Vampiric Embrace might not be visible to you, but it's as defining as Shadowform to us

I often feel that of all our Shadow Priest spells, Vampiric Embrace is the spell that is really only understood by those who have played a Shadow Priest.

Most people know that a Shadow Priest gets back a bit of passive healing while they deal damage. But Vampiric Embrace hasn’t been a hot topic during Wrath of the Lich King. We’ve talked about Dispersion and Mind Sear a lot. And so we should: they were new and interesting.

We’ve always taken Vampiric Embrace for granted. It’s one of our defining abilities, as important as Shadowform to my way of thinking.

The last time I remember really thinking about Vampiric Embrace was right before Wrath of the Lich King was released back at the end of the Burning Crusade. Up until then I think (from memory) Vampiric Embrace was a spell that we would cast on our target, it cost mana, only lasted for about a minute and any damage that we did to that target would heal back both the Shadow Priest and their four party members for 10% of the damage dealt. You could spend talents and I think you could boost that amount to almost 20%. So much has changed.

Mostly Vampiric Embrace was a bit of an annoyance. One that lazy Shadow Priests forgot about and one that smart Shadow Priests could use with a bit of planning to benefit their party and help keep themselves healthy during raid encounters.

And boy did we need it. Back then Shadow Word: Death, our instant spell with a very nasty 100% backlash, was part of our regular casting rotation.

In fact when I was first learning how to Shadow Priest I was given the advice to try and follow up a Shadow Word: Death cast with a Mind Blast. This way we would drop to a third health (from SW:D) and then prop ourselves back up to say half health with the Vampiric Embrace heal (from Mind Blast damage).

Still a distracted Shadow Priest could easily kill themselves by following their “rotation” and not paying attention to incoming environmental damage. And on a fight were the raid’s DPS was artificially boosted? We would often slip up and kill ourselves.

But I’m getting off track. Someone changed the numbers in the lead up to Wrath and for a very short time the amount that Vampiric Embrace healed was boosted to 25% of damage to the target… baseline. I think they may have increased it to a raid wide effect too briefly. Remember this was in the days when they were trying to simplify raid composition and buffs.

The TLDR version is that for about a week or two during the lead up to Wrath even Shadow Priests would admit “Vampiric Embrace is OP”. The nerfs were fast and furious. Shadow Priest DPS was increasing and nobody wanted to make healers obsolete.

Numbers were changed. But the most important change to the spell split the healing returns: the Shadow Priest would receive a much bigger heal from Vampiric Embrace, and the rest of their party would get a little bit. Vampiric Embrace existed to help keep Shadow Priests alive all on our own. It helped keep us independent.

I loved this change. I wanted to feel the effect of my own Vampiric Embrace spell, and I wanted some control over my own health bar. Just as Warlocks have both Life Tap and Drain Life, I wanted to know that I could choose to hurt myself with Shadow Word: Death, but that I could also heal myself in part with Vampiric Embrace – and, as the encounter demanded drop one or both from my spell casting altogether.

I loved all the changes made to Vampiric Embrace to make it more useful – to more than just long boss encounters that is – during Wrath of the Lich King. First Blizzard dropped the mana cost and then extended its duration to 5 minutes. Then it became the self buff, an aura, that we have now. No longer did we have to focus fire one target to receive the benefits. It became great for instances and 3-4 mob pulls.

Most of these changes made Vampiric Embrace an easier spell to use, and like Shadowform and Inner Fire it became a pre-fight buff rather than a decision you would make mid-combat.

See a Shadow Priest? Well assume they have Vampiric Embrace active. You won’t get one without the other.

But while Vampiric Embrace was going through a series of minor usability improvements it didn’t get much press. When, during Wrath of the Lich King, did you read a raid strategy guide that even mentioned the words “Vampiric Embrace”. I can think of only one fight in which Vampiric Embrace was noticeably useful to the raid’s success: Heroic Anub’arak in Trial of the Crusader.

As a member of a moderately successful guild I can tell you that we spent about 4-6 weeks working on that encounter and it was a doozy. Heroic Anub’arak, Heroic Lich King and Heroic Halion are the only encounters that I haven’t completed this expansion and I can tell you that I’d much prefer to be wiping on Heroic LK or Halion instead of Anub’arak.

Need to keep a party at near death indefinitely with a tiny trickle of heals keeping them alive? Vampiric Embrace to the rescue!

Meanwhile Blizzard have struggled to move Shadow Word: Death into its “rightful” place as an execute: a spell with no place in our rotation until our target is under 25% health. Unfortunately they haven’t been very successful. We dropped Shadow Word: Death out of our rotation back when we lost our Tier 7 four piece set bonus and we haven’t been harming ourselves with it until very, very recently.

It’s no wonder that over the space of two years Shadow Priests have been some of the most reliable, resilient (no, not the PVP kind!) clothies standing at your back.

We don’t die. We haven’t been killing ourselves with the backlash from Shadow Word: Death since we dropped it  and we’ve been keeping ourselves alive with hymns, Dispersion and Vampiric Embrace.

Obviously we’re doing too good a job.

It surprised me when I read Natarumah’s Survivability and DPS at stake post in which he outlines the direction that Blizzard are taking with Shadow Priests, Mastery and Vampiric Embrace in Cataclysm.

Vampiric Embrace is taking a pretty significant numbers hit. In Cataclysm we can expect to receive only 6% of our damage done to return back to us as a heal. And only 3% to go to our party members. Even if you assume our damage output will increase, that’s a significant reduction.

Natarumah points out that this puts Vampiric Embrace in a very weak position when you compare our self heal to those given to other classes like Warlocks.

I was a bit put out when I first saw Ret Paladins get their passive self heal with Wrath of the Lich King. I was a bit put out when I discovered that Death Knights were prone to self heal through damage. And I’m certainly not welcoming the news that our once unique utility ability is now the weakest self heal of the lot.

I understood what the Shadow Priest was in Wrath of the Lich King. We were the steady, dependable and slightly evil caster at the back that never did the most damage, but somehow steps out of the shadows as the last one standing. We had close ties to our Holy and Discipline brothers and sisters and often recited our Hymns when they couldn’t.

I was less comfortable with the power of our new and somewhat awkward AoE, Mind Sear, and never really liked the idea of being the one everyone looked to during AoE phases. I’m not sad to see Mind Sear nerfed in the lead up to Cataclysm.

We weren’t bursty. Never have been. As Shadow Priests we planned out in advance, independently. Like any serious DoT class we’d spread our damage around, prepping for a target switch long before our raid leader called it.

Natarumah is worried about our DPS nerfs, and to a certain extent I share that concern. But I’m more disturbed by weakening of Vampiric Embrace.

What will this mean for leveling?

If our self healing becomes both totally passive and of no real significance (read: it won’t save our life) and we lose our Hymns (our ties to our better selves) I’m not sure if Cassandri will even feel like a Shadow Priest anymore.

I know she’ll look like one, but will she still feel that way?

I can’t help but ask myself: what are we without Vampiric Embrace?

Cassandri in Shadowform. Feels right.

In truth I don’t think about DPS much when I’m writing for Hots & Dots. I’m much more philosophical about healing, PVP and people, probably because I don’t really understand any them at all. That’s what I tend to write about.

A Q&A for DPS (unnamed) was started by Death Goddess. I thought it was a great idea and it was very sensible of Death Goddess to let the temperamental healers and tanks have their moment in the spotlight first. I refuse to subscribe to a blog written by a Death Knight so I had no idea that this was actually started a couple weeks back.

First off, let me send you round to read some of the great posts that I’ve read in this circle: Spazmoosifer talks about Shadow Priest DPS and Roxxon actually came up with some pretty profound stuff for a Mage.

I’d love to hear Cynwise talk about his Warlock – we have so many raiders entering the discussion and not enough PVPers! I’d also like to hear from Gnomeaggedon since I find myself nodding my head furiously whenever I read his posts.

Note: A heck of a lot of questions in this thing are worded “for your class” but since I play a hybrid healing/DPS class, I’m going to read them as “for your spec as Shadow”.

What is the name, class, and spec of your primary dps?

Cassandri, Priest, Shadow

What is your primary dpsing environment? (i.e. raids, pvp, 5 mans)

25 man raids, preferably on hard mode!
10 man raids, when there’s nothing else to do

What is your favorite dps spell/ability for your class and why?

Vampiric Embrace. I’ve always loved all the little things (and big things) that my Priest can do for her teammates. But there’s something so thrilling about seeing all those little green numbers fly around while you’re dishing out more and more damage that always make me happy.

Or Mass Dispel/Dispel Magic. That’s not really a DPS spell though. It’s not even Shadow Magic. Definitely deserves a mention though. And Fade. Ok, I love all my spells.

Can’t take the Priest out of the Shadow, I guess?

What dps spell do you use least for your class and why?

I’d have to say Shadow Word: Death. Really there’s no other DPS Shadow spell that isn’t already part of our regular casting sequence. It’s just not worth wasting a global cooldown for the damage that SW:D deals compared to other spells. It is handy to boost your Power Ups in Twin Val’kyr. It’s also handy to try and keep your health down low in Anub’arak. So it still has its place.

If you looked at Shadow utility spells I would have to say Mind Soothe. Seriously, who ever uses Mind Soothe? I did, once, when I was soloing Lower Blackrock Spire at level 80 and got tired of killing this one patrol. That’s it.

What do you feel is the biggest strength of your dps class and why?

I think I’d have to say survivability. In raids, that is. Even if you don’t talent into Improved Vampiric Embrace you can come out the other side of an Emalon nobody-killed-the-add “wipe” alive. Dispersion can save your ass if you’re prepared.

In a difficult boss fight you should be one of the last standing. Alongside a tank with Shield Wall active. You may not be in Shadowform, but a victory is a victory.

What do you feel is the biggest weakness of your dps class and why?

Lack of burst DPS. Lack of single target DPS. Lack of DPS.

No matter how much your raid needs you to kill XT002′s heart, or drop a Nether Portal before a second Mistress of Pain shows up, there is simply nothing you can do. Except pray that the other DPS classes can pick up the your slack.

Even Mind Flay’s damage is somewhat dependent on casting Shadow Word: Pain first.

And another one: why is it that I can’t Mind Flay an NPC’s totem or lightwell but I can Mind Blast them just fine?

In a 25 man raiding environment, what do you feel, in general, is the best dps assignment for you?

Adds. or AoE. Hell, who am I kidding? Doesn’t matter what you assign me I’m going to apply my DoTs to any adds that show up, and I’m going to AoE if there are enough. Who gives assignments to DPS anyway? There is only one assignment:

Kill it all.

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with most and why?

I’d have to choose a Moonkin. An Elemental Shaman would come in second, but I don’t really need Heroism or Wrath of Air all that much these days. I’d much prefer to have an extra battle resurrection handy. And I love Moonkin Aura at the moment since my gear is heavy on haste and light on crit.

Did I mention that Boomkins and Ele Shamans are usually played by lovely people? Hybrids unite!

What dps class do you enjoy dpsing with least and why?

Death Knights. I still haven’t forgiven them for all the grief they caused me last year when I leveled to 80. Until they come last on the damage meters I will be forever screaming “Death Knights are OP!” Horn of Winter is annoying too. The sound. The whole thing.

Or Mages. They’re so selfish about keeping Focus Magic to themselves. And they can out-DPS me so easily. That hurts.

Gnome Mages and Gnome Death Knights are the exception. I can’t stay mad at something so cute.

What is your worst habit as a dps?

Standing apart from the rest of the raid. Or being out of range of heals/taunts. If a strategy calls for the raid to spread out, I will. Too far. That’s not always a good thing – I usually have to run the width of the arena after Icehowl’s knockback. More than one Resto Shaman has complained that I’m unfit for Chain Healing because I’ll be the first and last recipient of the chain.

I probably have other terrible habits. Ignorance is bliss?

What is your biggest pet peeve in a group environment while dpsing?

These days it’s gotta be having adds tanked just outside the range of my Mind Sear. If you could only bring those infernals a few yards closer to Lord Jaraxxus… if you could just bring those guardians a smidgen closer to Anub’arak…

No! Wait! I’ve thought of something even more annoying:

Raiders who can’t stack and instead float right in between 2 groups, thus causing chain lightning to hit both groups, in flights like Lord Jaraxxus, Emalon and Thorim. Oh my god, it makes me so mad just thinking about it. Pick a group and stack!

Do you feel that your class/spec is well balanced with other dps?

Nope. Shadow Priests need more DPS. More! I do think our DPS is low compared to, well, all other DPS classes at the same gear level. I guess the DPS Shamans give us some company.

Actually if they would just give us some kind of burst I would think us more balanced. Sure there will be fights that feel tailor made for DoT heavy classes (like Shadow Priests) but I don’t think it’s fair that any fight that requires burst, or is just a single target tank’n'spank, should force us to wring our hands and hide under our tables in shame.

What tools do you use to evaluate your own performance as a dps’er?

If I get a chance to see some proper statistics I’ll look at my DoT Uptime first, and probably not look at anything else.

During a boss fight I know when I’ve let Shadow Word: Pain drop off, or if I’m overwriting my Vampiric Touch before it’s completed. That’s more important to me than my actual DPS output.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about your class?

Probably that Priests make good healers, and shouldn’t DPS, ever.

I do think that almost nobody, except Shadow Priests, seem to understand how Mind Sear works. Perhaps that’s because it’s such a new spell, relatively, to World of Wacraft. I’m constantly amazed that nobody else can see the difference between the animation for Mind Sear and Mind Flay. It seems so obvious to me!

What do you feel is the most difficult thing for new dpsers of your class to learn?

Shadow Priesting is not glamorous.

On a more serious note, Shadow Priests need to master two things to succeed:

1. Knowing when to DoT multiple targets, when to AoE, and when to focus fire the boss. Ok, that’s a trick question. You never want to focus fire the boss if there is another option.
2. Managing your DoTs across multiple targets. If you can juggle 3-4 DoTs across as many adds you’ll succeed as a Shadow Priest. For me, this is what keeps Shadow Priesting fun and challenging.

What DPS class do you feel you understand least?

Ret Paladins. Mainly cause I have no interest in understanding them, so I automatically tune out when information comes my way.

What add-ons or macros do you use, if any, to aid you in dps?

I love Debuff Filter and ForteXorcist combined to monitor my DoTs. I do believe that Debuff Filter will be made redundant when Blizzard implement their Interface Options to hide other players debuffs on the target when the next patch. That doesn’t mean I’ll be removing Debuff Filter, though. I have everything right next to my cast bar.

And Quartz Cast Bar. No surprise there.

I could probably play without ShadowGreenLight, but I wouldn’t want to.

What stat to stack, and why?

Spellpower. Seriously, you can never have enough.

You disperse into pure Shadow energy...

Since it’s implementation on the PTR (Public Test Realm) Shadow Priests have had mixed feelings about our 51 point talent, Dispersion. This post is intended to examine Dispersion and to describe the best and worst situations to use it.

Of course, all this advice comes from my own personal playing experiences – raiding, completing achievements, running dungeons and engaging in (*cough* getting ganked) in world PVP. I don’t do arenas and if I join a battleground, it’s as Discipline.

What does Dispersion do? Currently it reduces incoming damage by 90%, regenerates mana (I get back about 1/3 of my mana bar from it), and removes snares. You cannot cast during Dispersion. But you can move. It is often compared to a Mage’s Evocation.

Dispersion is a mana regen and/or survival 2-in-1 spell.

In the Priest Q&A Dispersion is described as:

a very valuable spell — nearly all Shadow priests take it

Not a compelling argument since many Holy Priest take Lightwell because it’s in a good place on the talent tree. Might as well, ya know? I think in my talent build if I were to drop Dispersion I would be trading it for Inner Focus.

A Brief History

• In it’s earliest incarnations on the PTR Dispersion regenerated health and mana.
• In it’s earliest incarnations on the PTR Dispersion boosted your spell power for a short time.
• Before Dispersion left the PTR the spell power boost was reduced significantly.
• By the time Dispersion came to the Live servers Dispersion had no spell power boost attached.
• In the week following the release of Ulduar, Dispersion worked in Ignis’s Slag Pot. Unfortunately Ignis was terribly bugged and when he came back fixed, Dispersion didn’t protect you from this damage anymore.

Other players have described other raid encounters where incoming damage is not reduced using Dispersion, but the Slag Pot is the one that springs to mind. When Priests talk about how the Dispersion tooltip lies, they’re talking about the you-can’t-depend-on-it-to-work-at-all incoming damage reduction.

Dispersion DON’Ts

During Boss Encounters When the Boss is Enraged (for Mana)

The type of fight I’m talking about is those ones where you can DPS down the boss until he’s at x% and suddenly he hits harder until he’s dead. You can’t DPS during Dispersion, and DPSing hard is critical to getting through enrage phases, so use a Runic Mana Pot or, even better, your Shadowfiend. If you must use Dispersion make sure that it has finished before the onset of the enrage.

During Boss Encounters to Prevent *insert boss ability* (for Survival)

Dispersion will allow you to avoid some melee hits should your tank die, or be slow to taunt or something. Don’t expect Dispersion to save you from things like General Vezax’s saronite green pool debuff damage. Of course there’s a small chance that you might discover one of the rare boss abilities that Dispersion will protect you from so you might as well give it a go.

During Boss Encounters (for Mana)

Try not to use Dispersion during boss encounters because you’re wasting DPS time. Think of it as your last resort. You should be able to get Shadowfiend out twice in most fights and survive on that mana in short, 1 or 2 target type boss encounters.

Always double check your Shadowfiend cooldown before using Dispersion to regen mana. If Shadowfiend is available find a target with some health and throw your Shadowfiend at it. Or use a Runic Mana Potion. Keep casting.

Note: Having raided a couple nights post patch 3.2, with reduced returns from Replenishment, I found I struggled significantly more with my mana pool than I have previously in Wrath and needed to use Dispersion more often.

When your Shadow Weaving stack is about to Wear Off (for Mana)

Cast something (preferably refreshing your Shadow Word: Pain with Mind Flay) first and then immediately Disperse. As soon as you’re out, Mind Flay again and you should have kept both 5/5 Shadow Weaving and Shadow Word: Pain active during Dispersion.

Dispersion DOs

When Hoping for Divine Intervention (for Survival)

One of my personal favourites is to Disperse during wipes after the tank has gone down and run in range of your fleeing Paladins hoping for a Divine Intervention.

To Tank the Boss at 1% (for Survival)

If you’ve crawled quite high on the threat meters and your tank dies you can take over tanking for a few seconds when the boss comes to you. Chances are by the time he goes after you your mages and warlocks will be dead grey squares in amongst your raid frames but you might buy some time for another tank to taunt or a druid to battle rez.

Great for tanking 1% wipes while you hope your DoTs tick over and finish the boss off.

Dispersion works nicely when you're waiting for quest mobs to die

Multi-dotting during Dailies/Questing (for Survival and Mana)

If you have a quest or a daily that requires you to kill a bunch of mobs, find a good spawn location and DoT up maybe 4 or 5 mobs with a couple DoTs and use Dispersion while you wait for them to die. You shouldn’t lose much health at all. Unfortunately you can’t do this more than once every couple minutes, so I tend to just use Vampiric Embrace on each mob instead while I wait for them to die.

Soloing Level 60 Dungeons (Survival and Mana)

Same method as above for multi-dotting stuff while questing. Holy Nova does a good job too since so many mobs interupt/silence you in lvl 60 dungeons.

While Looting or Chain Pulling (for Mana)

Dispersion is great to use while looting trash in between trash pulls. It’s even better when your raid is moving at a fast pace because you can keep running while regenning your mana. Laugh at the casters who have to sit down to drink.

When you can’t DPS anyway (for Mana)

Good times to use Dispersion are obvious breaks in boss fights where you’re moving into position but have no targets to DPS. This is also a good time to consider using Hymn of Hope too if your healers are struggling. Examples from Ulduar:

• Mimiron’s phase transitions
• Yogg Saron’s phase 1->2 transition
• When you have to visit/stand in a Sanity Well during the Yogg Saron fight
• Razorscale if your raid is waiting for more adds to spawn
• Ignis’s slag pot since you can’t cast there anyway

“Escaping” from the opposite faction in world PVP (for Survival)

Unfortunately Dispersion only works here if you have a friend to run to (since your chances of actually killing the other player are incredibly low). Can be used to buy a few seconds thinking time after the initial attack. Usually it will just prolong the whole miserable experience. It also tells your enemy that you’re Shadow spec if you are pretending to be Discipline and “hiding” out of Shadowform (a tactic I recommend).

Love/Hate

Blizzard love Dispersion. They want us to love it too. But it’s lacking somehow. I believe that’s because it exists to serve two purposes and doesn’t excel at either.

The mana regeneration component is a fall back, and yes it’s handy on fights where you can be mana drained or pour out a lot of DoTs but Shadow Priests already have two other mana regeneration abilities, Shadowfiend and Replenishment. Two signature class (well Replenishment used to be) abilities that we have been attached to for quite some time now. Dispersion is the new kid on the block.

Getting the most out of Shadowfiend actually requires some thought and I consider that to be as much a situation-dependent decision as using Dispersion. So, in my mind, Dispersion certainly doesn’t make Shadow Priests more interesting to play.

I would much prefer to see the Shadow Priest gain double returns from Replenishment, similar to how Vampiric Embrace heals the Priest more than their party, because I think this would make soloing as a Shadow Priest more enjoyable. I, for one, struggle with mana when solo or questing at level 80 and I have to stop and resort to drinking for mana much more frequently than Lath as Moonkin.

The “survival” aspect is even more unreliable. As mentioned early in the piece Dispersion doesn’t do anything to reduce damage from a lot of stuff during raids. I see the Mages in Hodir hardmode completely ignore Flash Freeze using Ice Block and I look at Dispersion with disappointment.

It also doesn’t deter enemies in PVP who tend to stick around and just wait it out. I see players give up and run away when a Paladin bubbles, sometimes from me when I PVP with Pain Supression, and I think of Dispersion and am disappointed. Perhaps there ought to be a Glyph of Dispersion that extends the duration of the effect out to twice as long whilst restoring no additional mana?

The only time I use Dispersion and really really love it? When I’m running past all the other casters while they have to sit down and drink. Plebs!

I would miss Dispersion if Blizzard removed it altogether. However, I know several Priests at shadowpriest.com who advocate dropping the talent altogether and they don’t appear to miss it at all.