RG1 Shadow Priest

[Vimali]

Who is your character?

Vimali, Priest, Shadow.
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/k ... i/advanced

Who are you?

My name is Jack, I'm 25 years old, from United Kingdom.

To which Raid Group are you Applying?

I am applying for RG1.

Experience

I have been playing the game for 7-8 years, on and off, of which I have gained these past experiences when they were current content.

Wrath of the Lich King:

Naxx 15/15
The Obsidian Sanctum 1/1
The Eye of Eternity 1/1
Ulduar 13/14

Mists of Pandaria:

Siege of Orgrimaar 11/14 pre 6.0 14/14 post 6.0

Warlords of Draenor:

Highmaul 6/7 Mythic
Blackrock Foundary 10/10HC, 2/10 Mythic

I have also gained myself some outside of raiding experiences, that are very class specific and how you play them, like the current 8/8 Challenge Mode Golds during Warlord of Draenor.

Raid Role

As a Shadow Priest, my role in the raid consists of a number of things. To name a few, as well as obviously dealing damage, Shadow Priest bring some very unique abilities. First of all their healing cooldown, considered the best DPS healing cooldown in the game, on par with some healer cooldowns, like Hymn. They also provide an AoE dispell which is incredibly useful on certain fights. They also bring some unique play styles since the changes in WoD, being strong in both multi target fights and single target.

As well as these class specific raid roles, as a damage dealer I have some other raid roles, those being following encounter mechanics and helping the raid defeat an encounter to the best of my ability.

Your Spec

Stat Priority:

At the moment my stats priority is as follows:

Intellect > Crit > Haste > Multistrike > Mastery=Versatility

Intellect to increase my spell damage. Crit is the next stat on the priority as critical strikes from Shadow Word: Pain cause Shadowy Apparitions to spawn, which generate Shadow Orbs which is our resource for our more powerful spell, Devouring Plague.

Haste is next, this makes DoTs tick faster which means more chance of DoTs to crit, which generates Orbs faster. Haste also reduces the cast time of all spells.

Multistrike to make spells hit for 30% more on top of the original hit.

Gems: Greater Critical Strike Taladite
Enchants: Mark of the Thunderlord and Gift of Critical Strike on neck, cloak and rings.

Rotation/Spell Priority:

The Auspicious Spirit rotation is very similar to our rotation from previous expansions. As much as I loved the new play stayle of shadow with Clarity of Power, Auspicious Spirits has become a complete joy to play.

Priorities for the spec would be keeping Vampiric Touch and Shadow Word: Pain on the target and to keep Shadow Word: Pain on any other target that may be active. Vampiric Touch should be applied to any additional targets only if it's worth the GCD in my opinion or if it is going to be alive long enough to benefit from it. Mind Blast should always be used on cooldown, it is the top priority spell.

Use Devouring Plague once I have enough Orbs. Mind Flay is used as a filler, Mind Flay: Insanity as a filler if Insanity is active. I use halo/cascade on cooldown, I would usually hold off using it on cooldown if I knew adds were going to be spawning. I guess that's a basic version of priorities. Rotation is very situational and encounter dependent due to which talents you take. I use my shadowfiend if i'm benefitting from any stat increases, like trinket procs or weapon procs.

My Vampiric Embrace is usually cycled into the healer cooldown rotation, so it is assigned to a particular part of the fight. If it's not, i use when i feel it is needed.

Glyphs:

Glyph of Mind Flay: I use for mobility, as there is a lot of movement in Blackrock Foundary.

Glyph of Vampiric Embrace: Making my already strong cooldown even stronger.

Glyph of Reflective Shield: Still using this at the moment, as if used correctly, its reflection can be the equivilant of a Mind Blast.

For my Tier 1 (level 15) talents, my choices are usually between Desperate Prayer and Angelic Bulwark. I like to take Angelic Bulwark on boss fights that have some sort of mechanic that can bring me to low health quite often, like oregorger's Acid Torrents, or Flamebender's Lavalash. I use Spectral Guise for Iron Maidens to drop the Penetrating Shot, much like a mage's Ice Block or a hunters Deterrence. On all other fights I would take Desperate Prayer for managing self heals, or timing it to use after a boss mechanic. I also have a macro for it to be used with a healing tonic for those "oh crap" moments.

For my Tier 2 (level 30) talents, in my opinion this choice is purely personal. I find myself using Angelic Feather the majority of the time as i'm very comfortable using it, and have it bound to 'X' on my keyboard for easy access. Times where I have chosen Body and Soul over feathers have been on fights such as Mythic Tectus, for good mobility and good use of shields can be combined when targeted by Crystalline Barrage.

For my Tier 3 (level 45) talents, for the majority of boss encounters, I am using Insanity within this current raid tier, due to it's damage output, and with the recent buff in 6.1 to Insanity, which now effects Mind Sear as well (about time!), it makes it very viable on AoE fights. I use Surge of Darkness on two boss encounters, those being Hans'gar and Franzok and The Iron Maidens. My reasons for this is that combining Surge of Darkness with Auspicious Spirits allows for incredible amounts of procs due to the constant uptime of DoTs, and on such fights, keeping DoTs on all targets doesnt really allow much uptime on Insanity if you were to choose it, making Surge of Darkness more viable. Mindbender used to be quite viable for fights like Beastlord but since the buff to Mind Sear that's no longer an option.

For my Tier 4 (level 60) There's only one talent to choose here as the other two are complete garbage for PvE, so my talent choice is Dominate Mind. Very useful for Blast Furnace.

For my Tier 5 (level 75) talents I mainly use Twist of Fate, the reason for that choice is it's uptime. Fights like Beastlord or add fights in general can allow an uptime of anywhere between 80-90% if used correctly which is a 15% damage increase for the whole fight. It's great for 'burn' phases too, allowing a priest to output high damage during their execute phase. I have also been experimenting with Pain Surpression on single target fights, to completely move away from Clarity of Power. Ideally i'd like to build myself a mastery set to use for pure single target fights, which is what i'm working on at the moment.

For my Tier 6 (level 90) talents I am running Cascade on the majority of fights because of its ability to bounce between all targets twice. I have moved away from Halo since Cascades buff, as I feel it's a better use of a GCD, and it has a shorter cooldown. There is only one fight I would possibly consider still using Halo, and that would be Gruul. Divine Star just isnt viable for shadow priests at this moment in time.

For my Tier 7 (level 100) talents I am running Auspicious Spirits. With itemization in Blackrock Foundary favouring crit, and with the buff to AS in 6.1, shadow priests have been able to make the transition from Clarity of Power to Auspicious Spirits. Although Clarity of Power will always be the stronger single target spec, with the diversity of the Blackrock Foundary encounters and them favouring multiple target scenarios, Auscpicious Spirits is the best option across the board. I use Clarity of Power on Kromog still, which I combine with Insanity for the extra damage to Mind Sear on the Rune of Grasping Earth phases.

Off-specs and Alternative characters

Not currently in possession of an off spec, reason being that I have put a lot of focus into my main spec to play it to the best of my ability.

I have a Retribution Paladin, just an alt I play on from time to time. Currently 670 item level, so nothing serious, but enjoyable to play.

Communication

Yes i own a microphone and very comfortabe using it. I will be very active on forums about discussing the said things above, i'm very active doing the same things on my current guild's forum.

Combat Logs

https://www.warcraftlogs.com/rankings/s ... pec=Shadow

Your UI

http://imgur.com/GI57aAc

Guild History

Self Preservation Society (WotLK): Raided and cleared content up to ICC, which is when the guild disbanded.

Craze! (Cata): Very small stint in this guild, left due to real life commitments.

Heretic (MoP + WoD): Current guild.

Raid availability

Yes I am able to attend the raid times above, they are the same raid days and times as my previous guild. The only thing I could suggest that would prevent me from coming to a raid would be a unforseeable event, or something that I've known about for a while and would be able to inform the guild in advance so they would be aware of my absence.

References

I saw a recruitment post on the wow forums, and since then been speaking with Bowick.

About you

I'm incredibly sociable and easy going, people tell me that im sometimes a bit too layed back though haha. I'm a people person, so even on a game I really enjoy a good social aspect to a guild. I like to think i see the best in people and give everybody a chance. In terms of a player, things you can expect from me are professionalism, and a player who knows his class inside out. This has been my main character since i started playing back at the beginning of WotLK. I will always involve myself in the raid as much as I can.

Miscellaneous

Thank's for taking the time to read my application, i hope you enjoy reading it.

[Stukov]

Hey Vimali,
Thank you for the application, please give us some time to review it.

[imbajimba]

Looks very nice Vimali

[Yogá]

Hi there!
Very nice application! I have a question though.
You said that you use glyph of mind flay for mobility, but what about glyph of SW:D? I know that a lot of shadow priests use shadow word: death for moving, since it has a higher DPET than shadow word: pain. Care to explain your choice of mind flay over shadow word: death?

-Yogá

[Vimali]

Hi Yogá,

What you're saying is completely correct! But in my opinion, as well as many other shadow priests, Glyph of SW:D is a thing of the past. Now with most (if not all) shadow priests running Auspcious Spirits, there is no where near as much 'down time' compared to Clarity of Power back in Highmaul, meaning there really isnt much use for a movement filler, such a Glyphing SW:D, and with how much more movement is needed in Blackrock Foundary for mechanics, being able to move faster outweighs using SW:D as a filler. The use of Auspicious Spirits almost counters using SW:D as a filler due to the increased damage of Shadowy Appirations also.

[Yogá]

While I agree, that the use of AS does reduce the usefulness of SW:D glyph, I've found, that on most encounters in BRF, the movement speed increase gained from Body and Soul/Feather, whichever you choose to use is usually enough to get out of whatever fire you're standing in/mechanic you need to avoid, so wouldn't another glyph placed in that slot be more beneficial (Fade, Silence)?

[Vimali]

Yes, the Glyphs I included in my application are the ones i would say i use the majority of the time. My glyph choices change depending on encounter, for example when glyph of silence would be more useful on a fight like Blast Furnace or Oregorger if i am assigned to the interrupt rotation or used as a back up, or using glyph of fade on fights like Gruul. I can see how my glyph choices i put can come across as not that informative, appologies for that. I decided to go into a lot more detail about my talent choices and how they change.

[Beastaly]

Thanks for all the lovely answers and a very neat application,

We'll have a sit down with the other officers and back to you as soon as we can!

Kind regards,
Beast

[Bowick]

Hi Vimali,

Good news! Based on your application and discussions, we'd like to offer you a raid trial. We'd also be keen to get you on mumble for a chat with some of the other officers and raiders, for any further questions you/we may have.

As for your trial, Thursday (tomorrow) would be a convenient day to begin, since it's farm night. Though I understand you'll need to transfer, so if that's too soon, no problem. Just let us know!

Stuff to have installed for your first raid, either way:
- Mumble
- Angry Assignments
- EPGPLootmaster
- Exorsus Raid Tools
And ofc be up to scratch on tactics for the first 6+ Mythic bosses.

Cheers,
Bowie

[Vimali]

That's good news. I have the majority of those already installed from my raids with my current guild, I'll just have to download mumble, as we use TeamSpeak.

Yes I will have to transfer but that can probably be done this evening. I should be home at around 15:30 UK time, so at about 16:30 ST. I'll get in contact with you on BTag for a chat on mumble.

[Jimmble]

<recruited>