Last night was our first “alt-friendly” raid in Naxx, and it was a blast. We had holy paladins tanking bosses, new characters in greens walking out with half a dozen upgrades, and I switched roles with one of our shadow priests and went DPSy for the night.
I’ve never raided as Shadow. I did two heroics the night before as practice, but otherwise what little experience I’ve had has all been questing solo. I have always been a big advocate of reaching the hit cap for our DPS, and over the past couple of weeks I picked up a couple of good pieces in Naxx and enchanted, gemmed, and buffed for hit. I zoned in feeling pretty dang slick with my 160 hit until my shadow priest compatriot informed me that the new cap is 290. Oopsie. First noob moment.
For those who don’t know, shadow priest DPS seems to be more of a priority system than a strict rotation. Personally, I just made sure that all three of my DoTs were up and Shadow Word: Death and Mind Blast were on cooldown, and then Mind Flayed until something needed refreshing. There are probably more nuances to the shadow priest priority system, but that worked for my first raid. On trash, Mind Sear is brutally overpowered and I love it. I was #2 on damage during the pre-Heigan “not gauntlet”. Me. Number 2. It made me giggle.
My UI is all wrong for DPS. When you heal, a boss is almost incidental. It’s the source of damage, but really your whole UI is oriented around the status of the raid at any given time. For DPS, of course, the health and activity of the boss is paramount, so my user frames were sort of backwards. I had a DoT timer, but a more general cooldown timer mod would have also been useful. And without keybindings I ended up staring at my action bars all night, which means I was not only one of those dreaded clickers, but also, yes, that jerk who stands in Rain of Fire.
My output, while not awesome, was not the hideous embarrassment I anticipated. I enjoyed the DPS epeening of Patchwerk for once, and ended up in the top ten for that fight. (Yes, as long as I don’t have to move or talk or look at anything, I can do.. almost adequate damage.) I also managed to almost kill myself on Loatheb by merrily SW:Ding away — thanks to our healing crew for covering my butt — and I DID kill myself on Gluth by SW:D right after Decimate hit. It was not my finest moment. (“Oh RIGHT. That spell.”)
It’s back to Holy tomorrow for Sarth 3D and an Undying attempt, but this experience has definitely whet my appetite for dual specs. I think my guild hasn’t seen the last of Evil Raiding Liore.
