Shadow Priest and Druid - first impressions.

[shaeman]

Finally got through the final round of boosting my priest through SM and he hit 40. Finally, shadow form +15% damage output -15% damage taken.

My intention was to tri box him with a 40 pally and a 40 druid.

I played the druid solo for a few kills (moonkin) and found his mana usage to be terrible. Killing one mob within a couple of levels takes up about half of his mana pool. Killing mobs 3 levels higher takes up thee quarters. I missed some talents in mana reduction (which I should have taken now, so may respec him and try again).

I then took my shadowpriest out for a few kills solo. It's unbelievable the difference. mobs 3 levels higher are no problem whatsoever. Mana usage isn't an issue at all. I can kill that mob (wanding it down the last 30-40% to ensure regen has kicked in, then when it dies spirit tap tops me off). I think If I was to solo play another character up to 70 it would be the shadowpriest. Reminds me a bit of my lock.

I then took them out for a dual run - its' great. I put together a cast sequence on both along the lines of

/castsequence [reset=target,dead,24] Mind blast, vampiric embrace, Shadow word: Pain, mind flay, mind flay,shoot, shoot

whilst on the moonkin it was

/castsequence [reset=dead,24] Starfire, wrath,wrath, moonfire

something like that.

My moonkin uses less mana per kill so can sustain grinding better. The shadow priest kills things even quicker.

The only issue is that neither of these characters can heal in the form they are in (apart from Vampiric embrace from the priest). Not necessarily a bad thing (the druid can take a hit or too with it's plate equivalent armour), the priest can power word shield himself or the druid, and can psychic scream mobs off.

I think my original idea of triboxing them is valid. The paladin tank would keep aggro off of them.

I am wondering though - whether I would be better off respeccing my druid to a resto druid.

I'm imagining the scenario where my pally pulls quite a few mobs at a time (in essence to aoe grind them down). My shadow priest would then dot up each of those mobs in turn. (Unless I'm mistaken the moonkin wouldn't be too great in this scenario, due to it's limited dots and bad mana usage).

So - Which would be better moonkin /resto.

I'd also be interested in opinions on differing specs for each of the classes, sort of looking for an optimal kill em quick with the least downtime combination.

[Drakkun]

I think you should look into a dreamstate restokin. Its a hybrid resto and balance druid which has great mana regen. It heals well and can put out some decent damage. Something like this spec: http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0xcrzicsxhZZxVcbfq