He’s my recent re-write of my old “How to fix your DPS” post. Hopefully it is up to date enough to apply to 2.4!

This post is NOT up to date for patch 3.0.X.

1. Talent Specs
1.1 Cookie Cutter
Start by making sure you don’t have wasted talent points.
See viewtopic.php?t=3937 for spec discussions.

Consider using a "standard" PvE spec.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/cla ... 0103051551

1.2 Spec Theory and Customization
Past the key DPS talents, a lot of the choices don’t really affect your raid DPS and are customizable to taste.

The typically required talents:
Disc:
1/1 Inner Focus
3/3 Meditation

Shadow:
3/3 Shadow Affinity
2/2 Improved Pain
3/3 Focused Mind
1/1 Vampiric Embrace
5/5 Darkness
1/1 Shadowform
5/5 Misery.
1/1 Vampiric Touch

2/2 Shadow Reach is highly recommended. I won’t say “required”, but there really aren’t any better options as you’re building the spec up.

X/5 Shadow Focus. Choose X where you will be hit-capped. See the table in the gear discussion below. Being hit-capped is key to DPS, and this talent allows us to pick gear without +hit and more damage at lower gear levels. At BT gear levels, everything has +hit so you can take points out to allocate them in other parts of your spec. At Sunwell gear levels you may need to place more points in here depending on if you have a Skull of Gul’dan.

X/5 Shadow Weaving. X is 3-5 depending on the number of spriests in your raid, and your comfort level with refreshing Weaving. I personally choose 4 for all my PvE specs. 3 is a “min/max theory” point for 3 or more spriests in the raid, I personally don’t find much practical use for it.

X/5 Shadow Power. More is better, fill it out as soon as you can.

X/5 Improved Mind Blast.
There is some debate as to the best number here, but most of it resides with choosing between 4/5 or 5/5. 1/5, 4/5, 5/5 are all good choices. 4/5 fits two non-hasted Mind Flays per MB. 5/5 is used best on fights with movement, stacking haste gear, or Mind Flay interruption cycles.

2. Gear Selection
2.1 General Gearing rules
< 1400 +Shadow in raid buffs:
1.) +hit to cap
2.) +dmg
3.) +STA above encounter burst or +MP/5

>= 1400 +Shadow in raid buffs:
1.) +hit to cap
2.) +dmg / +haste **
3.) +STA above encounter burst or MP/5

** Haste is heavily theorycrafted at this point. The current “general consensus” is that haste is equal to damage at 1400 damage raid buffed. Until more detailed WWS or Theorycraft or Simulation craft shows otherwise, I’m using this as truth.

2.2 Hit-Cap Table


2.3 Enchants and Gems
+dmg is the key enchant and gem value to find. In fact, there are very few times you don’t want to choose the raw +dmg gem or enchant. More +dmg = more DPS = more mana to yourself and the raid.

There are 3 main exceptions to this rule:
1.) If a purple / orange +dmg gem combined with the socket bonus will give more +dmg than the red gem.
2.) You need the colors to activate a Meta gem.
3.) You need +hit

2.3.1 Enchant list
Make sure your gear is enchanted!
Bracers: +15dmg
Gloves: +20dmg or +20 shadow dmg
Weapon: +40/Soulfrost on weapon
Rings: +12 if enchanter
Head: Sha'tar enchant
Shoulders: Aldor / ZG / Scryer
Chest: +6MP/5 or +15SPI
Pants: Runic Spellthread

2.3.2 Gem list
Make sure you have gemmed your gear correctly!
Place +9/12 dmg gems in all sockets, unless you are encountering the exceptions listed in 2.3.

Theorycraft suggests the +14 dmg / 3% INT is the current best meta.

2.4 Starter Raid Gear
Get the BoE/Heroic Token pieces ASAP.
See: viewtopic.php?t=6594 for examples.

Yes, farming sucks, but waiting weeks for drops sucks more. If you don’t already have the good BoEs, then get them. When T5/6 equivalent gear is available for 0DKP, 0 Raid Time, there is no excuse for not getting it. The increase in daily quests in 2.4 means you can potentially bring in 250G per character per day. That should be more than enough to get you started on collecting BoE raid gear.


3. Fix your UI.
3.1 Keys
If you are a clicker, seriously consider binding your most often used skills to buttons. Unless you have super-human Starcraft 30 cps (clicks per second) skills, you are most likely losing DPS to mouse movement.

Using WASD or ESDF for movement, with skills bound around them is a common setup. The actual keys used aren’t important, as long as your spells are bound in a manner that is easy for you to remember and reach without looking at the keyboard.

3.2 Mods
You need a DoT timer mod. This will help tell you when your DoTs will expire, or if they are pushed off. DoTimer, ClassTimer, DotDotDot and NECB all work very similarly. Any of them should be OK.

You should have a cooldown monitor mod as well. Many options are available, some people prefer a bar timer similar to the DoT timers, some people prefer to have their cooldown items on a button with a timer displayed. The general idea is to know how much time is left on your trinkets, potions, MB, SW:D at all times.

You should have a cast bar mod that shows the latency on the cast bar. Quartz is the most commonly one used.

Threat meter. This allows you to estimate how close you are to pulling agro. Omen and KTM are the two that are used. Choose the one used by the rest of your raid.

3.3 Macros
Have Inner Focus / Trinket macros setup. You can chain them with a spell casting ability to cast both in one button press since they do not trigger a GCD. Place Inner Focus with DP/SW:P (best D/M) or MB (best DPS), and your trinket with the spells you like. I prefer to have my trinket with VT for a trinketed VT+SW:P combo. The icon buff is up long enough to get 2 trinketed VTs.

Trinket:


I prefer to use the trinket name for the VT macro, as the PvP trinket is beneficial for a few T6 fights. You’d hate to Trinket + DoT and then have the PvP trinket on cooldown when a fear hits.

Inner Focus:

I use the second macro, since I can choose to use IF with a Devouring Plague with 2 button presses on this macro, or with another spell using 1 press of this macro.


3. Raid Preparation
Consumables are your friend: Flask + Oil + Food buff on boss encounters. Double-elixering is an option, but I find it to be more expensive than flasking.

Pre-1000 +shadow, you may want to use the MP/5 oil / food instead of the +dmg to increase your longevity.

Use mana potions liberally until you are comfortable with the mana requirements of a fight. At T6-level gear you will find fights where you simply can’t go OOM. Bring destruction potions on those fights to increase your DPS.


4. Doing DPS
DPSing really isn’t that hard. Pay attention to your DoT Timer / Cooldown monitor and the threat meter. Refresh DoTs as needed, and back off on DPS if you are close to pulling aggro.

4.1 Basic Priority Tree
Our cooldowns do not overlap in a way that allows a set sequence, so a priority scheme is typically used. The default scheme is shown below:

VT > SW:P > MB > SW:D > MF

Remember that VT mana regen is why you exist in a party. If mana gets low drop SW:D/MB. If you are very desperate, go to VT+MF.

Use VE intelligently. If you are in a raid for VE healing, make sure it is up (yes, it is good on a few fights). If you have threat issues, consider dropping VE, but watch your health on SW:D’s.

4.2 Potion / Fiend Rotation
Use your 1st mana potion when it would fill your mana. Use the next one when your potion cooldown is up. If you are using destruction potions, consider creating a macro to use it when you use your trinket.

Use the fiend at about 50% mana. Be aware of boss abilities that may 1-shot your fiend. The reason I recommend 50% mana is that if something does go wrong, you still have adequate mana to DPS until a potion comes off cooldown. Obviously, the more comfortable you are with a fight the lower you can burn your mana before using the fiend.

4.3 Using the spellqueue
I’m not going to go into the great details, but lag robs you of DPS. It takes time for your spellcast request to get to the server from your computer. This time is wasted unless you are using Blizzard's spellcasting “queue”.

If you try and cast a spell near the end of your current cast, the client will now send the request to the server, even though it doesn't think the client is done casting. If done close to the end of the current cast, the server will queue up the spell and cast it immediately after the current spell is done.

What works best for me is to wait until just before the GCD (using Quartz's GCD monitor) on VT/MB/SW:D/SW:P and then spam my next spellcast button. Mind Flay is a bit more tricky, as you can interrupt channel spells to cast a new channel spell, but the [nochanneling:Mind Flay] macro apparently blocks new cast requests to the server. My best results for Mind Flay are waiting until just inside the "Red Zone" and spamming my next spell.

4.4 Can’t I do more DPS?
Perhaps. Top-end spriests are reaching over 1500 DPS on Teron Gorefiend (the current benchmark fight). Above 1400 is excellent, above 1200 is very good.


4.5 Common Problems
There are a few things that commonly happen that cause a loss of DPS. Sometimes they will happen anyway, but reducing their occurrence should increase your DPS.

1.) Early DoT refreshes.
Cutting off the last tick of your DoT causes 2 problems. The first is that the DoT loses some of its mana efficiency. The second is that you push-back the next DoT tick. DoTs tick 3s after they apply so you have now lost DPS by delaying a tick.

In general, try and refresh a DoT as soon as it falls off the mob. Start VT refreshes with <(1.5s + Lag) left on the DoT. SW:P refreshes as soon as possible.

2.) Not using the spellqueue or using a [nochanneling] macro
The spellqueue is maintained on the server, nochanneling is done on the client. Using that macro effectively negates any benefit the spellqueue gives.

3.) Clipping Mind Flay’s last tick
While intentionally clipping Mind Flay after the second tick can increase DPS, accidentally clipping the last tick can lower DPS. Make sure you are watching the channeling carefully so you are not clipping. This is somewhat in conflict with 2.), but until Blizzard evaluates [nochanneling] on the server this will be an issue.


5. WWS analysis.
WWS is a java based combat log parser.
The client and "how-to" can be found at:
http://www.lossendil.com/wws/

Check out how you actually do in a raid. WWS is a great tool to help see what’s going on. Check to make sure your DoT uptime is good. Make sure your encounter role (moving out of fire, shatters, etc) is being performed appropriately. High DoT uptime, but a low number of MF/MBs may mean you are positioning poorly, and losing DPS to movement. WWS also give you numbers you can compare against your other SPs, or SPs of other guilds to see how you performed.




Well, if you read this far, I hope you found this helpful. Please feel free to post any feedback or suggestions and I’ll incorporate them here.

Excellent summary.

I would suggest adding a blurb about Inner Focus bound to a macro with Shadow Word: Pain or Devouring Plague.

Done.

Wouldn't MB be prioritized over SW: D for max DPS? I know SW: D has better DPM.

I usually SW:D first so my MB will heal a good chunk of the damage. It keeps the healers from getting mad at me

-Rick

That would be why.

DPS-wise, it really doesn't matter much. I personally use MB->SW:D as it seems to work better with stopcasting, giving me a more smooth cycle. YMMV.

Max DPS: VE > VT > SW:P > SW:D > MB > MF


I have to disagree here - you really don't want to always blindly put out VE. Gurtogg is a place where depending on how you do your rotation, it's better to do it halfway to the first fel rage so that you keep your threat a little bit lower. RoS phase 3 is another place I've found it helps. Generally, my dps is threat capped - so unless VE is needed it does *not* go out, nor do I have imp ve for the same reason.

It's also a dps drop to put VE out xD. Regardless, great list =).

Noted.

These are the general priority lists, and this is meant to be a very general "how to". It is up to the player to use their brain and know when to adjust.

Besides, this guide is not really targetted toward the priest that is already on BT content. I intentionally left out any type of "fight dependent" rotations.

This is meant more for the rash of Kara / TK / SSC priests that are posting about having trouble with their DPS.

I liked your can't fix stupid part, should put it back =D. Totall true haha.

Hehe, I don't want this thread to go too far off topic.
Re-edited my post too.

I really need to stop writting "stream of tought" style.

Very good post. I made a "getting started" post in our guild forums for new shadow priests but ended up just linking to SP.com for info I didnt put in. Ill link to this post because its everything I try to explain to people and you did a good job of it.

Very nice, you're covering all the basics and it should save quite a few "how do I...?" threads Defo worthy of a sticky imho.

Question about WWS tho as I've never used it and we've never really talked about it in guild. Where do I find this? Is it an addon I need to install?

Sticky. Good job mate.

Excellent tip btw. I have been lurking and reading for a while and didn't make the SW: D-> MB combo connection. The heal from MB VE return is nice. I think it is worthy of a mention in the main post. It is a nice technique to use.

I added a short description of WWS, and added a link to the website.