[Legion] Shadow Priest Discussion

[Ilir]

Really seriously super miffed about constant shadow form. It's like druids being constantly stuck in cat form. I wanna see my transmog, I wanna see my character. I don't wanna have to respec to be able to do that.


Also worried about solo survivability in Legion, especially without PW:S.

PW : Shield is still there as Shadow. Tho levelling as shadow is a painful joke atm (it wasn't before but then they decided to nerf everything that was fun about the spec).

Saying that perma Shadowform is the same as perma cat form is ridiculous. You're a little purple at 0 insanity, going darker the more insanity you have. You'll be able to see your transmog just fine.

They could have given us a glyph that makes shadowform at 0 insanity basically non existent but then again they could have also made a glyph that reduced/increased the amount of tentacles, but they didn't.

[Poopymonster]

#purplelivesmatter

[c8-tty]

Just as people are miffed about forced shadow form, im miffed about how its weaker now. I enjoy my purple priest

Both these problems could easily be fixed with 2 glyphs one to make it darker like the old shadow form and the glyph to make it turn off at 0 insanity. But the glyphs I've seen so far are lacking and disappointing :/

[Ilir]

Just as people are miffed about forced shadow form, im miffed about how its weaker now. I enjoy my purple priest

Both these problems could easily be fixed with 2 glyphs one to make it darker like the old shadow form and the glyph to make it turn off at 0 insanity. But the glyphs I've seen so far are lacking and disappointing :/

Well it's a known fact that shadowpriests can't have decent animations/choices for every spell in their arsenal. You gain some, you lose some.

[Malico]

It is not painful to lvling as shadow, if you are. Then you are doing wrong!!!

[davesignal]

It is not painful to lvling as shadow, if you are. Then you are doing wrong!!!

Please, go into explicit detail about the hows and whys.

[Ryeshot]

4set mythic t18, RoW, VR, ToF/FotM

obviously

[Malico]

Please, go into explicit detail about the hows and whys.

I am not talking about lvl 110 like world quest, suramar etc. It is just lvling 100-110 isnt problem for you right?

[Gnarilex]

It is not painful to lvling as shadow, if you are. Then you are doing wrong!!!

Really? Every shadow priest here that knows what they're talking about, and is having issues staying alive with 2+ mobs is wrong? Spamming shadowmend and PW:S means our survivability is fine, even after all our passive damage reduction was removed and our cleave trait SoI was gutted? A frost DK can take on 10 mobs at a time in Legion without any trouble. Other specs have been reported in this thread to take down 5-7 mobs in the same time it takes us to take down 1 or 2. But surely we're fine when leveling or world questing or anything that isn't a raiding environment, right?

[Yizu]

I just do world quests as disc with level 13 artifact, its just so so much better than shadow. I pull 5-7 mobs with no problem

[Malico]

Really? Every shadow priest here that knows what they're talking about, and is having issues staying alive with 2+ mobs is wrong? Spamming shadowmend and PW:S means our survivability is fine, even after all our passive damage reduction was removed and our cleave trait SoI was gutted? A frost DK can take on 10 mobs at a time in Legion without any trouble. Other specs have been reported in this thread to take down 5-7 mobs in the same time it takes us to take down 1 or 2. But surely we're fine when leveling or world questing or anything that isn't a raiding environment, right?

Ok, I take it back. There is no wrong or right and I have no words why it is painful to lvling as shadow, because I enjoyed it!

I used those talents, sometimes I change to PI. Mind Bomb and SoI are amazing for lvling, it will help you. Void Lord or Reapor of Souls what you want.

http://beta.wowdb.com/talent-calculator#CepX

[Biomega]

I think this is (once again) a matter of absolutes vs. relatives. While it's not IMPOSSIBLE to level a Shadow Priest, not even prohibitively difficult, there seem to be significant disparities in performance when compared to certain other classes. It's about that gap, really, not about some absolute measure of leveling power.

[Isentropy]

Shadow is one of the slower leveling specs, I definitely wouldn't say that survivability issues are that big out in the world. No, you can't pull 10 mobs and AoE them all down as shadow while some specs can. Shadow is not the only spec that can't do this, though. It's always important to put things like this into perspective. As shadow you're looking to chain pull if at all possible, trying to maximize the little Voidform uptime you have by killing as many mobs as you can while in it. I recommend Shadow Word: Void as a tool to help you with some of the ramp up problems. In regards to survivability, using Mindbender + Fade is a good combo that can distract mobs while you're looking to pull more mobs - dots are plenty strong to whittle the mobs down for the most part and your Mindbender is taking the beating. It's not ideal, I can see why this turns people off compared to some other specs, but some people are really just overexaggerating the problem in my opinion. I'll be done with leveling in give or take 12 hours (maybe even less), is that really something worth making a big fuss about? I don't think so, although again I would welcome any changes to improve the experience.

You outgear world quests so quickly and the areas are usually so crowded on the beta (imagine how crowded they will be on live) that your solo capabilities are largely irrelevant anyway with the new tagging system.

It's dungeons that are the real problem for shadow right now and I hope more is done to address this.

[davesignal]

Chain pulling still requires a decent amount of self healing, especially passive self healing. If you've got to crack off a couple Shadow Mends between pulls you're not really chain pulling.

[Isentropy]

I had no problem doing so when leveling in the crappy gear the premades get. Since I leveled up my priest to 110 they've buffed our self healing even more: Vampiric Touch buffs, Power Word: Shield buffs, Shadow Mend buffs - Blizzard expects you to use those tools to compensate for our squishiness. Not talking about PvP, purely talking about leveling/outdoor content. In combat I almost never had to cast Shadow Mend, frequently used Power Word: Shield (before pulling mobs and whilst kiting mobs running to the next mobs) and of course Vampiric Touch (in combination with San'layn) is used all the time. It's quite slow, I see why it's not pleasant, but it makes up such a small portion of my playtime that I just can't be bothered making a fuss about it.

[Deleted]

I leveled as a 745 Shadow Priest.

100-102 it was fine, mobs dying fast and I could basically go on and constantly pulled mobs. Having 30% crit for AS procs.

102-106 It slowed downed. I had to heal myself quite a lot, wait or drink mana between bigger pulls.

106-110 2 Mobs and trying to plan out activating Void Form and positioning myself so I don't lose too much voidform, so I could get 1 or 2 more mobs.

110 World Quests, the PvP/ Warden solo ones. I have never had to put this much effort in anything I've ever done in World of Warcraft. Kiting, potions, healing.


If you think Shadow is great for leveling, go spend time on any melee class. I tried Rogue, DH Havoc, Monk, Dk in 690 gear. They outleveled my priest by over 50%.

World Quests people claim gear as a problem. 840 priest does world quests slower than a 790 monk or DH or DK. Too much ramp up time, no combat durability. If they make Void Shield in a normal talent I think that'll solve all surviving problems that spriest has in the world.

On a Havoc I do world quests objectives in 1 or 2 pulls, depending on how close the mobs are, before they start evading. There is no room for comparison.

My opinion/experience on Shadow leveling strength.

P.S. I've leveled 5 shadow priests in the period between January Alpha- June Beta.

[Isentropy]

If you think Shadow is great for leveling, go spend time on any melee class. I tried Rogue, DH Havoc, Monk, Dk in 690 gear. They outleveled my priest by over 50%.

Who's saying that shadow is great for leveling?

You're also comparing shadow to melee strictly, which is a flawed approach in and of itself because most melee is quite strong at the moment due to tuning. Any ranged spec is going to level slower than melee at the moment.

World Quests people claim gear as a problem. 840 priest does world quests slower than a 790 monk or DH or DK. Too much ramp up time, no combat durability. If they make Void Shield in a normal talent I think that'll solve all surviving problems that spriest has in the world.

Who's claiming gear as a problem?

Too much ramp up time, yes, no combat durability? I can run around worldquest areas only dotting things up and never even be at risk of dying. If I am, I just pop VE and use Void Torrent to heal back up. Come on now. You're severely exaggerating survivability problems.

On a Havoc I do world quests objectives in 1 or 2 pulls, depending on how close the mobs are, before they start evading. There is no room for comparison.

Who's comparing shadow to havoc?

[deviantcultist]

It worked earlier in the beta, I know that much.

How does Ghostly Fade look like?

[Deleted]

Hunters have strong opinions about what weapon type is the main one for your spec.
The team tried to use the other Artifact Appearances to give players another weapon type choice when this is a problem

But this didn't happen for priests because?


We have one of the worst transmogs and the different skins barely change the appearance at all

[Deleted]

How does Ghostly Fade look like?

It's...ghostly? :P It looks like the newish type of spectral, random with blue or purple hue, more or less, not sure how to describe it better. It sometimes, due to various weird conditions, gets rewritten by shadowform/voidform so you don't really see it always, but it's visible often enough.