Return to WOW since Cata, Help with Talents and Spells

[Macabre101]

Hello,

So as the title says I haven't played since the end of Cata before they did the talent tree revamping. I just wanted to make sure a few things are no longer in the game before I get too back into playing and then realize "oh wait I still have that?" or "oh where did that go?"

From what I've seen, Mind spike doesn't stack 3 times anymore allowing me to get an instant cast mind blast with a high crit chance? (what good is mind spike now?)
Mind blast can no longer have a shorter cool down?
Mind Flay no longer refreshes my shadow word pain?
I cant equip both a wand and staff? Why are wands still in the game then?
No more using Shadow word death when bad guys above 20% health to kind of boost my DPS?
I can now have shadowfiend and mindbender?
Vamp Embrace is now only a short use spell? (Is it more situational for boss fights?)

Are my shadow apparitions still made the same way?

[Ambereldus]

Hi there Macabre, and welcome back.

1) Mind spike stacking extra crit on MB does not exist anymore. Part of the functionality is in a Major glyph, which allows a non-instant mind spike (can't benefit from From Darkness Comes Light, a T3 talent) to reduce the cast time of MB by 50%, stacking twice to make MB instant. Its not worth taking for PvE in nearly all scenarios, I safely ignore it.

2) If you take Divine Insight (T5 talent) your MB will periodically refresh its cooldown early, be instant cast, and cost no mana. It triggers as a % chance from SW:P

3) No dots are automatically refreshed anymore, but you don't have to keep Devouring Plague up on the target. Its been changed to a bursty-style dot with low uptime.

4) Wands are now considered the same as a dagger or 1h mace. It slots into your mainhand and has a large amount of spell power, allowing the use of an offhand item.

5) You can take a major glyph to allow that again, but it is not a dps boost. SW without the glyph has had the backlash removed, but the glyph adds that back in. The plus to that is you can still use it to break from Poly effects in PvP if timed right.

6) If you take mindbender, it will replace shadowfiend. It does about the same damage (unless I'm mistaken), but you can use it 3 times as often. Mana regen is altered to make it similar to the other talents in T3, to balance healing.

7) Yes, Vamp Embrace is now a pseudo raid cooldown. You don't have constant trickle healing anymore, but the new VE is fairly powerful when used appropriately. (Its great to help healers on phases where the boss takes increased dmg) Remember that the healing is split, so in a large raid it will heal a minor amount per player, but solo or in a small group you can bring a team to full very quickly.

8) Apparitions are changing slightly in 5.4, but their functionality stays the same, in that they're essentially passive. They trigger at a 60% chance from SW:P critting, so as long as you have a SW:P active you will still see the shadows of your mind assaulting your foes. (They deal nearly trivial damage, but I still think its a cool flavor effect in pvp, until next patch)

[Macabre101]

Hi there Macabre, and welcome back.

1) Mind spike stacking extra crit on MB does not exist anymore. Part of the functionality is in a Major glyph, which allows a non-instant mind spike (can't benefit from From Darkness Comes Light, a T3 talent) to reduce the cast time of MB by 50%, stacking twice to make MB instant. Its not worth taking for PvE in nearly all scenarios, I safely ignore it.

2) If you take Divine Insight (T5 talent) your MB will periodically refresh its cooldown early, be instant cast, and cost no mana. It triggers as a % chance from SW:P

3) No dots are automatically refreshed anymore, but you don't have to keep Devouring Plague up on the target. Its been changed to a bursty-style dot with low uptime.

4) Wands are now considered the same as a dagger or 1h mace. It slots into your mainhand and has a large amount of spell power, allowing the use of an offhand item.

5) You can take a major glyph to allow that again, but it is not a dps boost. SW without the glyph has had the backlash removed, but the glyph adds that back in. The plus to that is you can still use it to break from Poly effects in PvP if timed right.

6) If you take mindbender, it will replace shadowfiend. It does about the same damage (unless I'm mistaken), but you can use it 3 times as often. Mana regen is altered to make it similar to the other talents in T3, to balance healing.

7) Yes, Vamp Embrace is now a pseudo raid cooldown. You don't have constant trickle healing anymore, but the new VE is fairly powerful when used appropriately. (Its great to help healers on phases where the boss takes increased dmg) Remember that the healing is split, so in a large raid it will heal a minor amount per player, but solo or in a small group you can bring a team to full very quickly.

8) Apparitions are changing slightly in 5.4, but their functionality stays the same, in that they're essentially passive. They trigger at a 60% chance from SW:P critting, so as long as you have a SW:P active you will still see the shadows of your mind assaulting your foes. (They deal nearly trivial damage, but I still think its a cool flavor effect in pvp, until next patch)

Thank you Ambereldus for clearing that all up for me. I'm going to miss some of the old features but hopefully I can get used to these new ones.

[Deleted]

Hi there Macabre, and welcome back.

1) Mind spike stacking extra crit on MB does not exist anymore. Part of the functionality is in a Major glyph, which allows a non-instant mind spike (can't benefit from From Darkness Comes Light, a T3 talent) to reduce the cast time of MB by 50%, stacking twice to make MB instant. Its not worth taking for PvE in nearly all scenarios, I safely ignore it.

2) If you take Divine Insight (T5 talent) your MB will periodically refresh its cooldown early, be instant cast, and cost no mana. It triggers as a % chance from SW:P

3) No dots are automatically refreshed anymore, but you don't have to keep Devouring Plague up on the target. Its been changed to a bursty-style dot with low uptime.

4) Wands are now considered the same as a dagger or 1h mace. It slots into your mainhand and has a large amount of spell power, allowing the use of an offhand item.

5) You can take a major glyph to allow that again, but it is not a dps boost. SW without the glyph has had the backlash removed, but the glyph adds that back in. The plus to that is you can still use it to break from Poly effects in PvP if timed right.

6) If you take mindbender, it will replace shadowfiend. It does about the same damage (unless I'm mistaken), but you can use it 3 times as often. Mana regen is altered to make it similar to the other talents in T3, to balance healing.

7) Yes, Vamp Embrace is now a pseudo raid cooldown. You don't have constant trickle healing anymore, but the new VE is fairly powerful when used appropriately. (Its great to help healers on phases where the boss takes increased dmg) Remember that the healing is split, so in a large raid it will heal a minor amount per player, but solo or in a small group you can bring a team to full very quickly.

8) Apparitions are changing slightly in 5.4, but their functionality stays the same, in that they're essentially passive. They trigger at a 60% chance from SW:P critting, so as long as you have a SW:P active you will still see the shadows of your mind assaulting your foes. (They deal nearly trivial damage, but I still think its a cool flavor effect in pvp, until next patch)

1) MSp is useless in nearly every single fight since Solace and Insanity got reworked. MFI is SO much stronger and scales better than MSp doet with FDCL. Will be changing slightly in 5.4, but MFI will still be used a lot of the times.

2) The MB reduced CD is now baeseline. It used to be 10 seconds, talented to 7.5. Current CD is 8 seconds. SWP ticks have a 5% chance to reset the cooldown of MB, eseentially "reducing" its CD randomly. It's a powerful talent, since it's the second highest Damage Per Execution Time spell, after Devouring Plague now, and it helps generate orbs to cast the latter.

3) You'll have to keep track of 2 dots still really, VT and SWP. This usedto be DP and VT. DP is a minor track at the moment due to the low uptime it has. It is, however VERY important to monitor if you're specced Solace and Insanity to make the most of it.

4) The wand was a stat-stick. You only equipped one to boost your stats. The same applied to relics, librams and MH weapons for hunters. They all got removed. It is now a Main Hand weapon.

5) SWD is now a proper, heavy hitting execute that will no longer kill you with damage buffs applied. It will alos generate orbs for Devouring Plague, making it 3rd on your prio-list. The double tap is currently NOT a DPS boost, but come 5.4 will be MANDATORY to gain the DPS.

6) Mindbender does MORE damage than Shadowfiend and generates more mana. It's a good talent if you find yourself dotting everything that moves and don't have time for any Mind Flays or the procs from FDCL.

7) VE is a lackluster raid-cooldown. You NEED a 3 orb DP to make it worthwhile or have a ton of dots rolling. Even glyphed, it's not fantastic. It'll stabilize the raid decently, but it's nothing special.

8) SWP crits will generate SA's (all of them, not 60% of them!). Currently, they're dumb as a bag of bricks, but come 5.4, they will act as missiles so pathing issues will be gone. It WILL take some time for you to stop moving slightly when casting instants to try and generate SA's though .

Important things to note:
Talents need to be CHANGED on a per fight basis. With Solace and Insanity being as powerful and scaling as it is, you'll find yourself specced into that most of the time, however. You need to PLAN your time for that, since it's optimezed when you can plant for 8 seconds and just flay.
The Tier 5/level 75 talents are VERY interchangeable. For dungeons and questing, I'd recommend Twist of Faith due to the fact mobs die, a LOT and the uptime will be high. Power Infusion is a good burst if you need it on a fight. Divine Insight will start to show colours with adds and/or high haste. The CD will reset often and your hard hitting spells will be dominating your overall damage.
Get HaloPro as an addon for the Tier 6/level 90 talents. Range is important on these, make sure you know when it does the most damage.

Glyphs are situational as well. See which ones are useful for fights.

Last but certainly not least: www.howtopriest.com has a LOT of useful info on any priesty stuff. Check it out!

[Ambereldus]

8) SWP crits will generate SA's (all of them, not 60% of them!). Currently, they're dumb as a bag of bricks, but come 5.4, they will act as missiles so pathing issues will be gone. It WILL take some time for you to stop moving slightly when casting instants to try and generate SA's though .

You're right Hely, I was thinking of our current tier bonus when I was thinking of that number, and even then I was wrong . (65% chance on apparition hit to extend DoT duration)