PDA

View Full Version : Shadow Spec as a secondary healer?



Fenteval
01-11-2005, 01:26 PM
Hey guys. I came here because I was really impressed with the posts and feedback of Envie and Tivoli on the Priest forums back in the beta, and because I wanted to avoid all the Shadow/Holy drama over there. :lol:

Here's my dilemma. I play in a fairly small guild, with a group of friends. We mostly stick to small PvP skirmishes, but several times a week we'll do an instance run. I've been holy/disc specced up until now (About level 45 atm), and I've been able to do ok as a healer, but it's getting kinda dicey. I'm not all that great as a healer (Not twitchy enough :lol: ), and I'm not planning on being able to get the job done as a primary healer in the higher level instances. However, the Restoration specced druid I group with is a fantastic healer, with a ton of past experience. He says he'd be happy to be the group's primary healer. For a bit of background, our standard group also has a Protection Warrior, Affliction Warlock,and Arcane/Fire Mage (Yeah, it's a bit of an oddball group.)

Now that I've given you my life story, I'm wondering...what's the best spec to go for as a secondary healer? I was thinking something like this.

Discipline Talents (8 points)

# Silent Resolve - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your damage spells by 20%.

# Improved Power Word: Shield - 3/3 points
Reduces the duration of your Power Word: Shield's Weakened Soul effect by 15 seconds.



Holy Talents (15 points)

# Improved Renew - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell by 15%.

# Spiritual Healing - 5/5 points
Increases the amount healed by your healing spells by 10%.

# Subtlety - 5/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your healing spells by 20%.



Shadow Talents (28 points)

# Blackout - 5/5 points
Gives your Shadow damage spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 3 seconds.

# Shadow Affinity - 4/5 points
Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow spells by 20%.

# Improved Shadow Word: Pain - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain spell by 6 seconds.

# Shadow Focus - 5/5 points
Reduces your target's chance to resist your Shadow spells by 10%.

# Mind Flay - 1/1 point
Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing 75 damage over 3 seconds and slowing the target to 50% of their movement speed.

# Improved Psychic Scream - 2/2 points
Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic Scream ability by 4 seconds.

# Improved Fade - 2/2 points
Increases the duration of your Fade ability by 10 seconds.

# Silence - 1/1 point
Silence the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.

# Vampiric Embrace - 1/1 point
Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you deal for 1 minute.

# Shadow Weaving - 5/5 points
Your Shadow damage spells have a 100% chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% and lasts 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.

It's Shadow-heavy mostly for Shadow Weaving, which the Warlock of our group keeps begging me to consider, as well as for Silence and Improved Fade.(I'm paranoid about aggro. This may be obvious. :P)

As you can see from Improved PW:S,Renew,and Vampiric Embrace, it's mostly a damage mitigation build that focuses on me dealing damage while popping off renews and occasional big heals. Just wondering if there's a better build for this purpose?

Almost forgot. Night Elf Priest. Anyway, any feedback you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. 8)

Chemdog
01-11-2005, 02:44 PM
Well, I'm no priest pro, but I can tell you that I am the primary healer in my guild, and I'm an enhancement/restoration shaman. My usual instance group has been rogue, hunter, warrior, shaman with either another rogue or mage tossed in and lately another shaman with a bit more restoration than I. We currently range from 45-55 and I see no reason why a shadow priest can't be a good secondary healer. And according to the priest sticky, someone said they were the primary healer as a shadow priest and he was up in the 50s I believe. Check out that thread if you have time, long, but good read.

l-c
01-11-2005, 11:26 PM
a shadow priest can be a primary healer but its not as efficient as a disc/holy build thats all.

Jumai
01-12-2005, 12:03 PM
Yes, shadow priests as backup healers are viable. If you are very strictly a backup healer, then it's still a "wrong" choice as holy/disc hybrids are always better at healing no matter howmuch of the healing you do. My thoughts on the shadow priest center around a tri-spec designed for PvP, as a backup healer with extra tactical skills (primarily silence, but flay when used as a snare is also brilliant, and it would have to have improved mana burn, and hte stun proc on pain is lovely).

I won't reiterate my rambling here, my extensive thoughts are in the sticky.

a67rhf7823jn8747==