Brain Clutter

November 4, 2007

WoW Shadow Priest // Ultimate PvP gear at level 70! (Version 2)

Filed under: MMORPG, World of Warcraft, gaming, shadow priest, the burning crusade — brainclutter @ 5:00 pm

UPDATE 1: APPARENTLY I FORGOT SEASON 3 GEAR. I’M ADDING IT NOW. PLEASE STAY TUNED! :)

UPDATE 2: ALL THE NEW SEASON 3 GEAR IS IN! :)

Back by popular demand, here’s version 2 of the Ultimate PvP Gear Guide for Shadow Priests (World of Warcraft). As with version 1, this guide showcases only the best armour, weapons, and accessories that can be gained solely through PvP (ie. purchased with honour and battleground/arena marks). PvE drops need not apply! ;)

This set aims to provide:

  • The highest possible + spell damage
  • The highest possible stamina and intelligence
  • Good resilience

Now, on to the good stuff!

***VIEW THE SPREADSHEET***

Buying this full set will cost you:

  • Arena (13,525)
  • Honour (158,312)
  • Alterac Valley (60)
  • Arathi Basin (60)
  • Eye of the Storm (50)
  • Warsong Gulch (20)

Stat/Effect Summary (before enchantments)

  • Stamina – 674
  • Intellect – 334
  • + Spell Damage – 812
  • + Healing – 804
  • + Resilience – 416
  • Other – 32 spell critical, +3% spell crit damage, 17 hit, 14 penetration, 6 mp5, -3 seconds Psychic Scream cooldown, -2 seconds Weakened Soul effect
  • Trinket 1 – Medallion (use): dispel Fear/Stun/Poly/MC
  • Trinket 2 – Battlemaster (use): instant HP buff 1750 (15 seconds)

Gear Links:

Weapon – Vengeful Gladiator’s Gavel (3,150 arena)
Offhand – Vengeful Gladiator’s Endgame (1,125 arena)
Wand – Vengeful Gladiator’s Touch of Defeat (1,000 arena)

Boots – Vindicator’s Dreadweave Stalkers (17,850 honour, 40 eye of the storm)
Chest – Vengeful Gladiator’s Satin Robe (1,875 arena)
Gloves – Vengeful Gladiator’s Satin Gloves (1,125 arena)
Head – Vengeful Gladiator’s Satin Hood (1,875 arena)
Legs – Vengeful Gladiator’s Satin Leggings (1,875 arena)
Shoulders – Vengeful Gladiator’s Satin Mantle (1,500 arena)

Back – Sergeant’s Heavy Cape (9,435 honour, 20 arathi basin)
Belt – Vindicator’s Dreadweave Belt (17,850 honour, 40 arathi basin)
Bracer – Vindicator’s Dreadweave Cuffs (11,794 honour, 20 warsong gulch)
Neck – Vindicator’s Pendant of Dominance (15,300 honour, 10 eye of the storm)
Ring – Vindicator’s Band of Dominance (15,300 honour, 10 alterac valley)
Ring – Vindicator’s Band of Salvation (15,300 honour, 10 alterac valley)
Trinket – Medallion of the Horde/Alliance (16,983 honour)
Trinket – Battlemaster’s Audacity (30,000 honour, 40 alterac valley)

Gem Links:

Meta (x1) – Chaotic Skyfire Diamond (crafted)
Red (x3) – Glowing Shadowsong Amethyst (crafted)
Orange (x1) – Potent Ornate Topaz (8,500 honour)
Orange (x3) – Potent Pyrestone (crafted)

There you have it! Please leave your questions or feedback in a comment below!

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Here’s a list of all my other Shadow Priest articles:


July 17, 2007

Shadow Priest – Best damage gear for PvP or PvE…

Filed under: MMORPG, World of Warcraft, gaming, shadow priest, the burning crusade — brainclutter @ 9:49 am


This is a listing of items that will best-suit your shadow priest in both PvP and Pve. The main factor these items are judged by is how much + spell/shadow damage they will give your character. My older posts about shadow priests can be found here:

Let’s cut to the chase; here is the BEST set of gear you can get for spell damage as a shadow priest!

Google Spreadsheet (listing all items ranked by spell/shadow damage rating as well as my recommended combination)

or

Screenshot (showing my recommended set with the best damage gear)

Best Shadow Priest Damage Gear

You can use the Google spreadsheet to make your own set by copying and pasting items from the left tables into the conversion table on the right. The screenshot shows my recommendations for the top damage gear your priest can get. This table does NOT account for enchantments, gems, or imbuements. The listed stats are the base stats I got from WoWhead and Thottbot between July 10 – July 17, 2007 and I’m sure they’ll become outdated within a patch or two, or perhaps another expansion in the future.

Some of these items are extremely hard to get, but they are the best of the best! I will link to the top three to four items in each slot by category (PvP, Drop, Vendor, Crafted) where applicable. I have also tried to provide the most accurate cost, reputation, and drop rate information possible.

Main Hand

Offhand

Wand

Head

Shoulders

Chest

Hands

Legs

Feet

Back

Belt

Wrist

Neck

Finger 1

Finger 2

Trinket 1

Trinket 2

There you have it! These are some of the top ranked items in Warcraft, ranked by spell/shadow damage. I hope this helps you decide which items to get for YOUR set! Please leave your questions and comments below! =)

March 7, 2007

Top spell damage gear for Shadow Priests

Filed under: MMORPG, World of Warcraft, gaming, shadow priest, the burning crusade — brainclutter @ 10:19 am

My two previous articles listed the best gear you could obtain solely through PvP (at 60 and at 70 with the burning crusade). Unfortunately, Blizzard made the BEST gear available mainly from PvE and crafting, so to really amp up your spell damage and other stats you’ll need to grind in PvE… for a long time.

My other posts about shadow priests can be found here:

The gear listed below is probably unattainable for most people but it gives you something to shoot for. Even if you only manage to get some of this equipment, chances are it will really boost your overall performance. Every item in the list is the TOP spell damage item your Shadow Priest can use, which in some cases sacrifices other important bonuses such as stats, + spell hit, + crit, + spell penetration, etc. You could probably create a more balanced suit by mixing and matching items from this list with items of your own choosing and chances are, they’d be easier to get… For example, look at this setup (Paradox’s profile of EU WoW @ the Armory), which isn’t too far off my “best” set shown below.

The table:

item table

The links:

Main Hand >> Gladiator’s Spellblade
Wand >> Wand of Qiraji Nobility
Offhand >> Khadgar’s Knapsack

Head >> Collar of Cho’gall
Shoulders >> Mantle of the Mind Flayer
Chest >> Will of Edward the Odd
Hands >> Handguards of the Avatar
Legs >> Battlecast Pants
Feet >> Boots of Blasphemy

Back >> Ancient Spellcloak of the Highborne
Finger >> Cobalt Ring of Tyrigosa
Finger >> Seer’s Signet
Neck >> Manasurge Pendant
Trinket >> Eye of Magtheridon
Trinket >> Icon of the Silver Crescent
Waist >> Girdle of Ruination
Wrist >> Bands of Nefarious Deeds

The breakdown:

Stamina – 302
Intellect – 261
Spirit – 22

Spell Damage – 821
Healing – 791
Spell Critical – 82

Resilience – 16
Spell Penetration – 20
Spell Hit – 15
Spell Damage bonus (when resisted) – 170 for 10 seconds
Spell Damage / Healing bonus (use) – 153 for 20 seconds

It would appear the the base stamina and intellect from this set are moderately weak so I’d suggest enchanting bonuses into your armour for these stats. I’d also enchant the Spellblade for an additional +30 spell damage. And again, I suggest mixing and matching because in many cases, these items give up great utility just to have the top spell damage ratings.

February 21, 2007

Shadow Priest 5-Man Viability in TBC

Filed under: World of Warcraft, gaming, shadow priest, the burning crusade — brainclutter @ 4:14 pm

My other posts about shadow priests can be found here:

I have been shadow-spec since I started my Undead priest, Snafzg, because it really fit into my solo-questing playstyle. In Azeroth, I rarely joined instance groups with the exception of Scarlet Monestary to upgrade my gear, bank some cash, and take advantage of accumulated rested XP. For some reason, I just couldn’t find many efficient pick-up groups and found a better time to XP ratio by keeping to myself.

Then the Burning Crusade expansion came out and I really liked the 5-man instance implementation and the quality of party-members increased as well. Horde priests are pretty rare on my server, so I’ve also noticed an increase in group invites. I tried a few groups out of shadow-form as the main healer and found things to be quite manageable in a balanced group (warrior/feral druid, mage, main healer (me), and two other hybrids). Sure it was my primary job to keep people healed up, but certain situations allowed me to go into DPS mode with vampiric embrace + vampiric touch up. Easy pulls mean you can employ the “the best defense is a good offense” strategy. I would stay out of shadow-form just to make sure I could easily drop a flash/greater heal when needed, but I’d say I had a 50/50 DPS to healing ratio.

A friend suggested that I go holy/disc spec because I was in so many instances and it would really increase my efficiency and desirability. Respecs are cheap enough so I took the plunge. My goal was to get Surge of Light in holy with the rest in disc because I wanted some sembelance of solo-viability. Unsurprisingly, my solo efficiency dropped… by a lot… but it would all be worth it if I could own up the 5-man instances. I got my chance to test things out as a “pure” healer and I have to say, “Yawn!” The mana-inefficiency of offensive holy spells prevented me from participating heavily in the DPS category, which meant I was relegated to buffing and healing if I wanted to keep my blue bar in the workable zone. But in TBC, they seem to have nerfed the different heals scalability and efficiency levels. For example, in the past with enough + healing, chain casting “rank 2 Heal” would be more efficient than less frequent greater heals (or so I’ve heard from my holy friends). I found that, at level 63, casting anything but my highest rank Greater Heal was very mana/cast-time inefficient. Maybe it’s better for priests with better +healing than my +540 (in healing suit). For me is was very boring. I had to rely on trinkets, other “use” items, or talents to do anything worthwhile.

I lasted one full level before respeccing back to 41 shadow. A different friend of mine thinks that shadow-priests in a 5-man instances are “a waste of space” but I heavily disagree. I can’t argue that a shadow-priest can be as helpful to a group if their main role is healing, but in an assistive role, they can definitely hold their own. We definitely have group utility if you put a heal-specced druid/shaman/paladin/priest as the main healer.

What utility do we bring?

  • Stamina buff
  • Instant shields
  • HP regen with VE2 (insufficient as main heal source but is a great heal over time effect)
  • Mana regen with VT
  • Damage over time with SW: Pain
  • Second resurrector if main healer wipes
  • Extremely mana efficient DPS (mind flays with sufficient +damage aren’t to be trifled with)
  • Instant AE Fear (though not always advisable)
  • Dispel and Abolish poison
  • Shackle (undead crowd control)
  • Chance for stun with black-out / good mana regen with spirit tap (if we land deathblow)
  • Relatively low threat since most of our damage or heals are over time rather than burst

What do we lack in comparison?

  • Big burst damage
  • Efficient crowd control (aside from ae fear and shackle)
  • Big heals
  • Healing ourselves in combat

In a standard group archetype of Prot Warrior, Holy Priest, Ice Mage, I think we’re definitely a good option to fill in one of the remaining two spots.

Good shadow-strategy in 5-man instances:

  • VE
  • VT
  • Flay
  • Re-VT if necessary
  • Keep flaying until dead

Remember to Fade periodically or when necessary and if you find you’re drawing too much aggro, you can always put points into the shadow threat reduction talent. If you want to continue in shadow-form during level 70 raids, it’s definitely a good idea to invest in the threat-reduction talents. Some shadow-priests report their flays landing for roughly 500 per tick and Mindblasts for 3000+.

What are your thoughts?

February 6, 2007

WoW Shadow Priest // Ultimate PvP gear (70)!

Filed under: MMORPG, World of Warcraft, gaming, shadow priest, the burning crusade — brainclutter @ 11:57 am

This article is old… SEE THE LATEST VERSION HERE!

My other posts about shadow priests can be found here:

This is a new listing of “ultimate PvP” gear for level 70 Shadow-Priests that can be gained SOLELY through PvP (ie. bought with honour and battleground/arena marks). Additionally, I’ve included a list of gems to place into your socketed gear. This set aims to provide a high:

  • +spell damage rating (+healing is also respectable in case of emergencies)
  • +resilience rating (less chance of getting critted)
  • +spell crit rating
  • +stamina and +int (ignores spirit since it’s a PvP build and you won’t have time to regen in battle)

Achieving a higher stat-sum is possible through raiding or rep-grinding, but that’s not the focus of this template. This is pretty much the best of the best you can get from slaughtering player-controlled enemies rather than fancy shmancy dragons or 1000 demonic underlings!

The Chart!

Stat/Effect Summary!

  • Stamina – 496
  • Intellect – 217
  • Spirit – 0
  • + Spell Damage – 540
  • + Healing – 493
  • + Resilience – 348
  • + Spell Crit – 65
  • Psychic Scream: duration increated by 1 second
  • Weakened Soul (effect of PW:S): duration reduced by 2 seconds
  • Spell Reflect: 1%
  • Medallion (use): dispel Fear/Stun/Poly
  • Talisman (use): instant heal 877-969 *self

The Links! (…some are Horde-specific but Alliance has equivalents)

I hope this helps! If you can find anything that fits better, please leave a comment!

January 8, 2007

WoW Shadow Priest // Ultimate PvP gear (60)!

Filed under: MMO, MMORPG, World of Warcraft, gaming, shadow priest — brainclutter @ 2:16 pm

My other posts about shadow priests can be found here:

Here’s a quick table of the ultimate PvP-set for level 60 shadow-priests gained solely through PvP itself!

// UPDATED ENTRY WITH TBC @ LEVEL 70 //

You can make a better setup if by getting all T3 or a mix of T3/PvP gear, however, if you hate raiding like I hate raiding, you might be interested in alternative gear bought from PvP vendors. Iit will take you a while to nab the full set but you’ll get it a lot quicker than a T3 set, I guarantee! You need roughly 160,000 honour and over 300 tokens (the tokens come much easier than the honour – buy the speedy mounts/tabards/etc. with extras) but this gear will make you a PvP force to be reckoned with. It should only take a few weeks of casual play (make sure you hit up your BG-holiday weekends for extra honour).

Let it be known this is for level 60 shadow-priests only. You could make a better set for holy/disc priests using a different mainhand and offhand as well as a few different accessories, but most of the gear is still the same. Also, I’m using the Horde versions of the items because, well, I’m a baby-eating Undead! Alliance has equivalent gear under different names/links.

One final tip, I suggest stopping XP at level 59 to take advantage of being top dog in AB/WSG. Chances are, your enemies will have roughly the same sort of gear you do and you won’t get completely decimated in 1v1 battles like you will in weaker gear at 60 vs. twinks. Enjoy!

PvP Gear Table (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

ITEM LINKS TO THOTTBOT

Accessory

Armour

Weapon

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