Shadow Priest Secrets

DPS versus Fight Length

I have produced a chart comparing the "Setup Time" for a shadow priest in patch 3.3 versus 3.2.2. This graph shows the improvement in our DPS for short fights, but frankly patch 3.3 was a bit disappointing. I had hoped the WoW developers had done more in this area as it punishes us during boss fights with significant casting disruptions and more particularly in PVP.

Below is a chart showing our DPS for various fight lengths, before and after the patch.

Each data point indicates a specific fight length (mob dies). No residual DoTs are allowed to tick beyond that point. 100% was calculated as our DPS at the end of a ten minute fight (per patch). As you can see, in patch 3.2.2 for a 13 second fight, we had only reached about 74% of our potential. In 3.3 we are now in the 84% range. Due to our DoT DPS mechanics however, short fights (less than 21 seconds), leave us below 90%.

The really unfortunate thing, as I stated above, is PVP. The burst classes can easily nuke you in under 9 seconds. Often well below that figure. We have no such mechanic. Our DPS in the sub 10 second range is pathetic. Anyone that has ever tried to stop Jedoga Shadowseeker's minions in Old Kingdom from reaching the little circle with a group of Shadow Priests (with gear levels expected for that low dungeon) knows only too well about our lack of burst.

Blizzard's Improved Devouring Plague change was a step in the right direction, but clearly this area needs additional attention.

Final Thoughts

In summary I'd like to wrap up with the following thoughts.

  1. A great deal of time and effort went into the analysis and presentation of this data. Every effort was made to avoid errors from the computer programming, to the merging and assembling of data, to the creation of this page. Should you find something that fell through the cracks, please let me know.
  2. Although this data is generally applicable to the Shadow Priest class, certain base assumptions had to be made and the data that fell out is contingent on those assumptions.
  3. The large number of hours necessary to extract this information was chiefly done to help me. Should you have a religious disagreement with something here, that can only be backed up with "because it's true," please rant on the Blizzard Forums where that kind of nonsense is the norm.
  4. Remember that I will generally go out of my way to help you with Shadow Priest theorycrafting etc., as long as you aren't going to a) Ignore everything I say because it just can't be true, or b) be rude and blow smoke up my butt.

Happy Raiding,
Diabolus