World of Warcraft®

Hi there!

I have long been torn between shadow priest, which I have long played as my main, and the prospect of an affliction lock. I have realized that my main love in WoW is DoTs, and while I would say I somewhat prefer the aesthetics of the shadow priest, I mostly derive pleasure from managing DoTs and seeing successful DoT management pay off with them being a high portion of my damage in my meters.

So, regardless of which spec does more damage overall, etc., which of them is more reliant on managing DoTs for their success, as opposed to management of cooldowns and fillers and whatnot? And does one of them end up with significantly more DoT damage as a percentage of the total?

Thanks!

Well in multi dot fights i do more dmg as a spriest than a aff lock. This is because the dot dmg enhancer spells for spriests (empowered shadows) applies to all targets whereas Haunt only applies to 1 target.

In terms of dot MANAGEMENT, you actually want Demo, Destro, or Fire. Affliction only really worries about dots in multi-target scenarios, otherwise it's very much automated. Demo manages its dots in relation to its buffs, Destro has the most dots to manage, and Fire watches its dots for Combustion (and possibly Combustion spreading) but otherwise is pretty light on dots.

If you want a challenge managing DoTs on multiple targets, aff lock is the way to go. Optimally multi-dotting 3 targets as an aff lock (keeping 3 stacks of SE up on all 3 targets) is probably the hardest priority to do correctly in the game. That said, shadow priests have a higher multi-dotting potential for far less effort, though affliction does better single target.

I think single-target is more appealing than multi-DoTing. What do you guys think for single target?

Get your Curse of the Elements up, Shadow Bolt for the debuff, get your three dots up (Corruption, UA, and BoD), Haunt, then Shadow Bolt spam.

After that just use Haunt on CD and refresh UA/BoD as needed. The main thing to watch is your mana. I recommend timing your Life Tap with your Haunt (right after you cast Haunt, hit Life Tap so the returning spirit heals you back up) so you don't get /glares from your healers. Drain Soul is your burn spell.

I generally recommend: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/tool/talent-calculator#Vc00!hQhdjVkVW!Yd!P!bhjn

Pandemic and Jinx's main usefulness in DPS is gained just from one talent in each, but filling them out isn't a bad idea, just depends if you value utility/minion survival more than a minor dps boost.

shadow priest all the way.. i mainly pvp so i dont have time to put full effort to pve.. i dont always pve but when i do i drink Dos Equis..... but most fights favor s priest

05/03/2012 09:08 PMPosted by Tecxero

Pandemic and Jinx's main usefulness in DPS is gained just from one talent in each, but filling them out isn't a bad idea, just depends if you value utility/minion survival more than a minor dps boost.

Taking a point out of Jinx won't give you one to put in Fel Synergy. When its typically taken, its because you can't put that point anywhere else that has more value in PvE (except maybe CoEx if you have to kite for some reason).

05/03/2012 09:25 PMPosted by Vreivai

Taking a point out of Jinx won't give you one to put in Fel Synergy. When its typically taken, its because you can't put that point anywhere else that has more value in PvE (except maybe CoEx if you have to kite for some reason).

In the build I linked, a point was taken out of Jinx for CoEx. A spammable slow can be rather useful at times, but other classes do have slows as well. Like I said, it just depends on the value of it to you, and possibly your raid.

I took a point out of Pandemic (since the main reason you take it is for the UA refresh while Drain Soul burning, which is provided with just one point) for Fel Synergy for minion survilability. Generally speaking the Felhunter is rather resilient: it has medium armor, a ton of reistance that stacks with raid buffs, and has Avoidance.

With aoe raid heals, the Felhunter shouldn't be going down, but you're not always in ideal situations. It's another one of those things that's very minor and just depends on what you value more.