[6.0] Shadow Priest Discussion

[Dierdre]

To bad, liked it with CoP - MS filler, VEnt - MF filler, AS - SW: P filler
But it had to happen, since they dont want casters to be mobile, and using an instant as filler IS as mobile as we could get
Hoping they buff MF enough, so that AS is still competitive with CoP in Patchwork fights

Imb4 SWP instant damage removed.

We can still spam SWP on the move and be very mobile (it'll be the exact equivalent of what fel flame was, a not so awesome but spammable on the move spell). Call me negative but that's just a nerf waiting to happen. One week within launch. With no tuning around it.

[Keiyra]

Imb4 SWP instant damage removed.

We can still spam SWP on the move and be very mobile (it'll be the exact equivalent of what fel flame was, a not so awesome but spammable on the move spell). Call me negative but that's just a nerf waiting to happen. One week within launch. With no tuning around it.

Meh, doubtful, Boomkins have the same thing with moonfire/sunfire spam while moving being their main movement dps. Blizz went so far as to stop them from snapshooting eclipse (which they used to earlier in wod) - expressly for the purpose of being able to spam them during movement.

You'll keep the the instant damage, they'll just remove the instant damage triggering those proc talents.

[TheWindWalker]

(As someone who's still shopping around for what ranged to play in WoD)

I'm a bit confused on what the direction of Shadow is in Warlords.

When I look at Elemental, they lost their mastery but instead gained almost the entirety of it back as an attunement passive attached to multistrike (+20%ms baseline, +35% damage multistrikes, 5% ms attunement) as well as still having "some secondary damage happens because you damaged your target" built into their mastery. If they stack Multistrike and Mastery they're essentially getting the "machine gun" they once had on top of having even more of it with those little rocks shooting everywhere.

Then I look at Shadow who also lost their mastery and their attunement is haste and there's nothing remotely simulating the previous mastery. Void Entropy would seem to do less damage than SW:Pain (by SP% alone) and because it lacks snapshotting or any special effects it's pretty much nothing compared to MoP's Demonology's Doom. Auspicious Spirits nerfs SW:Pain in exchange for giving you more Devouring Plagues but because crit from intelligence is no longer a thing having crit early on (or even in the final heroic gear) is likely going to be fairly low compared to what we're used to now, so it's kind of negligible and while I like Clarity of Power, the fact that the current mastery supports it directly while the other two options don't have such an advantage kind of makes it clear that to play Shadow in t17 will be to play as a non-DoT class for the most part.

Am I wrong?

[Dierdre]

I'm a bit confused on what the direction of Shadow is in Warlords.

Join the club

Am I wrong?

The answer is: We don't know yet. Until tuning passes are over or until intentions behind spell/talent/stats interactions are made clear, we are still making conjectures as to how things will play out in the end.

[Deleted]

Just thinking aloud here, so to speak, but I'm kinda hoping Void Entropy will be enough to boost our ST damage output to acceptable levels, Auspicious Spirits for multi-dotting & Clarity to provide an alternate playstyle a la Lone Wolf or Gladiator's Resolve, but I have a feeling it won't be that way.

Could they not at least stop Mind Spike from erasing DP? if I go Clarity I don't really wanna be forced into going with Insanity & channeling Flay when I use DP...

[Yvaelle]

It's not that way Girouette. I would very much like them to stop Mind Spike from erasing DP - ever since the DP/haste interaction redesign it doesn't feel right anymore

Void Entropy isn't good for single target, use it for Council Fights like Troll Council in ToT - fights with multiple active bosses who you can run VEnt on for 5+ minutes uninterrupted. Auspicious Spirits is pretty good at everything - mostly just because it's very flexible - all it really does is accelerate our DP burst cycles - so it's good for multi-dot, and single target, and etc.

Clarity of Power is a completely viable alternate playstyle in itself, more akin to Gladiator Stance than Lone Wolf, I'd say - it changes our priorities, and works on single target or multi-dot or etc - it turns us into the Shadowmages from SoO pretty much

Lone Wolf doesn't have any real interaction apart from "you hit harder and don't have to manage a pet" - Lone Wolf is Grimoire of Sacrifice - and I expect it will run into all the same issues over the course of WoD, and then be removed in The Dark Below


(Shhhh, in my heart I still believe the Lovecraft / Nazjatar / Emerald Dream expansion is coming, it just got delayed so Furor and Tigole could come back and get on each others nuts about Orc Warriors while Project Titan is restarted).

[Valkaneer]

(Shhhh, in my heart I still believe the Lovecraft / Nazjatar / Emerald Dream expansion is coming, it just got delayed so Furor and Tigole could come back and get on each others nuts about Orc Warriors while Project Titan is restarted).

If they don't bring back the Legion next Xpac there will be a mass exodus. There was almost rioting over it this time. Even in Vanilla they teased us with the Legion and in BT they had some there too, though in service to Illidan not kil'jaeden.

All I know is I want the next build to drop so I can see where they are going with this stuff. Every Xpac I play a new main, and I don't have much time to get my next main ready. Spriest is my first choice atm, I am liking the play style so far. Shamy and fire mage is my back up though if they go and change the feel / style.

[Erohol]

(Shhhh, in my heart I still believe the Lovecraft / Nazjatar / Emerald Dream expansion is coming, it just got delayed so Furor and Tigole could come back and get on each others nuts about Orc Warriors while Project Titan is restarted).

If nothing else, the immense fan reaction to that little fiasco gave them a pretty strong idea to work with somewhere down the line. I know I was flipping out for days before I could finally calm down. Just as long as we inevitably get Ogres, Arakkoa, Naga, and literally any one of the old god related insect races to play as, I'll have high hopes.

On Topic -

Since we're past the point of design changes, and the only thing that remains is tuning, I think it's time that we start looking more seriously at encounter design and how it plays with Shadows strengths and weaknesses. If Blizz isn't going to give shadow a turn at the top by sheer tuning, then the only thing we can do is arm ourselves with KNOWLEDGE!

[Valkaneer]

Wow what a joke these most recent patch notes have given us, only nerfs again.........

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Of coarse other classes keeps getting buffed, like warriors.

[Shandalar]

Shadow tuning = nerfs.

And now Discis get the silence. Nice.

[BobAwesome]

Wow what a joke these most recent patch notes have given us, only nerfs again.........

- - - Updated - - -

Of coarse other classes keeps getting buffed, like warriors.

Warrior buffs?

Seasoned Soldier now increases damage by 10% (down from 15%)

Safeguard no longer removes movement-impairing effects.

Protection: Heavy Repercussions: Shield Slam deals 50% additional damage while Shield Block or Shield Charge is active.

Crazed Berserker now increases all damage by 30% (up from 20%) while using one-handed weapons.


2 nerfs, a bug fix and a slight buff for an under performing aspect of their class.

Priests got a couple of buffs and a couple of nerfs, so please, don't compare use to other classes, it never solves anything.

[Yvaelle]

If they don't bring back the Legion next Xpac there will be a mass exodus.

Frankly I don't find WoD a very compelling story - time-travelling orc warriors - so exciting... not.

They have lots of great lore in the universe to explore, and they picked probably the worst bit of it. That's entirely subjective, I know - I might think orc warriors are boring, but maybe somebody thinks orcs and warriors are the most interesting part of WoW - I cannot fathom who that person would be - but this is their expansion apparently.

[Valkaneer]

Warrior buffs?

Seasoned Soldier now increases damage by 10% (down from 15%)

Safeguard no longer removes movement-impairing effects.

Protection: Heavy Repercussions: Shield Slam deals 50% additional damage while Shield Block or Shield Charge is active.

Crazed Berserker now increases all damage by 30% (up from 20%) while using one-handed weapons.


2 nerfs, a bug fix and a slight buff for an under performing aspect of their class.

Priests got a couple of buffs and a couple of nerfs, so please, don't compare use to other classes, it never solves anything.

What???? Don't compare us to other classes?? LOL.... That is what 90% of this thread is doing. BTW that is how you do balance, by comparing one class to another.

For a class that is already wrecking Spriest and every other class for that matter, there should not be any buff. BTW Shadow is a Dps spec, not a healing one, I do not compare Shadow to prot or any non dps spec.

[Azraele61]

and then be removed in The Dark Below

Not to burst your bubble Yvaelle, but apparently "The Dark Below" is a expansion set for Bungie's Destiny(which is published by Acti-Blizzard, which is why it showed up under their filings).

[Deleted]

The bright side of the recent SW: P change is that since it's direct damage now we will probably be able to destroy totems with it.

[Annesh]

The bright side of the recent SW: P change is that since it's direct damage now we will probably be able to destroy totems with it.

I was thinking this as well.

[Theed]

The bright side of the recent SW: P change is that since it's direct damage now we will probably be able to destroy totems with it.

In theory yes. But remember.. we are playing shadowpriest. This will get fixed after one week.

[l33t]

I'm smiling through single manly tear when I read this "tuning" patches. There goes away my hope for SP to be competitive at mage/lock level.

but maybe somebody thinks orcs and warriors are the most interesting part of WoW - I cannot fathom who that person would be -

Its Blizzard stuff, obviously. People like samwise, or metzen, are drooling over hairy muscular orcs for decade...

[deviantcultist]

Frankly I don't find WoD a very compelling story - time-travelling orc warriors - so exciting... not.

Totally agreed. However, have you noticed the Arakkoa/Nerzhul cults attempting to invoke the Void? It has never been this way, to directly refer to the Void as a theme in WoW xpac. Especially through major NPC figures.

[Yvaelle]

Totally agreed. However, have you noticed the Arakkoa/Nerzhul cults attempting to invoke the Void? It has never been this way, to directly refer to the Void as a theme in WoW xpac. Especially through major NPC figures.

The new Arakkoa models are really pretty too - can I defect from WoW and go join the Arakkoa? I could totally be the final boss of my own raid instance!

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Not to burst your bubble Yvaelle, but apparently "The Dark Below" is a expansion set for Bungie's Destiny(which is published by Acti-Blizzard, which is why it showed up under their filings).

Yes yes, we all saw that part - that was clearly just a cover-up!

The Dark Below is a place in the wow universe, next to Nazjatar, where N'zoth sleeps: creator of the Emerald Dream/Nightmare

That one sentence is already a better premise for an expansion than WoD - and we already know N'zoth woke up - because Yogg Saron kept trying to tell us he was waking back in WotLK. N'zoth is the old god who masterminded the corruption of Deathwing in Cata, and even the Mantid were hinting at a coming battle between Y'Shaarj and another old god (N'zoth by process of elimination at this point) - which is why they thought they were returning to his service.

For three expansions now they were building up N'zoth as the prime old god - and then they just drop it to go chase orcs in the past, just so they can tie in with the movie (which presumably consists entirely of orc warriors). I am dissapoint