Removing aesthetics and preferential conditions, troll is better.
Overall troll is better in group PvP and PvE. Berserking and Shadowguard are insane. 10% to heals (at full health) is simply better for PvE. There are encounters where WoTF could be good in PvE BUT you should have shamans and if they are using tremors properly, you should not be getting feared anyhow. This doesnt even consider Hex (which is essentially a mortal strike) for PvP. Shadowguard can also proc on encounters where mobs/bosses do AoE where as devouring plague will never be granted a debuff slot in PvE. Of mention Shadowguard can also proc blackout as mentioned above.
Undead is arguably better for solo play / wPvP outside of a group. Devouring plague is VERY mana intensive and is really only worth mentioning when combined with Inner Focus. You could make an argument an Spriest would lean towards undead for duels/world PvP but rolling a class for its solo performance likely wont be your focus if you are min/maxing anyhow - youre likely someone who wants to play with a group and accomplish real content.
You will still see a ton of Undeads because people overvalue WoTF though so it wont really matter. While troll is definitely better you can get away with either and no one will make a fuss.
I dont know if I could personally stare at a troll while playing.
This guy, nailed it! Beautiful response... two things not mentioned are Racial Mount and Spell Coefficient.
I've always preferred Troll raptor, over Undead skeleton. Especially if you plan to snag Shadowform. Your +SP gear will increase shadowguard more than dev plague too. Take a peek at my notes if you want extra insight -- https://www.evernote.com/l/AM-BFhgey_tNwIQDSscmz8M7jvz7v05RBwc/
BTW, making a macro for Berserking and Mind Blast or even Berserking and Mind Flay is always nice too. 10 to 30% haste rating is a beautiful thing not just meant for heals.
#showtooltip Mind Flay
/targetenemy [dead][noharm]
/script SetRaidTarget("target", 8);
/castsequence [nochanneling, harm] reset=target Mind Flay
/startattack
/run UIErrorsFrame:Clear()
Undead priest 100%. Devouring plague at level 60 makes you nearly unbeatable in 1v1, which is what shadowpriests are meant for. They also have WOTF which helps against warlocks. The troll shadow priest conspiracy needs to stop.
Casting animations & Tier Set aesthetics > anything mechanical
Troll for PVE, Berserking and Beast Slaying is super good.
Undead for PVP, WoTF is God-tier and easily carries in PVP. But Troll has some good stuff if you plan on playing a Shadow Priest in PVP, like Shadowguard which reflects melee attacks back to the attacker's face and Hex of Weakness which will reduce enemy healing performance by 20%. I'd still go Undead.
And let's be honest, Undead Priest is the ultimate race and class combination.
Well, for starters, pick the race you prefer the look of. You'll be staring at your character's ugly ass for hours.
If you want the best racials for PvE, it's easy, go Troll.
For PvP it's a little more complicated and since it's long, I'm going to copy-paste a youtube comment I wrote just yesterday.
Warning: it's long.
I think both Trolls and Undead are really good, I prefer the flavour of Shadowguard, Hex and Berserking though.
Honestly, Wotf is powerful, but it's not a necessity, plenty of people play without it (like, 80% of total population) and it's only useful against Warriors (long CD on the fear), Priests (you play out of range) and Warlocks (and god are they a pain).
But does a Priest really takes advantage of Wotf, compared to say, a Rogue or a Mage? I don't think they have the necessary tools to make Wotf godlike. It's nice to have of course, you deny a cc, but I don't think it's as strong as some make it out to be.
So I prefer to go with some healing reduction and more face-melting.
Damage wise, Devouring Plague with 500 SP deals something like 1200 lifesteal, which is good but not really Mana efficient. With Improved Vampiric Embrace you heal a bit over 1500. That's over 24 seconds for almost 1000 Mana (or at the cost of a 3 min CD).
Now Shadowguard costs 250 and deals ~750 damage total per cast with 500 SP (with 26% scaling instead of 33%).
For 1000 Mana (a bit more than a single Devouring Plague), you can cast 4 of them, that's close to 3000 damage, of which you heal almost 900.
The numbers get a bit ridiculous with all the % you get from Vulnerability, Shadowform and Darkness but you get the idea. Devouring Plague heals way more but deals WAY less damage in the end.
Also, Alliance has more ways to get rid of your Plague (Dwarves and Paladins for example) than Shadowguard (No Shamy Purge). Shadowguard also protects your other spells from getting dispelled which makes it a nice defence.
Blackout procs on every charge of Shadowguard, which is nice since it procs on melee, range and spells (not sure how it interacts with DoTs though?).
Touch of Weakness has been said to scale way less than we can see on many private servers and it only procs on melee attacks anyway, which is a bit sad.
Cannibalism is great because it's basically a second bandage but it's rather specific, you need to have a dead humanoid body near you, but it allows you to get some health back without having to drop out of Shadowform which is nice.
A lot of people underestimate Berserking, and oh boy is it good. On Priest at least. The only time a SPriest drops out of Shadowform is when they need an emergency heal, which equals to a 30% haste on spells. Your Flash Heal takes 1.1 seconds to cast and the Greater Heal 2.1 seconds. If you kept your Inner Focus, that's a big crit that heals more and costs less than Devouring Plague. You could also use it for a quick Mind Blast.
Some people use Berserking for quick Mana Burn but honestly, at full life with 2 points in Improved Mana Burn, you're looking at a 2.25s cast with 10% haste instead of 2.5. At 20 %, it's 2 seconds and at 30%, it's 1.75s.
Keep in mind that Berserking doesn't change its value after activation. If you use it at full health it gives you 10% and then if you drop to midlife, it will stay at 10%.
Also, Mind Flay doesn't benefit from haste, which could have been really cool.
If you are planning to heal raids with a priest, guilds are always happy to have you. It's one of the stronger healing classes and race is likely no issue unless you are in the most hardcore of raiding guilds. Now, in PvP it's also likely no issue for the guild. So the choice comes down to, what impacts your playing experience the most?
1. Looking good
2. Dieing in a clutch PvE situation. Suppose the raid was low on HP, you still had mana but you couldn't heal the main tank in time. If you could only cast your heal 0.3s faster you would have made it.
3. Dieing in a clutch PvP situation. Being able to break a fear might occasionally save your life, or allow you to save an ally that is fighting with you.
Personally, I played a dwarf priest in TBC. I raided quite a bit, and my problem with raid wipes was seldomly that I couldn't heal fast enough. It was usually caused by misplays in the group (people dieing instantly) or being unable to keep up the heals due to mana.
On the other hand, in TBC 2v2 arena, there were many times where I faced an undead priest. He could dispel my fear ward, but I could not dispel his WotF. So basically, every mirror match against an undead had a 10% bias in their favor.
TL;DR: PvP deaths hurt more so I would choose Undead
Thanks for everyone’s feedback.
The poll is indicating 51% troll 49% undead.
Still a hard choice 🤦🏼♂️!!
If you want to play premade battlegrounds and be healing i would chose undead for wotf, you will be the number one focus target for cc.
Troll priest is way cooler. Everyone rolls undead.
undead for dp and will, its a no brainer. also prefer the aesthetic. every troll priest I met is either a pve hero or bad
pve only its not even really clear to me, undead is better or close early game and later on its troll but planning around AQ/Naxx is generally an error if you look at player attrition rates (also conttent completion).
if you want a raptor you can just grind harder on undead. it doesn't even look cool on troll because every troll has one and theres no ivory raptor.
then again trolls are buffed since private servers @____@
you are blessed because you can choose which one you like instead of being pigeonholed by min-max
Cheers for the feedback👌🏻