Casting out the Demons of Outland! - The Damage Priest

"How about a few instances?" Hmmm, I really like shadow form. Some new gear would be good though. I'm sure there has to be better gear in the instances then this green gear that I have been getting from doing quests. Ok, so maybe I got a blue or two, but they weren't really good for either a healing or shadow priest. I agree instances would be nice, so my friend and I embark on putting together a group. What he didn't already know was that I was specifically looking for a healer so that I could go shadow form to take up a damage slot.
So you know, I have not really had much bad experience in beta so far with others. They are often courteous and light hearted, and generally fun people. Judging by general chat channels you wouldn't think this, as they are just like on the live servers with your usual mix of uptight and certain downright vulgar people with conversations going on. But as a rule, I have found almost all of the groups to be quite enjoyable, even though I am not a pick up group kind of guy.
Into the Citadel we go. Hellfire Citadel is a four-winged dungeon. It might sound like Scarlet Monastery, but it is not. It is four different dungeons, which are not all the same level or for the same size groups. Hellfire Ramparts, which is our destination for this particular journey, can literally be walked into right after you enter the Outland. Your party will survive intact and you can enjoy a fun time in one of the new dungeons. It is made for level 60s and is pretty small, not requiring much time to complete. Blood Furnace is only a slightly higher dungeon, and I would say easy completed by a competent group of 60's. On the other hand, the Shattered Halls is a place you will want to avoid until you are a considerable higher level. It is a five man level 70 dungeon. Then there is Magtheridon's Lair, which just reopened this last week. This encounter is a 25-man level 70 dungeon that is supposed to be "a quick boss fight" along the lines of Onyxia's lair. As you can tell, while the idea of being winged like Scarlet Monastery is there, in essence this is a far different idea. The entrances are along platforms, and they are really not that close together. The walkways are confusing until you get used to them and at times it is easier to jump from level to level then walk around. All in due time though, it is not so confusing that you will forever be losing group members, just a few times there and you will have no problems finding your way around.
 

As I was saying, we were trying to form a group and it went fairly smoothly. We added a warrior, a druid and a mage to go along with my rogue friend and myself. Luckily the druid was, for some reason, restoration spec'ed and had no problem being the healer. I put myself into shadow form and prepared to melt faces. First thing you will notice is Orcs. This will not be a surprise as obviously being the Orcs homeland, the Outlands is full of them. We make short work of these Orcs, and my DPS is quite an eyeful, at least to me, not exactly being used to playing DPS. I am often pulling aggro from the tank. Perhaps I should have put a few of those talent points in reducing aggro, something for all Shadow Priests to consider.
Our first boss encounter is Watchkeeper Gargolmar. Easy, walked all over him. A little Further on there is a split in the path. If you head right you go to Omor the Unscarred (at least he was until we were done with him), and to the left you go to Vazruden and Nazan. Omor is a simpler fight, he spawns a few Felhounds, which have extremely low health and die quickly. He starts reflecting spells when he gets low health, so be careful at the end. Vazruden and Nazan are fought in the same fight, but separately. It is like the Rend fight from Upper Blackrock Spire, except here you fight the rider first, then Nazan (the dragon) comes down and you fight him. This fight begins as soon as you kill his two "guards", then Nazan drops off Vazruden, and then you fight Nazan. The druid, the rogue and I all died on this fight. There were respawns at then entrance (we were taking our time) and we didn't get to go back to him to loot the quest item to complete the quest from killing all the bosses in this zone. Apparently just Vampiric embrace was not enough healing that some of us would require during this fight, I had dropped back to caster form to assist healing, and we almost all made it, (except the rogue, he died pretty early on) but in the end our tank and mage outlasted him. It was a fun time, and really does not take long at all if you are short on time. I am not often in a hurry and whatever pace the rest of the group enjoys is fine with me, but it was nice nonetheless. We all had a good time, and actually went to do Blood Furnace afterwards, which was another fun run.
So, in conclusion, as with soloing, the shadow priest is a pretty solid DPS build and quite capable of filling that role. If you plan on going the shadow route as you level your character, and you also plan on being in shadow form in instances (it is really far more fun then healing!) I suggest putting a few points in the aggro reduction talents. They make a world of difference. I would say with the base healing given to priests to go with shadow talents, you make a very viable multi-role (*gasp* hybrid) player. I'm not sure yet how this will work out in the higher-level instances, but I assume it will continue to be this way. I say this because although I described a single run here, I have been in several dungeons so far, and they are quite easy, and I have even been on a few runs where we didn't take a tank in any form and have finished these also. Perhaps a few extra deaths along the way as a few of the people learn exactly what an encounter is like, never have we wiped more then once on any particular boss. The dungeons I have been in so far allow for groups of less then ideal make-ups to finish without an overabundance of difficulty. This is a great sign for things to come!