Question for Spriest PVPers on Beta and PTR

[Direshadow]

100% honest opinion here would be nice.

Have you, in any situation, found Spectral Guise to be helpful, lifesaving, used often, etc.

Since they nerfed the ability to use it while mounted, the spell really feels like a sore thumb sticking out in between two much better talents.

This tier is obviously geared towards survivability, but so far, choosing between an instant heal within shadow form, and a passive shield, seems much more appealing then a spell that is almost guaranteed to fail and really only used for a set up.


Has anyone on PTR or Beta found this spell useful, and if so, please explain your experience.

[kartmanlol]

It's still a very useful skill cause u can just stealth ,I'd combat and start casting straight away , by the time up out of stealth u'll,oat likely be finishing the cast so it's more of an interrupt protection. Also use it just b4 u know a death grip or some big spell is coming ur way

[darkranger]

honestly i think they ruined the spell , also since dots break it and it does make u auto target the copy of yourself , ppl know when its used and it just makes it the worst talent in the tree, very cool spell idea but blizz failed on it kinda

[Deleted]

In the end it kinda feels like having a 15sec talented Fade, the only advantage of stealth is to confuse your opponent at the start and get the upper hand. It's just really hard to get it working as an escape tool, but it will feel good when you pull it off. A bit sad aswell that it dismounts you now, but i guess it was too gameplay changing in arenas especially.

[soulyouth]

I've been using the passive shield, I love it, it give me time to spam flash, and with FDCL you get alot of surge of light procs so I often top myself off and reset the fight.

[Inukashi]

I think spectral Guise won't be useless

Maybe you won't use it as a blink compensation. But together with our new sprint mechanics I think we can do some nice things in PvP. Just e.g. SG -> Shield (body and soul) and you can get far enough to get some heals.

Or you can use it as an opener. You get invis near your enemy to open with a Fear

Maybe you can use Void Tendrils and get invis. So the one, charging you won't notice the swap with your illusion because he has to target the tendril. (am I understanding the tendrils right?)

You can get Spectral Guise to cast a MC cast would be nice too in Arena, like this: Warrior Charges -> Spec Guise -> MC -> let's warrior walk away -> now he is at range and you can kite him


But uhm.. can someone answer these:
Can you trinket Void Tendrils?
Can hostile ppl see angelic feathers?

[yurano]

It's still a very useful skill cause u can just stealth ,I'd combat and start casting straight away , by the time up out of stealth u'll,oat likely be finishing the cast so it's more of an interrupt protection. Also use it just b4 u know a death grip or some big spell is coming ur way

Casting under spectral guise will pop you out of stealth. Blizzard fixed it a long time ago to prevent hunters from nuking someone with aimed shot while in shadowmeld.

In my experience, spectral guise doesn't help at all. It doesn't seem to prevent melee from nuking you immediately after and it doesn't seem to faze casters either.

I tested on PTR, dots are enough to break spectral guise. This means that if you're getting focused, spectral guise is next to useless.

If they changed spectral guise to grant you 3 seconds of vanish then spectral guise would be a great defensive ability.

As it is now, it is pretty weak.

[soulyouth]

But uhm.. can someone answer these:
Can you trinket Void Tendrils?
Can hostile ppl see angelic feathers?

Yep, and a warrior can leap out of them, I assume other classes have a way out too.
Not sure, but other friendly's outside of you group can steal them.

[Deleted]

As it looks you are able to use SG when you have no control of your character, but that your shadow ofcourse would still be CC'ed aswell. So in terms of having this as part of the survivability tier, it's used to avoid moments of high damage like when in a mage's Deep Freeze. But the nice thing is that it's an unique ability and has more then one use. It should not try to be a vanish, the possibility to 'vanish' in combat is there you just have to be clever in using it. It's the combos with other abilities that will get you more out of SG, it's really an ability that is as good as you want it to be.

[Direshadow]

SG WOULD be good for any of those things you mentioned. My problem is that it breaks to quickly, so even if you use it as an opener, if the enemy is skilled enough, you won't even have time to get off a second spell in time.

[Kaesebrezen]

SG -> Shield (body and soul) and you can get far enough to get some heals.

You can't remove slows without Phantasm. Without a snare removal any sprint is useless. So that doesn't work.

Or you can use it as an opener.

The enemy can see your dumb shade standing there and doing nothing. Previously it worked because you still were mounted and could reach your target it time. With your baseline movespeed and a dumb clone standing there and doing nothing, i doubt any enemy would be "smart" enough to get feared.

So the one, charging you won't notice the swap with your illusion because

The illusion doesn't have any HP, they will notice it. Even better. With one AoE they can not only attack the Tendrils, but also knock you out of invis.

You can get Spectral Guise to cast a MC cast would be nice too in Arena, like this: Warrior Charges -> Spec Guise -> MC -> let's warrior walk away -> now he is at range and you can kite him

The enemy won't let you have a full 8 sec on MC. Also you can't kite without a snare. A warrior will charge right back into your face.

SG is only good for the following things: Cancel enemy players cast on you (that does not work on mobs), and maybe allow you to get off one 1.5 sec cast without being interrupted.

[Yvaelle]

The best uses for spectral guise are going to be:

- you are CC'd, you are going to be CC'd out of this CC, your CC has 2 seconds left on it - Spectral Guise - broken CC chain

- you are about to take huge burst damage (deep freeze/shatter, scatter/powershot, lava beam, etc) - Spectral Guise

- you are in execute range but your healer is going to be CC'd for 2-3 more seconds - Spectral Guise - might buy you the seconds to live

- you are being chased by too many enemies to fight - you get around a corner - Spectral Guise - wear died h3 go?

- I thnk it will still prove to be huge for openers, here's why:

Let's say you play some comp with a rogue and a priest (RMP, RPS, RMsP, RP), which team gets the initial sap and/or gets into combat the fastest is absolutely critical, but it can be hard for rogues to get the initial sap right now with all the gap closers and the range that people have. With guise, we can deny our opponents the ability to get into combat quickly, wihle also staying close enough to the rogue to open immediately after the sap. That's pretty massive, and it's going to mean a Lot for fighting rogue/mage comps which can do this already with stealth/invisibility.

I was thinking that would mean triple stealth starting RMPs or RMsP's, but actually we can see arena comp before the gates open now - so that won't be as big an issue as I thought, still though... that's going to be a spooky harder opener. Especcially with spec swapping before arenas allowing us to not reveal until the fight starts whether they're fighting RMP or RMsP.... hmmmmm must find mage to play on my team this season...well, but then I might have to do disc at some point, that could suck.

Shadow 4 Life.

[Direshadow]

It would really help if dots DID NOT affect the direct hits thing... it just closes doors to almost EVERY class...

warriors, rogues, warlocks, other shadow priests...


I don't know. maybe they could do something like.... dot damage gives a "half tick" rather then a full tick...

[Yvaelle]

I agree Direshadow, dots shouldn't count as direct hits, direct hits should mean yellow attacks / spells, not dot ticks. However, if they wouldn't go for that (and they knew we complained about that immediately, but they didn't go for it), I recommend they go for the "sufficient damage breaks Fear" idea, where while dots don't break fear instantly - a few ticks will break it (which has the same net result as what your saying, but this is an idea they have implemented before and they are likely to be more comfortable with).

Another problem I see is GladiatorlosSA, which is going to end up calling out "Spectral Guise" and whatever burst they might have planned using will get postponed - if that's the original intent of Spectral Guise (and I think it is) - then they need to make sure that isn't the case.

[kartmanlol]

Just a couple of quick questions on SG wondering if anyone could answer them for me.
1. If ur shadow takes dmg does it dmg u as well?
2. Can u cast it before a cc or silence and not be affected by it while ur shadow is affected?

[yurano]

Just a couple of quick questions on SG wondering if anyone could answer them for me.
1. If ur shadow takes dmg does it dmg u as well?
2. Can u cast it before a cc or silence and not be affected by it while ur shadow is affected?

1. No
2. Yes, but I doubt that would work. SG is like FD, Vanish or Mirror Image, it breaks targeting.

To all of you who are talking about changing the 'dot ticks', dots on YOU instantly break SG. The 3 charges on your clone goes to waste.

SG breaks on DoTs and is bad for the same reason Vanish used to be bad. SG is only really useful as an opener the same way mages use Invisibility. The difference is mage invis lasts for 30s and Shadow Priest invis lasts for 6.

[Rorschachs]

It is a very annoying skill.. But fade with the talent seems like a better skill. Does almost anything you would want to do with spectral guise and with fade you have the chance to stay offensive while protecting yourself. But still the other 2 talents aren't that good either, so I think it is completely a personal choice.