and someone else will come and save me or give me a Hand of Protection or something.

But yeah, don’t mass dispel within the first few seconds.

1. Armor (for physical) or Resistances (for magic)
2. Proximity
3. Health Deficit

The Champions like to target people with low armor, who are close by, and who have already taken damage.

As a priest, you have the lowest armor, and so you have the greatest chance of being picked because of that. (Make sure Inner Fire is always up.) So you have to make sure that you keep your other two factors as high as possible. Keep as much range from things as you can. If melee looks like it might get close, drop everything and run away. Make sure your health is up.

There is no threat from damage or mass dispels. It’s pretty much just those three factors which determine who gets attacked.