Abilities that would make Shadow more enjoyable to play.

[Smellytoes]

Greetings! I was reading several threads on many different forums that Shadow just isn't what it used to be and I agree. Once we were mana batteries and that made us feel unique and cool. Now, we are just a former shell of what we used to be. We do not have any dps cooldowns at all compared to other classes (ie; Rapid fire, Adrenaline Rush, Ascension, Icy Veins) and we do not really have any "passive-active" things that basically make us deal more damage (ie; Inquisition, Pyromaniac, Venomous Wounds). The closest thing we have is Shadowfiend which is nice, but it doesn't feel the niche in my opinion. I have 2 different ideas for abilities.

(Passive) Parasitic Nightmare- After you cast Devouring Plague, you have a 33% chance per Shadow Orb consumed to apply Parasitic Nightmare to the target.

Parasitic Nightmare- Increases your periodic spell damage on the target by 5% and deals light damage over time. When ~ deals damage it restores 1% mana to each person in your party. ~ stacks up to 3 times, but the stacks do not increase the mana gained. Upon the 4th stack gained, ~ is consumed and your Damage over time spells are refreshed on the target and your next Mind Blast's damage is increased by 50%.


Or

Living Nightmare- 3 min cd
You become a living horror, transforming your Mind Blast into Nightmare, refreshing your damage over time spells and increases your periodic damage by 15% for 12 seconds. Living Nightmare's cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds every time Mind Blast deals damage.

Nightmare- Deals 25% more damage than Mind Blast, 4 sec cooldown, and generates 3 shadow orbs when used.


I believe that something similar to these would at least, if anything, make Shadow deal more damage in addition to being a bit more flavorful. The numbers more than likely need tweaking. Just wondering what other people's thoughts were. Thanks guys!

[Annarion]

I think there's a solid flavour in having abilities affect how deep in the shadow you are. Shadowform is like, a nice baseline where you're visibly in the shadow, but not so far that you're a monster. Having an ability that has you go into the shadow deeper for a short time is really cool. I like the concepts you've got, but the numbers definitely need tweaking. I think the big one is Nightmare. You can't have it generate three orbs. For one thing, it's a waste of time, you can't stack DP. If anything I would make Nightmare replace Mind Flay instead, but then of course SW:I. I would do it like this:

Living Nightmare cooldown: 3 minutes
You become a living nightmare, increasing the damage done by your damage-over-time spells by 15% for 12 seconds, and causing Mind Flay to generate one Shadow Orb. Mind Flay can only cause this effect once every 3 seconds. (Channel duration of Mind Flay) Living Nightmare's cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds each time that your Mind Blast deals a critical strike.

Gives a passive synergy with crit, and means that your orb generation is ramped up, not instant. They'd have to nerf the everloving crap out of both DP and SW:I for you to be able to maintain 16s of it on-demand, coupled with the dot bonus and the bonus damage from the ability itself. It's too much of a perfect storm the way you have it set up.

[Smellytoes]

I think there's a solid flavour in having abilities affect how deep in the shadow you are. Shadowform is like, a nice baseline where you're visibly in the shadow, but not so far that you're a monster. Having an ability that has you go into the shadow deeper for a short time is really cool. I like the concepts you've got, but the numbers definitely need tweaking. I think the big one is Nightmare. You can't have it generate three orbs. For one thing, it's a waste of time, you can't stack DP. If anything I would make Nightmare replace Mind Flay instead, but then of course SW:I. I would do it like this:

Living Nightmare cooldown: 3 minutes
You become a living nightmare, increasing the damage done by your damage-over-time spells by 15% for 12 seconds, and causing Mind Flay to generate one Shadow Orb. Mind Flay can only cause this effect once every 3 seconds. (Channel duration of Mind Flay) Living Nightmare's cooldown is reduced by 3 seconds each time that your Mind Blast deals a critical strike.

Gives a passive synergy with crit, and means that your orb generation is ramped up, not instant. They'd have to nerf the everloving crap out of both DP and SW:I for you to be able to maintain 16s of it on-demand, coupled with the dot bonus and the bonus damage from the ability itself. It's too much of a perfect storm the way you have it set up.

I agree, the numbers are really wonky. I just tried to get the flavor and the concept of it. I really like your idea as well. Thanks for the input!