Shadow Priest Snapshotting Guide - WOTLK Classic

Learn to snapshot like a shadow priest pro with this Guide! Great for beginners and advanced players alike!
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Addons & Weakauras
Plater Nameplates - www.curseforge.com/wow/addons...
Quartz - www.curseforge.com/wow/addons...
Gnosis - www.curseforge.com/wow/addons...
Weakauras - www.curseforge.com/wow/addons...
Multidot Weakaura - wago.io/FMPBah6sw
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Shadow Priest Links
Discord - / discord
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Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:30 What is Snapshotting?
1:37 Shadow Word: Pain
4:51 Shadow Word: Pain on a Target Dummy
5:54 When it's Worth to Snapshot SW: P
7:47 Vampiric Touch and Devouring Plague
8:59 VT and DP on a Dummy
10:04 Mind Flay & Mind Sear
12:06 Summary and Outro

[@KenWu-pl3or]

Thanks for the vid man! Helps me understand the mechanics and things that need to improve for my Spriest.

[@char5631]

these videos make me realize how badly I was playing spriest before (it was an alt) and these videos actually make me want to go play my spriest more and more

[@Poillip]

Another very clean, very easy to understand guide. Keep up the good work, you're doing a good thing here.

[@zionsphinxx]

wew prepotting wild magic is huge and that explains my terrible damage output compared to the other SP that comes together with my raid. thanks for the excellent video as usual!!!

[@zyzzbrah7022]

Thank you, this was very helpful

[@jonasholm5994]

Very very good guide!

[@jump312]

I love your UI man, i just re did mine to try and get a bit more info in better places, but yours might be making mine change a bit its so good haha

[@Pants_Gaming]

Haha thanks! You can check out my ui video and I have links for you to download addon settings if you’re interested

[@Azot333]

Awesome vid 🎉

[@congregation8845]

Great vid!

[@Bluellow]

thank you for another great vid. wondering if you ever plan on doing like a shadow priest boss guides. Also phase bis and alternate bis guides.

[@Pants_Gaming]

Yeah definitely. Next vid is going to be a shadow priest boss guide. I want to do a bis list video but I’m trying to figure out the best way to do it since it’s going to take a really long time for anyone to get bis, so there’s lot of random pieces most players will have. But that’ll hopefully be ready in a few weeks

[@Dyekusi]

Thanks for the guide, super helpful! Question: is there any particular reason Inner Focus doesn't work with SW: Pain? By your explanation, crit rate bonuses should snapshot on it, but SW: Pain only benefits from the mana reduction on that ability. Thanks!

[@Pants_Gaming]

Probably because blizz thought it would be OP on dots, but I have no idea the exact reason why it doesn’t work. Only want to use it with mind flay or sear because of this though

[@Gbb93]

Because Inner Focus just applies to your next spell. Any other crit chance multiplier does not specifically say "next spell". I.e. Wild Magic Pots are a duration

[@zyxwut]

Does SWP snapshot damage taken increase debuff on target?

[@seanj5249]

Nice video. I'm trying to get my castbar weakaura set up like yours and am having a hard time getting ticks to show up and whatnot. Could you please give me a link to the one you use?

[@Pants_Gaming]

It's an addon called Quartz and link in the video description!

[@himeko1981]

What is that amazing add you use that tell you when Mind Flay will tic? i need that! Also the icons above is that from weak aura?

[@Pants_Gaming]

It’s called Quartz. Link is in the description!

[@erics.1275]

I find some bosses are difficult to prepot for, Yogg, it seems I only get a few secs of prepotting wild magic. Depending on when the 1st add starts and where it is located at the start comparatively to where I am in the room. Also, 1phase in Yogg I find I'm running and dotting as compared to other bosses where I can stand still for more the 5 secs.

[@Pants_Gaming]

Yeah Ulduar is terrible when it comes to prepotting for fights. It's not worth it on yogg as add dps in P1 is not something that needs to be min-maxed. The ulduar fights where it can be done are Ignis, XT, Iron Council (though not really necessary), Kologarn, Auriaya, Hodir, and Algalon (after the first pull). You technically can pre-pot on Thorim, Freya, Yogg, and Mimiron though you're wasting potions as these fights have meaningless adds or intermissions to wait for the boss to appear

[@Stompy1984]

Would you reckon it is worth it to have a Weapon/Offhand setup with more Crit Rating just for the Crit Snapshot on SW:P? So after applying the DoT you'd swap back to your regular weapon/offhand combo.

[@Pants_Gaming]

Warlocks get so many buffs to their corruption which is why it’s worth it for them, but unfortunately swp is such a weak spell it’s not worth it in my opinion

[@BigGulpsV2]

Do you recommend snapshotting VT and DP when lightweave embroidery and/or a trinket like dying curse proc?

[@Pants_Gaming]

Generally no. The only time we want to overwrite dots is with dp and lust. Trinkets and light weave aren’t strong enough to warrant it. But if you need to move then using a dp on the move with a trinket proc is a good way to do it if swd isn’t available

[@derekkeyes8133]

Just a comment regarding your statement that shadow word pain should be put up at 5 stacks of weaving for fights > 1 min. There is a graph in the spriest discord that shows at what fight length it is worth to put up shadow weaving at 5 stacks vs 3 stacks. It is a function of your haste % and the minimum time is ~77 seconds.

[@Pants_Gaming]

I don’t think what I said it far enough away from that chart that it needs clarification. I haven’t seen the chart fwiw so didn’t know about the nuance. But min maxing swp is barely a dps gain that’s it’s a minimal difference anyway

[@anthonyg6083]

huge

[@stolenn4me]

What about recasting VT and DP right before bloodlust ends to get another full length buffed by blood lust?

[@Pants_Gaming]

Do it for dp but not for vt. I talk about it in my rotation video

[@erics.1275]

Maybe a video on how to set up SP Weak Arua or Platters if you use them?

[@Pants_Gaming]

A weakaura and addon video will be coming in a week or two!

[@Ghostlyman11]

What if a buff (haste proc for example) falls off mid cast on VT. Do you still get the benefit?

[@Pants_Gaming]

No you don't. Your cast time will be reduced but since the buff falls off before the cast finishes it's not applied to the dot itself

[@MihaZ]

How does 4p T8 bonus changes the rotation? The 250 haste rating is huge

[@Pants_Gaming]

It depends on your gear. I just got my 4p yesterday and keeping the rotation the same is my maximum dps. You'd have to sim your set up using wowsims.github.io/wotlk/shadow_priest/ and then set the precast option to "mind blast". The sim will tell you whether it's a dps increase to pre cast mind blast instead of VT and then you'd have to check the log to see if anything else changes in the rotation. Sorry it's not a straightforward answer Personally, I think it's negligible enough that most people should continue doing their normal rotation

[@haydenbryce2594]

Is it worth recasting Pain if youre lucky enough to get 100% damage buff from double rune on IC

[@Pants_Gaming]

Absolutely! That’s a huge buff and well worth the 1 GCD

[@Coli272]

what about Shadow Fiend?

[@rdmqwerty]

does the 25% crit chance from inner focus get snapshotted with shadow word pain?

[@Pants_Gaming]

no, it doesn't work with dots. want to use it with mind flay for single target or mind sear for aoe

[@hyperactive1728]

Love the guide any more just generic shadow priest guides going up

[@Pants_Gaming]

Absolutely. Over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing a beginner shadow priest guide, a gearing guide, and boss guides specific for shadow priests. Feel free to let me know if there’s anything else you’d want to see!

[@zentralerjapaner761]

how did you get those clean dmg numbers?

[@Pants_Gaming]

So I just realized my combat text is from Elvui (I thought I was using the blizz standard settings honestly). It's in General -> Media - > Replace Combat Font. I chose Expressway as my combat font

[@Gbb93]

Do you ever have a mage give you FM just for snapshot?

[@Pants_Gaming]

No that’s a waste of a GCD for the mage. If you’re lucky that would add 1-2 extra crits on swp for an entire fight which is like 2k damage. They’re better off casting an 8k fireball or arcane blast

[@Zaecute]

Partly wrong about mf/sear. It does dynamically update with spellpower if you gain or lose buffs mid channel. You can test this easily on a dummy by clicking off a sp proc after starting a sear or flay

[@Pants_Gaming]

Thanks for letting me know. I'll make a note of it

[@toddswansiger5830]

LUL, I thought snap shotting was clipping Mind Flay.

[@dragames]

even with snapshotting and everything i'm still near the bottom of dps. This is disheartening.

[@Pants_Gaming]

There has to be other rotational issues as well. You should post your logs in the log review channel is the shadow priest discord and see if someone there can help put

[@dragames]

@@Pants_Gaming you mean like recount logs? Or another addon I need to download to record what I'm doing? Or should I just video record it?

[@Pants_Gaming]

@@dragames classic.warcraftlogs.com/ I think they do VOD reviews too so you could record it as well

[@tylerstewart3181]

Are haste buffs also applied in the snapshot? Or is that just for DP refresh in the advanced rotation?

[@Pants_Gaming]

Any time you recast VT or DP your current haste is applied to that cast. SWP doesn’t benefit from haste

[@tylerstewart3181]

@@Pants_Gaming thank you!!

[@stuartwallaceEB]

Damn so it really is just crit for SWP?

[@Pants_Gaming]

@@stuartwallaceEB Crit % only! Not Crit damage (as in the Storm Power buff on Hodir)