IDS pre-patch did NOT refresh on dot/hot ticks. I played my paladin last night instead of my priest, (On whom I forgot to pickup/use the new taunt >.>) so I didn't actually see the amazing changes people are reporting. Also, I have to wait until friday to do any raid content

I too noticed the IDS change. It was a bit odd not seeing a stack show up on initial casts, but with the dot ticking mechanic I get to 10 stacks and keep them up a lot easier so I can't say I'm terribly disappointed.

Another note, with the fix to SW making it only apply 1 stack of shadow weaving, is anyone else's mind flay now applying 2 stacks? My cast rotation, after I noticed, is now VT > DP > MB > MF > SW:P > normal priority system.

And yes, Mind Flay is now applying 2 stacks of Shadow Weaving. To be honet, I hope they leave this as is. Our other Shadow Weaving stacking spells all take 1 GCD to cast. Mind Flay (when not clipped early) uses up 2 GCDs. Seems only fair it apply 2 stacks of Shadow Weaving.

Hey there. I'm new to a Shadow PRiest, so I've been reading up on them.

In all the rotations/priorities that I've seen, I haven't seen VE anywhere, and I was wondering why? It's another DoT, and a mana regen.

You are mixing up vampiric embrace with vampiric touch.

Vampiric Embrace is not a DoT. In the spell priorities you've seen, only harmful spells are taken into account. VE is basically a "cast at your leisure", since it provides a pretty good HP regen and costs only one GCD every minute. Personally, I cast it over MF (opening sequence excluded).

Forgive me if this is a stupid question- I have read that DKs spread DP, but did not see conversation pertaining to the possible DPS benefit to us.

If there are perhaps 2-3 mobs to be dotted (more than that and I normally MS), is there a worthwhile benefit to casting DP as the first spell (or even second) when there is a death knight to spread it to additional mobs for you? Just for example's sake, an unholy DK opening sequence is typically plague strike, icy touch, then pestilence. All 3 are instant casts (of course with the GCD in between).

I normally like to use DP just before I cast SW: P in the hoped that it benefits slightly more from my shadow weaving, but I am wondering if there there is greater benefit to cast it sooner.

On pretty much any +1 mob pull when there's a DK in the group I usually make it a point to assist the DK and cast DP right away on the target so pestilence will spread it; it's easy fire-and-forget damage on the other targets. This is also most definitely worth it to do even when you are mind searing as well. This does tend to happen more on trash pulls anyways though, so losing the bonus from SW isn't as big of a deal. If you're really lucky you might be able to ask your DK to wait a little longer before using pestilence, but I find its usually easier to just put plague up right away.

On single target bosses I just cast it once SW is fully stacked as usual, DK or not.

DP as #1 cast on packs, if you have a DK with you, is highly recommended.

Altought one of the core statements of this community is: In the end, who cares about trash mobs?

Illustration was hotfixed sometime today. It now only procs from initial DoT casts, mindblast and shadow word: death. It still does not proc from mindflay like it has since the release of 3.0.8.

In general, yes. But the "trash mobs" that come with Sartharion can be kind of important to deal with.

My bad, I thought this thread was about squeezing out every last bit of DPS humanly possible.

My mindset was with Whatev, but I could have clarified that beforehand. Anyhow, thank you for the quick response!

Hopefully sometime soon mindflay with revert to proccing a stack, because with 7 seconds between mind blast casts, even a little pause or change in mechanic can cause the stack to drop.

On K'T last night I found that glyph'd Mind Flay was reducing the skeletons to 10% move speed. Did anyone else experience anything similar?

It is included in the Patch Notes.

It has been restored a 10% speed reduction on the glyphed mind flay, instead of the 0% pre 3.0.8

Pre-patch, with the glyph of mind flay glyph I noticed that channeling on these skeletons reduced their speed, by approximately 50%, I'm not sure why.

Yes, I can confirm that skeletons on KT move at 10% speed whilst under the effects of mind flay (or at least they move extremely slowly).

Just noticed that the card was hotfixed again a short time ago, such that mindflay now procs a stack of it.

Yes, I noticed this as well, I'm quite glad they fixed it.

I've heard for a while now about how Simulationcraft is good for determining the stat weights so I recently downloaded it. However upon getting the program and actually trying to run it, I've realized that learning how to use it is way beyond my grasp of understanding of computers and command line.
I know it seems like I'm freeloading now, but I'd appreciate someone posting the stat weights for 3.0.8.

I've heard a few sets of values one being:
spirit - .28
int - .29
haste - .62
crit - .83
SP - 1.28
hit - 1.59

and another set as:
spirit - .37
int - .34
haste - .66
crit - .88
SP - 1.39
hit - 1.61

I, and others I'm sure, would be very happy if someone could verify either of these as right, or the actual values if these are wrong.

The way I see it simulcraft isn't necessary at the moment. Gear decisions are fairly easy until you get completely heroic raid geared out and start wondering about perfect stat balancing. Until then decisions should run along lines such is this:

- Get/stay hitcapped
- Take crit over haste
- Take crit/haste/hit over spirit/MP5 (valorous gloves for example have refreshingly little spirit)
- Take spirit over MP5
- Gem/enchant hit until capped then stack spell power

If you are just looking for numbers to plug into Pawn or something similar, then you can use their sample output:

SampleOutput - simulationcraft - Google Code

It's fairly recent and should be good enough for a general estimate. I do this sort of thing for many of my alts.