S.Priest + 2 Warlocks

[sn0n]

i've been debating this team for a couple days now... but cant seem to keep the mana up on the Shadow Priest...
Currently im lvl 38's

right now im spamming
/castsequence reset=target Vampiric Embrace, Mind Flay, Mind Flay, Mind Blast
on my Shadow Priest and on my Locks its spamming Shadow Bolt... things die in 2 shadow bolts.. so about the time the mind blast starts...

what my question is,.. am i missing something to keep my mana up on the shadow priest? i love being able to power the locks with renew and some heals.. makes them have nil downtime.. but the priest sits around every couple fights workin on his mana..

will this get better at VT status? or am i doomed to drink water every few fights? maybe i should switch over to Affliction and "slow down" the single target.. and focus more on multiple?
please, any suggestions.. i've played a shadow priest only to lvl 35.. and my lock is a solo machine.. having a hard time merging them in harmony.. :-D

[Glord]

if you're gridning, don't use VE. Things will die too fast, so it's mainly wasted mana. Just use mind flay (or wand) on the priest, and whatever your lock prefers as damage spell - or simply tap life, drain life on the locks.

[warbringer]

I've solo-leveled 3 warlocks to 70 and I can tell you that as solo playing, affliction is the true zero-downtime build. Especially with dark pact and an imp as a mana battery
As for shadow priests, yes.. you're stuck with them drinking once in a while. With the locks as backup I'd suggest sticking to mindflay/mindblast. Things don't live long enough for VE/VT run their full length making them a waste of mana. I'd suggest using the priest as a tool to keep the warlocks up on health so that they can keep on nuking and just use mindflay to keep the mobs from getting close. The time between pauses for the priest to drink will be significant lower and this less downtime for you.

[sn0n]

thank you. i'll give that a try as far as the mind flay mainly.. i tried doin 3 x locks as affliction and just 3x dot (9x dots total) on mobs.. but i was having ALOT of mana problems since the life DoT wasnt restoring much list (err,.. mana) maybe things will get better once i hit 40 and have more utility as far as the mana battery imp.. very much lovin the multi boxing.

[shockernub]

I have a team that is lvl 42, 3 locks and a holy priest, priest really doesn't do a thing except cast a group heal when the locks lifetap, also has a button for each group member to renew and bubble (f1-f4), priest never runs out of mana, and locks are pretty much non-stop dotters now, especially with dark pact and life tap. I just switched the priest to start using SWP just so he can use a bit of mana every once in a while, lol.

I thought about switching the priest to shadow, but from the other posts it doesn't sound like it is needed or really a good idea. 12 dots and COE tends to kill stuff before it gets to me, and I can dot up as many mobs that are near, darkpact, and keep on going.

[OogaJiggaWooga]

The other thing you could try is only using mind flay on your SP until the target is near dead, then pull off the kill with mind blast while the locks hold off for this final blow (all down to timing) and have spirit tap (assuming you have put talent points there) help continue topping up your mana pool in and between fights. When I was grinding my SP to 70, mana was hardly ever an issue..

[sn0n]

Update: Still a little rough around the edges.. and i know im not 'utilizing' how i should be... but.. this is working nicely... i did boost to 53.. so im just now starting to work on play tactics.. and hope to have it 'perfected' by 59 / 60.. anywho.. here is the current 'spell rotation' basically just go down the keyboard hitting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (7 if pets need life)..
at 6 the target should almost be dead and the locks will drainsoul.. this is optional.. if im finding i have too many soulstones i'll just throw another mind flay in there.. tryin to figure out some better 'multi pull' tactics.. as the one pull tonite that was 4 guys (2 lvls higher) caused a wipe.. and i feel if i had better aggro control on the felguards i could have done better...

Spec wise, the Shadow Priest is well.. shadow.. and the Locks, since they have Felguards.. are Demonology..


Shadow Priest (Main)
1 - Pet Attack (Alts)
2 - Vampiric Embrace
3 - Vampiric Touch
4 - SW: Pain
5 - Mind Flay
6 - Mind Blast

Warlocks (Alts)
1 - PetAttack
2 - Life Tap
...
6 - Drain Soul
7 - Health Funnel
8 - Soul Link
9 - Summon Felguard
10 - Demon Armor


Linked is a Pic of the current desktop w/ second monitor (TV Tuner PCI Card , playing "Mad Money") turned off.