Re: Shadow priest - mana requirements

On 2011-10-27, John Gordon <gordon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In <1k9sn6f.1wdo6jhr1wtxuN%peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Peter James) writes:
I'm playing a Shadow Priest, level 35 and I'm finding the mana
requirements and consumption very high and expensive to
maintain.

I'm using ShadowForm, and I keep Inner Fire and P.W Fortitude
up at all times. My rotation tends to be SW.Pain, Devouring
Plague, Holy Fire and when the enemy is low enough in health
SW.Death.

Using that rotation means that I need a mana drink after every
second enemy, and it feels too high a consumption of mana. Am
I doing something wrong with this character?

You may be too low for these, but there's a talent that
restores mana when you damage yourself with sw:death, and a
glyph that restores mana when you get a killing blow with
sw:death.

Your rotation is to blame.

Your DoT's are inefficient mana expenditures when the mob is
going to die too quickly for them to deliver their full payload.
Devouring Plague takes 24 seconds, and Shadow Word: Pain takes 18
seconds. A mob your level generally dies in between 6 and 10
seconds, so you're getting a very low (14 to 50 percent) return
on investment for your dots. The benefit you're getting is faster
kills, but it's costly, as you've seen.

When conserving mana, try switching to a paired-down rotation
against single mobs that includes *no* dots. Mind Blast and Mind
Flay should do the job for less mana. Simply hold Mind Flay
between Mind Blasts. Once the mobs HP has dropped to 25%, you can
Shadow Word: Death, though it doesn't speed things up much
against low-hp mobs, and you might need an add-on to help prevent
mistakes.

So the rotation is: Mind Blast as opener, then Mind Flay to slow
them down as they run to you, while keeping Mind Blast on
cooldown. You'll want Improved Mind Blast for this, obviously.

Another mana-saving option is to go the other direction. You can
take the talents that improve your DoTs, and then use just those
plus Mind Flay, only using Mind Blast when you have three orbs.

So I encourage you to try a few different rotations. With my
Shadow Priest, I would burn crap down fast with everything I had
until I got low on mana, and then use a mana conserving method
until I was back up to power. The only time I would need to drink
was in preparation for a long or difficult combat when my mana
happened to be on a down-swing.

Then you'll just have your squishiness left to contend with. ;)

--
Neil Cerutti
.

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