Patch 5.3 PTR - Shadow Priest Nerf

[Nicola]

Yes they are. At high rating, according to arenajunkies, priests are the most representated class with over 17%
every high rated player will agree that shadow priests are the best dps in arena right now, they bring the most utility on top of wicked damage, control and healing potential

That's with disc included, which is also doing very good right now fyi.

Now, I for one, am glad that shadow is having their utility being toned down. I think most people here can agree that they currently are too strong in PvP as they offer a bit too much of everything right now.
However, as Yvaelle said, just nerfing shadow priests is not going to change a lot, frost mages, resto shamans, sub rogues, etc, also require some nerfs to make these changes actually worthwhile.
That being said, don't go crazy about these changes until the full patchnotes are released. Blizzard knowing, they look at 1 class at a time, so unless you suddenly start seeing frost mage buffs, I don't think there's too much to worry about right now.

[stickyjam]

resto shamans need the void shift vs melee teams.

this is an indirect buff to melee comps imo.

[Deleted]

That being said, don't go crazy about these changes until the full patchnotes are released. Blizzard knowing, they look at 1 class at a time, so unless you suddenly start seeing frost mage buffs, I don't think there's too much to worry about right now.

Ghostcrawler buffs his mage right after the patch goes life. Frost Mages always got their buffs during hotfixes to draw off the attention while everyone is testing out the new patch.

[Keile]

Sooo...Mass Dispel now requires a glyph to pop the bubble?!

/cast Divine Shield
/dance
*gets hit by a shattering throw*
/cry

[Deleted]

With the void shift nerf melee comps will be close to impossible without a mage babysitting you all the time, also thug is crazy right now no hunter nerfs ? and locks portals are almost impossible to deal with on most maps
maybe theyll make shadow priests less sitting ducks and give us some mobility otherwise warlock /mage is the way to roll!

[Drye]

Nerf utility buff dmg, Gogo

[Venaliter]

That's with disc included, which is also doing very good right now fyi.

Disc has the worst mana efficiency and the worst CC of the healers, and is brought over another healer simply because of mass Dispel.

Interestingly, Resto Shamans are *always* paired with Shadow Priests because the problem isn't Void Shift, it's Void Shift->Dispersion->Deep Healing. Naturally, Shamans are untouched and Spriests are wrecked. Huh.

[Yvaelle]

Disc has the worst mana efficiency and the worst CC of the healers, and is brought over another healer simply because of mass Dispel.

Interestingly, Resto Shamans are *always* paired with Shadow Priests because the problem isn't Void Shift, it's Void Shift->Dispersion->Deep Healing. Naturally, Shamans are untouched and Spriests are wrecked. Huh.

And Penance, Thugcleaves and RMP will frequently Penance the kill target during their burst cycle.

[Venaliter]

And Penance, Thugcleaves and RMP will frequently Penance the kill target during their burst cycle.

Disc doesn't have particularly amazing offence. No more then average. But Penance is pretty decent burst, and every little bit helps.

[Yvaelle]

Disc doesn't have particularly amazing offence. No more then average. But Penance is pretty decent burst, and every little bit helps.

Penance is probably the best short-cooldown burst damage of any heal spec, it can be done from 40 yards away (as opposed to say, a HotW rdruid in cat form), and is up for every frost bomb / shatter combo, not to mention every shadowdance / shadowblades. When you are already contending with rogue+hunter or rogue+fmage burst damage, disc is the best healer for turning what would be already terrifying burst, into unhealable damage.

Now, to be clear, that doesn't mean disc should be nerfed - that's the thing that makes disc remotely viable - and only in these two already ultra-high burst comps (Thugcleave, RMP), where every little bit extra you can add into it makes it more and more effective. I think Blizzard really doesn't understand how comp synergy works - lately they keep approaching arena imbalance by trying to nerf single classes in the strongest comps, without recognizing the synergies that cause those comps to be strong: and it keeps not producing the desired effect.

Thugcleave and RMP both SHOULD be very very powerful comps, and that's entirely because both of those comps have incredible synergy - and if there is a burst problem with rogue+hunter+disc, or rogue+fmage+disc - it's obviously not the discs fault, and I don't mean to suggest that - but disc usually goes best with the highest burst comps precisely because they are the healer who can help burst, without putting themselves at unnecessary risk (by going into melee, for example).

By contrast, Arms+Fmage+Rshaman took a lot of rank 1 positions last season, but has no synergy whatsoever, it succeeded by taking the strongest melee, strongest ranged, and strongest healer - and jamming them into the same team - and every season where there is a high delta for imbalance, these sorts of no-synergy comps pop up and do well: Thugcleave and RMP are recurringly successful every season all three of their classes are viable, because of synergy - not op/imbalance. Comp synergy is a good thing, and should be promoted if anything - not destroyed - and part of disc synergy has always been its small contribution to burst cycles

[Venaliter]

Penance is probably the best short-cooldown burst damage of any heal spec

True. But Rdruids blow our burst out of the water. They are the better choice in burst, cc, and mana efficiecy. But Disc has Mass Dispel. And that's all that keeps us viable, really. That's my contention.

[Forsay]

Priests are too popular in MoP. And the biggest part of them seems to play shadow. Blizz don't really care how good or bad is our state, they'll keep doing "changes" (mostly to shadow spec) untill the population of priests will be the same as other classes or lower. I didn't count all priests on all servers so it might be wrong, but it's just an assumption based on what our beloved company is doing. The only thing I hope for is that with all the nerf to our utility and survivability they will finally buff our dps and/or change some of our mechanics to perform better in PvE. And before all "shadow is fine in pve!!!..." posts, just take a look how many shadow priests participated in Lei Shen heroic kill.
I feel bad for our PvP brothers though, it sucks to finally be copetive with other classes and then get nerfed with each hotfix/patch.

[Nihilostromrage]

Blizz needs to stop molesting spriests.. most nerfed and tampered with class since the end of BC.
Keep your filthy mitts off my priest dammit!

[Deleted]

With shadow or priests generally, I'm not worried about void shift being removed as i never felt this was that useful against a good team, they always expected it and were ready to shadow lock (5.2) and hard switch anyway. The MD changes just mean a full cast time as every priest will still slot the glyph. We just need to be smarter using it which is no bad thing.

But we are now in a such a state that both our 87 spell and lvl90 talents are either not usable or so weak to almost not bother using them in 3's (that's where blizz balance things, so they say lol) These 2 things were supposed to define our MOP experience and i feel we are now just a cata shadow priest with a orb mechanic that means we have to build up burst.

Please give us a replacement talent for VS that gives us warlock like mobility, or a dps talent like alter time - or just give us back the original Phantasm.

Oh sorry, that would make us too op...

p.s. i hope that one day blizz fix columns in arena - getting hit by crap when im clearly out of los got old a long while ago.

[Deleted]

I'm sure the changes to Spriest will go through without compensation. I don't care because I planned to chancel my subscription anways and that makes it a waaaaaaay easier.
After 5.3 hit there's no reason to play shadow... it won't contribute anything usefull or other classes do it better. (Keep in mind that there's a nerf to hybrid-healing in 5.3 again). So for 5.3 reroll mage or quit.

[Deleted]

with this nerf surely to stay competitive just reroll disc or lock ... unless you play godcomp which i imagine will now be the only viable comp with spriests ?

[Deleted]

Ok so i knew the healing was really OP and was gonna get nerfed in 5.0, really. When i ran in random BGs i could stop and hardcast 3 flashes to top my health and then continue to do damage. I just didn't think it'd be so high it had to be nerfed 4 times -.-

[Halda]

It's really sad they miss the mask with these nerfs, sure Spriest will not be as dominant as they are now, but it will just be impossible to play it without a babysitter.
I've played arena with friends, none of those play a Mage. And I really fear that when 5.3 comes I couldn't enjoy arena anymore, it will only be frustrating as hell to be trained until death without really any hope of doing something else than spamming instant until death comes.

And Pve wise I would kill to a mobility boost, thanks to the Lei shen trinket we don't even have something to do on every gcd.

As it stands out, Casual PvP Spriest will have to wait a redesign of the class or step into competitive team comp because it will be the only place for us to fell usefull to your team.

[Deleted]

with this nerf surely to stay competitive just reroll disc or lock ... unless you play godcomp which i imagine will now be the only viable comp with spriests ?

If you mean affliction lock then no. Shadow Priests will still be superior even after nerfs. Affliction is probably in the worst state it has ever been.

[Drfireburns]

I really miss having a Priest. Honestly though with the way they keep screwing with the entire class, it makes me not want to play one again, Disc, Holy or Shadow. None of the three interest me at the moment.