Armilus wrote:Keep in mind that just because we have 16 debuff slots not, it does not mean there are plenty
Even at 16 slots most guilds will only have 1 SM/Ruin lock, rest will still be DS/Ruin.
Assuming one shadow priest and one SM/Ruin lock:
Sunder
Faerie fire
CoS
CoE
CoR
Thunderclap/TF
Demo Shout
Winter's chill
Imp shadow bolt
Corruption
Hunter's mark
Shadow weaving
Shadow Word Pain
Vampiric embrace
Judgement of Light
Judgement of Wisdom
Insect Swarm
I'm sure I'm missing a few others.
Judgment of light, and huntersmark, aren't worth spots (once better gear becomes available hunters are goinng to become less and less desirable). Not to mention that several of these buffs will not have 100% uptime such as judgment of wisdom and isb.
In anycase, I agree with you that 16 debuff slots does not mean you can just spam any debuff you have, and really, its a waste for even sm/ruin locks to use corruption. Sure nightfall procs are nice, but really an instant shadowbolt, it is NOT a significant increase towards dps as it saves only one second in a dps rotation once about every 1.25 mintues. When you factor that in, nightfall is worth a whoping 1.35% increase in dps (yes it is a crude estimate, but it should be even lower because I wasn't even factoring in the dps you were getting from the corruption damage). Honestly, as unimpressive as nightfall is, I think it would be better to leave it off and open up a spot for mindflay for your shadow priest. You completely ignored that debuff and its an important part of a shadow priests rotation.
I'm confident neither of those specs will be comparable to SM/Ruin or DS/Ruin. The emberstorm spec would probably fair the best, but searing pain doesn't have a cast time reduction, and therefore has a significantly lower spell damage coefficient per time spent casting.