The From Darkness, Comes Light ICD was removed some time this weekend. This is not reflected in the post, however, the only affected results will be FDCL being the choice on Heavy Movement fights.

Updated March 31, 2013 — I’m working on re-doing the FDCL parts of this because they are having VERY strong showings on T15N sims (2tar). Expect this to be updated again.

Usual disclaimer: the following information is as of Mists of Pandaria 5.2 Release (build 16650), released on March 5, 2013 and including hotfixes through March 24, 2013. If another patch comes out or hotfixes are put in place these results may not be 100% valid!

The promised followup to the inaccurate post on [s]February 27th[/s] March 7th is finally here! This is an updated post and the first of at least 3 posts discussing the nine combinations between our Level 45 (From Darkness, Comes Light; Mindbender; Solace and Insanity) and Level 75 (Twist of Fate; Power Infusion; Divine Insight) talents. As was mentioned in the previous iteration of this post, there have been a few changes to our talents when comparing them to 5.1 including nerfs to From Darkness, Comes Light by way of Glyph of Mind Spike no longer triggering off of instant-cast Mind Spikes and there being a 1 second ICD on procs from From Darkness, Comes Light. The most notable increases are Power Infusion now not only stacks with Bloodlust but it also grants +5% damage for the duration, and, a complete redesign of Shadow Word: Insanity in to Mind Flay (Insanity) via Solace and Insanity. On top of these talent-specific changes, our Shadowform has also received a 4.16% damage increase by going from 20% to 25% damage done. Additionally since our look in February, the RPPM rate of the Legendary Meta Gem has been significantly increased for Shadow (from ~19% uptime to ~25% uptime) an the RPPM formula has been changed (in our favor). With all of these changes, which talents are superior in given situations will surely be mixed up.

The following simulations assume a few things that are different from the 5.0 set of data presented:

1. The race is neutral – Night Elf. This is to avoid any skewing of data because of extra Haste interactions from the Troll or Goblin racials.
2. The professions are neutral – Blacksmithing/Enchanting. Just like with the neutral race, this is to avoid any on-use/proc bonuses from skewing the value of other stats.
3. Assume optimal raid. This is to cover all buffs/debuffs/etc. to give a better idea of how the specs will behave in a true raid environment.
4. No Shadow Orbs at start. It is unrealistic to begin a bossfight with 3 orbs.
5. This profile uses the new Legendary Meta Gem, Sinister Primal Diamond, instead of the regular Meta Gem, Burning Primal Diamond.
6. To take proper account for passing Haste Breakpoints, the number of simulations has been doubled; in addition to doing the normal positive scaling, negative scaling is also done to show the value leading up to where you are. This allows us to look at a 2000 point span on stats (+/-1000) rather than just scaling upwards (+1000).
7. For Heavy Movement sims with From Darkness, Comes Light as a selected talent, a slightly different actionlist is being used to save procs for when movement occurs. (Thanks go out to Tanned on HowToPriest for the suggestion!)

With that being said, lets have a look at 1-target encounters first:

	Highest	Lowest	Delta	Delta%
Heavy Movement Heavy Movement (FDCL Mod)	152,966 MB+DI	126,446 MFI+ToF	26,520	17.34%
HelterSkelter	158,348 MFI+PI	145,268 FDCL+ToF	13,080	8.26%
Light Movement	185,500 MFI+PI	168,152 FDCL+DI	17,348	9.35%
Patchwerk	189,625 MFI+PI	170,693 FDCL+DI	18,932	9.98%
Ultraxion	183,397 MFI+PI	167,507 FDCL+DI	15,890	8.66%

One trend that sticks out immediately is that the combination of Mind Flay (Insanity) and Power Infusion is a very powerful combination in all encounters that aren’t non-stop movement. Another surprising (or not so surprising) change is that Twist of Fate has lost it’s edge as the go-to Level 75 talent choice. This is largely because Power Infusion‘s +5% damage done is applied to ~19%+ of the fight duration, whereas Twist of Fate‘s +15% damage done has an uptime around ~17%; this is only part of the story, though, since Twist of Fate grants only increased damage while Power Infusion also provides a 20% Haste buff, meaning when used in conjunction with the refreshing of DoTs and casting Mind Flay (Insanity) you are able to pump out more damage overall.

For the hectic/high movement encounter types, Divine Insight still reigns supreme with Mindbender of From Darkness, Comes Light round out the talent choices.

What does this mean for our stat weights in a 1-target situation though?

One striking change from the last (and now invalid) run is the value of Haste has skyrocketed. This matches what has been seen on PTR tests, Simulations, and thus far in Throne of Thunder: Haste is very, very good. Now for some more general observations:

Looking at the ‘Best Two Per Fight’ line–the average PP values of the top two DPS talent combinations for each of the five fight types–we can see that the value of Hit/Spirit is much higher than it was for 5.0/5.1. This can be directly attributed to having our damage bonus from Shadowform being raised from 20% to 25%, meaning that missed damage opportunities are much costlier now than they were before. This increased importance on hit and being hit-capped can also be indirectly attributed towards Mind Flay (Insanity) being such a valuable talent with a limited casting timeframe, meaning that if you cast Devouring Plague and waste a GCD (or potentially multiple GCDs) trying to cast Mind Flay (Insanity) but end up missing, you’re leaving a lot of DPS on the table that cannot be regained through quick reaction times. For the other secondary stats, they are tightly bunched up with Haste barely squeaking out ahead. I would like to take this time to note, however, that this profile has over 15,000 Haste rating from gear. Even at this extreme point it is still the top secondary stat, displaying that Haste stacking is a viable if not the optimal gearing strategy for Shadow Priests, assuming you have the Legendary Meta Gem.

Now lets move on to the 2-target results:

	Highest	Lowest	Delta	Delta%
Heavy Movement – 2 DoT Heavy Movement – 2 DoT (FDCL Mod)	202,671 FDCL+PI	192,198 MFI+ToF	10,473	5.17%
HelterSkelter – 2 DoT	199,646 MFI+PI	193,026 FDCL+ToF	6,620	3.32%
Light Movement – 2 DoT	220,857 MFI+PI	212,782 FDCL+ToF	8,075	3.66%
Patchwerk – 2 DoT	227,163 MFI+PI	216,672 FDCL+ToF	10,491	4.62%
Ultraxion – 2 DoT	220,184 MFI+PI	213,552 FDCL+ToF	6,632	3.01%

The difference in damage done with two targets from the highest and lowest DPS talent choices is much, much closer than it is with just one target — 3.01% – 4.62% delta (6,632 – 10,491 damage) vs. 8.26% – 9.98% delta (13,080 – 18,932 damage) for non-Heavy Movement sim types. Tying back to the points made above on the 1-target results, this shows how much more potent our DoTs are since the Shadowform and Power Infusion buffs.

Mind Flay (Insanity) and Power Infusion still have the strongest showing with Divine Insight coming in a close second across the board, sans Heavy Movement encounters where having procs to burn while on the move (via From Darkness, Comes Light and Divine Insight) still trump other abilities.

What does this homogenization of damage mean for stat weights, though?

There aren’t a whole lot of differences in order here between 1-target and 2-target for stat weights. Hit/Spirit is very important, Crit and Mastery are catching up to Haste in value with Crit’s value being a solid #2 secondary stat.

Now lets put these two sets of data together to create a set of composite stat weights that encompass both single target and two target encounters:

Not surprisingly, the composite still shows Hit/Spirit being the most important secondary stat, followed by Haste, and finally Mastery and Crit vying for 2nd place, with Crit maintaining its lead.

Let me make this painfully obvious and excruciatingly clear: there is absolutely no excuse to NOT be hitcapped. Our spells do more damage per cast in 5.2 than they did in 5.1 by a wide margin. Between the increased importance of being hitcapped and having more secondary stats to play with thanks to entering a new tier with an extra 15-35 ilvls on gear, there should not be a compelling reason to avoid getting 5100 Hit/Spirit.

Additionally I’d like to point out (as has been championed by Drye on HowToPriest for some time now), if you have any version of Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen the value of Crit will drop significantly, causing the value of Mastery to rise!

With all of this being said, here is my recommendation for gearing priority for 5.2 once you have the Legendary Meta Gem:

Int > Spell Power > Hit (to 15%) > Haste > Crit > Mastery

If you have the Legendary Meta Gem AND have any version of Unerring Vision of Lei-Shen, my gearing priority recommendation becomes:

Int > Spell Power > Hit (to 15%) > Haste > Mastery > Crit

It may behoove you to strive for one of the Haste breakpoints that matches your race and talents, but with Haste being the most valuable secondary stat if you stack it you should be fine.

This also means that my recommendations for what gems to socket also change slightly from the past:

Red Sockets = Reckless Vermilion Onyx
Blue Sockets = Energized Wild Jade
Yellow Sockets = Quick Sun’s Radiance

Stay tuned for the next post in this series where we visit T15H without the Legendary Meta Gem equipped and Pre-Raid!

Notes and Resources

Raw SimulationCraft Data
Heavy Movement – 1 Target (Downscaling)
Heavy Movement – 1 Target FDCL Mod (Downscaling)
Heavy Movement – 2 Target (Downscaling)
Heavy Movement – 2 Target FDCL Mod (Downscaling)
HelterSkelter – 1 Target (Downscaling)
HelterSkelter – 2 Target (Downscaling)
Light Movement – 1 Target (Downscaling)
Light Movement – 2 Target (Downscaling)
Patchwerk – 1 Target (Downscaling)
Patchwerk – 2 Target (Downscaling)
Ultraxion – 1 Target (Downscaling)
Ultraxion – 2 Target (Downscaling)
Heavy Movement – 1 Target (Upscaling)
Heavy Movement – 1 Target FDCL Mod (Upscaling)
Heavy Movement – 2 Target (Upscaling)
Heavy Movement – 2 Target FDCL Mod (Upscaling)
HelterSkelter – 1 Target (Upscaling)
HelterSkelter – 2 Target (Upscaling)
Light Movement – 1 Target (Upscaling)
Light Movement – 2 Target (Upscaling)
Patchwerk – 1 Target (Upscaling)
Patchwerk – 2 Target (Upscaling)
Ultraxion – 1 Target (Upscaling)
Ultraxion – 2 Target (Upscaling)

Each of these SimulationCraft sims were run with 25,000 iterations.

These sims were for fights that are single-target and two-target fights. Multi target fights with adds that come and go may (will) have different results.

These sims are as of Mists of Pandaria 5.2 Release (build 16650), released on March 5, 2013 and including hotfixes through March 24, 2013. If another patch comes out or hotfixes are put in place these results may not be 100% valid!