Questions for Shadow Priest mains.

[Dracovian]

Do you feel Shadow Priest is a safe bet as DPS for Legion from what you have seen so far? I am considering boosting a Priest to 100 to only play Shadow. I just don't know how their DPS is atm in Legion. Does the playstyle make up for any underperformance in your opinion?

[adezero]

no one knows

[Kilee25]

Based on what I see so far, my opinion is that they will continue to be thought of asa they have been in MoP and WoD. If you are a great player, you can do well with them. They will have a handful of fights that they really excel at, but for the most part they will be mid-tier DPS with limited raid utility compared to many other classes. Also, they will continue to be a fairly complex class that requires you to master several diffrent DPS techniques - chiefly multi-dotting and selective targetting in order to refresh spells and so forth. The mechanics that I see seem to support t his play style, even going so far as having a legendary that refreshes pain with MB, which will mean an idea 2-target rotation would have you alternating targets while casting MB.

I could go on, but basically I consider shadow to be a bit of an enthusiast class for people who like the challenge and don't mind not being on top.

Classes like mages, warlocks, and hunters will have three fully flesshed out specs to play, so they will be more adaptable, and if they have a crummy spec they will be able to switch to a better one. If shadow ends up being "meh", there's nothing you can do but suck it up.

Also, I am not sure if you'll be able to get away with just playing shadow. Disc is turning out to look like it might be a semi-mandatory play style, and might even provide some key utility. You might end up in a situation where you are constantly sked to go Disc, and people may not understand that it's not like playing shadow, as mastering that play style might be even more "try hard" than mastering shadow.

I do like shadow, but based on what I see so far, it's going to be a spec that requires quite a bit of thought and intuition and skill to play really well. The "balance"-like DPS mechanics look like they are gonna require some thought while playing.

Shadow in the past has been a pretty steady-keel spec with very little variation. It will definitely not feel like that anymore.

As for balance, just like adezero sayd, no one knows. Regardless of what I said, it's entirely possible that damage-wise, spriests will be tuned in such a way that they do OP damage. It's highly unlikely! But possible.

[MoanaLisa]

Classes like mages, warlocks, and hunters will have three fully flesshed out specs to play, so they will be more adaptable, and if they have a crummy spec they will be able to switch to a better one. If shadow ends up being "meh", there's nothing you can do but suck it up.

Wise words. The entire post, not just what I quoted which for me is the key bit.

I'll be honest and say up front that the changes to shadow that I've seen so far for Legion don't settle all that well with me. And I'm writing about more than balance--which no one can really determine as of yet--or mechanics or anything like that. I think the class fantasy aspect of it is a miss. I've never seen shadow as a repository for the insane and the RP part of me that enjoys playing my character for who she is, is not very enthusiastic about any of this. I don't much like the artifact weapon and I think I'm just really tired of relearning the class every expansion.

For those looking forward to the changes, good for you and I wish you well. But, for me, most of what I've read or seen hasn't yet connected. Shadow priest main since mid-BC. My main is the second toon I created. Still trying to keep an open mind but very ambivalent about shadow as it looks now.

[Deleted]

Do you feel Shadow Priest is a safe bet as DPS for Legion from what you have seen so far? I am considering boosting a Priest to 100 to only play Shadow. I just don't know how their DPS is atm in Legion. Does the playstyle make up for any underperformance in your opinion?

Well it should be "bring the player not the class"-safe and shadow is fun to play (IMHO) and certainly not under-performing these days - as for Legion, nobody knows.

Having said that shadow tends to have somewhat less forgiving mechanics than some other classes and it's not looking like that is going to change. If we go by history so far, you can expect middle of the pack in raids with occasional fights to shine in and some periods of being in the back.

Challenge Modes will probably be a problem since we lack in every department required there and I don't buy into the whole "this time it will be completely different" thing. So if that's what you're interested in you might want to boost some other class or consider healing.

[Djriff]

While I love priest, i have to agree with Moanalisa. I'm excited for shadow yet at the same time i'm not. Thankfully i love healing more than DPS'ing and holy looks extremely promising currently. I would advise you hang onto your boost for now until we get more info. I'll also echo that pure DPS classes have a lot more versatility and might be a better fit for you.

[snaxattax]

disc looks like the better spec - actually unique role and doesn't have mechanical gaps that make you want to cut your dick off. unless they release disc super numerically undertuned it will almost assuredly be the best cmode healer just by virtue of dealing the most damage of all healers.

if you actually want to be caster dps for the sake of being caster dps, mage is a way better bet. 2t19 will carry through the early stat drought while you ascend to freecleave nirvana.

[Dyra]

Do you feel Shadow Priest is a safe bet as DPS for Legion from what you have seen so far? I am considering boosting a Priest to 100 to only play Shadow. I just don't know how their DPS is atm in Legion. Does the playstyle make up for any under performance in your opinion?

I thought I remembered you from the same question in the Ret thread. ^_^ IMHO, going Shadow Priest is about as safe a bet as going Ret.

We invariably end up mid-low DPS (like the Rets) with a few fights we excel at, but our support is nowhere near as good as the Ret's arsenal of raid utility. Whether that utility changes with Legion, I can't remember, but I'm willing to bet it will still be more than Shadow has. Also, if it does turn out either spec is at the low end of the meters, and you're only interested in playing Ret/Shadow, you've got nowhere else to go.

Coming back to Shadow, since we're getting such a big overhaul, who knows where we're going to end up. Especially as they haven't even finalised how Voidform is going to activate. Whether it be the Ascendant-esque toggle on a very short CD (dependant on Insanity gain) as it is in it's current alpha iteration, or if it will be the auto change reminiscent of the Boomkin's Eclipse as it was in the previous Alpha's we still don't even know. And there still could be more changes on the horizon. There's a long way to go before live.

I would forgo using your boost and spend the time between now and Legion (or now and you getting into alpha/beta ^_^) and level a Ret. From what I've seen so far, the Ret playstyle isn't changing hugely between now and Legion. So you've got a few months to get a feel for the spec, so you can decide whether or not to continue into Legion with it, and you still will have your boost to then use on a Priest or something else, with nothing lost.

As a final note, if you want a truly safe bet to DPS as, roll a Mage.

[construkt]

Priest has always been my second to my hunter, but I've been spending about equal time on them in the alpha. Right now Spriests are one of the highest and most consistent damage specs from what I have seen, and it would take a lot of tuning to wind them down. They do a ton of damage, can burst hard, and with some tuning will be able to do some pretty strong cleave as well.

Their AoE isn't terribly strong by any means, but some tuning can fix that up just fine and I imagine it will.

[MoanaLisa]

Their AoE isn't terribly strong by any means, but some tuning can fix that up just fine and I imagine it will.

Historically, it seems as if we give up AoE to a certain extent because we multi-dot. If we were strong on burst, strong on multi-dot and strong on AoE there wouldn't be much reason to play anything else.

[Oneirophobia]

I've been playing Shadow since BC, and Shadow hasn't really been noteworthy, since.. well.. ever. There are a handful of fights in which Shadow will bomb the meters and blow everyone away, but usually when they do well on a majority of fights in a given raid tier, they get nerfed. For perspective. my Shaman is slightly lower iLvl has twice the utility and passive healing and nearly 20k dps more on most fights.

On top of that, they have an extremely awkward and complex relationship with PvP that usually reflects on their PvE performance. Since MoP (iirc, perhaps as early as Wrath now that I'm thinking about it) Shadow has gotten some really awesome PvP abilities which nearly made them meta on several occasions, so their PvE in turn generally takes a hit when Blizz has to readjust them.

Their rotations have depth and are interesting, but in the end Shadow is a spec in which you'll have to work twice as hard to do half as well. It simply doesn't feel as rewarding as a mage or a warlock or even a balance druid.

My biggest gripe, however, is that Shadow lacks the really cool utility spells we once had that could save a fight and make us feel heroic, but still hasn't recovered the damage we originally had to give up in order to have those utility spells in the first place.


"Shadow. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride: the spec."


This is the first expansion I'll be maining a different class instead. Wish me luck.

- - - Updated - - -

Wise words. The entire post, not just what I quoted which for me is the key bit.

I'll be honest and say up front that the changes to shadow that I've seen so far for Legion don't settle all that well with me. And I'm writing about more than balance--which no one can really determine as of yet--or mechanics or anything like that. I think the class fantasy aspect of it is a miss. I've never seen shadow as a repository for the insane and the RP part of me that enjoys playing my character for who she is, is not very enthusiastic about any of this. I don't much like the artifact weapon and I think I'm just really tired of relearning the class every expansion.

For those looking forward to the changes, good for you and I wish you well. But, for me, most of what I've read or seen hasn't yet connected. Shadow priest main since mid-BC. My main is the second toon I created. Still trying to keep an open mind but very ambivalent about shadow as it looks now.

For me, I absolutely LOVE the Old God stuff, and for some reason what I've seen so far still hasn't resonated much with me. Ask me a year ago and I would have been so excited that this is the thematic direction Shadow was headed in.

But now that I've seen it? I'm having a hard time really feeling a place for Shadow in a hero's world. It is one thing to secretly abuse the old ones for power, but it's another thing entirely to basically be made super priest faction leader of the whole world and basically be a full blown agent of the old gods, even half transforming into an old one or outright gifting our souls to them. They seem like complete loose cannons who could snap at any second and puke tentacles on their allies.

I mean, we already have warlocks filling that niche, and at the least they make it clear that only weakling warlocks side with the Legion and see demons as anything more than despicable tools.

Disc makes way more sense in that regard.

[Lulbalance]

Do you feel Shadow Priest is a safe bet as DPS for Legion from what you have seen so far? I am considering boosting a Priest to 100 to only play Shadow. I just don't know how their DPS is atm in Legion. Does the playstyle make up for any underperformance in your opinion?

Betting the farm on one spec will usually lead to regret.. regret breeds fear, fear brings anger.. anger leads to the dark side..the dark side casts a shadow.. priest.

[snaxattax]

Historically, it seems as if we give up AoE to a certain extent because we multi-dot. If we were strong on burst, strong on multi-dot and strong on AoE there wouldn't be much reason to play anything else.

multidotting really isn't a thing anymore. since we're limited to two tanks, multidotting is usually competing with cleaves - and for the last several expacs cleaves have dominated whatever multidotting power we have by a huge margin.

[Sxq]

multidotting really isn't a thing anymore. since we're limited to two tanks, multidotting is usually competing with cleaves - and for the last several expacs cleaves have dominated whatever multidotting power we have by a huge margin.

But what about those 1-2 fights per tier where mechanics dictate that various adds/bosses can't be stacked and therefore shadow priests/balance druids are really good for progression? That makes up for our inability to aoe, right?

[Deleted]

Do you feel Shadow Priest is a safe bet as DPS for Legion from what you have seen so far? I am considering boosting a Priest to 100 to only play Shadow. I just don't know how their DPS is atm in Legion. Does the playstyle make up for any underperformance in your opinion?

Safe bet? No. Not at all. If you want (and I don't blame you) a safe, competitive DPS class, choose Warlock. As stated by Blizzard long time ago, 'Shadowpriests are spec, not class' and thus receives attention according to being a spec. Nothing wrong with that. It would actually be unfair to other specs if Shadowpriests were 'privilledged'. (as much as I wish otherwise)

There were expansion when Shadowpriests weren't very viable, or popular or fun. Just like there were expansions when Demonology Warlocks weren't popular. But there never was an expansion when Warlocks weren't.

[l33t]

Do you feel Shadow Priest is a safe bet as DPS for Legion from what you have seen so far? I am considering boosting a Priest to 100 to only play Shadow. I just don't know how their DPS is atm in Legion. Does the playstyle make up for any underperformance in your opinion?

If I were you, I'd better start with mage, warlock or hunter. Hell, even boomkin looks more promising in terms of ablities.

See, the real problem is two healing specs that come with shadow. When you play mage, or lock, or hunter, you have three different damage dealing specs, with their pros and cons. You can change specs based on fights, nerfs, buffs, et cetera. But, when you play shadow priest, you have no room for maneuvers, you just use what you have in your one spec, and that's pretty much it. If shadow receive nerfs, you can do nothing about it.

Also, speaking strictly about playstyle: I am worried a lot about shadow's burst aoe and survivability. These two look very underperforming, mechanical-wise. Not to mention losing a fuckton of utility spells as well, like leap of faith, or feathers, or spectral guise. Hell, I can't even imagine how it is possible to play arena without reverse leap of faith and spectral guise - its just like being a target dummy for melees. And without burst aoe you can pretty much forget about challenge modes (for the third expansion in a row, dare I say), or any hard solo content like Brawler's guild.

[Echo of Soul]

My fear is that I'll be more of an on rails kinda spec akin to the current moonkin where you really have no control or choice when you pop into voidform. If Legion looks to have a working endgame model and interesting enough for me to come back I'm considering switching to moonkin ironically enough as it feels more like how shadow used to play.

[Blacklab]

I'll be honest and say up front that the changes to shadow that I've seen so far for Legion don't settle all that well with me.
<snip>
Still trying to keep an open mind but very ambivalent about shadow as it looks now.

That's my feeling in a nutshell as well. Expecting to have a new main for legion unfortunately, unless of course, holy blows me away...which I doubt it will. Here's hoping that I enjoy disc in Ashran 2.0 and at least have something to do on my priest. I'm leaning toward a lock for my dps class and back to my resto druid as my healer. Totally a shame...I love the current T18 playstyle of CoP, but I know it was dead before anyone really got into playing it this late into WoD and finally feeling it's synergy with the right secondary stats and higher iLevels.

[Deleted]

I'm just gonna say play Disc, it looks like the FotM spec for Legion. Although I will admit it seems like it'll have a high skillcap with a lot of multitasking.