Panumbra - Shadow Priest

[panumbra]

Character Name - Level - Race: Panumbra - 80 - Night Elf
Desired Raiding Spec: Shadow
Can You Make Our Raid Times: Yes
Armory Link: www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Dragonblight&n=Panumbra
Previous Guild(s) and reason for leaving: Villains Requiem - This was probably my favorite guild that I've been in. Unfortunately the guild disbanded right as Sunwell hit during BC. Right now, I'm in a very relaxed guild called Infamous. Infamous is just a means of keeping in contact with pals.
Reason for your interest in Rififi: I've always been a hopeless night owl, so the raid times are perfect for me. Also, I know it'll be fun to talk with a couple of old guild mates of mine, but the main reason is that I really would love to get back into raiding on a much more serious level.

1) Discuss the effort you've made in acquiring reputation with factions in Wrath of the Lich King, including the Sons of Hodir.
The first rep I worked on was Kirin Tor for my helm enchant. I started working on the Ebon Blade rep for the belt when I stumbled across another belt of almost equal value, so I decided to start on The Wyrmrest Accord rep for my boots. I'm at revered currently with Sons of Hordir and doing all the dailies every day to get that shoulder enchant upgrade.

2) Our Raid Leader doesn't talk in vent. Ever. In our opinion this does not lead to a lack of communication and we feel like he's by far the best player in the guild for this particular task, and therefore we express no discontent. Will reading raid strategies rather than hearing on vent them frustrate you and leave you with any sort of hostile feelings towards the guild in general?
I'm a fan of knowing what I'm doing. Likewise, I enjoy it when others around me know what they're doing, so this is a pretty nice perk to me.

3) Please describe your DPS rotation, general Healing Theory, or tanking stratagem. For whichever applies, discuss your glyphs and how they benefit you.
SW:P > VT > DP > SW:D > MB > MF*2 >MB > VT...basically keep the dots up, Mind Blast and SW:D when they're up, and Mind Flay in between. As far as glyphs go, I think the most important glyph is Glyph of Mind Flay. The extra range is a staple in my setup. Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain is my second favorite, and Glyph of Shadow Word: Death is tied with Glyph of Shadow for third.

4) We hold some players' Dual-Spec in higher regard than others. Do you have dual-spec? What is it, and will you be pissed if we give another player off-set gear over you based on a stronger likelihood of his or her raiding as that spec to suit the guild's need for a specific encounter? Are you willing and capable of being a player with a "useful" secondary raiding spec?
I have dual spec. Right now, my second spec is Disc for PvP. This spec is admittedly a work in progress and I'm willing to change it. The gear distribution won't be an issue to me.

5) What is the most difficult encounter you've dealt with in the current patch? Why did you choose this one and how did you handle it?
Unfortunately, I haven't come across too many challenging encounters in Wrath. I'd say the hardest encounter I've done was Archimonde. As a single player I concentrated on staying alive more than anything. As a raid we addressed each problem at a time until everyone in the raid was able to avoid the obstacles and take him down to 10% ftw.

6) Do you have any references on the Dragonblight server? Who?
I've raided with Wowbagger and Laesierah.

7) If you bitch about not getting loot we probably will just not really consider you for gear. Similarly, if you don't get the best enchants/gems on the loot we do give you, we'll probably not give you any more until no one else needs the items. Are you still interested in Rififi?
Fo sho.

8) What in your preferred raiding spec will benefit the raid? Answer this however you see appropriate.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude, Vampiric Embrace, and Vampiric Touch all are great utility, especially since Vampiric Touch effects the entire raid now.

9) Are you a Ret Paladin who either is retarded or has Buiden listed as a reference?
No? No. Definitely not.

10) Seriously, our Raid Leader doesn't' talk on vent and our GM often jokes about being a homosexual (no one is sure if he's kidding). If you join, are you going to make fun of them?
Nope.

[Heavens]

Hiya Panumbra

Heard really good things about you from bagger.

Few questions:

Your meta gem, with all SP's spells being able to crit wouldnt you benfit more from the 21 crit/3% crit bonus one?

As for your Spell rotations, Correct me if i am wrong, SW:D is no longer a viable spell to be using in SP's rotation with all the other spells being able to crit. Its more of a situational use such as when you're in the air, or when you're moving. That brings me to the glyphs, if SW:D shouldnt be in the spell rotation then there is no use for the glyph.

[panumbra]

Thanks for responding Heavens. It's good to know Wowbagger remembers me, because VR had a lot of good members.

My apologies that it took so long to post a reply. I wanted to make sure I completely understood your questions and the answers to them. As it turns out you're right on all three points. I must admit, I'm struggling to find a good website with correct info. I used shadowpriest.com during BC, but now it seems to just be disorganized and nearly impossible to find solid answers unless you don't mind sifting through 20 page threads. I do appreciate the cut and dry information.

My initial thought with the meta gem was that spell power>crit. This may be true as a general statement, but in this case crit + increased crit damage>spell power + int.

I tested my DPS under a few conditions to come to the conclusion that you were right. First, testing my DPS with no changes at all to my gear or glyphs, and using SW:D in my cycle. This was basically my dependent. My second test was with no changes to gear but this time with no SW:D in the cycle. This told me that SW:D didn't change my DPS nearly enough to account for the mana, GCD, or damage it causes. This obviously meant Glyph of SW:D had to go and Glyph of Shadow was in. My last DPS test was with the meta gem change and with no SW:D in my rotation. This increased my DPS by almost 100 DPS.

Sorry for the long winded answer. I know it's a lot to read when you have 5 other people's applications to go through as well. My goal was to make it clear that I understand why your tips did in fact increase my DPS, and not create the idea that I'm blindly following instructions to increase my chances of being recruited.

Thanks again for the reply, and for reading this loooong response.

[Heavens]

Hiya Panumbra thanks for actually trying it out instead of blindly follow whatever someone else tells you.

I do have a few more questions sry i just saw them lol.

You have 2 9sp/12stamina gems, and i understand they are for the meta, wouldn't you benfit more from 9sp/8spirit gems? as a dps class 12 stamina isnt going to help your dps nor is it going to help you stay alive.

Another thing is, can i hear your theory behind taking inner focus? and not having improved spirit tap? not saying you're wrong or anything, just wondering why.

Also we will give you an update as soon as possible, most likely you will be invited to our runs as trail if of course you're not saved to ulduar 25 this week.

[panumbra]

As far as the stamina gems go, I've been told that I have relatively low hp for some PvE encounters, like Malygos. The combined 16 spirit from the two gems would increase my DPS by 2.29 (4.58 when Glyph of Shadow procs). The spirit would also increase my longevity, but I haven't had any problems with that as of yet. With the possibility of heading into more fights with unavoidable raid damage I thought it best to sac the 2.29 increased DPS to increase my chances of living. However, if you think the 240hp is just not enough to be relevant then the best choice would be to switch out the gems.

On to Inner Focus. As a priest, I like to spec into Improved Power Word: Fortitude so I can help out with buffs. Also, Meditation was good even before the buff it received during BC. That puts me on the third tier of disc with only one point needed for Inner Focus.

I've played an Undead Priest for a while when they were the only ones that had Devouring Plague. Inner Focus into Devouring Plague was always a good play, so I applied that knowledge to this Priest. Also, with the changes to Shadow Power, Using Inner Focus for a Mind Blast isn't a horrible idea either. For one point, I couldn't pass it up.

Now for Spirit Tap. I always pick up Spirit Tap for leveling, but for raiding I don't find myself with enough talents to pick it up. With just Spirit Tap 3/3, it would increase my spell power by ~56 (or roughly 80 DPS) and increase my regeneration for 15 seconds. While the buff itself is superb, the proc chance is extremely inconsistent in 25 man raids. It requires I get the killing blow on an add, which is difficult to do with that many people hitting it. If I were to spec into Improved Spirit Tap, my spell power would increase by ~6 (or roughly 11 DPS) for those 8 seconds when it procs. I cast ~7 mind blast per minute and have a ~15% crit chance. That means that it should proc about once per minute. In other words this proc would be up 13% of the time. This converts into 1.43, or .05%, increase to DPS. Not worth it to me when the talent next to it increases my DPS by 243.

[Wowbagger]

You available to come to Uld25 thursday night at 11pm?

[panumbra]

Yeah. I'll be on by 10 server.

[silv]

You have to look at this in a raid perspective.Mind Melt increases Mind Blast crit chance by 4%, you gain 5% crit from Scorch, 3% from Totem of Wrath/Heart of the Crusader, and 5% crit from Moonkin Aura/Elemental Oath. So, all of those combined and how well Imp Spirit Tap will scale with gear makes it worthwhile to drop the points you have in Shadow Affinity, Vampiric Embrace, and Inner Focus to gain Imp Spirit Tap. Also, why exactly are you spec'd into Unbreakable Will over Improved Inner Fire for the additional spellpower?