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Where’s my Replenishment?

Published May 16, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , Shadow Priest , World Of Warcraft 6 Comments
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Shadow Priest T10 4 set bonus  makes procing replenishment a dps loss.

But ” A good shadow priest…   ”

1) Proc’s Replenishment because we are the original mana battery B*tches

2) Does what is good for themselves   ( and the raid by doing awesome dps!)

3) Trys and finds a happy compromise like a good raider should.

I aim for # 3

But I need a little help.   Replenishment lasts for 14 sec   I could proc it so it overlaps more if I used Mindblast on Cool down  but I don’t have to unless people are having serious mana issues.

I set Power Auras the add on up to show when Replenishment is active – so If I am not seeing it often enough I can deliberately proc it.

^^ Dodgy Screen shot taken while writing this and waiting for a TOGC to form.

I have a regular 10 ICC group now  ( does 2 weeks so far make it regular?)  and  I am the only source for replenishment.

It seems kind of silly though,  that of all the things to be concerned about in a raid – that replenishment becomes so important when it’s not there

To Mindblast or not to Mindblast

Published May 2, 2010 raid , Shadow Priest , World Of Warcraft 11 Comments
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Shadow Priest T10 4 set bonus  makes our Mindblasting redundant.

You need Shadow Priests Mindblasting to Proc replenishment.

I got my 4 set, and have been running lfg’s with it to test – but nothing tests out a gear set then a 25 man raid, and competition between similarly geared  x 3 shadow priests

I was coming 3rd for the first 4 boss in ICC between the shadow priests on the boss fights  ( one shadow priest wasn’t even bothering to dps the trash – so I was coming 1st over all but that doesn’t count) .  Some of it I thought I could contribute to,  that I don’t do many 25’s –  so experience.  I was dpsing adds when they weren’t – or doing more dps on the adds.  One didn’t even touch the spikes on Marrowgar. I mean wtf  2 ticks of Mindsear on Marrowgar as the target gets all 3  at the same time- that same priest  basically stood there during every trash pull and did nothing.  No kidding.  Me and the other shadow priest were 1st and 2nd over all – that priest was 15th

That same priest was kicking our butts on the 1st 4 bosses however.

They Pst’d me before we hit Rot and Fester telling me my Mindflay percentage was lower than it should be  – offering fellow shadow priestly advise.  I explained I was getting used to my 4 set,  and I know I was mindblasting more often than I have to with the 4 piece,  but the healers had complained about reduced replenishment anyway .

Then I thought   Its a pug GDKP.  They aren’t going to check who does what damage on what – unless we wipe on something silly – its damage that counts, and then it became important to me.  I checked their spell casts, and not one Mindblast.  So I thought – I can do that.

I could be the fail dpsing Shadow priest coming 3rd  -(was still top 10 I think for the Marrow,  Lady ,and Saurfang  so I wasn’t far behind). – that proc’d replenishment when the others didn’t ( and as if they would ever check mana gained, and who gave it to them)   or I could do what was best  for me.

It worked out quite well.

Festergut.

And I now have one token,  so I will be replacing one piece of T10 with an upgrade.

I pst the Shadow priest after this change in dpsing strategy – that I felt dirty not mindblasting – but it sure made a difference.  Eg I was chasing their coat tails.  They never replied, but I know what I didn’t do to get that result.

Maybe I’m the only one that cares – but we didn’t wipe,  the healers didn’t complain again anyway.  My Dps output was better. My 4 set bonus was put to better use. However maybe the reason why that 3rd shadow priest was 3rd was they were doing the ‘right’ thing

Did I do the right thing?

I DO feel dirty –  but maybe I shouldn’t.   We aren’t the only class that can proc replenishment.  Why Should I gimp my dps just in case.    It becomes a problem if no one has it  – but it wasn’t a problem then.

Other classes don’t necessarily know the intricacies of each other – so I think at this point – I shall do what is recommended – and mindblast a lot less.

Obligatory Shadow Priest Cataclysm Changes post.

Published April 9, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , Shadow Priest 7 Comments
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Ghostcrawler says

” The answer to almost every question of “But why would they bring me?” should be “Because you know what the hell you’re doing.” Page 15

Priesty Changes can be found here

What makes Shadow Priests special?

Nothing.

SHOCK -HORROR- AWE

So we better know “what the hell we are doing”

Of course this isn’t going to stop me eulogizing about my love of Shadow ( cheers for the link)

We are becoming less tool-like – and more a DPS class.   Currently we are ranked down on Boss dps  amongst comparatively geared and skilled players in ICC.  But give us some trash and we shine! Maybe this will be our equalizer.

Shadow Priests: ICC trash killers extraordinaire

But as for the changes.

In Cataclysm we are getting a Nuke:  Mindspike  ( level 81) which is Shadow Frost damage – no school lock – burst – blah.  Yeah!

We are getting a speed boost  ( Yeah no more Tuskarr’s Vitality)

 I like Leap of Faith  ( yeah) ( Please not be an extended April Fools cause I so want to make my raid members fly ( if it will be available as a out of shadow form holy ability.)  but  don’t like it’s intended use as a ‘rescue’  ( BOO) from stupidity. “pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can’t seem to get out of the fire in time”

Instead of ” OMG Where’s my Heal  “It will be “OMG where’s my Yank /  LOF  / Leap”

Yank ( no not you Americans… )  being  a play on a bloggers blog name ( in the nicest possible way because I think it’s awesome  The new Priest motto for healing will be ” You Yank it – I will yank you”   Cheers You Yank it, You Tank it

Can you see raid chat “Yank me baby”

Divine Spirit /Prayer of Spirit   ( one less buff! ) Yeah!

Misery will not longer affect spell hit ( mixed)  Misery is currently a contributing reason why we still get invited to raids – we are no longer Mana regen special,  Party Healing Special,  take away  our +hit and we really become another DPS class – so the changes really need to boost us comparably.

BALLZ  – Need I say much more.   My Shadow Orbs shall bring all the ….   I like the idea of consuming a ball for a damage increase. It shall make it  more a balancing act  –  fiends, orbs, dots, nukes, flays,

 Overall – I can’t see anything bad about it – the complexity seems to have increased but this is early days – and only an intial impression.   As a class – losing our specialness further – well its a little sad.  As much as I like the idea of being comparable, it is a massive amount of pride to be able to kick the butt of a person comparatively geared  when theorycrafting should say we shouldnt be.

I’m not likely to comment on continuing updates – changes happen.  I’m somewhat excited – but am also restraining my self untill we see /test what changes come in.

If you want to read some other Shadow Priest reactions are ones I have found /read  so far.

Misery

Dusknoir

Twisted Faith

I was going to submit a Guest post on the changes for Wow.com but It’s only $10 bucks – and I am not even sure Australian’s can even sign up with Seed yet but if your in the US – got something to say – go for it!

Dispels /Cleanses/decurses prevent damage and should be measured.

Published March 28, 2010 Gaming , Guild , raid , Shadow Priest 12 Comments
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Measuring the performance of a Disc Priest was a little difficult on damage metres that didn’t take into consideration the preventative damage of their shields –  where damage was absorbed instead of healed.  So on those damage metres,  like recount the performance of a disc priest will always on the surface seem like they were lazy healing.  Disc priests were getting kicked from groups and fights because their raw heals didn’t measure up to most peoples understanding of how the class worked.

Untill you look at how many shields are cast & damage absorbed.

I was thinking that on that premise,  because a shield isn’t a heal.  It stops damage being done,  that a dispel, or a cleanse also stops damage being done, and perhaps could be counted as a performance measurement and given a figure as well.

By dispelling *this* magic affect 4k damage was prevented. Not all debuffs that are removable are damage dealing.  But It would be a start.

A magic affect, a poison, curse or a disease that can be cleansed/dispelled if had been let run its course would may have caused damage that needed to be healed or absorbed,  so then becomes measurable by our performance measurement standards  – but stopping the damage from happening all together only gets lumped in as a figure in a such and such did *this* many dispels.

I ‘outgeared’ an alt shadow priest ( a well geared alt.)  on a run once in one of my guilds and we were doing TOC  and he beat me on damage.  I got a whisper from the GM wanting to know why an Alt beat me, and that I needed to pick up my game.

“He didn’t even touch the adds and wasn’t dispelling.” I argued back in my defense.

It was all about damage. The whole picture of the raid wasn’t taken into consideration   It was disappointing to see my raw figures  of damage done as the only measurement of having done my job – dispels, killing adds none of that mattered. Even though it was clear that he had done none of that as evidenced by the logs – he ‘beat’ me on damage and I was the scrub.

If dispels/cleanses/decurses were measured with numbers of damage prevented then there is more incentive for more people to remove them.

In guild or pugs,   a damage meter is linked  and healing/damage done are flashed around as measurements of performance,  and we all nod at who came first. But that top dps/heals may have only gotten that high because they didn’t do something that someone else did.

Kinetic Bombs Aka Beachballs.

Published March 28, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , raid , Shadow Priest 5 Comments
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Image Via Modelviewer and Gimp

My Gm calls the Kinetic Bombs that Prince Valanar summons during the Blood Princes fight  Beachballs – so I’ve nicked it for the purpose of this, and I like it. It’s rather fitting don’t you think? They are bright,  bounce around, and annoy you when you cop one to the face.

I got given the task of looking after the ‘Beachballs’ on The Blood Princes fight in our 10 man.

The Balls explode when they hit the ground so they have to take direct damage to keep them up in the air. The Balls convert the damage to energy to help them float.

There was a bit of a learning curve trying to work out how a Shadow Priest can keep the balls in the air.  We have Dots, and a Channel, and Direct spells with cooldowns. I need help from our hunters pet because they often spawn on different sides of the room, and trying to run through the middle of the room when there is all other sorts of dangerous stuff like avoiding Shock Vortexs and what not can get frustrating,

as a disclaimer, we haven’t killed princes as at the time of writing this post.  Maybe we will tonight, and I shall update – but it’s something we are working on,  and I  like putting my working outs on paper.

First Key point is the balls need to take direct damage, meaning ticking dots won’t work  on it. What did work was Shadow Word Death, Mindblast and Wanding

this thread on ShadowPriest.com features a few Shadow Priests crying at having to use our wands, but they also mention that Improved Devouring Plague works for the direct damage component on cast – but the rest of the dot cast is  useless and you can go OOM spamming it for the direct damage.

Mystic Chicanery has some  good points for a Warlock assigned to Kinetic Bombs here – Locks have the advantage of having a pet to throw on one, and  while not ideal because of its cooldown – I was able to use my fiend on one, of our attempts to give me time to get across the room ( those blighters run fast ) Mystic also says ” The harder you hit them the further up they pop”  However I noticed that a couple of wand hits were more affective then  a MB or a SWD – except I really hate wanding.  Brings back memories of feeling useless on General in Ulduar.

The Kinetic Bombs  despawn after a minute or two, so you keep needing to obtain new targets, and keeping range on both balls and avoiding bad stuff got hard.

I found running around using Mindblast and Shadow Word death on cool down worked the best with some wanding and fiending in between. You may run into issues  if you are the only source of replenishment as your not MBing on VT dotted up targets as often because your running cross the room trying to save your direct damage spell cooldowns for the bomb, and try and keep sticking your dots on the Prince that is the target of the moment for DPS

DPSing when things die too freaken fast.

Published March 11, 2010 Gaming , Shadow Priest , World Of Warcraft 3 Comments
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Right all wrong –  we all seem to have this  < 2k dps in a Northrend Dungeon and you fail  – which for the most is true.

Sometimes I struggle to reach that when I am running in a overgeared group when stuff just dies so quick.

Most of my circumstantial rotations start with dots – If there is enough time for me to stick dots up, maybe some mindsearing, and single target  then I am going to do awesome on actually dps measurement, and either come 1st or 2nd in the party , but well geared Aoe tanks – and 1 or 2 burst Dps in the party,  and I’m last.

So the real dps measurement when stuff is dying quick is not how much damage I can actually do,  but how much damage I can beat other classes to doing.  Eg I’m more likely to stick one dot on them,  Shadow Word Death / Mindblast on cool down, and mindsear where practical.  No point sticking dots on them if they are taking 5 seconds to die.

In addition In a 5 man – helping the party rather than yourself reduces your Dps.   If the boss is dying  fast – and your party member  has just been iceblocked.  Leave him,  boss will die soon anyway,  and besides,  its less dps being done by that party member = more for you to do.

Same with dispels – If you have a healer who can’t dispel something because of their class – how many people will dispel rather than keep on dpsing. 

I think the speed that a Random can be run is creating lazy players.  No wonder tanks are struggling for agro sometimes when the Dps are having Peeing competitions for top position.  The sad thing is with fully over geared groups – because the healer and tank are op too –  the healer can heal the dps through most stuff, and the tank just works a little harder.  So sometimes maybe only the Mage dies – gets rezzed and they do it all again.

Who’s Watching you – Me! ( only in Bg’s though… )

Published February 17, 2010 Battle Ground , Gaming , MMORPG , Shadow Priest , World Of Warcraft 1 Comment
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I love Mind Visioning people in BG’s ( As long as I don’t get too distracted at my flag Babysitting post.)  I also use it to find the flag carrier in WSG – my DBM shows the name of the FC and I can click on it.  So If I am quick enough I can Vision – and say.. he is hiding/running   *blah*

When people notice they have been mind visioned they often stop what they are doing,  hesitating when they are fighting or riding, as if to look around over their shoulder, thinking, who’s looking at me?

The mind vision stays there,  like a bad fly hovering.  They know I can see them, and are watching through their eyes.

Often they will jump, as if physically trying to shake the mind vision off – or they will do something silly like dance .  Thank – you to the Tauren warriors who provide me with much entertainment.

Sometimes I linger.  A voyeur – watching them partly to annoy those who can’t get rid of it,  sometimes I only peek  because I use them to bounce to another player out of my personal range to see whats happening over there.  Awesome to use in AV

When someone Mind Visions me,  I automatically shadow meld, and it drops. A rogues Vanish, or A Ne’s Meld will make  me lose my vision.

I must admit it’s kind of creepy, being watched.  Knowing what you are doing in game is being watched – and I can imagine the frustration  those who have MV on them feel because they  can’t get rid of it.

Mr GM she’s watching me…   tell her to stop. *whine* 

Priests don’t use it often though,   I imagine hunters would use their eagle eye, or eyes of the beast less, as with  Warlocks their Eye  – There doesn’t seem to be a mass use of long distance vision in the game, and even then the DBM thing with the WSG flag carriers might even be misusing the ability – by dbm making them easier to target.

What is with the NE Ghost form? It’s a BE Face!

Published February 16, 2010 Battle Ground , Shadow Priest 4 Comments
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Ever zoomed in on your ghost form if you’re  a Night Elf?  Can anyone explain how I ended up with is either a BE MALE face,  or a manga cartoon reject.  I got to take some screen shots because I was dying so much in WSG.

Weekend round up & a Formspring thingy.

Published February 15, 2010 Gaming , MMORPG , Shadow Priest Closed
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Between beer,   Wild Turkey Honey Liquor ( which is yum – and my local bottle O sells it!) a yummy Bavarian breakfast and lots of rain

I did a few randoms, and some Pvp this weekend.  Why was I still subjecting myself to the torture,   because well  randoms  = gold /badges/cloth/De mats – and I needed the gold I can get from all of them because I needed to buy Primordial saronite to buy the pattern for the Leggings of Woven death, and then 8 more to make them.

I was buying them at 1.7k off the AH. Keep in mind I bought one for my boot pattern. that’s 10 all up. 17k later…..  I have a new pair of pants, The Leggings of Woven Death  and a GS of just under 5.5 now and 2 pieces of t10 (Saved my frost badges)  Next up is to craft the boots,  then I really have done every possible out side of raiding for upgrades, and I pride myself in that.  But whats the point..

I bought Star Trek online last week – and got to play it until I lost patience over the weekend.  I am still level 1 –  It’s not really ‘play together’ friendly yet, and I am finding it complex enough that dual screens are distracting – need to get more comfortable with space maneuvering also.

I also signed up for one of those  Formspring things so that you can ask me  random things- and while I shall try and be humble and wonder why anyone would actually want to know anything more then the over sharing I have already done.  Legs.  Tatt, my breakfast, my sisters duck. My ego secretly wants someone to ask me something.

http://www.formspring.me/Pugpriest

Hope your mondays are splendid…

Your non Shadow form has its own bar

Published February 14, 2010 Battle Ground , Gaming , Shadow Priest 3 Comments
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I am hoping this isn’t a common misconception,    but you should know that when you come out of shadow form, and you are in shadow spec you get 1 new bar – I have healing spells on that bar and some basic damage ones because If Im out of Shadow I’m most probably emergency healing anyway.   I was healing the bg,  and my Rankwatch mod had been telling him to fix some of his spells.

He starting complaining about the Bg, and people,  and I spoke up.  Yes I probably was being overbearing – but some of his spells were the wrong ranks, and he was under the impression that it was just because he was out of shadow form spells and it was ok.

I tried to appeal to his common sence,  why would you lose spell ranks when you lose form? – But no..  I needed to get a life.  Before the BG ends I tried to explain again,  and I said look just lose ur shadow form  – and check your ranks.

That bar obviously has the same problem that duel specs does

I hope he does  – and when he finds out I was right feels a little bit of shame.

Yes I told him he failed at Shadow Priesting

/hangs head.

I’m not always a nice priest.

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