I pushed right through Northrend this past week in trying to hit 85 before the expansion comes out. At the moment, I managed to hit level 82 on my Shadow Priest and am about to start the Deepholme quest chain. Once I hit level 85, it will mark my 10th level 85, giving me the full range of classes at the moment in the World of Warcraft. I decided to blog about my experience thus far in retrospect as I aim towards 85.
First, the shadow priest definitely is one of my least favorite classes in the game. Of course, you might be wondering why I even bothered leveling one in the first place if I disliked it. The point was to experience the class and see if there were any benefits to playing it. Thus far, I found the class to have been one of the least enjoyable overall mostly because other classes surpass everything the shadow priest can do.
Some may argue that the shadow priest’s damage can make them a top DPS in raids. Ignoring that aspect for the moment, I want to focus just on the play style. The class primarily is thought of as a dot class. Some compare the shadow priest to an affliction warlock. I tend to disagree. I found that the class is closer to a boomkin. You’re really just managing two primary dots on a target while racing to get 3-4 long casting abilities up. If anything, the main difference is that the shadow priest can do an AoE heal rather than just a self-heal. So perhaps in that regard, the shadow priest plays more interesting in a group setting.
However, one of the worst things I’ve found about the class is just a lack of AoE abilities until hitting level 74. Sure, we get holy nova, but that really isn’t practical. That made instance grinding a nightmare, especially when confronted with a lot of mobs. Another element that I dislike about the class is the general slowness as a class. Only at the highest levels do you start seeing some movement boosters. But compared to death knights, hunters, paladins, mages, etc. you really don’t get much and often times find yourself running desperately to catch up to the rest of the group.
Another huge problem is mana. For the most part, you’re going to be mana starved. Once again, until you start hitting higher levels, you’ll be constantly waiting around drinking. Earlier today, I was in an instance with another shadow priest. Her mana was constantly depleted and she wondered just how I managed to keep near full. My trick mostly was in one of the major glyphs, combined with a rotation that allowed replenishment. I think once my shadow priest hits 85, the glyph no longer will be relevant so I might start encountering mana problems again (then again certain talents like Dark Evangelism might solve it along with putting more talent points in reducing the cost of instant cast spells).
Next, we really have no interrupts and good CC. If you want an interrupt, you have to spec into one to gain silence. But then why should you be forced to take a dedicated spec just for a few specific encounters? And the CC for a shadow priest really sucks. We do get an AoE fear and a certain glyph will hold our enemies in place. However, we’re required to be close to our enemies in order to use that. In some encounters, that just isn’t practical, especially considering that we’re a ranged class wearing crap armor.
Of course, old school shadow priest will claim that mind control is the ultimate form of CC. Again, I think that aspect is more geared towards PVP oriented play. I have read how some people will use mind control in Heroic Cataclysm instances to manipulate healers. But as a DPS class, I am not allowed to focus on other mobs while channeling mind control. So for me, this form of CC is useless.
The only thing I do like is the Power Word Shield ability. That has saved my ass on a lot of occasions. That to me is the difference maker in many encounters. Combine that with healing abilities, the shadow priest can shine in their own light.
At any rate, I hope that by next weekend my shadow priest will be at level 85. I will try to make it before then as I would like to run Cataclysm HoTs and LFR before the next expansion comes out. My ultimate purpose though is just to get a chance to really play each class to their fullest and see how each class feels.