Spriests needs to be buffed (PvE)

[Deleted]

Utility is no reason to have a 20% dmg difference with top tier specs. You are basically saying hybrid tax is ok, which is not. Every dps in the game should have the potential to do the same damage on single target, or at least something fairly close. Atm, mage and locks are just ridiculously high above every other class, and we are lagging too much behind on single target(with esham).

[jonish]

Spriests are above a lot of classes right now. Just because 2-3 classes can beat us, doesn't mean we need a buff. It means those classes that are able to do so much more than us, probably need a small nerf.

Shadow is dead last in single target dps amongst dps specs used in raiding currently. Some classes IE warlocks / mages / hunters / shamans have more than one spec , that is better than shadow in single target dps. Shadow can hit top 10(in a 25man raid scenario) on fights that completely fit shadows niche playstyle via gimmick or add mechanics, but in that situation we should be fighting for the #1 spot , not the bottom half of the top 10 in our best case scenario fights.

In fights that do not suite our style we are dead last by a mile. Being last or near the bottom wouldnt be so bad if the gap between #1 and #10 wasnt 20-30,000 dps(if not more).

No one is asking to top meters here (unless skill level and fight scenario allow for it) but we are asking to be brought in line with other classes. nerf DP so shadows burst goes down somewhat. Fix insanity. Fix mind flays spell coefficient. Make mind flay castable on the move.
buff cascade / divine star / halo(all of them are underwhelming) Fix VTs dps.

Our mastery is just horrendous. it needs to be redeveloped to be honest.

Our resource IE shadow orbs needs to scale with our mastery IE scale with gear. It does not in anyway which is something that is insane in an environment of gear that scales between raid instances. This fact will make running Divine Insight mandatory at all times beyond this tier of gear rendering the aspect of talent choices nil.

[Deleted]

I don't complain about being in the bottom of the DPS rankings. Someone has to be in top of the rankings and some others in the bottom. Being in the bottom is a bitch, but someone has to be there. It sounds fair to me that the classes who can offheal with vamp embrace, and have other tools like Hymn of Hope should be there.

BUT, I DO complain about doing 20-30k less dps than some classes. A mage doing 100k dps and a shadow priest doing 77k isn't fair nor proportioned. Who can deny this? And the worse is that it looks like it will be getting worse and worse as we keep on getting better gear if they don't do anything to fix it.

[stickyjam]

the problem is pvp strength

therefore the best place to balance would be mind flay... the hardest spell to get off in pvp and casted least

give tht a 10-20% buff(whatever gets us bk in the runnings) and bam!

[snaxattax]

or similarly (preferably) they can give us a cooldown which is 'less effective against pvp targets'. we're the only dps class without access to a real dps cooldown. PI could fill this role, but our dps (and most notably, our resource generation) doesn't scale well enough with temporary haste. give PI a passive mindblast cooldown reduction (which is deactivated in arena/bg) and you could have much of this gap filled.

just look at top ranked shadow priest dps on fights where everyone's blowing cooldowns and prepot and lust - shadow is at the bottom of dps during lust by 40%+. our execute dps got nerfed in beta (took an orb off of the 2nd SWDeath - another thing which could be given back but deactivated against player targets) and now we just don't keep up. go through top ranked shadow priest logs for tayyak 25H if you want to see the starkess of the PVE burst disparity for yourself.

[jonish]

the problem is pvp strength

therefore the best place to balance would be mind flay... the hardest spell to get off in pvp and casted least

give tht a 10-20% buff(whatever gets us bk in the runnings) and bam!

Buffing shadows sustained dps wouldnt do anything to effect pvp whatsoever. Mages / warlocks / hunters / rogues / warriors just to name a few do more sustained single target dps than shadow priests. Sustained dps doesnt affect pvp on any real scale. Burst is the issue in pvp. Fixing shadows resource management to be more sustained and less burst based around devouring plague will solve this issue altogether.

[leonex]

and is anyone not seeing a problem with having a strong single target and also multidot capabilities? You can't have the best from both worlds.

why warlocks can .... :*(

[stickyjam]

Buffing shadows sustained dps wouldnt do anything to effect pvp whatsoever. Mages / warlocks / hunters / rogues / warriors just to name a few do more sustained single target dps than shadow priests. Sustained dps doesnt affect pvp on any real scale. Burst is the issue in pvp. Fixing shadows resource management to be more sustained and less burst based around devouring plague will solve this issue altogether.

yeh the point of this thread was to buff shadow pve, my point was it needed to be done in a way tht doesnt gimp pvp or make us over powered in pve/pvp i.e. dot buff(spread dmg in pvp is imba in 3/5s/rbgs... so mind flay is the logical point.

your point of wouldnt do anything is also invalid, strong sustained dps and strong burst is awesome, see dk dmg as an example(not calling dks OP, their only strength is their dmg!)

[jonish]

yeh the point of this thread was to buff shadow pve, my point was it needed to be done in a way tht doesnt gimp pvp or make us over powered in pve/pvp i.e. dot buff(spread dmg in pvp is imba in 3/5s/rbgs... so mind flay is the logical point.

your point of wouldnt do anything is also invalid, strong sustained dps and strong burst is awesome, see dk dmg as an example(not calling dks OP, their only strength is their dmg!)

so dks arent op, so why would shadow having sustained dps and burst be OP? apparently it is the utility we bring. Well newsflash for all the people unaware, almost all classes have a very large variety of utility skills at this point. dks bring grip , aoe grip , stuns , slows , sustained aoe dps, solid burst , insane personal survivability , multiple ways to either be immune or remove personal fear/magic mechanics. Along with really really good personal healing.

Now, I only use DK's as an example because you mentioned DKs. Dks are the bane of shadow priests in a pvp scenario thus making the analogy of using a DK good to bring up, but mages / warriors / hunters / ret paladins / warlocks / rogues ALL bring that same type of utility in different ways to arenas. They all also to more sustained dps than shadow does , and they ALL have abilities to drastically increase dps for awhile creating massive "burst" windows to kill something in. So changing shadows sustained dps will have very little affect, other than bringing the class in line with other classes. People are just seeing shadow as "op" right now because it is new. People are used to how "OP" some other classes and specs are in arena and have learned to deal with it.