I’m leveling a shadow priest (51 as I write this), and I’m finding myself very underwhelmed with Vampiric Touch now that I have it, for leveling purposes. SO I thought I’d see what people’s thoughts were on how to level most efficiently, and see if there are things I can improve on.


My gear is mostly greens and a few blues I could buy relatively inexpensively, aiming for a mix of spirit and shadow damage. Only real splurge I’ve made is to put +40 spell damage enchant on a weapon once I hit the mid 30s.

My typical method of killing mobs has been (once I got shadowform and could do good damage with shadow spells):

* Shield myself, generally downranking somewhat to save mana, unless the mob is 3+ levels above me.
* Mind Blast, instant cast Shadow Word Pain right after the cast completes.
* Mind Flay as the mob comes towards me.
* Mind Blast again.
* Wand until death (usually a few seconds). Generally the mobs die is around 9-15 seconds, depending on their level relative to me and whether a mind blast crits.

I try to fight mobs 1-2 levels above me, they give more xp but take only barely longer to kill. I can generally repeat this for quite a while before drinking, especially if I occasionally leave off the second mind blast and spend a few more seconds wanding that mob.

Whenever I try to DoT several mobs at once and then kill them all, I tend to need to drink a lot more often, removing any time gain.

When I cast VT, it generally ends up doing only about as much damage as a mind blast by the time the mob dies, but at a much higher mana cost, and without the chance of critting. The mana returned to me tends to be less than the additional cost relative to a mind blast. When I got VT I expected an improvement in mana efficiency but when I used it I found I had to drink more often, so I have only been using it on difficult mobs or when I am forced to fight several at once.

I see most leveling guides recommend Imp SWP, however I find this unhelpful because the mobs die too fast. I still take the talent, but only for help with difficult quest mobs that are above my level.

I have 5 points in Imp Mind Blast, allowing me to cast it first, and cast it again just after my mind flay, usually with about .5 second wait, after which I can just wand and begin regaining mana. I see most leveling guides avoid Imp Mind Blast?

I found Wand spec useful until getting shadowform, after which I have found my shadow spells to do such a large portion of the overall damage that it doesn’t matter since then (so starting with it and then speccing shadowform at level 40 and not going back seems good)

Is there something more efficient than my method? Either that kills the mobs faster while maintaining decent mana efficiency, or killing them at the same rate without ever having to drink?

Thanks!

in my opinion, how i played up till recently, i really didnt use my wand. But i do use it every now and then.
VT is a useful DoT as is SW:P. Use them. Wand spec....waste of points. you are a caster and as such....use it. Drinking is a way of life for a leveling priest as your abilites are all linked to mana usage. So ...get used to stocking up on ur consumables.

Do you have a point in Inner Focus? Disc tree. This can help you with a 'free' cast. Especially when ur low on mana. Also ur rotation is a little bit flawed....not a lot. Dont open with ur shield. That reduces the time its active when you are getting zero damage...

Open with Mind Blast...this does a good bit of dmg off the bat. Follow it up with the SW:P to get the DoT rollin on him. Then as you have been, use Mind Flay. This not only is a 2nd DoT but reduces the mobs movement speed to you by half. At that point RIGHT before he gets to you...the channel is almost done Pop your shield THEN. Then its mana efficent. it maximized the shield's time protecting you and byt hat time ur mob should be half dead. After the shield is up. you can pop another Mind Flay (lower mana cost) then wand him. If you do it right.....you can kill 2 mobs without needing to pop ur shield again. 2 mobs in one shield pop.

Another rotation that works is
VT
SW:P
MF
PW:S
MF or MB

death

but get used to drinking....its a way of life


my question would have to be....For the most part, are you soloing most of your time or do you have a partner to quest with? If you have a partner, you can conserve mana by wanding a lot.


Good luck
Darthfanta
Ravencrest

Well, as a newcomer to the site and with my first priest at 44 here's my 2 copper...

My spell rotation:
Vamp Embrace (to get their attention)
Mind Blast
SW: Pain (they are standing on my toes by now)
(Starshards if it off CD)
Fear
Flay
Flay again if the mob is > half health and/or resisted something
Wand until dead

Spirit Tap procs and normally I've been hit once or not at all, I'm outside the 5-second rule and by the time I get to my next victim I'm fully topped up. I have stacked spirit for MP5 as well and find this a very efficient routine.

Unfortunately I can't see your armory, so I don't know what your stats are like. Personally I would try omitting the opening shield, as it consumes a lot of mana. And if you find that mobs are dying too fast for some of your DoTs to have their full effect perhaps get them off sooner in your rotation. Fear is my friend and I use it every pull.

i always used VT->VE->SWP->SS(if available)->MForMB(depending on mob health, sometimes not casted) and wand till dead. never drank, and ve always kept me at full health or close to it. assumes you have 2/2 imp ve and never had wand spec.

Shielding right when the mob gets to me and only once per 2 mobs is a good idea, should save mana. I guess if I do that regularly then I can remove about 2 points in Imp mind blast and still have it come up right after that shield. That might end up saving me enough mana to not drink at all on most stuff!

Armory:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... Crimshadow
lol @ my trinket. Its the only one I have gotten so far.

I also use Wizard oil for 24 spell damage and either a spirit food or spell damage food (just got this bear meat recepie for spell damage).

Soloing: I always am solo when I level.


On VE: Whats the point? I dont take damage. Or if I do its a little and it gets healed when I go out of combat. If I cast this early on in the fight then I am delaying damage spells, if I cast it late then most of the damage has been done already and I couldve just killed the mob instead? I guess I could replace shield with it, but then I deal with pushback sometimes. Would that end up being better though?
Also when I use VE and not shield, I have to keep reapplying inner fire a lot, so I dont see how it saves mana.


"Another rotation that works is
VT
SW:P
MF
PW:S
MF or MB
"

Thats basically what I tried when I tried VT, and the result was the same as using MB instead of that initial VT, except that I went oom a bit faster, and I didnt get the occasional MB crit that would save me several seconds. I'll try it again though. It certainly is better on mobs that will last the entire 15 seconds of the VT, so I use it on hard stuff.


Re: Inner Focus. No I dont have it, since I'd lose 11 shadow talents for it which are better, but I will get it once I hit the 60s of course. And the 30% mana regen while casting talent too.

Hmmm... Am I the only one using Fear in my rotation? I couldn't imagine grinding without it. I find I experience minimal pushback from mobs when they are running away from me at half speed with my Flay warming up their backsides

I fear if 2+ mobs get on me at once, otherwise I dont. Shield is more efficient at preventing damage and pushback generally, especially if you are open to downranking shields if you dont need a max rank one.

Hmmm... all the time I spent in BGs with various ranks of spells on my bar and it never occurred to me to do that with a shield

Anyhoo... Not to beat a dead felsteed, but the sequence of my rotation means by the time there's potential for pushback I'm casting an instant or 2. If I have more than 1 mob on me I VE and SW:P the other(s) as they run off and get back on the first. When they all come back I shield and hope for the best.

I'm wearing a decent amount of PvP gear too, so I suppose that's influenced my play style somewhat.

Cheers!

I want to analyze VT to start versus Mind Blast while leveling, so I just did a bunch of math:

Level 52 character fighting a 53-54 mob with around 3300 hp.
Character has about 250 +shadow damage.
All damage amounts are going to be multiplied by +15% for shadowform, 10% shadow mastery, 5% misery, and a bit more for shadow weaving, so probably + 33% or so.

Rank 8 Mind blast (level 52):
310 mana - 15% = 263 Mana. Damage coefficient = .4286

425-449 damage = 437 average
+250 * .4286 = 107 bonus = 544 total dmg.

20% chance to crit (talented) for 1.5x damage.
Average damage factoring crits = 599.

*1.33 for talents = 800.


Rank 1 VT (level 50):
325 Mana Damage Coefficient = 1.00
450 over 15 seconds + 250 = 700 total dmg over 15 seconds (140 per tick).

*1.33 for talents = 186 per tick.

Mana returned = 5% of shadow damage.


SWP damage = 672 + (1.1*265) = 947 for 6 ticks = 158 per tick *1.33 shadow damage multipliers = 210 per tick. (Imp SWP just adds two more equal ticks to the end). This roughly matches my experience.
MF damage = 330 + (250*.57) = 476 * 1.33 = 634.

Damage from Rotation of MB, SWP, MF, Shield, MB, Wand:
MB = 800 (factoring in average dmg bonus from crits).
SWP = 210/3 sec
MF = 634

For the first 9 seconds damage = 800x2+643+(210*3) = 2873. Mob is at 15%. (This matches my experience).
I now wand to begin mana regen and do about 100-150 dps from wand+SWP ticks until mob dies, usually in one to two more SWP ticks (12-15 seconds total for the kill).

Generally a MB crit saves 3 seconds off the kill time due to not needing one of the SWP ticks.

Damage from Rotation of VT, SWP, MF, Shield, MB, Wand:

First 9 seconds damage = 800+643+(210*3)+(186*3) = 2631. Essentially even.
DPS after that is around 200 from the two DOTs + wanding, killing the mob in roughly the same time period.

Overall this method is better on a mob that has enough hps to actually make those later DoT ticks matter, since the VT will do more damage than the Mind blast over time.


The differences:
MB to start over VT rotation has a 20% chance (with talents) of saving 3 seconds due to that MB critting.

VT costs 62 more mana but regenerates about 150 mana during the fight, saving a bit of mana. So it is more mana efficient.

Additionally, VT puts up misery to start, and and doesn’t require the points in Imp Mind Blast or the mind blast crit talent, so I can max out Misery and Shadow weaving instead for a few % more damage.


I think that my initial VT experience was colored by the fact that I was grinding deadwood firbolgs in felwood, which were only level 48-49 and thus were dying too fast and not giving enough VT mana back. Also I had Songflower serenade buff for like 7% extra crit chance, so the mind blasts were feeling very good, they would often crit and result in 9 second kills.


Conclusion: MB better than VT for mobs below your level because if it crits the mob dies very fast, VT better than MB for mobs above you. Most efficient is to focus on mobs 2 levels above you and use VT with a rotation of:
VT, SWP, MF, Shield, MB, wand to death while DoT ticks kill it.

Doing this plus casting shield as the mob reaches me should result in enough mana savings that I almost never need to drink. If I run low on mana the MB can be removed from a fight, with extra wanding while waiting for the mob to die.

Wow, lol. Shield is awesome. No damage or pushback ever, basically. I tend to use a low rank shield (rank 4 or 5 right now, while 7 is my max), to save mana, because the mobs still dont break it. If I fight a mob 3+ above me then I use max rank.


Re: PvP gear. My character has 0 honor kills...yeah. I'll pvp some at 70 probably.

Well the OP either got REALLY lucky on drops or raided the AH lol. Either way you have a good amount of Shadow damage for your level. I would recommend taking those points out of Shadow Power and putting them into wand spec, then putting your next 3 points into Imp. PW: Shield. That will give you more time to Mind Flay without getting interrupted.

I always PW: Shield first, pull with VT, then apply SW: Pain as I run backwards. Then flip around and Mind Flay the mob down. That usually gives me at least 1-2 full mind flays before the mob gets within melee range. Then I'll MB if the mob breaks through my shield. The other nice thing about putting up your shield BEFORE you aggro, is that Weakened Soul should be gone and you can recast it right away.

Lastly anyone Fearing on every pull is wasting a HUGE amount of mana. You should only fear when you aggro more than 1 mob. Good Luck to all of you!

Of course I raided the AH Thats what its for.