No skill just luck

Character name: Eshinshadow

Character class: Priest- shadow only

Professions: Tailoring, Enchanting, both 700.

Talent specs, gear level, Armory link (advanced mode):

647 ilvl at the moment, it is my priority to improve it

Respeccing: playing in shadow spec is what I do on my priest 99% of time since 2007. I did some healing on other classes, but it is something that im just not good at and for the sake of fellow players only healing provided by me was from vampiric embrace

Class Info: I play shadow priest since my journey with WoW began back in April 2007, got few alts but 80% of time I spend on main so I can tell that im pretty familiar with this spec. Spriest is the silent hero of raids, providing healing, shields, mean life-grips and- in glorious past- mana. With my fast fingers I'm quite good at avoiding fire which (along with good transmog) is the key to success in raids. I am familiar with current theorycraft regarding priests, stat priority (mastery, mastery! mastery over everything!) etc., I know how to properly respec to counter most important mechanics on specific bosses.

Raid experience:
TBC- only did Karazhan few times (best raid ever, period)
WotLK- raided through whole content, in 10-man group, did normal Naxx, glory of ulduar raider 10 guess just few days after 3.2 appeared (i've been longer vacation back then if i remember correctly), also fast finished ToC and ICC on 10hc (without LK)
Cata- studies began so I had limited opportunity for raiding, returned to full time boss-killing on Dragon Soul, did few heroic bosses on 10.
MoP- I've been very dissapointed with that expansion, did only entry-tier raids took longer break from WoW to try other MMOs
WoD- I'm back with new energy and time to play, already managed to clear Highmaul and got 2/7 (kargath, butcher) hc with multiple tries on few other bosses

Guild history: Almost since TBC Im playing with more or less the same group of people, guild changed name, was disbanded, reoganised many times, but still maintaining same core squad. Our current incarnation, Caern Morghen is AFAIK oldest Polish guild on wildhammer, got many glorious raids, including i guess most of server firsts back in Cata. I've decided to leave as our raid leader is really... difficult person. He is great leader, raids with him are professional and successful, but his way of managing players, attitude and few other "qualities" began to tire me.

Your recent performances: Its not my best performance due to low gear I had back then, but it is the only log i have:
http://worldoflogs.com/reports/rt-wssh0701ci6jkpcx/

When can you play: 18.45-23.00 suits me, I can play basically everyday, it shouldn't be a problem.

Where are you from: close neighbor- southern Poland

Age: 23

Communication: is it even possible to enter raid without TS?

About you: I'm friendly fellow with sense of humor bit too ironic and morbid to be socially acceptable, so instead of working as tourist guide I'm better as guy sitting at computer in IT-oriented corpo. Great part of my free time I spend on wargaming (preferably with good amounts of beer and laughts) and miniature painting.

Why do you want to join and what do you expect from the guild: well... raids. And opportunity to play with new people, I want to try myself in new enviroment.
ATM I'm interested mostly in heroics to gear up myself, but main goal are Mythic raids.

UI and keybinds: I got all mouse buttons + most of buttons around WASD binded to most important burst/survival skills/trinkets. UI- nothing fancy, standard blizz. Do not be mistaken by screenshot, as ancient DPS custom dictates, on boss fights i got Recount moved to the center of screen and stretched so it takes about 80% of it. File attached

Anything else: Since my... 3rd? day on WoW I got Mr. Wiggles with me. This brave piglet has been everywhere and seen each boss' fall, companied me during achi runs, herb-picking and long AFKs on Orgrimmar bank's roof. If you do not have place in your guild for this nice pet then you can decline my application, because he is coming with me!

Hey there! and thanks for applying

As one of the two shadow priests we currently have, ill just ask you a few questions about the class specific info.
Firstly, what guides have you been using to come to the conclusion mastery is best stat?, also, you have not mentioned much, if anything about shadow's rotation, so would you mind going into a little detail about it? Aswell as this, since tier 3 of your talents is the only one we really change depending on the fight, would you mind telling me what fights you would use each talent?

this is all for now, when you elaborate on spriests play style ill hopefully have a few more questions, I look forward to your reply.

abyss

I remember you in WotLK. You also had a rogue; good shadow priest from what I remember back then. You were also in the guild Oculus from what I remember.

Thank you for prompt answer
For guides, most basic information I always get from icy-veins class guides, for simulationcraft and detailed theory I usually use howtopriest.com forums. Both sources point mastery as high priority stat (behind intellect ofc) for Clarity of Power build dotless rotation. Multistrike is 2nd, but due to rarity of this stat on gear I try to aim for haste (explained later). As mastery is flat, full time dmg% increase for 3 of 4 mostly used skills (MB, MS and MF/insanity) it was easy to simulate that mastery is clearly high above other stats in terms of provided DPS increase.
For rotation:
I try to gather as many shadow orbs as I can before fights (mercilessly killing critters) and start with:
Devouring Plague- it is ALWAYS followed by 2 insanity full channels. I try to save haste trinket for this, and get a bit more haste, as with bit faster channel and shorter GCD I'm able to squeeze mind blast after 1st insanity and still be able to cast 2nd insanity before buff wears off.
After that mind blast is a priority and mind spike is a filler, replacing regular mindflay. On HP <20% I enter execution phase, spamming MB, 2x SW:Death and Devouring Plague, with insanity as filler- this is glorious moment on recount, as burst is really great. with all instant casts and multiple shadow orbs available.
Dot weaving rotation- gathering 5 shadow orbs, and rotation with sw: pain and vampiric touch generates slightly more dps, but requires longer moment of uninterrupted, stationary casting- luxury not available on most fights.

As for other used builds, for fights like Brackenspore or Tectus- with high HP add appearing and big haste bonus from mushroom few times I've used Void Entropy build as I was able to maintain dots on both targets and with more haste DPS was significantly higher. I'm not a big fan of this as there is almost no burst option available and it is easy to broke rotation by missing Void Entropy refresh. For other tiers of talents, it is mostly situational- feathers really help other players on high mobile fights, void tendrils are very useful on adds that need to be nuked down, same with cascade, which is superior over halo with add heavy fights as it does not require careful positioning (25-yard maximum effect range of Halo).

Those are basics I guess, I will be more than happy to answer any other questions if needed.

thanks for quick reply

currently stat priority I and most others are following are crit>=haste>multistrike>mastery>=versatility (unless its progress on a pure single target boss like butcher mastery is clear the stat to go). This is because dot weaving is a slight dps increase to the devo plague insanity and sub 20% on most fights mastery only benefits your mind blast and the odd cast of insanity (due to being occupied with casting mindblast/sw:d and devouring plague) therefore putting crit and haste higher. however, since we are early in expansion still peoples stats are a little uneven due to taking anything as an upgrade ^^

Its nice to have shadow orbs pre pull (ask anyone in guild about malkorok training dummies) however its not always the case. If you do have them however, 4 is how many you want. Your opener should look like this (dbm pull timer) : 2 seconds halo, 1 second prepot and cast mind spike followed by a mind blast for your 5th orb then go into your dot weave rotation. Since your starting straight away with insanity channels then your missing out on shadow orbs due to neglecting mind blast, mind blast should always be on cd.

For talents, you pretty much always want to stick with clarity of power. Currently we cant get enough crit to make AS decent and i dont even know what void entropy is lol. The talent tier i meant when i asked on what fights do you change is the one with SoD and Insanity, you shouldnt be sticking with insanity for all. Also you should never go cascade for shadow, halo wrecks adds (like brackenspore and Margok) and you should aim to place yourself in a good position to max that damage.

if you need me to elaborate on anything please ask.
abyss

Shieeeeet, looks like few weeks of raiding brought some new interesting data! Look like I will have to change few enchants and test few rotations because now I can see big room for improvement.

Hello there, and thanks for applying!

I have a UI-related question, how do you track procs/important buffs/debuffs?

I knew that this question will come by. So, there are two types of players- the ones with everything important in the middle of the screen and the ones with empty middle. I'm the second type. I need clear field of view, nothing in the middle of screen can distract me. I'm a keen observer, carefully tracking all those important icons- under target portrait and in my buff/debuff list. So yeah, I do not have anything highly visible but I think I'm pretty good at tracking everything that is oging on in terms of buff/debuffs/procs etc.