Sad Reality of Playing a Shadow Priest in TBC Classic

[@increasegas2221]

if you were playing spriest expecting to be anything more than middle of the pack dps you're doing it wrong, learn to feel enjoyment being the indispensable battery for your mage friends, compare yourself to other spriests not warlocks lol

[@Lovelyquid]

Never stop dreaming

[@robbie025]

Exactly what im doing now. And i use the gear i love instead of that shitty ass 3pieces set.....

[@robbie025]

@Alexander Misanthropic right?? It is possible, but it shouldn't be the focus.

[@dominoaxelrod]

it's less about place on the meter and more about the feeling that it matters very little how well you do your job. The difference between a 99 parse and an 80 parse is often maybe 150 dps, which equates to an incredibly tiny increase in your utility from vt/ve. Most of the time if you're just not dying as shadow priest it doesn't matter what else you did. I try to feel better about my raid spot by trying to fill in the gaps of my raid's needs (do rezzes on trash, help dispell annoying effects, etc) but you're mostly there just to increase the dps of others and you can do that in any gear.

[@GHIBaal]

As an Arcane Mage I can confidently tell you WE LOVE AND NEED YOU!

[@mcbaron93]

And that's why I play it

[@mohammedhussain2093]

100% we love our spriests

[@TheAwakez]

I've been SP main since original TBC, with multiple region/realm 1st parses over the years and in fact i'm giving it another run on classic now, hang in there buddy, it'll get much better next expansion :P to this day it amazes me how it took them 4 years to figure out that it was necessary, absolutely crucial for dots/channeling spells to be affected by crit / haste, while mages were getting full benefit from their crit on arcane missles since vanilla

[@derbudz]

I really can't wait for Wrath of the Lich King classic. Played SP back then and till this day i never had so much fun playing WoW ever again. I tried some private servers over the years, but non got the numbers really right and some others are actually pay to win. It will be glorious!

[@TheAwakez]

@@derbudz wrath is where SP became actually viable in both pve and pvp, with proper haste you can actually compete with other classes and in pvp you're not necessarily relied on your teammates and/or blackout procs, cata was pretty good too

[@brandocommando7079]

Consider this: Shadow weaving means 10% of every shadow bolt in your group is your damage, not theirs. Misery means 5% of every caster in your groups damage is also yours. Add those together and you may find out you’re the top of the meter.

[@Mthompsonwv]

I just like to think about how much damage I’m doing raid-wide by feeding those Mages and Warlocks mana. I actually also enjoy how little raid upgrades there are out there. It give me the enjoyment of just playing without having to upgrade 17 items each new phase.

[@andrewg3196]

The happy reality of spriest is that you're one of the most in demand classes. Guilds will fight for you.

[@zach9981]

Great video. Can you please do a video on spriest changes from tbc to wrath? Thanks for the awesome content!

[@TheGreatDazod]

Just gotta pull a classic esfand and have a second details window up on top of damage window that only shows yourself :P

[@BlitzedNostradamus]

That's the great thing about playing Shadow; you're not a DPS class, you're a support class that does damage. You're your healers' and your Warlocks' best friend.

[@sebastiaanmarechal8482]

I main shadow priest and I don't mind being in the middle of the pack of the meters. The class/spec isn't built to pump, so you shouldn't play it if you're aiming for that. You knew that beforehand so you shouldn't complain about it. If you wanna know if you're playing well, track your logs and compare with other shadow priests. Other players are happy to have you in the raid and your damage is still fair.

[@Buskyb]

I love the fact that spriest is a really good support class with a nice and reactive rotation

[@Glamaryllis]

I’m lucky I don’t struggle with dps envy. I’ve raided as boomkin since MC. I like being a support class and do the best damage I can. It’s a shame you can’t determine all of the bonus damage you brought to a raid and get that as a statistic.

[@ModeKaioken]

Shadow is supposed to do less its apart of the balance for bringing raid utility. If Shadow did as much as a Mage or Lock then why wouldn't people just stack them for mana regen. Spriest is supposed to be support for the other caster dps in the same way a shaman is supposed to be melee support. I get not everyone likes the bard class but that was well established to be the cost of picking a raid utility class before tbc classic even started.

[@Permuh]

Doing less dps than other classes is fine, but how they scale so badly is just broken mechanics. It wouldnt be too hard to ask for to have i.e. dots be able to crit, and haste have some effect on dots, like.. straight up increase damage per tick, a bit lazy, but it's something?

[@PastTense]

@@Permuh stop trying to turn classic into retail.

[@Permuh]

@@PastTense roflmao is making classes less broken = progress towards retail? #nochanges-gang is at it with their tomfoolery again

[@porcu12345]

@@Permuh You're right that it's broken. Blizzard realised this too in WotLK when they made the changes you suggest. This is TBC classic though, not WotLK. You'll just have to deal with it. You're still the best support class in the game.

[@PastTense]

@@Permuh yeah totally, its why retail is just SO popping right now and SOOO many people are flocking to it and an other game is totally not having to STOP selling their game right now because too many people are trying to play it. It's not even a no changes, its a you give shadow all of that and you take away the purpose of bringing the pure dps classes the reason they get brought for...

[@aaronh.917]

I’m feeling all these things, as my guild’s only shadow priest since week 1 of molten core. I can get top 2 or 3 on the meter on certain fights like Leotheras, and slightly lower on Alar, or Vashj, but most other fights I find myself around 8th or so. I still beat new recruit warlocks in our guild. But I’m okay with all that because I’d rather have an interesting rotation vs spamming one button. And the utility, raid wide buffs, and mana regeneration makes it even more fulfilling

[@Lovelyquid]

It is considered one of the harder rotations so yeah it’s fun nonetheless and with some lucky rng with extra procs you can get surprising results. In wotlk its an A-class it seems so worth investing in it too imo.

[@TieflingUnshackled]

As a Spriest main who doesn't profession min/max and didn't get 4 piece T5 you can still easily pump out 1.3k-1.5k dps with consumes in the healer group. Spriest dps is actually fine and in some fights in T5 I actually was competing with hunters/mages for top dps not literally #1 but in the top 3

[@Jalreal]

I feel it but easy raid spot and it's still fun to play!

[@bradveach2333]

Sad but still my faborite vlass

[@Lovelyquid]

Raid spot ezclap

[@Pablochette98]

I already knew it before picking the class and i still love it

[@Than211]

Given that we now have warcraftlogs unlike before, it actually gives me a much better representation of how well I'm doing. If I'm parsing 90's across most bosses compared to other shadow priests, I'm pretty satisfied with that since other factors play a role in personal parses such as encounter lengths, raid comp, etc. The way I see it, it's not about the raw numbers, it's about playing the class/spec to its limits and that's all you can really ask for. From the very beginning, I knew that shadow priests weren't going to be top damage (pretty sure everyone knew that) and I was okay with that knowing that I bring much more to the table than just damage. Mages certainly can't do what they do without my help and although they don't always show their appreciation, the times they do, it certainly does make me feel special and that I'm contributing more than just damage. Even the occasional healers that manage to slide into my group from time to time is just flabbergasted at how much mana I give them that they feel like they have unlimited mana. If you want raw damage, then definitely go play a warlock, mage or hunter but I can say that I enjoy playing a shadow priest and I don't regret choosing to play one. Also, I find it to be more fun than playing a warlock - I played a lock back when TBC first released and even though they had the numbers, standing there and spamming shadowbolts (like how vanilla classic was) is just boring; it's literally Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt, Lifetap, Shadowbolt, Shadowbolt, Lifetap, if you find that more fun because the numbers are bigger, then by all means roll one but I certainly don't want to be doing that again.

[@Truecaveman1999]

Sad because my main in retail was an SPriest. I’d like to see Blizzard either rebalance the specs so they’re all viable or at least change some mechanics so “support classes” are a crucial 4th role in raids like in EQ. Doubt they’ll do either, but it’d be cool.

[@ryanstorm3773]

You are viable because you bring other utility, mages have almost 0 utility so they do more dmg. You can't have the best of both world man. Asking for it while knowing all of this means those other classes have to reason to be around.

[@Truecaveman1999]

@@ryanstorm3773 yeah that makes sense I actually like the idea of being more of a support class too. I just heard so many people be doomers about spriests in classic/tbc I never tried it 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@robbie025]

This is sooo true... that's why i decided to.use gears that i really love. I keep the 2pieces set for now, but im ditching the 3pieces to get pieces with stats, giving me the opportunity to have more health and mana. Im more comfortable with that. No matter what i do, my dps will never be in the top 8 or 12.

[@robinluger9424]

can someone tell me what castbar hes using in tbc to get mindflay ticks shown?

[@henley1438]

Mained spriest throughout original TBC. Always had a raid spot. Always had a ZA spot. We got over 20 bears in my guild at the time. People absolutely loved you and let you know how much better of a mana battery you were than other crappy spriests.

[@strongside4565]

As much as I'm not a fan of specs being straight up bad or poorly designed, but going forward from TBC I did miss that there were utility classes that good guilds used just to make the rest of their core better.

[@BrianCupp]

This was all known at the start of the expansion though, so not sure why any SPriest would knowingly choose to play SPriest and then complain about this.

[@davidsuda6110]

I not in any rush to 70. I got a shaman there but with a 7MO old end game is not happening for me. I prefer to heal or tank. Funny enough I love BM hunters but I don't have one ATM. This is about the point for me that WoW peaked. My main dps classes were hunter and mage. I hope to do heroics with my friends when sunwell comes out. I hope we get wrath classic and have fun blasting LFG PuGs should be some good drama considering I am a casual player but it is what it is.

[@decemberman7824]

At least there’s parsing now so even if you ain’t at the top of the meter you can still compare yourself to other spriests

[@paullowe8437]

as a very geared prot pally main who pumps!! i dont know what i would do without you guys

[@etou1146]

Probably use more offensive gear pieces to deal and take more damage, which equals more threat and more mana for the paladin at the same time.

[@binein90er]

@@etou1146 i think u missed his point. He LOVES spriests. Thats the conclusion. Not asking for help. Face it, spriest is bis

[@kfiercescene]

Tbc is the only xpack I play shadow the utility and role is so unique and getting told by healers I never went oom that fight just makes me feel good like I topped meters

[@harrynutts8856]

As a healer I 100% agree. I love spriests and just having one in a raid gives me a morale buff cuz I know I'll be able to heal through even the longest fights. You are truly a game changing spec

[@CaithlynTube]

its a sad reality for pvp as well .. thank god we are scaling here better with resilience at later seasons ..

[@Stratoshev]

As said in so many other comments... I still enjoy my shadow priest.

[@theamericanwordsmith2670]

I'm really only leveling an SPriest in TBC to be ready for Wrath Classic, but I wonder if that even makes it worth it if I'm not planning on raiding.

[@axg2496]

spriest becomes S tier in wotlk. They are one of the best, if not best class/spec in that xpac.

[@chigchug283]

pog

[@GowtuGames]

You forgot the mana starved poster boy, Elemental Shaman!

[@patriksoderman7308]

@James Black same me and my 4 locks.. imagine to be in a gr with spriest and a bommy.

[@markoniksic3630]

Its not about dps, its about being VIP.

[@HydraxSkarrag]

What is this Website you showed around minute 2?

[@Downbad1k]

Last night my group pulled 2 packs of murlocs in ssc, I topped the meters for the first time kekw

[@helpmeinburning]

Best thing you can do to stay motivated is to compete with other spriests on warcraft logs

[@sebastiaanmarechal8482]

exactly my thoughts

[@DaveTheeMan-wj2nk]

@@sebastiaanmarechal8482 Exactly

[@nfrancis47]

"... those moments have definitely gone forever." I feel this. T_T Also, the nerfed TK/SCC is def saddness now. trash packs die so fast and KT advisors are a joke. Big Sad.

[@UkrGaz]

I don't get it, it's great to be a shadowpriest, your gearing is completely different from mages, warlocks and moonkins. There are unique items for spriests that only have high sp and no hit or crit

[@Mazxlol]

if dots / mind flay could crit that would be so OP!

[@Manical_Mark]

Does anyone know the name of his castbar addon?

[@Emporer860]

It’s still my favourite arena spec. So easy to push above 2k in 2s and 3s.

[@chigchug283]

lol

[@Calivarr]

Why would you be the top dps as a support class? Ele shaman and boomkin are in the same situation. I'm a spriest main in a hardcore guild and still pump and get priod gear

[@jujucasar2003]

U shouldnt be losing to a warlock as an spirest. All u have to do is cast vampiric touch swpain mindblast swdeath and mindflay. This is really really easy compared to the complex dmg rotation of a destruction lock in pve. I mean the rotation is so complex that only the top lvl players can master it and do decent dmg. The ability of mastering the destro lock dps rotation to maximize dmg is way more complex then pressing a measily 6-7 buttons on a shadow priest.

[@lawless7859]

When have top end guilds been bringing shadow priest for dps?

[@Jackal2811]

So this is what you were doing instead of coming to the GDKP!

[@RegaljTV]

at 2:21 I believe you meant to say Shadow Word: Death instead of pain. Cool video though, thanks.

[@kalsizzle]

Sure shadowbolt spam isn’t anything crazy but doing 2k+ single target is interesting for sure

[@facehugger8995]

no one is expecting to top meters as spriest in tbc though I feel like everyone knows.... like you wouldn't play ele/enh/boomy/feral and expect to top dps so your point is confusing

[@E3Zombie]

Feral and enhance have a much better chance of topping meters. I main feral and on any boss that is single target with no ads I have a chance to be top 5 I often am number 1 on void reaver doing over 2k dps in my guild

[@GLOCKSUGAR]

Thanks Goblin

[@jedi36mindtricks]

Ya......I just went back to holy just recently

[@jakesanchez3112]

its making me wanna reroll heals but ive gotten a spot in a gkp guild on spriest so its an easy cash grab

[@valentinzambelli9930]

It’s funny how all these comments are about “it’s ok for SP to be in the middle” but that’s not the point. The point is that you basically get the best gear in P1 already and after that’s most updates are useless. You get 1.2k spell power in P1 and 1.4K in SWP gear. Just very boring

[@sumbody694]

I dislike how a % of the player base optimizes everything to the max and likes that but don't expect everyone to contribute the same. I used to go bonkers with min maxing in games and now I stopped doing that and focus more on just having a good time. If i am wasting energy on worrying about something in game I am not using that energy to pull off something great or just chill and relax.

[@Fnfal2020]

I play SP and it’s not the dmg that’s depressing, it’s the fact that you’re a second class citizen when it comes to gear if your guild optimizes at all. I get min maxing but at some point you gotta take a step back and realize the raids been meeting the dps benchmark for brutallus since the end of phase 1 and think about the people sitting on the other end of the screen who show up raid every week and throw them a bone. Character progression is central to the enjoyment of any MMO and some of us SPs will still be in shadow weave when wrath hits because if there’s *anyone* who can use the item over you, you don’t get loot, even if it’s alts.

[@michaelhall-qf4ur]

Please please please. In wrath can you set up a 2 paladin tanks and 23 shadow priest run.

[@jonathanwynne6925]

I don’t understand raiding with less than 8k unbuffed health.

[@mikcon63]

Its not the damage you do individually, its the damage you provide by giving mana to pumper mages. An arcane mage casting 6-10 extra arcane blasts is not their damage alone, its partially the spriests, if they're pumping out +2.5k dps you're responsible for keeping that pump going, our base might be 1.3k dps but we're attributed the HPS or DPS of those we're supporting! We run 2 spriests, 2 arcane mage and 1 shammy heal grp and got the fastest boss kill times for oceanic servers (before p2.5 ezy mode).

[@dannyellis971]

What spec was the shammy?

[@mikcon63]

@@dannyellis971 resto for the mana tide, the battle is to keep the 2 arcane mages mana topped up enough to keep spamming arcane blast, they can smash a 3k+ dps average.

[@vXCozmoz]

A friend of mine and I were thinking going back to classic tbc but even after 6 months after the release, you still can't boost a BE toon. So play from lvl 1 alone in dead classic areas...uhm.

[@mairwyncurtis2102]

Besides, shadow priests are not there for pumping dps. They are a utility class!

[@opexo]

it is very strange and sad for me to see such videos telling and convincing everybody that a sp cant be at the top and it's of course totally ok to not be at the top so essentially if a raid leader sees a sp in the mid of Recount - "its ok" - and if a sp sees himself also in the mid of Recount - "it's ok" too. No it's not, sp can't be at the top if and only he's playing in a guild like Ensidia or Method or alikes back in the days where everyone else is best of the best. Because i did play everything pve from end of vanilla to 1/2 of Cata on retail as sp and i could get in the top 3 or even at the top, you just have to be good and rly good. If the rest aren't so good - its their own problem, but don't fool every sp out there that if hes in the mid of the Recount in a mediocre guild - its ok - cause it's not! Be the best, proper dot tracking is insanely extremely important (+pre-casting VT, not after the last dot has ticked, while also not clipping it), not clipping MF and multi-dotting is everything, master these+know the encounters and you'll be top.

[@derbudz]

I agree on the "do not clip" part, it's extremely important to track your dot's right and time your casts properly. Over a 3-X minute fight the numbers add up REAL quick.

[@michaelk9080]

"Wah I have a raid spot" Rogue mains: 😐

[@Luftpvp]

Haha I love this. If you played shadow in classic you'd of realized it

[@wusscake]

People actually stack those shadow wrath pieces to the point of just getting one shot in raids? Literally willing to die for their parses, I guess.

[@xuhsanity9958]

Live by the zug die by the zug

[@aizakku420]

i mean, you keep healers from going OOM, buff the #1 dps class and provide nice offheals.. i would be happy just watching yourself improve OR just reroll if it makes you sad

[@arcantyx6139]

Warlock absolutely not 1 dps mate

[@aizakku420]

@@arcantyx6139 BM and destro Warlock are joint 1st place

[@EnvironNA]

Crazy in pvp aswell

[@kungfujoe2136]

support is a roll in raid

[@stemina32]

just go into a dad guild and get the same item priority than everyone :D coming from a moonkin

[@Catfemboy]

I feel that, also a moonkin main alt spriest. My guild is super min/max so sometimes i wish i'd join a dad guild but idk if any dad guilds would have killed vashj or kt. luckily still got to steal my nexus key from the mages and warlocks with some bitching. Had the rep mace since first month, it's all us boomkins have to look at!

[@stemina32]

@@Catfemboy yeah

[@SuperMo15]

Shadow priest damage cannot be too high, or else the mana return would be insane and raids would want to stack too many, it's fine where it is

[@astralfields]

I mean. You could still buff damage numbers and nerf the mana return so that the net mana gained over a fight remains roughly the same.

[@SuperMo15]

@@astralfields but this is TBC, there will be no class balance tuning, it's fine as it is

[@L1ghtstorm]

Parsing sucks if on slow dpsing guild

[@HTSWAGGER]

Plays demo lock for a more interesting rotation … still spams shadowbolt

[@Tollp4ch]

The fuck is that Wotlk Server where a SP can deal 28k DPS? do you have some sneaky 100% buff or what?

[@CctvSecurityCamera-w3j]

They do good DPS really...but fk killing dumb ai scripted robots....Pvp and shine

[@Luftpvp]

Lol sad reality of tbc? Na it's the shadow priest in general man. It's why I didn't raid one in tbc after 2 years in classic

[@avp5964]

Lol mana battery thought they'd do damage. My sweet summer child.

[@stealth89thegreat85]

Shadow priest: What is my purpose. Mana users: your a mana battery. Shadow priest: (stares at their hands) Omg.

[@Permuh]

@@josephteller9715 I always wondered how having a spriest on blue beam during netherspite would go during progression. Mana and healing would be sick, dps slightly less so

[@Antonbrehbrahbruh]

They'll be better in wotlk

[@porcu12345]

You rolled the best support class in TBC. You aren't meant to be competing on the meters in later phases. That said, you're making a lot of rotation mistakes in these TBC raid clips, so if you want more DPS, at least correct them. It was painful to watch.

[@soab24]

Can you point out the mistakes?

[@porcu12345]

@@soab24 Yes. He's not clipping mindflay (cancelling the channel just after a tick) in order to cast mindblast/shadow word death as soon as they come off CD. Clipping is the most common tactic to push more dps. He does it one time in this video, likely unintentionally, as the rest of the time he leaves two of his better damaging abilities off cooldown waiting to be cast, and instead sits there spamming mindflay over and over like a bot, which is the weakest of the 3. Shadow Priest works off a priority rotation in TBC, and mind flay is bottom priority, so of course he's going to do less dps like that.

[@snowyvent]

@@porcu12345 I have a question regarding Mind Flay clipping. Is it also worth after just 1 tick of mind flay to clip it into mindblast/swd or is it always better to wait for the 2nd tick? Global cooldown / mana-dmg efficiency wise?

[@bol3iz]

@@snowyvent 2nd tick. always

[@chigchug283]

@@porcu12345 bro do you even have fun in this game? although you are knowledgeable, that little shit doesn’t matter, just enjoy playing, and if that make you enjoy, then hats off to ya

[@Midinette-bu2xq]

It's kind of ironic that you're advertising yourself as something of an expert on the class but you actually don't know how to play it. Not only do you have no understanding as to why you would clip Mind Flay into Mind Flay, but you don't even seem to clip your Mind Flay at all. Also watching you spend multiple globals on other abilities before refreshing dots that have fallen off was just bad.

[@alphaomega938]

ROLL A LOk BADDie

[@Daminz]

What was the point of this video lol?

[@porcu12345]

It's metagoblin. Pretty much all his videos are pointless chaff that are forgotten immediately after consuming.

[@jonsweat1981]

Who knows? He went into a Black Temple PTR run with a bunch of streamers and major pumpers and all of a sudden feels bad about Shadow Priest. It is kind of hypocritical as well as he uses common quality Blood Garnets in his gear on live servers and doesn't even enchant half of his gear such as gloves, bracers and chest, based on his October 24th A'lar kill (he hides his logs on WCL so you have to dig for them). Why anyone would complain about how lack luster a specific class is, without even given it your all is just weird to me.

[@_Travey]

?

[@mairwyncurtis2102]

As a healer….don’t even get me bloody started on stupid shadow priests continuing to use shadow word death when there is raid wide damage or when they get static charge from Lady Vashj. I’m not healing stupidity and I’m NOT healing ANY shadow priest whose primary damage is to themselves (by that I mean, they are taking more damage from SWD than the damage that bosses or trash mobs dish out). Be on notice you lot! SWD should never be a part of your rotation during a fight. At the end yes but not during. Go ahead, be stupid…I will not be healing you!

[@imqsqs]

Just heal the fucking priest that keeps your mage group pumping, just a note, heal the priest every 12 sec from the first SWD damage and don't be a bitch. Also keep an active renew on him all the time.

[@binein90er]

Let me guess: Mairloss clurkis only joins GDKPs because no serious raiding guild wants anyone in this mindset. Fucking cast ur heals and shut up. If spriest is ded -> healers fault. Ez. Just do ur job miarwrynn cockis. Oh..and pls stfu

[@alanschellenberger9356]

TLDR, clickbait KZbinr gets shit on by his own class for shitting on his own class

[@ryanstorm3773]

If you rolled shadow priest you were never worried about big numbers, lets be honest. Watered down mage. LOL on that DBS clip the priest is fucking garbage if he's not switching to adds. Tunnel vision DPS for "higher dps meter rank" is pathetic. Last but not least, if multi dotting is a new concept to your group, you need a group that didn't just learn about WOW.

[@Nikolaablg]

I never cared about the numbers in dungs/raids.. i only care to be able to wreck people in pvp.