Chayna

Thank you for taking the time to help me out a bit, I will take a look at some more things and even try it once I get that helm *crosses fingers* I will report back later on.

 

Battlemaid

First of all you have too much spellhit. You should either respec to 3/5 shadow focus or (preferably) change your hit gear (e.g. replace Scryer's Bloodgem with Timbal).

Secondly, your gem choices and enchants are far from optimal. Mystical Skyfire is worse than Ember Skyfire, spd/sta gem in robe shall be replaced, same for gem in bracers, same for gem in the wand. +13 spell critical shoulder thingie sucks hard - you do need to farm exalted, blue enchant for pants is a major slack. And get subtlety too (tho it's most prolly not needed, depends on your tanks).

Regarding gear choices, check the following thread: shadowpriest.com :: View topic - Best Raiding Gear Available It has gear rankings, gem rankings and talent rankings in terms of raw dps. I advice you to check it by yourself, but here are major non-raiding improvements:
[Scryer's Bloodgem] -> [Timbal's Focusing Crystal] (~+40 dps)
-> [Belt of Blasting] (~+20 dps)
[Trial-Fire Trousers] -> [Pantaloons of Arcane Annihilation] (~+10 dps)
Resocket yellow sockets with spellhaste gems (~+5 dps)

And last but not the least: shadowpriest.com :: View topic - Haste for Dummies
Spell haste. Keep in mind, that you love spellhaste, and the better in terms of spelldmg your gear becomes, the more you love it.

First of all, check out this thread and make sure you follow its recommendations: shadowpriest.com :: View topic - How to fix your DPS - Maximising DPS 101.
Secondly, use SW: Death - it's mandatory condition for high dps. Don't be afraid, just be cautious.
Thirdly, don't be afrain of cutting Mind Flays. You have good enough gear not to go OOM when doing this.

And after all dps (personally for me) pretty much depends on how familiar with the fight I am and how lucky I am. E.g. on my 1st kill of Winterchill I moved much more than needed, took bad spots for DPSing, was afraid to use SW: Death. Looking at your damage breakdown by spells, I can suppose you moved a lot as well.

This means:

88% SW:P uptime (good)
60% VT uptime (not good)
[53/8]*1.5 + 44*1 + 11*1.5 + [36/5]*1.5 + 4*1.5 = 87.5s of 186s spent casting (47%)

 

Amonra

I've looked through your analysis file and agree with your conclusions that neither SR nor SA affect VE.

One tiny correction (makes no difference to the conclusion) is that one of the calculations on the second test is out by a tiny bit:

base threat: (1383*.75 + 346*.5)*1.1 = 1332.925 to pull

This equation actually calculates as 1331.275.

 

tedv

That seems reasonably conclusive, but there's one possibility that would make those numbers still support the healing from Vampiric Embrace being affected by Silent Resolve: If the initial application of Vampiric Embrace had a threat component of between roughly 20 and 50 points. Has anyone tested the base threat of VE? Omen doesn't list any but it's good to check these things.

 

◊ Kalman

Easy to test, and I think when I tested it I found that the initial threat of VE was <5, presumably zero (i.e. *just* enough to put you on the threat table of a mob).

Test protocol for those who would like to replicate: VE a mob. Have someone take a very small white swing at it (a naked level 10 shaman with a club, for example, would be good). Ideally the white swing will hit for <5. See how long it takes the mob to switch to the shaman.

Amonra, not sure why I was off there. I think I may have used the previous pull's VE value or something.

 

Woozle

Interesting, looks like I'm dropping those SR points. Also, I'll vouch for meditation being better than focused mind point for point. Couple fights in BT hurt (council, mother), but for first half of Sunwell I haven't had mana issues. This may be partially due to having other support, such as JoW on Brutallus, or having downtime on Fel Myst, but it seems like a solid tradeoff given the issues we're gonna have with +hit on gear.

Also, Spirit Tap on skeletons for Fel Myst can help as well. Haven't yet found a use for Blackout in Sunwell.

 

• Snowy

Mana also isn't an issue on Twins, at least from my experience.

Paladin: Pyla
Mage: Pylah

 

Graf

(1308.44)*0.98 = 1282.2712
1322 - 34 = 1288

Hope you didn't have your nethervoid cloak on....

 

◊ Kalman

... goddamnit. The .98 factor needs to be applied across the board.

Thanks, Graf.

edit: That said, the results still work out as SR not affecting VE. It actually makes it more clear.

Test 1: Ironspine Petrifier

Routh deals 1397 damage to petrifier
Routh heals 349 damage
Buppi: 34+35+34+33+34+35+35+33+35+34+34+34+34+35+35+34+35+34+68+35+35+34+34++35+34+35+69+33+ 34+34+34+35+34+35+35+33+68
aggro onto buppi at 1303-1371 damage

base threat:

(1397*.75 + 349*.5)*1.1*.98 = 1318 to pull (SR/SA do not affect VE) - works
(1397*.75 + 349*.5*.75)*1.1*.98 = 1271 to pull (SA affects VE) - DISPROVEN
(1397*.75 + 349*.5*.88)*1.1*.98 = 1295 to pull (SR does, SA does not) - DISPROVEN

Test 2: Timber worg

Routh deals 1383 damage to timber worg
Routh heals 346 via VE
33+12+13+13+13+26+14+13+12+33+34+34+33+34+34+34+33+13+13+13+12+13+13+13+13+34+33+67+3 4+33+34+34+33+67+33+13+13+14+12+13+12+13+13+34+67+34+34+34+34+34+33
aggro onto buppi at 1297-1330 damage

base threat:

(1383*.75 + 346*.5)*1.1*.98 = 1305 to pull
(1383*.75 + 346*.5*.88)*1.1*.98 = 1283 to pull (SR does, SA does not) - DISPROVEN

(The second test had a repeated 13/12 pair giving Buppi a fake 35 threat because reading the new combat log by hand can be prone to error.)

 

tedv

Good catch. It looks like the answer is yes, because mind blast rank 8 dealt 1383 damage. After discounting shadow form and darkness, this is 1093 unamplified damage. Given an average damage of 437 with 0 spell damage, that's 656 extra damage from spell damage. With a coefficient of 3/7ths, that estimates a spell damage value of 1531, well over the gear actually equipped. Maybe he had +102 spell damage from the shaman's wrath of air totem. Unless we hear otherwise, it seems likely the cloak was equipped.

EDIT: Beaten

At any rate, I ran through all of the numbers and in the second test, none of the possible equations fit. It looks like the monster stayed on you even after it shouldn't have with no threat reduction on Vampiric Embrace.

One thing Antiarc recommended was having one person body pull, a second person does mind blast, then a third person draws aggro through punches. Apparently this removes possible residual aggro preferences, which might account for the discrepancy. Now that said, the 2% change in threat just makes it even less likely that threat talents apply to vampiric embrace.

 

◊ Kalman

Cloak was equipped; it was immediately post-raid, so I may have had flask/food/oil or some subset thereof still up.

edit: Bah. 4/5 T6, so 10% bonus to MB damage.

(437 + K*3/7)*1.1*1.1*1.15 = 1383
608 + 0.5963K = 1383
.5936K = 775
K = 1305

Given that I have 1321 unbuffed, no issues there.

 

Graf

Idd, though the otherway around, but this makes the evidence even stronger.

 

◊ Kalman

There's an error in the desc.txt file - there's 25 extra damage on the shaman because I read two lines twice (so an extra +13+12), which affects the baseline. Again: reading the new combat log by eye late at night? Not recommended.

 

Gamaliel

Hey thanks for your help. It increased my DPS from 700 to 892 with just some small changes!

 

Battlemaid

I wonder exactly what changes you did.

 

Gamaliel

Well, I purchased the Ember Skyfire diamond, used shadow word death more and stayed still more. Also replaced some of my gems. I still need to rework some gear so that I don't have so much spell hit. But here's my armory thing again. I purchased a new ring with some badges, next will be a new pair of pants. And I got the pattern Mantle of Nimble Thought, just a few bits of reagents away from making it.

Also I got officer permission so here is a link to my wowwebstats page.

 

Ntrails

I think you should wear your MH or even kara ring over the band of crimson fury, replace your scryers bloodgem - if you have the cash blessings deck, or battlemaster, or even one of the quest rewards (there is a green one with 27 +dmg static and a use boost iirc) since over hit is just worthless. Crit has SOME value - even if not much.

I am not much good at reading WWS usefully, but anetheron is a boss where it is important to keep DoT's on him and the infernal (since that will maintain a 5 stack of weaving and misery), and in a 4min30sec fight I see 3 trinket uses. If I am correct in my estimation they both have a 1 min CD if you chain use them? So I reckon you could get 5 uses in a 4min+ fight, there is some missed dps there. Some people macro their trinkets with SW:P - not perfect but stops missing a use, I would prefer to macro them to VT since it is refreshed more often, or even mind blast - anything that takes out the need to remember. It is only a bad idea when you want to save DPS for a certain phase (e.g evocate on curator) but better than missing multiple uses in most cases.

Vitality on boots, I have 12 sta and would suggest you consider it. I am not saying vitality is not helpful - I have never tried it. However, Najentus is going to do 8k raid wide damage and you are not going to have much spare - self shielding will rape your mana. In fact several bosses will do high raid damage. For that reason and the obvious extra damage you should get epic spellthread too.

Are you going to get the crafted bracers soon too? Because otherwise bracer enchant needs doing. (mats do suck though :-()

Glad you are seeing improvement though.

 

• Snowy

I'd go with Boar's Speed on your boots over 12 stam, unless money is tight. Run speed is one of the best things you can have -- especially in Hyjal where you may have to be doing a lot of movement on every boss fight.

Paladin: Pyla
Mage: Pylah

 

LordTylith

Also, if you have cash Belt of Blasting would be a pretty huge upgrade over the Nethershard Girdle. And if you don't have cash but have people that run heroics Quagmirran's Eye would be an affordable but good trinket upgrade over the Scryers' Bloodgem.

 

Gamaliel

I will be working towards making the belt of blasting soon. I just finished making the Mantle of Nimble thought, so the belt is my next step. I do have Quag's eye and just equipped it again. I still have too much spell hit and will need to rework some other things. Which crafted bracers are you referring to?

 

• Snowy

[Bracers of Nimble Thought] -- best in slot until T6 bracers.

Paladin: Pyla
Mage: Pylah

 

Ntrails

Very good point, I used to have the spirit shard meta so forgot about boars since already had minor speed.

 

rooj

Last night I ran Hyjal from Rage-> Azgalor, and noticed that while I was doing okay dps (between 1100-1200), I was still behind by about 100dps from the other SP that was running in the raid. We both have the same buffs (Ele. shamans in group) and our gear is somewhat comparable.

On single boss fights, we are just about neck to neck, and if I stay alive, I can usually out nudge her. (I am working on not dying as often during boss kills.) However, on trash pulls, I tend to fall behind, even as my dps stays around 1200-1300.

I have a couple theories on why this is, and wanted to see if other people had any insight.

1) I am using VT on too many mobs. I have been trying to maintain about 4 mobs with VT and SWP before I start on MB and SWD. I wonder if this is both killing my mana return, and also lowering my dps. I am not hitting any one VT mob with more damage usually; which brings down my mana efficiency. And with trying to maintain 4 mobs with VT, my spell rotation is off and I am not hitting my MB or SWD on cooldowns. I wonder if I would be better served by just using VT on about 2 mobs, SWP on about 4, and concentrate my nukes and MFs on the aforementioned VTd mobs.

How do other people manage this balance?

2)Haste. The biggest difference gear-wise between me and other SP is that I have gone with more haste and she has gone with more +dmg. Unbuffed she is around 1310 and i am about 1280, though I have 85 spellhaste, while she has about 28. (There are other minor differences, for instance she has the Exalted Sands Ring, which has a proc, while i have the mana attuned which doesn't but gives the additional haste.)

I wonder whether my haste amount is not as important on the trash pulls. As i understand it, haste is good for SP mainly because of how it lets us get in more MFs and helps with our spell rotations. However, because i am trying to continually maintain 3-4 mobs with VT and SWP, I am not using MF very much and my spell rotation has fallen to crap.

Should I just go with more +spell dmg on trash pulls and pull out the haste gear for boss fights?

You are of course welcome to look at my gear and talent choices and make any comments.

 

Chew

Hello,

I noticed high rate of resists with Mind Blast, over 7% on one fight. And the same thing might be happening with SWD I have not used SWD too often to tell how bad the resists are. These are all at the Hit cap.
I have tried to get some information on why this spell has such a high resist rate, but so far have had no luck.

Here is a WWS and my armory link. I recently upgraded a with the Sha'tar head enchant and swapped to new gloves, but in the WWS report I was at 79 Spell Hit Rating with 5/5 Shadow Focus.
The World of Warcraft Armory

If you look at the Hydros death I had 10% resist with SWD.

Chewurz - WWS


On another Magtheridan I had 7.4% resist with MB

Chewurz - WWS


And here is a Karazhan run. If you look at the Prince death for example. I had a high resist rate with MB too.

Wow Web Stats

I understand that the numbers can go against you on somtimes, but these just seem that there is a big difference with Shadow Priest spells say compared to a Mages. I cannot find any information regarding this, and I have looked and asked to no avail.

I also took a look at a few other random WWS reports, checking the Shadow Priests casts, and noticed there too, were high resists, high as in well above the 1% which is to be expected.
I would like to add that SWD seems to have a similar high resist rate.

I'm hoping some of you pros can explain why this is happening. I have searched these boards, as well as Shadow Priest.com and came up blank.

 

Beatus

It's just simply the roll of the dice and nothing else. If you look at the total WWS of those runs you linked, you can see you resist rates are at 2 and 2,7% respectively.

Numbers can just roll wrong.

For reference, here's just some random WWS from a Spriest on brutallus, with no resists at all:
Bierblodan - WWS