The shadow priests of WoW have a good thing going on for them. To begin with, they’re the quickest and best solo spec out of all the game’s healing classes. What really sets them apart is their ability to pull together a group. I know, you can level from 1 to 80 without ever setting foot in an instance or grouping up at all, especially if you’re following a priest leveling guide to the letter. If you’re really looking to see what your shadow priest can do, you want to start hitting up some instances in Outland or Northrend.
When compared to other DPS classes or DPS specs of hybrids, versatility is the biggest strength of the shadow priest. For example, shadow priests have the easiest time of switching to backup healing since all they need to do is drop out of shadow form – dual spec is purely an extra. If the priest is geared decently, they may even be able to main heal effectively.
Other healer classes playing DPS specs often can’t do this. The reasoning behind this is simple. Healing as holy or discipline requires very similar stats to DPSing as shadow. As such, the priest doesn’t have to worry about an alternate gear loadout, which make jumping into a healing role much easier. Feral druids, enhancement shamans, and retribution paladins have to focus primarily on melee gear, and bag space is enough of an issue that most do not carry around a set of healing gear. I can’t really figure out why people would play a healer when they have no intention of healing, particularly when you consider that a 5 minute trip to the wow auction house and a few gold are all you really need to get yourself prepared. I guess some players just don’t care about playing to the potential of their class.
Another great reason to bring a shadow priest with any group is the utility that they offer. Using talents and abilities like Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Embrace, the Shadow Priest passively replenishes the mana and health of his groupmates while dealing substantial damage. None of the other DPS classes can lay claim to that level of utility. They won’t be the number one class on the damage meter usually, but they allow the other players a much wider margin of error than they would usually have. If you want a fast solo route to the level cap, but you don’t want to sacrifice any of your group viability, shadow priest would make a great class for you.
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