Legion Class Preview Series: Priest

[Daedius]

•Oblivion •Instant, 2 min cooldown
•Let the power of the void flow through you, instantly generating 100 Insanity.

OMFG...

Shadow Priests finally get a CD!?

[Adoxe]

Well they finally give a little more lore to the Shadow Priests, it feels like a subtly added new class in a way. Would be cool if they actually did some kinda event for Spriests to touch upon this ingame

Their artifact and class hall should do exactly that. Just like every other spec/class in the game.

[Shadowisp]

So while you hurt things, you become more insane, until you completely lose control and go on a killing spree...
... with the same void power that some of the badest enemies have wielded (Old Gods, Twilights, Undead, Nerubian)
and the Priest Order is perfectly fine with that and have at least 66% of their members happily to go Insane in the middle of a fight.
If church wasnt creepy before the alter to the Old Gods in the basement might be a bit messed up.

Given the talk before about a shadow priest redesign again to be more suited to them and making them different to warlocks... it still just reads the same old change from every expansion they just changed the resource mechanics *AGAIN*, but not changing any of the spells, except adding Shadowmend.

Can we lose vampiric touch... or can it actually get a buff that makes it "vampiric", it hasnt drained anything in like 3 expansions... its name has no meaning.
Better yet, lose the vampiric touch and buff SWP and focus on one active dot.

My preference for a Shadow Priest artifact is a Wand, or a Halo, why have a knife when we dont stab things.

[Luzum]

Shadow looks like how Demo is now (Buffs to abilities upon entering a new form, stay in form until you are out of DF, attempt to prolong form as much as possible without gimping your own dps), except you can't choose when to enter and exit the form.

You can't choose when to exit but you can choose to enter the form for things like Bloodlust. Oblivion instantly gives 100 Insanity on a 2 minute CD. 100 Insanity = instant Void Form.

[Nachturnal]

I've always liked Shadow Priest for some reason. I'm not a huge fan of dot classes, but it felt like a less burdensome Affliction Lock. I'm extremely excited for the new iteration. Sort of plays like the current Demo Lock, which is fine. And they have a CD now!

Like the little insight into their lore as well, Old Gods and such. Looking very forward to playing some of these classes outside of just simple alt grinds.

[Gratlim]

So shadow is now a mix between affliction (like before) and demonology fury / meta mecanic (new) while the meta form is given to Demon Hunter as a long assed CD and no longer a signature spell.
Well done Blizzard, well done indeed.

Can't wait to see what you have to offer to locks as a combination for ripping apart the 7 years old spec.

[bison91]

AMG!! Have to relearn spec again....Thanks Blizz!

you dont..you will get trio spec....

[Xerfall]

This sounds like the disc playstyle I'd always flirted with but never quite seen realised; I think I'm going to enjoy trying to juggle Atonement buffs on my allies and maximising their presence to keep my heals powerful. And contributing a bit to the damage on the enemy is never a bad thing. Loving the potential shadow changes, too; it had always felt a bit too much like the poor man's affliction warlock, but now it sounds like they're really pushing the whole "You're too close to eldritch powers you barely understand" ethos, and I think that's going to make for some interesting gameplay.

That's why I'm waiting to read all the classes previews before deciding which one to use the 100 boost on

[Ins0mnia]

Holy Priest, we hate you since 2005.

[Darsithis]

I've been a disc priest for years as an alt. I think I'll enjoy these changes.

[scrappybristol]

I like the idea of Shadow Priests in Voidform eventually getting so much haste it is almost unplayable and actually feels like your character is going insane.

[roninwookie]

Can we lose vampiric touch... or can it actually get a buff that makes it "vampiric", it hasnt drained anything in like 3 expansions... its name has no meaning.
Better yet, lose the vampiric touch and buff SWP and focus on one active dot.

"A touch of darkness that causes huge Shadow damage over 24 sec, and heals the Priest for each point of damage dealt." You drain health from the target....like a vampire. Isn't that how it is now also?

[Pacster]

Shadow looks like how Demo is now (Buffs to abilities upon entering a new form, stay in form until you are out of DF, attempt to prolong form as much as possible without gimping your own dps), except you can't choose when to enter and exit the form.

Actually Shadow looks like it has been...just rename orbs to insanity and you fill a bar instead of adding orbs. What I see there is just a darn recolor with all the old problems the Priest had(relying on a very slow build up while having to stay glued to a point to get the build up done. And when you are ready to burst then you should better not have to move either). Wether the insanity build up will be faster or slower than orbs, depends on the final numbers...and it seems that the priority list will not be less challenging than today(don't ask me why it has to be more challenging to play it at the top and then still have 10% less damage than other classes).

The shadow already had like 5 makeovers or so....this one as presented here is likely the smallest of them and not going to change the situation of the shadow at all(while some before made the shadow from a pvp-monster into a PvE-only class, into a mana-generator, into an aoe class, into a support healer etc...).

Odd that Blizz used the shadow as an example for a tree that's going to massively change...I at least can't see that.

[Deleted]

Well they finally give a little more lore to the Shadow Priests, it feels like a subtly added new class in a way. Would be cool if they actually did some kinda event for Spriests to touch upon this ingame

I think that's what the artifact storyline will be about in a way.

- - - Updated - - -

Since they're going all thematic this time around. Does anyone think PW:S doesn't fit as a defensive cooldown for a shadow(void) priest?

Perhaps they could add a talent that when you enter void form any melee attacker flees in horror upon seeing your insanity?

[roninwookie]

Actually Shadow looks like it has been...just rename orbs to insanity and you fill a bar instead of adding orbs. What I see there is just a darn recolor with all the old problems the Priest had(relying on a very slow build up while having to stay glued to a point to get the build up done. And when you are ready to burst then you should better not have to move either). Wether the insanity build up will be faster or slower than orbs, depends on the final numbers...and it seems that the priority list will not be less challenging than today(don't ask me why it has to be more challenging to play it at the top and then still have 10% less damage than other classes).

The shadow already had like 5 makeovers or so....this one as presented here is likely the smallest of them and not going to change the situation of the shadow at all(while some before made the shadow from a pvp-monster into a PvE-only class, into a mana-generator, into an aoe class, into a support healer etc...).

Odd that Blizz used the shadow as an example for a tree that's going to massively change...I at least can't see that.

They may have been using it as an example for the talent choices. Maybe you can spec more bursty or DoT-y. This preview does make the Spriest look very similar to today's form, we shall see how the new talents mix things up.

[Deleted]

Disc pretty much :

Plea / PWS on tanks, Radiance on a melee, and dps.

[Tomana]

Bottom line: Disc will be OP as **** in the new CMs. Great Blizz, thanks for ruining healer balance again.

[roninwookie]

Bottom line: Disc will be OP as **** in the new CMs. Great Blizz, thanks for ruining healer balance again.

Or not if there's a lot of burst going out through the new additional abilities in CMs. Disc sounds a lot more bandag-y than big heals. Also, way to doom-say while just looking at <10 abilities and 1 talent :P

[vulena]

Absolutely playing disc in Legion. Love this spec differentiating.

[Froggy]

I'm not a Priest kinda guy, but these changes sound pretty dang cool. Especially Shadow, the Insanity mechanic looks wicked.