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Originally Posted by Megaera
Your mana spent per (pick a unit of time) is determined by your cast sequence (unless you've got funky haste gear on). As your gear gets better, you'll be returning more mana from VT, so you can sustain a more and more demanding cast sequence (i.e. more MB, more SW  ). This is why SP scaling with +dmg is so "staggering" as you called it...the better the gear, the hotter and longer you can burn in addition to the spells individually hitting harder.
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Pretty much sums up why you arn't hitting the numbers you expect right now. Shadowpriests are quite consumable unfriendly really, you will be using mana-pots on cooldown - and even at +1500 raidbuffed I'm chain-chugging Dark Runes & Supers to keep going full tilt.
The main modifications to your performance are unfortunately out of your control, of course. Is the warlock with Malediction missing tonight? Do you have access to mana-tide? Are you using TA instead of WoA? Are you running with a BM hunter to give you Ferocious Inspiration? Are you constantly having to move out of range of your Mana-Spring totem? Does the fight threat-cap you too early?
As has been said in earlier posts, you can't improve much of this unless you talk group stacking through with your RL. What you can improve
yourself is mainly gear, your willingness to use consumables & understanding how best to make use of your mana. A lot of this can be found on shadowpriest.com, however ultimately the biggest immediate change to your dps will be the 100mp5 gained from chain-chugging supers.