Talk to me about vanilla Shadow Priests...

[drabus]

...specifically undead Shadow Priests. In particular, I'm interested to know what the end game experience might be like.

Are they good for quest leveling solo? Are they welcome in raids?

I appreciate any opinions.

[venven]

Raids: 1 slot
PVP: god

[Azalus]

Raids: 1 slot
PVP: god

That about does it, you can lock this thread now.

[Hatson]

Same deal as Enhancement. Except way better at PvP.
Exactly like Ven said.

[Imbaslap]

warlock hp battery.

[rewind]

Same deal as Enhancement. Except way better at PvP.

Way better at pve too

[Rhoen]

In PVP a skilled shadow priest is damn near unkillable, a skilled dwarf or UD shadow priest even more so. A skilled Dwarf/UD shadow priest in full rank 13 gear with whipper root tubers, night dragons breath, and crystal items/buffs from ungoro? well...not fair.

[Drain]

...specifically undead Shadow Priests. In particular, I'm interested to know what the end game experience might be like.

Are they good for quest leveling solo? Are they welcome in raids?

I appreciate any opinions.

Shadows quest very damn easily, at least after 40. The tree is honestly a pile of shit pre 40, and you're much better off as Holy. Any decent player back then would dock 5 for Spirit Tap, then go up Holy to 39. You buff your damage and heals in the same tree, solo fine, PvP much better, and can heal in dungeons better too. In fact, if you favored doing dungeons more than anything else, sticking to Holy all the way to the top wasn't a bad idea. But on a small private server where dungeon groups will be hard to get at all, I expect Shadow on everyone after 40 to be popular. When by yourself, that was the tree to have, at least after Shadowform is available. As I said, pre 40, Shadow is shit. Shadow as a whole is mostly just an inferior group supportative version of the Warlock. If you really NEVER want to heal with the class, it would make more sense to just go Warlock, at least in those years pre Wotlk. Trust me, I know.

Anyone was welcomed in raids because filling up 40 slots was difficult. Any guild would prefer a committed or decent player, even with a weak talent tree, over a stranger picked up out of the city that's never even entered the raid instance. I saw every talent tree used in raids in Classic. It spread out gear use and brought extra perks to the raid, one of which is group healing from Vampiric Embrace. Shadow didn't have bad damage either. It can do so much so quickly that Shadow Affinity points spent is a must. It has a shared problem with Fury Warrior, except that its much easier to control thanks to Affinity cutting out a large chunk of the threat. Fade doesn't hurt, but relying on it isn't good, as that threat comes back. If you find that you need Fade all the time just to do damage, put more into Shadow Affinity.

The main problem is that it doesn't manage its mana very well. Warlocks have a bottomless pool that they can restore by leeching off of enemies. Mages have mana stones and Evocation. Priests have... well, a wand. Seriously, that's what you're going to be using when you run dry. In fact, you may take Wand Spec because of it. Wand Spec is incredibly valuable on a Priest leveling up, and not bad at 60 either. You have nothing better to do when your bar is empty. If you're smart, you'll take Meditation and Mental Agility if you want to raid with Shadow, but that doesn't change the fact that you will run out every boss fight. It'll just take slightly longer to do. It doesn't help that the Shadow tree has exactly 0 talents to conserve or restore mana. Shadow Focus does mean that you don't have to lose mana on resists, but counting that, you have 1. A Warlock has that same trait, on top of Improved Drain Life, Siphon Life(Life=Mana), Improved Life Tap, and Dark Pack, which allows them to eat his invulnerable Imp's mana that isn't being used to do anything else. The Warlock not only has infinite mana, but can always heal himself up. The Shadow will inevitably run out, and the healing will stop when the damage does. Better bring mana potions.

[drabus]

Thanks for all of the replies...it certainly gives me more to think about.

[Ptoad]

pre-40 Shadow shit?... umm NOPE

points in wand specialization... nope.

I have lvled a few priests in my days and got one to General in Vanilla retail.

I disagree with the above poster in regards to lvling prior to 40. At lvl 14 you get a 100% spirit buff after each kill... which effectively leaves you NO downtime between mobs. in your 20;s you get mind flay which I believe is the #1 dmg/mana spell in the game. So soloing... no brainer go Shadow.

Well, what about healing in dungeons while I am lvling? A shadow(31) Disc(20)... can heal ANYTHING SCHOLO or below with aplomb... and also has silence to boot... a +heal geared SPriest will keep you alive as well as a holy/Disc priest... in 5-mans... it's gear and skill till now...than the gear and length of fights changes.

SPriest PVP ... face melting is a term that originated from the description of S Priest PVP.... in no order at all...Undead=stun,WOTF, Trinket, Fear, dot , dot high crit cast, channeled drain spell, silence, mind control... so many I Win buttons... plus you can turn the tide in flag battles with renew/shield/fear

Raids... well if they got R13 gear they are contenders...Their is NO such thing as T1 for a shadow priest... or put in a group w/4 SM-Ruin warloks.... handy to have for renews shields buffs and emergencies..
run out of mana? i really can't imagine where you witnessed this. My dps rotation (not in a group of loks) was SWP, Dev.Plag., VE, [EDIT] MIND BLAST,mind flay... continue flay till BLAST came up... rinse and repeat... just keep the dots up... again mind flay is extremely mana efficient.

So... if yer gonna play a priest... healing is fun and speccing into Disc/Holy... is yer best bet end game. Lvling, PVP and healing 5 mans... Shadow is quicker and arguably more fun.

Oh... and yes... wands are great... you are pretty silly if you throw a point into the talent tho.