[7.2] Legion Shadow Priest Guide and Discussion

[Sxq]

Replicating a training dummy situation where I was previously living for 120-150 seconds on live caused me to die at 100 seconds instead.

It's a big nerf. Gonna suck until we get void torrent/lowered dispersion cd/tier bonuses/artifact traits.

Not that it wasn't needed, it just feelsbadman in the mean time.

[Isentropy]

Really (correct me if I'm wrong) but the impact of this comes down to how long we can hold onto void form without keeling over. Any idea what an average stm time looks like pre and post nerf? (Or do people need to sim it out?)

No clue. Hotfix isn't live on beta or live EU servers yet and I don't want to make wrong predictions that will misinform people. We'll have to see just how much it impacts how long we'll be able to stay in Voidform now.

[Deleted]

I never said that this wasn't a lazy hotfix, because it is, I fully agree. And I really, REALLY wish for other alternatives by taking a closer look at LotV/Mindspike, justflayin. No condescending tone

And it doesn't say "based on the prepatch" but "related to the prepatch". It is of course related to the prepatch since they're patching the live servers. It doesn't say what data it is based on though, and I'd be very surprised if this wasn't a nerf that targets live AND beta issues.

I'm just happy that they take any way out of this instead of doing nothing. I'm easily satisfied, I know ... But that's what years of Shadow Priest has made out of most of us, I guess.

Too true! We're so used to getting fucked over that any little crumb feels like a banquet and getting hit with a nerf nuke feels like a gentle breeze. I'm really on the fence about whether I'm going to stick with my Spriest in Legion after all these years or just chuck it all and main my super-duper-fun fire mage extraordinaire. Mages on their worst day still generate more effortless dps than Spriest on their best apart from a few episodes of "power overwhelming" which lasts about five minutes before Blizz beats us like the red-headed step children that we are. It's always been like that. It probably always will be. Blizz literally referred to us as the Warlock's poor cousin. With that mentality, we will never truly be a strong dps class. Love it or leave it.

[Sxq]

Does this cement tentacle bro as the definite first trait choice? With shitty early expansion haste levels and nerfed StM I can't see Mass Hysteria being super good initially.

[davesignal]

Early expansion haste levels are no longer shitty. Blizzard front-loaded the expansion with high levels of secondary stats, offset by having lower secondary stat levels than usual late in the expansion. It's one of the good ideas they had for Legion.

Re: Surrender to Madness- this was inevitable. Surrender to Madness runs totally against how Blizzard actually balances things. The Blizz mentality is that how easy or hard your spec is has no relevance to balancing. A high risk, high reward talent that rewards razors-edge execution with actual tangible damage gains was never going to last.

Unfortunately, we're still clearly balanced around picking it.. so, yeah, Shadow Priests are going to be 200% effort to get the same results as any other spec, at best. Hooray.

[justflayin]

Hardly triggered me. Sorry you can't separate the issues from each other. STM and our aoe.

- - - Updated - - -



Really (correct me if I'm wrong) but the impact of this comes down to how long we can hold onto void form without keeling over. Any idea what an average stm time looks like pre and post nerf? (Or do people need to sim it out?)

Sorry I'd rather have more choices in talents? The nerve of me to want my spec to have more variety.

[Deleted]

Why is Legacy of the Void even a talent? It's so damn lazy, it's like they couldn't think of another talent to add for shadow, and just decided to throw that in.

[davesignal]

They had another talent. It used to be a talent that buffed your Shadow Word spells by 50% every time you cast Mind Blast, stacking twice. Then I guess Blizzard decided that was too interesting and we got this.

[Isentropy]

They had another talent. It used to be a talent that buffed your Shadow Word spells by 50% every time you cast Mind Blast, stacking twice. Then I guess Blizzard decided that was too interesting and we got this.

No, I think they were almost certainly scared of potentially being able to keep up multiple 100% empowered Shadow Word: Pains for a long time using Void Bolt. Remember, they changed Legacy at the same time as they made Void Bolt refresh our dots - I don't think that's a coincidence.

[davesignal]

I feel like that still would not have been as good as Surrender is, even now.

[Ilir]

Just give me tentacle slap and i'll be happy.

"Turn your arms into tentacles. All your spells are now melee range. You gain +XXX% armor and XX% Damage reduction."

Mind Blast => Tentacle Uppercut.

Mind Flay => Tentacle entanglement

etc.

How to fix melee being way OP compared to caster in legion pvp ? Give every cast a melee dps spec =)

[Darkke]

I'm not annoyed by the StM neft as everyone could see it coming, but the absolutely zero communication that Blizzard has had about the Shadow Priest lvl 100 talent situation is starting to really piss me off.

[justflayin]

I'm not annoyed by the StM neft as everyone could see it coming, but the absolutely zero communication that Blizzard has had about the Shadow Priest lvl 100 talent situation is starting to really piss me off.

Exactly why I had the reaction I had.

[Djriff]

I'm not annoyed by the StM neft as everyone could see it coming, but the absolutely zero communication that Blizzard has had about the Shadow Priest lvl 100 talent situation is starting to really piss me off.

Honestly the lack of communication about any changes to shadow at all is frustrating.

[Deleted]

StM only gives 150% more insanity now...

I've been a strong believer in Blizz, and hoped they wouldn't nerf this awesome talent to the ground. But we're getting closer and closer to that horrble idea.

[Deleted]

Honestly the lack of communication about any changes to shadow at all is frustrating.

Yeah, I think this is a big factor. Zero communication despite feedback here, and on the official forums. And apparently zero interest to make Mind Spike competitive, or make Legacy of the Void interesting. For a level 100 talent, it's just...pathetic.

[Palaryel]

StM only gives 150% more insanity now...

I've been a strong believer in Blizz, and hoped they wouldn't nerf this awesome talent to the ground. But we're getting closer and closer to that horrble idea.

They just reduced the maximum amount of time you can stay inside voidform with StM. This nerf can't be called huge generally, or isn't a straight nerf, it's a fine tune, and it may still go up or down. You have to remember that even after this StM is still the strongest DPS cooldown in the game.

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[justflayin]

They just reduced the maximum amount of time you can stay inside voidform with StM. This nerf can't be called huge generally, or isn't a straight nerf, it's a fine tune, and it may still go up or down. You have to remember that even after this StM is still the strongest DPS cooldown in the game.

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So what? Where are the other choices. I don't care that it got nerfed. Where is the compensation for the other skills. Everyone saw this nerf coming from a mile away, but the most they've done to fix anything with us is just by nerfing us for the past couple of tuning passes and not compensated other talents in that row at all. It being the best DPS CD in the game is moot for me.

[Atreyis]

I was going to go back to my lock prior to this, despite all the problems that class has, because my guild has too many priests as is and no locks. Just seeing my 2 favorite classes, priest & lock getting hammered with nerfs while mage just sits there is starting to piss me off. And I usually don't get all that upset about nerfs/buffs.

[davesignal]

You have to remember that even after this StM is still the strongest DPS cooldown in the game.

This isn't relevant to anything, it's pointless obfuscation that sounds impressive but is utterly devoid of meaning without the context of the class.

Yes, it's the strongest DPS CD in the game.. on a spec that is one of the weakest in the game at their baseline. Consider what it means to give a class the 'strongest DPS CD in the game'.. and yet still have them be on par with other specializations, who don't have access to it.