Shadow priest guide to Legion raiding
Posted: December 13th, 2016, 6:10 pm
*A Work in progress* but I've got a lot of spare time at work these days and I spend them researching.
I will try and update as much as I can each patch.
STATS / GEAR
First off the Goal is to get 10.5k (32-33%) haste and 9k (30%) Crit as this is the easiest way to obtain the 3rd Void torrent the easiest and then any extra mastery at this point is just extra dps so it never hurts.
Gear is pretty standard. Haste > Crit >Int> mastery
Trinkets are going to be always Swarming Plaguehive, and a Unstable Arcanocrystal if you were able to obtain one, but depending on your gear an int / haste stat stick will be your 2nd trinket most likely till higher Ilvl and then the Oakheart's Gnarled root is parsing at the top as well as Unstable Horrorslime, Devilsaur shock-baton is also really good
TALENTS:
These are pretty much the only talents you will use for raiding for the time being, we shall see in 7.1.5
http://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/priest/shadow/cpTc
The only variants are t100 legacy of the void (LoTV) instead of Surrender to madness (STM) and T60 Void lord over reaper of souls, however reaper of souls is still a high dps talent, depending on the situation of course. Take Ilgynoth for example, you would use Lotv and I used void lord for quicker bigger bursts of dps on the new tentacles that spawn for heroic, but on mythic I still used Reaper of souls for more dps on the Heart inside (however, a lot of top parses for spriest they are using STM and you activate it early before going into the heart the 2nd time for quick burst on all the adds and burning the heart down).
ARTIFACT RELICS:
Unleash the Shadows is the best for maintaining STM, it makes the 70-90 stacks more manageable until you get better gear / smoother rotation.
Touch of Darkness / To the Pain Most of our damage is from our dots while in Void form (mass Hysteria golden trait) so it only makes sense to get artifact relics that up the dps of our dots.
Creeping Shadows. a flat shadow dmg increase across the board, I feel the first 3 relics are better but as you may have notice, the good relics are few and far between in the Raids, only 2 bosses even drop Unleash the Shadow traits and those are from mythics not the raid.
ROTATIONS
pre 130% haste you do 2 spells for every1 void bolt
VB>MB>MF>VB>MF>VB>MB>MF>VB
after 130% haste, which if I remember was only like 30-40 stacks it's 1 cast inbetween Void Bolt
VB>MB>VB>MF>VB>MB>VB>
you can toss out a sw:death here and there for dps but once you get about 60+ stacks you have to start saving them for big insanity gen as 1 swd is 75 insanity so try not to use them early and spaced out from void bolts so you aren't "overcapping insanity".
I found a handy link for rotation when you activate surrender to madness.
https://howtopriest.com/images/S2M3VoiT.png
Pre-pot i like using deadly grace but during stm I've personally felt higher dps with a prolonged power
so typical opener is void form - void bolt - void torrent- disperse* - pre 130% haste rotation - 2nd void torrent - post 130% haste rotation - Power Infuse closer to 85 stacks the easier it will be - shadow fiend (use as late as possible will also up your dps as the extra haste will up the pets attack speed) - 2nd disperse - 3rd void torrent - die shortly there after
I will try and update as much as I can each patch.
STATS / GEAR
First off the Goal is to get 10.5k (32-33%) haste and 9k (30%) Crit as this is the easiest way to obtain the 3rd Void torrent the easiest and then any extra mastery at this point is just extra dps so it never hurts.
Gear is pretty standard. Haste > Crit >Int> mastery
Trinkets are going to be always Swarming Plaguehive, and a Unstable Arcanocrystal if you were able to obtain one, but depending on your gear an int / haste stat stick will be your 2nd trinket most likely till higher Ilvl and then the Oakheart's Gnarled root is parsing at the top as well as Unstable Horrorslime, Devilsaur shock-baton is also really good
TALENTS:
These are pretty much the only talents you will use for raiding for the time being, we shall see in 7.1.5
http://www.wowhead.com/talent-calc/priest/shadow/cpTc
The only variants are t100 legacy of the void (LoTV) instead of Surrender to madness (STM) and T60 Void lord over reaper of souls, however reaper of souls is still a high dps talent, depending on the situation of course. Take Ilgynoth for example, you would use Lotv and I used void lord for quicker bigger bursts of dps on the new tentacles that spawn for heroic, but on mythic I still used Reaper of souls for more dps on the Heart inside (however, a lot of top parses for spriest they are using STM and you activate it early before going into the heart the 2nd time for quick burst on all the adds and burning the heart down).
ARTIFACT RELICS:
Unleash the Shadows is the best for maintaining STM, it makes the 70-90 stacks more manageable until you get better gear / smoother rotation.
Touch of Darkness / To the Pain Most of our damage is from our dots while in Void form (mass Hysteria golden trait) so it only makes sense to get artifact relics that up the dps of our dots.
Creeping Shadows. a flat shadow dmg increase across the board, I feel the first 3 relics are better but as you may have notice, the good relics are few and far between in the Raids, only 2 bosses even drop Unleash the Shadow traits and those are from mythics not the raid.
ROTATIONS
pre 130% haste you do 2 spells for every1 void bolt
VB>MB>MF>VB>MF>VB>MB>MF>VB
after 130% haste, which if I remember was only like 30-40 stacks it's 1 cast inbetween Void Bolt
VB>MB>VB>MF>VB>MB>VB>
you can toss out a sw:death here and there for dps but once you get about 60+ stacks you have to start saving them for big insanity gen as 1 swd is 75 insanity so try not to use them early and spaced out from void bolts so you aren't "overcapping insanity".
I found a handy link for rotation when you activate surrender to madness.
https://howtopriest.com/images/S2M3VoiT.png
Pre-pot i like using deadly grace but during stm I've personally felt higher dps with a prolonged power
so typical opener is void form - void bolt - void torrent- disperse* - pre 130% haste rotation - 2nd void torrent - post 130% haste rotation - Power Infuse closer to 85 stacks the easier it will be - shadow fiend (use as late as possible will also up your dps as the extra haste will up the pets attack speed) - 2nd disperse - 3rd void torrent - die shortly there after