Twisted Faith

In the old days, out DoTs could not crit, Haste only reduced our Global Cooldown and thus Spelldamage reigned supreme. However, since WotLK many things have changed, and our gear requirements are now more similar to what Frost Mages would be going for, as an example.

Below is a short summary of the most useful stats to Shadowpriests, in order of importance:

1) Spell Hit (Until Hit Cap)

In a raiding situation, your DPS does not matter if you cannot reliably hit your target. Because of this, we need the Spell Hit stat, which reduces the chance for bosses to resist our spells. You need 17% Hit to have no spells be missed on a boss (= Hit Capped).

The Shadow Focus talent will give targets 3% less chance to resist your spells; Misery gives another 3% while it afflicts your target. The latter does not stack with a druid’s Faerie Fire. Draenei priests have a 1% bonus to Spell Hit due to their Heroic Presence, which they also share with all their raid members.

2) Spellpower

Damage is king, and despite everything else, Spellpower is still a very efficient way to increase your overall damage. Spellpower does not affect all your spells equally however; some spells only add part of your Spellpower to their damage (or damage per tick), which we refer to as the Spell Coefficient.

3) Haste/Crit

Haste and Crit are values that you want to have a certain balance to. It may seem a bit mystical, but I’d say that having a 1:2 ratio would be ideal. I can’t confirm this though, so I will soon be going through the maths at Shadowpriest.com, and hope to find something conclusive. You see, when a Shadowpriest achieves a critical hit with some spells (Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Death) we gain benefits from certain talents (such as Improved Spirit Tap) which increases our Spellpower and mana regains. This all assumes you have the Shadow Power talent, which is vital because it increases the damage we deal on a crit.

However, Haste makes us cast our spells faster, so we go out of mana faster. It also allows us more “checks for whether we crit or not” per time frame. Haste however does not work like most people thing; it does not reduce the cast time by X%, it simply dictates the speed at which spells are being cast. So 100% haste will reduce the casting time by half. Imagine this:

• We cast 1-second spells, 25% crit chance, 0 haste, 1000 damage on a normal hit.
• In 12 seconds we cast 12 spells, 3 of which crit for 2000, 9 deal 1000 damage.
• Total damage done = 15k over 12 seconds (1250 DPS)

• We cast 1 second spells, 25% crit chance, 100% haste, 1000 damage on a normal hit.
• In 12 seconds we cast 24 spells, 6 of which crit for 2000, 18 deal 1000 damage.
• Total damage done = 30k over 12 seconds (2500 DPS)

As you can see, the benefits of Crit are obvious. However, Haste allows you more crit chances over the same period of time, as well as more spells cast (and thus damage done) in that same time frame. This is why Haste increases your DPS.

4) Stamina/Intellect

We need a certain amount of Stamina and Intellect in order to have a sufficient mana and health pool to survive fights and cast for extended periods of time. Compared to other casters you will most likely have smaller health and mana pools, but because your spells return health and mana to you, in reality you are actually more durable than most clothies.

5) Spirit

Not exactly a dump stat, but we don’t gear for it either. Part of our Spirit is converted to Spellpower, and (Improved) Spirit Tap allows Spirit to give us more mana regain while casting, and gives us a bonus to Spirit too. Good to have, bad to focus on. The way Wrath items have their item budget spent, before you get to Tier 7, you have pieces that focus on a single stat.

At the T7 level, gear is either Haste/Hit itemize or Crit/Hit. The gear that has Spirit on it is primarily Holy gear, which means Crit/Spirit. While this seems like a good deal, it does mean you may struggle with the Hit cap and a lack of Haste later on.