[7.2] Legion Shadow Priest Guide and Discussion

[Ilir]

They play exactly the same... dot things up, manage your cd to get the best VF uptime/stacks.

[Darth-Piekus]

I have a question regarding specs. Which spec is more powerful the Sanlayn Spec or the AS Spec?

[Zephirdd]

I have a question regarding specs. Which spec is more powerful the Sanlayn Spec or the AS Spec?

depends on your gear. If you have more crit than mastery, then you use AS. Otherwise you use Sanlayn.

Supposing you have a set number of stats to work with, gearing for Sanlayn is more DPS, so you want to gear mastery instead of crit - sometimes you can't help it and you end up with lots of crit though, so don't be too stuck on SL

[Jullyx]

They play exactly the same... dot things up, manage your cd to get the best VF uptime/stacks.

I guess they play exactly same as s2m as well then

[Deleted]

Don't troll, now. AS has simply faster cycling/longer VF uptimes, but even then it's not more than a handful of stacks or a couple less seconds to get back into the form. Whispers is probably a much bigger factor in the playstyle than either of those two talents.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

I guess they play exactly same as s2m as well then

He's not wrong though. AS and SL do for all intents and purposes, play the exact same way. The only real change is that when multidotting with AS, you would SW:P everything, then VT, while you do the opposite with SL.

S2M plays completely different, so I'm just going to assume that the above comment was meant as a joke (you know what they say about sarcasm in written form...). Unless you were talking about playing S2M without actually using the ability. In which case the pre-S2M phase plays the same as AS and SL aswell, it just takes a lot longer to get back into VF again each time it falls off, beacuse having S2m means not having LotV.

[Deleted]

so hows the head legendary compared to the others now?

[Onyd]

so hows the head legendary compared to the others now?

Or better, how do the people who've gone nuts and grinded to the previous two instances of BIS feel now?

[Clrg]

and we are back to a pet tier bonus making the belt bis...again.

[Deleted]

Or better, how do the people who've gone nuts and grinded to the previous two instances of BIS feel now?

Well bracers most likely will still be strong. They are insane on multi-target fights. Not sure about Helm in 7.2 It doesn't look great still. 3% only in VF is still way below even Prydaz.

[Izzirez]

Well bracers most likely will still be strong. They are insane on multi-target fights. Not sure about Helm in 7.2 It doesn't look great still. 3% only in VF is still way below even Prydaz.

Not quite.


This is the current increases for legendaries. In 7.2, the helm will add the 3% damage to VF (1.71% +(3 * VFUptime%)). On the low side of 60% VF uptime, this will be 3.51% (1.71 + 1.8). On my current average VF uptime for most fights (73%) the helm is worth 3.9%, and on the high end of 80% VF uptime it is 4.11%.

Comparing to the current table, this puts the helm nearly equal to Prydaz on the low end, and better than the belt on the high end. Of course, this can change depending on the fight, strategy, and personal skill, and not to mention how much your raid can utilize the raid CD from the helm could also influence the decision to use it.

[Deleted]

These changes are pure bullshit. They nerf our wrists yet they dont touch some legendaries much more powerful (that we never had of course) or some of the trinkets (hello warriors?) that are totally out of control.
As usual, blizzard is full of it.

[Ilir]

i love the DH legendaries buff.

eye beam spam

[Fleckens]

These changes are pure bullshit. They nerf our wrists yet they dont touch some legendaries much more powerful (that we never had of course) or some of the trinkets (hello warriors?) that are totally out of control.
As usual, blizzard is full of it.

I'm not sure how those two things relate, so because warriors have some broken trinkets it's a bad change to bring our legendaries closer to eachother? Bracers were by far the best and will probably still remain so, at least for any fight with more than one target.

[Poopymonster]

I'm not sure how those two things relate, so because warriors have some broken trinkets it's a bad change to bring our legendaries closer to eachother? Bracers were by far the best and will probably still remain so, at least for any fight with more than one target.

Much as I don't PvP, the bracers are nice in the FFA PVP. Dot up some NPCs, get 50 stacks, maintain. "Oh, there's someone on the dragon in Bareback Brawl!" dot, dot, mind bomb, VE, 5 void bolts first of which can crit for around 2 million...finish them off, and the dragon falls out of the sky.

[Onyd]

Belt and cloak are nice for FFA PvP, especially if things chain-proc.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure how those two things relate, so because warriors have some broken trinkets it's a bad change to bring our legendaries closer to eachother? Bracers were by far the best and will probably still remain so, at least for any fight with more than one target.

They are related because the changes to legendaries are basically a balance change. And if you want to balance change, you CANT nerf our wrists (which are the best legendary for us now) to make it closer to other legendaries and then at the same time not touch some other classes legendaries that do A LOT MORE DAMAGE than our wrists OR even that warrior trinket that is just INSANE and better than actually any legendary.
Because in the end then this isnt a balance change, its a nerf for priests (and monks) while some other classes that have better legenedaries and sinergies with trinkets are left untouched and now even better than before. That is the bullshit.

[Jullyx]

He's not wrong though. AS and SL do for all intents and purposes, play the exact same way. The only real change is that when multidotting with AS, you would SW:P everything, then VT, while you do the opposite with SL.

Ye, it was a joke. Not that it wasn't true though!
Yeah, he is right in that the point of each spec is the same, in regards to (multi)dotting and managing cds/vf uptime/stacks, but there are pretty key differences in succeeding with each spec. AS allows for more movement early void form, more forgiving multidotting etc.

In other news, I'm super excited about the new sephuz. I don't see how it can stay like this though. It is already insane for dungeons and fights where you can benefit from the proc on CD. Happy with all the changes to the legendaries really. Bracers got an appropriate nerf, buff to head. I think shoulders should get an additional stack, but definitely won't happen.

- - - Updated - - -

i love the DH legendaries buff.

eye beam spam

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is only a tooltip change. Eye beam always crits.

[bunglehaze]

I'm fairly happy with the changes to head for 7.2 as it's one of only two legendaries I have (bracers and head). I feel like I am missing out having a pure utility item and despite grinding for more have not seen anything more DPS based drop.

Bracers dropping from 4% to 3% isn't ideal but as long as the spec is balanced I will wait and see what this brings.

[Fleckens]

They are related because the changes to legendaries are basically a balance change. And if you want to balance change, you CANT nerf our wrists (which are the best legendary for us now) to make it closer to other legendaries and then at the same time not touch some other classes legendaries that do A LOT MORE DAMAGE than our wrists OR even that warrior trinket that is just INSANE and better than actually any legendary.
Because in the end then this isnt a balance change, its a nerf for priests (and monks) while some other classes that have better legenedaries and sinergies with trinkets are left untouched and now even better than before. That is the bullshit.

You're making the assumption that every priest has the bracers though, but they don't. Seems more like you're just salty that your item got nerfed.