Shadow Priest

[TeeMau]

Hey,

Anyone had any experience rolling round with shadow gear on a priest? Is it worth it? Or does wand spec just beat it outright.

Or should I save my +shadow gear for a warlock?

Cheers

 

[Lebaidin]

Honestly, it's really fun and definitely viable.

• Priests' base healing is so high that you'll still be able to heal for a ton.
• The Blackout talent allows you to spam Rank 1 Shadow Word: Pain to fish for 3 second stun procs. This is amazing for kiting as an FC, killing EFCs, and just some general nice stun opportunities.
• You can easily get your Mind Blast to do 100-110 pre-AQ.
• You can easily get your Shadow Word: Pain to tick for 35 or so pre-AQ.
• You'll be using a ton of instant cast spells and your wand, which makes you incredibly mobile.
• Your dps will still be higher than a Wand Priest.

On private servers, you were able to cast a Rank 3 SWP, then spam Rank 1 SWP to fish for Blackout procs without the Rank 1 overwriting the Rank 3 DoT. However, in Classic you can't even use Rank 1 SWP while your Rank 2/3 SWP is applied to the target.

For talents, I think this build would be the best. Shadow Focus is an incredibly underrated talent and will hit cap your Shadow spells. This gives you a big advantage over other Priests as your Psychic Scream will be resisted a lot less often (usually the difference between death and survival).

For gear, I would go with this build. You'll have 1052 HP (with Rank 3 Fort), 1240 mana, and 85 Shadow Spell Power (41 of which is general Spell Power). It'd be a really nice balanced build that does good damage, good healing, and doesn't OOM too fast. Grab a Staff of the Friar with 20 Spirit in Phase 3 for OP regen outside of fights.