Raid Bosses and Specific Talent Choices.

[Shardstorm]

I just used FDCL, ToF & Halo for the four we downed. I went shot for shot with the Warlock on all of them, logging starts next week but I was mid 50 on all but Gara where I was 52ish. At this point learning the mechanics will be the key to our kills, we're not stressed for DPS really. So I went with the build I'm most comfortable with to push very reasonable DPS while I focused on actually leaning fights. I'll worry more about optimization when we're squeezing every drop for heroics, and have 10 plus bosses a week to kill.

What I did have to switch up was my Vamp Embrace glyph. As we went to the 2 Heal for Gara and Kings, I glyphed into it for the more bursty heal to help our healers stabalize if they were going under. It's gold cos it's off the GCD and let's me dps through. We 3 healed the earlier two, so the sustained longer healing was just an added bonus during the final 20% to make sure we got there (and it synigizes really well with ToF).

I didn't have any issue with Halo hitting except off the bat against Feng as the tank pulled him to the wall, but that was just over eagerness.

[butterballs]

Anyone else thinks PI as a good option if you have synapse springs (+ the open rotation procs) ?
It's extremely bursty, i do ~100k burst single target with 461ilvl and 25man buffs, but in the end i close the fight with half of them, and makes me wonder if i should change it.

For multidotting fights i'm sure it's a big loss, but for single ones?

[Woaden]

Anyone else thinks PI as a good option if you have synapse springs (+ the open rotation procs) ?
It's extremely bursty, i do ~100k burst single target with 461ilvl and 25man buffs, but in the end i close the fight with half of them, and makes me wonder if i should change it.

For multidotting fights i'm sure it's a big loss, but for single ones?

It's not terrible but DI and ToF are better options overall.

[Tsilyi]

all 25 man:

I use ToF on every encounter because currently at least the burn phases are the parts of the fight you want to get over as fast as possible and ToF will help you do that even on single target fights, plus most of the fights (elegon, spirit kings, woe, gara'jal) have adds to proc it off of mid fight.

I also use FDCL on every encounter for the damage on the move and the lowered mind blast cast time, etc... though I may try mindbender on some of the more directly single target encounters this week.

stone guards(normal/heroic):
halo
-i find that the damage is decent and the heal (especially on heroic, i time it to go off as many times right after or just as jade shards go out) helps with the high damage portions of the fight. both myself and the other shadowpriest in my raid use halo

feng:
divine star
-i chose divine start for the ease of healing everyone in front of me. i can always hit melee with it, and when we are grouped up during epicenter or the fire nova/arcane phases i can heal everyone just by standing behind them. there is some pretty intense healing going on and anything i can do to help is good.

gara'jal:
halo
-i chose halo because in the spirit realm all the adds are pretty spread out and it will hit all of them, particularly quite a few at range. thinking of at least trying cascade on heroic this week if we get to it to see how much more damage it will do. will try it on normal as well if we don't do it on heroic just to test the damage, since the burn phase is a stack and halo doesn't do quite as much damage at close range.

spirit kings:
halo
-most single target damage if i can stay at max range and due to a predominance of spreading out (aside from the sword boss) the heal will heal for a decent amount.

elegon:
cascade
found it really useful for the spark phases and still does a good amount of damage on the protectors/elegon

will of the emperor:
cascade
-the adds are often so spread out that the bounce damage is great and it will cap its target limit basically every time. seems to outdamage halo on this fight and since the encounter is only healing intensive during the gas phases (when everyone should be stacked up and dpsing the main constructs, reducing the actual healing from halo) it seems like a better choice overall, especially considering that you will only use halo around one time per gas phase if you time it right.

[koop]

Thanks for your input Tsilyi ...I'm looking at spending tonight mostly on Elegon after hopefully a quick kings kill and will consider cascade now! I'm admittedly tunnel visioning with respect to perma DI mainly bc I like tabbing sw:p only and then reaping the generous free mb procs! Noticing a huge difference now that I've upgraded to relic + resin globule too....engage phase is always a 10k int proc with lightweave/celestials/globule use lined up and makes mindbender and a Halo/VE opener insanely powerful for learning new fights

[stevierg]

I also use FDCL on every encounter for [...] the lowered mind blast cast time

I presume you are using Glyph of Mind Spike, otherwise there is no reduced cast time. However this doesn't offer any benefit other than reduced/ instant cast of mind blast. You are still faced with the GCD and you next spell will happen at the same time with or without the glyph. As such, almost no fights would have this a bigger benefit over other glyphs.

feng:
divine star
-i chose divine start for the ease of healing everyone in front of me.

Why for the healing? damage isn't bad enough where you need to off heal. You can keep a distance and use halo for the majority of the fight.

elegon:
cascade
found it really useful for the spark phases and still does a good amount of damage on the protectors/elegon

Wouldn't halo be a better choice? You run into the platform, hit halo and do way more damage than cascade could offer?

[Kaesebrezen]

spirit kings:
halo
-most single target damage if i can stay at max range and due to a predominance of spreading out (aside from the sword boss) the heal will heal for a decent amount.

I actually found Halo to be very effective at cancelling Maddening Shout.

[Darkwich]

Just my thoughts on talents for the fights.

Personally I prefer to use Mindbender over FDCL, the procy rotation style kind of annoys me, it can be fun sometimes, but I've found MB to be a dps increase for me as I can handle it better than FDCL.

Halo is a pretty default choice, especially given the addon you can get for it.

I tend to take DI in most situations, however if there is a series of burn phases, for example the Orbs on Elegon, I'll take PI, or if there is a soft enrage like on Spiritbinder I'll take ToF.

Void Tendrals actaully see a bit of use, more on trash than anything else, but anything the helps the healers and tanks keep us alive is good right?

DP is default for everything.

Body and Soul, cause it means those cheeky buggers in my raid can't steal my speed boost, and it's faster to use than feather.

[stevierg]

if there is a soft enrage like on Spiritbinder I'll take ToF.

ToF is more useful on Gara'jal, than just doing more damage to him for the last 20%, since when you go to the spirit realm you can get ToF up from the totem and then keep it up through the whole phase to then come back out and have it up for the boss. Its a perfect fight for ToF.

Remember execution only reasoning is not a good reason for it alone. For instance on Elegon you could have it up too, by helping dos the adds, you would or could have it up for maybe 40% or more of dps to him.

[Windowsxp]

Logs are showing up to 50-60% up-time for ToF on Elegon.