[Shadow] Are we going to become/remain competitive in 5.4?

[Deleted]

I've literally just swapped to the Shadow Priest from the Warlock (Lock since TBC, gets boring nowadays) right now I seem to enjoy it and it's cool, i've asked a few top Priests (Method/Envy) and they claim it's pretty much the same sh*t in 5.4 (Mage/Lock > Boomkin/Ele/Spriest) is that true? I'd imagine myself as a casual so I doubt i'll ever get full hc clears, so i'm not worried about being able to beat people in BiS gear with perfect rotations.

[Deleted]

swap back to warlock

[Deleted]

swap back to warlock

I figured Spriest would be more enjoyable than Lock. Ok Spriest isnt as OP dps wise, but it still has its perks, no?

btw this isnt a "pick my class" debate lol

[Bremmon]

Perhaps you should read the other shadow priest posts, Pretty much Shadow priests are leaving in droves right now for locks and mages. We are tired of being Blizzards redhead step child.

[Deleted]

I figured Spriest would be more enjoyable than Lock. Ok Spriest isnt as OP dps wise, but it still has its perks, no?

btw this isnt a "pick my class" debate lol

Nope they are not.

Sometimes they are fun to play, but all ability's hit like a baby and you sacrifice alot of your damage of you have to go defensive/supportive(divine star instead of Halo, Directhealing, Dispersion)

If the shadow werent my main for a long time i would have rerolled by now.

[Frmercury]

Valid question

Yes, we will be. We're holding the Devs feet to the fire on the matter so to speak.

[Deleted]

If Aff and Demo are the only viable specs for Lock in 5.4 then i'd rather avoid playing it. Demo is rather dull and Aff (AoE/multi target wise) is rather frustrating (I really miss it in Wotlk/TBC).

I'd assume Spriest is going to be viable still, but perhaps not as much as the obvious 2..

[Maleric]

Shadow isn't exactly going to be a top DPS spec in 5.4, but I assume most guilds will still bring shadow priests to raids. If you know your class and are good then you should be able to find a raid spot easy enough, especially if you aren't even going for full HC clears. And especially if you have a decent healing offspec.

[veiledy0]

I figured Spriest would be more enjoyable than Lock. Ok Spriest isnt as OP dps wise, but it still has its perks, no?

No
/10char

[Deleted]

No
/10char

Can't be that bad surely? will it literally be Mage > Lock > Boomkin/Spriest? by a large margin?

[mindp]

Need them shadow buffs, PTR 25 testing is painful.

[Celawien]

Go back to Lock or switch to Disc Priest. ATM and in 5.4 Disc Priest should do very well.

[veiledy0]

Can't be that bad surely? will it literally be Mage > Lock > Boomkin/Spriest? by a large margin?

You asked if Shadow has perks, so that's what I answered. There's currently nothing in this game, outside Ra Den, Shadow is the FotM class for. I'm so used to being useless that I feel a bit weird every week when we get to Ra Den and our raid leader says "get the shadow priests in, let's kill it fast".

But look at it from the bright side, at least you can dodge as much as possible on farm, 'cause you're not needed for anything.

[Vargur]

There are a few things wrong with this thread.
- @OP, if you're real casual, you don't have to worry about anything.
- "remain" competitive? I don't think we were so for 12 months now.
- "decent healing offspec" but healing isn't damage dealing....

Bottom line, I hope those DoT buffs will remain unchanged for the remainder of the expansion.

[Deleted]

We will be fine in 5.4 and if we are good players we will always have raid spot dont destroy everything lets have faith...we are 4 spriests in my 25 m group and we always have spot they can repalce everyone except us and locks...and for example which dps spec is more important in fights like megaera hc?? ofc spriests and locks...and locks damage is nothing compare arcane mages and assasins rogues in 5.4

[snaxattax]

There are a few things wrong with this thread.
- @OP, if you're real casual, you don't have to worry about anything.

this is completely false. if you raid extremely casually, as in mostly pug, it is *harder* to raid as shadow than it is in a more serious raid (where you're threatened with being sat/forced into disc due to playing harder content). pug leaders never take someone who is undergeared and especially not if they are a weak class if they can avoid it. you can be a completely toilet geared lock and get pug invites over middlingly-geared spriests if for none else than soulwells and gateways.

We will be fine in 5.4 and if we are good players we will always have raid spot dont destroy everything lets have faith...we are 4 spriests in my 25 m group and we always have spot they can repalce everyone except us and locks...and for example which dps spec is more important in fights like megaera hc?? ofc spriests and locks...and locks damage is nothing compare arcane mages and assasins rogues in 5.4

wth 4 spriests in a 25 is insane. is this including ra-den alts?

[Deleted]

Don't know about you but in our guild we use 1 and maximum of 2 SP per boss. -> On lei shen only 1 coz that ain't SP fight. So if blizzard keeps doing this to SP they will be completely replaced by locks and mages.
Anyways I don't find myself to do that bad damage in like 1/2 BiS gear, those dots buffs are going to make some nice difference aswell.
And for that megaera, I find that Fire mages do great chunk of damage aswell, So why to bring 3 SP when you can have 2 mages that will do the same. (except the all-mighty vampirism every 3 minutes /cry)

[snaxattax]

yeah, that's more in line with my experiences with shadow this expac. significantly weaker damage than similar classes and no really compelling utility to make up for it.

[Dierdre]

We will be fine in 5.4 and if we are good players we will always have raid spot dont destroy everything lets have faith...we are 4 spriests in my 25 m group and we always have spot they can repalce everyone except us and locks...and for example which dps spec is more important in fights like megaera hc?? ofc spriests and locks...and locks damage is nothing compare arcane mages and assasins rogues in 5.4

I'm just gonna say your group is... bold and creative, for lack of nicer words. 10-man raiders can't afford the luxury of being carried around though.

From what I've seen on PTR, the edge multidot could give us won't compensate for the movement required on several encounters. We remain stationary turrets, and bad ones at that when compared to mages.

Everyone went "yay buffs" without noticing much that locks got buffed too (a slight buff, but they were already ahead), and the combustion nerf to fire is barely a nerf at all. Also, we were already nerfed harder than locks and mages through the RPPM trinket changes, so the status quo is mantained at best.

[YankeePhan1234]

After the Combustion nerf/Shadow buffs/Boomkin changes I think caster wise it's going to look like this in 5.4:

Lock>Spriest>Arcane Mage>Ele>Fire Mage>Boomkin