Shadow 4p T11 bonus related question

[opex]

Hi,
Xeno this is mostly addressed to you as the only spriest in the guild, but other opinions are also welcome.
I am building a pre-heroic BiS list. I ended up with this setup http://chardev.org/?profile=12688 using only 2 tier pieces - chest and shoulders. Afaik the tier doesn't boost the damage so much, but the first proc surely feels tempting. Can't say the same about the second one.
What do you think, would it be better if i go for 4pieces and by doing so using other items i could end up with better overall dps and damage increase?

[xenophics]

Hey,

I'm now feeling like I can again sit down and talk shadow priest without feeling down. I did a race change to troll and all, so let's see where I'll end up with this new character of mine.

Anyway, about t11 4 set bonus. I've been reading http://www.shadowpriest.com and wondering the same thing for some time already - is it worth going for? In the beginning of the expansion it was very clear to me that I wouldn't aim for the bonus, as I was unsure how good it was. On the other hand there were other classes needing the same items I'd need for the bonus, so I rather passed mine and started waiting for some math (for greater good you know). Also, as we use dkp system I was able to get those cloth spirit items cheaper, so we wasted as little loot as a guild as possible with me taking those items as well.

Now, I rely heavy on shadowpriest.com since I don't rock at theorycrafting. That's something I need to improve. From what I've been reading now

http://www.shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.p ... 6&start=15
http://shadowpriest.com/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=30637

most of the people agree that shadowy apparitions do ~5% of our damage on "normal fights". The actual dps numbers have been counted from combat logs, and some numbers have been done with simulationcraft and the numbers disagree.

So, what I'm personally going to do with this problem then? There is so much loot dropping that I'll get everything I want before next content patch, and as I have most of the the off pieces already, I'll get the tier eventually. I go for Sinestra head (Crown of the Twilight Queen) as the off piece and get that t4 bonus and go testing. Meanwhile I gather the pieces I hope some awesome math people will get the math done and I'll be able to know which is actually better. As someone already stated, most of the t items don't lose that much to the bis items, so the bonus doesn't need to be mind blowing to overcome the difference.

I'm sorry I don't have a yes/no answer for this question. If someone spots this thread and has the answers ready please let me know as well.

[opex]

Xeno thanks for the detailed answer. The same thoughts as yours were running through my head while i was wondering about to go for 2p or 4p - mainly that its better to pass the tokens to other classes who will benefit of them more and thus make the raid better overall.

Back then i still didnt have a good look over all boss fights as to which of them require more movement and which of them are movement-heavy fights, because i knew for sure that the dps increase of the 4p bonus based on the damage done by the shadowy aparations w/o any bonus in "stand still" fights will be so small that it can be overwhelmed by using 2p t11 with offset items.
Now i see them hitting the dummy for ~7k and critting for ~15k.
In some way i look at this bonus like a trinket which has a chance to proc for some damage and crits according to the crit % of the character.
These shadowy apparations do have some bugs tho like getting stuck at obstacles on their way or such and adding the randomness of their spawn at this moment i prefer not to go for it because they can spawn at inappropriate moment and might not be there in a moment when i need some burst damage, but if i have offset items which cover that dps increase it will be ok.

Anyway, thanks again for the answer ;)

[Widdy]

Hey Xenophics.
I got a question about 4pc shadow so i thougt i might aswell just ask in here instead of makeing a new topic.

I saw you write in this forums that your testing out 4pc bonus now, and i recently came across SimCrafts BIS set which looks very much like what your going for. So im wondering can you confirm the 4pc being good enough to go for instead of the original 2pc with chest and legs.

And if 4pc is the shit, i assume going 4pc with Helm of Eldritch Authority, untill Sinestra gets killed by my guild is a very decent option.

Thank you very much.

[xenophics]

Heya, feeling a bit dead at the moment, I'll answer your question with some math when my brain works. I think I caught a flu from China.

But yeah, answer inc.

[Widdy]

Thanks I'm waiting. :)

[xenophics]

A really big sorry for having you wait. This topic has been nagging in the back of my head and as I still don't have time to answer this properly, consider the following:

Which t-pieces are bis? The gloves are obviously the worst item, but how much dps will you lose by keeping them versus the best non t-piece? Before I got my 4 piece set bonus my apparitions were doing minimum of 3% of my dps (even more, depending on the fight). If I do 22k dps (a very conservative number), the apparitions would be doing 660dps. Therefor 30% boost to that number would be 198dps which should beat the dps you lose by having the gloves on easily.

Some of the numbers are kind of from my head, but that ~200dps boost is a very conservative estimation.

There is also a topic on this on www.shadowpriest.com and I believe they have done some simulations and other more accurate stuff. So try looking there if this answer didn't answer all your questions.