Shadow Priest DPS

I have perpetually struggled with my Shadow Priest. I either have low dps and/or destroy my mana pool. I have tried the macros from the wiki as well as a castsequence from this site. I have two questions for those boxing SPriests; 1) do you have separate macros for trash and bosses 2) do you prefer a /click or a /castsequence for keeping dots and max dps?

I am going to be raiding soon (2 - 5 boxers) so I want to keep Misery up and I really want to not be a DPS liability to the raid.

Thanks in advance!

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Originally Posted by Coltimar

I have perpetually struggled with my Shadow Priest. I either have low dps and/or destroy my mana pool. I have tried the macros from the wiki as well as a castsequence from this site. I have two questions for those boxing SPriests; 1) do you have separate macros for trash and bosses 2) do you prefer a /click or a /castsequence for keeping dots and max dps?

I am going to be raiding soon (2 - 5 boxers) so I want to keep Misery up and I really want to not be a DPS liability to the raid.

Thanks in advance!

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I don't box with a shadow-priest. but I do know from past exp when I raided as a SP..its tough if u mess up rotations (micro managing like a afflict lock..)
but best of luck.. i don't really have any advice :(.. but..do u use stopcast on other spells to stop mindflay?
(if thats how their dps still works best)

http://www.shadowpriest.com/ might have helpfull stuff

I run with a shadow and his damage is always 1/2 with the ele shaman.

I run three sets of macros for all my dps (trash,boss,aoe). Shadow priests do require a reasonable ramp up time.


/castsequence reset=target/combat ,,,,,shadow word: pain (commas)
/castsequence reset=target/combat vampiric touch , (commas)
/castsequence reset=target/combat Devouring Plague (commas)
/castsequence reset=combat Mind Blast (commas)
/cast [nochanneling] mind flay

I am doing this from memory so there might be an error there so please don't cut/paste. I put a ton of commas after the shadow word pain as it gets refreshed. I end up wasted some mana recasting but I feel it is negligible.

Make sure you have the [nochanneling] on the last line or you end up interupting your own mind flay. I suppose if you are having mana problems that you could put the [nochanneling] on all lines but I prefer to clip a mind flay to ensure VT, and DP are up ... just my $0.02

The thing is, Shad Priests are designed around having two main mana regen spells - Dispersion (2 min c/d) and Shadowfiend (3 min c/d talented).

When I run with my S-Priest in my group, I have a separate button with both of these abilities on a castsequence (with Shadowfiend first because it allows for continued dps) than get pressed whenever her mana gets to between 25 and 50%. I find that dispersion is not needed even in long boss fights because her mana pool will last 3 minutes with replenishment, and the Shadowfiend will replace almost the entire pool.

Thanks for the posts. I do use info from shadowpriests.com A big part of my mana consumtion is that I may be reapplying my dots too early. I have Event Horizon now and I'll try to determine that. I have tweaked and re-tweaked my /click macros but don't see much improvement.

I have a 'boss prep' spell, typically that would be your long term debuff opener if your class has one (curse of elements, vampiric embrace, etc) Something your apt not to have in a grind rotation.

The I have a 5man / trash and a boss sequence. Typically these are the same minus the attention to longer run spells (on trahs I don't cast vampiric touch or curse of agony since nothing lasts that long).

I always have ctrl-dps key, that resets the castsequence. This helps with combat where there is a goofy fear or movement component. This would mean that immolate will run out, chaos bolt is up, shadow word pain likely fell off, etc and I will need to reapply all those and what not.

For all my dps characters I typically have matching core spells: buffseq, prepseq, postseq, boss start, dps, dps_alt, dps_boss, burst, gtfo, chug, itson, and regen. most of these have a nocombat and a combat duality to them to make them a bit lazy.

buffseq (party buff and minor managements)
prepseq (the immediate pre-pull stuff, thorns, pw shield, fire shield, earth shield, fear ward, dampen magic, focus magic)
postseq (watershield)
boss start (the once a fight debuff sequence)
dps (trash sequence)
dps_alt (alternative spells, a button i swap with the key that normally runs, this is for fire / nature immune stuff) which can mess up sequences 'you cannot do that yet')
dps_boss (playing the long game sequence with auto trinket use and minor cooldowns, includes lifetap)
burst (instant cast dps stuff)
gtfo (shadow flame, cone of cold, thunderstorm, typhoon, shockwave)
chug (eat mana pot, mana gem, thunderstorm)
itson (heroism, wrath, minor cooldowns, trinkets, shadowfiend)
regen (no channel evocate, shadow friend)

Thanks HPAVC. Makes me rethink my setup.