Welcome to the darker side of Spiritual Guidance. Each week, Mr. Fox Van Allen teaches the craft of shadow priesting to new players and end-game raiders alike through the clever use of a sports training montage.

A wise ski instructor named Thumper once said, "If you french fry when you pizza, you're gonna have a bad time."

Let's put that in Warcraft terms: You need the right spells for the right situations. Soloing, five-man instances, raids -- they're all different and require different mind sets. If you Mind Sear when you pizza -- let's say Mind Flay -- you're gonna have a bad time.

In the context of skiing, a bad time means crashing through the wall of a ski lodge. In the context of Warcraft, a bad time means pulling aggro, putting out lousy DPS, and getting yourself berated by a "leet" fourteen-year-old who recently learned the phrase "l2play" and is just dying to use it.

It all happens when you french fry when you should have pizza'd.

The minor leagues: Soloing
We can talk about raiding all day long, but the fact is that your average shadow priest is more likely to be spending their time soloing, doing dailies, or running 5-man instances. The rules here are a bit different than in a raid, and trying to create your own little shortcuts might wind up getting you killed by some ridiculous looking tree thing.

If you get killed by a ridiculous looking tree thing, you're gonna have a bad time.

When you're questing alone, don't even bother thinking about your DPS. Focus on staying alive. That includes popping Power Word: Shield when you need to, leaning on the movement-reducing ability of Mind Flay to keep enemies out of melee range, and using the Vampiric Touch then Mind Blast combo to proc Replenishment and restore your mana.

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