Do you still enjoy Shadow?

[Kynario]

Hello,

Slowly from the Cataclysm expansion I've been enjoying the Shadow Priest less and less through each expansion. I fell in love with the sPriest in Vanilla, happily stayed with it through TBC and also Wrath, but more and more they've turned the spec into a weird-voidy-tentacle-tendril-insanity spec, and I don't really enjoy it anymore (hence the reason why I don't play it anymore). I can't get used to the Void Form/Void Bolt/and the Insanity resource. sPriests used to be a bit more like Affliction Locks, and I understand that Blizzard needed to diversify them more. I just really don't like their new specialisation fantasy. Anyone else feel similarly, or not?

I was wondering whether it's solely just me, or do people enjoy, and are genuinely happy, with the direction and fantasy they've taken with the Shadow Priest?

[Improtaight]

been shadow for two weeks,
Single target is fun imo!

AOE is worst in the game, and AOE is a big part of the game.

so to sum it up - NO

[Deleted]

Shadow since late TBC.

So far, pretty happy with Legion Shadow. The short lived StM era annoyed me though but I am we are past that.

I like the idea of Shadowform but I feel like... we miss a spell or two in it, I wish we had something like ''Void Rage : fills your Voidform to it's max instantly, 1 min CD'' so that when you are in high stacks, you could squeeze out a bit more. Something like it, I just feel like we are missing something at high stacks.

Other than that, pretty content with current Shadow. If Shadow Crash was baseline, I would be 100% happy.

- - - Updated - - -

I think Blizzard needs to look at PvP talents and transfer some aspects in to baseline, I quite like the ''stops drain after Dispersion for X amount of seconds'', spice it up a bit.

[Tojara]

Honestly the way old shadow priest played was pretty basic boring shit, as was like every class in the game. I certainly wouldn't call any iteration of shadow in WoTLK or prior an enjoyable, much like I wouldn't call a destruction warlock enjoyable in TBC, or my combat rogue enjoyable in vanilla. To each their own though. Some people like very straight forward mechanics (shadow in earlier expansions), others don't (not saying that Legion iteration isn't super complex either).

Don't get me wrong, I actually liked how the spec played to some extent in WoD, and some of the earlier iterations with devouring plague, but this one I feel is the best.

My only issue with the spec in Legion was that S2M was the only option at the start, but since then they have fixed it. Small gripe with the fact that they made S2M basically not viable (except in super niche situations) because I did enjoy it sometimes, but IMO they did fix the spec a lot after they brought the relative power of S2M down.

Legion shadow priest is the most fun I've had with it, and I've been playing it off and on since the beginning. I personally don't like incredibly basic rotations that existed, nor did I like eras where shadow was not viable (vanilla), or simply only brought for it's utility and nothing else (doing pretty shit DPS). The way the spec plays now isn't exactly super complicated, but there are ways to get extra power out of the class if you know what you're doing.

The only part of shadow that feels weak is in the purest sense, AoE. To elaborate I mean AoE which is done fast, and where packs melt (basically trivial content, or occasionally some boss mechanics). The way shadow is designed now, they feel amazing when adds stay up for a long period of time, or any council type fight. Pure ST fights can feel bad, but a lot of encounters have execute phases and while you might feel bad in the first 65%, you'll still be somewhat competitive in the last 35%. (Considering encounter design it just means you trade being mediocre/bad on some encounters up front, to being really nice at the end, which is useful more often than not).

[Kynario]

Honestly the way old shadow priest played was pretty basic boring shit, as was like every class in the game. I certainly wouldn't call any iteration of shadow in WoTLK or prior an enjoyable, much like I wouldn't call a destruction warlock enjoyable in TBC, or my combat rogue enjoyable in vanilla. To each their own though. Some people like very straight forward mechanics (shadow in earlier expansions), others don't (not saying that Legion iteration isn't super complex either).

Don't get me wrong, I actually liked how the spec played to some extent in WoD, and some of the earlier iterations with devouring plague, but this one I feel is the best.

My only issue with the spec in Legion was that S2M was the only option at the start, but since then they have fixed it. Small gripe with the fact that they made S2M basically not viable (except in super niche situations) because I did enjoy it sometimes, but IMO they did fix the spec a lot after they brought the relative power of S2M down.

Legion shadow priest is the most fun I've had with it, and I've been playing it off and on since the beginning. I personally don't like incredibly basic rotations that existed, nor did I like eras where shadow was not viable (vanilla), or simply only brought for it's utility and nothing else (doing pretty shit DPS). The way the spec plays now isn't exactly super complicated, but there are ways to get extra power out of the class if you know what you're doing.

The only part of shadow that feels weak is in the purest sense, AoE. To elaborate I mean AoE which is done fast, and where packs melt (basically trivial content, or occasionally some boss mechanics). The way shadow is designed now, they feel amazing when adds stay up for a long period of time, or any council type fight. Pure ST fights can feel bad, but a lot of encounters have execute phases and while you might feel bad in the first 65%, you'll still be somewhat competitive in the last 35%. (Considering encounter design it just means you trade being mediocre/bad on some encounters up front, to being really nice at the end, which is useful more often than not).

Well explained, thanks for sharing. Might give it a go again then when the sick new animations are implemented.

[Aeriel]

I've been shadow since the mana battery days. I have been rather blah on SPriest since all of our utility was gutted, and, worse, Disc was given the heal by DPS niche. Further, VF has gotten worse wuth each iteration instead of better in my opinion. With the changes to haste stack decaying, lingering void, etc. VF feels more like a chore than an interesting mechanic. It feels more like a 1min cooldown than a mechanic that you guage and play. (Yes, I know it changes how you ST in that window, but it's not "fun".)

[jag5268]

This is the first expansion I mained Shadow. I started back at the end of Cata, where I just played Disc. I played Disc throughout MoP and the little months I played in WoD. I dabbled in Shadow in both of those expansions and at the time I did not care for it. I really like how Shadow plays this expansion but I know I'm in the minority here. I still love playing shadow, hell I been enjoying all three priest specs this expansion.

[anon5123]

It's a nice and fun playstyle, but sadly Shadow is garbage at everything right now. Crap single target and crap AoE, long ramp up time leading to crap burst damage...Blizz pls. y u do dis.

[TheDeeGee]

Single Target is good enough, i just wish the EoA was't so horrible.

[l33t]

Shadow since late TBC as well.
Currently dislike it a lot. Requires way too much APM for such shameful performance compared to other dps specs. Rerolled to hunter and finally felt like I am relaxing while playing the game, while playing shadow in legion feels for me like a gym workout. That's single target speaking, because aoe-wise the spec is beyond terrible no matter what you do - unlike, once again, a hunter, who is great in everything and lacks nothing.
Also, have to add some whine about crappy-looking artifact, boring class hall, absurd class quests (hunter's ones are absurd as well though) and godawful class mount...

[ThrashMetalFtw]

The Cata version of Shadow was the natural evolution of the spec, going back all the way to Classic. TBC, WotLK and Cata all added new mechanics, while keeping the basics the same. I still don't understand why they went for a full redesign of Shadow in MoP, instead of just keeping on building on what they had in Cata, the version of Shadow that to this day, is still the most universally liked.

Sure, it was easier than the later versions, but also a lot more fun, and the core concept was really good.

I hated everything about MoP Shadow, not a single redeeming quality during that expansion.
I did enjoy AS Shadow in BRF and early HFC, but disliked the other versions (DotWeaving in HM, Classtrinket in HFC).

The current version of Shadow is fun, but it still feels like a high effort, low reward spec. No other Ranged Dps suffers anywhere close to the same Dps loss as us, if we have to move. Have to do a mechanic above 40 VF stacks? Time to start VF all over again, byebye Dps. This can obviously be negated by perfect planning, positioning and Dispersion usage, which will separate "good" SPs from "awesome" ones, but it's still very annoying. And ofc there's the fact that Shadow has absolutely nothing to use against low HP swarm packs, like the Murlocs in EoA, or small bloods before 3rd boss in DHT (Shadow Crash doesn't count since it competes with LotV).

Overall, I think the current version of Shadow is better and more fun than the MoP and WoD ones, but still prefer Cata. As long as we don't have to play S2M again that is. S2M needs to die, in a fire.

[Spicymemer]

Been shadow since vanilla.
I like the current theme of shadow, it works quite well.

In terms of raid viability (normalised for 20 as this is the raid format for current high end raiding (mythic)
Vanilla 0.75/20
TBC 3.1/20
WotLK 2.5/20
Cataclysm 1.9/20
Mists -did not play-
WoD 1.5/20
Legion EN 3/20
Legion NH 1.5/20
Legion ToS 1/20

While many top TOP guilds run 2 spriests regularly in their world/region/realm firsts, this is nearly irrelevant to the remaining 99.9% of spriests.
1. The 99.9% dont do split runs, this increases the raids DPS to a mythic difficulty standard, so you will focus on specs that have more survivability than standard.
2. By the time the 99.9% reach these difficult bosses, they outgear it more than these top guilds did after their initial split runs.

Shadow is more demanding of player input and technical knowledge of the spec than almost every other DPS in the game, and we're not rewarded for it.
Infact, we're punished for it, lets look at how our spec fares.

1. Single target, Middling when we can turret, very low when we are required to move.
2. Burst/Small add AoE, Non existent
3. Sustained/large add cleave, middling.
4. Sustained/large add spread targets, upper tier
5. Defensive cooldown, typical, cannot be used to the same potential as immunities.
6. Utility, Middling, we offer VE (far weaker in large groups), Ranged interrupt (worse than mage, druid, hunter, shaman), AoE stun, poor (DH/Shaman/Warlock is more valuable)
7. Survivability, Upper tier, outclassed by Warlocks.
8. Mobility, Poor
9. Tier, shared with 3 healing specs, 2 tank specs, 1 dominant melee spec and 3 dominant ranged specs

Spriest arent utterly useless, but we're not valuable either.
Warlock is simply a better spriest in almost every measurable way and they have battle res, health stones, summon stones, demonic gateway.

Shadow has been my main for 11 years, ive designed my own talents, playstyles and balancing many times, i probably know how to fix the spec than the entire blizzard class design team put together, but it doesnt matter, because spriest isnt on their radar becase we arent a large % of the playerbase.

There are incredibly fundamental issues with the spec;
Our dps plummets when we are unable to turret.
It takes far too long to apply dots to large packs of mobs.
Our utility is outclassed by almost any other raid composition of ranged specs.
We're not rewarded for our effort, Both physical input and technical knowledge.


It will be amusing, because the next expansion will be old god/void lord themed, full of shadow priest stuff, i wonder if they will allow us to be good then?

[anon5123]

Been shadow since vanilla.
Shadow has been my main for 11 years, ive designed my own talents, playstyles and balancing many times

Vanilla 0.75/20
TBC 3.1/20
WotLK 2.5/20
Cataclysm 1.9/20
Mists -did not play-
WoD 1.5/20
Legion EN 3/20
Legion NH 1.5/20
Legion ToS 1/20

excuse me what

you have a really, really weird definition of "viable" if you claim that Shadow has been just about completely unviable for the game's entire life.

Spriest was viable in vanilla raids, they brought Shadow Weaving and shields/dispels.

Spriest was viable in BC with decent DPS and being a mana battery for the healers.

Spriest was all-around viable in WOTLK, doing pretty nice DPS (although the hybrid tax was still in place)

Didn't really play Shadow much throughout Cata or MoP, but it seemed okay enough.

They were pretty good in WoD as well.

And what the shit are you saying "3/20" for EN? Shadow was literally #1 DPS on single target fights due to StM.

I'm really, really questioning your claims of "mained shadow since vanilla".

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I've always like the idea of Shadow. Not only are they easily the most evil characters on Azeroth who willingly turn their back on the light to channel the power of the Void but Legion really dialed that knob to 11 as far as story is concerned. A amazingly evil Xal'atath who whispers to you at your side and an order hall which is more than simply "functional" really drew me in to it to make it my current main even though I can play other classes much better.

This is coming from someone who was absolutely against multi-dotting specs since the dawn of time so when they introduced Misery it was the icing on the cake even though I know it's not optimal.

The only complaints I have is that Shadow seems to either do very well or very poor depending on the fights which can be a little jarring and seem to scale poorly as the tier draws out due to lower encounter duration. The second part might just be a "me" issue though.

[Deleted]

excuse me what

you have a really, really weird definition of "viable" if you claim that Shadow has been just about completely unviable for the game's entire life.

Spriest was viable in vanilla raids, they brought Shadow Weaving and shields/dispels.

Spriest was viable in BC with decent DPS and being a mana battery for the healers.

Spriest was all-around viable in WOTLK, doing pretty nice DPS (although the hybrid tax was still in place)

Didn't really play Shadow much throughout Cata or MoP, but it seemed okay enough.

They were pretty good in WoD as well.

And what the shit are you saying "3/20" for EN? Shadow was literally #1 DPS on single target fights due to StM.

I'm really, really questioning your claims of "mained shadow since vanilla".

Are you saying that having 3 shadow priests was totally unheard of in EN?

[anon5123]

Are you saying that having 3 shadow priests was totally unheard of in EN?

Huh? Who's talking about number of Priests in raid?

[Kyranna]

I don't like much the current shadowpriest, my favourite versions were certainly Cata and WoD (the shadow mage variant, with dot weaving), the latter because I enjoyed a caster with massive self healing through devouring plague.
MoP was almost cool, but did pitiful damage, yet with the glyph that allowed renew and flash heal in shadow form, we were interesting hybrids.
I play all classes, priest is one of the most played from my army and was my first character in WoW back at EU launch. I don't hate Legion SP, but it could certainnly be better than it is now and thematically... no, I'm not a psycho.

[Deleted]

Huh? Who's talking about number of Priests in raid?

The guy you quoted.

(normalised for 20 as this is the raid format for current high end raiding (mythic)

[BobAwesome]

I don't enjoy this expansions iteration of shadow. I do not like the Void Form phase style of play, it's like Demo's old metamorphosis style, but without the cool form. It's why I finally tried a different class seriously for an expansion and not just dicking around with one as an alt.

My favorite versions of Shadow were Dragon Souls style with Dark Archangel and the Shadow Fiend buff and CoP/Dotweaving style from WoD. I don't mind normal Shadow style of maintaining dots, using Mind Blast on cooldown and filling with Mind Flay.

I played Shadow from Vanilla, when all you did was keep SW:P up and spam mind flay, you only used Mind Blast on an add that needed to be bursted down or you'd 1) draw aggro off the tank because holy shit did cause a high amount of threat and 2) you'd go oom if you used Mind Blast on cooldown. Granted, 40 man raids only ever brought 1 shadow priest and that was mostly for Shadow Weaving for the Warlocks.

In TBC 25 man raids had 1 mana battery for the healers, maybe a second for the mages, but even then we were bottom of the dps charts. In wotlk, we finally started being middle of the pack. It wasn't until Cata that we had a few fights where we could shine. Come MoP we became monsters at the Council type fights, which is usually want gets us nerfed effecting our single target and aoe. We've never been great at burst aoe though.

Our rotation remained the same until Cata though and it was so simple that you could literally do it in your sleep, which I actually did once, actually dozed off while raiding but still kept doing the rotation.

[anon5123]

The guy you quoted.

Ranking viability by number of that class/spec in the raid?

That's a....really, really weird and convoluted way of ranking something's viability.

Shadow has always been viable in PvE. The number in the raid is kinda irrelevant.