Should I (temporarily) drop Wand spec. for Shadowform?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

So, im leveling a Shadow Priest and I am close to hitting level 40.

Right now, 5 of my talent points are in Wand Spec. while the rest goes down the Shadow Tree.

With Level 40, I would be able to go into Shadow Form IF i drop Wand Spec.

Until now my Wand has been my no.1 Tool for DPS, so I am not quite sure if I should do that, even though as long as I stick to a shadow ward, it would only be a 10% DPS loss from Wands…

My two options are:

  1. Respec and go full Shadow, all the way down, reskill Wand Spec from Level 41 to 45.
  2. Keep Wand Spec, Delay Shadow Form to Level 45.

Currently I am more leaned towards 1, since Shadowform improves all my damage and gives me a defensive boost on top of that (plus it looks cool), but I wanted to hear the opinion of some people who have more experience with late vanilla priests.

1 Like
2

I’ve never played priest but I didn’t respec MM to get Aimed Shot 30 levels early, I just waited until level 51:P

3

Important thing to keep in mind: You’ll get the respec for 1g just once. After that it’ll be 5, 10, 15 - and once you reach 15 it’ll never get any lower. Respeccing in classic is really, really pricy in the long run.

So yeah, you could totally go for shadow form, but are five levels with it worth the one ‘cheap’ respec you have?

1 Like
4

I have the same dilemma on my lock, get Soul Link now by re-speccing or wait a few levels.

I’m going to stick it out - really won’t make that much difference for the few levels I need to unlock it.

5

Doesn’t the price go down after a month?

6

Yes, but only to a minimun of 15 gold.

Sadly i already wasted my 1 gold respec, am now at 5 gold… really have to think, but i will have to respec in the long run again anyway, because i accidently misclicked one skillpoint…

7

Yes, imho respec at 40. The extra damage from shadowform will make up for losing the points in wand and there aren’t any great wands around that level, so imo you’re gimping yourself if you don’t.

2 Likes
8

Just to be sure, the 15% bonus damage from Shadow form does work on Shadow damage wands, yes? It doesnt say “Spell damage” after all…

9

Yes respec to shadow and pick up wand tallents after

Since you are not a fool you are ofcourse using a shadow wand so with shadow form you only loose 10% wand damage, but gain 15% on your SW:P

and you can gain that 10% back in just too levels.

It really is a no brainer.

As for the respec cost - gold comes a lot easier post 40. I am sitting at 150g inspite of going crazy on the AH buying all runecloth I can lay my hands on and all my alts now have blues in their bank for just about every level :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
10

Yes - but only SHADOW wands, same goes for the shadoweaving debuff.

1 Like
11

I think it does in this patch, not 100% sure when it changed. I usually buy the wand from undercity, I think mages get all the best ones around then.

This is if you intend to level as shadow ofc. There’s no point in waiting 5 levels if you have the gold.

1 Like
12

Well, yeah, thats a nobrainer, but thanks^^
Just asking because many shadow talents only work for Shadow damage done by your skills^^

13

as a side note on your character sheet under ranged it shows the shadow form multiplier ( correct ) but it also adds all your spellpower and shadow damage to your wand ( wrong ) I made a bug report about it, but no change so far.

1 Like
14

Ouch, yeah that’s still a lot of gold when without a 60 to farm some gold on.

15

I levelled with Wand spec. As you wand more then casting any spells.

16

What was your rotation? Mine is: (Shadow Guard) - Mind Blast - SW Pain - Mind Flay - Mind Flay - Mind Blast - Wand.

Normaly at the second Mind Blast, if everything hit, the enemy is at around 1/3 hp.

17

Go full disc, you won’t regret it. Shadow is kinda useless.

1 Like
18

Depends a bit on how much hp the mob has

Mind blast - SW:Pain - Flay
Mob should be about 50% health and then wand, this should mean the mob dies with 1-2 tick of sw:p left (no imp. sw:p).

Sometimes you’d need two flays for it to line up.

If it’s harder hitting mobs I’d start off with a shield before the pull.

Using this rotation I always have minmum 80% health and mana, which is nice for supprise pvp.

For casters that refuse to get into flay range, you can replace flay with mana burn. or just move you lazy bastard :wink:

2 Likes
19

Bubble, Mind Blast, SWP, Wand… Mind Blast, Wand…, Bubble.
You will never go oom this way.

20

Ending with a spell means you have to wait longer for your mana regeneration to kick in, no?

1 Like