i have recently made a shadow priest as an alt to my healadin plz give comments on how well a shadow priest can dps and are they good in 5 man heroics... tho i no they r not te highest dps they seem like fun to play in the lvls that i have played with him so far (he's lvl 36)

actually they are a great asset to raids...if you have one that can control aggro. They can almost do as much dps as other classes but the fact that they also grant healz is a big bonus...esp if your in a group w/ the main tank...but with great power, comes great responsibility....they pull aggro easily when they are going all out

True story.  As a (mostly) epic end-game shadow priest, I'm either at the top or very near the top of the dps meter in raids.  But since I have the frozen shadoweave set, I heal myself for a percent of the damage I do.  That, plus keeping Vampiric Touch up = super threat =P  Priest tank ftw

You'll learn to love your Fade button

Nihilum doesn't use Holy Priests in raids...

SPriest FTW!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy priests can do some good dps but the best thing they do is act as a mana battery.  I never oom with one in my party.

we usually have 2 shadowpriests when we do kara and they go in the same group as the 3 healers. this gives us healers massive amounts of mana regen and on most boss fights we come out with 90% mana left. our shadowpriests are always in the top 3 places on the dps meters, they could do even more damage but their spells aggro like crazy so they can never go full out.
i've recently respec'd my holy priest to shadow and they're a lot of fun to play at high level. i tried heroic mech with it last night and i did insane amounts of damage but couldn't control my threat (think i need practise!) so i died a couple times. by using a shadowpriest we lost a potential crowd control because mind control isn't particularly trusting but we had a strong dps so the mobs went down fast enough for the tank not to take too much damage. the health and mana regen my group got from me really helped out on the bosses and when our healer died on the last boss i took up the healing spot.
not tried kara as a shadowpriest yet but will hopefully get a place next week. i recommend leveling your priest, but you will likely be expected to respec holy when you get to 70 =[ don't let your guild bully you into it! shadow's great =P

we usually have 2 shadowpriests when we do kara and they go in the same group as the 3 healers. this gives us healers massive amounts of mana regen and on most boss fights we come out with 90% mana left. our shadowpriests are always in the top 3 places on the dps meters, they could do even more damage but their spells aggro like crazy so they can never go full out.
i've recently respec'd my holy priest to shadow and they're a lot of fun to play at high level. i tried heroic mech with it last night and i did insane amounts of damage but couldn't control my threat (think i need practise!) so i died a couple times. by using a shadowpriest we lost a potential crowd control because mind control isn't particularly trusting but we had a strong dps so the mobs went down fast enough for the tank not to take too much damage. the health and mana regen my group got from me really helped out on the bosses and when our healer died on the last boss i took up the healing spot.
not tried kara as a shadowpriest yet but will hopefully get a place next week. i recommend leveling your priest, but you will likely be expected to respec holy when you get to 70 =[ don't let your guild bully you into it! shadow's great =P

i've got a lvl 70 shadow priest and she's great i'm a regular in our Kara raid and always in the top 3 dps. with mind control and shackle undead as well as the mana regen they are invaluable. Have fun leveling and like the others said don't get bullied into going holy shadow is great

TAURENS ARE THE BEST!!!

shadow is best hands down. first time i did BF, we didn't have a healer, it was a warrior tank, lock, hunter, and two spriests. we both kept VT and VE up, and i only had to drop shadow one time the entire instance to heal the tank (boss) SPRIESTS OWN!

bob, even enchancement shamans can heal in ~65 instances..

btw, you cant cast healing spells in shadowform... VE was all that was healing

shadow priests are one of the most important roles of a raid, what with their ability to do great damage, some support healing and mana regen to the raid, whilst also having skills like shackle undead for CC, they are awesome.

I, personally, went shadow right away with my priest and never looked back. I consider myself a pretty hardcore raider (and nicely geared I might add), and generall hold the #3 spot in a 10-man and #8 or 9 in a 25-man. If you want to avoid pulling aggro, here's a few tips...

#1 (most important) - download Omen Threat Meter or any other type of threat meter, so you know how close you're getting to passing up the tanks threat. If you pass it, immediately hit Fade and stop DPS until it goes back down.

#2 - If you find yourself in a raid with a tank who just can't seem to hold aggro, drop VE. Believe me, half the time it's not us; it's a poorly geared tank.  You must drop VE when this is the case.  The most important thing to keep up at all times is VT.  Keep in mind, the more damage you do, the more mana you give to the healers (who are main healers in the first place).  By the time you get to 25-man raids, the tank should be nicely geared and capable to manintaining aggro. This is where I go all out and add VE.

#3 - If you're a "raiding" Spriest, you MUST have 3/3 Shadow Affinity. It reduces your threat by 25%. I once forgot to respec for a raid after arena, and didn't have Affinity on.  Needless to say, I was a lower on the damage meter than I'd like to have been.

#4 - get the Subtlety enchant on your cloak.  It only drops your threat by 2%, but hey...every little bit helps. 

Side note: They're nerfing our VT in the new xp. Short version: Blizzard decided to take 60% of our mana regen and give us a useless AoE.  Lower level Spriests will notice this more than the high-level "geared" Spriests will.  In addtion, we're supposed to scale better when it comes to DPS, so those geared Spriests shouldn't be as affected.  Increased damage = increased effectiveness of VT.