Embracin de Shadow

Priest

I’ve been a bit busy as of late, between my mother’s current health dilemma and my own continued problems with my right arm. As a result I’ve been a bit out of touch with anything outside the circle of my family — which has worked well, since I haven’t really been up to dealing with peoples. You know how it can be sometimes. Part of that was not logging into the game for a couple of days, except once or twice when I decided that I’d been neglecting Irenke the troll Shadow priestess on the Scarlet Crusade US roleplaying server¹ for far too long.

It’s been a very, very, very long time since I’ve played a Shadow priest. The original Csilla — affectionately referred to as Csilla 1.0 — was Shadow. However, that was pre-The Burning Crusade, when I realized how much I really enjoyed healing more than serving as a mana battery. As you may recall, the role of the Shadow priest pre-expansion was pretty hazy, since the class offered little synergy and had less sustained damage than other casting classes. Being the self-proclaimed priestaphiliac that I am, I decided that it was high time that I climb back into the saddle and level a Shadow priest again.

If anything, trying to remember that I’m in a group to do damage as opposed to heal will bring hours of amusement to my friends and guildmates.

There are a couple of things that I noted since deciding to forsake Holy and Discipline to return to my Shadowy roots:

• Shadow priest is for damage. I’m having a hell of a time remembering that I’m in a group to kill stuff and not to keep things alive. I spend a lot of time watching people’s health in case I need to step in to heal. I keep hoping that it’ll be easier once I pick up Shadowform — and I’m no longer physically capable of healing.
• Smite is for Holy or Discipline priests. It’s a bad habit, but I rely heavily on Smite to do damage as opposed to utilizing the appropriate Shadow spells, making me a poor Shadow priest. It’s one part habit and partially due to the fact that I’ve put the spell in a readily accessible location for keybindings.
• Spirit Tap is love. It’s absolutely wonderful to have Spirit Tap in a build again and to not feel guilty for having it. As I’ve noted many, many times before² that I adore Spirit with every fiber of my being and anything that can increase my Spirit by a full 100% gets all sorts of thumbs up from me.
• Shadow priest is not mage. Specifically a Frost mage. I miss Frost Nova. And Frostbolt. And Counterspell. And, hell, I just miss playing my mage. It’s hard to play a damage-dealing caster class and not have those spells to fall back on.
• Aggro is a pain. I miss the good old days when Silent Resolve was applicable to Shadow damage in addition to Holy and Discipline threat. It’s not so bad now, but I’m frightened of when I start doing some mediocre damage that doesn’t rely on Smite-spam.
• Centaur aren’t de obligin sort. Three times now I’ve gotten stuck or interrupted by centaurs, whether it’s on my way to get into an instance or to meet up with some others. All of the hassle makes me want to come back when I hit 70 and murderlize some tribes. I’ll personally help the tauren in their war against the centaur — and enjoy every moment of it.

Related Posts

1. Spirit on Arena Gear — Absurd!
2. What Should Have Been a Rant of Epic Proportions
3. Priests — Examine Your Spirit Stat!