A thread for the discussion of shadow priests. All the usual rules apply, please post carefully.

Source: Shadow Orbs and Mind Spikes | Theorycrafting, Computations, and General Observations from a Shadow Point of View

I suggest you use this site yourself.
It answers many questions like these..

The PP (Pseudo Points) of mastery and crit, at least for 1 and 2 target encounters, are:
Crit: 0.55 (with a legendary meta)/ 0.54 (no legendary meta)
Mastery: 0.56 (with a legendary meta)/ 0.52 (no legendary meta)

As you can see, it depends on whether you're using a legendary meta.
Conclusion:
On items that already have haste (haste is stronger than both in any case), you should reforge crit or excess spirit/hit into mastery if you do have a legendary meta.
If you don't, it's the other way round.

Edit: It now seems mastery is overtaking crit on one and two target encounters, provided a legendary meta gem is used.

why hasn't this come up yet, "to insanity, or not to insanity".....any of our favorite number crunchers beat this one up yet?

FDCL vs bender vs Insanity.....what is the DPS winner for this patch?

The above linked blog addresses it, though the post on talents is buried under a giant list of BiS and some updated tier 90 talent theorycraft. In short, with the legendary meta gem and BiS T15 PI+Insanity is the best choice for all but heavy movement fights.

Copied from a reputable poster from various priest forums:
Single Target Spell Priority
1. Devouring Plague (3 Orb)
2. Shadow Word: Death
3. Mind Blast (@Yvalle, I’m a bit curious why you put mind blast a step below SW:D in the priority, is this simply due to the cast time, which in practice results in a longer cd & possibly lower dpet? If so DI:MB procs should still be a step above SW:D, no?)
4. Mind Flay: Insanity
5. Shadow Word: Pain
6. Vampiric Touch
7. Mindbender
8. Halo
9. Mind Flay

Source:
[Priest] Shadow DPS Guide - Page 25

I am by no means an expert shadow priest, but my understanding is that the first SW: D cast takes priority over Mind Blast due to its instant cast and guaranteed orb generation. The second is a lower priority as it is not guaranteed to proc an orb

When you cast SWD > MB > SWD, you are effectively incurring the 8s cooldown only after the 2nd (non-orb-giving) SWD. That is exactly the same as if you would have done MB > SWD > SWD, because of how the shadow passive works.
That's why it's useless splitting up the 2, unless you have a timer running that will show you when the ICD of the passive runs out, aka when your next SWD will give another orb.

EDIT: well, it's not useless when MB comes off cd right after/during the GCD of your first SWD, and maybe for these scenario's you might want to keep track of the ICD anyway. But purposefully giving your first SWD a higher priority than the 2nd will result in no DPS or usage gain as far as I know

Unless you're a Goblin, you're going to want to get your haste to 8085 (7584 if you're a goblin) before reforging into Crit. If Mr. Robot is telling you otherwise then you're better off just ignoring its recommendations. That website's good but it isn't exactly known for its accuracy. In my opinion you should download the addon ReforgeLite and set the values to make sure it achieves your haste cap before reforging into other stats, and it'll even do the reforging for you.

Then no, it isn't good. It's a steaming pile of crap.

Also, your haste cap will shift with gear lvl and talent choices. Twintop did a nice write-up of the 5.2 haste breakpoints over at H2P.

Hello all, kinda a noob Shd priest here.

My haste is @ 10,200 which according to H2P is where it needs to be for the second tick on both my dots and DP. My question is:

Is the additional haste between the 8085 and the 10,200 which really only provides the second free tick on Vamp worth the loss of int/crit? I spent a good chunk of time post raid last night trying to figure out simcraft. I do not have the legendary meta and using mr robot with the scale points that simcraft gave me, Robot said to go mastery like there is no tomorrow. Dropping my haste back down to the 8085 will give me a NICE int/crit boost.

All that being said, I am wondering if there is some sort of breakdown on simcraft that will explain it better to a totally sim rookie. I watched the you tube vid with the warlock developer. I am trying to find out how to get my own stat weights to plug into reforge light and make sure I am maximizing my output.

Thanks,

I have regemmed and reforged each way (gets costly to do it this way but i have zero knowledge of sim craft) and honestly could not tell the difference. Which is the basis of the question. Was wondering if i shouldnt be leaning those extra haste points towards crit or mastery. I am going to assume that our equip is about equal as we are about the same ilvl. Would love to get some input on how to operate simcraft properly. Feel free to add me Crank Master 1851.

Appreciate your input!